One North Dakota man is seeing his wheat plants in the worst condition he's seen in almost three decades. But rather than wait until late July or early August, Robert Ferebee, decided last month to cut his losses and his fields.
Many farmers like Ferebee have decided to conclude their wheat because of the drought across the northern Great Plains. They see the crop as being more valuable as cattle feed than baker's flour.
The U.S. production was already expected to plunge this year because farmers had planted the fewest acres in a century, the drought did not help. "They're running out of options," Ryan Buetow, a cropping systems specialist with North Dakota State University in Dickinson said. "Yields are going to be so low that its not worth harvesting."
|
