November rainfall gives crops much-needed boost

A common sight across the Palouse last month was dust rising up as many area farmers combed through their fields, completing the winter wheat seeding in dry conditions.

This practice is called “dusting in” and is quite common in this area.

“Eight years out of ten we have dusted in,” said Steptoe area farmer Randy Suess.

According to Steve Van Vleet, WSU Regional Extension Specialist and Associate Professor of Agricultural and Natural Resources, winter crops should usually be seeded by mid-October.

“If you start seeding after October 15th, you start losing yield,” he said. “It is pretty much a cut-off date.”

Suess said the hot and dry conditions from the summer, which made the spring yield a lower quality than usual, affected the winter seeding.

“It is pretty dry,” he said. “We do not have ideal most years.”

Recent rains have helped though, he said.

“At least it was enough that we got the wheat up and going,” he said. “If you are seeding into moisture, it will come up within a week.”

Rain totals through Nov. 10 totaled 1.72 inches, which is more than 67 percent of the normal for the entire month. In October – when the new crop year began – rain total ran .30 below normal, but the rainfall in November has made up for that. Though the recent rainfall has been much needed, Suess said it is not quite time to celebrate it.

“We only got a couple inches. We have got a long way to go before we can say it is going to be a good crop,” he said.

With that said, he is remaining optimistic, as this crop year has started out better than the last.

“The farmers should be smiling pretty big right now,” he said. “It should be enough that it sustains it.”

Van Vleet said the worry now is winter temperatures setting in too soon.

“The farmers are hoping to not get freezing temperatures and then moisture,” he said. “It is when we get below zero temperatures that it gets to be rough.”

Van Vleet said freezing temperatures too soon could cause the crop to freeze over and not be viable.

“Farmers always have something to worry about,” he said. “It is a godsend that it finally rained, though.”

Van Vleet said that as winter temperatures set in, snow will be okay, as it will provide a blanket for the crops.

“They will be warm enough under the snow,” he said.

He added that the recent rains have been a great start to getting the wheat up, but more is needed to make up for the deficit from a short rain season last winter and a hot and dry summer. The surface moisture, he said, is fine right now.

“Because we were so dry our subsoil is not re-charged yet,” Van Vleet said. “We need another good inch of rain to be where we are going to be smiling anyway.”

With it too early to tell how the winter crop will fare in the current weather patterns, Suess has one request for everyone:

“Do your rain dance, will you?”