By MIKE CORN

mcorn@dailynews.net

It's a mixed-up world out on the farm, considering it's January and there's still corn and milo to be cut in some northwest Kansas counties.

Wheat still needs to be planted as well, although it never will be, at least not this year.

That's part of the reason why the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Tuesday dropped its estimates for prospective wheat plantings for the 2010 crop by nearly 700,000 acres -- the second smallest crop planted since 1918.

Many farmers weren't able to get the wheat in the ground and many others simply are pleased with the way corn and grain sorghum has been performing the last two years.

At least some of those wheat-intended acres likely will have grain sorghum planted in them this spring, according to Brian Olson, an agronomist with Kansas State University Extension Service in Colby.

Overall, 2009 was a good year for Kansas farmers, according to estimates released Tuesday by the USDA.

* Out of 3.86 million acres of corn harvested, Kansas farmers had average yields of 155 bushels per acre and total production of 598.3 million bushels. That is a new record.

* Average yields for grain sorghum ended up at 88 bushels per acre, also a record. The 224.4 million bushels of sorghum came from 2.55 million acres.

* Wheat farmers harvested 369.6 million bushels from 8.8 million acres. Average yields were 42 bushels per acre.

* Oil sunflowers were harvested from 140,000 acres, producing 221 million pounds. Confectionery sunflowers were harvested from 15,000 acres, producing 24 million pounds.

* Soybean production amounted to 160.6 million bushels, an average of 44 bushels from each of the 3.65 million acres harvested.

It's what happened to wheat that was a surprise to many, however.

Kansas farmers planted 8.6 million acres of wheat last fall, down from 9.3 million for the 2009 crop and 9.6 million for the 2008 crop.

"I'm not surprised," said Olson, based in Colby. "Corn and grain sorghum had an excellent year."

Excellent in terms of yields, but difficult to harvest.

"We had trouble with getting fall crops out and getting wheat in," he said. "Some wheat didn't get put in."

Olson said it wouldn't take much for prevented plantings to account for half of the drop. Stellar performance by corn and grain sorghum could account for the rest, in that farmers will continue to grow those crops rather than wheat.

Some farmers, he said, are moving to a more intensive rotation system, three crops every four years rather than two out of three.

But it's the corn that is attracting attention.

"If things work out right and the stars align, you can have some high yields in corn and grain sorghum," Olson said.

That's the way is has been the last two years.

But drought always is waiting in the shadows, and when it comes to the forefront, he said, wheat will surge back up.

With two years of good yields on fall crops, Olson said "you've got to take advantage of it."

For now, however, he said, farmers are struggling to harvest what remains in the field.

Olson said it's a relatively small amount -- mostly corn and grain sorghum -- that remains in the field.

Byron Hale at the Twin Creeks Extension District agrees.

"We've still got some corn and little milo," the Oberlin-based Extension agent said.

How much is anyone's guess.

"Some people have a pittance, 20 to 30 acres," Hale said. "One guy said he had 400 acres of corn."

Some farmers weren't able to get all their wheat planted before conditions simply turned too wet, keeping them out of the field.

While the long-delayed harvest is uncommon, it's not unheard of.

Quality of the crop remaining in the field is uncertain.

"Obviously, you don't have disease working on it when it's cold," Olson said. "But it's not good for the crop to be sitting out there.

"Hopefully, the guys who have some can use it on the farm, run it through their cattle."

Farmers are chipping away at the crop every chance they get, Hale said.

"I know every time they can, they're out there."