MGGA Weekly Crop Condition Survey

 

AUGUST 29, 2023

Carter County - Michael Hansen
Well another one is in the books. Finished the last winter wheat field on Saturday. With two paddles missing off the clean grain elevator, a borrowed end roller for the draper, bent axle on header, and a wore out operator. But no matter what, we were going to be done; hopefully all the parts that I’ve needed for the last two weeks show up by next harvest. How ridiculous to have to wait over two weeks for a roller for a Mac Don draper head, there can only be a couple thousand in eastern Montana. Truck blew the compressor to pieces on the Baker highway trying to haul canola. It really amazes me just how fortunate we are to live where we do, our fuel guy let us borrow his truck to get it delivered and towed mine back to his shop. This week's project will be rebuilding the drill and preg checking heifers. Also shipping out the lease yearlings so no more A/C time. Moisture conditions are poor receiving no precipitation in the past week. Crops are winter wheat, durum, barley, canola, hay and sorghum. 

      

Fergus County - Robert Bold
Been quite a growing season this year. Very dry drought induced fall for winter wheat seeding which required winter wheat to be seeded into dry soil. Dry winter and spring, however, we had a good shot of above average rain in May and 1st half of June. It made our crops and the country looked like Ireland. Then the rain tap shut off and now we look like Northern Africa. I think the drought in Canada is now as far south as the Missouri River. I am not aware of any harvesting that needs to be completed here. South and west of us there is a lot of harvesting going on. Elevation. At this date, winter wheat seeded will be dicey with the hoppers. Need to take a little trip. Should have a report next week on how things are in the Dakotas and Minnesota. Moisture conditions are poor receiving .015" of precipitation in the past week. Crops are winter wheat, spring wheat and barley. Winter wheat, spring wheat and barley are harvested.

Fergus County - Boyd Heilig
We just finished harvest 9/29. Outstanding year with only a few breakdowns and rainouts. The wheat lost its color and some of its test weights after the rain, but the discounts haven’t been too bad so far. Will be gearing up for winter wheat seeding here soon. Moisture conditions are fair receiving no precipitation in the past week. Crops are winter wheat, spring wheat and barley.

 

Hill County - Eric Hanson
Harvest is an official wrap with the last of the patches picked up this last weekend. Cleaned up some stubble. Working on post harvest repairs. We’ll finish cleaning combines up and tuck them in today for their winter slumber. Waiting for rain. For the most part harvest is finishing up in this part of the country. I hope everyone gets finished soon so it can start raining. A week ago we had a very isolated downpour, netting .4-.5 inches in 20 minutes. But most everywhere missed out. We’ve been getting things ready for fall seeding. With the lack of moisture and daily downward stumble and tumble of the wheat market, we won’t be putting much in. I’m afraid by next harvest we may have regrets on what we did seed this fall. You’d think we would learn. But you just never know! Moisture conditions are poor.

Hill County - Trevor Wolery
Smoke has been thick up here the last few days. Been prepping some fallow for ww and cleaning up some stubble. Hope to have the drill rolling later today or tomorrow but no guarantees on that plan as of yet. Moisture conditions are fair receiving no preceipitation in the past week. Crops are winter wheat, barley and mustard. Grasshoppers, kochia and thistle are problems.

 

Judith Basin County - Greg Mathews
Breakdowns are the problem this year like no other. Two trucks went down in the first 5 days, with only one fixed so far. Bad injector, the other throw out bearing or fork. Then this week everything seems to go from bad to worse. Fire on Wednesday and lost 40 to 50 acres, thanks to all the neighbors and volunteer firefighters that showed up and to the DNRC that stayed for two days and watched over the area, so no new fires started. Friday reverser on feeder house got a rumble and needs to be replaced. Got lucky to get the parts on a airplane and should be going late Saturday, hopefully finish barley on Tuesday and then back to the WW for 5 days. Both elevators are plain running out of room for grain and do not have any more plans on stacking more on the ground. Moore is averaging between 130,000 to 180,000 bushels a day lately. Judith Gap area is just getting going last week with a big crop if they didn't get hail. Moisture conditions are fair receiving no precipitation in the past week. Crops are winter wheat, barley and hay. Winter wheat is ripe. Hoppers in areas are a problem.

