Later Crops Big Yields

WAITSBURG - Wheat har- vest in the Touchet Valley area is expected to be a couple of weeks later than usual again this year, but the wheat looks long and robust and should provide some great returns for local farmers, they say.

Last year, the wheat harvest took place at the end of July because of wet, spring weather. The typical start date for harvest is about the middle of July.

JE McCaw, the Waitsburg branch manager of the Northwest Grain Growers, said this year our rainy June has pushed the start date back to July 25 or even later.

"It depends on what happens now," he said.

Local farmer Neil Carpenter said he planted his wheat on his 1,200 acres at the end of September through the first of October.

Anticipating a later harvest date, he said he has been getting his equipment tuned up and ready to go. Carpenter over- hauled his machines at the end of harvest last year, but his trucks will need to have the oil checked and changed and he will perform maintenance he may have forgot- ten to do last fall.

There will be no big repairs this year for the Carpenter farm. But he knows of other area farm- ers who had to make some fixes to their equipment because the heavy crop and lodged wheat took a heavy toll on some ma- chines last fall. Because the harvest was late in 2011 and the plants were heavier, Carpenter said the combines were going slower and running two to three times more straw through the machines while picking up abrasive dust.

Despite causing a later start for harvest 2012, McCaw said the weather this spring, though rainy, has been ideal to produce good wheat crops. However, a recent hail storm that pounded the wheat with marble-sized ice pieces certainly did some damage to area crops, said local farmer Perry Dozier.

In addition to wheat in our valley this summer, farmers have opted to also plant peas and gar- banzo beans. McCaw said less spring wheat has been planted this year. He said a change in some government incentive pro- grams may have resulted in crop switches for some local farmers. Also, cash prices are increasing for peas and garbanzo beans, he said.

Carpenter said planting peas and garbanzos after years of wheat can help get the soil back in shape and provide nutrients like nitrogen. The peas and gar- banzo beans are harvested later than the fall wheat, starting in mid-to-late August.

When the wheat harvest be- gins, Carpenter said his sons will drive the trucks and combines with him. Many farmers hire lo- cal teens to drive trucks, but they must be 18 years old.

Rust And Aphids

Rust was a main issue that plagued crops last year.

Dozier said rust builds up on the wheat in very wet conditions when constant rain doesn't give the plants time to fully dry out. As the rust builds on the wheat, it stops the photosynthesis process, during which the sun's rays pro- vide food for the plant to grow. The rust will shrivel the grain and could reduce wheat production by as much as 50 percent, Car- penter said.

Carpenter said many valley farmers didn't know how to deal with the rust issue last year, but this year, they have been focused on prevention.

The recent rain and cool weather that has been a healthy environment for rust also has produced a lot of aphids on Car- penter's wheat, he said. Aphids are small, sap-sucking insects that are also known as plant lice. The presence of aphids can mean low growth, plant death and a possible reduction in crop yields.

This year, Carpenter said he has sprayed his wheat crops twice to prevent the rust and aphids from attacking the grass.

"I haven't had to spray fall wheat before," he added.

His first spray for rust and aphids was completed in early spring along with a first layer of weed control. Carpenter said all he can do is watch his crops and hope the second round of spray can hold off the bugs and rust until harvest. It is very unusual to spray a crop twice, he added. But he went to greater lengths this year to protect his investment. The spray and the flying costs as much as $13 an acre, he said.

"This year we're keeping a closer eye on it," Carpenter said.

Last year's late crop was a good one because of all of the rain and some are confident the wheat will produce well again this year and go to market for higher prices.

"When it goes down, it's go- ing to be a good crop," Carpenter said.

He said he knows when it will be a good year because of how tall the crop is and by counting the number of seeds in the head of the plant.

Dozier said he also believes the wheat harvest will be a good one, but he doubts it will top last year's. When harvest begins in later July, it will take Carpenter about three weeks to complete the job and then his grain will go to a local grain elevator and later trucked to Northwest Grain Growers at one of their port fa- cilities in nearby Wallula. From Wallula, it will travel to Port- land, Ore., and on to Asia or the Middle East. Wheat prices are now on the rise so Carpenter said he believes the investment in the two rounds of spray will be worth it. But, if prices had been low as they had been about 10 years ago or less, he said he probably would not have sprayed.

"When it's valuable, we put