Farmers

David Heiens' fields are blanketed with snow, but it's not enough to cure the drought problem the agriculture industry faces. "A farmer needs to kind of plan ahead and make lemonade out of lemons," Heiens said. The kind of help farmers may receive because of the drought conditions are now complicated by recent developments to the Farm Bill. Congress renewed parts of the 2008 Farm Bill during their 'fiscal cliff' negotiations. The extension is for nine months. Click for Full Text of Bill Heiens says he thinks consumers will see the biggest increase in prices of meat, with the drought driving up feed prices.

Dozens of farmers gathered in Garden Plain Thursday for an auction. They are investing in their futures, while the future of their crops remains unknown. "It's tough some days, I'll tell you that," said Farmer Mark Wells. Life as a farmer can sometimes be a gamble. "We've had a two day auction and the weather has been difficult to deal with, but it's just one of those things that went along with farming," said farm owner Beverly Rausch. When your livelihood depends on the weather, you have to be understanding.

Harvest time is often the busiest time of year for farm families.  So, when Raymond Rosenhagen, a community leader and farmer in the Cheney area, died unexpectedly two weeks ago, the community decided to pay him back for his years of public service. Today, Rosenhagen's friends gathered at the family farm to honor him. “Some of the neighbors in the area gave me a call.  Said, uh, 'Hey, we're interested in helping Raymond cut his wheat.  What can we do?'”  Tim Rosenhagen, a family cousin and organizer of Tuesday's events, explained how it all got started.

"We're about where we thought we would be, except for a couple of day delay. " John Blankenship is in the homestretch. He started cutting his Cowley County wheat about a week and half ago, and it's really been hit or miss when it comes to his yields. "I haven't had any wheat that's really been worse than I thought it would be, which is surprising because it's been very dry since last fall. " He's says he's been getting anywhere from the low 30's the mid 60's when it comes to bushels per acre - or just below average to well above.

Hummus sales are up and so are the prices for chickpeas. Farmers in the heart of tobacco country are trying to grow chickpeas, a move that reflects booming demand for the seemingly more-healthful snack. Sabra Dipping Co., who manufactures and packages hummus, wants to cultivate a commercial crop in Virginia to reduce its dependence on the legume's main U.S. growing region-the Pacific Northwest-and to identify new chickpea varieties for its dips and spreads. For hummus maker, Sabra, a secondary source of supplies could help protect the company and others if a chickpea shortage happened because of crop failures in Washington or Idaho.

Dismal prices at country elevators have many farmers pissing in their cornflakes. At least those who eat cornflakes instead of wheat crisps. Farmers in central Kansas are seeing average cash prices ranging from $3.60 to $4 a bushel.

It started with a simple question, 'Why not?'  Now a Hutchinson woman's question is connecting farmers, ranchers and other members of the agricultural world online. It's called FarmTime . "It's been a lot of fun, actually," said Angie Bergmeier. FarmTime is a social networking site specifically for farmers. "When I say farmers, I'm talking about ranchers, all the people in the agriculture world," said Bergmeier. After watching everyone connecting on Facebook and Twitter, Bergmeier came up with the idea for FarmTime because of what she was hearing from farmers around her. "They talked about how they used to go to the coffee shop and how they used to communicate all the time.  Well, they just don't have time to do that anymore," said Bergmeier.  "And I was just thinking, why not create a social network site for farmers?"

After a dry winter and summer, Kansas wheat farmers expected a poor crop when harvest time came around this year.  But, they've been pleasantly surprpised. "Well you hope for 60. that's what you hope for, I think they call that the benchmark weight," said Stan Michael from his Kiowa farm. " It's a lot better than I thought it would be, you know the yield so far for me is in the mid 40's and test wheat has been 62, 63 pounds so better than I was expecting. " Farmers are cutting about three weeks early this year.

Six weeks ago they were harvesting a bumper wheat crop.  Now, the tables have turned on Kansas farmers. Farmers have gone from above normal moisture to drought conditions and persistent triple-digit heat.  That spells trouble for fall crops like corn and soybeans.  However, after last year's record drought that completely wiped out many fields, farmers like Ian Parker near Mulvane say it could be worse. "The yields are going to definitely be better than last year," Parker says.  "It's the card you get dealt, and you have to stay positive.  Every day you are closer to a rain.

Many farmers are having to sacrifice their corn crop due to the drought and hot weather. Some are selling it off for cattle feed. "People are willing to buy it because they need the feed and simply because the pastures are drying up," said Mick Rausch, a farmer in Garden Plain. "Everything is just drying up and we're not able to get the crops we'd like to get. " Rausch says he and other farmers were expecting a good crop this summer because the spring had plenty of rain. But instead, his corn is stunted because the rains stopped at a critical time in the corn's growth.  "It's effecting everything.