By Amy Bickel
Kansas Agland
DIGHTON – It’s unheard of – especially in this part of the High Plains where drought has prevailed for several years.
Yet something incredible is happening in the wheat fields of Lane County.
“It’s truly a once-in-a-lifetime deal – you just got to pinch yourself and realize it is real,” said Lane County farmer Vance Ehmke, who stood amid a thick carpet of stubble, watching custom cutters circle through his wheat crop.
Here, in the heart of the plains, wheat is surpassing all predictions.
In coming days, some western Kansas elevators could be bursting at the seams. For a few packed to the brim, wheat could go on the ground. The line of trucks ready to be dumped at elevators is getting longer.
Ehmke and his wife, Louise, are certified seed growers and have 35 to 40 bins on the farm. “And every one is going to be stuffed. We are going to end up hauling a hell of a lot of good seed wheat to the elevators because we don’t have a place to put it.”
One of Ehmke’s custom cutters – Nebraskan Zach Shaw – said he has four combines and has parked one by the edge of the field as his four semis and 1,400-bushel grain cart can’t keep up with the loads coming in from Ehmke’s fields.
He watched in amazement on Tuesday as he cut a field of hard red winter wheat. The yield monitor kept climbing, soaring above 100 bushels an acre, then 120 before hitting a high of 145.
In the end, this dryland parcel averaged 82 bushels an acre.
“I’ve cut a lot of irrigated wheat in Nebraska where we are from,” said Shaw. “And I’ve seen irrigated wheat that is not doing this well.”
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