Forward to a friend or colleague Camas Prairie and Palouse growers experience hard freeze with wheat crops According to Andy Baldus, a grower who participated in the Idaho Wheat Commission's Pacific Northwest Export Tour in January, "We did experience a hard freeze here in Nezperce. It got down to 11 degrees in one of the coldest spots. We are seeing a lot of wheat with wilted leaf tips. I’m sure it will cost us in yield but the wheat also seems to be coming out of it a bit. We have had very good growing weather in general here. Hopefully it will come out of it just fine." Tom Linehan in Genesee said he did not have to reseed any wheat due to frost damage but he know there we quite a few growers who did. Kurtis Schroeder, a cropping systems agronomist and associate professor at University of Idaho, said he and Douglas Finkelnburg, an area extension educator focused on cropping systems have visited numerous fields on the Camas Prairie, Palouse, and even further north into Tensed and up to Bonners Ferry. Schroeder said, "Frost injury was evident in nearly every field that we examined and was present in the winter wheat variety trials that I visited in Moscow, Tensed and Bonners Ferry (have not visited the other variety testing sites since the frost). At Moscow, we experienced nighttime temperatures as low as 15 F. Temperatures in the teens and low-20s were common throughout northern Idaho the week of April 12. In most cases the plants were small and the damage that we observed was limited to the leaves. With the warmer weather that we have experienced this past week, the plants are rapidly recovering." According to Schroeder, when considering the impact of a freeze event on wheat, it is important to understand the growth stage of the plant. At the seedling stage up through tillering, the growing point is below or near the soil surface. The growing point of these younger plants is more protected from cold temperatures and damage will usually be limited to the leaf chlorosis and burning of leaf tips, such as the case in northern Idaho this spring. While the growth might temporarily be delayed, these plants will typically resume growth when warmer weather returns with limited impact on yield. However, at the jointing growth stage or beyond, the growing point may be killed or florets could be sterile resulting in moderate to severe yield loss. Schroeder recommended a Kansas State University has a nice summary (linked here) of spring freezing injury in wheat. IWC's director of research collaboration, Cathy Wilson said, "Wheat is resilient if damage occurs before heading. At heading or after a hard freeze will kill the embryos or developing grain. Beautiful heads with nothing in them. Sometimes a freeze in the vegetative stage makes wheat vulnerable to foliage disease." Was this information helpful to you? Let us know! Idaho soil and wheat crop conditions as of April 26 According to U.S. Department of Agriculture data, soil conditions are still good in Idaho. As of April 19, 75 percent of topsoil and 83 percent of subsoil was adequate and 10 and six percent was surplus respectively. Spring wheat planting progress was the same last week as the five-year average (61 percent) and up seven percent from the previous week. Twice the spring wheat had emerged compared to last week and 2019 (14 percent) but that trailed the five-year average of 19 percent. Nearly half (53 percent) of the winter wheat in Idaho was good and 13 percent was excellent. Much of the state has more precipitation from October 2019 through April 2020 than in 1981-2010 average/normals but as always, the more recent weather matters most during planting, sprouting and harvesting times. Learn more Wall Street Journal: Two months that tore apart the food chain The coronavirus pandemic has scrambled the U.S. food system, crushing the restaurant industry while pushing up grocery sales at record rates. The crisis is remaking every link in the supply chain, from farms to manufacturers to shippers to stores. Officials are warning of labor shortages and waning meat supplies. Ultimately, it could bring permanent changes to the way food is processed and transported. For consumers, it could mean fewer choices, higher prices and an adjustment in the way we shop and stock our pantries. Farm Prices for corn, cattle, hogs and milk have dropped as demand from restaurants, colleges, schools and other institutions has evaporated. Production on farms was already high, meaning the nation started the crisis with stockpiles. In some cases, that glut could turn to a production crunch if the foreign migrant laborers that farmers increasingly rely on to pick produce and milk cows fall sick or stay home amid lockdowns to contain the virus. Factory A similar dynamic is leading to tighter meat supplies. Some packing plants have closed after workers