Wheat yields are above average

MOSES LAKE - Adams County dryland farmers reported above average yields this week with between 50 to 70 bushels per acre for soft white winter wheat.

MOSES LAKE - Adams County dryland farmers reported above average yields this week with between 50 to 70 bushels per acre for soft white winter wheat.

Bill Schillinger, of Washington State University's Lind Dryland Research Station, said Thursday the area received above average rain last spring "that really helped."

"Yields were overall quite good," he explained. "On the down side, some had some stand establishment problems last fall with winter wheat. Some got frosted."

He was referring to the areas of Lind, Odessa, Ritzville and Connell, which "overall had the best grain yield for many, many years."

Further south, near Patterson, located 30 miles west of the Tri-Cities, Nicole Berg-Tobin grows dryland and irrigated wheat with her father, grandfather and brothers.

They are done with harvest and received slightly below average yields.

In May, before the rains came, Berg-Tobin said they were looking at a complete and total crop failure.

"I even called the crop insurance gentleman to file a claim," she said. "I didn't think I was going to cut my wheat."

More than three inches of rain fell from the first part of May and continued in June.

"It happened to be the timing was perfect," she said. "It's the farming game, I don't need to go to Vegas."

Another issue she's seen are grower discounts of 90 cents per bushel because of protein levels falling below 11.5 percent.

Connell grower Chris Herron said he finished harvest Wednesday night with an above average yield for his hard red winter wheat.

The year started dry with last fall's planting. The area received two wind storms, some cold weather and a drought this spring, he said.

Farmers located further north received more benefits of the extra rain.

Low protein levels didn't affect his operation, he said.

Protein is a function of nitrogen utilization and availability, which is a function of management, Herron added.

"You have to stay on top of it," Herron said. "Irrigated, same thing, dryland, same thing. It may require extra applications of nitrogen."

It costs money to operate an airplane and a tractor to apply nitrogen.

"That's the risk people are willing to take," Herron said. "I don't seem to have trouble."

Further north in Grant County, Jerry Emerson, chief financial officer of McKay Seed in Moses Lake and Hartline, said harvest started July 29 for their growers and continues this week.

"In general, harvest is later than usual because of the moisture and late spring," Emerson said.

Yields are above average for McKay Seeds growers located in Grant, Lincoln and Whitman counties.

A small percentage of growers lost crops because of hail and rain near Hartline.

Some growers who closely follow the market are talking of selling their grain early, Emerson said.

Washington Grain Commission spokesperson Scott Yates said the wheat harvest is going very well.

A staff member at the Lind Dryland Research Center told Yates growers are having the best yields since 1997.

Yields are looking good, but some growers are seeing the wheat disease stripe rust, which costs $20 per acre to fight.

"Harvest is very much behind schedule," Yates said. "Ordinarily, this time, as of Tuesday, the wheat harvest was about 40 percent complete and normally, harvest is about 60 percent complete."

The cool spring and wet weather contributed to the delay.

Spring harvest is even further behind with less than 40 percent completion and is just now getting off the ground, he said.

At some point, student truck drivers will return to high school and college

"It might be a problem to find truck drivers to help with harvest," Yates said.

Regarding the world market, Russia is banning wheat exports from Aug. 15 until October or later in the year because of the country's drought.

"It's a real shock to the wheat system," Yates said. "Not that supplies aren't adequate, but Egypt had imports lined up through Russia and the Black Sea. Scrambling for new suppliers puts pressure on the market."

He reiterated there is enough wheat in the world at this time.

In 2008, there wasn't enough wheat in the world and the price went up.

"This time, it's more of a shock situation," Yates said.

Russia is experiencing its worst drought in 50 years and wants to make sure it has enough wheat before exporting.

The U.S. won't close its doors in 2010 and it didn't in 2008.

Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine have cheap wheat, but their situation isn't as dependable.

The U.S. will benefit this year, he said.

To sell their product, farmers market their wheat in different ways.

Some sell their wheat off the combine and figure it doesn't make a whole lot of difference when they market it.

Some have precise plans, deciding to market some at harvest and another portion a month later.

Others sold all of the grain from this harvest when markets were higher, he explained.

Despite that fact, a farmer might have sold his grain several months ago because $5 per bushel was a good price at the time.