The Superior Express -

The annual threshing bee sponsored by the Jewell County Historical Society will be held Saturday and Sunday. The bee showcases the way things were once done in Jewell County.

The steam engines, binders and threshing machines known as separators that were once common throughout Jewell County have been replaced by giant machines known as self-propelled combines. But the combines have seen little use this year as the continuing drought has cut the yield.

Small rain showers have slowed the harvest this year but there is such a need for rain complaints are few.

The story is much the same over all of Kansas. On Friday the Kansas Wheat Commission reported the state's harvest was 46 percent complete and well behind the 63 percent mark set by the five-day average.

Winter wheat conditions are rated at 51 percent very poor to poor, 33 percent fair and 16 percent good to excellent.

This year's harvest yield is similar to what was reported during the 1930s. The highest average yield in Kansas during the 1930s was 18.5 bushels per acre. The lowest average was 9.1 in 1933. The overall average for the decade was 12.6 bushels per acre. Last year the state average was 52 bushels per acre.

While drought has cut the yield, rain showers are delaying the harvest. Statewide from July 3 to 9, there were only 4.1 days suitable for fieldwork, according to the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service crop progress report for the week ending July. The Kansas wheat harvest was 59 cent complete on Monday but well behind the 93 percent last year and 84 percent average.

Farmers are balancing a mix of emotions from frustration caused by having to wait for conditions to dry, stress of potential hail and other weather events with joy from having received rain.