Crops and Livestock
Ford County is located in southwest Kansas, approximately 111 miles from the Colorado State Line to the west, 54 miles from the Oklahoma State Line to the south and 165 miles from the Nebraska State Line to the north. It is approximately between 2,300 and 2,600 feet above sea level and receives around 20.95 inches of rainfall.
There is approximately 634,240 total acres of land in farms, with around 286,263 acres dedicated to harvested cropland and 137,163 acres to pasture.
Wheat is primarily the top cash crop for Ford County, with approximately 179,000 acres planted for all purposes. Wheat production is separated into irrigated and non-irrigated. Approximately 15,000 acres of irrigated wheat are planted with 14,200 acres harvested at 52.6 bushels per acre yielded for 747,000 production bushels. While non-irrigated wheat constitutes 164,000 acres planted with 154,300 acres harvested at 50.9 bushels per acre yielded for 7,847,00 bushels.
Ford County Farmers also planted 67,000 acres of sorghum. With 66,000 acres of grain harvested, sorghum yielded approximately 88.8 bushels per acre for for a total of 5,860,000 production bushels. Producers planted 57,000 acres of corn and harvested 55,000 with 165.2 bushels per acre yielded for a total of 9,085,000 bushels.
Soybeans and alfalfa are also grown in Ford County. Approximately 11,500 acres of soybeans are planted for all purposes, with 11,300 acres harvested for beans. Beans yield around 49.3 bushels per acre with a total of 557,000 bushels. Alfalfa constituted 10,100 acres harvested, resulting in a yield of 4.9 tons per acre for a total of 49,500 production tons. All other hay totaled up to 7,100 acres harvested with 1.35 tons per acre for 9,500 tons total.
On the livestock side, Ford County producers raise on average 170,000 head of cattle and calves, 10,500 of these cows have calved. About 115,000 cattle ore on feed.
