First loads of wheat arrive; so far, so good

Todd Koetter makes an adjustment on a combine head the first day of harvest in his wheatfield north of McCook on Wednesday. It was too early to pass judgment on this year’s yields, other than to say he didn’t think the snowstorm at the end of April hurt the crop much — other than requiring a longer time to dry sufficiently for harvest.

Bruce Crosby/McCook Gazette

MPERIAL, Neb. — Good test weights and decent protein reports are reported as the first loads of wheat start arriving at grain elevators in Southwest Nebraska.

Kyle Sorensen, vice president of grain for Frenchman Valley Farmers Co-op, said Wednesday that harvest activity is under way in Dundy, Chase, Hitchcock and Red Willow counties, and — weather permitting — the cutting pace will pick up in the days to come.

“So far,” Sorensen said, “protein rates look to be a little better than last year.”

Reports from the Frenchman Valley grain clerks from McCook and Culbertson, Virginia Fickle and Lacey Daniels, place protein content in the 10.5 to 12.5 percentage range, with test weights coming in at over 60 pounds.

The very first loads of wheat arrived last Thursday, June 22, in Southwest Nebraska, but since then the harvesting has been spotty, with a scattering of truckloads of wheat arriving at the area elevators.

At this point, bushels per acre are harder to gauge because of the limited volume, the grain observers said.

Historically, the wheat harvest in the Golden Plains of Southwest Nebraska and Northwest Kansas reaches its peak in and around the Fourth of July, and Harvest 2017 looks like it will again follow that trend.