BELLE PLAINE, Kan. (AP) — Kansas farmers are projected to harvest 284.4 million bushels of winter wheat this year, industry leaders said Thursday.
The forecast from the annual Wheat Quality Tour, held for the past 50 years by the Wheat Quality Council, came during a virtual wheat tour held via Zoom this week amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Instead of the typical caravan of cars traveling across the state, the group worked with certified crop advisors, extension agents, farmers and others to make observations. It is hosted by Kansas Wheat and K-State Research and Extension, in conjunction with the Kansas Department of Agriculture and others in the industry.
The group’s forecast pegged the anticipated wheat yield in Kansas this year at 44.5 bushels per acre.
Their more modest forecast comes just days after the U.S. Agriculture Department issued its forecast of 306 million bushels for the Kansas wheat crop, with an average yield of 47 bushels per acre.