Drought, High Winds Dry Up Crops, Hopes in Wheat Capital

The breadbasket of the nation is nearly empty, its shrunken waves of amber grain plowed under or barely sprouted in drought-stricken soil that is being battered by relentless winds.

Sumner County, Kan., the self-proclaimed “Wheat Capital of the World,” is feeling the downside of its longtime economic dependence on hard red winter wheat.

By May 1, more than half of the county’s usual 400,000 acres of wheat planted last fall had already been plowed under. The plowing turns over the fine, dry soil on top to keep it from blowing away, but it also signals defeat for a hopeless crop.

On Main Street in Wellington, the county seat, with harvest less than a month away, the sense of anticipation that builds each year is missing.

Merchants know farmers won’t have money to spend and harvest hands aren’t going to be packing into local cafes to wolf down huge meals. There won’t be much of a crop to keep dozens of custom cutting crews lingering in the area.

“I’ve been on Main Street over 40 years. You see different business climates. I haven’t seen this kind of a business climate in 40 years,” said Bob Weir, owner of The Hardware Store in Wellington.

“There’s a sort of gloom over the whole county,” said Weir, 58. “In most cases, farmers have an upbeat attitude. They’ll say, ‘Oh, next week it’s going to rain.’ But it’s just gone too far for too long. Now they’re depressed. It’s almost like they think it’s never going to rain again.”

The period from Aug. 5 to May 1 was the driest eight months since Sumner County began keeping weather records more than 100 years ago. Wheat already planted did not get enough moisture to sprout well and get established before going dormant for winter. Temperature extremes, nearly constant winds and finally greenbugs and other insect pests all took turns pounding the poor crop. The light rain that fell over the last two weeks came much too late.

The result nationwide is a winter wheat crop estimated at 1.36 billion bushels, the smallest since 1978. Forecasters for the U.S. Department of Agriculture put the Kansas crop at 183 million bushels, the smallest since 1957. The state’s average annual crop is 400 million bushels.

Two years ago, farmer Dennis Metz, 53, had a 1,500-acre wheat crop that was almost waist-high by this time. Last year too much rain and the mud punished his crop. This year, he has plowed under 90% of his planted acres and what wheat is left barely reaches the tops of his boots. The 1996 yield won’t be even a fourth of the 45 or more bushels per acre of 1994.

His family has farmed near Oxford for 125 years. It is the first time the Metz clan will not harvest a wheat crop.

The farm equipment dealer Metz trades with already is feeling the impact.

“It has put us behind on our parts payments,” said Charlotte Thiel, one of the owners at Sweetland-Hinson Equipment Co. in Winfield.

She said thousands of dollars worth of parts ordered in November are sitting on the shelves unneeded because farmers aren’t buying belts, bearings and other high-wear pieces they usually need during harvest.

She pointed to a $125,000 four-wheel drive tractor on display out front.

“How can you justify having no wheat and buying that?” she asked.

The more than two dozen grain elevators in Sumner County offer a total 25 million bushels of storage space. Like the others, the McDaniel Grain Inc. elevator in Rome is anything but bustling as harvest approaches.

Clay Whitmer, assistant manager, said it usually takes four or five extra workers to help handle harvest. Only two will probably be hired this year.

“The wheat’s not out there,” he said.

Weir thinks two consecutive years of poor wheat crops might be enough to get residents thinking seriously about diversification. Wheat accounts for 90% of crop sales in Sumner County and 60% of all farm commodity sales.

“If we have a bumper crop next year, it [the economy] won’t even come back next year,” Weir said. “Farmers need some time to catch up. We’re probably looking at a three-year program for things to level out.”