Harvest crews eye start thanks to June rain

Whitman County is expected to go into a harvest mode starting next week with the crews starting on the breaks of the Snake River.

Farmers around the county are encouraged by the above average June rainfall which in many cases helped rub out a precipitation lag which was denting crop outlook at the start of last month.

Wes Claassen, who farms on Rock Gulch Road along the breaks of the Snake River south of Dusty, expects to begin a month-long harvest run at the start of next week.

Claassen said he expects fall wheat yields will come in above average and spring wheat yields will be close to average.

He noted the June run of rain was a boost, probably more for farmers on the east part of the county than in his area.

At LaCrosse, the June rains totaled 1.27 inches with readings on six of eight days after June 18. Prior to June 18, the LaCrosse rainfall total was at .18 inches, according to weather observer Nancy Taylor.

Total for June was 1.45 inches compared to the .90 average for June.

Taylor also noted the crop year total for the LaCrosse area, starting Sept. 1, is 13.9 inches, or 1.4 inches over the normal of 12.5.

At Colfax, the run of rainy days which started June 18, totaled out at 1.65 inches and pushed the June total to 1.82. It was the first time this year in which the rainfall exceeded the normal figure for the year. June rainfall here normally averages 1.37 inches.

Unlike the LaCrosse totals, the crop year totals remain below normal at the Colfax station. Starting in October, rainfall shortage is now 3.19 inches. Each month’s total since the start of the year has been below normal.

“All the crops look pretty good,” said Randy Suess, Steptoe area farmer and Washington Grain Commission Whitman County representative.

“That June rain really saved us. If we wouldn’t have gotten that rain, the crops, particularly the spring crops, would’ve been short,” he said.

Suess also said last week’s 100-degree weather didn’t help the peas, lentils or garbanzos.

“If the garbs were blooming, it could’ve hurt the yield some, but I think the garbs will be pretty good too,” he said.

Steve Van Fleet, WSU Regional Extension Specialist, Associate Professor of Agricultural and Natural Resources, based in Colfax, agreed with Suess.

“They always say June’s rain is a million dollar rain,” Van Fleet said. “We were going to be below average without that rain, but now we’ll have average crops.”

He said the western parts of the county, however, were hit hard by the cold snap late in the spring.

“Some varieties were damaged and the cold killed the primary stems,” he said, which means that the crops will be average or perhaps come in with a 10 percent yield reduction.

Traditionally, spring canola, peas and lentils will be the first crops harvested, followed by winter and spring wheat, barley and then garbanzos about a month after that.

Van Fleet said some peas were blooming when the 100-degree weather hit which could hurt yields, but garbanzos like the heat right after a rain and should not have been hurt.

Suess also said that Korea is again purchasing wheat from the United States, after testing all the supply that came from the U.S. and finding no genetically modified wheat in the soft white and club wheat blend that the country buys. He also said Japan is waiting for more official test results before resuming purchasing wheat.