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Kansas wheat ‘better than expected’

The general consensus of Kansas wheat farmers, as they harvest their 2015 crop, is that it’s better than they expected it to be back in April.

Mike McClellan farms near Plainville in north-central Kansas.

“The yields are better than we expected earlier,” McClellan says. “We had some rust come in late—I think that is making our berries pretty small.  Yields are running, I’d say, from 30 to 40 (bushels per acre) so far.

McClellan says the wheat stands are thin because of very dry weather earlier this year.

“We were kind of saved by the late moisture that came in and then cooler temperatures made for some good filling weather,” he says. “The only problem is that, once that rust came in, we didn’t think that we were going to need to spray for rust—and we probably should have. So berry size is a little smaller than we’d like.  But we’re at least getting some wheat.”

McClellan says test weights, so far, are averaging more than 58 pounds per bushel with moisture running from nine to 12 percent.

AUDIO: Mike McClellan