No, the KWIC was christened the way wheat farmers would want it to be: with an 8-foot loaf of bread.

Inside the KWIC is the Syngenta “Speak for Wheat” Test Kitchen, which is outfitted with a commercial oven. But it’s not near big enough to bake a loaf that large in size.

For that, we had to turn to our friends at AIB International, a Manhattan-based company that teaches bakery science courses and conducts food safety audits.

We consulted with Aaron Clanton, baking curriculum manager at AIB International, to see whether his firm could create a) the recipe and b) the bread itself.

It’s not any secret formula or anything; Clanton said he and his colleagues used a simple wheat bread recipe, but tailored it for four, eight-foot loaves. The formula used a total of 30 pounds of white wheat flour. That is about 7.5 pounds of flour per loaf, or one-and-a-half bags of flour from your local grocery store.

“We took the dough and cut it into 18, 9-ounce pieces, which we turned into ropes,” he explained. “AIB has a French baguette molder. I was running the ropes though the molder, and my colleague Jeff Zeak used a triple braid to braid each loaf.”

The loaves were proofed on 9-foot boards, then placed in the oven to bake for 20 minutes at 450 degrees. Yes, AIB has ovens that can handle loaves this size.

Visitors to the Kansas Wheat Innovation Center Open House were impressed that the Kansas Wheat Commission used a loaf of bread to commemorate the building’s grand opening. It’s not the first time that’s happened, however. When the KWC moved to Manhattan in 1984, the commissioners consecrated their first building on Claflin Ave. with an oversized loaf of bread, also.

“A number of people told us that it was quite fitting to have a bread cutting, rather than a ribbon cutting,” says Cindy Falk, KWC nutrition educator. “People were amazed to see a loaf this large.”

The KWC used two loaves at the Open House; both were eventually served to more than 350 guests.

Click to view slideshow.

The results are in, and the 2013 Winter Wheat Tour participants have pegged the Kansas wheat crop at 313.8 million bushels, well below last year’s actual total of 360 million bushels. And the five year average of 341 million bushels.

Seeing diverse conditions throughout the three-day tour, participants also expect abandonment of 18% of the state’s planted wheat acres, up from the yearly average of about 9% abandonment. Earlier this spring, USDA estimated that Kansas farmers planted 9.3 million acres of wheat last fall. Thus, an 18% abandonment would mean roughly 7.7 million acres of wheat would be harvested in Kansas.

Day 3 of the annual Winter Wheat Tour was met with brutal weather conditions, including the first recorded snowstorm in Kansas I May since 1907.

As such, just 29 field stops were made by tour participants, who traveled from Wichita to Kansas City for the tour wrap-up. Today’s average yield estimate for these fields is 52.3 bushels per acre, and ranged from 28 to 81 bushels per acre. Last year, the Day 3 yield estimate was 57.5 bushels per acre.

In the last three days, 570 field stops were made. The average yield from all those stops is 41.1 bushels per acre, well below last year’s average yield of 49.1 bushels per acre, based on 608 field stops. In 2011, the average yield estimate was 37.4 bushels per acre, from 561 field stops.

During today’s drive, participants were treated to snow and sleet, especially in Marion and Morris counties. Further to the south, along Hwy. 54 in Butler and Greenwood counties and east in Franklin County, the conditions were cold and wet, but there was good wheat to be found.

All the yield estimates from the last three days assume decent moisture and average temperature prospects from now until harvest. The crop is several weeks behind normal in terms of maturity; Monday’s Crop Report from Kansas Ag Statistics indicated that just 1% of the crop has headed out, compared to 70% last year and 19 normal. Cold temperatures like we’ve been having will slow down the wheat crop even more.

This could be the last time the Winter Wheat Tour concludes at the Kansas City Board of Trade building in Kansas City. The CME Group, which bought the KCBOT last year, has put the iconic building up for sale.

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Participants of the second day of the Winter Wheat Tour from Colby to Wichita project the region to produce an average of 37.1 bushels per acre, well off last year’s Winter Wheat Tour two-day estimate of 48.5 bushels per acre.

Today’s results were based on 264 stops.

