That's All, Folks!: Wheat Stats 2015

It may not be in the Farmers Almanac, but the guys at the coffee shop will proclaim it:  Wheat has nine lives.

That was certainly the case for our 2015 wheat crop. When all was said and done, our 2015 wheat crop averaged 50 bushels per acre. Our high was 70 bushels per acre, and our low was 36 bushels per acre.

We began planting the 2015 crop on Monday, September 22, 2014, and sowed 1,355 acres. We had a dry fall and little snow this winter, leaving the wheat looking for moisture this spring as it "woke" from its winter "sleep." As I wrote in April, it was "height-challenged" because of dry conditions, and, at that time, we didn't think the late spring rain would make a difference. But it did. More rains in May helped fill the wheat heads.

This year, we started harvest on June 20, and, after some machinery hiccups, had a good run. We got rain and didn't cut at all on June 26. When the end was in sight, our combine went down. Thankfully, our neighbor, Gary, was able to harvest the last 40 acres for us with his machine, and the last loads of wheat went over the Kanza Co-op scales on July 1.

We also had a custom cutter harvest 355 acres north of Stafford, and we didn't have the numbers from him until yesterday. Then, Randy was finally able to figure the statistics of Wheat Harvest 2015.

So how does our 50 bushels per acre average this year stack up? Last year, Harvest 2014, was not a good year, and we averaged 24.5 bushels per acre. Our best year ever was 2013, when we averaged 52 bushels per acre, despite planting into dust and several late freezes.

As the sun sets on our 2015 crop, we're thankful for God's blessing of a bountiful harvest. And, in late September, the journey will begin again with planting the 2016 crop. Such is the circle of life on a Kansas farm.