Kansas wheat farmers face a tougher future as climate change ramps up dry, hot, windy weather

A new study from Kansas State University researchers is the first to measure how a changing climate is hurting wheat production in the Great Plains. And it points to a future with more extreme heat, drought and wind.
HAYS, Kansas — It’s been a rough year for the Wheat State’s trademark crop.

This resilient plant is a fighter. But even for a grain that’s seemingly built to succeed on these unforgiving plains, the ongoing drought tests its limits.

Wheat farmers, like Chris Tanner in northwest Kansas, feel the roller coaster.

“It can be very, very bountiful or it can be the complete polar opposite and be a famine,” Tanner said. “You have to learn how to weather those storms in life.”

Recently, those storms have been closer to a Dust Bowl than a deluge.