First Scorched, Then Soaked: Weather Whiplash Confounds Farmers

This single field, just 160 acres of Kansas dirt, tells the story of a torturous wheat season.

One side is a drought-scorched graveyard for grain that never made it to harvest.

Near the center, combines plod through chest-high weeds and underwhelming patches of beige wheat, just enough of it to make a harvest worthwhile.

And over by the tree line, the most tantalizing wheat beckons like a desert mirage. The grain there is flourishing, the…