Farmers Are Feeling The Pain As Drought Spreads In The Northwest
Nicole Berg s stunted wheat field is so short and sparse she doesn t think the combine can even reach the wheat without, as she puts it, eating rocks. Combines don t like dirt and rocks, Berg says, standing amid the damaged rows. They get indigestion.
Berg is a dryland wheat farmer in the sweeping Horse Heaven Hills of southeastern Washington state. She shows off one head of half-turned golden wheat amid a sea of them. Besides being too short, the plant s kernels didn t fill out properly. See how the wheat head is curled like that? Berg points out. And then you break into it, you might have some berries down here, but this will be empty. There is no wheat inside the wheat head.
Anna King calls Richland, Washington home and loves unearthing great stories about people in the Northwest. She reports for the Northwest News Network from
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It s as dry as it s been in a century in parts of Washington and Oregon. Some farmers are watching their crops fail, while others are selling cattle because they don t have the grass to feed it.
• 48 minutes ago
Nicole Berg s stunted wheat field is so short and sparse she doesn t think the combine can even reach the wheat without, as she puts it, eating rocks. Combines don t like dirt and rocks, Berg says, standing amid the damaged rows. They get indigestion.
Berg is a dryland wheat farmer in the sweeping Horse Heaven Hills of southeastern Washington state. She shows off one head of half-turned golden wheat amid a sea of them. Besides being too short, the plant s kernels didn t fill out properly.