Pacific Northwest Wheat Update

How’s the Wheat Look Around the Pacific Northwest?
I’m KayDee Gilkey with today’s Northwest Farm and Ranch Report.

Syngenta’s Ric Wesselman shares a look at winter wheat and soil conditions around the Pacific Northwest.

Wesselman: “Right now moisture is good, we are seeing some fronts come through. It has probably held up some growers in some cases in what they had anticipated getting done in their operations. This moisture is filling the profile. Growers are getting on a good start with whether they are going to be planting spring wheat or feeding the winter wheat that is out there. In northern Idaho similar things are going on.”

Field work is underway in southern Idaho’s Magic Valley where winter wheat is out of dormancy and waiting for warm days for growth. Any disease concerns at this point?

Wesselman: “We are picking up some rust. Some in Oregon, and some areas Touchet, Walla Walla, Waitsburg area we picked up some at low levels. So it is certainly out there. Really it is how the rest of this spring plays out. If you listen to Art Douglas at the Farm Forum at Ag Expo, he was saying it was going to be a more cooler maybe on the dryer side spring -- we haven’t seen that yet -- but that potential is there. Those are conditions that are conducive to rust to proliferate and then as summer comes we’ll have to see how that unfolds.”