Wheat Prices Soar
Thomas Murray’s family has worked this land in northwest Alabama for a century. He’s been farming since he dropped out of high school 30 years ago. Murray says cotton is in his blood, and corn too, but now he’s planting more than a third of his 800 acres with wheat.
“Because of the moisture. This wheat will grow this winter when we getting a little bit of rain.”
Like much of the Southeastern U.S., Alabama is gripped with a record drought. It crushed Murray’s cotton crop and a late freeze Easter weekend zapped the corn.
“Well we woke up, we had corn knee high. The next day it was flat. It just froze to death.”
Murray says he’s about $10,000 in the hole. To make ends meet he drives a school bus, harvests other people’s land, and hauls chicken litter. And he’s banking on the wheat that’s just poking up through the dried corn cobs that litter his fields.
Ironically, the bad weather that caused Murray’s troubles is also responsible for the record prices that might help save his farm. Joe Sowers is with the trade group US Wheat Associates. He says the high price is the result of growing demand and shrinking supply because of really bad weather around the world, including Australia.
“They’ve had two years of essentially biblical drought.”
Last year, Canada’s planting season was delayed because of rain, and Argentina had a late season freeze. This year, the weather is cooperating. Sowers says it’s been nearly ideal and farmers everywhere are planting wheat like crazy. In Alabama, the number of acres planted with wheat has doubled this year, leaving some like farmer Thomas Murray worried about the potential of falling prices.
“That’s what’s scared me, you know, everybody’s planted wheat. Everybody planted corn but the corn price didn’t fall. So maybe the wheat won’t fall. I hope it don’t. We all gonna be a mess if it does!”
Auburn University extension specialist Tim Reed says if farmers don’t make good money off this wheat crop some could go out of business.
“Farmers in this area are really facing a critical situation.”
And if wheat production goes down next year, consumers may pay even more for bread, cereal and cookies.
Take a look! ‘Reading Rainbow’ is back
Mychal Threets, a social media star librarian, is hosting the new iteration of the series. It's back for four episodes starting on Saturday.
Trump gives Hamas a ‘last chance’ deadline to agree to a peace plan with Israel
President Trump said that if Hamas does not agree to the 20-point plan, as presented by Israel and the U.S., then "all HELL, like no one has ever seen before, will break out against Hamas."
Mexico: The cumbia DJs of the streets
One of the most listened-to genres in the Americas, photographers and storytellers Karla Gachet and Ivan Kashinsky document cumbia in Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina and the United States.
AI’s getting better at faking crowds. Here’s why that’s cause for concern
Odd fingers and faces in the crowd of a recent Will Smith concert video led to suspicions of AI. But AI is improving fast, and there are serious implications for how "fake" crowds might be coopted.
Karoline Leavitt says White House must cut spending due to shutdown
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says the Trump administration has to look at ways to "save money in a responsible way that respects the American taxpayer's money" during shutdown.
Sarah Mullally named first woman Archbishop of Canterbury
Sarah Mullally has been named as the new Archbishop of Canterbury, becoming the first woman to be chosen to lead the world's 85 million Anglicans.
