Varied conditions for Washington's winter wheat crop

Washington Ag March 23, 2009 Now that spring has officially arrived, how did Washington's winter wheat crop come out of the winter? After listening to crop reports from his fellow commissioners around eastern Washington at a meeting last week, Washington Wheat Commission Chairman Hal Johnson says his summary would be "varied conditions." Johnson: "Some areas look like they have a good crop coming on with lots of moisture. The area to the west looks dry and spotty stands. So we will sure need some good weather this spring to bring on an average crop it looks like." Johnson, who farms in Lincoln county, somewhat jokingly said that north of Highway 2 it was still like the Artic Circle with six inches of snow cover as of late last week. The lengthy snow cover in some areas of eastern Washington has raised concerns over snow mold where non-resistant varieties are planted. Commissioner Dana Herron said that in Franklin and Benton counties a lot poor hard red winter wheat stands would likely be sprayed out. He also expects much less dark northern spring wheat to be planted in irrigated areas this year because of lower prices. Meanwhile, it appears farmers have been slow to market their 2008 wheat crop. Country elevator representative on the Wheat Commission Keith Bailey said while his operations have purchased about 70 percent of the crop, others report they have bought only 55 to 65 percent of all grain intake from the 2008 production. And Wheat Commission CEO Tom Mick is warning that if farmers don't keep selling club wheat, exporters may stop offering bids if they can't draw sufficient country supplies to meet tenders. I'm Bob Hoff and that's Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network.