Keep your acreage, weather and crop comments coming in! Use this link to send us your comments about your wheat production and marketing decisions. Be sure to send us your photos and videos! Comments will be edited for brevity and clarity. (Please keep your comments crop-related.)
Here's a sampling of what some folks are saying:
- 1/6 - DeKalb County, Ala.: Wheat looks good.
- 12/19 - Wilbur, Wash.: To say it's dry in the inland Northwest is an understatement. Record-setting lack of moisture. Along Highway 2, rainfall since July 1 totals less than 2 inches. Planted winter wheat stands look good so far and there is good subsoil moisture. As always, without good rains in May-June the subsoil moisture doesn't do much good.
- 12/12 - Stutsman County, N.D.: Our 2011 crop was horrid, with drowned-out spots from excessive precipitation. For 2012, we will plant 40% corn acres and 60% soybean acres on our eastern North Dakota farm. No wheat will be planted. This will be a first "no wheat" year since homesteading in 1888.
- 12/12 - Barber County, Kan.: 95% of wheat has emerged in our area. We have been blessed with some recent rains to put us at 50%-75% of annual rainfall. We need another 6"-8" of moisture to reach last year's wheat yield potential. There is very little wheat pasture for cattle. Row crop bookings (under irrigation) have all been reported as short season corn or low population/full maturity for next year. No beans have been booked for next year's planting intentions. No dryland corn or dryland beans have been booked due to lack of subsoil moisture.
- 12/5 - Dallam County, Texas: Finished corn on Monday. Yields where either good or bad. Wheat needs rain or snow. Glad to get this year over with.
- 11/8 - Le Sueur Ccounty, Minn.: Did not even put any wheat in the ground, we planted tillage radishes on last years winter wheat ground and they did not sprout to grow , they were planted late august and very little since beans were planted late and froze and were combined in the first eight days of October and that it is getting a little late for Winter wheat here unless we have ideal conditions, with no moisture to get it started and low prices compared to corn why plant that late.
- 10/31 - Lancaster County, Pa.: Still a lot of corn and soybeans to harvest. Wheat is planted and some fall plowing done. Still need to bale corn fodder once corn is harvested. Weather forecast is calling for 6-12 inches of snow tomorrow. This will hamper any harvesting in the next few days.
- 10/28- Reno County, Kan.: Done with bean harvest. 4 to 5 bu./acre except a ten acre patch on underflow ground that made 17 bu./acre. Worst crop in my 35 years farming. Wheat I planted after beans will need rain to come up and none in the 7 day forecast.
- 10/24- Texas Panhandle: Beef Today’s Steve Cornett -- There is moisture falling in some of the drought area this morning. I shot a picture a minute ago off the front porch. That is rain, I suppose, but it was snow not long ago. Not to suggest this is a "drought breaker," mind you. It’s still awful dry over a very large part of the Southern Plains, but darned if some of us don’t have some wheat sprouted from an earlier round of moisture a couple of weeks ago. Keep reading about the snow in Steve’s Out to Pasture blog.
- 10/25 - Keith, Arthur, and Perkins counties, Nebraska: Corn harvest is well under way, but we’re still waiting for some fields to dry down. In non-hailed areas, yields are good with 100 bu/ac rainfed corn. Bean harvest is done and sugarbeet harvest is underway and appears to be about average. Conditions here are generally dry with just enough spotty rain to settle the dust. Wheat planting was timely and normal. Alfalfa was cut in early October and will have a little regrowth before winter. Alfalfa got a slow start last spring, but ended a little above average. Provided by Doug Anderson, University of Nebraska Extension educator for University of Nebraska's Crop Watch.
- 10/25- Harmon County, Okla.: The SUNUP crew travels to southwestern Oklahoma to discuss the recent rainfall with Harmon County Extension educator Lawrence Tomah, and see the planting underway at the OSU wheat demonstration plots.
