Dakota Wheat Bountiful but Farmers Are Stuck With It

For two years, the powdery soil on David Lang’s farm refused to yield a crop.

This year, he finally got rain and about 1,500 acres of golden wheat. But he’s stuck with the wheat.

A world wheat glut totaling more than 21.6 billion bushels is holding down prices, experts say. The U.S. wheat crop alone is expected to total a near-record 2.76 billion bushels, up 35% from 1989.

“There’s a wheat war going on,” said Neal Fisher, director of the North Dakota Wheat Commission. “Canadians sold wheat to China about two weeks ago for something around $2.50 a bushel. The European Community is selling it for $2.05.”

North Dakota wheat farmers are getting about $2.20 a bushel, at least $1 less than last year and the lowest they’ve seen in at least five years. Farmers say the costs of producing a bushel are at least three times that much.

“You have to pay $1.35 to $1.40 for a gallon of gasoline just to harvest that crop,” said Lang, 44, who farms 3,000 acres with his father near Bismarck.

Government subsidies help offset production costs, but farmers say they also are being squeezed this year by energy prices, which have risen sharply since Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.

“We will probably lose more farmers this year than any year previous,” said Gov. George Sinner.

Wheat growers say the embargo against Iraq is having little effect on the market because American wheat sales to Iraq had already dried up this year.

Farm leaders are asking the U.S. Agriculture Department to help lift wheat prices by keeping more grain in reserve, offering bigger loans to farmers and paying more federal export bonuses to increase sales.

Lang said he’s not asking for wheat at $5 per bushel when $3.50 would do. All he wants is a stable farm program.

“Urban people have got to realize where food comes from,” he said. “If we’re not out here producing it, one of these years they’re going to go hungry.”