Phillips/Blaine County - Raymond Keller
Harvesting the crop. Moisture conditions are fair receiving no precipitation in the past week. Crops are winter wheat, spring wheat, lentils and mustard. Winter wheat and spring wheat is ripe. hoppersn and sawfly a probloem, no weeds or diseases.

Valley County - Rob Davis
Finished durum, started spring wheat harvest. Sawfly are just as bad as expected. Some are actually twin raking what the combine left behind and getting 2 bales per acre of downed wheat wrapped up. 40-80% loss on most fields that had them bad. The Canadians claim anything they seed after the 20th of May is generally fine with the sawfly. Our later seeding this year will out yield the early stuff, but is the yield loss worth it on a "normal" year? Have resistant and tolerant varieties spoken for to seed next year. Protein levels are decent in the 14's but the rain knocked our falling numbers into the 260-270 range. Hopefully the later seeded handled the rain better. Should have cut some spring wheat before the rain, but wheat would have to run 80 bushel to compete with lentils this year so we stayed on them instead. Moisture conditions are fair receiving no precipitation in the past week. Crops are spring wheat, durum, peas and lentils. Spring wheat is ripe. Problems are flying ants, they are just annoying, and Russian thistle that came late in the hopper damaged areas and pigeon grass from the late rains.
 

   

AUGUST 22, 2023

Carter County - Michael Hansen
Well the first 2,500 hundred acres of harvest went without any breakdowns, the last thousand have been plagued. And as usual, the dealers have to order almost everything I break, wonder if I am just that unlucky or they just don’t stock anything anymore. Finished the durum and barley, both averaged 50 bushel. Started on the canola and it is a little overwhelming in plant and underwhelming in yield. But the hail it had in July I think affected it more than we thought. Oh well, looks like it will average 20 bushel. My combine knows how to cut twenty bushel crops pretty well by this point in its life. Moisture conditions are fair receiving .1" of precipitation in the past week. Crops are winter wheat, durum, barley, canola, hay and sorghum. 

    

Fergus County - Robert Bold
Well, harvest is in the books and in the bin. We are done! Excellent year for spring crops here locally. Winter wheat not so. The dry fall and late seeding last year never gave winter wheat a good chance to emerge and get started. Then this dry spring set the stage for a thin stand. But no hail in this area. Lewistown had several hail storms. This is the first year we have a small dose of sawfly along county road ditches and grass fence lines mostly. Some producers got hit hard. I guess we will be planting the same variety/s that everyone else is. Last week Steve said his operation lost 2 to 3 bushels/acre due to sawfly. I presume Steve meant over his entire crop. We had a different problem this year--again. Elk. We could be cutting 46 bushel recrop winter wheat and within 200 yards when you hit the elk damage, yield dropped to 6 to 8 bushel/acre. Luckily it was only a couple of fields. However, we have the option for recourse. We can put hundreds of pounds in the freezer and serve an entire wedding reception elk. Which was a very big hit I might add. To the best of my limited knowledge, I am not aware of anyone putting sawfly in the freezer to make sawfly pie for a wedding reception. Hoppers are really bad still. Year 5. We experienced some head clipping on the barley but they left the winter wheat alone. We had to spray our spring wheat. No crop to damage now, but I foresee winter wheat seeding problematic. I wonder if we could use Mustang Maxx with our pre plant Roundup plus seed treat. Moisture conditions are poor receiving .05" of precipitation in the past week. Crops are winter wheat, spring wheat and barley. Winter wheat, spring wheat and barley are harvested.

Gallatin County - Dale Flikkema
Combines just starting to run. 1 inch of rain over the weekend was not a good thing. Lots of malt barley sprouting in the field. Winter wheat and some spring wheat may have falling numbers, issues. Moisture conditions are good. Crops are winter wheat, spring wheat, barley, lentils, canola, hemp, corn, sunflower and hay. Winter wheat and barley are ripe, spring wheat is in the hard dough stage.

