Canadian farmers go against the grain

Marty Jespersen, a fourth-generation farmer in southern Alberta, is plucking heads off stalks of his wheat crop, inspecting for bugs, fungus, and hail damage. The grasshoppers and ladybugs, harmless this time of year, are so thick that the entire field makes a constant zinging noise. After three days of temperatures above 30 Celsius, the field on his home quarter is waist-high and has turned golden.

“The heads aren’t big, but the head count – the density – is unbelievable,” he says. The crop could be the third-largest he’s ever harvested.