For wheat farmers in western Kansas, the heavy snow and freezing temperatures that recently swept through their region were a one-two punch that flattened a promising crop. Still, while they fear massive losses, they also know that wheat is a resilient crop with a well-earned reputation as the staff of life.
“I mean, wheat is an amazing plant. It recovers from a lot of different things,” said Rick Horton, who farms in southwestern Kansas. Horton, speaking to Harvest Public Media, said, “Right now, it looks pretty bad” after as much as two feet of snow fell in western Kansas. Romulo Lollato, a wheat specialist at Kansas State University, said that while some wheat was damaged badly by the storm, it’s too early to project yield losses. “We still need to wait until that snow melts so we can have a better picture of it,” he said.
Two of the scouts on the annual tour to assess the winter wheat crop posted photos on Twitter of a snowman in a wheat field near Colby, in the state’s northwestern quadrant. “Will probably never get to do this again on wheat tour,” tweeted Bryson Haverkamp. Behind the snowman was vast stretch of snow-covered ground. “That used to be standing wheat back there too.” Another of the scouts, Julie Ingwersen of Reuters, posted a photo of some wheat stalks poking through the snow near Menlo in northwest Kansas. “Recovery prospects seem like anyone’s guess,” she tweeted.
Kansas is the No. 1 winter wheat state and grows about one-third of the U.S. wheat crop.