“It’s definitely much-needed moisture,” said Craig Dinkell, crop production agent for K-State Research and Extension. “Weather has been our main factor, going from fall to winter to drought. Drought has been our biggest issue up until now. We’re a little on the late side for moisture. Hopefully we can have an average wheat crop.”

The May 25 meeting, hosted by Midway Extension District No. 15, was intended to be a wheat tour at the K-State Research and Extension plot near Lorraine. It was held, instead, inside the Holyrood Fire Department as steady showers covered the region.

According to K-State’s precipitation totals at the Lorraine station, only a trace amount of moisture was observed during the entire month of April. Rain began to fall at the beginning of May. By May 30, the rainfall total was 21.21 inches, about 10 inches below what is considered accumulated normal.

“We might get slight degradation in our drought designation, but we’ll still be in a drought designation, that’s for sure,” Dinkell said.

The wheat quality isn’t consistent across Ellsworth County, Dinkell said.

“The northern northwest corner is where the better wheat crop is,” he said. “The southern half is where we’re below average.”

Dan Johnson, who farms in the Lorraine/Holyrood area, said it’s been a difficult year.

“The drought really took its toll on this year’s wheat crop. It’s going to be short, it’s going to be thin,” he said. “It’s headed out, the kernels are developing. The kernels should develop nicely now and not shrivel up, so it should be better test weight.”

The purpose of the tour — when it isn’t on rainy days — is for area farmers to be able to visually inspect new varieties of wheat. Allen Fritz, a K-State wheat breeder, ran through about 30 varieties of wheat planted at the test site, which is slightly southwest of Lorraine.

“The dominant thing is how did things respond to drought, a severe situation,” Fritz said. “Hopefully we don’t repeat this every year.”

K-State Research and Extension has test plots

Holyrood — On a rainy Wednesday, nearly two dozen gathered to talk about the state of wheat. around the state, which allows Fritz and his team to asses which varieties could be successful in different regions.

“But don’t let me talk you out of a variety that has been successful for you,” he said.

Varieties discussed included those engineered by K-State, as well as varieties from Colorado State and Oklahoma State, as well as varieties from seed produ ers.

“You like to see what’s new, what’s coming out in the future,” Johnson said. “This plot tour is nice because we have the K-State wheat breeder. If there’s anything to know about wheat, he knows it.

“He’s not just a seed salesman. He knows about the other programs, varieties and compares them all. What they raise in this plot could be grown here, it’s more adapted to this area.”

Johnson’s crops include wheat, milo and soybeans.

“I like hearing about the new variety coming up,” he said. “You’re always looking for the next hot variety coming down the line.”

Fritz said that is the goal of the plot tours. “Doing these tours, we can tell producers what we know,” he said. “I also think it’s valuable to hear from our producers, what their concerns are. It helps me to identify or validate the objectives we have of the breeding program. We always see or hear something new during these tours.”

With wheat harvest approaching this summer, the information gleaned during these visits won’t yield immediate results.

“Ideally, we’re helping producers think through what they want to plant next fall,” Fritz said. “It’s more effective to be looking at (the wheat).”

Also on hand was Kelsey Anderson Onofre, extension wheat plant pathologist specialist. She echoed the concerns over the drought, but said it isn’t all bad news.

“On the disease side of things there is a silver lining. Our big diseases, namely rust, has been very low,” she said. “This year, we’ve had trace or pretty much no levels of stripe rust. Very low levels of leaf rust.”

Often, stripe rust will become evident by April 15.

“This year, even in our monitoring plots, it was low,” Onofre said. “We’ve traveled around the state a bit, both on research trials and plot tours. The theme has been unfortunately drought stress.”

“We might get slight degradation in our drought designation, but we’ll still be in a drought designation, that’s for sure.”

Craig Dinkell crop production agent for K-State Research and Extension