Drought forces Kansas farmers to abandon wheat fields
Extreme drought in Kansas: economic losses for farmers
Gabriel Thomas (GT)May 9, 2025
Due to a severe drought and devastating cold, farmers in Kansas, the largest wheat producer in the U.S., have decided to abandon their crops. During a three-day tour of the state, Reuters found that they are deliberately spraying weedkillers on wheat fields and increasingly claiming insurance benefits, assuming the crop is no longer profitable. Other farmers are abandoning their barren-looking fields to grazing cattle.
Field abandonment will result in lower wheat supplies in the U.S., one of the world's largest wheat exporters. Stocks are expected to fall to their lowest level in 16 years. The high rate of abandonment is placing an economic burden on rural communities and forcing wheat buyers to adjust their procurement plans and purchase the staple elsewhere.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 33% of winter wheat growers nationwide plan to abandon planted acreage - the highest percentage since World War I.
In Kansas, about 19% of fall-planted acres are expected to be abandoned, up from 10% last year and 4% in 2021. However, farmers, grain handlers and representatives of major food companies who participated in an annual harvest tour last week warn of an even higher percentage of unharvested acres.
Harvest conditions point to a result similar to 1989, when farmers failed to harvest 28% of the wheat grown, said Justin Gilpin, executive director of the Kansas Wheat Commission and one of the tour leaders.
"We have a wheat crop that hasn't come up," he said.
The soaring price of hay is also putting pressure on wheat farmers not to use their fields to harvest grain, but to feed hay to livestock, Gilpin said.
According to the latest monthly government forecast, Kansas farmers are expected to produce only 191.4 million bushels of wheat this year, the smallest amount since 1963, and Wheat Quality Council tour participants are projecting an even smaller crop of 178 million bushels.
Uncertainty about the size of the crop centers mainly on how much land will be abandoned. Some farmers will plant sorghum in place of dead wheat in the spring to make another attempt at grain production.
Insurance providers need to survey fields before crops are destroyed or abandoned, and appraisers are busy inspecting fields.
Frahm Farmland, a major grain producer in Colby, western Kansas, expects to fail to harvest about 47% of about 9,500 acres (38.45 square kilometers) of wheat fields, according to Christian Wilson, who is in charge of field operations and agronomy.
In Lakin, southwest Kansas, at least 60% of the crop is expected to be abandoned, said Gary Millershaski, a farmer and scout on the tour.
PureField Ingredients, operator of a wheat protein plant in Russell, Kansas, will have to buy wheat from other parts of the state because of the high abandonment in western Kansas, said Evan Backhus, commodity manager.
Farmers choosing to abandon crops have done so after seeing their fields struggle during the month-long growing season.
"It's a little bit like watching a loved one suffer from a terminal illness," said Clay Schemm, a farmer in Sharon Springs, Kansas, near the Colorado border.
Parts of Oklahoma are also suffering. In six northern counties, 65% to 70% of the crop is expected not to be harvested, said Mike Schulte, executive director of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission.
While farmers get some financial protection through insurance, local businesses are at risk if acreage is abandoned because fewer harvester crews come to the region and spend less money at restaurants and hotels there, Schulte said.
The poor harvest could result in Kansas State University's College of Agriculture receiving less funding than usual from the Kansas Wheat Commission, which is funded by wheat sales, Dean Ernie Minton said.
"We may not be able to do as much," Minton said. "It slows down the whole life cycle of wheat research."
