By Mike Surbrugg

msurbrugg@joplinglobe.com

COLUMBUS, Kan. — The region’s wheat crop is drowning after recent heavy rains.

“The sad part is the price is good, and we have nothing to sell,” said Bob Epler, a Columbus farmer, who summed up what wheat farmers across the region face this year.

Wheat on Wednesday was posted at more than $5 per bushel at area elevators on a day when the harvest should be in full swing.

Rather than scrambling to keep up with the flow of wheat from farms to bins, elevator operators were far from busy.

Mark Maneval, of Jasper, Mo., said his grain elevator was void of incoming wheat Wednesday. In a normal year, it would have been extremely busy, he said.

In addition to soggy grain fields, a lot of hay has been cut and must dry before it can be baled. Baling improves the quality. A short wheat crop also means little straw.

“Our farmers continue to be in a fight-to-survive mode,” Maneval said, noting that drought was the problem in 2005 and 2006.

Said Epler: “We are as close to next to nothing as you can get. We have all the water we need. We had very little (wheat) to start with and even less now, and what was left is going down (because of the rain).”

Epler Farms has managed to get some wheat harvested. The best field produced 19 bushels per acre, he said.

A normal yield is 50 bushels per acre, and newer wheat varieties can produce up to 70 bushels per acre, Epler said. The weather normally cooperates by not sending a killer freeze in early April, following by flooding in June.

Farmers and grain buyers alike are aware that every day that passes gives diseases more time to cause more losses in wheat. And, warm, humid weather can cause wheat heads to sprout.

Disease damage and sprouting further lower the price for wheat.

Many farmers plant soybeans in fields where wheat has been harvested. Epler said that as of Thursday, his farm was not far behind in terms of getting soybeans planted.