On Tuesday, 20 vehicles with 78 participants headed west from Manhattan, Kansas, on the Hard Winter Wheat Tour 2016. Scouts stopped in 306 locations on the six routes between Manhattan and Colby. Scouts reported seeing some stripe rust, barley yellow dwarf virus, early season drought stress and freeze damage, but overall, wheat looked as good or better than expected. Almost all wheat was between late boot stage and early flowering stage.
The average calculated yield for day one was 47.2 bu. per acre, compared with only 34.3 bu. per acre along the same route last year. Crop scouts take measurements in fields across their routes, using a formula developed by USDA/NASS to estimate the yield for each field. These estimates are averaged in each car, and then combined with all cars to get a yield estimate each day.
While scouts anticipated seeing a lot of stripe rust in Kansas, reports came in that many of the fields had been sprayed with fungicide to prevent the spread of the disease. Aaron Harries, Kansas Wheat VP of Operation and Research, commended farmers for their management practices. He said, “Farmers need a round of applause for taking care of rust issues before they became a huge issue.”
Jeanne Falk Jones, Kansas State University (SDU) multi-county agronomy specialist, concurred. She discussed what extension is doing to educate producers about what they could do to get out in front of stripe rust.
Romulo Lollato, KSU wheat and forages extension specialist, discussed three major freeze events that have occurred this spring, including one in northwest Kansas earlier this week. Falk Jones said, “We had cold temperatures Monday morning. It will take us 10 days to 2 weeks to know if we have any damage from that.”
A small group of scouts from Colorado began the tour there and headed east to Colby. They reported an average yield of 39 bu. per acre in Colorado and estimated production at 78 million bu. for the state.
On Wednesday the tour travels between Colby and Wichita. It wraps up on Thursday with an overall yield and production estimate for the state of Kansas.
