Local wheat harvest possibly best in history

PALISADE, Neb. -- The wheat harvest in Hitchcock and Red Willow counties is off to a sensational start, with early yields ranging from 60 to 110 bushels an acre.

Those kinds of yields -- if they continue -- could make the 2016 wheat harvest the most productive in Southwest Nebraska history.

"The wheat has been not only been good, it has been very, very good," said Randy Peters, the owner of Randy Peters Seed Farm Inc. The same exact sentiment was expressed by Kathy Humphrey, the Palisade location manager for Frenchman Valley Co-Op. Kathy, who also serves as one of Frenchman Valley's grain originators, said yields of between 60 to 100 bushels have been arriving steadily at the Palisade location for the past week. "The rains have been giving the growers' fits, with rain and occasional hail hurting some of the fields, but the heart of the harvest is still a few days' away."

While the storm damage has been costly and gut-wrenching right before harvest, the recent Hitchcock and Red Willow storms have been far less damaging than the vicious hailstorms which slashed through northern Chase and southern Perkins counties, near Venango, last week.

The Southwest Nebraska and Northwest Kansas fields of gold which escaped storm damage have been a beautiful sight to behold, with passers-by marveling at the amber waves of grain in the Golden Plains of America. Not only is the wheat bountiful, it is also weighty, with Kathy Humphrey and Randy Peters both saying that test weights are ranging from 60 to 63 or 64 pounds per bushel.

As wonderful as the wheat yields have been, however, the news is diminished because of the plunging price of grain.

"The last time I looked," Kathy Humphrey said Thursday morning, "the price had fallen to $3.07 per bushel for the hard red winter wheat marked for delivery in June and July." If the low prices continue, Randy Peters says area wheat growers will be more than $2.50 below the price they would need to break even.

On the Kansas side of the border, the harvest is rapidly speeding to a conclusion with harvest moving steadily through the Jayhawk State, culminating in the last few weeks in the northern tier of counties, including Norton, Decatur, Rawlins and Cheyenne in Northwestern Kansas.

According to the U.S. Wheat Associates' weekly reports, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's NASS pegs the 2016 crop at 393.6 million bushels, with an average yield of 48 bushels per acre.If realized as expected, this would be the highest production since 2003, when Kansas produced a record crop.

The only reason this year's crop is not at record levels is decreased acreage, the U.S. Wheat Associates said.