Wheat crop thrives amid Chicago-area McMansions

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Call it the Windy City wheat crop.

It's a long way from the U.S. wheat heartland states of Kansas or North Dakota, but farmers in suburban DuPage County, Illinois, 30 miles west of Chicago, chose to grow wheat this year -- not corn or soybeans -- in some of the area's few remaining farm fields, ringed by "McMansions."

And with harvest about a week away, this year's crop is looking good.

"Most of what I've seen and heard about seems like it's in fairly good condition. Harvest is probably going to take place close to the Fourth of July," said Mike Ashby, general manager of the DuPage County Farm Bureau.

Farmers in Illinois grow soft red winter wheat, but mostly much further south in the state where it can be cut early and soybeans then planted in behind the wheat each summer.

In fact, the U.S. Department of Agriculture stopped measuring DuPage County's planted wheat acreage after 1994, when it fell to 600 acres.

Ashby guessed the county's farmers planted less than 300 acres of wheat this year, most of which survived a widespread April frost that hurt crops farther south. With wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade up near 11-year highs, its return will help pay the bills, too.

"It's a good crop that's going to bring some income in the middle of the summer," he said.

Soft red winter wheat, planted in the autumn, is milled into flour for cookies and snack foods.