Idaho’s exceptionally warm and dry winter has caused severe damage to grain crops in eastern and southern Idaho.
Juliet Marshall, a cereal, wheat and barley pathologist at the University of Idaho, said the latest growing season has been unique from start to finish, with some growers suffering “devastating” losses.
“Because we have much longer falls due to climate issues, we are seeing more active insects, higher rates of transmission of viruses and more water usage by the crop during the winter,” she said.
Disease-carrying pests like aphids and mites survived the winter in large numbers, allowing plant viruses to spread.
This has caused producers to see smaller yields of plants that grow shorter, drought-stressed and more prone to disease.
“We really need to have the snow, the cold winters and the snowpack in the mountains to reduce the impacts of the warmer falls and the hotter summers,” Marshall said.
This may be a challenge as climate change drives increasingly high temperatures across the Mountain West.
Warmer temperatures also caused crops to be ahead of schedule when freezing temperatures hit Idaho in April.
“The cold temperatures also impacted crop quality, which means a problem for our end users that are manufacturing our baked goods,” she noted.
“I don't know if this is a new normal, but it is going to be more frequent in occurrence because we have longer growing seasons by weeks,” Marshal said, adding this year, the growing season was longer by one month.
As a result, many local growers have mowed down their fall wheat and barley crops rather than continuing the season. The Magic Valley saw the biggest losses. Marshall said long term this could impact the quality and cost of Idaho crops.
“My concern is that a lot of our producers are going to have a lot more difficult time making ends meet economically,” she said.
Despite some frost damage, Marshall added the spring grain crops are faring much better and she does not anticipate yield losses.
