Known as the Wheat State and the breadbasket of the nation, Kansas typically produces more wheat than any other state.
Winter wheat, which is grown in virtually every county, is grazed by about 5.7 million cattle during the fall and spring and allowed to grow and ripen during the summer.
Green fields are turning golden as wheat harvest is just days away. With records of wheat production pre-dating statehood, there are indications that Kansas wheat production began as early as 1839.
The estimated direct impact of the wheat industry is $1.3 billion in output and 3,231 jobs. Including indirect and induced effects, the total impact of the industry on the Kansas economy reaches $2.6 billion in output and 11,087 jobs.
Eight bushels per acre in 1895 may have been the lowest per acre wheat yield in Kansas. Price then was 45 cents a bushel but was 42 cents two years earlier when the average yield was nine bushels per acre.
Kansas farmers planted 8.10 million acres of wheat for the 2023 crop year, up 11 percent from the previous year. Total production was 201.3 million bushels, down 18 percent, with yield per harvested acre at 35 bushels, down 2 bushels from 2022.
Wheat was sowed on 7.5 million acres for the 2024 crop with 7.05 million acres predicted to be harvested, up 1.30 million acres from last year. The crop is forecast at 282 million bushels, up 40 percent with average yield of 40 bushels per acre, up 5 bushels from last year.
The value of Kansas’s wheat production for 2024 is expected to be about $1.51 billion, which is a 29 percent decrease from the previous marketing year. The projected price for Kansas wheat is $7.50 per bushel, a $1.21 decrease from a year earlier.
Cost-of-production for wheat in Kansas this year, according to economists, is forecast to be approximately $416 per acre, which is down 2.3 percent.
Monument, the top-planted variety since 2019, accounts for 6.6 percent of the state’s planted wheat acres.
Kansas wheat is used to make a variety of baked goods, including breads, cereals, crackers, cookies, and pancakes.
Reminded of John 12:24: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit”.
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XVIII–26–6-24-2024
Kansas Is Nation’s Breadbasket
Working Cowboys Getting Ultimate Test At Santa Fe Trail Ranch Rodeo
Top working cowboys and their families from throughout the Midwest have July 5-6 circled on their calendars.
“It’s the annual Santa Fe Trail Ranch Rodeo sanctioned by the Working Ranch Cowboys Association (WRCA),” according to Clay Wilson.
“This year’s competition again sponsored by the Morris County Youth Rodeo Association (MCYRA) will be extra special,” said Wilson, MCYRA president.
“The first ranch rodeo in the state and one of the first in the country was at Council Grove,” Wilson noted.
A number of ranch rodeos throughout the Midwest patterned their competitions after the one at Council Grove.
“In conjunction with our ranch rodeos, we started having a youth ranch rodeo for children of the contestants and other youth,” Wilson said. “This appealed to the community making our rodeo a family affair not just for the adults.”
Due to the attraction of such junior rodeos, now the WRCA is sanctioning youth competitions along with traditional ranch rodeos.
“We are excited to again host one of these WRCA youth ranch rodeos at Council Grove,” Wilson said. “While our regular WRCA competitions are Friday and Saturday evenings, the youth ranch rodeo is Saturday morning, July 6, at 10 o’clock.”
Featured youth events are calf branding, penning, doctoring, and ribbon roping with local ranchers providing that livestock. There will be no admittance fee to attend the youth rodeo with teams still welcome to enter.
A Youth World Championship Ranch Rodeo is during the 29th World Championship Ranch Rodeo in Amarillo, Texas, November 14-17.
“Our youngsters are so important. They are the next generation of our ranching community,” said Shawn Goemmer, WRCA president.
Throughout the year, qualifying youth ranch rodeo events will be geared for youth members 16 years of age and under. “Up to eight WRCA youth ranch teams will compete for the WRCA Youth World Champion title,” Goemmer said.
“Winner of the Santa Fe Trail Youth Ranch Rodeo will be qualified for that prestigious competition,” Wilson pointed out.
At the arena east of Council Grove, four member teams representing 14 ranches have entered the WRCA evening performances at 7 o’clock.
“Top scoring team from both performances qualifies for the WRCA World Championship competition,” Wilson said. “Several winners from previous Santa Fe Trail Ranch Rodeos have gone on to become world champions.”
Ranch bronc riding featuring some of the top bucking horses in the country will kick off each WRCA evening performance.
