Kansas No Longer Leads Nation In Wheat Production

A new government ranking shows Kansas no longer leads the nation in wheat production after the drought-plagued 2014 crop.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service reported Friday that the state has dropped to second behind North Dakota in wheat production. Kansas farmers brought in just 246.4 million bushels of wheat during last year’s drought. The state grew 12.2 percent of the nation’s wheat that year.

The only farm commodity where Kansas still ranks first in production is sorghum for grain. The state grew 199.8 million bushels of sorghum last year, accounting for more than 46 percent of the nation’s crop.

Kansas has 28.5 million acres of cropland, the second highest acreage in the nation and 7.3 percent of the U.S. total.