March 13, 2015
CapitalPress.com
13
Mustard provides multiple benefits
By HEATHER SMITH THOMAS
For the Capital Press
This family farm near
Ririe, Idaho, has supported
several generations.
“My granddad home-
steaded near here and bought
this farm in 1900. My son,
Andrew, is farming with me
now,” Gordon Gallup said.
“My dad and granddad
tried various crops and had
potatoes awhile,” he said.
Then they switched to
wheat, barley and alfalfa, and
his father had a small dairy at
one time, and beef cattle.
“We still have a small beef
herd but with the high cattle
prices I decided it was a good
time to sell the older cows,”
he said. “Some were 16 to
18 years old and I got three
times what I paid for them, so
I didn’t feel bad about selling
them!”
The farming evolved over
the years, as they tried dif-
ferent methods.
“We went to no-till in
about 1985, and since then
we’ve added more leased
acres. Most of our fields
including the original farm
are dry-farmed, but we have
some irrigation on the leased
acres, using wheel lines,”
Gordon said.
He and his son Andrew
manage everything, except
for taking on extra help
during harvest.
Having seven sons real-
ly helps at harvest time, he
said. They come home to
help. They all live close by,
except for one son who lives
in Casper, Wyo.
Gordon and his wife have
12 grandchildren. The oldest
is 16.
“They all love to come
to the farm and ride the ma-
chinery, so I may have more
help coming on. It’s good
Gallup Farm
Owner: Gordon Gallup
Farming: More than 40 years
Crops grown: Wheat, barley,
alfalfa, mustard
Acres: 5,000
Heather Smith Thomas/For the Capital Press
Gordon Gallup is the third generaion of his family to farm in East-
ern Idaho.
to have them around,” he
said.
The crops are grown in
rotation. Decisions on what
to plant depends a lot on
prices.
“We’ve started putting
some mustard in the rota-
tion during the past four
years, to help break disease
cycles with the other crops
and hopefully take care of
the wire worm that can be a
problem in grain,” he said.
“Wire worms eat the seed
kernel or cut off the young
growing plants.”
Mustard contains a natu-
ral fumigant that impedes the
worms and can be used as a
form of biological control,
without the use of pesticides.
The mustard is harvested
for use in making mustard for
seasoning — in liquid form
to squirt onto your hot dog,
dry mustard, or the whole
seed as a spice.
“We sell our mustard crop
to Bill Meadows who owns
Mountain States Oilseed at
American Falls. He has con-
tracts with Beaver Mustard,
a company that makes pow-
dered mustard, dry mustard
and whole seed spices,” Gor-
don said.
This will be their fifth year
growing mustard.
“We think we’re starting
to see some benefits from it
(as a natural pesticide) and
also have a good market for
it,” he said.
The plan is to rotate mus-
tard across the farm, a differ-
ent field each year, to control
wire worms while growing a
marketable crop.
“Canada has been the
major mustard producer, but
they went away from this a
little bit and that’s why we’ve
been able to grow some down
here,” said Gordon.
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