contracted the virus, and meat production has declined. On Tuesday, President Trump took executive action to keep meat plants open. Makers of packaged foods have kept all but a few factories running, using temperature checks to control the spread of the infection. Some have struggled to meet the sudden spike in demand from supermarkets. Read more Quarantine Kitchen Idaho Wheat Edition: Zucchini Bread On this episode of #QuarantineKitchen Idaho Wheat Edition, Casey Chumrau (associate administrator), makes her favorite zucchini bread recipe using a cookbook from her mom and flour (with wheat grown in Idaho) from Gaston’s Bakery. Is zucchini bread technically a salad? Enjoy! Read more In case you missed it: How long will it take ag to return to normal? When it comes to COVID-19’s impact on the economy, there appears to be at least some glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. Many states, including Idaho, have released plans to reopen their economies in stages. That has created some optimism in farm country that maybe things are starting to get back to normal. But farmers and agricultural industry leaders caution it will take more than just a few weeks or months for the farming industry, which has been hammered by declining commodity prices linked to the coronavirus outbreak, to get back to normal. The farming industry won’t return to pre-coronavirus levels quickly, said Idaho Barley Commission Executive Director Laura Wilder. “It’s going to take some time and it could take up to two years,” she said. North Idaho farmer [and Idaho Wheat Commissioner] Bill Flory said he’s optimistic the economy will open back up sooner rather than later but he agrees pre-virus normality levels won’t happen immediately. “I’m optimistic that the states are going to continue to loosen criteria and stay-in-place orders and commerce will begin coming back, but I don’t think it’s going to be fast,” he said. Learn more Adjusting cropping systems affected by the COVID-19 pandemic The agricultural sector has begun to struggle with the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The economic shocks on Idaho and Oregon agricultural industries have hit dairy, beef onion, and potato producers particularly hard. This is partially driven by the school and restaurant industry closures, where mass quantities of these products are typically utilized. Thus, the impact has been more immediate and direct compared to other commodities. Following the shelter-in-place orders in Idaho and Oregon, the negative effects of the reduction in food consumption are now coming to light. Most crop producers implement yearly rotations – alternating the annual crops grown on a specific field in a planned pattern in successive crop years. Many Idaho and Oregon growers have been forced to cut their planned potato, barley and onion acreage due to loss of processing contracts for the 2020-21 crop year. With planting under way, many farmers are looking for ways to sustain their productivity. Adjusting crop rotations may enable producers to stay profitable. Planting different crops such as small grain cereals, beans or corn are some options that may be appropriate for acres initially intended for potatoes and onions. Agricultural practices such as fertilization, herbicide and other pesticide applications already completed last fall and/or this spring are some of the key practices that must be considered. Agricultural inputs that have already been applied could have a significant impact on the alternative crops eventually planted in those fields. Finally, there may be serious implications if the fields are replanted to the same crop as in the previous year. To help growers make more informed planting decisions this spring, the University of Idaho and Oregon State University researchers put the following guidelines in place. Read more The road from farm to table The following questions and answers provide background and insight into how COVID-19 is impacting the food supply chain and animal welfare. The information is provided by Jayson Lusk, distinguished professor and head of the Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University, and Candace Croney, professor of animal behavior and well-being, and director of the Center for Animal Welfare Science, Purdue University. If there’s a surplus at the farm, why is there a shortage in the grocery store? Why are farmers dumping milk and plowing under vegetable crops while grocery store shelves are bare? This happens when the processing and distribution sectors that turn raw farm commodities into the food we eat are disrupted. With 54 percent of food spending occurring in restaurants and cafeterias, and that sector of the economy nearly shut down, there was a dramatic spike in demand for food in grocery stores — a demand the industry was not prepared to meet.