The nation’s winter wheat growers have learned through experience to be prepared for more trouble ahead. Much of the nation has been in a deep freeze for the past several days. Hard red winter wheat growers in Kansas and Oklahoma are already not expecting to have a large crop this year. They’ve been battling lower prices because of a large supply of wheat around the world as well as a recent drought.
Ken Wood, a producer from Kansas, says the temperature dropped to minus-eight degrees on the morning of January first. “This will be the third or fourth crop that doesn’t hold a lot of promise,” Wood says. “We’ve had about three years where things have been really tough.”
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Several wheat farmers have told Politico that wheat is resilient enough to have “nine lives.” Kim Anderson of Oklahoma State University Extension says it’s also early enough in the season that most farmers can still hold out hope for a decent winter wheat crop. “In the long run, it’s really April and May that we have to worry about,” she said.
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service.