June 24, 2011

Harvesting of the 2011 HRW was slowed this week by cool wet weather and green wheat. Some losses were reported during the past week from severe storms dumping hail in parts of southwest/south central/southeastern Kansas and eastern Colorado. Wheat is now being harvested in north central and northeast Kansas while northwest Kansas continues to be significantly slower to mature due to cooler and wetter weather over the past several weeks.

Texas is now estimated to be 85% complete with harvest with mainly irrigated acres in the Panhandle north of Amarillo remaining to be cut. Oklahoma is 98% complete with harvest; most of the remaining 2% is in the Panhandle and mainly irrigated acres. Colorado should get into the full swing of harvest south of I-70 over the next week with favorable cutting weather. Yields have generally been as expected in Texas and in the southwestern part of Oklahoma, but have been slightly better than expected as harvest moved into the northern half of Oklahoma and southern Kansas.

Average test weights for the 2011 HRW crop continue to be very good remaining well above 61 pounds per bushel with outstanding protein levels (still exceeding 13%). Moisture remains extremely low (as compared to normal crop years) while dockage also remains low and (as was pointed out last week) is probably a result of the very dry conditions during the growing season which did not allow germination of cool season grassy weeds in this crop. Shrunken and broken kernels, while still above last year’s final number, declined significantly this week to 1.5%. Thousand kernel weights, although lower than last year’s final, are good (considering the adverse conditions the crop developed under in the area the 126 samples represent).

Download this Harvest Summary

Harvest Summary
Tst Exp MST Pro% DKG TKW FN Grade Test Weight FM DMG S&B DEF
126 530 10.4 13.1 0.4 27.6 407 1HRW 61.5 80.8 0.2 0.1 1.5 1.8
FINAL 2010
468 final 11.0 11.8 0.6 29.9 401 1HRW 61.0 80.2 0.2 0.3 1.2 1.8

View this PDF for visual test data from the 2009 harvest.