Hiya Birdman, last year at this time the drought hadn't lasted as long as this winter and so there was some sub soil moisture still in the ground over the winter months. Wheat is a pretty hardy weed and can survive as long as there is sub soil moisture and timely rains. This winter is different because there is no sub soil moisture at all and have been no rains or snow to speak of over most of the bread basket for many, many months. I just read today on the interweb that they just declared 77 counties in Kansas a crop disaster for winter wheat. At my house last Thurs or Friday the relative humidity was 2% LOL. Yeah, TWO PERCENT, that's pretty damn dry.