- 10/25 - Gage County, Neb.: Recent rains have helped reduce dust and fire risk as we move through corn harvest at a fast pace. Wheat fields are looking good and cover crop trials are greening up fields of early adopters. Soybean yields ranged from 30-60 bu/ac (average 45 bu/ac) on dryland and 50-70 bu/ac (average of 63 bu/ac) on irrigated fields. Corn yields have been from 70 to 180 bu/ac on dryland (average 125 bu/ac) and 170-250 bu/ac on irrigated (215 bu/ac). Provided by Paul Hay, University of Nebraska Extension educator for University of Nebraska's Crop Watch.
- 10/24 - Malhuer County, Ore.: Weather is unseasonably warm. Corn harvest is 40% finished, yields are off 28% so far. Poor corn yields mixed with the highest input cost ever per acre means we are looking at severely cutting corn acres for next year. Winter wheat is planted, acres are down 20% from last year. The biggest challenges this year in order were weather, high input costs, USDA inconsistent data, market volatility.
- 10/24 - Lewis County, Idaho: Wheat was infected with Cephlasporium stripe rust from too much rain, yields down over 30 bushels per acre. Fall seeding is almost complete, should finish today and go help some friends finish up.
- 10/24 - Central lower Michigan: My name is Gary Fisher, my father (semi retired) Wayne and my son, Dayne farm in central Lower Michigan. My son is the 6th generation to farm in the Fisher family. 5 generations here in Michigan. A very proud tradition, hence the name of our farms is Fisher Tradition Farms. The first picture is of wheat harvest and the second is soybeans taken from atop our grain bins.
- 10/18 - Southwestern Oklahoma: The SUNUP crew travels to southwestern Oklahoma to discuss the recent rainfall with Harmon County Extension educator Lawrence Tomah and see the planting under way at the OSU wheat demonstration plots.
- 10/14 - Griggs County, N.D.: Worst crop I have ever had. Wheat in the low 30s; soybeans in the mid 20s; corn in the low 90s. Too wet all year. Let’s get this year over and hope for a better year next year.
- 10/14 - Ingham County, Mich.: We finished planting wheat yesterday. Ended up with more acres than we had planned. Ground conditions were great.
- 10/10 - Western Walsh county, northeast North Dakota: This for the wheat grower in northern Montana who was questioning the grain companies' switch from bidding December futures (MGEX) to March. In my area, all but one grain company did the same thing. This morning's bids are 0.15 under the March. The one that still is on December is bidding $.60 under the December. The result is that this gives the farmer about a $0.30 better price. Guess who's getting the wheat? Mike Krueger, a well respected market analyst from Fargo, wrote last week that the grain trade is making a rumble about going to the May contract. The crooks!
Some sunflowers and corn are all that is left to harvest around here. Everyone is working on fall tillage and cleaning drainage ditches, burning, etc. Waiting for the soil temps to get down to 50°F so we can start with fall fertilizer.
- 10/10 - Reno County, Kan.: Looked more like the Sahara desert here on Oct. 6 -- 50 mph winds really took out a lot of newly planted wheat.
- 10/10 - Southeast North Dakota: Responding to Northern Montana’s question on wheat futures. The elevators in this region are also using March 12 Mpls Futures to arrive at cash bids for the farmer. What I would expect is that the basis would be better than the -40 under they are currently bidding, since Dec. 11 is 25 cents better than March 12 futures they are using to give the farmer a price. I have found one elevator bidding -0.05 and would hope to see the others soon bidding that also for anyone wanting to sell. But it is corn and bean harvest now, so they probably don't want wheat right now anyway.
- 10/7 - Northern Montana: I have a question for everyone out there. We grow spring wheat in northern Montana and had a somewhat challenging year. First too wet and then too dry. We ended up with less than average crops, but passable with the current prices. I went to the elevator to sell some of my production because the December futures have been doing so well, only to find out that two weeks ago the elevators began pricing grain on the March and not December board. In previous years, we could price grain up to a month before contract expiration. Is this happening all over the U.S. or just here?
