Kansas wheat farmers are more optimistic

(Brownfield) – Kansas wheat farmers are feeling much more optimistic about their crop than they were last year at this time.

According to a report in the Kansas Wheat Scoop newsletter, rain and snow events the last two weeks of December have put the 2012 Kansas wheat crop in good shape. And if projections hold true, there will be more acres of wheat to harvest in 2012 than in the last two years.

Informa Economics estimates 2011-2012 winter wheat plantings in Kansas to total nine million acres, up from eight-point-eight million acres in 2010-2011 and eight-point-four million acres the year before. The U.S. Department of Agriculture will release its figures in March.

The wheat crop’s condition is rated by the Kansas Ag Statistics Service at 50 percent good to excellent, a dramatic improvement over the crop’s condition at this same time last year. The report says that those rain and snow events have helped lessen the impact of long-term drought in central and western Kansas.

Farmer Roger May of Oberlin says the nearly four inches of rain that fell after the crop was planted, and ten inches of snow he received a few weeks ago, have provided ample moisture for the crop headed into winter.

Randy Fritzemeier of Stafford had a forgettable 2011 wheat harvest, but says the 2012 crop appears to be in good shape so far. “We’ve had more rain this fall than we received all year,” says Fritzemeier, whose 2011 harvest was hindered by drought.

Near Scott City, Rich Randall says more acres were sown to wheat this fall than last year in his area, and crop conditions at this time are very good. Nearly 17 inches of snow have fallen upon the crop in the last few weeks.

In Sumner County, Scott Van Allen says nearly seven inches of valuable precipitation has fallen since wheat was planted in October.