KANSAS CITY — The Kansas Wheat Commission, the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers and the Kansas Grain and Feed Association offered their first report June 17 on the hard red winter wheat harvest in south central counties in their state. Their message wasn’t pretty.

Yields were considered poor — about a quarter of a typical 40 bus an acre statewide and well below the 37 bus an acre for the state in 2013. Mud was slowing down progress in many fields in the aftermath of rains that were too late to help the crop.

Steve Inslee of OK Coop Grain Co. said he expected to receive about 500,000 bus from the Kiowa area in Barber county, with an average range of about 10 to 12 bus per acre and test weight of about 58 lbs a bu.

“This is probably not even half of what we took in last year, and last year was half of a normal crop,” Mr. Inslee said.

In Anthony in Harper county, producers were reporting yields of about 10 bus an acre in fields where combining was delayed over the weekend because of rain. In Clearwater, southwest of Wichita in Sedgwick county, farmers were reporting substandard yields and wheat stalks that were shorter than normal. Test weights were about 58 lbs a bu.