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Kansas farmers expect little change in wheat acres

A pair of Kansas farmers says higher wheat futures are improving the outlook for the crop.

But, Gary Millershaski says, he likely won’t plant any additional acres due to persistent dryness across the region. “If it’s fallow and it’s lined up to get planted to wheat, it’s going to get planted as wheat. If there’s another crop out there like corn and it failed and you cut it for silage, you don’t have the sub moisture to plant wheat. The acres don’t fluctuate in western Kansas like they can north and east of us.”  

Ben Bellar raises soft red winter wheat in southeast Kansas and says he’s not changing his rotation either. “Spreading out your liabilities because wheat might be trying to rally here. We’ll see what happens. We have a really good soft wheat market in our area. We want to stick with that. This year our double crop beans may do better than our first crop beans. It seems to be working for us.”

Both farmers say they also don’t expect widespread changes to the number of acres planted in the Central Plains.