Early-morning diners at Skaets Restaurant on North Main Street have been asking if I planned to write an annual harvest story, so here it is.

As producers consider future crop rotations on their farms, many are adding canola to the rotation.

With information flying at us from every direction – from tweets to Facebook posts, reality TV, the blogosphere, the 24 hour news cycle - it is easy to get lost in the silly and sensationalized rather than reality. And that is just what the Obama administration is hoping we will do.

   Dry heat, above normal temperatures and winds that have whipped what little moisture is left out of many wheat fields across the state has farmers roaring into harvest. While the general census among farmers is there’ll still be wheat to harvest, the potential of what might have been looms large across the Kansas landscape. 

   Less than a month ago the Wheat Quality Council tour estimated the 2012 wheat crop to yield 403.8 million bushels. This figured out to be roughly 45 bushels per acre on the 9.5 million acres planted in Kansas. In three short weeks a lack of moisture dropped this estimate to a 365 million bushel crop.

   On the other hand,. there remain pockets of optimism across the state. Long-time Sumner County wheat farmer Scott Van Allen says it’s been a long time since he’s had a good wheat crop. His crop has been fortunate enough to have received the necessary moisture.

   “Our crop never really lacked for moisture like I’ve heard it has in other parts of the state,” Van Allen says. “I’ve got my fingers crossed we could still have a very good crop.”

   That very good crop could possibly yield 50-60 bushels-per-acre, weigh in at 60 pounds per bushel and contain a protein level in the mid to upper 11s, the Sumner County wheat producer says.

   While attending a Kansas Wheat Commission meeting in Hays on May 18, Van Allen took the southerly route home driving from Kinsley to Hutchison on Highway 50. Here, he saw what he called, “some wheat hurting pretty badly. It was dry, heat stressed and while there will still be wheat harvested – the yield potential got knocked down pretty hard.”

   Further north and west of Salina farmers also test cut some plots last week. In Phillips County the wheat crop is turning fast and barring the slight chance of rains, harvest in some areas may be underway as you read this.

   Veteran farmer Doug Zillinger says some of the crop still looks good while the nearly 100 degree heat and 50 mile-per-hour winds last week are turning some of the wheat white.

   “It’s sapping what little moisture the wheat has left,” Zillinger says. “The wheat condition is deteriorating every day.”

Agriculture is a way of life, and today – thanks to your help – that way of life will be easier to preserve for our children and grandchildren.

Oxfam has long argued that US cotton subsidies damage lives and livelihoods of smallholder farmers in developing countries at a high cost to American taxpayers(see also this study). Unfortunately, subsidies for US cotton producers included in the Senate Farm Bill proposal continues this trend rather than reverses it.

By Patty Clark, State Director
USDA Rural Development    

Imagine a future where America is powered by reliable, sustainable and cleaner fuel supplies that also generate new, middle-class jobs and ultimately strengthen our economy.  At the United States Department of Agriculture, we can and do imagine such a future.  That future is much closer to reality in part because of the Obama Administration’s investments, which have nearly doubled renewable energy generation from wind, solar and geothermal sources since 2008, while simultaneously increasing domestic oil and gas production to the highest level in recent history.

If realized, it would be the highest since 1998.

More than 100 participants of the annual Wheat Quality Tour anticipate the 2012 Kansas wheat crop will total 403,933,601 bushels, and average about 49.1 bushels per acre. Those are the findings after two-and-a-half days of criss-crossing the state and making more than 500 field stops along the way.

By Ron Brown
President, Kansas Association of Conservation Districts

The U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee recently approved its version of the 2012 Farm Bill.

In today’s partisan climate where everything seems to turn into a political issue, Senator Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, and the other members of the committee deserve high accolades for their swift, bipartisan passage of a commonsense plan that protects American agriculture while at the same time reducing our nation’s debt by an estimated $23 billion.

Kansas wheat crop more drought stressed in southwest Kansas, harvest could start in three weeks in southern Kansas counties.

The 2012 Wheat Quality Council Hard Red Winter Wheat Tour departed Colby early Tuesday morning with expectations of lower yield predictions than those recorded on Day One. 

Record high potential year noted after day one for the history of the tour.

Over 100 individuals (a record crowd), including representatives from Mexico, Brazil and Japan left Manhattan early Tuesday morning to kick of the 2012 Wheat Quality Council Hard Red Winter Wheat Tour. 

The participants took six routes across the northern half of Kansas to reach Colby Tuesday evening.  In total, 267 field stops were made.

Wheat and More…or less

Soon, custom harvest crews will descend upon Texas to begin a four- to five-month trek of moving north across The Wheat Belt, harvesting the wheat that feeds this nation and many others.

Erick DeWolf, Extension Plant Pathology, K-State

I visited some fields in south central Kansas this week that were sprayed with fungicide about a week ago. The fungicides appear to have stopped the development of stripe rust. The stripe rust lesions were now tan and dry instead of the normal bright yellow color of active stripe rust. This indicates to me that the fungicide had killed the stripe rust fungus and stopped the production of new spores.

Edward Cross          

National energy tax policy is a complex issue.  A number of groups who oppose oil and natural gas development have been conducting information campaigns that confuse the public and policymakers.  In addition, the media appears to have difficulty covering energy tax policy issues in any detailed way.

Grain Girl

Plans to cut income taxes in Kansas shifts burden to farmers and ranchers

The Tea Party has swept across politics like a prairie fire and seems to be gaining even more momentum in a volatile election year. Here in Kansas, Gov. Sam Brownback is making an example of what a Tea Party nation would look like with draconian spending cuts. But he’s not stopping at spending. He has also proposed eliminating income taxes for small businesses and reducing personal income tax to stimulate economic growth – a plan that he hopes will lead to complete elimination of income taxes altogether in Kansas.