Farmers

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.

Greg Brenneman has lived on a farm his whole life. "It is a business, but it's still a way of life and I guess that's what we really relish--being out here in the rural community, enjoying that way of life," Brenneman said. As a farmer, he understands the importance of loans to his business. "Your input costs are high," Brenneman said. "Just about everyone has to borrow some type of money. " Brenneman says that it's expensive equipment, like self-propelled sprayers and combines, that make loans very important to farmers.

For more than 30 years Pete Meagher has been working on a farm. This year he considers himself lucky. "There are people saying that they don't even know if they have wheat out there.” Meagher says he’s fortunate to have any wheat crop growing. Adding that high winds, and little to no precipitation have been a dangerous combination for the wheat crop. Farmers have been on high alert following a summer with record high temperatures.   "It’s getting to the point where if you don’t get your wheat off to a good start then you won’t have a good finish.

A light winter and early warm-up put this season's wheat crop on the fast track. After drought conditions dealt farmers a blow last season, they're hoping things are better this year. Larry Breer has worked for over 50 years on a farm on the eastside of Salina. Breer adds he's never seen a wheat crop quite like the one that is coming into season. "It stayed green all winter and of course we had very little snow cover here", says Breer. The farmer adds that the unseasonably warm temperatures and decent moisture have produced a lush wheat crop; the problem is that it's coming in fast...a little too fast.

"Monsanto's not been very popular in the farming community," said Curt Hoobler, a Kansas farmer. Farmers like the high tech seeds Monsanto provides, but not all the rules that come with them.  One farmer from Indiana is taking his case against those rules to the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday.  He says he should be able to save seeds from one crop to plant a new one.     Curt Hoobler has farmed in Kansas for more than 35 years.  He...

For Salina farmer Clayton Short it's hardly business as usual around his farm. "Everything is just a little bit different", says Short.   And it's all because of the unusually warm temperatures around Kansas this winter. The talk around the farming community is one of a concerned tone, farmers say last year's dry winter was bad enough...two dry winters in a row could be very damaging for crops needing moisture. "That's the biggest conversation is that it's very tough to handle back to back dry years”, added Short.

Crops in many parts of Barton and Ellsworth counties couldn't look worse after Wednesday's storms. Dennis Boxberger says just a few days ago his wheat in northwest Barton County was looking good. "About waste high. Now it's less than knee high. " Three inches of rain and golf-ball sized hail took what should have been 40 to 50 bushels per acre, down to zero. "It makes you sick. The way the price and stuff is. The fuel and fertilizer. You wait all year and then get something like this," Boxberger said.

Ashley M. Stone A Marriage Made In Heaven             Most people who have an insatiable passion for food love watching their favorite chefs create tasteful masterpieces on the Food Network.  A new series on the Food Network titled "Chefography" takes an in-depth look at famous chefs' lives, including Bobby Flay, Emeril Lagasse, Giada De Laurentiis, and Mario Batali.             Although Wichita does not have any chefs appearing on "Chefography," the Kansas Grown Farmers' Market has a great biography much like that of the Food Network Stars, making its debut and premiere in June of 1990.

(WICHITA, Kan.) Wednesday's chill didn't keep Kansas farmers out of the fields. A mild and wet fall extended the harvest, and many still have weeks to go. The rumble of a combine is something you expect to hear in the summer, or the fall; not the same month you celebrate Christmas. "Normally we're finished and have everything put away by mid-November," said farmer Mike Weber. "So, almost a month behind schedule. " He looked at the sun dropping in the sky. "This time of year, days are short.

(GARDEN PLAIN, Kan) Less than three weeks ago, farmers were struggling. Dry, cracked soil made the outlook for unplanted crops, and planted crops, pretty bleak. "We're better off than we were two weeks ago because we've got the adequate moisture for now. " Wheat fields are beginning to turn color, and for farmer and State Representative Dan Kerschen, that's a relief. "We're looking at maybe average. It won't be a tremendous crop but it's definitely better than what we had started out with.