Wheat Harvest Cursed By Drought
By Ron Jackson, The Daily Oklahoman
May 20–Farmers see nation’s security at stake in feeding consumers
FREDERICK — Silence at the Cassidy Grain Co. elevator spoke volumes Friday morning.
Co-owners Brent and Mike Cassidy heard no rumble of idling wheat trucks lined up on Dahlia Street. Nor did they hear the usual buzz of farmers at the company office checking on wheat prices or their final bushel count.
Instead, they heard nothing, save for the soft conversation of each other and the sound of country music quietly emanating from the office radio.
“It’s like a ghost town around here right now,” Brent Cassidy said from an empty warehouse bay. “And this is supposed to be the middle of harvest.”
Majority stored for seed A few miles away, at another Cassidy elevator in Hollister, the front office was vacant. Their third elevator, north in Manitou, is closed this season.
Mike Cassidy shook his head and grimaced. Then he grinned.
“Normally, we’d have trucks lined up outside for two or three blocks waiting to unload their grain,” he said. “I’d be running back and forth, testing the wheat and directing people where to unload.
“But right now, I’m afraid it looks like the harvest has ended before it even started. This is a disaster. Now, we’re a year away from another wheat harvest.”
In an average year, the Cassidy brothers receive 200 truckloads of wheat per day during harvest. They have received 50 truck loads since Tuesday, the majority of which has been stored for seed.
Fuel, fertilizer costs cited Experts predict the rest of Oklahoma’s harvest won’t be much better, thanks to an historic drought that parched the plains most of the winter. Wheat fields throughout Tillman County were cursed by short growth and large patches of dirt where seeds never took root.
“My custom harvesters tell me they expect the harvest to be patchy all the way to Kansas,” said Buddy Treadwell, a farmer who runs a large operation east of Frederick.
Treadwell planted 6,000 acres of wheat this season. He will harvest only 1,100 acres. The rest has been filed on his drought insurance.
“The wheat we harvest will be put back into the storage bins for seed,” Treadwell said. “That’s the only reason we’re harvesting at all. Very little wheat from this area will go to the elevator.
Treadwell hopes fellow Americans are watching.
“This has been a tough year out here for us with rising fuel and fertilizer costs,” Treadwell said. “Then the drought. Our government seems really concerned about national security thousands of miles away. But agriculture and the crops we plant feed the people of the U.S.
“I’d say this is our national security right here.”
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Copyright (c) 2006, The Daily Oklahoman
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