Harvest report: “phenomenal”

Gazette intern reporter

It is harvest time on the Palouse, and growers are seeing results that contrast with last year’s dry growing season. Reports from the west side of the county carry a lot of promise as harvest moves across the county.

“This is a very unusual harvest,” said Phil Bowman at LaCrosse Ritzville Warehouse. “It’s phenomenal!”

Harvesters in the LaCrosse area normally expect yields of 35 to 45 bushels per acre, and this season they are getting up to 80 bushels per acre, he reported.

“We’re located in a more desert-like area,” said Bowman. “So it is expected to only have 35 to 60 bushels per acre average for where we are. With the last couple of years, the yields have been especially low. This year though, it’s a big crop year.”

At Whitgro in Endicott, harvest started Monday, July 11, and is expected to pick up in other parts of the county by Monday, Aug. 1, according to Steve Yorke with Whitgro.

“In this area, it started week ago and we’re on schedule,” Yorke said. “The quality is great, yields are good and protein levels are normal, too.”

Whitgro mainly is receiving barley and white wheat and is seeing from 60 to 100 trucks per day, a total volume Yorke estimates to be around 100,000 bushels per day.

“Space is our only foreseeable problem for this season, because we are seeing a steady increase in bushels per day,” he added.

At LaCrosse, Bowman noted growing conditions have been ideal, but sporadic showers could put a dent in things as harvest advances.

Bowman estimates they are at the one-third mark. Harvest in the LaCrosse area started July 1.

“This is a good year, a lot more bushels that come in versus not a whole lot coming in,” said Bowman.

He noted the combines which were cutting 1,000 to 3,000 bushels an hour last year are cutting 8,000 to 10,000 in the same general locations this year.