Thursday, November 27, 1941
Sherman Countv
Turns Rapidly
To Bulk Handling
By LeROY C. WEIGHT
Mora, Oregon
Sherman county fanners have in
creased the storage capacity for
wheat to 350,000 bushels through
farm storage facilities. 275,000 bu
shels of this amount has been con
structed since 1938; 250,000 bushels
of the capacity is in the form of
steel bins and the remainder of the
' bulk storage is in the form of crib
elevators. The federal crop loan on
wheat is made on the basis of bulk
wheat which has encouraged farm
ers to store their wheat bulk rather
than in sacks. The construction and
increase in farm storage has been
accelerated through the AAA pro
gram and the increase in price of
sacks, and lack of labor. Sack sew
ers in this area have been extremely
hard to get, consequently nearly all
of the producers are considering the
handling of their wheat in bulk. The
7 cents per bushel allowance for
wheat stored on the farm has helped
considerably toward the construc
tion of farm storage facilities.
Over one-third of the farm storage
capacity was constructed during the
year 1941. Two-thirds of these facil
ities are located north of Moro where
approximately two-thirds of the
wheat in Sherman county is pro
duced. Public warehouse facilities
in Sherman county, all owned by
cooperatives, have a total capacity of
3,218,000 bushels; 716,000 bushels of
this capacity is bulk storage. These
facilities are comparatively old from
the standpoint of total capacity which
would indicate that about 30 of
the total capacity is bulk. Farm stor
age facilities, most of them having
been built within the last 3 or 4
years, are comparatively new and
the capacities are about reversed,
with approximately 30 sack facil
ities and 60 to 70 bulk facilities.
This indicates the trend of wheat
handling in Sherman county.
The development of better types
of farm machinery, the new bulk
equipped combines being lighter in
weight in most cases equipped with
rubber tires, making the handling
of these machines in the field less
of a task. The old wooden type of
harvester was extremely heavy and
by installing bulk equipment the load
was too much to handle with the
bulk bin which carries from 60 to
140 bushels of wheat. The develop
ment in trucks also has made it
practical for the average farmer to
own a truck and these trucks have
been of a type which could very
readily handle the wheat direct from
the combine without any difficulty.
The handling of the wheat direct
has removed much of the fire hazard
which exists when the wheat is left
in sacks in the field until after the
entire crop has been harvested. The
rapid completion of the harvesting
operations and transportation of the
crop to the warehouse has also been
in favor of this type of storage.
Farm storage handling facilities
have made it possible for the average
operator to keep his equipment in
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Heppner Gazette Times, Heppner, Oregon
PLANNING MORE DEFENSE FOODS
S SAA
I' '-':- . '"
nF TSHPi
Farmers in this State and elsewhere in America are beginning to
make plans for producing more "defense foods" in 1942, Among the
highly-nutritious foods needed in greater quantity are milk, cheese,
eggs, meats, and vegetables. Good market prices for the year are
assured. Every farmer in the nation will be visited this fall by an
AAAfarm program committeeman who will assist in planning the
increases.
the form of trucks to the minimum
since it was possible for him to
handle his entire crop without any
difficulty since most hauls are short.
The facilities are located on the
ranch where the crop is grown and
harvested. Many of the local far
mers are using their farm storage
facilities only as a facility for part
of their crop to relieve the situation
during the harvest itself, handling
the overflow from the combine while
the trucks are going to and from
the public warehouses.
Public warehouse facilities plus
farm storage capacities in Sherman
county at the present time amount
to 3,568,000 bushels of wheat. New
construction for 1942 will increase
the capacity by 400,000 bushels bulk
storage. This capacity will handle
all of the wheat produced in this
county since in the history of the
county there never has been a crop
to exceed this figure. The 1941 crop
amounted to 3,250,000 bushels with
approximately 20 cut in acreage.
The crop for 1941 in Sherman coun
ty was the largest ever produced
per acre in the history of the county.
