The 2011 wheat crop has resulted in mainly low yields as harvest winds down for another season throughout the Lone Star State. Because of extreme drought conditions, the Kasberg Grain Co. in Miles, 73 miles southwest of Abilene, handled approximately 25 percent of normal volume compared with years with adequate rainfall. Besides the Miles location, the company also operates elevators in San Angelo and Lowake.
“We only opened the Miles elevator this year,” said owner Eugene Kasberg Jr. “Yields have run from a low of 2.7 bushels per acre to a high of 28 bushels per acre on one farm in the area. The bulk was between nine and 12 bushels per acre.”
In normal years, farmers in southwest Runnels County and northern parts of Tom Green and Concho counties produce around 20 bushels per acre, he said. Since the wheat is produced on dryland farms, which depend solely on rainfall, the majority of this year’s crop was plowed up because of the drought.
Wheat yields are a mixed bag at best in the Winters and Wingate area of northern Runnels County this year, said Randall Conner of Winters, a longtime farmer and currently serving as executive director of the Southern Rolling Plains Cotton Growers.
“There were several farms which produced more than 40 bushels per acre, but that was an exception,” he said. “However, most of this year’s wheat crop was a little better than the farmers anticipated.”
Conner said there were some 30 bushel per acre yields, which were cut from fields where tillage conservation practices were carried out and there was enough 2010 moisture in the soils to produce a crop.
David Holubec, who farms near Melvin, about 60 miles southeast of San Angelo, said a few fields there produced 20 bushels per acre, but the bulk of harvested wheat averaged from 10 to 15 bushels per acre.
Some stock farmers in Concho and McCulloch counties decided early on to allow livestock into fields and graze the wheat rather than taking a chance of making grain and losing everything.
“We were one good rain away from making a good wheat crop this year,” Holubec said.
Elsewhere in Texas, combines have moved north into the southern half of the Texas Panhandle this week, according to the Texas Wheat Producers Association.
As of June 1, elevators were taking in grain in the South Plains and a couple of loads have been received from as far north as Amarillo. Harvest in the Southern Blacklands continues to progress and is currently estimated at 85 percent complete, while harvest in the Rolling Plains is estimated to conclude this week.
On the South Plains, from Lubbock to Brownfield, about 20 percent of the wheat has been harvested. Only 2 percent of the Panhandle wheat, around Amarillo and northward, has been cut. The Northern Rolling Plains (Wichita Falls, Vernon, Childress), the Southern Rolling Plains (east of Abilene) and the Southern Blacklands (south of Dallas), all report 85 percent harvested.
Although some areas have seen a slight drop in test weights, quality factors are still quite good despite the less than stellar yields, according to the TWPA report. Protein averages remain at or above 12 percent and test weights range from 59 to 64 pounds per bushel.
Meanwhile, a bill creating a Texas Grain Producer Indemnity Fund passed both houses of the Texas Legislature in May and was sent to Gov. Rick Perry for a signature.
According to the Texas Department of Agriculture, 17 grain elevators - some full of corn, sorghum, wheat and other grains - abruptly went bankrupt or failed in the past two years. Many farmers lost hundreds of thousands of dollars when the failed elevators closed their doors.
House Bill 1840, which creates a statewide grain indemnity fund, is the result of months of research, negotiations and advocacy within the agricultural community focused on providing additional options for producers who face devastating losses due to elevator closure, said Steelee Fischbacher of the Texas Wheat Producers Board.
Before the legislation, farmers had no legitimate way to reclaim their losses without lengthy legal battles delivering marginal compensation. In the event that a warehouse becomes insolvent, bonds held by warehouses as required under current law pay only a fraction of the value of the crop, Fischbacher said.
Jerry Lackey writes about agriculture. Contact him at jlackey@wcc.net or 325-949-2291.
