Kernza covered just 3,511 acres (1,421 hectares) in the US last year against 37.2 million acres (15.1 million hectares) of wheat — but after the drought that hammered the southern Plains, farmers who had their worst harvest in a decade are taking a hard look at it.

Bryce Black, a fourth-generation farmer in Beloit, Kansas, harvested about 1,500 of his 1,800 planted acres (607 of 728 hectares) of winter wheat this season. It was his lowest yield since he took over the family's 4,500-acre (1,821 hectare) operation in 2017.

"It was just a grit your teeth and get through it type of deal," Black said. "It is disheartening, you know? And it's kind of hard to know what to do."

Why are farmers looking at perennial grains?

Perennials skip the yearly plow-plant-harvest cycle. Roots run several feet deep, reaching moisture that annuals cannot, which carries the crop through short-term drought. The same root mass absorbs heavy rain that would otherwise run off and erode soil.

Black is already weighing the economics.

"I'm in survival mode," he said. "If you can plant something and then you don't have to go back for four or five years … that would save so much money, so much labor, everything."

A 2024 United Nations report estimates soil degradation could cost the global economy more than $20 trillion by 2050. Laura van der Pol, lead soil ecologist at The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas, argues perennials are the only route to keeping farmland productive long-term.

"Incorporating perennials into our agriculture seems like really the only option to have soil for generations if we want to continue to grow food," van der Pol said.

What does growing Kernza actually look like?

David Mueller planted his first 12-acre (5 hectare) Kernza field five years ago near Halstead, Kansas, and now grows nearly 100 acres (40 hectares) of it alongside roughly 600 acres (243 hectares) each of corn and soybeans. He targets it at ground with drainage problems or low organic matter.

He says Kernza needs about a third of the fertilizer wheat requires, and because it is planted once every few years, he runs less fuel-burning equipment across the field.

"Not only are we able to utilize those acres profitably, but then we also build up that soil and work on some benefits to make it hopefully profitable to raise other crops on those fields in the future," Mueller said.

The Land Institute began formally domesticating Kernza in 2001; the first farm harvest came in 2010. The institute also works on perennial wheat, rice, sorghum and oilseeds, and farmers in Southeast Asia and parts of Africa have already planted perennial rice.

What are the agronomic hurdles?

Kernza yields run about 20 to 40% of a comparable wheat crop, according to Lee DeHaan, who leads the institute's Kernza domestication program. The plant splits its energy between seed and the roots it needs to survive multiple years.

Cornell University research adds two more constraints: weed competition in the establishment year, and seeding rates still being optimized. Matthew Ryan, a sustainable cropping professor at Cornell, also notes the grain is smaller than wheat, and machinery settings must be adapted to avoid damaging the kernel at harvest. Yields on perennial rice, by contrast, are similar to annual rice.

Can the market carry the crop?

Brandon Schlautman, a scientist and farmer at Sustain-a-Grain, a Kernza seed supplier and distributor, says he turns away almost all farmers who want to grow it because the market is not developed enough.

"What farmers really need is access to the product or the grain itself," Schlautman said. "And stable markets that allow them to grow Kernza and sell it profitably and sustainably."

Mueller contracts with Sustain-a-Grain, which sells him seed and buys back his crop at a fixed price. Kernza can fetch 5 to 10 times the price per pound of wheat — a premium that offsets the yield gap, though pricing low enough to reach mainstream consumers remains the central problem.

Aaron Gaeddert, owner of Prairy in Newton, Kansas, has stocked Kernza flour, baking mixes and beer for three or four years. "We still have customers that shop here all the time who don't know what Kernza is," he said, adding that bigger industry players will need to adopt the grain for it to scale.

Federal policy compounds the risk: traditional crops draw bridge payments and other USDA support, while land values and operating loans hinge on what a farmer grows. Perennial grains currently sit outside that safety net.

Watch for new, higher-yielding Kernza varieties from The Land Institute's program, further Cornell work on establishment and seeding rates, and any signal from major food companies that would open a stable, scaled market for the grain.