agriculture

When the wind comes whipping down the plain, Neeeebraska. yup, not Oklahoma., but western Nebraska near Palisade.

Some people consider us a fly over state without much scenery, but I would argue there is something amazing at every turn, if you just know what to look for and why it’s important.

For example after stopping at this field you can hear a rustling sound as wind blows through the dry wheat. There is an illusion of waves moving across the prairie in an endless roll, never hitting the shore.

The wheat may look soft, but the heads and beards are actually quite coarse. Pick off a spike and break off one of the 30-50 kernals, rub it between your fingers and inside is a single grain of wheat. Put it in your mouth to taste the nutty taste. Look out across the horizon at the old abandoned homestead and the clouds rolling by, sigh. It’s peaceful, yet not quiet as the wave roll in the background. It’s soothing.

From this field of over 640 acres comes bushels of wheat which will be made into bread that you will pick up in your supermarket for just one dollar. The farmer was paid less than 0.05 for that loaf.

Other Ag Facts About wheat

America’s Bread Basket

• Each American consumers, on average, 53 pounds of bread per year.
• Assuming a sandwich was eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner, it would take 168 days to eat the amount of bread produced from one bushel of wheat.
• A family of four could live for 10 years off the bread produced by one acre of wheat.
• One bushel of wheat will produce 73 one-pound loaves of bread.
• In 1997, Kansas‘s wheat farmers produced enough wheat to make 36.5 billion loaves of bread, or enough to provide each person on earth with 6 loaves of bread.
• Farmers receive approximately 5 cents (or less) from each loaf of bread sold.

Want to follow a wheat harvesting family? Head over to Nebraska Wheatie

Related articles

• June Wheat (smalltownnebraska.wordpress.com)
• Bring on the Heat! (nebraskawheatie.com)
• Early wheat harvest is on the way in Oklahoma (newsok.com)