In a return engagement, OMAK Rodeo Company, owned by Don Reno of Nowata, Oklahoma, is again providing the broncs. The horses are the production of his “Born To Buck” rodeo bronc breeding program.
“These stout bucking horses have been contracted to a dozen top professional rodeos since the spring season began,” Wilson said.
“We are contracting some of our broncs to the famed Cheyenne Frontier Days again this year,” Reno said. “Several of the broncs we have there will also be at this year’s Santa Fe Trail Ranch Rodeo.”
Furthering the exciting colorful Western competition for the working ranch cowboys will be the wild cow milking event.
“This is always an anticipated feature,” Wilson assured. “It’ll be even more exciting for contestants and spectators alike this year.”
A working cowboy, rodeo champion Chris Potter of the Rocking P Cattle Company near Latham. is providing his big, rank, bright-speckled Longhorn cows for the event. “Those stout ornery momma cows will surely test the cowboys’ abilities,” Wilson added.
Additionally, “true to life cowboys’ work on the ranch” featured in the rodeo will be calf branding, stray gathering, and team penning.
“This livestock is provided by local ranchers straight from Flint Hills pastures here in Morris and surrounding counties,” Wilson said.
“The annual rodeo is a community event which wouldn’t be possible without supporters from a wide area. We are especially appreciative of the event sponsors this year,” Wilson emphasized.
They include ranch bronc riding, Hold’em Fence Company and Bachura Automotive; team penning, The Dustie Shelf; calf branding, The Tire Shop; stray gathering, TCT; and wild cow milking, Wishon Excavating.
Concessions by the sponsoring group will be available throughout each rodeo performance.
Additional information for entries and details is available from Wilson at 785-466-1359.
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CUTLINES
From the sidelines to the arena dust, little cowboys and cowgirls are what the Morris County Youth Rodeo Association is all about. They’ll be watching and competing during the Working Ranch Cowboys Association sanctioned rodeo competitions at Council Grove, July 5-6.
Local riders and contestants from throughout the Midwest are expected for the Working Ranch Cowboys Association (WRCA) rodeo at Council Grove Friday and Saturday evenings, July 5-6.
Here they come fresh off the range, OMAK Rodeo Company “Born To Buck” broncs from Nowata, Oklahoma, for the Santa Fe Trail Ranch Rodeo Friday and Saturday evenings, July 5-6, at Council Grove.
A working ranch cowboy, Chris Potter of Latham is providing his big, rank, bright-speckled Longhorn cows for the wild cow milking in the Santa Fe Trail Ranch Rodeo, July 5-6, at Council Grove.
Day 4, Kansas Wheat Harvest Report
This is day 4 of the Kansas Wheat Harvest Reports, brought to you by the Kansas Wheat Commission, Kansas Association of Wheat Growers, Kansas Grain and Feed Association and the Kansas Cooperative Council.
With hot, dry wind blowing sideways, Kansas wheat producers are off and running in full harvest mode. While many growers are pleasantly surprised with better-than-anticipated results, severe hailstorms over Father’s Day weekend sunk the sail for others by mowing down ripened fields.
Officially, the Kansas wheat harvest is 28 percent complete, well ahead of 6 percent complete last year and 8 percent on average, according to the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service crop progress report for the week ending June 16, 2024. Winter wheat conditions were rated at 25 percent poor to very poor, 36 percent fair and 39 percent good to excellent.
Backed by 50 mile-per-hour winds, six producers were steadily cutting around Bucklin in Edwards County on Monday, June 17, according to Josh Schmitt, general manager/CEO of Offerle Coop Grain & Supply Co. After starting on June 6, the area is having a below average harvest, due primarily to a lack of spring moisture. Average yields are between 15 and 20 bushels per acre with the best fields hitting in the high 30s.
“This year, we came out of winter with really good optimism that we would have a pretty good harvest,” Schmitt said. “But the moisture did not come and yields are really seeing that.”
To add insult to injury, two really bad hailstorms mowed down wheat across the elevator’s western territory — particularly in a stretch from north of Bucklin almost to Spearville. This past Saturday’s storms came at almost the same date as a 2020 Father’s Day hailstorm that broke windows and damaged the coop’s Bellefont location.
That Bellefont location typically takes in between 750,000 to 900,000 bushels. But with the drought, the hailstorms and some freeze damage, Schmitt is hoping for between 120,000 and 150,000 bushels delivered before producers finish up cutting around July 1. The wheat that is coming in has good quality with test weights between 57 and 59 pounds per bushel and proteins averaging 13.5 percent.
