Pot of Gold? Wheat Harvest 2026

Photo taken Saturday night - June 13, 2026

 

It's not a year when the wheat crop is like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. But the sun has set on the 2026 wheat harvest. 

June 4, 2026

As my brother aptly described of his harvest in Pratt County, "Wheat 2026 is in the bin. Just didn’t fill the bin."

We don't have the final figures in. The Millers have the wheat custom cut by Frederick Harvesting out of Alden. They started cutting on us last Thursday and finished on Saturday. We are always amazed at how quickly it goes when a custom crew is involved. Back when we were farming full-time, it took a minimum of 10 days to get everything cut ourselves. It often stretched out further with weather delays and breakdowns.

You can barely see the third combine in the dust behind the grain cart.

 

But, when there are three combines in the field with 40-foot headers, things go quickly. (The one combine we owned at the end of our active farming (2022) was 35 feet. Randy says he thought that was big at the time.) 

With a custom crew racing on to the next customer's fields, you often don't get the scale tickets immediately, so we don't have the yield-per-acre numbers yet. 

But it was a year when we didn't get timely rains during the time when the wheat heads were filling, so we knew it wouldn't be a "pot of gold" year for our golden crop. It was a dry winter in our area. Until two weeks ago, we were in a swath of Central Kansas in extreme drought. Now, we're in an area classified as severe drought. 

Randy rode along with one of the combine operators a few times. Saturday morning, we spent quite awhile just watching the action.

Two combines were cutting during most of the time we were there, with a third broken down. 

But they eventually got it running, too, taking even bigger swaths through the fields. 

We were glad they got to our fields when they did. Weeds were starting to emerge, brought on by June rains. Those rains weren't beneficial to the wheat, but it was extremely helpful to alfalfa fields, pastures and fall crops. 

Still, we anticipate that the yields will be a little higher than we initially predicted. 

But time - and those scale tickets - will tell.

Speaking of pots of gold: Our neighbor Gary called us Saturday night and asked if we'd seen the double rainbow to the east. Our house is surrounded by trees, so we had not. But with his call, we hurriedly put on shoes and went down the road for a better view.

And what a view it was! 

 We had never seen a double rainbow that lasted so long and was so vivid. What a treat!

 We watched until the clouds swallowed up the rainbow.

 The photos don't do it justice. What a blessing to see an unobstructed view!

What? No Photos? Wheat Harvest 2024

All photos in this post are by Randy.

It seems like sacrilege, but I didn't take a single photo of our 2024 Wheat Harvest. We've been married (and farm partners) for 43 years. I know I was also around for the harvest before we got married. So, for 44 years, I'd documented wheat harvest on the County Line with photos. As a farm daughter and wheat truck driver growing up on a farm in Pratt County, I also took my share of wheat photos there.

Before retirement, I took dozens - maybe hundreds - each harvest. So it was definitely a weird feeling to know that I'd missed the whole thing. (I had a good excuse. My dad was in the hospital at the time. He's doing much better now.)

I told Randy that if he wanted photos of this year's harvest, he was going to have to pull the phone out of his pocket. He complied.

This year, the Millers opted to plant less wheat on our ground in an effort to combat rye. Only 15 percent of our owned ground was planted to wheat this year. In years past, it was closer to 50 percent. 

Plus, they hire their wheat cut by custom cutters, Frederick Harvesting and Trucking, based at Alden. So the whole process goes much more quickly than when we were combining and trucking the majority of it ourselves. Two combines and a grain cart pulled into the first field the afternoon of June 12. They moved locations and were totally done by about 10 PM that night. 

And there was another factor: The continuing drought certainly didn't produce a bumper crop. However, it was much better than we anticipated after an extremely dry fall, winter and early spring. 

We got the totals yesterday. As I said, we didn't have a lot of wheat planted on our ground this year. One field (which we refer to as Peace Creek) made 33 bushels to the acre. At our other field (Tretbar), the yield was 41 bu/acre. That gave an overall average of 37.8 bu/acre for this harvest. 

I got several texts from Randy that day as he rode in the combine with one of the custom harvesters. The newer John Deere combines had all the bells and whistles. The combine driver could even control the speed of the grain cart tractor from his machine. The grain cart showed how many pounds they were offloading from the combine. And, of course, Randy was watching the grain yield monitor about as closely as he did back when he was in the driver's seat. 

