6/29/2009

Based on what she can see Joan Pool would call this a good wheat harvest.
The Phillips Seed Farms office manager in Tescott has watched the company’s grain elevator overfill with the crop that has far exceeded predictions in north-central Kansas.
With the bulk of this year’s wheat harvest expected to wrap up this week, the returns are generally happy.
Most of the 25 to 30 farmers who haul wheat to the Phillips Seed Farms grain elevator “seem pretty pleased,” Pool said.
The elevator normally takes in about 100,000 bushels of wheat, she said. This year, the crop has filled the elevator’s 240,000 bushels of storage space, and another 25,000 bushels have been piled on the ground.
“It’s been really good. I think most of them are running between 50 and 60 bushels (to the acre). I’d say the average is going to be 45 to 50,” she said.
Official results aren’t in, but some have a sense that this harvest will be remembered as better than normal, said Tom Maxwell, of Salina, agricultural agent for Central Kansas Extension District, which covers Saline and Ottawa counties.


Read more about the harvest in Tuesday's Salina Journal.