The high temperature April 1 reached 85, a degree less than March 31, hinting at a month of continued unseasonability, but April was only fooling.

By the 5th, the high could reach no higher than 56.

Not until April 24 did area residents feel the heat, when the daily high hit 95 and breaking the record for that day set in 1989, a year that saw, until last month, seven high-temperature records broken, including a record-setting 105-degree reading April 23.

While this unusual early warmth may give weather watchers nervous pause, the premature heat did nothing to unnerve the state's wheat crop.

"The wheat is going to be really good all the way around," said Bill Spiegel, director of communications for the Kansas Wheat Commission and Kansas Association of Wheat Growers in Manhattan.

"Around areas of western Kansas, we're a little bit concerned with the drought situation the last couple of years catching up with this year's wheat crop," he said. "West-central Kansas is running out of moisture."

Spiegel said the crop report issued Monday estimated the wheat crop is three weeks early.

"There might be some farmers in south-central Kansas who are cutting wheat by the end of May. That would be a first for many of them," he said.

Ready to cut in Texas

Custom harvester Jim Deibert, of Colby, was in Vernon, Texas, on Wednesday afternoon, awaiting the beginning of his summer campaign, which will take him to North Dakota by Labor Day.

"I think I can cut this afternoon," Deibert said Wednesday in Vernon, 50 miles west of Wichita Falls, Texas. He's expecting an average crop in that area.

Tom Maxwell predicts harvest in Saline County by late May or early June.

"This is as early as I've seen in my lifetime," said Maxwell, of Salina, an agricultural Extension agent for Saline and Ottawa counties.

An "unusually mild spring," he said, has accelerated wheat development to the point that it's at least two weeks ahead of schedule.

"Based on my travels across the state, it's two to three weeks ahead," said Tom Tunnell, president of the Kansas Grain and Feed Association. He forwarded an online posting with a promising outlook: "Scouts found record yield potential and a crop that's around three weeks ahead of normal through central and northern Kansas on the first day of the Wheat Quality Council HRW tour," according to the Informa Economics Issue Monitor.

Harvesters scrambling south

In 43 years of custom harvesting, Deibert said, "I've never taken out this early. This is really about three weeks ahead of schedule."

Many of the 600 or more members of U.S. Custom Harvesters Association, based in Hutchinson, are "scrambling south," said Pam Shmidl, operations manager.

Some members are waiting for crew members to arrive who are still in school, or foreign workers from England, New Zealand, South Africa and other countries, who have to satisfy immigration requirements to work in the U.S., she said.

Still others are waiting for driver's license examiners offices to open so they can complete or renew commercial drivers licenses to drive trucks in harvest.

Early maturing wheat has caused a crunch on more than one level for custom harvesters, Shmidl said.

"They usually leave in mid-May. Some of them were caught by surprise and do not have everything ready to go," she said. "I tell 'em 'You've got to think of safety.' "

Right now, it looks good

The crop report, issued by the USDA's Kansas field office of the National Agriculture Statistics Service, indicated that 74 percent of the wheat has headed out, compared with 13 percent by this time last year and up from the five-year average of 7 percent.

The report gave 13 percent of the crop an excellent rating, while 49 percent was rated good and 30 percent fair. Only 6 percent earned a poor rating and 2 percent was graded very poor.

Wheat wasn't the only crop jumping the gun, according to the report.

Corn farmers have planted 57 percent of the crop, up from 38 percent this time last year and 32 percent for a five-year average for this date.

Also, a quarter to half the corn has emerged already. Last year at this time, emergence was only 10 percent.

There were some cold days

That said, April registered some cold days, with some areas of the state experiencing freezing temperatures but not enough to stop the early run by the wheat crop. According to the crop report, only 6 percent of the wheat crop had suffered freeze damage for the week ending April 29.

In the Salina area, residents probably noticed morning frost on two days: on April 8 when the low temperature dropped to 34 from the previous day's low of 53, and on the 23rd, when it hit 33.

No low temperatures were broken last month. The record low for the month, set on April 3, 1926, was 5 degrees above zero.

About average rainfall

While parts of Kansas have water worries, the Salina area enjoyed an above-average month in April.

The month ended with 2.86 inches of rain compared with the April average of 2.76. So far for the year, Salina is running a slight surplus: 6.86 inches, 0.18 of an inch above the yearly average through April.

--Gordon D. Fiedler Jr. can be reached at 822-1407 or by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

-- Reporter Tim Unruh added to this story.