By MIKE CORN

mcorn@dailynews.net

COLBY -- Damage or not, one thing is certain, the wheat crop in far northwest Kansas is well behind normal.

That slow development is part of the reason why people are divided over how much damage might have been caused when temperatures dropped to 26 degrees on Mother's Day in Colby.

However, there is even some dispute about how low the temperature actually fell, or how long it stayed below freezing.

At the Northwest Kansas Research and Extension Center outside of Colby, the temperature fell to 26 degrees Sunday morning.

The National Weather Service office in Goodland, however, was only able to show the overnight low dropped to 29 degrees.

Goodland, in fact, had showed its own temperature dropped to 28 degrees on Mother's Day.

Colby Research Center farm manager Dan Foster is concerned about the health of the crop. He's not the only one.

Wheat breeder Joe Martin at the Kansas State University Agricultural Research Center south of Hays is as well.

Foster passed along the information about the cold temperatures to Martin on Monday.

"That's too cold," Martin said of the 26 degrees recorded in Colby.

KSU agronomist Brian Olson, also based at the Colby station, isn't too concerned about the prospects for the crop, at least as far as any freeze damage might be concerned.

"There is a potential," Olson said of freeze damage from temperatures falling into the 28- to 29-degree range. "But I don't suspect there's widespread damage."

Part of his logic stems from the status of the wheat crop in the Colby area, generally behind schedule in terms of development.

As well, he's seen no evidence temperatures fell below freezing for an extended period of time, something considered key to causing extensive damage.

Overall, Olson isn't too harsh on the status of this year's wheat. But he also recognizes it's no bin-buster.

"It's not great," he said, "but it's not bad."

Foster isn't as sold on the crop.

"We're kind of behind," he said. "We don't have much moisture, and our wheat is just sitting there."

Foster said wheat in the Colby area could be as much as two weeks behind normal in terms of development.

KSU agricultural economist Terry Kastens, who also farms in Rawlins County, agrees the wheat is behind normal.

"It's in good condition," he said this morning, "but behind normal."

That, he said, can be a mixed blessing because it will be overly dependent on ideal weather conditions in June, a time when the wheat plants start filling their kernels of grain.

If weather conditions are ideal, the crop could turn out good; hot, dry and windy weather could decimate the crop.

Kastens also dismisses the prospects of damage.

"The frost, I don't think that it hurt anything even though it's been freezing a lot," he said.

Drought, perhaps, is the greater concern for the prospects for the wheat crop.

Currently, the western third of the state -- virtually everything west of Ellis County -- is considered by the U.S. Drought Monitor to be abnormally dry. The extreme northern reaches of Cheyenne and Rawlins counties, as well as much of southwest Kansas, are considered to be in the middle of a moderate drought.

Mother's Day was not the first frost for the 2008 wheat crop. Foster, in fact, said temperatures fell below freezing about two weeks ago, burning the tops of the wheat plants.

Foster said he's not sure how much damage was caused, but "26 is pretty cold."

Overall, he said, brown spots are starting appear in some of the wheat fields at the research center.

"I really think a lot of it is drouth," he said. "We could use a 2-inch rain any day now."

This year's meager crop -- if it ultimately ends up that way -- will be in stark contrast to a year ago, when wheat yielded more than 65 bushels to the acre and irrigated corn hit 220 bushels per acre.

Corn is a big question mark.

"It's been so cold it hasn't hardly come up," Foster said of the corn that was planted this spring.

"Soil temperatures haven't been warming up," he said. "Most people have corn in, but it really isn't coming up yet."

Drought has been a huge barrier to overcome.

"I used to say if I can't raise wheat out here, I shouldn't be farming," he said. "But I've had some tough years here lately."

This year is no exception.

"I don't have the stands I wanted," Foster said. "If we don't get some moisture right away, we're going to be pretty tough."