MANHATTAN, KANSAS, U.S. — Participants on the annual Wheat Quality Council’s Hard Red Winter Wheat Tour forecast 2019 Kansas wheat production at 306.5 million bushels based on an average yield of 47.2 bushels per acre, both up sharply from 2018.

About 75 participants made 469 stops over 2½ days of the 2019 tour that concluded around midday May 2.

The average yield estimate of 47.2 bushels per acre was up 28% from the tour’s 2018 estimate of 37 bushels per acre and was up 24% from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s final 2018 Kansas average yield estimate of 38 bushels per acre.

Fifty of the tour participants provided a 2019 wheat production forecast for Kansas. The average forecast of 306.5 million bushels was up 10% from the USDA’s final 2018 estimated production of 277.4 million bushels.

Kansas wheat production was 333.6 million bushels in 2017 with an average yield of 48 bushels per acre, according to the USDA.

This year’s tour saw widely varied field conditions with average daily yield estimates ranging from a low of 16 bushels per acre to a high of 96 bushels per acre. But overall, conditions were significantly better than a year ago when much of the region was enduring drought conditions, with excess moisture evident in some fields this year.