Bringing In The Grain Bumper Crop Awaits Eastern Washington Farmers, But Cool, Wet Spring Pushes Back The Start Of Harvest

This was the year to do wheat.

Most of the state’s 2.25 million acres of winter wheat is in good to excellent condition for early August.

But what’s most pleasing to farmers and grain distributors is that head counts and head weights on the winter wheat are the highest on record, according to the Washington Agricultural Statistics Service.

As harvest season, which started in July, kicks into full gear, Washington farmers are experiencing banner yields. Their days in the fields combing through the golden carpet of wheat, should bring in about 65 bushels per acre.

The only downside is how late the wheat is running.

“We’ve had a late spring and the crops were late getting in,” said Douglas Hasslen, state statistician with the Washington Agricultural Statistics Service.

“Normally, things start warming up around March and April,” he said. This year, even June was cold and wet. “We’ve been basically behind about two weeks on all our crops,” Hasslen said.

Over the last five years, about 35 percent of winter wheat had been harvested by Aug. 3, but for the last two years only 27 percent was in.

“We’re just trying to get it done before my help has to go back to school,” said Lee Druffel, who farms wheat, peas and barley south of Pullman.

Many of his farm hands are college students who start class early in September. He drove his combines into the fields about a week ago, the minute the fields were ready.

Druffel isn’t alone in his rush. Now that the grain is dry enough to harvest, wheat farmers across the state are bustling to bring in their crop. They’re driving their combines until after dusk, when the dew point rises and grain is too wet to harvest.

“A lot of them are just starting and they’re under the gun,” said Gretchen Borck, director of issues at the Washington Association of Wheat Growers.

This is not to say the weather after spring was a detriment to the crop.

“The weather was good for it, but it was late,” Hasslen said. Thanks to the long, hot days of July, the grain head counts and weights are the highest on record.

The farmers’ greatest worry now is that the harvest may last into September, when rain could cause the unharvested wheat heads to sprout. “Then it’s just livestock feed,” Hasslen said.

What goes for the late harvest of the winter wheat, goes double for the spring-planted crops such as barley and spring wheat, Hasslen said. Those crops are going dangerously late into the season.

Only 6 percent of the barley harvest was in by Aug. 3, well behind the five-year average of 31 percent. But if the weather permits, the 490,000 acres for harvest will bring statewide production to about 34.3 million bushels, 26 percent more than last year.

Spring wheat is even further behind. Only 1 percent was in by Aug. 3, compared with the five-year average of 28 percent. The crop is in good to excellent condition and is expected to yield about 50 bushels per acre, four bushels above last year’s yield.

As summer progresses, the harvest moves north. Franklin County to the south is finishing its winter wheat harvest, while Douglas County, 50 miles north, is just starting. Usually the farmers in Douglas and Okanogan counties are last to finish.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo; Graphic: Winter wheat harvest