WICHITA, Kan. (AP) Kansas growers have planted fewer acres for their 2013 winter wheat crop amid widespread drought conditions and lack of soil moisture.
The National Agricultural Statistics Service reported Friday that Kansas farmers planted 9.3 million acres of wheat last fall for harvest in 2013. That is down 2 percent from the 9.5 million acres planted in the state the previous year.
Nationwide, winter wheat seeded for 2013 is expected to total 41.8 million acres, or up 1 percent.
But hard red winter wheat, the type grown in Kansas, is down about 2 percent nationwide with just 29.1 million acres seeded.
The agency says growers in Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas planted significantly more acres. The numbers of wheat acres declined in Colorado, Montana and the Dakotas as well as Kansas.
