Bright Spot for Drought-Plagued US Wheat Crop Emerges in Illinois

  • Midwestern states grow more wheat after prices climbed
  • Traditional producing states are seeing low yields on dryness
Fields during the Illinois Wheat Association crop tour in Southern Illinois on May 24, 2023.Photographer: Tarso Veloso/Bloomberg
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Lush fields in Illinois are proving to be a rare bright spot for the US wheat crop after a severe drought forced growers in top producer Kansas to abandon fields at the fastest rate in more than a century.

Abundant rainfall has pushed Illinois yields to the highest everBloomberg Terminal, according to a crop tour this week hosted by the Illinois Wheat Association. That’s in stark contrast to Kansas, where plants are so withered that some fields won’t even produce straw for hay, much less wheat that will be turned into flour to make bread.