Hutchinson ? Farmers are worried that the same dry weather that reduced wheat yields also could harm this fall’s crops.

“We’re just waiting on rain,” said Brett Myers, executive vice president of the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers. “Places that didn’t get it before still aren’t getting a lot. It could get very serious.”

The drought already has begun to stunt the growth of dryland corn in western Kansas.

Topsoil moisture in the southwest was 67 percent very short and 33 percent short at the beginning of this week. And there was no adequate topsoil moisture in the area, compared to last year’s 33 percent adequate moisture, according to the Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service.

Despite the drought conditions, the Agriculture Statistics Service said that the majority of the fall crops were listed in good or fair condition. Seventy-six percent of the state’s corn crop landed in those two categories, as did 80 percent of sorghum and 85 percent of soybeans.