October 19, 2022
Despite continued drought and delays in fieldwork and fertilizer delivery, Kansas producers are no strangers to dusting in the next year’s wheat crop — planting behind failed fall crops, capitalizing on the smallest increments of rainfall and keeping their faith in the seeds going into the ground.
“There’s lots to worry about, and I haven’t figured out how I can affect any of it,” says Mike McClellan, who farms near Palco in Rooks County.
McClellan is just starting to plant wheat in mid-October. Everything seems to be behind this fall — a welcome little bit of rain last week greened the soybeans back up, delaying harvest and the drought’s impact on the Mississippi River, making it hard to obtain needed fertilizer. He is trying to prepurchase fertilizer and diesel, but admits the totality of the drought, delays and increased input costs make him nervous.
Tough outlook
USDA’s recent summary of the 2022 wheat crop was also not encouraging. In the Small Grains 2022 Summary released on Sept. 30, USDA slashed Kansas wheat production to 244.2 million bushels, compared with 364 million bushels last year. As a result of the persistent drought, USDA reported 700,000 acres were planted to wheat but not harvested, and yields plummeted to an average of 37 bushels per acre, well below 52 bushels per acre in 2021 and 45 bushels per acre in 2020.
And McClellan isn’t the only one feeling the effects of a delayed fieldwork at the start of this year’s growing season. For the week ending Oct. 9, the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service reported half of the Kansas wheat crop has been planted, slightly behind the five-year average of 54%. Emergence, however, remains well behind at 19%, compared to 29% last year and 31% for the five-year average.
Little bit of hope
Brian Linin is one whose wheat has started to come up near Goodland, and he’s excited that he might get a good stand. After initially completing planting on his summer fallow ground last week, his crew noticed a field of not-so-great corn was a little wet following a rain a week ago, so he hopped back in the tractor and planted it to wheat.