There are aspects of wheat harvest Randy misses. It was always his favorite time of the year. That is, UNTIL we had a breakdown. 

 

So when he sent this photo of the custom cutting crew making repairs, he said. "I don't miss this part." 

Nope, me neither. Though maybe I am missing my friends at the parts counter. On second thought, that's OK.

Harvest from the Sidelines

 

I was an all-star bench sitter during my not-so-illustrious high school sports career. I wasn't known for my fabulous shooting or skillful ball handling. I was the girl who sang The Star Spangled Banner in my basketball uniform. That was the most action I got during a basketball game.

So I'm used to life on the sidelines - at least, in some things. But sideline sitting during wheat harvest is a foreign concept. From the time I was old enough to operate a stick shift and reach the pedals, I'd had some kind of job during wheat harvest. For Randy, it was the same. 

It is definitely a different feeling to sit and watch custom cutters chomp through the wheat on our ground. Four huge combines, a grain cart and a couple of semis can get things done quickly! Tye and Todd, who farm our ground, hired Frederick Harvesting out of Alden to cut our wheat, along with their own and that of other landlords. In about an hour, they had already cut one 65-acre patch and were moving onto the next field.

Later in the day, I was hoping for some sunset photos in our 80-acre field south of our house. But even with a quick supper break thrown in, they were in and out in a little more than an hour - well before the sun was starting to set.

"So, any regrets?" I asked Randy about our August 14, 2022, retirement as we sat there trying to watch the action through the heavy dust that's part of this sub-par, drought-impacted crop. 

"No," he said, admitting that the poor crop made it a little easier for the transition. (Not that either of us wished for a poor crop. That's just the card Mother Nature dealt this year in much of Kansas.)

We later drove by a combine stopped while its operator unplugged his header. Weeds in the thin wheat had likely plugged it up. 

"Well, I don't think I'll volunteer to help him with that," my farmer said as we drove by in our air-conditioned pickup with the windows closed tight to avoid the itchy dust.

Since I began blogging in 2010, I have kept track of the start date for wheat harvest. 

2010:  June 18
2011:  June 10
2012:  May 26 (an anomaly and the earliest harvest, by far, we've ever had)
2013:  June 21
2014:  June 17
2015:  June 20
2016:  June 15
2017:  June 12
2018: June 12
2019: June 26
2020: June 16

2021: June 17

2022: June 13

2023: June 28 

It was late this year. After months of no rain, we've had some moisture in the past few weeks. The rain was too late to help the yield very much. But it did give a boost to weeds which were able to thrive and make for an even more challenging harvest.  

We don't have information about yields or anything else at this point.

And even though Randy says he doesn't have any regrets about his decision to retire, he made multiple trips to the field to watch the progress. OK ... so did I.

And when they drove through the yard to get to their next field, Randy walked out to catch a ride.

Once a farmer, always a farmer.

Wheat's Nine Lives

You know the old cliche, "Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day."?

Unless you're planning an outside wedding in Kansas, no one is buying into that sentiment. (And, if you're planning an outside wedding in Kansas in early March, what do you expect anyway?)

We got about 0.80 inches of moisture about a week ago. While we appreciate every drop, it didn't do much to alleviate the drought conditions in the Wheat State.

However, right now, Kansas' wheat farmers are wondering if there will be much of a 2023 crop this summer at all. Tye, who took over our farm ground after last year's harvest, called Randy after touring wheat ground over the weekend. So we went out for our own perusal.

It's not looking good. But Tye is not alone. The National Ag Statistics services released an update on crop conditions for the week ending February 26. The winter wheat condition is rated:

25 percent very poor

26 percent poor

30 percent fair

17 percent good 

2 percent excellent

 

There is certainly not 2 percent excellent in our part of the state.

 

It varies from field to field, too. What we call the "home quarter" (directly above) looks better than the 80 acres south of our house (photo earlier in this post).

In our area, we are ranked at in the D3 or extreme drought category. My childhood farm in Pratt County is even worse - ranked in D4 or exceptional drought category, along with most of western Kansas. Only the northeast portion of the state is without drought conditions.

Graphic from Kansas Wheat

The USDA's Ag Statistics says that subsoil moisture supplies are rated 46 percent very short, 32 percent short, 22 percent adequate and 1 percent surplus. 

