Milling & Baking News - July 30, 2019 - 14

Business

Winter wheat harvest heads
toward completion
KANSAS CITY - The winter harvest
continued to expand northward last
week. With the Kansas harvest nearly completed, the center of the hard
red winter wheat harvest has shifted
northward into Nebraska and westward into Colorado. Combining in
South Dakota soon will get underway.
Harvest progress has been behind the
average pace, but the remaining harvest was not expected to encounter
significant obstacles. To the east, in the
key soft red winter wheat region of the
Central states, the harvest was winding down except in Michigan, where
combines were expected to make
strong progress in the coming days.
At last week's outset, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in its weekly
Crop Progress report, indicated the
Texas and Oklahoma hard red winter
wheat harvests were concluded. The
Kansas harvest by July 21 was 96%
completed. Combining by that date
was 33% completed in Nebraska (76%
as the five-year average progress for
the date) and 65% in Colorado (80%).
Combining in South Dakota and
Montana had yet to begin.
Kansas Wheat (the Kansas Wheat
Commission and the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers) along
with the Kansas Grain and Feed Association issued their final Kansas
Harvest Report of the year last week.
In the report, Erik Lange, senior vicepresident and chief executive officer,
Mid Kansas Cooperative Association
(MKC), said its more than 40 facilities
across Kansas have taken in about
two-thirds of their five-year average
on bushels because of reduced acres
in the state, partly due to wet conditions last autumn.
Mr. Lange said yields seen across
the state have varied. In south central
counties, yields were below average,
and in central counties, yields were
quite a bit lower than normal due to
excessive rain. Farther to the north
and east, there were good yields except in low-lying areas. He said that
in southwest Kansas, harvest wheat
was among the best seen in years.
Kansas wheat test weights ranged
from average to above average at
most MKC locations, Mr. Lange said.
There were a few places in central and
south central Kansas where it rained
on mature wheat, which resulted in
test weights slightly below average.
Proteins also varied by location. In the
14 / July 30, 2019

Milling & Baking News

west, proteins were well below average,
ranging from 10.5% to 11.5%, with scattered areas with 12%-protein wheat, Mr.
Lange said. In central and south central
Kansas, proteins ranged from 10.5% to
12% percent, which is above a normal
average of 10½% to 11%.
Eric Sperber, general manager and
chief executive officer, Cornerstone
Ag, Colby, Kas., said yields were excellent in northwest Kansas with farmers
calling it their "best crop ever" and a
"once-in-a-lifetime crop." Mr. Sperber said test weights averaged 61.5 to

Winter wheat harvest
progress

Kansas
Oklahoma
Nebraska
Colorado
Texas
Missouri
Illinois
Ohio
Indiana
Michigan

July 21,
2019
96%
100%
33%
65%
100%
100%
94%
83%
92%
14%

Five-year
average
98%
99%
76%
80%
99%
98%
97%
88%
92%
47%

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture

62 lbs per bu, but average protein, at
10.7%, was the lowest he has seen in
his 15 years with Cornerstone.
The Nebraska Wheat Board in its
July 22 crop report indicated harvesting was underway in the southern half of Nebraska's panhandle,
but less than 10% of the area's wheat
was combined because of light rain
showers followed by cooler temperatures and high humidity that
kept wheat in many fields too wet
to harvest. Yields from harvested
fields have ranged from 40 to 75 bus
per acre. Test weights of harvested
wheat have ranged from 60 to 63 lbs
per bu, and protein has been in the
9% and 10% ranges.
Harvesting proceeded in southwest Nebraska when weather permitted. Combining in the region was 60%
to 90% completed depending on area
within the region. Yields ranged from
40 to more than 100 bus per acre. Test
weights ranged between 60 and 64 lbs
per bu. Protein was low ranging from

the mid-8% to low-12% ranges and
was averaging about 10%.
Harvesting in south central Nebraska was about 50% completed by
July 22 with recent storms having
slowed progress. Producers indicated
yields ranged from 3 bus per acre
(hail-damaged fields) to 90 bus per
acre with the average yield to date at
about 50 bus per acre. Test weights
ranged from 60 to 62 lbs per bu, and
protein ranged from 10% to 12%.
The Nebraska Wheat Board said
harvesting in southeast Nebraska
was completed. Yields ranged from
40 to 85 bus per acre "with most fields
yielding slightly above average." Test
weights were low, though, because of
rains at harvest and head blight. Most
test weights ranged from 57 to 60 lbs
a bu. Protein levels varied for the region, too, with most averaging in the
low 10% range of proteins.
In the key soft red winter wheat region of the Central states, harvesting
by July 21 was completed in Missouri,
94% completed in Illinois (97% as the
recent five-year average for the date),
92% in Indiana (92%), 83% in Ohio
(88%) and 14% in Michigan (47%).
At midweek, the Ohio soft red winter wheat harvest was winding down
with most attention of Central states
millers now shifting north to Michigan. Ohio millers noted crop quality
was mostly good in their draw territories and that the principal problem
confronting millers will be sourcing
enough bushels given the short crop
estimated by the U.S.D.A.
Because of the small soft red winter
wheat crop and with corn and soybean crops also expected to be smaller than in 2018, Central states farmers and elevators may be better positioned to carry wheat than in most
recent years, which meant mills likely
will have to draw supply from firm
country hands by keeping cash bids
high or even elevating them. Also,
mills, especially those along rail lines,
may blend some low-protein hard red
winter wheat, which will be plentiful
this year, with soft red winter wheat
to create blends appropriate for use
in certain baked products ordinarily
using flour milled from only soft red
winter wheat.
Harvesting was underway in the
soft white winter wheat states of the
Pacific Northwest. The U.S.D.A. indicated the winter wheat harvest by July
21 was 2% completed in Idaho (11%
as the five-year average progress for
the date), 17% in Oregon (33%) and
10% in Washington (22%). MBN
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Milling & Baking News - July 30, 2019

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