Kansas grain farmers abandon crops hit by drought, severe cold

Wichita — Farmers in Kansas, the biggest US producer of wheat, are abandoning their crops damaged by severe drought and cold.

Some are spraying wheat fields with crop-killing chemicals and claiming insurance payouts in the belief that it is not worth harvesting the little grain that there is, Reuters found on a three-day tour of the state. Other growers  let cattle graze on the dismal-looking fields.

Abandoning fields will reduce the crop of the world’s fifth-largest wheat exporter, with stocks expected to fall to a 16-year low. Large-scale abandonment deals an economic blow to farm towns and force wheat buyers to adjust procurement plans by buying the staple grain elsewhere.

Nationally, winter-wheat farmers plan to abandon 33% 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% of the area planted last autumn, up from 10% in 2022 and 4% 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 warn of an even greater percentage of unharvested acres.

Crop conditions point towards an outcome similar to 1989, when farmers did not harvest 28% of the wheat they planted, said Justin Gilpin, CEO of the Kansas Wheat Commission and a tour leader.

“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, said Gilpin.

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.

Uncertainty about the size of harvest centres largely on how many acres will be abandoned, grain buyers and tour leaders said. Some farmers with dead wheat will plant sorghum in another attempt at crop production this spring.

Insurance providers must have a chance to appraise fields before crops are destroyed or abandoned, and adjusters are busy visiting fields.

Frahm Farmland, a major grain producer in Colby, in western Kansas, expects it will not harvest about 47% of the roughly 38.45km² of wheat planted, said Christian Wilson, who does field operations and agronomy for the farm.

At least 60% of the crop is expected to be abandoned around Lakin, in southwestern Kansas, said Gary Millershaski, a farmer and scout on the tour.

Painful crop deaths 

PureField Ingredients, operator of a wheat protein facility in Russell, Kansas, will need to buy wheat from other parts of the state due to high abandonment in western Kansas, said Evan Backhus, commodities manager.

Farmers who terminate their crops do so after watching fields struggle throughout the months-long growing season.

“It’s kind of like watching a loved one go through a terminal illness,” said Clay Schemm, a farmer in Sharon Springs, Kansas, near the Colorado border.

Parts of Oklahoma are suffering too. In six northern counties, an estimated 65% to 70% 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.

The poor crop may leave Kansas State University’s College of Agriculture with less funding than its typical $1m a year from the Kansas Wheat Commission because the commission is funded by sales of wheat, said Dean Ernie Minton.

“We may not be able to do as much,” Minton said. “It slows down the whole life cycle of wheat research.” 

Reuters