The Pacific NW Wheat Harvest is Late!

• July 30, 2011
• Paul Neiffer

My wife and I rode our motorcycle from Yakima to Lewiston on Thursday with a stop in Walla Walla.  Normally this time of year, wheat harvest would be in full throttle, however, I noticed very little harvesting going on that day.

I visited with my Uncle and Aunt at their house on Thursday and spoke with my cousin.  Usually wheat harvest would start around the 15th of July (some years around the 4th even) but this year, they will be starting their first field for harvest sometime next week.  This is by far that latest harvest that I can remember for this area.

The good news is that the average yield should be on the high end, but a lot of wheat is down on the ground and it will be harder to harvest.  One of my least favorite things growing up on the farm was harvesting downed wheat.  Usually this wheat would have high yields unless it went down too soon, then it would not finish filling out.

I will be driving combine around the 10th of August and will let you know how the fields look.

My wife and I spent the night in Lewiston and then headed down to Enterprise and Joseph, Oregon which has some of the prettiest scenery in America.  This area is called the Alps of America and if you ever get out this way, you need to check it out.  I noticed several combines harvesting grass seed over in the LaGrande area and based upon the straw I saw, the yields look good there, but you never know for sure with straw.

Then as we got closer to home along the Columbia River, the onion harvest was in full swing and when you are on a motorcycle, you can really smell that harvest.

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