Kansas flatlander here. We grow a little wheat. And when I say little I mean little. In the 1970s if you went running across a mature wheat field it was waist high on any adult. Toddlers would not be tall enough to find their way thru it it was so tall.
A few decades later...
Here we are with custom GMO wheat that has been genetically modified to only grow to be about 16-18” tall. No more waste just growing the stalk saves more energy for stockpiling and putting the nutrients into the grain of the wheat. Handily it also fits perfectly with the new $2mil design of John Deere custom combine wheat cutters that cut fast and clean with the wheat growing right into the middle of the wheat combines new cutting blades! And Monsanto says “No problem!” with that fancy GMO’s wheat. As long as we got RoundUp and ‘rust” preventative when it rains too much, and center pivot irrigation systems to makeup for water loss, internally combusting fossil fuel machines we should have no problems helping the world feed its own.
The short variety is grown here, handy for farmers who don’t keep animals and therefore don’t need the straw.