Wheat Harvest underway

Harvest has begun in Cheyenne County, with farmers pulling into fields in the northeast corner of the county this week.

Combines made test cuts in a few fields prior to the Fourth of July, but evening rains and high humidity made field-size cutting hard. But Wednesday saw a number of combines rolling in the Weyerts Church area as hot days allowed crops to ripen.

Both wheat and peas are now going into the bin, although many expect harvest won't start across the county until next week.

"With the hot days we're expecting, there could be some cutting this weekend," said Brad Fraass from the Farm Service Agency in Sidney.

Time will tell how good harvest will be this year, but things are looking up compared to this time last year, when prices were down and producers were fighting wheat leaf rust.

Rust is still a concern in many areas, although not on the scale as last year. There are several areas, however, where concern about wheat streak mosaic is higher.

The wheat virus is at epidemic levels in the southern Panhandle this year. The Nebraska Wheat Association earlier this month reported as many as 85 percent of fields in the region affected, particularly in Garden and Deuel counties. Parts of northeastern Cheyenne County are also heavily infected.

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