Hutchinson ? It is aptly called the Pride of Kansas Building, the place where the state’s agricultural industry takes center stage.

This is where visitors to the Kansas State Fair can find the famed butter sculptures, as well as this year’s record-breaking watermelon that weighs in at 184 1/2 pounds. Farm groups and state agricultural agencies alike set up their booths here.

But the story of this year’s drought-plagued harvest is perhaps best told by the empty display tables in the farm crops division.

Entries in the wheat, sorghum, corn and hay contests are down by half this year, said Gary Kilgore, a Chanute farmer and Kansas State University agronomist who judges that competition. Most years they have close to 1,200 entries; this year they may have 600 entries.

“It directly reflects the weather on our farm crops,” he said.

Most years, farmers can get a good sample for the contest by picking 20 heads of grain sorghum and bringing in the best five. This year, farmers probably had to pick 200 heads of sorghum before finding five good enough to display at the fair, Kilgore said.

“I am proud of the farmers who made an exhibit out of a depressing situation,” he said. “To look at the exhibits you wouldn’t know we have a drought, except the numbers are down.”

The drought has severely hurt farm incomes, and fewer producers will have the money for a trip to the state fair, Kilgore said. That’s bound to hurt some businesses that cater to farmers at the fair, he said.