- 10/6 - Streator, Ill.: I would expect the vast majority of the wheat to be planted in this area within the next week. A late soybean harvest is pushing the plantings back a bit. Most growers will no-till wheat behind soybeans. We are on a run of perfect harvest weather. I would also expect similar number of acres being planted as in the past years.
- 10/5 - Clark County, Wis.: Wheat was light. We’ve had around 65 bu./acre in beans and now we’re running 65 bu./acre at this time. Corn looks good.
- 10/5 - McPherson County, Kan.: The end of September means just one thing on Baldwin Farms: It's time to plant some wheat. Video courtesy of Baldwin Farms. (This video was part of AgWeb's "A Day in Agriculture.")
- 10/3 - Thomas County, Kan.: We are presently drilling HRW wheat and we are sending a ladder down with each seed as it is very dry and getting worse by the day. Have lived here my entire life and this looks like the '56-'57 years. Corn is drying down very rapidly and we will pick some dryland next week maybe it will rain.
- 9/28 - Barber County, Kan.: Wheat drilling has barely started here. Conventional tillers are struggling with choosing between drilling with rapidly depleting topsoil moisture and praying for rain, while no-tillers have marginal/fair moisture to establish a stand. Both are facing the fact of absolutely no subsoil to carry the crop into winter months. When digging, moisture is found in the area of 1" to 6" down and dry from there on out. Everyone is saying that if a stand is established and no more rain comes, the remaining crop will be dead by November. As I wrote a couple weeks ago - as expected; corn harvest has almost wrapped up with whole farm average on irrigated around 145 (usually 180+) and dryland at 0 (usually 60-100).
- 9/27 - Western Walsh County, northeast North Dakota: Our area received 2.6" of rain last week, but nice weather moved in and we have enjoyed a great run of beautiful harvest days. The wheat that we had left has lost some test weight, but the moisture levels are down to 15%-16%. Yield on the wheat seeded out until June 14 has been holding in the 45 to 50 bu./acre range. We should finish this week, if a stray rain shower stays away. During last week's rain and windstorm, our sunflowers blew over flat!
The day after the rain, most of the custom combine crews loaded up and headed south to start on soybeans. Some farmers were left to scramble to find combines. Lots of late canola harvest going on in the northern tier of counties, with a pretty good crop.
- 9/26 - Gordon County, Ga.: Things are busy this fall. We are in the process of planting winter canola, and will be planting oats, barley and wheat later this fall. We are 3/4 done with corn harvest and soybean harvest is two to three weeks away. Our sunflowers benefited from the most recent rain events and will be ready for harvest after the first frost. We have included pictures of canola crop last year at bloom and close to harvest.
- 9/26 - Grant County, Okla.: Corn, milo and beans are toast. Wheat was average.
- 9/26 - Barton County, Kan.: Corn was all chopped, beans 10 bu. or less, milo good north end of county, south end none, started planting wheat with small amount of subsoil moisture, not a good year.
- 9/26 - Thomas County, Kan.: We are planting wheat and it is DRY, about as dry as I can remember. There are a few spots of good moisture in NW Kansas, but there are a lot of dry ones. The dry land corn on our farm so far has been from 85 to 115, so not all is bad. I think that the real problem is coming next year, but as you all know, God will never send you more pain than you can stand. Hope all have a safe fall.
- 9/21 - Ward County, N.D.: All crops that have been harvested have been well below average yields. Wheat seems to be the most affected with yields 80% less than average for the area, canola yields are very poor and the peas did not get planted, the beans froze. To much rain, disease, hail, and severe weather. Areas of drowned out twice as big as est during acreage report deadline. Roads still not fixed. Access to fields is still a problem. Very poor harvest all around, Just got 2.25" rain yesterday. Where is USDA getting there production numbers? The acres are not there and the yield is not there either. In my opinion USDA is very high on production est. I see this from the seat of the combine...
