Hope and Renewal

With the 2018 U.S. winter wheat harvest complete and October right around the corner, U.S. wheat farmers are now seeding a new crop. Across the 18 states that represent 90 percent of the area planted to winter wheat last year, USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) estimates that 28 percent of the 2019 crop was planted as of September 23.

 

An image of wheat planting that caught our eye came recently from John McManigal, who grows soft white wheat with his family in Wasco County, Ore. John is an excellent agricultural field photographer and, with Mt. Hood looming over this mid-Columbia region, has a remarkable landscape on which to work. The photo he shared with U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) that we have posted here and his words tell an inspiring story of hope and renewal.

 

 

“The Substation Fire started Tuesday, July 17, on US 197 near The Dalles, Ore., about 3:30 p.m. By evening it had raced east across Wasco County, jumped the Deschutes River and started up into Sherman County. The next day brought more wind. The fire gathered itself again and started another run to the east. By the end of the day on Wednesday, Mid-Columbia Producers figured roughly 2 million bushels of wheat went up in smoke.”

 

“That is my son Brad in the photograph seeding on Rich Kortge Farms, only about five miles east of where the Substation Fire started. This field had been left fallow last season but the vegetative cover was lost to the fire. The field in the background to the left of the fence was standing wheat that went up in flames on the afternoon of July 17.”

 

“It has not rained in months here and the seeding conditions look a little bleak.”

 

“But you know farmers. Maybe next year…”