24 Jul Janel: Harvesting morning, noon and night

Western Kansas—We have finally been harvesting full throttle and putting in big days every day. It’s now July 18 and I’ve been harvesting wheat morning, noon and night for ten days straight. The yields have been continuing to be surprising. The dryland wheat has been making 35 to 65 bushels per acre and the irrigated in the 70s, 80s, 90s and even the 100s. One irrigated field made 102 bushels per acre. The test weights have been 57 to 60 pounds per bushel. The protein has been 12 to 16%.

We’ve seen a few tough conditions including weeds and wheat laying flat on the ground in places. Kansas has a lot of weeds this year and they grow 3 to 4 inches per day. The rain delays caused the weeds to be even worse. However, for the most part it’s been standing well and there’s no mud. The heat helps with getting the weeds cut.

We are the last harvester in town. We’ll hopefully finish up here today or tomorrow with five combines still here. Three more combines joined for a few days but left July 17 to go to western Nebraska. They unloaded and went straight to the field and are cutting.

It’s been very hot and windy. That helps keep wheat harvest moving right along. The forecast continues to be hot and sunny. Harvest crews will be traveling lots of miles moving northward to Montana and the Dakotas. Everyone please be safe.

Janel can be reached at janel@allaboardharvest.com.

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