Grain farmers salvage crops after unseasonable weather

Recent whether could weigh heavy on eastern Idaho farmers. Many said crops have been degraded by the unseasonable weather.

“The rain happened to come at a time when most of the grain in our area was just becoming ripe and as the moisture gets into the cornels, it actually begins to sprout,” said grain, hay. and potato farmer Brad Reed.

Reed has been spending most of his days working to salvage what he can from his grain fields. He said like most farmers, sprouting can be detrimental to the agriculture economy, but he isn’t whining. He said he just has to do the best he can to make do with what he has.

“There’s 580,000 of acres barley grown in the state of Idaho. A large portion of that is malt as well as the wheat is going to have a huge economic impact on us and those that we deal with.”

Reed said his crop value could be cut by more than 50 percent. He said a bushel of grain usually goes for about $6, but he estimates get less than $3 for a bushel. Instead of selling to malt companies, he’ll have to sell his grain as feed stock.

“We’ll just do the best we can to salvage it and it likely will not be malt barley, it will likely not be seed if that’s what it was intended for. With wheat it’s hard to say where it will go, but we’ll definitely will be making huge adjustments here,” said Reed.