Rain and Wheat

Never has the old adage “when it rains it pours” been more true than for southern Idaho. Rain is normally a good thing except if it is excessive rain at wheat harvest. The executive director of the Idaho wheat commission, Blaine Jacobson told me that excessive rain has caused significant damage to the wheat crop in southern Idaho and it's going to take some time to assess just exactly how much. “Idaho has received more rainfall this year than during the typical year. You probably have to go back 20 years to see this much rain occurring at harvest time. Not only rain but continuous rain. It has been going on for almost 2 weeks and as a result there has been some spot damage in the southern part of the state. There has been a little bit in northern Idaho but fortunately much of that harvest was in before the rain started. So there is modest damage up north at Southern and Eastern Idaho have been particularly impacted. We are still hopeful that many of the fields are okay but it will take a few weeks to really see what we have. The week needs to dry out and get into the elevator and be tested and we will see where it goes from there.