The 2012 winter wheat crop sitting in elevators across Kansas remains the single bright spot in a dismal forecast for the state’s fall-harvested crops.

This year’s wheat was harvested before this summer’s drought took hold in Kansas.

Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service on Friday estimated the state’s wheat crop at 387 million bushels. The estimate is 2 percent lower than the agency’s forecast last month, but is still 40 percent higher than the drought-stricken 2011 wheat crop.

This is the biggest wheat crop in Kansas since 2003.

The agency says the wheat was cut from 9 million acres. That is 1.1 million more acres than harvest a year ago. It is the largest Kansas wheat acreage since 2006.

Yields averaged 43 bushels per acre.