Farmers Live by Effects of Weather

WAITSBURG – 2013 has already delivered an early heat wave, a late hard freeze, a mostly dry spring and a week long deluge to start the summer.

For most residents of Columbia and Walla Walla Counties, these weather anomalies are at best a pleasant change, and at worst a minor annoyance. For area dry-land farmers, these weather events can mean the difference between a wind- fall year and a zero-profit annum.

Walla Walla and Colum- bia County climates vary dramatically depending on location. Some parts receive as much as 32 inches of rain annually, while others garner as low as five. Moisture (or a lack thereof) affects the time when farmers can get their seed into the ground and the date on which they usually start their harvests.

Timing matters as well. While heavy rainfalls like the ones in late June can be highly beneficial to some farmers, for others they can be little more than a toolate to-do-good setback that keeps them out of the fields for another day.

To illustrate the impacts of this year’s weather, I spoke with three area farm- ers from widely varying cli- mate zones within the readership area: Brent Tompkins in the west, Bruce Abbey in the center, and Clay Hutch- ens in the east.

BRENT TOMPKINS, Clyde

Brent Tompkins farms primarily wheat on the Eureka Flat and the hills north and east of Clyde. Clyde, located at the intersection of Smith Springs Road and Lyon’s Ferry Road is in one of the drier sections of Walla Walla County.

Tompkins’ farm receives an average annual rainfall of about 12 to 14 inches.

“This (past) year we got 12. It came late, but we finally got to 12,” said Tompkins. “Ten miles north and west, it dries off every mile. Mike Bowes out by the (Lower) Monumental Dam gets about 8 to 12.”

Tompkins hasn’t started cutting, but that doesn’t mean his crops aren’t ready. He is still waiting for a second combine to arrive from Machinery Link. The Kansas City, Missouri based company leases out late- model John Deere and Case IH combines, according to the company’s website. Tompkins runs their Case IH harvesters and has been using their service for a few years now. He says that leasing their combines has proved more cost effective than purchasing the increasingly expensive machines and paying for their upkeep.

Most of Tompkins’ neigh- bors were already harvesting as of July 16.

“(Kevin) Chabre’s cut- ting. He went Machinery Link as well. Struthers has been cutting since Monday or Tuesday last week (July 8 or 9),” Tompkins said.

Tompkins’ crop looked great early in the year, but one of the weather events of Spring put a major hurt on that outlook.

“It looked incredible. It was one of the best starts. The winter was awesome. The even, big plant growth when we sprayed this spring was just, wow,” Tomkins said. “Then it got freeze. A literal freeze in April in all the lower ground was a killer. That stopped them. We just don’t know how much damage it did. It could be a third or a half. Then it got cool for a long period in May, and there was another frost in May that got a few more kernels.”

Tompkins’ fields on the Eureka Flat are the most damaged. The cold air was able to settle in there and do great harm during the freeze. Tompkins notes he thought that his fields on the hills still look “really good.”

The late rains of June didn’t help Tompkins and the farmers on the west end much.

“We got 75 hundredths (of an inch of rain) at my house,” Tompkins said. “The rain did not help the wheat. It was too far along. It will help keep moisture in the seed zone I hope in September. If it helps the wheat at all, it will be for next year’s crop.”

BRUCE ABBEY, Waitsburg

Bruce Abbey is a fourth generation wheat grower who runs a seed farm opera- tion on the Lower Whetstone near the Menoken elevator. His farm has been operat- ing for nearly 150 years. A homestead certificate signed by President Ulysses S. Grant hangs on the wall of the family home near the spot where his great grandfa- ther first set down roots.

The late June rains weren’t perfect for Abbey, but he is still satisfied.

“This time of year, you get a rain, you never know if it’s the right place, the right time,” said Abbey. “I was just thrilled that we got what we got. It was a real life saver, because it was dry. It helped the spring (wheat). The fall (wheat) probably helped a little bit.”

“For us, the last minute filling out process for seed is crucial, so the moisture—if it doesn’t get it—will con- tinue to shrivel the kernels. Little kernels are a loser for us. For seed wheat, the big- ger the better,” Abbey said.

Because Abbey grows all of his wheat to resell as seed wheat to farmers, kernel size matters immensely. Abbey screens out small kernels and sells those to the grain grow- ers at a docked price. Those big enough to serve as seed for the following year, are stored at the Abbey Farm, treated, and sold to customers in the fall and spring to places as far away as the Palouse.

“We screen by weight, diameter, and length,” Abbey said. “The skinny kernels you don’t want. They don’t have the nutritional value to help the wheat get off to a good start.”

“In the best years, when we have big, nice, heavy wheat, 10 percent I’ll clean off and lose and can’t keep for seed wheat,” said Abbey. “In bad years, it’s been as bad as 40 percent. Without the rain (in June), it would have been at least a 25 per- cent year, and probably more. And the overall size (of the seed wheat) would have just been a little bit smaller.”

Abbey’s annual rain catch is about 16 to 17 inches. The June 19-26 precipitation netted Abbey an inch and a quarter.

Abbey plans to start har- vest around July 22.

“That’s fairly typical. About the 20th is our usual starting time. The last two harvests all being late was unusual. I think our crop will be more of an average crop. The potential was there to be more, but the hot weather in March really changed things,” he said.

CLAY HUTCHENS, Dayton

Clay Hutchens farms in a partnership with his father Bob in a radius of about 10 to 12 miles from Dayton. Most of Hutchens ground lies to Dayton’s northeast, in the Turner area, with some in the drier Willow Creek wa- tershed, and some more on the wetter slopes of Eckler Mountain.

“The central part of our farm is probably a 17-inch rainfall (area) average,” said Hutchens. “Out towards Willow Creek, it gets about 15 inches. Up in the foothills of the Blue (Mountains), we’re in about the 22 to 24-inch range with a much shorter growing season.”

The Hutchens farm is one of the more diversified in the county. Clay and Bob grow fall and spring hard red wheat, spring and fall soft white wheat, barley, chick peas, seed peas, canola, and yellow mustard.

“It’s quite a variety,” said Hutchens. “We’re not the biggest farmer, but we do grow a lot of different crops. It keeps things interesting and it helps diversify some of our marketing risks.”

Hutchens doesn’t expect to be harvesting his cornuco- pia of crops by the date this article hits the presses.

“I expect we will start the last week of July. We’re still waiting for some straw on the north sides to completely ripen up,” Hutchens said. “This year’s timetable is more similar to when I was a kid growing up. It always seemed, we started wheat harvest toward the 25th of July. I think we’re more on pace with that, than the last couple of years when we weren’t starting harvest until between the 5th and the 8th of August which was unusu- ally late.”

“The fall wheat on the mountain is about three weeks away,” he continued. “It’s not unusual to finish the spring crops there until the first week of September.”

Three times Hutchens referred to the late June precipitation as a “blessing”. He believes his fields will benefit greatly from it.

“We got pretty close to two-and-a-half inches (of rain) at the center of our farm. Everything was over two (inches), even on the drier parts of our farm,” said Hutchens. “In our minds, it did much more good to us than it did any harm. A lot of our fall crop was still green enough that the moisture helped us finish well, and it saved our spring crops from being pretty poor. It gave them a lot of potential to be something very good.”

“It was definitely a bless- ing, and we’re thankful for it.”