http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-05/wheat-fields-wilt-in-drought-as-parched-earth-spreads-from-china-to-kansas.html
Wheat Fields Wilt in Drought as Parched Earth Spreads From China to Kansas
By Luzi Ann Javier, Madelene Pearson and Whitney McFerron - Jun 6, 2011 7:17 AM ET
The worst droughts in decades are wilting wheat fields from China to the U.S. to the U.K., overwhelming Russia’s return to grain markets and driving prices to the highest levels since 2008.
Parts of China, the biggest grower, had the least rain in a century, some European regions are the driest in 50 years and almost half the winter-wheat crop in the U.S., the largest exporter, is rated poor or worse. Inventory is dropping 8.8 percent, the most in five years, .....
.....“In 32 years, I’ve never seen so many problems in so many places,” said Dan Basse, the president of AgResource Co., a farm researcher in Chicago.....
....France had its driest spring in 50 years, and April in the U.K. was the hottest in 352 years, forecasters in those countries have said.
“I’ve been farming here for 30 years and it’s the worst I’ve ever seen,” said Robert Law, 53, who cultivates about 5,000 acres of grain in Hertfordshire, England. “The drought has definitely gone on longer than we’ve ever had before.”.....
...About 44 percent of the U.S. winter-wheat crop was in poor or very poor condition by May 29, the USDA said. Rainfall in the previous two months was less than half of normal in much of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, the biggest producers of winter varieties, the National Weather Service estimates.
“On these windy days, there’s just dirt in the air and the sky is brown,” said David Cleavinger, 53, who farms 3,500 acres in Wildorado, Texas, and already lost about half of his 1,200 acres of wheat....
....Rain is delaying the planting of spring wheat in North Dakota and Montana. Plantings may be more than a million acres below what the USDA estimates,....
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