- 9/21 - Ward County, N.D.: HRSW in the area was 10-15 bu and winter wheat ran as high as 20 bu. Allot of prevent plant and some late planted soybeans went in. They all froze last week. Fields are black and turning grey now. More fields not planted here. Not much for winter wheat going in. Too much water resulted in the worst crops we have seen in years.
- 9/19 - Daniels County, Mont.: Finished seeding spring wheat June 5. Had some frost damage area. Farmers seeded until June 15 or later, major frost damage. Wheat turning white five to six days after freezing, thousands of acres.
- 9/19 - Southwest Kansas: Wheat harvest, corn planting, soybean planting, farm life. Video provided by http://www.southwestff.com.
- 9/16 - Western Walsh County, northeast North Dakota: On my way home from a parts run last night, I noticed several pickups parked at the local tavern. Every farmer in there, including me, had a lot of harvest left, but we had all run up against high moisture wheat and canola. Big combine crews were parked in the fields......our late planting spring season is showing up now, with a harvest delay. Our wheat is running 45 to 50 b/a. Canola ranges 1700-2200 #/ac. The big wheat crops of the past two years are not happening this year. Others have had some wheat down into the high 20's if they caught a heavy rain at the wrong time.
- 9/16 - Franklin Parish, La.: Had good and bad corn yields, some cut 200 bpa down to 110 bpa. First Soybeans cut 60 bpa. Just getting ready to cut some Wheat beans.
- 9/13 - Dickey County, southeast North Dakota: Not much rain of late. We were very wet in June and the first half of July and then nothing for moisture. Corn that survived the wind and hail is fine. The beans will be average because we just didn’t get that last rain and it’s been way above average for heat, we’ll be 10 bushels less than 2010. The best wheat yields were right at 40 bu/ac with the average at 25 bu/ac. I can’t figure out how USDA comes up with an average wheat yield of 41 bu/ac when that’s the top end?
- 9/13 - Hettinger County, N.D.: Spring wheat harvest is just wrapping up in our area, yields varied with 10-30 bushel an acre, the statement that rain makes grain was not true this year, to much disease and shallow roots, now we are dry on the topsoil so cant fire up the drills yet to put the winter wheat in. Have heard very similar yields on the spring wheat throughout the state.
- 9/12 - Day County, S.D.: Wheat harvest was looking good, but we ended up with half-filled heads due to extreme heat and a 30 bushel average. Soybean fields are burning up fast and some of the top pods are not filling. Yields are going to be reduced due to the extreme heat as well. We will be content with a 30 bushel average. Corn fields have some tipback, slight pollination issues and some smut. Yield estimates are 175-180 in the heavier soils, but the low spots where we had early season flooding suffered, giving us an estimated overall average of 120-125 bushels. The crops looked good from the road all season long, but once you get in the fields it’s a whole different story.
- 9/12 - Wilbur, Wash.: Crops are all cut! Quality was outstanding. Some dockage due to foreign material was heard of. Yields were very good as well. Winter Wheat seeding is going on now with some earlier seeding up and green! All in all a good year to be a wheat farmer in WA State.
- 9/8 - Western Oklahoma: Wheat was near disaster this summer -- yields 20%-35% of 2010 yields. Summer crops all near disaster -- I expect only 10% of cotton planted to be harvested. No dryland corn, milo, beans or sesame will harvest. Range conditions pitiful -- probably 70% of cattle sold out of area. Fall 2011 wheat crop in serious trouble without rain soon. DROUGHT bad in western and SW Oklahoma.
- 9/6 - Reno County, Kan.: We were supposed to have a 50% chance of rain today. Best chance in a long time. Front went through with no rain. It did build up on east of us but looked spotty on radar -- not a line of storms. I haven’t put down any fertilizer yet and didn’t want to till I see rain, but we're getting so close to planting time and I don’t want to get there and then have to spend a week running fertilizer before I can plant, so I’m thinking about doing some next week. Very stressful trying to decide whether to spend many many thousands of dollars on fertilizer with no moisture to even get wheat sprouted, let alone keeping it alive if it does come up. Seven-day forecast has no rain chance at all in it. Soybeans and milo are toast.
