Author: Vance Ehmke
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Recommendation for a Triticale Research/Breeding Program at KSU
By Vance And Louise Ehmke Dear Drs. Perumal and Zhang: I’m writing to wholeheartedly support the K-State research initiative dealing with alternative crops for western Kansas titled: “Developing Climate Resilient and Profitable Grain, Forage Crops and Livestock Grazing Programs with Enhanced Nutritional Value for Western Kansas”. As longtime certified seed wheat growers here in Lane…
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Wheat Conditions
Wheat & More…or Less… By Vance Ehmke In brief, for a lot of wheat in this area of Kansas, rain will no longer do us any good. What we need is more drugs and alcohol! Actually that is not far from the truth. Our South Dakota custom cutter said he took 6 combines to Kiowa KS…
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The Bones of Lane County
By Vance Ehmke My great grandparents homesteaded here in western Kansas back in 1885. And I always thought it was a pretty big deal to be a fourth-generation farmer– until the bones of Lane County told me otherwise. Here on our farm we have a state historical site, 14 LA 311, to be exact. It’s…
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Drought Drags On
For those of us who were hoping our current hard case drought would dry up and blow away, the reality is anything but. Instead, the new 3-month forecast promises more of the same and a lot of it. Last fall when talking with Jeff Hutton from the National Weather Service in Dodge City, he speculated…
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Even at $12, Wheat May Lose Money
The good news is we have $12 wheat prices. The bad news is because of low projected yields caused by the on-going drought, many western Kansas wheat fields will do no better than break even. Incredible as it may seem, even with the highest price of all time, at least half of the western Kansas…
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Popular Wheat Varieties May Not Be Top Yielders
By Vance Ehmke In looking at the recently released list of the most popular wheat varieties planted in Kansas, I am reminded that just because a variety is planted on a lot of acres doesn’t mean you should be planting it. Years ago in a conversation with former Scott City basketball coach and farmer/cattleman Harold…
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Does $10 Wheat Mean More Acres?
By Vance Ehmke After several years of selling wheat for $5 a bushel, we finally broke out of the rut when wheat prices exploded and more than doubled. But even with $10 wheat, if you’re betting on a big jump in the Kansas wheat acreage, it’s a bet you’re probably going to lose. If anything,…
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There’s Nitrogen in Them Thar Hills!
If you haven’t noticed, the price of fertilizer over the past several months has more than doubled. And if there ever were a time for doing an extensive job of soil sampling, it is now. What’s more is that if your soil test results are anything like ours, you might just have a very pleasant…
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$7 Wheat?
This time last year who would have ever thought that we were sitting on and hatching a major bull market in the grains. Well, it’s here now and the only question for wheat is how high it’ll go. There are a lot of factors that explain how we got here like being pulled along by…