Rain halts wheat harvest
Quality is good, say elevator managers
Area farmers were busy Saturday combining wheat, but rain that night brought a halt to the harvest. Rain amounts varied from .60 at Tampa to three and one-half inches around Marion.
The extremely dry soil quickly absorbed the moisture, and two days of sunshine and strong, warm winds allowed farmers to get back into the fields Monday.
Harvest was in full swing throughout the area, but once again Mother Nature put a stop to it. Rain amounts overnight Monday varied from two and one-half inches at Lincolnville to .80 at Peabody.
According to elevator managers, Monday was a good harvest day. The wheat was dry and weights were above the standard 60 pounds per bushel.
"Monday surprised everybody," said Mike Thomas, manager at Cooperative Grain and Supply at Marion. "The ground carried and moisture was low."
He said the elevator took in more than 200 loads of wheat and more than 80,000 bushels.
At Tampa, harvest was just getting underway when the rains came, according to Agri-Producers manager Stan Utting.
At Lincolnville, manager Perry Gutsch said the elevator took in 180-190,000 bushels Monday, as farmers worked late to harvest as much wheat as possible.
Bryan Harper at Mid-Kansas Cooperative in Florence said the elevator received between 20-25,000 bushels of wheat Monday.
"It was the best day we've had so far," he said.
In the Burns area, combines got rolling in the afternoon Monday after an inch of rain Saturday night, according to elevator manager Herb Gaines. Another inch was received Monday night.
"We just got started," he said.
Mid-Kansas Co-op at Peabody received its first load on June 8, but harvest didn't get into full swing until Monday, said manager Chris Bielefeld. The elevator took in about 36,000 bushels.
"It's kind of discouraging," he said.
Ricky Roberts, KSU extension agent in Marion County, is concerned the quality of the wheat will suffer and yields will fall if rain continues.
He said rain makes the harvest more difficult. Wheat stalks can lay down or break over and fields are muddied.
"When the crop is ready, we need to get it in the bin," he said. "Ideally, the rain would have held off one more week, and then it would have gotten really wet. It's not necessarily a good thing, but we needed it badly, and we'll have to work around it."