- 9/6 - Sumner County, Kan.: No corn to harvest, most green chopped or baled. Soybeans mostly toasted. Milo will yield very little. Prospects to plant wheat are not good.
- 9/1 - Hoople, N.D.: Watch a John Deere 9630T with 16 bottom JD plow turning wheat stubble in Hoople, N.D. Video courtesy of slimfarms.
- 8/30 - Western Walsh County, northeast North Dakota: First 150 ac. of canola went 1860 #/ac. into the elevator. First 200 acres of wheat looks to be around 50 b/a. Harvest is slow getting going, after the initial 350 acres, we are caught up combing for a couple days. A very small percentage of the crop in our neighborhood has come off. We hope September is as good weather as August has been. Six weeks ago we had a $2.00 premium for 15% protien wheat, and a $2.00 discount for 13% pro., today the premium is zero, and the discount is very small. I'd like to know the select group of grain buyers who manipulate these markets. Marketing wheat makes corn and soybean look too easy. It's no mystery why wheat acres have decreased.
- 8/29 - Southwest Nebraska: Irrigated corn is about finished here. Hoping for 230 bu. Depends on pollination. Irrigated beans are the best ever, 4 to 6 foot tall and lots of pods. Dryland is suffering from the hot dry south Kansas wind as well as the dryland beans. Dryland yields will probably max out at 90 bu. on corn and without rain the beans will be a disaster. Drilled post holes today...no moisture down to 5 foot. Less than 2 inches of rain since the 4th of July. Wheat planting will be a waste of time if it doesn’t rain. Also, hay market is going nuts here. Tons and tons of hay heading south for big $$$$. I heard a guy sold CRP hay for $175 standing in the field to hay and send south. Makes you wonder what might happen if the drought migrates north or we have a hard winter. Guess I am going to sell my calves off the cow, go on a much needed vacation and let someone else figure out how to pencil in a profit feeding cattle.
- 8/29 - Western Wallace County, Kan.: It's tooo DRY here. We've maybe had half the 18" average rainfall in the last 12 months. The milo was planted on last year's sunflower field. The sunflowers were planted into last year's wheat stubble. All no-till.
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- 8/26 - Washington: Mike Miller discusses the wheat harvest for this year. He explains that he has a good yield this year, which he thinks may be due to the spraying of the crops. Visit www.VoicesAcrossthePlains.com to follow videos and posts from these and other Voices Across the Plains growers as the season progresses.
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- 8/23 - Central Kansas: Just finished harvesting 1,200 acres of dryland corn that averaged 8 bu./acre. Many fields of soybeans are abandoned with no seed fill at this time. Not enough rain to plant wheat and no rain in sight.
- 8/23 - Beadle County, S.D.: Corn for the most part looks real good. Beans are coming around also. First corn I planted on May 2 is about 6' tall. We ended up with about 15% in prevent plant, which was about half as much as last year. We planted 100% of our corn but only planted 40% of our beans. I would say for this area that is about par for everyone. Our GDD is about on target for average. Should be combining winter wheat in 10-14 days, and that looks real good.
- 8/22 - Wayne County, Ohio: Wheat harvest 2011.
- 8/19 - Northeast North Dakota: Harvest got under way with the swathing of canola, wheat and today we will swath some peas. The moderate and timely rains have given us a nice, not huge crop, from what I saw from the windrower. Heavy rain right after planting did drown some spots. Many in the area are just getting started with spraying glysophate on their wheat. The cover crop cocktail of lentil, turnip and radish is growing nicely on the prevented plant acres. Weather forecast sounds great.
- 8/18 - Washington County, Ore.: Everything is two to three weeks late this year, the cool damp spring and summer. We still haven't hit 90 degrees yet. Corn is just starting to pollinate, wheat yields were decent, about 100 to 130 bu./acre. Grass seed yields off by 1/4 to 1/3 or more. Not a bad year in the Willamette Valley, but nothing spectacular.
