Heavy rain puts brakes on harvest

Delayed by a heavy rain Friday, the Scholz farm near Mockonema swung back into action Monday afternoon. The Scholz combine gets back in action after the fields had dried enough for harvest to resume.

Combines fired back up in portions of the Palouse Monday afternoon, after operations were delayed by Friday’s mid-harvest deluge.

“Well, we got a little break there,” said Ernie Scholz, who farms with his son, Kevin, between Mockonema and Diamond. “But this is not the time of year you really want any breaks.”

The Scholz operation resumed cutting about 3 p.m. Monday, as wheat stands dried out just enough for harvest crews to cut. Further east, harvest crews gave crops one more day to dry out before getting back in the swing Tuesday.

Rain Wednesday morning again halted operations. More was expected to fall through the end of the week.

David Johns with the Natural Resource Conservation Service in Colfax measured three-fourth of an inch of rain on top of Hospital Hill in Colfax after the Friday rains concluded.

Other reports to the NRCS ranged from .54 inches at Wilcox to 1.25 inches at Latah.

Unofficial reports to the Gazette measured near one inch at LaCrosse, eight-tenths of an inch near Endicott and three-quarters of an inch at Palouse.

Heavy rain on mature crops presents the danger of sprout damage or discoloration of grain.

Gary Bergley at the State Department of Agriculture’s inspection office in Colfax said they have not seen any signs of such damage in the few samples they have inspected.

Inspectors had seen a little discoloration in the few samples of new cut grain that came in for testing Tuesday.

Bergley said the discoloration was not enough to downgrade the grain. He added inspectors have not seen any sprout damage.

“It would take a few straight days of steady cool, wet, rainy weather to really do damage,” he said.

He said most of the samples had come from drier climates on the western Palouse, as crops in the central and eastern regions are still green.

Crops that see rain before ripening fare better, though sprout damage can still be a concern.