“You never want to count a wheat crop out; we talk about it being the crop with nine lives,” said Jeanne Falk Jones, a multi-county specialist with K-State’s Northwest Research-Extension center in Colby in a news release from K-State Research and Extension. “But some would say we ran through a few of those lives trying to get to this point in the growing season.”

Much of the Kansas wheat crop was planted last fall in extremely dry conditions, creating variability in wheat stands in the late fall and into this spring. With limited rain and snow fall this winter, those dry conditions haven't changed.

In the past year, precipitation in Kansas was about 10 inches below normal.

At this point, wheat is in a dormant period. Last week's rain did help green up some fields, but time will tell whether it can recover enough to harvest. 

Tye - like most farmers - is trying to weigh the options. Should fertilizer be applied when the outlook looks sparse? If you apply a herbicide, it reduces the options of what you could plant after a crop failure. So, what's the best management decision?

A crystal ball would be helpful in farming. So would some rain. 

Kansas is the nation’s leading wheat producer, known for hard red winter wheat that is used for whole grain white bread and other whole grain products. According to the Kansas Department of Agriculture, the state’s growers harvested 7 million acres with an average yield of 52 bushels per acre in 2021. This accounted for 10.4% of the state’s total agricultural receipts and 22.1% of the nation’s crop.

KDA estimates the direct impact of wheat production in Kansas at $1.3 billion in output and 3,231 jobs.

Weekly crop reports from USDA Ag Statistics begin this week as the countdown begins toward wheat harvest 2023. At least, we hope there's a 2023 wheat harvest.  

Harvest 2022

 

And So Begins the End: Wheat Harvest 2022

Flag Day sunrise, June 14, 2022

And so begins the end.

We began our 2022 Wheat Harvest last evening about 6:15. It won't be a banner year when it comes to wheat yield. That happened last year. But it is a banner year for another reason: It's our final wheat harvest as active farmers. 

Harvest begins, June 13, 2022

I rode along last evening. I'm sure there will be plenty of other rides during this harvest season.

I have a record of our start dates since 2010 because that's when I started blogging:

2010:  June 18
2011:  June 10
2012:  May 26 (an anomaly and the earliest harvest, by far, we've ever had)
2013:  June 21
2014:  June 17
2015:  June 20
2016:  June 15
2017:  June 12
2018: June 12
2019: June 26
2020: June 16

2021: June 17

2022: June 13

 

As I came into the house last night, I saw on my family birthday calendar that today (June 14) is Flag Day. So I went to the wheat field to get some shots this morning.

 

The wind was already gusting mightily at 6:15 in the morning. It's going to be a windy day!

 

 

 

I had trouble keeping the flag flat even when it was lying on the wheat! (I like a rippling flag anyway.) 

I guess I bookended our night and day because I'd taken some sunset photos last night.

I've told a few friends this, but I guess you're my friends, too. But it almost feels like people expect us to apologize or offer explanations for our decision to retire. 

"You're retiring!? Farmers don't retire!" I've heard it from more than one person.

Well, we are. And I can't deny that there are bittersweet feelings about this being our final wheat harvest with "boots on the ground," so to speak. But we are at peace with the decision. Yesterday, Randy found out the truck driver that had said he'd drive won't be coming. This morning, there's a low tire on the semi trailer. (It's taking awhile to fill a truck this year because yields are lower after our dry winter and spring, so I guess there will be fewer truckloads going to the elevator anyway.)

Last evening, as we traveled east to west across the waving wheat field gobbling up yet another header-full of wheat, Randy said, "Well, I won't miss scooping out wheat from the bin to get it cleaned for seed wheat this summer." And I won't miss being up in the tractor cab, running the PTO, hoping he wasn't getting heat stroke inside that hot metal bin.

But, on this Flag Day - and every day - we are proud that we have been part of the American fabric - the American farmer. 

This morning, a Facebook memory came up from five years ago. A friend at church had given me a bookmark that had been produced years ago by the Kansas Wheat Commission. I then put my own photos along the side for an illustration. 

I still feel the same way about wheat. And I probably always will - whether I'm in the truck cab or the combine cab or just viewing the action from my dusty dirt road. 

 

Family Affair: Wheat Harvest 2021

 

The family photo may not tell the whole story.

Still, I'm thankful that Randy orchestrated an impromptu snapshot with our special visitors last weekend. (Thanks to our truck driver, Charlie, who snapped the photos before taking off to Zenith to deliver another load of wheat.)

