County tops state, nation in wheat totals

Whitman County was ranked as the state’s and the nation’s highest yielding wheat producer for 2015, coming in at 72 bushels per acre with winter wheat and 40 bushels per acre with spring wheat.

Those numbers come from the National Agriculture Statistics website, which keeps record of crop production.

In regard to the winter wheat, a chart on the website said the county produced just more than 22.3 million bushels from 321,000 planted acres. Of the acres planted, 310,000 were able to be harvested, meaning a loss of 11,000 acres for the year. The spring wheat acreage faired a little better, losing 1,000 acres from plant to harvest. In the 203,500 acres planted, 8.1 million bushels of spring wheat were collected.

The 2014 crop year brought in 70.2 winter wheat bushels per acre, or 22.2 million bushels, and 42.6 spring wheat bushels per acre, or 8.05 million bushels. The 2014 crop year had more acres harvested – 317,000 – for winter wheat than 2015, with a loss of 9,000, but also saw less harvested for spring wheat at 189,300.

The 2015 crop year saw drought conditions, with the crop year rainfall totaling 16.32 inches, a figure that was 3.72 inches behind a normal crop year of 20.04 inches. The worst shortage of the year was marked in June when zero precipitation was recorded in the month that is considered key to finishing off crops.

Local farmer Randy Suess said the numbers were good, but those yields were actually down because of the conditions.

“We need to work on better yields and better prices,” he said. “We had shorter crops and we had some quality issues, but still mother nature is very good to us here.”

Suess cited some farmers in the mid-west not being able to “pull their combines out for three straight years” as an indication that despite the extreme heats and low moisture levels the 2015 crop year saw, the soils in the county were still good and able to produce.

“We’ve never been wiped out,” he said.

With Whitman County topping the numbers, Suess said the figures are good but also represent a disproportionate number when compared with the rest of the nation.

“Out in the mid-west, a good year for them is 30 bushels of wheat,” he said.

Whitman County more than doubled that figure, but Suess said that makes sense given the amount of acres planted here and the good soils.

“It was pretty easy for us to defeat the rest of the nation,” he said.

Suess also said the Pullman area saw a good crop year, which probably balanced out the rest of the county.

“I was actually surprised that its number was even 72,” he said. “But Pullman had a pretty normal year. Pullman held it up.”

Around harvest time, wheat was garnering about $5.80 per bushel. Suess said a price about 50 cents lower is a more realistic figure for local farmers.

“You receive a different price based on how far away from Portland you are, which is where our yields go,” he said.

Suess also added that storage fees at grain elevators and insurance prices bring that price even lower.

“It’s not very good,” he said. “It has definitely got to be over five dollars a bushel or farmers are going to lose money.”

As the conditions in the area improve, Suess said he sees the prices rising and the yields going up.

“I think it may take us another year to really break out of this thing,” he said.

The 2016 crop year has so far started out well, with 7.05 inches of precipitation recorded as of Dec. 28. That figure is .37 inches above average for the October to December period.

“This is all good news,” Suess said. “So far, it is good, but we are a long ways from having it in the bins. I do think we are in a better place than this time last year.”

David Jones at the NRCS office in Colfax said his recorded December precipitation totals so far are .07 on Dec. 2, .07 on Dec. 4, 1.37 on Dec. 7, .35 on Dec. 8, .42 on Dec. 9, .23 on Dec. 10, .49 on Dec. 14, .13 on Dec. 18, .20 on Dec. 21, .28 on Dec. 22, .10 on Dec. 23, .10 on Dec. 24 and .15 on Dec. 28. This totals out to 3.96 inches for the month, which is above the average of 2.93 inches.

“It is pretty good,” Jones said. “We beat it by a solid inch.”

With the heavy precipitation recorded in the first half of the month – three inches as of Dec. 14 – Jones previously speculated that Colfax might surpass its December record for precipitation, which stands at 5.85 inches in 1973. As the month comes to a close, though, Jones said that record will not be broken.

“No, we won’t quite get there,” he predicted.

Suess said the recent snowfall has been good for the crops, with the snow creating an insulated blanket.

“I am surprised at how the ground is not frozen,” he said. “We have had pretty good snow cover. That snow cover, it insulates it.”

Suess added that the snow and rain can “keep coming,” stating that there is not an overabundance of moisture in the subsoils right now. He also previously told the Gazette that “there is no such thing” as too much precipitation for a farmer.