Harvest is running a little late in eastern Washington for wheat farmers. But, the yields are worth the wait.
Dan Bickelhaupt, a farmer near Waitsburg, Wash., says his area will see record yields this year due to abundant rains all spring.
One of his fields, in the video below, yielded 113 bu./acre. The dryland field was planted with soft white winter wheat, Stephens/Tubbs 50/50 mix.
Bickelhaupt says crops in southeast Washington were plagued with stripe rust. “This field had three applications of fungicide to combat the rust,” he says. Normally stripe rust isn’t a problem, but due to wet springs it has made a comeback in the last two years.
Yields for winter wheat on fallow ground have also been impressive, coming in at the 120 to 135 bu./ac. range. “Quality looks excellent.”
In this video, you can watch Bickelhaupt, assisted by his daughters Anne and Jill, harvest their soft white winter wheat field.
The Bickelhaupts make up a fourth-generation family farm and farm the same ground Dan’s great-grandfather started in 1888.
In the video, Dan is driving the combine, a JD9610, Anne is driving the Challenger65 pulling a Demco 750 bank-out wagon and Jill is driving the Freightliner, hauling to the local Columbia County Grain Growers elevator. Dan’s wife, Nancy, is involved as the lunch preparer, parts runner, laundry specialist, etc.
Making the Video
Nicole Wright, a grain elevator operator at the Huntsville Grain Elevator, a part of the Columbia County Grain Growers, and Waitsburg agriculture education teacher, filmed Bickelhaupt’s harvest.
In the background, you can see the town of Waitsburg, population 1,200.
Wright positioned her camera on the bin deck at the elevator. From that perspective, she knew she’d get a great video.
The video recorded around 10 hours of the Bickelhaupt’s harvest, then she condensed it into a 4-minute time-lapse video.
“Everyone says they wish harvest would go that fast all the time,” she says.
For More Information
Want to know what’s happening in wheat country? Check out AgWeb’s Virtual Wheat Tour. Be sure to submit a report for your wheat crop.
