1 August 2023
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — The 2023 Kansas wheat harvest is limping to the finish line.
Ninety-five percent of the harvest is complete, with the last remaining farmers cutting along the Oklahoma border. Others are cutting so that they can report their numbers to crop insurance.
This year’s wheat harvest lasted an unprecedented two months in some areas of the state.
According to Mid-Kansas Co-Op (MKC), the most consistently reported top wheat variety was Agri Pro’s Bob Dole seed, which was developed by Kansas State University.
“It’s a newer release that actually was the third-most-popular variety in the state this year that I think is going to gain some more interest this fall,” said Justin Gilpin, CEO of the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers and the Kansas Wheat Commission.
Heavy rains after the Fourth of July filled some wheat heads but also brought flushes of weeds.
“The weather kind of did a 180 on us about the middle of May, which was a little late, unfortunately for the wheat that got abandoned in Southwest Kansas,” said Gilpin. “But there was some wheat that wasn’t as far along in maturity in Northwest Kansas that was able to benefit from the rain. Of course, the rain was great to replenish a lot of really drought-stricken subsoil.”
The good news is the fall wheat crop looks good, even with extended periods of triple-digit heat threatening the crop during a critical growth period.
“The moisture has been great for the spring-planted crops to be harvested this fall. Probably one of the things the heat’s done with the corn crop that’s planted is it’s really sped up the maturity here just in the last ten days of that corn crop,” explained Gilpin.
This year’s harvest will total 208 million bushels on 6.5 million acres, the smallest Kansas wheat crop since 1966. But the news isn’t all bad.
“So, genetics have come a long ways. Kind of kept a disaster from becoming more of a disaster. If you look back just 20 years ago when we had really tough conditions, drought conditions, the average state yield was below 20 bushels per acre,” said Gilpin. “So, even in a year when we’ve had this amount of challenges, the wheat that did go to harvest and farm fields that didn’t get abandoned, the state average is still going to be above 30 bushels per acre.”
Gilpin adds he’s encouraged that soil moisture profiles are looking good, and he says Kansas farmers are more optimistic about next year’s wheat crop.