Farmers in Kansas are abandoning their winter wheat crops after a severe drought and damaging cold ravaged farms.
On a three-day tour of the state, the biggest U.S. wheat producer, Reuters found that some farmers were intentionally spraying wheat fields with crop-killing chemicals, betting the grain is not worth harvesting. Other farmers are turning cattle out to graze the meager fields.
Abandoning fields will lead to a smaller U.S. wheat supply in the world’s No. 5 wheat exporter, with stocks seen falling to a 16-year low. Nationally, according to Business Live, winter-wheat farmers plan to abandon 33 percent of the acres they planted, the highest percentage since World War 1, the US Department of Agriculture said in a May 12 report.
“Kansas farmers are expected to abandon about 19 percent of the acres planted last autumn, up from 10 percent last year and 4 percent in 2021, according to the report.
But farmers, grain traders, and representatives of major food companies who traversed the state on an annual crop tour last week warned of an even greater percentage of unharvested acres.”
Justin Gilpin, chief executive of the Kansas Wheat Commission and a tour leader, said this year is reminiscent of 1989 when farmers did not harvest 28 percent of the wheat they planted. “You have a wheat crop that didn’t come up,” he said.
Soaring prices for hay also pressure wheat farmers not to harvest their fields for grain so they can be fed to cattle, Gilpin said.
Kansas farmers are expected to produce just 191.4-million bushels of wheat this year, the smallest since 1963, according to the latest monthly government forecast. Participants on the Wheat Quality Council tour projected an even smaller harvest of 178-million bushels.
Parts of Oklahoma are suffering too. In six northern counties, an estimated 65 to 70 percent of the crop will not be harvested, said Mike Schulte, executive director of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission.
While farmers get some financial protection from insurance, local businesses are at risk when acres are abandoned, as fewer crews of harvesters come through the region, where they would normally spend money at diners and hotels, said Schulte.
Also, on Monday, Reuters reported that Chicago wheat futures fell below $6 a bushel for the first time in two years, as expectations of ample global supplies weighed on prices after a deal to ship Ukrainian grains was extended last week.
