For Our Flatlanders
My friends Chris and Alissa Barron visited Patty and I over the weekend and we were able to get them ride on my cousin’s Case IH 9230 (and Chris was OK with riding red instead of green). The field they were on overlooked the Mill Creek valley east of Walla Walla, Washington and the yields were about average for this field (likely around 80-90). Most of the other good wheat in this area yielded about 135-150, but this field does not get much sun and the soil is not the best. I would guess the slopes on this field ranged from about 20-35 percent.
After riding combines there, we explored Walla Walla and then stopped by client’s field about two miles north of Waitsburg up Whoomenup Hollow (yes that is the name) later on to watch a Case IH 8230. We did not ride on this one, but the video below shows the slope (likely about 35 percent). You will notice that the combine threshing platform is not “level” with the hillside. The Hillside kits only level to about 30 percent and once you exceed that slope, your combine starts to lean with the hill.
The second video shows dumping wheat on the go on the hillside.
This post has nothing on tax, but we need to let our flatlanders know that you can grow good wheat on steep hills.
Paul Neiffer is a certified public accountant and business advisor specializing in income taxation, accounting services, and succession planning for farmers and agribusiness processors. Paul is a principal with CliftonLarsonAllen in Walla Walla, Washington, as well as a regular speaker at national conferences and contributor at agweb.com. Raised on a farm in central Washington, he has been immersed in the ag industry his entire life, including the last 30 years professionally. Paul and his wife purchase an 180 acre ranch in 2016 and enjoy keeping it full of animals.
We used to live up Biscuit Ridge Road (near Whoopeup Hollow) and watched the combines work perched on those “hills”. It was other worldly to see their lights floating in the dark when they were rushing to harvest at 10:00 at night.