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Wheat woes hit close to home

The U.S. winter wheat crop continues to struggle in drought conditions and it’s hitting close to home for Dana Peterson, CEO of the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG), who was in Kansas over Thanksgiving. 

“My family’s wheat crop looks extremely dry. You know, the wheat plants are very young. They’re running out of moisture and they’re starting to die,” she tells Brownfield Ag News.

Peterson says if the unseasonably warm weather continues, that’ll use up any moisture that’s in the soil, “We need the weather to cool off, to shut that plant down, let it go into dormancy for winter and then, hopefully, get some moisture over the winter time to revive that plant in the spring.”

Peterson says there are escalating concerns for wheat growers in Texas and Oklahoma who are going through a third and fourth year of drought, “Those farmers, in particular, we are very concerned about the impacts that production history has to their crop insurance, contracts that they’re purchasing to cover their risks.”

Forecasters say a cold front from Canada should bring a brief spell of cooler temperatures and some precipitation to the Midwest, East and Northern Plains.

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