This is the time of year we normally think of planting a fall garden. Crops that can be planted now include lettuce, radishes, spinach, and similar crops. There still is time to raise another crop of green beans along with some summer squash (if your summer squash have bitten the dust already).

A small ear of dry land corn shows the affects of an extended dry period. The ear is short, has a small diameter and will have small kernels of corn. The corn stalks were thin and spread far apart. Many dry land corn fields across the county have heat stress.

Removing paperwork roadblocks was the goal of Thomas Dorr, United States Department of Agriculture Undersecretary for Rural Development, as he addressed rural technology providers Wednesday at Pratt Community College.

“Farmers in Barber, Comanche, Kiowa, and Pratt Counties, who suffered crop or livestock losses due to severe storms, flooding and tornadoes occurring May 22 through June 16 may now apply for Farm Service Agency emergency loans,” said FSA Farm Loan Manager Kevin W. Vondra.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer has proclaimed Aug. 3-9 as National Farmers Market Week.
 

Gloria and Dean Belcher stand in front of a giant 10 feet sunflower in their garden at 905 South Pearl. They save the seeds and  feed them to birds in the winter time.

The 2008 wheat crop is in the elevator but the fall crops have a long way to go before they are harvested and they need a good drink of water.

The wheat dust has settled and the grain elevators are full with one of the best wheat harvests the area has seen in recent years.

Pieces of a hot tire are suspect in three fires Tuesday afternoon north of Sawyer that destroyed about 20 acres of uncut wheat, burned several acres of CRP grass and a small bit of grass in a ditch.

FIRST PHOTO — A Gleaner combine, one of three in the field, cuts wheat just west of Pratt. SECOND PHOTO — A Cullison firefighter sprays water on wheat stubble after a farmer hit a guy wire with a disc and caused sparks that started two fires. THIRD PHOTO — Michael McGinley, 20 of Smith Center drove a 1969 Mack truck with a trailer into a trailer behind 1971 Mack truck driven by Ralph Dalrymple, 67 of Jewell. McGinley was arrested for driving on a revoked license and unsafe speed.

Wheat harvest is in full swing in Pratt County. Yields are good and all that wheat started out as seed, most of it from certified seed dealers.

What a difference a year makes. A year ago wheat trucks just trickled into the elevators after a hard late season freeze reduced the wheat harvest to almost nothing.

Rain is holding back the wheat harvest in Pratt County. Today is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, and if summer weather doesn’t take over, the quality of the wheat could suffer because of all the moisture. 

The start of the 2008 wheat harvest in Pratt County is about three weeks, maybe.
“Right now we’re three weeks out,” said Rex Robinson, manager of the Sawyer Farmers Co-op Equity. “At least that’s what it looks like. The weather is going to have a lot to do with it.”

Farmers will soon be paying a penny a pound royalty to the Kansas Wheat Alliance for certain certified wheat seed, money that should eventually benefit the farmer by providing research money to develop better wheat seed.