US Plains farmers brace for historically poor winter wheat harvest

Production prospects for the U.S. winter wheat crop are the worst in recent memory in core areas of the Great Plains following a three-year drought,
farmers and crop experts said.
“I don’t know how to put it into words how bad it is,” said farmer Gary Millershaski in southwest Kansas, among the areas hit hardest by drought. He expects to abandon 85% of his wheat acres and said this year’s harvest will be his farm’s smallest ever. Some seeds planted last fall barely emerged from parched, cracked soils.
A historically poor crop from the No. 5 wheat exporter leaves the world more vulnerable to shortages, with the future uncertain for a deal allowing the Black Sea export of Ukraine’s grain. U.S. wheat stocks are projected to fall to a nine-year low by June, and a smaller crop could result in higher bread and staple food prices.