Brent and I had just come back from a circuitous parts run to Hutchinson and then Pratt ... with no success - but we didn't know that at the time. The little girls and Jill climbed out of the combine cab with Randy, looking like a Kansas farm version of the classic clowns-in-a-tiny-car skit. And Eric and Susan were back at the house, carrying in and cleaning up the supper remnants. I had the basic components ready to go before I took off on the parts run, but all the girls helped put together the southwest chicken wraps, gather the pop and pack fruit, homemade cookies and chips into brown paper bags that Kinley illustrated.

Grandpa & Kinley with his wheat stalk decorated bag.

As it seemed all weekend, I had to rely on everyone else to supply the photographic evidence. (Kinley decorated bags for everyone, but Randy's was the only one that got a photo that night. She supplied some additional decorated bags, which she left behind after their whirlwind weekend here. Usually, the guys just get plain ol' coolers from me. These were custom-designed with individuals' interests in mind.

 It was Susan's first foray into the world of wheat harvesting. 

And, in true farm fashion, we had more than our share of breakdowns. (It's more "real" than reality TV this harvest. In fact, this selfie was taken just after Brent & Susan arrived ... just as the first breakdown occurred. It's inevitable, it seems.)

It may have been the first photos of Susan in a wheat field, but the rest of us are well-versed in such snapshots.

This was Jill's first harvest photo, circa 1986. It has been a few years between then and now:

 And here's Brent first foray into the wheat field. He was all of about 5 weeks old.

Suppertime in the field has been part of my kids' experience for a lifetime.

But they are certainly not the first ones in the family to hop up onto the cab for a photo-op. Randy and I have both been involved in wheat harvest our entire lives - me growing up on a farm in northern Pratt County and Randy just down the road from where we were cutting that day.  

 

My Dad had me helping at about age 12, when I began moving the grain truck in the field. It was my prelude to being ready to drive the truck to the Iuka Co-op once I was legal.

Jill was one of our truck drivers when she was in high school.
I was always looking for the shade, but not Jill!

I couldn't find a photo of Randy in a wheat field when he was really little, but I did find one when he was a junior in high school.

This wheat field was part of his FFA project, and the cutline says: "I am pictured here in my wheat field. The wheat has been freeze-burned by recent cold weather."

I always display this photo with his dad at harvest time. It was one of Melvin's final harvests.

But even the girls aren't strangers to wheat field photo shoots. 

2017 - I wrote and illustrated a book for the girls after that harvest.

2017 - a trip to Zenith in the semi, Brooke looks so little!

I can't believe how much they've changed. Now they motor up the combine steps like old pros.

While we mark their height on a decorative measuring sticks in our dining room as an "official" measure, we also reenact wheat field shots each year:

2021

Compared to

2020

And a photo from Uncle Brent for good measure.

Randy was smiling in this shot Jill took on their first ride of the weekend.

 

(He's not smiling quite as much as the breakdowns keep piling up. And, yes, we had the combine in the shop this past winter, trying to find the problems before they started ... and had the bill to go with it!)

Wheat isn't the only attraction during a trip to Grandma's and Grandpa's farm. So are the cats, though we couldn't supply any baby kittens this time. Big Cat had to suffice.

The girls again fed grape jelly to the orioles.

And the weekend warriors also checked out the new swimming pool in Stafford.

I only took a few of the photos myself (including the one of the girls in the field after our family snapshot.) Every time someone went out the door, I'd say, "Take pictures." Thankfully, they listened.

I know I'll be thankful to be able to look back on those photos in future years as the girls grow and change - just like I am to see the snapshots of our long-ago days growing up on Kansas farms. 

My blog also gives me a way to look in the rearview mirror and do a little comparison. I started blogging in 2010, so I have a handy way to research the beginning date for our harvest for the past 11 years:

2010:  June 18

2011:  June 10

2012:  May 26 (an anomaly and the earliest harvest, by far, we've ever had)

2013:  June 21

2014:  June 17

2015:  June 20

2016:  June 15

2017:  June 12

2018: June 12

2019: June 26

2020: June 16

2021: June 17

 

At the rate we're going, I hate to venture a guess as to when harvest will conclude. The extra helpers have left, but I'm still around 'til the bitter end.

At least, the view's pretty.