DAYTON, Ohio -- Kenny and Scott Lucas said this year’s wheat crop is the best they’ve had, despite some wet spring weather. However, their profits don’t reflect their high yields.

Mother Nature dealt the Lucases a great hand this year on their wheat crop.

“This is probably our best yields on wheat,” said Scott.

Earlier in the season that didn’t seem possible.

“The middle of May was fairly wet and it was fairly cool for this area,” said Kenny.

That could have caused diseases on the wheat, but it didn’t. In the end, the moisture and temperatures were ideal for a near-perfect crop.

Still, the high yields won’t make the Lucases much money.

“The problem with the wheat crop this year was, last fall our input prices for fertilizer were extremely high,” said Kenny. “They were probably double what we saw in the fall 2007.”

When they went to sell their crop, they found the wheat priced didn’t follow suit.

“The market prices are down right now on wheat,” said Scott.

The Lucases will break even on wheat, but they still have straw to sell.

“Honestly, the straw is probably going to be the profit from the wheat crop,” said Kenny.

In the Miami Valley, people mainly use straw for landscaping.