Rust battle brings in spray pilots from across U.S.

Reinforcements have been called in to help fight the war currently being fought against the extensive outbreak of the stripe rust fungus in Whitman County wheat fields.

Because of the advanced state of the development of wheat, the best theater for fighting off the rust invasion is from the air.

Unfortunately, a combination of factors have limited the number of ag pilots available to buzz fungicide onto wheat fields.

“In a normal year, we’ve got everything covered,” said Darrel Fender, owner of Fender Air Service. “But this is far from a normal year.”

In those normal years, local ag pilots have wrapped up their spray work by June. But this year’s need for fungicide application has kept them in the sky for the past month-plus.

“You definitely get weary up there, fighting off the wind and watching your applications,” said Brian Windsor, owner of TLC Flying out of Colfax.

Each have called in pilots from outside the area to help spray chemicals with names like Tilt, Quilt and Stratego over rust-infested fields.

Fender has had two pilots based in Connell come up to buzz the Palouse. Windsor has brought in aid from a pilot based out of Kansas.

While those pilots have experience spraying fields, dealing with the unique wind patterns and following the curves of the Palouse hills has been a new challenge.

“It definitely took awhile to get used to it,” said Gavin Morse, a young pilot from Connell who is working for Fender. “But you get used to it.”

Willie “White Knight” Maxim, a pilot from Kansas with more than 30 years crop dusting experience has brought his white and black plane to help Windsor.

Maxim said Kansas farmers typically plant the same crops across hundreds of acres. Palouse farmers plant different crops, often following the contours of the hills.

That makes it difficult to find where chemical is supposed to be applied.

“You come up over a hill and take a look back before you realize that’s the field I was supposed to hit,” said Maxim.

Windsor said, while spring and winter wheats can be differentiated from high in the sky, things get harder when planes buzz low to the ground to apply chemicals.

“It gets tough to tell the difference as its rushing by your windshield,” he said, gripping a pantomime yoke in the air.

Maxim said flying over foreign terrain is just part of the life of a crop duster.

“It’s our job. It’s our season,” Maxim continued. “You figure it out and fly. That’s what we do.”

This year’s conditions amplified the problem of a shortage of ag pilots.

Fender said the average age of an ag pilot in the United States is 62. Morse, one of the young guns at 26, pointed out there are only about 3,000 ag pilots across the nation.

“When it really shows is ugly head is this year,” said Windsor.

The warm, dry winter and cold, wet spring provided the perfect habitat for stripe rust. The rust attacks the plants, reducing their ability to produce nutrients for kernel development. The result is lower kernel weight at harvest time.

Bringing in the extra help provides little benefit to owners like Fender and Windsor, though.

To bring in the relief pilots, those businessmen have to provide greater incentives. That results in higher pay, reducing their bottom lines.

The extra help does help preserve the crops of farmers, ensuring future crops will be in the ground for spraying next year.

“What you’re mostly doing is making sure the crop doesn’t fail,” said Fender. “I’ve seen neighbors out there buying chemicals for their neighbors to help them out. All everybody is doing is trying to get the job done.”