Nation IN BRIEF : KANSAS : Drought Threatens to Decimate Wheat

Drought is likely to wipe out much of the wheat from the nation’s breadbasket in Kansas and even heavy rain forecast for this weekend is unlikely to change the situation, experts said. “Some of the fields are 100% dead. Rain will not bring them back,” said Merle Witt, a Kansas State University research agronomist based in Garden City. “I think probably a fourth of our acres [in southwest Kansas] are dead.” Wheat in southwest and south-central Kansas is in the worst condition, with plants stunted or killed by extremely dry soil. In central and northern areas of the state rain could still improve yield prospects, crop experts said.