The great white combine in the sky also ended harvest hopes for some in Ford County, where harvest is in full speed near Wright. But for folks whose fields caught spotty rains and avoided the three or four rounds of hail (more toward Spearville), harvest is looking better than projected in April, according to Blake Connelly, vice president — grain for Alliance Ag & Grain, LLC.
As a result, Connelly reported there is no real consistency in yields, ranging from 15 to 60 bushels per acre, depending on if that field got moisture and missed hail. The wheat is of good quality, however, with test weights between 59 and 62 pounds per bushel and proteins averaging around 12 percent. He expects producers to continue cutting for the next week or so.
Further north in Ellis County, it’s a tale of two wheat crops, according to Eric Werth with the Golden Belt Coop Association. There are fields that germinated in the fall, looked like they would die, but made far enough to receive moisture and fill heads, and then there are fields that didn’t germinate until January or February and are still a week out from being ready to cut.
As a result, harvest has been slow to get going with trucks trickling into the elevator starting on Wednesday, June 12. The coop has received about 100,000 bushels so far, putting the harvest at 10 to 15 percent complete, as producers finish planting their fall milo crop and wait for those later fields to mature. Despite the year’s meteorological challenges, including random rains and some hit-or-miss hail, Werth noted the wheat coming in has good quality at 61.5 pounds per bushel and 11.8 percent moisture, on average. Low-end yields are around 20 bushels per acre with better fields hitting 40 to 50 bushels per acre.
“If we’re surprised this year, it’s on the good side from what we can see today,” Werth said. “From the start of things and with everything that this crop has had thrown at it, we are pleased so far.”
Check back in on Tuesday, June 18, for the next Kansas wheat harvest report as producers work to cut what they can ahead of projected heavy rainstorms.
The 2024 Harvest Reports are brought to you by the Kansas Wheat Commission, Kansas Association of Wheat Growers, Kansas Grain and Feed Association and the Kansas Cooperative Council. To follow along with harvest updates, use #wheatharvest24 on social media. Tag us at @kansaswheat on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to share your harvest story and photos.
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Written by Julia Debes for Kansas Wheat
Wheat Scoop: Kansas Farmer Ron Suppes Passes Leadership Baton at Wheat Foods Council’s Summer Meeting
Contact: Marsha Boswell, [email protected]
For audio version, visit kswheat.com.
From nutritionists with Pizza Hut to the chefs at Yale University to influential personal trainers, Ron Suppes shared his western Kansas farmer savvy to conversations across the grain industry value chain during his time as chairman of the Wheat Foods Council (WFC). In early June, he passed off the leadership baton — just ahead of harvest — during the organization’s annual meeting, but not before he helped facilitate a bit more education on how wheat is developed and grown.
“I really enjoy the ability to talk to different industries connected with wheat,” he said. “It’s not just about wheat farmers, but millers and bakers. You get a really good perspective of what’s going on out there in the industry and I’m able to spread the word about what’s involved with wheat breeding and farming.”
About 30 WFC members attended the summer meeting in Manhattan, Kansas, where the group explored the Kansas Wheat Innovation Center, the Hal Ross Flour Mill and the IGP Institute, along with learning from some of the brightest minds in the global wheat industry about the latest in wheat breeding technologies and genetic studies.
“The meeting was great and well planned out,” Suppes said. “We showcased what we have in Manhattan, and it was very worthwhile. Even for the people who have been there before, every time you go through the north campus complex, you pick up and learn something else. The WFC does try to do that wherever they go — visiting flour mills or seeing new scientific techniques. It’s not all feel good; it’s also education.”
A long-time industry leader, Suppes assumed his role as WFC chairman in June 2023. The organization was established by wheat producers in 1972 to promote the entire category of wheat-based foods, including baked goods, cereal, crackers, pasta, sweet goods and tortillas. Since then, the organization has established itself as a leading source of science-based information on wheat and grain foods nutrition.
Membership is made up of millers, bakers, ingredient suppliers, equipment companies, state wheat commissions and wheat farmers like Suppes. Suppes and his wife Shirley, along with son Shayne, farm roughly 12,000 acres in west central Kansas. Wheat and sorghum make up their primary crops. Suppes has served as a Kansas wheat commissioner since 2003, serving as chairman in 2013-2014, and serves as chairman of the Kansas Wheat Commission Research Foundation.