- 8/16 - North Central Oklahoma: Baling the last of the corn this week. Yield last year 97 bu., this year 0. Milo and soybeans same story. Too many days with temps over 100 degrees (several over 110). Wheat yields were in the teens. 2 inches of rain over the weekend and the grass is starting to show some green again, I think I'll slow down on feeding the cows. Looks more and more like cow-calf country to me.
- 8/15 - South central North Dakota: Winter wheat and barley harvest done. Yields average with fungicide, 20% less without. Canola swathed. With no rain, spring wheat harvest to start today.
- 8/15 - McLeod County, Minn.: I finally had time to venture into some cornfields today. I was not surprised by what I found based on the comments coming in from around the country. After planting in the mud and having torrential rains about once a week the crop was starting to come around, and then the heat hit. Most of the corn in our area pollinated in the mid to lower 90s for an air temp, but we didn’t get the cool nights to let the plants recover. Once you get into the field the ears are tipped back and the cobs have plenty of aborted kernels. It looks good from the road, but once you get in the field there is a lot of greensnap too. Final stand counts are nothing to brag about either with all the acres that were mudded in around here. With all the drought, wind, hail, and flooding going on this year I don’t see how it even possible to break 145bu on corn. Beans are average at best. Lots of plant, but not a lot of pods. I am hearing reports from guys that had spring wheat of 30-40bu/a. That is very poor for this area.
- 8/15 - Daniels County, Mont.: Wheat stem rust turned bumper crop into average crop. North central Montana winter wheat yield 40-50 b/acre (last year 70 b/acre) with 80 b straw. 7-12-11 price $6.37. In northeast Montana, yellow peas 20-30 b/acre (30-40 is norm). We just started lentils, looks very good. Durum 10 days off (heat visibly hurt it). Earliest HRS 2 weeks away, majority is month away, will be difficult to avoid frost. Northeast Montana and northwest North Dakota had 20% HRS sowed after June 5 crop insurance deadline, still these crops look good.
- 8/15 - Cass, N.D.: The wheat yields around here are between 20 and 40 bushels. Last year the yields were 60 bushels and up. We have had more than our share of rain this summer. Soybeans should be around 25-30 bushels. There are fields that will be zero and some that will be 50 bushels. The corn is the same way, zero to 200 bushels with 135 bushel average. That's if we don't get an early freeze. This year there is more prevented plant than I have ever seen. The worst crops around here since the drought of 1988.
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- 8/15 - Washington: Mike Miller shows off a double rainbow on his wheat farm in Washington State. Visit www.VoicesAcrossthePlains.com to follow videos and posts from these and other Voices Across the Plains growers as the season progresses.
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- 8/15 - Reno County, Kan.: Finally got one and a half inches of rain in the last week and I thought my group four beans might come back and be able to fill my contract. I went to check them yesterday and they are breaking off right at ground level. Fifteen percent already laid over flat and more dropping over daily. Got to be from drought because the dry land corn that guys didn’t chop is falling down laying flat. 90 percent of it is down. As I said in a post a couple weeks ago, group three beans are toast. We will need much more rain to get wheat going but should get the volunteer started. Start planting wheat Sept. 25th, on a normal year. Haven’t put any fertilizer down yet.
- 8/12 - Grand Forks County, N.D.: The early wheat crop is very disappointing, 80 bushel straw and 45 bushel spring wheat. I hear its worse in other parts of the state. Soybeans look pretty good, but 30 bushels will probably be the average. Our corn looks good but we need an average frost of Sept. 22 for out to make it fully and we planted in early may...lots of corn planted May 20th-25th. The edibles need an Oct. 1 frost to make it to. Reading all the comments, it seems everyone in the U.S. is having a challenging year.
