A John Deere Publication

The wheat variety Turkey Red was brought to Kansas in 1874 by Russian Mennonite immigrants who were recruited to the state. Their farming expertise and Turkey Red wheat turned Kansas into the "Breadbasket of the World."

Agriculture, Education December 01, 2024

Legacy Wheat

How Turkey Red changed American agriculture.

by Bill Spiegel

When a friend of Tim Turek's asked him to plant five acres of Turkey Red winter wheat in the fall of 2023, the Caldwell, Kansas, farmer happily obliged.

Turkey Red, he knew, was legendary—the wheat that turned Kansas into the "Breadbasket of the World."

What he didn't know was how difficult it would be to grow.

At maturity, Turkey Red stretches more than five-feet tall and is prone to lodging before harvest. Relative to modern wheats, yield is poor; Turek estimates it produced about 20 bushels per acre. "There's a reason Kansas farmers quit growing it," he laughs.

Yet, there was something awesome about harvesting the same wheat variety his grandfather grew nine decades ago.

And to Turek, a certified seed wheat producer and dealer, the history is important.

"All of the hard red winter wheat varieties we grow in Kansas today trace back to Turkey Red," he says.

Above. A Harvest Celebration in Inman, Kansas, in July featured a field of Turkey Red winter wheat being harvested by vintage machinery, including this John Deere Model 36 pulled by a D tractor. Tim Turek, a Caldwell, Kansas, farmer and seed dealer, harvested five acres of Turkey Red wheat in 2024.

Sesquicentennial. 2024 marks 150 years since Turkey Red wheat was introduced to Kansas.

Perhaps nowhere is it more proudly celebrated than the Turkey Red Wheat Palace annex of the Mennonite Heritage and Agricultural Museum in Goessel, Kansas. That's where curator Fern Bartel greets visitors with encyclopedic knowledge of how Goessel, Russian Mennonite immigrants, and Turkey Red are intertwined.

The Russian Mennonites had an unsettled history in Europe. In pursuit of religious freedom, large populations moved from the Netherlands to Prussia (now Turkey) in the 1700s, and then to western Russia (now Ukraine) in the late 1700s and early 1800s.

In 1873, Bernhard Warkentin, the son of a Ukranian miller, traveled to Canada and the United States, presumably to find colonization sites for other Mennonites. He eventually settled near Halstead, Kansas, and built the county's first grist mill.

He worked with Carl Schmidt, a colonization agent of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad Company, plus the state of Kansas, to acquire thousands of acres along the rail line throughout Kansas. The intent was to recruit thousands of Russian Mennonites to build villages and develop farmland adjacent to the burgeoning railway.

Many who settled near the town of Goessel migrated from the Russian village of Alexanderwohl; today, the Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church is still active near Goessel, says Bartel, whose own ancestors were among them.

Mennonite immigrants brought with them a wheat variety they were familiar with: Turkey Red, writes author Glen Ediger, whose book, "Leave No Threshing Stone Unturned," describes the early wheat milling industry in Kansas.

Prior to Turkey Red, the state's farmers grew soft spring wheat varieties with modest success. Turkey Red, however, proved to be ideal for the climate. From that point, wheat became big business in Kansas. Mills were built in nearly every Kansas county and flour quickly became one of the state's most valuable exports.

Turkey Red today. According to the Kansas Department of Agriculture's annual Kansas Wheat History report, Turkey Red wheat was grown for decades, ending a 70-plus year run as one of the state's five most-planted wheat varieties in 1944. Still, Turkey Red genetics live on in new generations of winter wheat, crafted by wheat breeders to contain improved yield potential and a host of traits that help the varieties survive drought, disease, and insects in all kinds of growing conditions.

According to Turek, the 2023-24 growing season perfectly illustrated how tough modern varieties are. Drought in the fall and extreme winter cold proved to be harsh conditions for the crop.

"It was touch and go for a while," he says. "We had a long grain fill period this spring and it was unbelievable how it yielded, for no more rain than we received.

"If it hadn't been for improved genetics that wheat breeders have been working on for the last several decades, the 2024 crop wouldn't have made it." ‡