Recent blizzards have potentially devastated the western Kansas wheat crop. This is significant because Kansas grew one of every five bushels of U.S. wheat last year. Its farmers specialize in winter wheat, which is planted in the fall, goes dormant during the winter and sprouts again in the spring. Winter wheat accounts for two thirds, or more, of the U.S. crop each year.
Source: Successful Farming, May 1, 2017.
Blizzard conditions and heavy snow swept western Kansas, including 14 to 20 inches in Colby in the northwestern quadrant of the No. 1 winter wheat state in the nation. “We lost the western Kansas wheat crop this weekend. Just terrible,” tweeted Justin Gilpin, chief executive of the grower-funded Kansas Wheat Commission.