Areas of southwest Kansas missed out on much of the rainfall moving across the state and are still suffering due to drought conditions. According to a release from Kansas Wheat, a cooperative organization consisting of the Kansas Wheat Commission and the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers, much of southwest Kansas has gone nearly 300 days without an inch of precipitation. Annual average rainfall is about 12” in southwest Kansas, and much of the area has seen about 1/3 of that over the past year and less than an inch since wheat was planted in the fall.
Kansas Wheat says crop adjusters in several southwest Kansas counties are dropping bushels per acre estimations and saying very little wheat from the area will make it to harvest. The Wheat Quality Council will host the Hard Winter Wheat Tour May 16-19. Participants will scout fields from Manhattan to Colby to Wichita and back to Manhattan. Anyone interested can follow #wheattour22 on Twitter to see what conditions they see across Kansas, southern Nebraska and northern Oklahoma.