Hill County - Eric Hanson
Harvest is over except for a few water hole patches that are still green. We finished last Friday in the hazy days of smoke. An overall average crop, but happy with an average crop after the last few years of drought. When we started harvest, winter wheat cash price was $8.31. As of close on Monday it was $6.51. When we planted this winter wheat crop last fall it was a few pennies shy of the $10 mark. We’ll see what 23-24 marketing year does to that price. Fought a couple local fires this weekend in some not so good conditions, but no large losses or injuries. We were hoping for a good rain yesterday, which was predicted to be substantial, but it fizzled into .04 inches. So we will stay dry for now. Really dry. The drought monitor map seems to be accurate, as our little part of the world is in D2 status. The kids are already in school and the days are getting noticeably shorter. A week or two of repairs, cleanup, and prep and we will be eyeing 2024 as we start out with the drill full of winter wheat. Moisture conditions are poor receiving .04" of precipitation in the past week. Crops are winter wheat and spring wheat. Winter wheat and spring wheat are harvested. Still lots of big hoppers and kochia and pigweed are problems.

       

Hill County - Trevor Wolery
Finished harvest Saturday evening. All in all, very blessed to have the year we had up here. Time to climb back on the sprayer and do some house cleaning. Had a nice shower last night totaling .41. Moisture conditions are good receiving .41" of preceipitation in the past week. Crops are winter wheat, barley and mustard.

 

Judith Basin County - Greg Mathews
Slow is the word. Cut one field of WW and was extremely happy with yields and protein. 99.45 bu and 11.9 pro start on border moisture and was alright after that. Then went to barley yields about 70 to 80 bu, then the rain came in Saturday night and Sunday. Still a long ways to go. Good luck to all. Moisture conditions are fair receiving .11" of precipitation in the past week.

Teton County - Mitch Konen
Well I missed last week's report again as things got real busy around here. Winter wheat has been finished and have started into the barley. Did not get far when we ran into green grain. Seems the 105 day plant to harvest number is the key. So sitting still over the weekend, which coincides with the early May rains. The Greenfields bench has been a beehive of combines cutting winter wheat and barley these last two weeks. Water has run out, so the irrigation system is off unless you're lucky enough to be pulling water from a few drains. So now I am in hurry up and wait mode while a moisture system seems to be coming our way. The winter wheat was an excellent crop, although the irrigated lacked a little protien. The barley appears to be great crop with high plump and low protien and great yield. The spring wheat is coming right along as well, but can still find some green in it as well. Going to be a drawn out harvest for me yet. Had a visit to the farm from Congressman Rosendale who spent a couple hours riding and operating the combine and driving a truckload of barley to the elevator. Was a fun visit and glad to have him care enough to come out to the farm. Also got a family picture with the Buschhh man during an ABI grower happy hour at the Harvest Hills golf course. Moisture conditions are fair receiving no precipitation in the past week. Crops are winter wheat, spring wheat, barley and hay. Winter wheat is harvested, spring wheat and barley are in the hard dough stage. Grasshoppers and kochia are problems.

     

Valley County - Rob Davis
Pea harvest complete, lentils had a good start when the rain showed up. Yields were average, but nice to see average for a change. Spring wheat and durum harvest is kicking into high gear. Yields are decent to good so far. Sawfly had a great time in the spring wheat, we are beginning our learning curve for those pesky little varmints as they have never been this bad around here. .3'' of rain last night, didn't need it but we will not complain. Moisture conditions are fair receiving .3" of precipitation in the past week. Crops are spring wheat, durum, peas and lentils. Spring wheat is ripe. Sawfly a problem.
 

   

AUGUST 15, 2023

Carter County - Michael Hansen
Cutting winter wheat still yields are all over the place, but the protein and test weight have been consistent in all of it. 15.5 to 16 protein abd high sixties for test weight. Rain from last week softened fields pretty good so didn’t get a lot cut, didn’t want to make lots of ruts. Then fair came and the crew (mom and dad) lol, said they weren’t trucking Saturday or Sunday. So went to town and drank too much beer and ate too much food. Market sale for the kids was unreal: $12,000 steers, $5,000 pigs, and $1,000 cakes. Afraid will give kids unreal ideas of the money made in ag. Oh well, whatever keeps them interested. Hope to get to durum by Wednesday morning and then on to canola. The rest of the winter wheat will be after. Moisture conditions are fair receiving no precipitation in the past week. Crops are winter wheat, durum, barley, canola, hay and sorghum. 

