Day 2 of the 61st Wheat Quality Council hard red winter wheat evaluation tour, through western and southern Kansas and northern Oklahoma May 2, had nearly 90 reporters in 21 cars make a total of 284 stops, creating an average estimated yield of 35.2 bushels per acre. This compares with 205 stops last year, which saw a 46.9-bushel-per-acre average.
The two-day total reported is 36.8 bushels per acres on 601 stops. The motif of Day 1—short plants and about two weeks behind schedule—continued.
Perhaps most remarkable was the reporting by many of the cars of severe weather, including hail, near zero visibility and the sighting of a possible funnel cloud. All the same, rain was considered a welcome repast from the dry conditions of the recent weeks and months in Kansas.
In an interview, Romulo Lollato, Ph.D., Kansas State University Research and Extension wheat and forage specialist, reported that if weather is similar to 2016, where rains coincidentally began on May 2, we could have an average crop. Despite the drought stress, grain fill conditions that year were very good.
Mark Hodges, of Oklahoma Genetics, Inc., reported that the state’s production is estimated at 58.4 million bushels, which is half of a normal crop. While 4.1 million acres were seeded last fall, only 2.355 million acres are estimated to make it to harvest because of drought conditions, poor root systems, few tillers and small heads.
The tour continues May 3 with six routes between Wichita and Manhattan, Kansas. A final production estimate, along with the guess of the scouts on the size of 2018 crop, will be announced shortly before noon.
Larry Dreiling can be reached at 785-628-1117 or [email protected].
