By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

The wheat harvest is moving into the northwestern region of the Kansas.

Reports of harvests “considerably better than most” have been made in Ellis County.

Hays Mayor Eber Phelps is an Ellis County Extension Board Member. The group met Thursday morning where, according to Phelps, K-State Research and Extension Agricultural Agent Stacy Campbell said he had “yield reports of 60 bushels per acre.” Phelps also said he’s “heard–through the rumor mill–reports of as high as 80 bushels an acre.”

Phelps also talked with the weed scientist at the Finney County K-State Agricultural Research Center in Garden City who said “they were getting a lot of 60 to 80 yields in southwest Kansas.”

“Incredible,” said Phelps, “but the wheat prices aren’t where they’d probably like to see them.”

There was also good news in Osborne County, according to the Kansas 2016 Harvest Report.

Osborne’s Midway Coop Association manager Dell Princ reported Monday was their first day of harvest, and farmers are well above target for yields for treated fields.

“Leaving wheat untreated left some acres susceptible to rust,” said Prince. “But the farmers who put fungicide on this spring are seeing that it’s paid off.”

Average yields are ranging from 55-60 bushels an acre. Test weights are averaging around 61 pounds per bushel and protein content is averaging 11.2 percent.

Prince said, “This is by far the biggest harvest we’ve had in a long time. The last few years the wheat had just burned up in the fields.”

The Kansas 2016 Harvest Report is provided by the Kansas Wheat Commission, Kansas Association of Wheat Growers and the Kansas Grain and Feed Association.