- 8/11 - Western Walsh County, northeast North Dakota: This area has been lucky to get small amounts of rain ranging from .4 up to 1.25 last weekend.......spaced out just right for the past 6 weeks. Our crop look very nice, but we are finding scab in a lot of fields. The fungicide spraying is appearing to have paid off. The untreated fields have a lot more scab infection than those that were sprayed. The wheat is filling nicely, and with temps this week staying under 80F, we should get a good kernel set. Canola flowering period is over, and it too is filling the pods. Harvest is still at least two weeks off. But as all farmers know, the crop isn't ours' until it's in the bin.
- 8/10 - Clark, S.D.: Wheat harvest is very disappointing, the heat took its toll.
- 8/8 - Cheyenne County, Neb.: Karen DeBoer, Extension Educator: Our dryland crops are looking stressed from the heat and lack of moisture, especially the dryland corn that I have seen. Wheat harvest is progressing in the area with reports of average to above average yields, good test weight, and low protein.
- 8/8 - Northeast North Dakota: Last week’s wheat tour estimated the Spring Wheat crop for potential production came up with fairly optimistic yield goal and may have been fairly accurate. I think if they went this week they would be lowering the estimate because wheat scab is showing up and is spreading through the crop. I checked a field yesterday of mine and scab is showing up and look like its spreading in the field. The wheat if its infected even in one kernel seems to be moving through whole head this year but with the hot humid conditions and light showers I guess would perfect breeding ground for scab development. The field I was looking at had fungicide applied to it also and still fairly high percentage of scab in the field. I talked to one local agronomists and he said fields not sprayed are showing significant damage and yield loss already. The tour looked at fields this year that were later this year than normal and what they saw and projected maybe overstated because changing conditions in the fields. Also ND had large rains again and amount of wheat lost to drown out could be increasing again. It appears to me this Wheat crop is getting smaller not larger everyday. The canola crop up here looks to have good potential if disease doesn't start developing in it in with these hot and humid conditions. Soybeans look good but have long way to go nice tall soybeans but flowering and podding seem to behind the height of the beans. All the crops are still behind but heat has pushed them some and we may see harvest a little sooner than first anticipated if we continue with this warm pattern.
- 8/5 - Waitsburg, Wash.: Harvest is running a little late in eastern Washington for wheat farmers. But, the yields are worth the wait. Dan Bickelhaupt, a farmer near Waitsburg, Wash., says his area will see record yields this year due to abundant rains all spring.
This field yielded 113 bu./acre. The dryland field was planted with soft white winter wheat, Stephens/Tubbs 50/50 mix. Bickelhaupt says crops in southeast Washington were plagued with stripe rust. "This field had three applications of fungicide to combat the rust," he says. Normally stripe rust isn’t a problem, but due to wet springs it has made a comeback in the last two years. Yields for winter wheat on fallow ground have also been impressive, coming in at the 120 to 135 bu./ac. range. "Quality looks excellent."
In this video, you can watch Bickelhaupt, assisted by his daughters Anne and Jill, harvest their soft white winter wheat field. Video courtesy of wsugirlcoug’s YouTube channel.
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7/27 Washington: Mike Miller discusses summer harvest season in Washington State.
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- 8/5 - Belgium, Eernegem: I got the chance to have a ride with a TX66 harvesting wheat. It was a beautiful evening. In another video, you can see us swap between two fields without removing the header. Quite exciting! Video courtesy of MattijsDeSmedt’s YouTube channel.
- 8/4 - Martin, Tenn.: See winter wheat harvested and double crop soybeans planted in west Tennessee.. Video courtesy of fjchester's YouTube channel.
- 8/4 - Roberts, S.D.: Started cutting HRS Wheat today. THE BUSHELS PER ACRE AREN'T THERE, PLUS LOW TEST WEIGHT AND NOT MANY ACRES PLANTED AND A LOT OF THOSE WHERE DROWNED OUT WITH TO MUCH WATER. So , Go believe the USDA, who never get out of their offices/chairs, except to get a cup of coffee and manipulate the figures---acres.....