He has also traveled extensively overseas with U.S. Wheat Associates as a member of the USW Board of Directors, having served as chairman of the wheat industry’s export market development arm from 2007-2008.
The culmination of these experiences combined with his producer frame of mind helped focus his chairman’s agenda of building connections across the entire wheat value chain. That work entails not only connecting with leaders at major restaurant chains or chefs responsible for university food systems, but also committing to a shared mission — providing information and education about the production and nutritional value of wheat.
“The thing I still stress to industry is that we’re all in this together,” Suppes said, reiterating the need to stay involved and for the wheat industry, as a whole, to work together.
At the end of the organization’s time in Manhattan, Suppes turned over the gavel to the next year’s chairman — Kent Juliot with Ardent Mills. While he looks forward to a bit more time in his rocking chair — well, maybe after wheat harvest ends — he said he still plans on staying involved with the WFC as past chairman and with other government and industry committees.
“They’re going to keep me busy,” he said. “And when I’m not doing that, in my spare time, I’m going to try and grow some wheat, too.”
Learn more about the Wheat Foods Council at wheatfoods.org.
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Written by Julia Debes for Kansas Wheat
Shades Of Green
Our problem is we’ve been too nice. The enviromeddlers come at us with some half-baked idiotic theory that cows are destroying the earth one fart at a time and we look down at our feet, hide our face in embarrassment and meekly say, “We’re sorry.” What we should have been doing was yelling at the top of our lungs, “YOU ARE A @#$%^&* IDIOT!”
Next time a hippie/greenie gets in your face start bombarding them with questions like these.
#1- “How many kids have you sired or given birth to?”
If their answer is over two they are the problem, not the answer. Most of our environmental problems could be solved if there were fewer people on earth using up its resources.
#2- “So, let me get this straight. You say the problem is we are producing too much carbon dioxide and too much dihydrogen monoxide and need to decarbonize our environment?”
It’s time to start teaching these overeducated idiots a little chemistry. Carbon dioxide is what humans exhale and plants inhale. To really go green you’d have to get rid of all humans and animals and then there’d be no vegetation left on earth either. As for the dihyrogen dioxide I slipped that in knowing they’re dumber than a block of salt. Dihydrogen monoxide is water.
#3- “Have you eaten any beans or plant-based “meat” lately?”
You have! I’m sure you’re aware that humans pass gas too. In fact, with each gaseous attack the more they are destroying the ozone layer. Also, if a person lights a match or cigarette the possibility exists they might ignite a gas-bomb that could start a fire that could destroy a forest of old growth redwoods. And did you know that you’re plant based meat is made from as many as 31 different ingredients, many of them complex chemicals?
#4- “Have you ever taken a vacation?”
Did you fly on a plane to get to your destination? Did you drive? Either way you were contributing to climate change. Perhaps you despoiled a national park? If you traveled to visit a new grandkid you could have reduced your carbon footprint by using a Zoom call instead.
#5- “Do you have solar panels on your house?”
The minerals used to make them were mined, probably by slave labor in China!
#6- “I notice that shirt your wearing is made from polyester?”
Perhaps you’re unaware that the polyester in your clothes was produced by the same stuff used to make fossil fuels. A better choice would be wool if you’re going to live in harmony with mother earth. Is there any leather in those shoes you’re wearing? They sure look like it. You do know that leather is a by-product of those cows you seem to hate so much?
#7- “Do you own any property or are you a “banana” whose motto is, “Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything?”
If you own property it’s possible you could blocking a natural wilderness corridor thereby contributing to the loss of an endangered species. If you are a trouble-making “banana” you are responsible for the lack of affordable housing thereby creating more homeless people.
#8- “Do you take prescription medicines?”
If so, you do know they were probably tested on animals? Have you ever washed extra or outdated pills down the sink? If so you have contributed to the poisoning of our water supply.
#9- “I can tell that you are a committed environmentalist and that you’re greener than mesquite in April. So I suppose you own and drive an e-car?”
Did you know that 80% of the electricity you use to charge your car was produced by fossil fuels? Oh, you didn’t know that? Next time either walk or ride a bike… and it can’t be an electric one either.
#10- “Do you have a dog or cat?”
Pets fart too, you know. And all those little plastic bags full of poop are filling up our landfills.
