While the Northern Plains endured wintery conditions this week, up to 90 mile per hour wind gusts moved through the Central Plains on Wednesday, impacting winter wheat. Kansas Wheat CEO Justin Gilpin called this a historic event. “There was lots of blowing dirt. We’re getting lots of reports about two to three feet drifts of dirt in fields. It’s covering some wheat fields and blowing dirt out of fields. Then, there’s an effect when you have blowing dirt at high winds like that. It creates static electricity that can really impact the vulnerable parts of the wheat plant. After those reports, I think farmers will be thinking about whether or not they’ll be sticking with those crops in the next few weeks.” Stanton County, Kansas farmer Bart Parks told the Kansas Agriculture Network the little stuff (wheat) got hammered. “Nothing looks great. Wednesday was hard on everything.” Photo credit: Bart Parks, wheat grower in Stanton County, Kansas
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