This should be the start of the driest time of year in Kansas. Instead, one of the rainiest Octobers on record brought big delays for farmers harvesting soybeans. That was followed by early snow -- a freezing mess that means a lot of crops are still stuck in the field.
Bloomberg reports that's especially bad news for farmers who seed the same areas with winter wheat once the soy is cleared. The ground is too wet for planting. It’s bitterly cold, and there’s more snow on the way.
Winter wheat planting in Kansas, the top U.S. grower, is running more than 10 percentage points behind the historical average for this time of year. For a lot of farmers, things have gotten so bad they’re just going to give up on trying to sow their remaining acres, according to Aaron Harries, the vice president of research and operations at growers’ group Kansas Wheat.
Read the full report here.
