Sodden wheat lies flat in fields across southern Kansas. Insurance companies are writing off acreage as total losses. Test weights for the few truckloads of grain straggling into area elevators are awful. And it is still sprinkling.The start of the 2007 Kansas wheat harvest will long be remembered for its shattered prospects. After seven years of drought, the wet winter and even wetter spring had nourished a crop that once promised a bin-busting harvest. But that was before the Easter weekend freeze, before the disease pressure, before the insect infestations and the heavy rains. Before the floods.
But there is a bright side for farmers. While the untimely rains at harvest time have wreaked havoc on the Kansas wheat crop, the moisture has helped spring-planted crops like corn, soybeans and sorghum thrive.