 

Cascade County - Steve Sheffels
We are about 2 hours of cutting away from finishing the winter wheat. It was a record harvest. We will be finishing it up and trying the barley tomorrow. The plan is to have the barley and peas finished in the next week. Moisture conditions are good .22" at the shop in the past week. Crops grown are winter wheat, barley and peas. Winter wheat is ripe and barley is in the hard dough stage. Sawfly downed about 50% of the crop. Some of it was flattened. We probably lost 2-3 bushels per acre not being able to pick it up.

Fergus County - Robert Bold
Barley harvest for us is in the bin. Test weight 50 to 54 lb and 85+% plump. What a year for barley! We have about 2 more days of winter wheat harvest. Test weight for us and for most in the area is light. 56 to 59 lb. Protein 11.5 to 13.5. Hoppers did not bother the winter wheat much. Did some head cutting on the barley. In an earlier report I mentioned the hopper took care of a chem fallow operation, well they are picky eaters on Kochia. Only red stem Kochia please. I see they are cannibalized themselves. Even eating the cat food. This is year 5 for us with hoppers. With this current hopper pressure, winter wheat seeding in going to be dicey. But according to the latest USDA production report, even with the growing season problems in KS, OK, TX, this year's HRW crop in going to be larger than last year. So I guess our winter wheat seeding problem should really not matter much. With this hot August heat and low humidity, we are kind of like Mexico. Low humidity, big temperature drop every night and if plants are not cured out, they are going into summer dormancy. Moisture conditions are poor receiving 2 showers to stop cutting in the past week. Crops are winter wheat and barley.

Fergus County - Boyd Heilig
Things are moving right along with harvest. Started cutting the spring wheat on Saturday and we’re happy with the yields. A little low on the protein though. Today we switched to the barley and found some pretty good yields there as well. With the hot weather this week I think there will be a lot of acres covered here in central Montana. Moisture conditions are fair receiving .1" of precipitation in the past week. Crops are winter wheat, spring wheat and barley.

   

Hill County - Trevor Wolery
Harvest began again on Sunday and with any luck should be wrapped up by the end of this week. Where did the summer go with my wife Karleen back to teaching yesterday and my sophomore son Dirk going back tomorrow. Kenidee back to the grind at Rocky yesterday as well as Rhett leaves me next week to head back to MSU, not sure how any work will get done going forward. Slowly working at fallow and stubble cleanup and continually watching the grain markets crumble. Chalk up another year of being the price taker and not the price maker. Everyone stay safe and good luck. Moisture conditions are poor receiving no preceipitation in the past week. Crops are winter wheat, barley and mustard. Grasshoppers are a problem.

  
 

Judith Basin County - Greg Mathews
Will start to harvest this week. Do not know if it will be ww or barley, will decide on Monday. Others started on Saturday, somewhat leaving green spots. Not a real productive last week with the rain, but who wants to complain. Elevators really starting to take a lot of grain in, Moore started on their east pile that Columbia said they would not use but have to. Good luck to all and stay safe. Moisture conditions are fair receiving 1.24" of precipitation in the past week.

McCone/Dawson County - Kurt Voss
Peas have been harvested and had excellent test weight and above average yields. Barley has also been harvested and was an average crop. Currently in process of harvesting spring wheat. Yields have varied greatly depending on crop rotation, seeding date, and moisture conditions. Overall spring wheat is a little above average. Still plenty of grasshoppers despite efforts to control them. Moisture conditions are fair receiving .15" of precipitation in the past week. Crops are spring wheat, barley, peas, lentils, corn and hay. Spring wheat is ripe and barley is harvested.

   

Northern Yellowstone/Eastern Stillwater County - Michelle Jones
Harvest should wrap today - they’re down to the last 130 acres - my “vacation” ended yesterday so the crew at home was finishing up the last 400+ acres while I’m back at work in Seattle. The 2023 wheat crop was one for the record books. It will firmly be the highest average we’ve ever had and the quality is overall decent. No super high protein but largely in the 10.5-12.5 range. Hearing the local elevators are nearing max capacity and are at risk of not accepting any grain. Minimal trains scheduled and some of the highest basis I’ve ever seen at over -1.15. Whatever we don’t already have contracted will likely look to hold until March to May. Will probably sell on any near term rally but won’t lock the basis. We’ll see how wise that is...The barley crop was also excellent and while not a record - it is close. Quality looks good. Samples are headed to the malt house to confirm but don’t expect any issues. Now it’s time to relax a few days and then start catching up on hauling hay and preparing for 2024 already. Fertilizer was locked in a few weeks ago. Pre-buying quite a bit of chemicals. Moisture conditions are good receiving no precipitation in the past week. Crops are winter wheat, safflower, barley and hay. Winter wheat and barley are harvested.

