The Farmers Weekly study tour of the US has today been travelling through Idaho. At 4,500ft above sea level and with an average rainfall (in the southern one third of the State anyway) of 8 to 10 inches, you might think it ought not to be growing crops at all. But the metre deep sandy soil lies over an enormous acquifer fed by the Snake River. It takes its water from snow melt from the Rockie Mountains just to the east and enables the farmers to irrigate to their hearts content. And the water is free!
Farmers are quick to point out that it costs them a fair bit in electricity to pump the water. Even so our touring party had never before seen so much of it being sprayed onto land over such a wide area. Virtually every field was covered with sprinklers either from linear wheeled irrigators or centre pivots. And they were watering winter and spring wheat, freshly planted spring barley, sugar beet, potatoes, maize and alfalfa. It really was a sight to behold, especially as it was raining hard at the time. But rain, we were told, was unusual and was no reason to switch off the sprinklers.
Yields were said to be comparable to ours at home in the UK and crop diseases were few and far between. Hardly any fungicide spraying is required on most crops, probably because of the altitude. But here again, as in Iowa and other states further east that we visited last week, spring planting had been seriously delayed by rain and farmers were worried about the potential yield loss this would mean.
But not too worried! At least that was true of the ones we visited. These included multi thousand acre potato and sugar beet growers and muti thousand head dairy farmers. All had cashed in on the light land and water rights and appeared to be doing very nicely indeed.
No time for more now. Got to get changed and go out to a Chuck Wagon Dinner plus entertainment featuring Buckskin Lady and Six Shooter Sal. So, from Pocatello, Idaho, for now, Ye Ha. I will try to fill in further details of our trip later, either by blog or in FW.
Comments (2)
Hi David
glad to see you are looking at some scale farming again! When are you coming to see how the poor boys in stavrapol Krai in Russia do their farming??The great news here is that its actually been raining last week around 40mm and 2 weeks prior to that another 40mm so our optimism on harvest is currently strong as crops look well, but then this time last year they looked well and then it did not rain till october and yields were down. This eternal connundrum of agriculture combined with cost increases in all inputs mean that our friends in the city have not understood yet that just because prices are high does not necessarily mean high profit.Having spent many years working in the mid west plains , have a great trip but mind the joys of the "corn dog" as in a piece of corn dipped in oil and fried to death, your arteries may never recover!!!
Posted by Robert C | June 3, 2008 12:21 PM
Posted on June 3, 2008 12:21
Good to hear from you again Robert. I'd love to look at what you are doing in Stavrapol. Lets try and make a date for me to do so - as long as you promise to go easy on the vodka! The US was fascinating and reminded me yet again that all farmers, whether in the UK, the US or the FSU, are operating in the same world market these days more than ever before.
Cheers, David
Posted by David Richardson | June 5, 2008 12:15 PM
Posted on June 5, 2008 12:15