After near-perfect weather for Day One’s tour, participants were rudely greeted by this morning’s conditions in Colby: cold, 40 mph winds and mist, setting the tone for what would be a largely dismal Day Two.

The wheat crop in western Kansas – largely from Hwy 283 west – is abysmal. A majority of the fields will yield in the single digits; many will not even  be harvested. Irrigated wheat could yield in the 30s at best; a far cry from the normal 70-80 bushels per acre in a normal year. Tour participants had 0 bushel per acre yield counts on a few fields; single digit yields on several others and almost all yield estimates registered no better than the teens. And all of these yields are predicated on good weather conditions between now and harvest.

Drought is the main culprit of the sorry state of this crop. The sprinkles that fell today did nothing to alleviate the long-term drought conditions. Near Winona, in Logan County (NWKS), one farmer has had just six-inches of precipitation the last two years combined! Late season freeze didn’t help the wheat either, and it’s not over yet: freeze is in the forecast for Thursday night/Friday morning.

Fortunately, there is good wheat in the central region. From Hwy. 283 east to Wichita, many of the fields our Wheat Tour participants examined had good plant vigor, healthy heads and yield potential from 50- to 70-bushels per acre or greater.

To put this into perspective, the majority of the Kansas wheat crop is harvested from central Kansas: 53.6%, vs. 36.4% in western Kansas and 10% in eastern Kansas, according to Kansas Ag Statistics. 

At the evening wrap-up session, participants heard a briefing on the Oklahoma crop, expected to total 85.583 million bushels, or 25.45 bushels per acre. That’s well off of last year’s 154.8 million bushels.

Day 3 of the Tour takes participants from Wichita to the Kansas City Board of Trade, where the final tour results will be shared.

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Members of the 2013 Winter Wheat Tour estimated a 43.8 bushel per acre wheat crop for northern and central Kansas, based on 277 car stops on Day One of the three-day tour. It wrapped up in Colby Tuesday night, with the 70-plus tour participants seeing a variety of wheat conditions on the six routes from Manhattan to Colby.

The better wheat – ranging from 50- to 80-bushels per acre – was found in northeast and north central Kansas. As participants crossed Hwy. 183 (from Phillipsburg to Hays) the crop conditions began deteriorating, due to the combination of drought and freeze.

Yield estimates from the day’s stops ranged from 0 bushels per acre to 80 bushels per acre, with the 43.8 bpa average, down from last year’s estimate of 53.4 bushels per acre. (Previous year’s Day One results are: 2011, 40.0 bpa; 2010, 40.7 bpa; 2009, 41.3 bpa; 2008, 45.4 bpa and 2007, 40.0 bpa).

At the Colby stop, estimates for the winter wheat crops in Colorado and Nebraska were shared. Colorado’s crop, estimated at 59.8million bushels,  is down from last year’s production of 73.8 million bushels, and would average 34 bpa average on 2.2 million acres. In Nebraska, there were 1.4 million acres planted, with a yield estimate of 30 bushels per acre for a 42 million bushel total production, off of last year’s 53.5 million bushel total.

Participants of the Winter Wheat Tour, which is sponsored by the Wheat Quality Council, are supposed to stop every 20 miles or so to examine random wheat fields, determining yield potential based on a formula established by the Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service. The formula is based on tiller counts and plant population and when applicable, head size of the wheat plants.

Day 2 of the Tour takes participants from Colby to Wichita.

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With the freezing temperatures last week (plus snow and freeze in the forecast for April 18-19), and drought conditions all season long…just how does your wheat crop look?

If you could take the survey at this link 2013 Wheat Freeze Response, to help us understand the plight of this year’s Hard Red Winter wheat crop conditions, we would appreciate it. The link takes you to an external survey at PollDaddy.com

Your response will stay private.

Thanks!

Freeze damage, drought damage and hail damage were par for the course during a quick tour through central, western and southern Kansas wheat fields April 15-16.

Kansas Wheat Alliance’s Daryl Strouts and I expected to see freeze damage, after temperatures dropped to the teens April 10-11. But freeze was prevalent at just one of our stops, although we know that freeze and/or drought are hammering wheat farms along the Kansas/Oklahoma border in south central and western Kansas, and the western-most counties of Kansas.  