  

 

   

AUGUST 8, 2023

Carter County - Michael Hansen
Cut more winter wheat this week between little showers and humidity in the morning, not a real productive week. We were supposed to get a lot of rain Thursday and Friday, but just sprinkled; couldn’t combine so we hauled wheat to the flour mill. Saturday it showed up though and we got 1.25. Not really what the farming needed at this point, but should green the pastures up a little for the cows. North of town got 5 inches we heard though. Captions for the pictures are: dumping trucks with gramma is super tiring and one combine does not keep the grain cart girl very busy. Moisture conditions are fair receiving 1.25" of precipitation in the past week. Crops are winter wheat, durum, barley, canola, hay and sorghum. 

  

Fergus County - Robert Bold
Got showered out early Saturday am. Had about half a day of barley left to harvest. Yields are super good, 52 to 54 lb test weight. I can not believe everyone wanting barley straw. That is a hotter market by far than the hay market. Winter wheat is ready to go. Spring wheat will be ready when we get done with the winter wheat. SE winds again with more hopper flying in but not out. I foresee winter wheat seeding problems when we want to seed in 5 or 6 weeks. This is winter wheat country. I remember an older local gentleman telling me over 40 years ago, "young man, this country was made on winter wheat, black cows, John Deere tractors and Ford pickups." Moisture conditions are poor receiving .4" of precipitation in the past week. Crops are winter wheat, spring wheat and barley. Winter wheat is ripe, spring wheat is in the hard dough stage and barley is harvested.

Fergus County - Boyd Heilig
Last week was a productive one for harvesting winter wheat. Was able to get half of it cut before the big weekend rains. Picked up 1.6 inches. Should be going again by Thursday. Yields are very good with decent protein and higher tests weights. Moisture conditions are good receiving 1.6" of precipitation in the past week. Crops are winter wheat, spring wheat and barley. Winter wheat is ripe, spring wheat and barley are in the hard dough stage. Grasshoppers are a problem.

Flathead County - Tryg Koch
Winter wheat harvest is just about wrapped up for the dryland guys. Yields are all over the board. We had some run 45 bushel and other stuff go over 100. The better ground definitely showed up this year. We are in stage 2 fire restrictions and still have not recieved much rain. Lots of smoke and fires all around the valley. The canola crop will not be a very good one this year and we are hopefully going to start cutting some by the weekend. The fiber hemp looks great, and hopefully next week they will be here to start cutting it. Second cutting hay is extremely light unless it is irrigated or a sub irrigated field, there just isn't much to cut. We started this week and will only probably cut 100 acres of 400 that we usualy do. Moisture conditions are poor receiving .08" of precipitation in the past week. Crops are winter wheat, barley, canola, hemp, mustard and hay. Winter wheat is harvested.

 

Gallatin County - Dale Flikkema
Very well. Moisture conditions are fair receiving .2" of preceipitation in the past week. Crops are winter wheat, spring wheat, barley, lentils, canola, hemp, corn, sunflower and hay. Winter wheat and barley are in the soft dough stage, spring wheat is filling.

Garfield County - Scott Glasscock
We are done cutting our winter wheat and peas. The winter wheat was just above average. Too many thin spots. The peas yielded way above average. Perfect growing conditions. We are cutting spring wheat and lentils. They are both yielding way above average. The grasshoppers have taken their share on the crops and our pastures. We sprayed a lot of acres and I’m sure it helped, but it’s disappointing to see how much they took. Moisture conditions are poor receiving .12" of preceipitation in the past week. Crops are winter wheat, spring wheat, peas, lentils, hay and sorghum.

