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Wheat growers worried about lack of moisture
Snowstorms in
February added
moisture to the soil,
but rain this spring
will be crucial to
2021 yields
By BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
P
ENDLETON — There
is a common sentiment
held among people whose
lives revolve around the
wheat industry — the hope that the
spring rains will come.
Industry experts in Eastern
Oregon say that conditions head-
ing into the 2021 growing season
are seeming grim after months of
relatively dry weather.
“My biggest concern as I look
out is how much rain is going to
fall from the sky for our wheat
producers,” said Amanda Hoey,
the chief executive officer of the
Oregon Wheat Commission and
Oregon Wheat Growers League.
Conditions were mild in early
winter in Umatilla and Morrow
counties, but the snowpack that
came with storms in February
brought much-needed precipita-
tion that stored water in the soil
and improved yield potential for
dryland wheat, experts say.
“With the ground not being fro-
zen, just about all that water went
in the soil,” Don Wysocki, a soil
scientist for Oregon State Univer-
sity based in Umatilla County, said
of the February storm that brought
more than a foot and a half of snow
to Pendleton. “It was stored for
this year’s crop. That was really
beneficial.”
But the “critical period” is from
now through June, Hoey said, and
additional moisture in the coming
weeks will be essential for a strong
crop.
“It’s kind of the same thing we
had last year when we were look-
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
The Fulton grain elevator rises from the fields in rural Umatilla County on Thursday, March 4, 2021.
ing at, ‘Are we going to have a
crop or are we not going to have a
crop?’ ” Hoey said. “The farmer’s
life is definitely dependent upon
what falls from the sky.”
Prices per bushel of wheat out
been higher than last year.
“We’ve had over this past year a
pretty strong market in sales, par-
ticularly for the soft white wheat
class,” Hoey said. “We’re seeing a
couple of new customer countries
internationally, Hoey said.
Regardless, the wheat indus-
try in Eastern Oregon will still
pivot around weather conditions,
experts say.
“If the farmer does well, all the
“IF THE FARMER DOES WELL, ALL THE OTHER
PEOPLE DO WELL. IT’S A CONNECTED ECONOMY.”
— Don Wysocki, OSU soil scientist
of the region are showing a “strong
bid” at the current rate of around
$6.50 per bushel delivered from
the McNary Dam river terminal,
according to Jason Middleton, the
regional manager for United Grain
Corporation.
“With prices where they are,
guys will be able to make some
money this year if there’s some
decent yield,” said Middleton,
who, like Hoey, said spring rain-
fall will be a crucial factor.
Hoey said that sales have so far
and destinations come into that
crop size.”
Middleton and Hoey said the
wheat economy has recently ben-
efited from new trade agreements
allowing the export of wheat
to places such as China, which
increased demand. Hoey said
China, the world’s most populous
country, is now the second-ranked
destination for the national export
of soft-white wheat.
Between 85% and 90% of the
wheat grown in Oregon is exported
other people do well,” Wysocki
said. “It’s a connected economy.”
Larry Lutcher, an extension
agronomist for Oregon State Uni-
versity based in Morrow County,
noted that farmers in Eastern Ore-
gon rely on a “fallow year” — a
resting period where wheat is not
grown on certain fields.
The fallow period is “nec-
essary for the storage of win-
ter precipitation and it improves
the health and nutrient-supply-
ing power of our valuable soil
resource,” Lutcher said.
But Lutcher said dry conditions
from spring through fall 2020, as
well as the mild winter of 2020-21
and the “almost non-existent” rain
in March 2021, have made cur-
rent yields poor and the outlook
uncertain.
Rainfall during March at the
Eastern Oregon Regional Airport
in Pendleton was just 0.32 of an
inch — one inch below average for
the month.
Lutcher added that the lack of
water “applies to all of Morrow
County, the western half of Uma-
tilla County, and much of Gilliam
and Sherman County.”
That includes some of Oregon’s
most productive wheat-growing
areas.
Wysocki said he expects
the eastern portion of Umatilla
County, particularly near the foot-
hills of the Blue Mountains, to
fare better than the western half
of the county, where there is typ-
ically less rainfall and the soil is
shallower.
“They are the most subject to
drought issues,” Wysocki said of
the western portion of the county,
which he said will typically see
about six inches less precipita-
tion than the east each year. “The
thickness of the soil is shallow.
They don’t hold much and they
don’t get much.”
Wysocki said that “normal
amounts” of precipitation and
“average or less than average tem-
peratures” will be essential for a
strong crop, because the heat will
soak up the water stored away in
the soil.
“If May turns around and it’s
cool and wet and we get plenty
of rain through the whole region,
that’ll change the scenario,”
Wysocki said. “But from the read-
ing I’ve done on expected weather
conditions, it’s not expected we’re
going to have a really wet spring.
Is the weatherman always right?
No. But the outlook isn’t all that
great.”