A big-time harvest
By Larry Meyer - Argus Observer
Monday, August 20, 2007 10:48 AM PDT
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| A combine traverses the rolling hills as it harvests wheat Aug. 6, south of Uniontown, Wash. Locally, the higher wheat prices have helped offset high production costs for some area farmers. |
ONTARIO - As wheat prices remain at all-time highs, escalating production costs — including fuel to operate equipment and fertilizers to nurture crops — can nullify profits for many farmers and subdue enthusiasm as they look down the road toward the end of harvest.
Still, there is no denying that high wheat prices recently proved to be a benefit for farmers in portions of the Northwest, and, in some ways, Malheur County is no exception.
Poor harvest conditions in other parts of the United States are also pushing the price of wheat up, Ontario farmer Roy Hasebe said.
“There are people all over having difficulty harvesting their wheat,” he said.
The high wheat prices proved to be somewhat of a surprise, Hasebe said.
He said he sold part of his crop when the price reached $6.50 per hundred weight, which it had not been for many years.
Hasebe said he then watched the price go even higher, and he said he received $9.47 per hundred weight or approximately $180 per ton, for the rest of his crop.
“Only once in my life of farming had I seen it at $7.50 per hundred weight,” Hasebe, who has farmed since 1960, said. “I’ve never seen it this high before.”
While he is considering locking in a price for next year, Hasebe said that is something that is done with caution.
“You don’t want to oversell,” he said.
Hasebe said he was pleased to see the high prices.
“I’m happy to see the market,” he said, especially after he harvested what he termed an average crop yield.
The higher prices also helped offset climbing fuel and fertilizer prices, he said.
Where the cost of fertilizer was 30 cents per unit two or three years ago, it is now 58 cents per unit, Hasebe said.
Another area farmer also said the wheat harvest was successful.
“We did pretty well,” Ontario area farmer Louis Wettstein, Wettstein Farms, said.
While the average yield of 132 bushels per acre was comparable to yields in past years, “last year was lighter than that,” he said.
“I was satisfied. Some fields were good, some fields really good and some not so good,” he said, adding that scenario was typical.
Fields that received water early on in the season, did better than those watered later, Wettstein said.
Rick Dentinger, of Dentinger’s Feed and Seed, agreed the wheat harvest looks to be a good one.
“Price was fantastic. The quality was pretty good. Yield was a little down,” he said.
Noting it was dry in the fall and hot and dry during the spring, he said more water, put on earlier, probably would have helped.
Helping drive wheat prices up is dry weather problems around the world, Dentinger said.
While the wheat harvest is over, the onion harvest is just getting underway and the prices, which were high last year, are dropping.
“We have a good crop of onions,” Hasebe said. “The market is not good.”
Onions are coming onto the market from California, Washington, New Mexico and Colorado, he said. Hasebe said he will begin harvesting onions this week.
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