Hill County - Eric Hanson
Last week was quite productive, finishing our winter wheat for 2023 on Thursday evening. That is except for the 2000 patches we will at some point pick up, which we will be dubbing our “second harvest”. Got everything moved 30 miles, bins set, and started in on the spring wheat by late afternoon Friday as the clouds began to build. Nothing more nerve wracking than sitting in the combine watching those big clouds build higher and higher, gaining energy and forming balls of ice as they do. They missed us though, hitting harvest crews to the south of us with heavy rain and hail. Saturday morning the “20% chance” in the forecast appeared as rain and lightning coming in from the north and looking pretty promising. Radar said it was going to miss us. Never trust the radar. It moved in and rained all morning and into the afternoon. We got 4/10-7/10 of rain at our different places, and one of our half sections got over an inch. I’m not a fan of rain at harvest, but this was a nice one. Unlike some of our last few flash irrigation downpours, this was a slow and steady soak. So we’ve enjoyed some R&R&R (rest, recuperation, and repairs) these last few days, and hope to be cutting by this afternoon. The rain rejuvenated the toads and salamanders as well. We are going to refer to Saturday night around here as the night of the salamander. The kids, along with some of us big kids, caught well over 150 salamanders. I’ve never seen anything like it. As a kid we would see maybe 2-3 all summer. So I felt like I was 7 years old all over again, 3 salamanders in one hand while catching another with my other! Hope everyone continues to have a safe harvest. Moisture conditions are fair receiving .4-.7" of precipiation in the past week. Crops are winter wheat and spring wheat.

      

Hill County - Trevor Wolery
Our Harvest is at a standstill currently due to green in our later sown mustard. Hard red winter wheat ended up being a nice crop for the year and it was the best barley crop this farm has had in generations. Mustard crop has been discouraging on the production side for the year it had. Fallow and ww stubble clean up is still the focus along with prepping for ww 2024. Good luck to everyone with their harvest. Moisture conditions are fair receiving no preceipitation in the past week. Crops are winter wheat, barley and mustard.

   

 

Judith Basin County - Greg Mathews
Looks like WW and barley is still 7 to 10 days out in the Buffalo area. Did not change much this last week. Moisture was spotty and varied this last weekend with the Sage Creek and Moccasin areas receiving the most, 1.5 inches plus. Moore area in 3 miles varied from .20 to .50 on Friday. Storm came from the northeast to the southwest again, very uncommon. Hail last weekend hit the Kolin area to Lewistown. This weekend hit the Moccasin to Kolin areas. Charlie's crop of peas and other crops got hit badly last weekend as one could see what was combined and what was not, especially the peas, sad to see. Looks like harvest is going to be drug out this year with the cool and wet weather. Received 0.84 this weekend as of Sunday morning and still raining. Good for the upcoming WW seeding, but bad for harvesting. Best of luck to everyone and stay safe. Moisture conditions are good receiving .84" of precipitation in the past week.

Northern Yellowstone/Eastern Stillwater County - Michelle Jones
It’s harvest time. We’re about 1/3 of the way done with winter wheat and so far it’s one for the record books. I’ve resisted all year attaching anything over a slightly above average yield to the crop. But so far it’s smashing all expectations and is solidly and easily sitting as the best the farm has ever seen. We’ll see if it holds up - but I expect it to based on the fields we have left. We expect to finish winter wheat later this week - heavy rains originally forecast for the weekend did not materialize (which is fine - I didn’t really want 2-3” on the wheat right now) - and the next week of weather looks below average and dry. Fingers crossed. Test weight is very high - north of 62. Protein is around 11-12 with some I expect to possibly drop down into the 10.5-11 range. Moisture conditions are good receiving 0-.2" of precipitation in the past week. Crops are winter wheat, safflower, barley and hay. Winter wheat and barley are ripe.

