Palouse farmers had been enjoying a stellar year. Pleasant summer weather along with rains in May and June grew a wheat crop widely thought to be above average.

But things changed in August.

Hailstorms flattened a few fields and strong winds blew through the area, shattering heads of wheat.

The worst was yet to come.

As city dwellers welcomed a week of rains that greened up yards and cooled off nights, farmers watched a year’s worth of work disintegrate.

The rains – measuring 1.48 inches in Pullman and 1.88 inches in Spokane, mostly during a one-week period – parked combines and coaxed the wheat to sprout. August rainfall normally totals less than an inch.

“It really hit a lot of us hard,” said Valleyford farmer Jeff Emtman.

Emtman harvested about a third of his wheat before the rains. Of the remaining crop, about half is sprouted, he said.

“This will bite into our bottom line,” he said.

Sprouted wheat is inferior for flour, and farmers end up taking large discounts or simply sell it as livestock grain. Feed grain fetches half the price of milling wheat.

As the wheat sprouts, the starchy content in the kernel is chemically converted to sugar, which basically fuels the plant’s attempt to grow.

But bakers need the starch – not the sugar – for bread.

Mike Conklin, general manager of Co-Ag Producers Inc. in Rosalia, said farmers in an area stretching from southeast Spokane County through the eastern part of Whitman County are in trouble.

“Some of the stuff we’ve seen is pretty bad,” he said. “Some guys are bringing in a harvest where maybe 40 to 50 percent is sprouted.”

The overall Washington wheat harvest is expected to reach about 200 million bushels this year. Of that, perhaps 5 million to 15 million bushels might be sprout damaged.

“Everyone is still trying to get a handle on this thing. We’re just telling farmers not to panic sell,” Conklin said.

Emtman said farmers will lose about $1.40 per bushel on sprouted wheat. Some of it can be blended with higher-grade wheat and exported. Much of it is destined for feedlots.

Farmers did receive some relief Friday when the Agriculture Department’s Risk Management Agency agreed to pay crop insurance claims to farmers following some confusion about sampling requirements at country grain elevators.

At stake could be more than $10 million to Palouse farmers stuck with rain-ruined crops.

Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. George Nethercutt issued press releases Friday, each taking credit for soothing farmer worries about crop insurance. The two are competing for Murray’s U.S. Senate seat.

The USDA had required farmers to sample each truckload of wheat delivered to grain elevators. So many samples was taking too much time and costing farmers, who are charged for each test sample.

Farmers urged the USDA to allow fewer samples. The change was made, and they now must sample only each lot – basically, the wheat of one variety from one field, whether 20 acres or 500 acres.

While seemingly a small bureaucratic matter, the time and confusion saved by the policy reversal should help farmers more easily qualify for, and collect more, from their crop insurance policies.

“While this is a victory, the federal government needs to do more to help farmers by declaring Spokane and Whitman disaster counties and revising federal crop insurance discounts to more accurately reflect the market,” Murray stated in a press release.

Wrote Nethercutt: “I am pleased that the USDA has acted … to adjust its discounts and ensure farmers are able to receive the crop insurance program payment they deserve.”

Washington State University extension agronomist John Burns said the rain damage was the worst in 15 years.

“This brings back memories of 1989, when Pullman had about 2 ½ inches of rain in four days starting on the same date, August 22,” he said. “What happened this year was almost a mirror image of that year.”

The target date to finish harvest is Labor Day. But the full extent of the damage won’t be known for perhaps another month.

“The numbers for sprout damage and acreage are all over the board,” he said.

The areas hit by sprout damage include some of the highest yielding fields that are not irrigated. Some farmers were harvesting winter wheat topping 100 bushels an acre.

The rain “ruined what was shaping up to be one of the nicer crops in years,” Burns said.