KANSAS CITY, May 2 (Reuters) – Abandoned acreage will likely be the main reason the winter wheat crop in Kansas will be smaller this year, scouts on an annual tour said on Thursday.
Yield prospects in Kansas, the largest production state for wheat, averaged 41.1 bushels per acre, according to the Wheat Quality Council which led a three-day tour of 570 fields across the state. Last year’s actual yield was 42 bu. per acre, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Scouts estimated total wheat production in the state at 313.1 million bu., down 18 percent from 2012. The low production forecast reflects expectations that farmers will abandon 18 percent of their planted acreage, twice as much as usual, due to poor crop conditions.
Read Also

U.S. grains: Corn futures edge up, soybeans sag on improving US crop ratings
Chicago Board of Trade corn futures extended slight gains on Tuesday as short covering and bargain buying continued to support a rebound from contract lows reached during the previous session.
Dry soils have hindered crop development in Kansas since wheat was planted last fall. One farmer in western Kansas told tour scouts that his fields have received just six inches of rain over the past two years.
More than 80 percent of the state was still experiencing severe to exceptional drought, state and federal climatologists said in their weekly “Drought Monitor” report issued on Thursday. A year ago, only 2.36 percent of Kansas was suffering from severe to exceptional drought.
Cold conditions also battered the crop throughout the spring, with temperatures again dipping to around 20 degrees Fahrenheit (-6.7 C) on Thursday morning.
Winter wheat can withstand freezing temperatures during the winter, when the crop is in its dormant stage, but freezing can rob wheat of its yield potential after plants emerge from dormancy in the spring.
The Kansas wheat crop last year made up about 17 percent of total U.S. wheat production. The next biggest grower, North Dakota, produced 339.2 million bu., or 15 percent.
Last year the tour pegged Kansas yield at 49.1 bu. per acre and the state’s crop at 403.8 million bushels.
The final USDA numbers for the state were a yield of 42 bu. per acre and a harvest of 382.2 million bushels.
The five-year tour averages are 42.3 bushels per acre and 341.3 million bu.
The winter wheat crop in Kansas was rated 27 percent good to excellent as of April 28 by USDA, the sixth lowest rating on record for that time of year.
The last time Kansas wheat was in worse shape at this point in the growing season was in 2011, when the crop was rated just 21 percent good to excellent. Final yields in the state that year were 35 bu per acre, and below that year’s tour estimate of 37.4 bushels per acre.
Winter wheat in neighbouring Oklahoma, the second largest producer of hard red winter wheat, has also suffered from drought and spring freeze damage. A group of crop consultants in that state on Wednesday projected the 2013 Oklahoma wheat yield at 25.45 bu. per acre, down almost 30 percent from the state’s final 2012 yield of 36 bu. per acre.
The Oklahoma group forecast the state’s 2013 wheat production at 85.583 million bushels, down 45 percent from 154.8 million a year ago.