Day one of the Wheat Quality Council wheat tour is in the books- and the crop scouts saw a wide variety of crop conditions- from really good looking wheat like that seen above- to wheat fields struggling with freeze damage, drought issues, stripe rust, wheat streak mosaic and more.
Oklahoma Wheat Grower President Dennis Schoenhals is participating in the tour- traveling by car from Manhattan to Colby on Day One- Colby to Wichita on Day two and Wichita to Manhattan for the wrap up of the tour on Day three.
Schoenhals and Oklahoma Farm Report’s Ron Hays talked on Monday evening after the report session in Colby and you can hear their conversation by clicking on the Listen Bar below:
Dennis Schoenhals tells Hays that the Day One totals come from 206 stops by the cars on the tour with an average yield of 49.9 bushel per acre– well above the 29.8 bushels per acre found on the same Manhattan to Colby set of routes. He says the low reported by any car was 10 bushels per acre and the high for some irrigated wheat was 112 bushels per acre.
He adds that across areas of Kansas where it was common to see many fields in the 20s last May- here in 2024 those same locations were predicted to make 50-60 and even 70 bushels per acre. The wheat is expected to yield strong despite the problems of freeze and drought damage- as well as lots of disease pressure.
Schoenhals shared several pictures of some of the wheat fields with various levels of stress- including the one below taken west of Highway 281 that had white heads reflecting freeze damage:
Schoenhals and the team he was riding with also saw their share of drought damage:
Day two of the tour will head south out of Colby with some cars heading south to Dodge City and then eastward into south central Kansas before stopping in Wichita for the day two report session.
In the case of the route that Dennis Schoenhals will be a part of- they will continue south out of the Dodge City area- cross over into Oklahoma and turn eastward on US 60- travel across northern Oklahoma before turning north to arrive in Wichita Wednesday late afternoon.
