Wheat farmers facing challenges

RITZVILLE - It's not going to surprise many people that the wheat market is in no way a method to get rich quick.

"It's down," Washington State University regional extension specialist Aaron Esser said about the wheat farmer's market price. "It's way down. I can go back over 10 years and find when the price of wheat was significantly higher than what it is currently, but I think it's well below the cost of production for most producers, especially if you start looking at their true cost of production.

"I'm not sure what it looks like moving forward. I think in the near future, it's still awful."

Esser said wheat producers will have to be very careful on every dollar they spend and "how much they put into one thing or another. I think farmers are going to be a lot more mindful of that."

Since wheat is globally traded, Esser said producers have to look at what our crops look like, as well as crops in Australia, Canada, Russia, the European Union and others.

"It really does come down to supply and demand, and how much wheat is out there on the global market," he said. "First, how much is being utilized on a daily basis. That's part of what's causing the price to be where it's at.

"We've had a run of some pretty good crops across the globe, so the supply is up and the demand is down."

Wheat prices are more complex than what we produce locally, he said.

"This last year was not a bumper crop. Most people were well-below, or average-to-below average yield," he said. "I think there are less bushels here than there have been the last couple years. We don't control what happens on the global scene. We just kind of accept it."

Esser said wheat grown in the Pacific Northwest has an excellent reputation.

"We spend a lot of time on producing and breeding high quality wheat," Esser said. "Do we always get a premium for it? No. But at least it gives us an opportunity to sell it."

More peas, please

Some farmers are experimenting with peas for local farming.

"It's one of the crops growers are looking at around here, partially in response to price," Esser said. "Maybe trying to lose less money raising peas than they are raising wheat might be one of the reasons they would grow peas. They help break disease cycles.

"Just putting a broad leaf crop out versus a grass seed crop, it helps with disease or with weed control. Breaking weed cycles is another reason a farmer chooses peas."

Peas can be seeded deeper, which helps during marginal moisture years.

"Peas might be a better option because you can really sock them in an inch or two deeper than what you would do with wheat," he said.

Esser said local farmers have "gotten pretty good at it. They've done a heck of a job of trying to figure out how to get wheat up in miserable conditions, but you still need some cooperation from Mother Nature."

One issue contributing to wheat farmers' struggles are skyrocketing costs.

"Not only is the commodity price down, we're also facing issues with higher input cost, fertilizers, seed, herbicides," he said. "Those costs have gone up and they haven't come back down.

"So, (farmers) are catching it from both ends. Higher fuel cost. Higher equipment cost."

Esser said every crop has farmers' blood, sweat and tears in it, "just to minimize a loss, and that's definitely frustrating."

There's a lot more to farming than what a motorist sees when they drive through.

"There's so much more risk associated with farming today than ever before," he said, noting he's had conversations on farming intricacies with the general public. "Sometimes people see a tractor and they think they know all about farming and what is involved. They see a piece of equipment out there, or a big field, and assume that for no better term, that they're rich."

That's not the case.

"Most of the farmers around here are multi-generation - fourth, fifth, sixth generation," he said. "They didn't just drop on earth and become the farmer they are today. You look at the blood, sweat and tears of their dad, of their grandpa, their great-grandpa, to get them to the situation where they are today."

Looking at costs and market prices today, Esser said farmers are "one or two mistakes" away from being bankrupt.

"It's an interesting, unique time to be in farming," Esser said. "I didn't say excellent time or fun time. I said unique and challenging."