Teton County - Mitch Konen
Most of the winter wheat has been taken in. I still have a little irrigated to cut. The Sunday rain has pushed it back a few more days which is fine because I can still find a small green spot here and there. I do have some barley that is getting close but for the most part, all of the barley is fairly green yet. 2nd cutting hay is getting closer too as folks are still irrigating it and starting to get some bloom color as well. Crops are still looking great. Some winter wheat in the area was swathed per sawfly damage and I don't feel we got enough rain to hurt the swaths. This last week was fun cutting my dryland winter wheat compared to waiting for an insurance check last year. I actually had a decent crop. High 50's on the test weight and above 14 protien. Did have a little sawfly loss in the thinner areas but for the most part was easily harvestable. Until...the combine decided to puke the separator belt and take out the pto seal. Thanks to my cousin Michael for bringing his machine up to finish my dryland acres. Family and neighbors still take care of each other out here in the farming community. Conditions have dried considerably with Sunday's rain, the first we have received since May 5th. The short grass prairie is dry and the tap rooted weeds are taking over. Had an Indonesian trade team visit the farm on Tuesday looking at wheat. Also met with ABI top personnel in Conrad to discuss malt barley issues. Stay safe and have a bountiful harvest. Moisture conditions are fair receiving .3" of precipitation in the past week. Crops are winter wheat, spring wheat, barley and hay. Winter wheat is harvested, spring wheat and barley are in the hard dough stage. Sawfly, grasshoppers, kochia, pigweed and lambsquarter are all problems.

         

   

AUGUST 1, 2023

Carter County - Michael Hansen
Started cutting winter wheat, first 600 acres averaged 30 bushel. Yield is definitely helped by test weight as it weighs 67 to 68 pounds. Not been very good harvest weather lots of humidity and little thunderstorms have been passing through keeping moisture up. Lots of 14 moisture I guess that’s why we have fans on the bins. Quit haying as we were done to less than half a bale to the acre.  Looks like more rain in the forecast for the end of this week, Mother Nature has just been confused when she should have been raining this year. Lots of green second growth in most of the winter wheat fields will make for a frustrating harvest as most is dry but what is not is to green. So far have been surprised at the yield in the winter wheat, because I would have guessed a strong ten. At first was pretty sure I had some button pushed wrong in combine but the ol acre per truck math convinced me otherwise. Lots of foot rot in cow herd as the flies have them bunches in corners or water holes stomping around trying to get away from them. Moisture conditions are fair receiving .5 precipitation in the past week. Crops grown are winter wheat, durum, barley, canola, hay and sorghum. 

    

Cascade County - Steve Sheffels
Itching to go cut winter wheat. Barley 3 weeks out yet. Moisture conditions are fair. Traces of precipitation in the past week. Crops grown are winter wheat, barley and peas. Winter wheat is in the hard dough stage. Barley in the soft dough stage. About 20% of the overall winter wheat crop has fallen. Most of the damage is in the SW corner of the farm which are the first hit from the prevailing winds.

      


Fergus County - Robert Bold
Started harvesting barley. 86 days ago it was seeded. Yields are very very good. The heavier the yield, test weight is 47 #, slightly less yield, 55 # test weight. Saturday and Sunday with the hot SE wind, we got more migrating hoppers. In the combine cab, 1 in every 15 to 20 plants has a hopper or two on it. Before we started cutting, I was wondering how to work in the chem fallow. Not one green thing out there now. So there is a silver lining in Mother Nature's ways. Basis for winter wheat here is about as low as I can remember. $1.00 under. That is about $1.35 lower than this time last year. There is some winter wheat being harvested. But there is a lot of green in the winter wheat due to the dry fall and lack of emergence last fall. Pretty bad hail storm last night in Lewistown and Chinook. Hay crop is about wrapped up even with the grain hay. Lots of bales in the country. Hope everyone has a good and successful harvest! Moisture conditions are poor receiving no precipitation in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat and barley. Winter wheat is in the hard dough stage and barley is ripe.

Hill County - Eric Hanson
We did it. We don’t usually, and it was completely unorthodox, but we did. We finished our winter wheat on our one farm and before moving 30 miles to the other, into what appeared to be green winter wheat anyway, we tried our first seeded spring wheat. And it was a go. Really, you ask. Yes sir. Not much of it, but 180 acres worth was put in the bin. Weird year. After talking to a few different people at the elevator, sounds as if we aren’t alone there. But we are back into winter wheat, hoping to finish in 4-5 days. It’s been quite the patching affair, a work of art from a birds eye vantage point I’m sure! The late seeding into heavy drought conditions, followed by a winter and spring that wasn’t kind, led to an average crop at best. We knew it. But still better than the last two. We’ll take it. The waves of evening storms the last 3-4 days have held us up some. Heavy rains and violent winds have accompanied some. No hail for us, but we just got lucky so far. Our last rain of any substance was June 9th, so we were, and still are, dry, dry, dry. But we caught 1-7/10 depending on which field or farm you were on in the last few days. And higher amounts in areas. Water washed over the main grade east of our Fresno place. Unbelievable. It will be a week before we can get into some spring wheat but a lot of it is 10-14 days off yet. The hoppers are now defoliating weeds, but also taking down anything green one might cherish. The grain market is like watching the town drunk; it’s down, it’s up, but it’s stumbling along. Painful to watch at times. But life is good and we are grinding away at another years bounty from the prairie. Moisture conditions are poor receiving 1/10 to 7/10 in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat and spring wheat. Winter wheat is ripe.

