In a year that the National Agricultural Statistics Service is reporting possibly the smallest Kansas winter wheat crop since 1989, Geary County is looking good.

The service also reported that the average yields for the state were just 28 bushels an acre. 

This years winter wheat crop in Geary County exceeded all expectations and came in much higher than the state average according to Chuck Otte, Geary County Research and Extensions Agent.

“I was thinking that we would probably have a lot of fields in the 30 to 40 bushel range, and a fair number down in 15 and 20,” Otte said.

But in reality yields were much higher throughout the county.

“We had a lot of fields over 40, we had a lot of fields over 50, we had fields over 70. We had just enough rain,” Otte said. “They always say that a wheat crop is like a cat, it’s got nine lives and this year boy I think it used about eight of them.”

Growers in Kansas are harvesting just 8.4 million acres after abandoning about 900,000 planted acres. NASS estimated the nation will harvest 1.37 billion bushels of wheat nationwide, down 11 percent from a year ago.