Our tour objective was to find where the northern-most impact of the freeze; the point at which low temperatures combined with advanced plant maturity to cause damage. Our tour also was brief. Had we gone farther west, we would have seen dramatic damage in the southwest corner of Kansas, where there just wasn’t any soil moisture that can help protect the crop in times of freeze.

We went as far west as Meade County.

Father and son team Darwin and Tyler Ediger, who farm about seven miles south and east of Meade, said temperatures dropped to 17 degrees the night of April 10. Wheat here is well past jointing, with the head between three and six inches above-ground. Wheat test plots near the Edigers’ home were not dramatically affected by freeze, but a field of Cedar, seven miles straight south of Meade, was.  Spot checks in the field showed a number of severely damaged plants. With a rain, some of the secondary tillers could produce grain.

The Edigers treat their wheat right. At planting, they use high-quality certified seed that has been coated with protectants against disease and insects, plus added micro-nutrients that combined, help get the crop off to a good start. They apply all the crop’s nitrogen fertilizer needs prior to planting, and if needed, will use a fungicide to protect against diseases in the spring. They don’t till the land, preferring to protect the soil with residue from previous crops. In turn, that prevents soil moisture losses from evapotranspiration.

However, Meade County – like much of western Kansas – is in Year 4 of drought, and farmers here have received about half the annual rainfall of 18-inches each of those years. “Water,” Darwin says, “is our limiting factor.”

At Blasi Seed Farms north of Pratt, Dave Blasi, who farms with his son Jesse, says temperatures dropped to 21 degrees on April 9, and 23 degrees on April 10. Ice covered the wheat plants the first night, followed by nearly an inch-and-a-half of soft, pea-sized hail. Dave says the freeze probably didn’t do as much damage as the hail. Wheat plants still showed signs of healthy growing points and heads. Some leaf tissue was definitely harmed by the extreme weather, though.

The Blasis’ have benefitted from timely rains, and even last week’s hailstorm provided much-needed moisture. Dave Blasi was quick to point out, however, that many neighbors have not been as blessed. South of Pratt, farmers report severe freeze damage, no doubt exacerbated by terribly dry conditions. The same can be said for west and east of his farm.

We have had e-mail reports from farmers and specialists in extreme southern and extreme western Kansas who believe their crops are severely – if not totally – damaged by freeze, and in west central to northwestern Kansas by the combination of cold and drought.

• KAWG President Gary Millershaski, who farms near Lakin in Kearny County, says about 75% of his wheat acres are ruined due to freeze and drought.
• One farmer in Sherman County has written off 90% of his wheat crop.
• A wheat farmer in Logan County tells us the combination of freeze and drought will force him to destroy a good share of his crop. Temperatures plummeted to 15 degrees last week, with wind chills below zero.
• Jeannie Falk, agronomist for K-State’s Sunflower Extension District in six northwest Kansas counties, reports that the growing point on most plants she’s examined is below the soil surface, and not moved into the stem thus protected by the soil from freezing temperatures. Still, the extreme temperatures have likely caused some damage; the extent, however, is not yet known.
• In Grant County, irrigated wheat fields that prior to the freeze appeared to have 100-bushel per acre yield potential, were all but destroyed, according to a regional crop consultant. Growth stage prior to the freeze ranged from the side-tiller (Feekes 5) to main tiller (Feekes 7).

Strouts and I also spot-checked fields near Medicine Lodge, where the crop is way behind schedule; and Harper, where the crop is behind, but otherwise looks to be in good shape. Visits to farms near Yoder, Clearwater and Oxford indicated that the wheat crop is in good condition at this point, although farmers there are somewhat fearful of another round of bitter cold this week. We have another week of growth since the last storm, which could put the crop at greater peril. Still, farmers in these areas are hopeful that a) the cold won’t be as extreme as last week and b) warmth from the soil, plus a protective canopy of leaf tissue, will keep the growing point from freezing.

Wheat is a hardy crop. With good moisture and average temperatures in the next several weeks, we could see at best a fair crop in those parts of the state, with yield coming from secondary tillers. In many of these areas, however, it is hard to be optimistic about rain chances when it has been so dry, for so long.  