- 8/4 - Farina, Ill.: We grow corn and beans mainly, and a little wheat sometimes. We’re in south central Illinois. It was wet early on. We started planting the second week of April. Then we got rained out. We didn’t get the rest of corn done until mid-May. Soybeans got planted over roughly a month, started the first week of June and went through early July. We have a very wide range of crop quality. I’d say most of our crops are in the 7 to 8 range. We’ve got some rain that farmers in other areas haven’t received, so we’ve been pretty lucky.
- 8/2 - Meade, Kan.: August 1st. Still no measurable rain except for isolated areas. Alot of irrigated circles are being abandoned and pollination is not too good in some areas. There is some good corn but not like last year. Local elevator took a bit over 8 million bushels last year, they are thinking it will be half that this year. we are 6 to 8 weeks from planting wheat and have no moisture to sprout it. Large numbers of beef cows are at the sale barns every week because the grass is burnt up. There is one sale barn that averages 500 to 700 head of momma cows a week since May! The forecast is 100+ degree weather for next 10 days.
- 8/2 - Custer County, Okla.: Wheat this summer was very poor. Any dryland milo burned up, cotton crop in process of burning up. Doubt even half the cotton will even pay to harvest. Many areas have had less than 5 inches rainfall for the entire year.
- 8/1 - Northeastern Montana Phillips County: Winter wheat harvest to start next week. Over 14 inches of rainfall since May 1st. Yields will be above average, but disease has taken its toll. Early seeded spring grain looks to be above average where hail hasn't hit. Most of our area was seeded in late May or June, these fields will need more rainfall and cooler temperatures to obtain average yields. Hay and grass production looks good where fields were not killed from spring flooding. Grasshoppers are starting to become a problem. These are pictures spring wheat taken July 26th from the same farm seeded the last week of April. Note the flying grasshopper.
- 7/28 - Northern Dodge County, Wis.: Had over 5" of rain since last week. Corn is about 50% tasseled and looks good. Combined wheat yesterday 96 to 105 bu. full field avg. 3rd crop hay looks good.
- 7/28 - Union County, N.C.: I knew soft red winter wheat yields in NC were going to be the highest overall on record, but did not realize it would take these numbers to win the state yield contest. First place was 139.2 BPA of USG 3209, second place was 131.9 BPA of USG 3555, and third place was 129.8 BPA of USG 3555. There were many that broke the 100 BPA yield. This was truly an amazing wheat year over the entire state of NC. The contest rules in NC designate the measured amount must be taken from 3 continuous measured acres or more.
- 7/28 - Croswell, Mich.: Watch a wheat harvest video.
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- 7/27 Washington : Mike Miller, Pacific
Northwest wheat farmer, takes a tour of Spokane, WA during Hoopfest weekend. Spokane's Hoopfest is the largest street basketball tournament in the world. He also describes the snow-melt that is coming down into the Spokane river.
- 7/20 Washington : Mike Miller
tours the Columbia River Basin irrigation project at the foot of the Cascade Mountains in Washington State. The water is shipped and received to help sustain the Pacific North West crops. Some of the crops include spring wheat, winter wheat, mint, alfalfa, potatoes and chick peas. Visit www.VoicesAcrossthePlains.com to follow videos and posts from these and other Voices Across the Plains growers as the season progresses.
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- 7/15 - Lewistown, Mont.: Well we are finally getting our share of heat, which we needed all spring. The warmer temperatures are firing up thunderstorms just about every evening. So far we have about a fourth of our winter wheat with some hail damage. The heat turned around a lot of winter wheat. We struggled with all the rust issues this spring, spraying some of the winter wheat with fungicide. The wheat looks much better, but the rust has definitely taken its toll. Some fields and areas much worse than others. All and all in my area, if we can stay away from the hail, I'm calling it an average crop.
- 7/15 - Sanilac County, Mich.: Start of wheat harvest in Sanilac County! Moistures are reportedly running from 16.1 to 22 + at the grain elevator. After calibration, yields in this field were running mid 90's for Pioneer Hi-Bred 25W4. This field is white wheat and so far no signs of sprouts or vomitoxin.
