May 20, 2022

 

Kansas wheat output expected to be average after drought

 

 

Wheat output in Kansas state, US, is expected to be average for hard red winter wheat north of the state at 39.5 bushels per acre, a drop from 59.2 bushels in 2021 due to a drought, Reuters reported.

 

From 2016 to 2021, the Wheat Quality Council tour averaged 46.9 bushels per acre in the same area. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no tour in 2020.

 

As the globe scrambles to replenish wheat supplies damaged by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, crop conditions in the top US winter wheat producing state have being actively monitored.

 

On Tuesday, tour scouts visited 248 fields between Manhattan and Colby, Kansas. Plant populations were limited in the driest fields, and much of the wheat was shorter than average.

 

Jeanne Falk Jones, a Kansas State University extension agronomist in Colby, said the wheat doesn't appear to be catching rains, and it feels like the crop is hanging on by a thread.

 

On the night of May 16, rain fell in sections of central Kansas, perhaps preserving crop potential.

 

Any moisture that arrives at this time may be too late for crops south of the state's border with Oklahoma state. On Wednesday, the trip will go across southern Kansas, passing through some of the state's driest places.

 

Brad Erker, executive director of Colorado Wheat, a state wheat promotion group, predicted a 40.1 million bushel wheat harvest in Colorado in 2022, with a yield of 28.6 bushels per acre, despite the drought. He was speaking at the Wheat Quality Council tour.

 

The result is considerably below the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) May 12 projection for a Colorado crop of 49.6 million bushels.

 

According to the Nebraska Wheat Board's assessments, Nebraska state's wheat harvest should reach 36.9 million bushels, board member Kent Lorens told Kansas tour scouts. The USDA said Nebraska's crop is expected to be 36.9 million bushels.

 

-      Reuters