Incidentally, Kansas Ag Statistics estimated the wheat crop was 35% jointed as of April 14, below the long-term average of 47%. The crop is rated at 30% good to excellent, 33% poor to very poor and the rest in just fair condition.

Reblogged from World of Wheat:

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On April 4th I toured southwest Oklahoma and surveyed freeze injury to wheat. In my experience, most freeze events are overhyped; however, this one was the real deal Holyfield.  I traveled a route from Faxon to Chattanooga to Altus to Blair and ended up at Apache. Damage was similar at all sites, with injury ranging from 50 to 80%.

The best looking wheat was the hardest hit.

Read more… 320 more words

Wheat in Hamilton County on April 4. Emergence in many areas of Western Kansas is spotty.

Across the state, the 2013 wheat crop is perking up and showing slight signs of improvement from the poor stands of past fall. In its April 1 Crop Progress Report, Kansas Agricultural Statistics rated the wheat crop at 2% excellent and 29% good. That’s a slight improvement over the prior week. The crop’s development is a little behind the long term average, as just 13% of it has jointed, compared to a five-year average of 22%. Despite slight improvement, the wheat crop still ranks as the fourth worst in Kansas history at this point in the growing season.

On the farms of Kansas wheat leaders, the crop ranges in condition from very good, to very poor.

David Schemm, past president of the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers, says that based on early spring tiller counts, his farm near Sharon Springs could produce yields ranging from 23 to 50 bushels per acre, with an average in the low 40s. Soil moisture is adequate right now, although “to hit those yields we will need average to slightly above average moisture from here on,” he says.

In Scott County, Kansas Wheat Commission Chairman Rich Randall says dryland wheat will need rain before long because there isn’t enough soil moisture to carry the crop until harvest. Some fields are just now emerging, and stands will be poor. “If we had some good spring rains, I anticipate these fields with poor stands will be abandoned and planted to a row crop,” Randall says.  

Ron Suppes, KWC vice chairman from Dighton, says wheat fields in In Southwestern Lane County, Northeastern Finney and Eastern Scott County look good on the surface. “I probed for moisture in all three areas two days ago and found most places to have about one foot of subsoil moisture on the average,” he says. Continuous wheat fields contain less subsoil moisture than summer-fallowed fields, and terraced fields are either starting to show stress with dryness-induced poor stands on the terrace tops. “So far we have missed out on much of the moisture events, on the average on my farm, since we  planted the wheat, we have had under three inches of moisture,” Suppes says.

In south central Kansas, Kansas Wheat Commissioner Scott Van Allen says the wheat looks good, with good amounts of winter moisture sustaining the crop. Many farmers fertilized with a topdress application of nitrogen a few weeks ago, giving the crop a boost headed into the spring.

Near Garden City, Jay Cook, a former director for KAWG, predicts that temperatures the next 60 days will be key to the crop’s success. “In my area of Lane and Finney counties, we barely go the wheat established due to dry soils, but we now have a stand. Our wheat needs cool weather to allow the roots to move into the soil profile where there is some moisture,” he explains. “We had one hot day in the past few weeks, and it looked as if the wheat crop headed backwards. But since then, we have had cool, damp weather that we need. I hope we are not in a trend of abnormally hot weather in April and May like we had last year.”

In southeast Kansas, wheat acres are limited. Jim Michael, KAWG director from McCune, says it is wet in his area of the state. “We went from a very nice winter to a very wet March and April so far.  Overall conditions are still very good. Most of the wheat has been top dressed but I did hear from one coop that they were going to bring in a plane to try to get some nitrogen on a few fields.  We have had some disease pressure along with aphids. We are in need of warm weather or the crop will start to go backwards.”

Mark Hodges, director of the private wheat marketing organization Plains Grains, Inc., says conditions from this point on are more critical this year than they would be in an average year. Root systems are not fully developed, meaning timely rainfall is essential; fewer tillers in the wheat mean heat or drought stress will have a major negative impact on wheat yields.

Hodges estimates the 2013 crop is in poorer shape this year than last year in western Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas Nebraska and South Dakota, and eastern Colorado. “Still, there is time and opportunity for a recovery to some extent, particularly the further north we go,” he says.