This summer was Riley Zamrzla’s first wheat harvest as general manager of the Ellsworth Co-op.

Given his background, there weren’t a lot of surprises as the trucks rumbled down Douglas Avenue and across the scales to the pit where customers dumped their wheat.

Zamrzla grew up on a farm and he worked at the grain cooperative for three years before leaving for a job elsewhere and returning to the co-op this past October.

Perhaps the biggest story of this year’s harvest is that yields in some fields are slightly better than expected.

“Some people are a little bit surprised. Some are disappointed. It goes both ways,” Zamrzla said.

The elevator at Ellsworth handled its first load of 2022 wheat on June 16. By Friday, the crop was about 90 percent cut.

Zamrzla said test weights started at 64 and 65 pounds a bushel (the benchmark is 60 pounds) before falling to about 58 pounds following a series of rains several days after harvest started.

Yields have been between 50 bushels an acre down into the 20s and 30s. Zamrzla said 45 bushels is about average.

A hard rain Friday night and into Saturday morning interrupted activity at the co-op’s several locations, which had been remaining open until 10 p.m. or later.

At Kanopolis Sunday, manager Monte Hudson was at work long enough to help a customer dump wheat that had been cut two days earlier.

“Then I’m out of here,” said Hudson, who celebrated his 40th harvest this year at Kanopolis.

He said harvest in his area is about 98 percent finished. No more activity is expected until the uncut wheat dries out, probably Tuesday or later.

The Kanopolis area was drenched by the Friday-Saturday storm. Hudson said he received 5.50 inches of rain at his place four miles east of Kanopolis. Another resident outside of town reported 6 inches in his rain gauge.

As for yields, Hudson estimated as much as 60 bushels an acre on wheat planted on summer fallow ground, 15 to 22 bushels on double cropped acres and between 28 and 40 bushels on continuous cropped fields.

Test weights followed a similar path as those in the Ellsworth area.

They started off well beyond the benchmark and fell into the high 50s after the rains arrived.

Hudson said the elevator handled between 250,000 and 300,000 bushels at the heavier weights and about 125,000 afterwards.

Ellsworth’s Zamrzla said a number of farmers have sold their wheat after watching the cash market for wheat tumble from $12.93 a bushel on May 17 to $8.53 before the markets closed for the July 4 weekend.

“Quite a few are nervous about how fast it’s going down,” he said.