Kansas farmers greeted with high costs, record sales prices and below average yields with 2022 wheat harvest.
Driving around southern Kansas this week, you may see farmers out in the fields, cutting down their wheat. For many in the region, like Kent Ott, they got started in just the last few days.
Ott says at first, he was worried about this year’s wheat crop because of a dry winter but thanks to some rain in the last few weeks, its rebounded nicely. "The crop is better than we expected.”
Ott has been lucky with his yields compared to other parts of the state. According to Marsha Boswell with Kansas Wheat, many farmers are seeing below to severely below average yields.
"In some of these fields in southwest Kansas, where it's only yielding 10 to 15 bushels per acre, I know that that is really affecting morale."
But there is some good news according to Boswell, "quantity is down from an average year, but that quality is excellent.”
When farmers finish harvesting their fields, many will be seeing something that Ott says he's never experienced. "It's the highest price we've ever seen for wheat.”
While sale prices are at an all-time high, thanks in part to a larger global demand due to the war in Ukraine, Ott says it only balances out the much higher than average costs to get this year's crop planted. “The challenge for this year has been the high cost of inputs, you know from the get go fertilizer has been incredibly high. It's more than double in some places." He adds that "The diesel keeps climbing and climbing and climbing, so fuel costs is an issue. It's just not that, it's just every cost repair cost every time you go, buy or repair, the cost is higher, if they have it.”
Ott says it’s all a about balancing costs and sales but he's confident that they'll be able to pull off a profit.