            


Hill County - Trevor Wolery
Not quite half done with winter wheat harvest. Rained out on a wind/rain storm Saturday night. We were picking windrows between two neighbors that had gauges gathering 1.25” and .55” with moisture conditions fair. Left the windrows to dry and moved to Barley on Sunday and dodged another storm that was to south of us that was devastating to some crops in the area. Will start on Mustard today. Everyone stay safe and keep the water trucks near by. Crops growing are winter wheat, barley and mustard.

   
     


Judith Basin County - Greg Mathews
No combines will roll in the Buffalo area this upcoming week but look out for the next week as some barley should be ripe by then and a little WW. Moore area will have some harvesting this week. Had some moisture this last week but was spotty. Received 0.44 last week and Hobson on Saturday had a good rain and so did the Lewistown area.. Hoppers are still showing up and could be  a problem. Have a safe harvest. Moisture conditions are fair.  Winter wheat and Barley are in the soft dough stage.


McCone/Dawson County - Trevor Schock
Harvest is underway now, with most people working on their peas in the area. Other crops like mustard and lentils look like they will be ready to harvest shortly. Early spring wheat will also be ready soon and likely tried to be harvested by some this week. We will be following our seeding pattern of peas, mustard, wheat. So far peas have been yielding average to a little better than average, which was about as expected with a fairly wet spring. Scattered thunderstorms over the last few days have given some needed rain to some area but not to others. Late planted spring wheat may be able to use the moisture but likely to late for early crops to do much with it. The storms have also brought some damaging winds and hail to some areas. Ripe peas are like losing some bushels to the winds that come with the storms. Grasshoppers continue to infest the greater area. All fields got insecticide along with herbicide for the in crop application and most of the spring wheat has had an additional aerial application. Any grassy or weedy area that has some green left to it is boiling with grasshoppers still. A lot of wheat could still use more rain to finish filling and add test weight. The recrop wheat is really showing signs of stress and you can see the large difference between hills and waterways. Moisture conditions are fair with receiving .1" to 1.2" in the past week. Crops growing this year are spring wheat, mustard and peas. Spring wheat is in the soft dough stage. Grasshoppers and sawflies as well as Kochia, pigweed and mare's tail are present.

   


Northern Yellowstone/Eastern Stillwater County - Michelle Jones
Still waiting on harvest - and given the NWS just put in their afternoon forecast update that a cutoff low is going to bring the potential for 2-3” over the weekend into South Central Montana…that’s fine. It can stay unripe. Otherwise we’re asking for quality issues. This will likely be the latest harvest start in recent memory. Even without the rains any material progress is likely a week out. With that much rain it’d be obviously delayed further.  Other than that - things are progressing nicely. Haying season is entirely wrapped up. Crops continue to look excellent. Here’s to a great harvest. Moisture conditions are good receiving 0-.2" to 0.6" in the past week. Crops being grown are winter wheat, safflower, barley and hay. Winter wheat and barley are in the hard dough stage.


Valley County - Rob Davis
Crops continue on the road to ripening. Peas are mostly turned and will be harvested within the next two weeks. Lentils are 5 days or so behind. Early spring wheat and durum is 80% turned and ripening, sawfly are taking the edges down pretty hard. Later seeded spring wheat is actually looking good for late seeding. It is filling nicely and recent rains might actually make it turn into something decent. Ugly thunderstorms moved through the past weekend, no hail but torrential rains and wind caused issues in the neighborhood, 1.3 precipitation in the past week. Moisture conditions are fair. Mother nature continues to show us who is boss. Crops growing this year are spring wheat, durum, peas and lentils. Spring wheat is in the soft dough stage. Few hoppers and sawfly and have the disease of high blood pressure.