Government Estimate Reduces Size of Kansas Wheat Harvest

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) – A new government estimate reduces the size

of this year’s winter wheat harvest in Kansas.

Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service reported Friday the state

harvested 382.2 million bushels of winter wheat. The new number is

about 1 percent lower than last month’s report. But it is up 38

percent compared with the drought-stricken harvest of last year.

Growers in Kansas this year hauled in the largest winter wheat

crop since 2003.

The grain was cut from 9.1 million acres this year. That is 15

percent more wheat acres than the previous harvest. It would have

been even higher had farmers been able to harvest all of the 9.5

million acres they had planted to wheat in the fall of 2011.

Yields were estimated at 42 bushels per acre.