Ag Weekly Online: Twin Falls, Idaho

RUPERT, Idaho - Winter’s early arrival shut down harvest in the eastern Magic Valley, but thanks to a return of more fall-like weather damage shouldn’t be severe.

The mid-October snow blanketed a fairly narrow region - primarily east of Hansen, particularly hitting fields along the foothills. South of Burley received over 16 inches of snow and Declo got more than 2-feet, but Paul only got 7 to 8 inches of snow. Growers in the Buhl area received just a trace of precipitation and fields are so dry there that the Twin Falls Canal Co. extended irrigation deliveries through Oct. 24.

Without an early sugar beet harvest this season, growers in the MiniCassia area were just getting started harvesting beets when the winter weather hit.

Dave Elison, area agronomist for Amalgamated Sugar Co., estimated only about 10 percent of the beets had been harvested. Temperatures fell dramatically following the snow storm to 11 to 13 degrees in Paul Monday morning. “The saving factor was that we had the snow cover,” he said. Under the snow, the 4-inch soil temperature was just barely freezing.

Although the beets themselves weren’t damaged, the beet tops were frozen and turned limp and raggy. That makes defoliating the beets more difficult and will slow harvest as much as the wet, muddy fields. “We’ve been here before,” Elison said. “We don’t like it but we’ll push through it.”

Despite the cold and snow, Elison expects to yields to be better than last year. Beets could yield 28 ton per acre or better. A few samples have been run through the company labs and sugar content also looks good.

Beet growers weren’t the only ones surprised by the snow. The snow also covered up bean and hay windrows.

Dirk Weeks, a fieldman for Kelly Bean in the MiniCassia area, estimates it could take another couple weeks of good fall weather to get the last 10 percent or so of beans harvested in his area.

Growers that still had beans standing won’t suffer as much damage as those whose beans were already windrowed. Beans lying on the wet ground run the risk of discoloration, while green pods on standing plants are probably frost damaged. Weeks expects to see about a 5 percent loss from discoloration or frost damage, if the weather holds and growers can thresh by the end of this week.

MiniCassia is about the farthest east growers try to raise beans in Idaho.

Early frosts or even early snow is a risk growers have to factor in when making planting decisions.

“For the most part it works fine,” Weeks said. “But this has been kind of a twitchy year.”

Some growers also had fourth cutting hay down when the snow fell. Glenn Shewmaker, who farms south of Kimberly and is also the University of Idaho extension forage specialist, hadn’t seen snow on a hay windrow before this fall.

In many areas the snow that fell is equivalent to 1 to 2 inches of rain.

“When you get that much water you get leaching of the nutrients from the forage,” he said. Wet hay is also susceptible to microbial action, leading to dusty, moldy hay. “Any hay that got snowed on has moved down at least one whole class.”

If the weather holds and a grower can get the hay dried back down to about 25 percent moisture, it might be possible to bale that hay with a preservative. Otherwise, the best option may be to feed it as green chop.

Putting up late season hay is a high risk challenge. “If it turns out, you can get a good quality, high value feed,” Shewmaker said. “If not, you can expect low value, expensive feed.”

Comments »

Comment on this story

Comments will be approved within 48 hours