By MIKE CORN

mcorn@dailynews.net

It wasn't a bumper wheat crop, but the yields were respectable nonetheless. In some cases, in fact, they were darn good, beating out county averages.

In something of an ironic twist, however, crop insurance was the icing on the cake.

Bottom line, crop insurance is making up what farmers lost in the price of wheat, even though many of the costs associated with growing and harvesting the crop didn't fall as far as prices did.

Crop insurance payments for 2009, so far, are a relatively low $271.2 million statewide

Northwest Kansas farmers, in spite of an overall good year, picked up slightly more than $47 million in crop insurance payments.

But two-thirds of that -- about $28 million -- is designed to make farmers whole again on wheat prices.

"We had really pretty good yields," said Jerry McReynolds, a Woodston farmer who also serves as vice president of the National Association of Wheat Growers.

What happened is when farmers purchased crop insurance for their 2009 wheat crop, the guaranteed price was more than $8 a bushel -- a reflection of actual prices a year earlier.

But as the 2009 crop started growing, and demand started falling, market prices plummeted.

When the final tally was made to determine average prices, wheat stood at $5.88.

"The market dropped almost $3 by July," said Art Barnaby, a crop insurance specialist at Kansas State University.

Prices have since dropped even further.

While Barnaby didn't expect to see crop insurance pick up much of the shortfall for corn and grain sorghum, there is some evidence farmers in heavily irrigated counties are picking up some of that windfall.

In Thomas County, for example, nearly $3 million has been paid out under revenue-guaranteed plans. Sherman County picked up about $4 million. Sheridan County farmers, however, collected less than $1 million.

That's all sure to change, as final prices are determined on corn and it's finally determined how to deal with some corn and grain sorghum crops that remain uncut.

It's also possible additional money still could trickle in for wheat farmers, although it won't be much.

For McReynolds, it just shows how important crop insurance is as a tool for farmers.

"It's making us work a lot more efficiently," he said.

But even McReynolds recognizes that unusual nature of the price guarantees.

"If we always had good crops, we wouldn't need crop insurance," he said.

Even now, he's looking at the possibility of crop insurance kicking in for this year's crop.

"We had some terrible cold weather," he said. "We had some snow, which was good. Then the wind blew at 50 mph."

That sent the snow, something of an insulating blanket for wheat, into ditches and drifts.

"I'm expecting some damage," he said.

The question not yet answered is how much? And he thinks the Woodston area -- 50 miles northeast of Hays -- might have had more snow than even the Hays area.

"Crop insurance covers a lot of things," he said. "Sometimes it's drought. Not too often it's too much moisture."

Price guarantees is another, although it comes in several flavors. Which one is best depends on where the land is located.

"In this day and age, with the price of inputs, the price of fertilizer and seeds, you have to have some protection and crop insurance is tremendously important to us," he said. "We are in an area where yields are so variable and moisture is so variable."