The average yield per acre was 30.8
bushels. Sherman county's ware
house facilities are unique in that
every bushel of wheat produced and
stored in Sherman county is stored
in cooperative warehouses which are
owned by the farmers and by adding
the other farmer-owned facilities in
the form of farm storage it means
that Sherman county farmers have
1 1 1 2 Million Dollars
Paid in Wheat Loans
By N. C. DONALDSON
Eleven and a half million dollars!
That's what these 85 per cent of
parity wheat loans meant to Ore
gon's wheat growers this year.
With the market price stubbornly
refusing to budge much above a
level about 12 to 15 cents lower than
the loan value, wheat growers have
retaliated by just refusing to sell
any wheat. They've been putting it
under federal loan instead.
The last report on wheat loans
from the State AAA office shows
that Oregon growers have stored
12.367,000 bushels for federal loan
since harvest this year. Of this total,
2,002,000 bushels is in farm storage.
For this stored wheat, farmers have
received $11,534,000 in federal loans,
or an average of just a little under
a dollar a bushel. Nowhere else in
the world but the United States are
farmers getting anywhere near that
price for their wheat this year.
Only about 10 per cent of the 1941
crop has been sold since harvest,
a survey in the ten Columbia basin
wheat counties shows. Made for the
purpose of determining the dispo-
complete control of their crop from
the time that it, is planted until it
is ready to sell. Approximaely 98
of the farmers in Sherman county
are members of a cooperative grain
growers association.
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"Hot Wheat" Only
1 Percent of Total
By N. C. DONALDSON
In the state's nine major eastern
Oregon wheat producing counties,
only one farm in every ten growing
more than 15 acres of wheat has
excess wheat under marketing quo
tas, and less than one percent of the
1941 crop was "hot."
A statiscal report has just been
completed in the 1941 wheat mar
keting quota program in the major
wheat counties Baker, Gilliam,
Jefferson, Morrow, Sherman, Uma
tilla, Union, Wasco, and Wheeler.
Of the 2G85 farms in these nine
counties that were subject to mar
keting quotas, 395 were reported as
having excess "wheat. Umatilla has
the highest number of excess wheat
farms, 105, closely followed by Was
co with 103.
In the nine counties, total acres
planted to wheat in excess of acre
age allotments was 26,535. The total
1941 wheat allotment for these nine
counties was 665,404 acres, and on
sition of the crop and where it was
stored, the survey disclosed that 10
per cent of the crop has been sold,
10 per cent moved out of the county
for storage, 20 percent stored on the
farm, and 60 per cent stored in ele
vators in the county where it was
produced. The amount in temporary
storage was negligible at the time
the survey was made-
Page Five
this basis the excess acres repre
sent about three per cent or less
of the total wheat acreage.
The amount of excess wheat is
calculated on the basis of normal
yield times excess acres. This nor
mal yield is based on the average
for the ten preceding years, and cer
tainly was far exceeded by this
year's bumper crop. Thirty-five bu
shel crops on eleven bushel land
were common. Considering all the
factors, statisticians believe that less
than one per cent of the 1941 wheat
crop was "hot" under marketing
quotas.
Under marketing quota regula
tions, an operator had his choice of
four ways of disposing of his "hot"
wheat before he could obtain his
marketing card for the rest of his
crop. In the nine counties surveyed,
storage of the wheat on the farm
or in an elevator was by far the
most popular method of handling
the "hot" wheat. When the survey
was made, 202 farmers had chosen
this method of receiving their mar
keting card. Half as many, 101, paid
the 49 cents a bushel penalty. Fifteen
growers disposed of their excess
wheat by feeding it to livestock con
sumed on the farm. None chose to
deliver excess wheat to the Secre
tary of Agriculture.
A good many of those growers
who stored excess wheat are getting
it released by seeding under 1942
acreage allotments by the same
amount which they were over 1941
allotments.
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