{"id":9984,"date":"2012-08-20T06:30:01","date_gmt":"2012-08-20T12:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=9984"},"modified":"2012-08-20T09:48:53","modified_gmt":"2012-08-20T15:48:53","slug":"some-idaho-farmers-suffer-others-succeed-in-summers-drought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/08\/20\/some-idaho-farmers-suffer-others-succeed-in-summers-drought\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Idaho Farmers Suffer, Others Succeed In Summer’s Drought"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Molly Messick \/ StateImpact Idaho<\/p>

Farmer Hans Hayden says this spring wheat field is an almost total loss.<\/p><\/div>\n

In Idaho\u2019s arid, high desert, the drought has a mixed effect.\u00a0 There\u2019s a big divide between farmers with deep wells and irrigation, and those without.<\/p>\n

Hans Hayden is a rare find: a talkative farmer.\u00a0 He likes to explain things.\u00a0 But when it comes to the wheat he planted this spring, there\u2019s not much to say.\u00a0 This field needed rain it didn\u2019t get.<\/p>\n\n

“At this point in time, it kind of looks like a desert,” Hayden says.<\/p>\n

In a good year, his spring wheat would be nearly three feet high by now.\u00a0 The top of each stalk \u2013 the head \u2013 would be heavy with grain.<\/p>\n

Hayden walks across his field’s gentle slope.\u00a0 He steps on stunted rows and kicks up dust.\u00a0 He stops, and picks a single stalk of wheat.<\/p>\n

“You start seeing here?\u00a0 These heads have very few kernels in them if they even are here,” he says.<\/p>\n

He rolls the head in his hand, literally separating wheat from chaff.\u00a0 But he doesn\u2019t find a single seed.\u00a0 “See, there\u2019s none in that one, and there should have been 26 to 45 in that head.”<\/p>\n

Hayden has 1,400 acres of drought-withered wheat.\u00a0 He\u2019s calling it an almost total loss.<\/p>\n

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Molly Messick \/ StateImpact Idaho<\/p>

Jim Tiede's potatoes are thriving under pivot irrigation.<\/p><\/div>\n

Not far from Hayden\u2019s farm, the slender arm of a pivot irrigation system arches over a cornfield.\u00a0 It sends out 3,000 gallons of water per minute.\u00a0 This is Jim Tiede\u2019s farm, and he can barely hold back a grin.<\/p>\n

“This is the time of year when you finally have the payday, and all of the work you do for the whole year, and planning, and the budgets and \u2013 now this is the fun time of year when you get to reap what you\u2019ve sown!” he says.<\/p>\n

Across the road, Tiede\u2019s potato plants are getting the same steady spray of water.\u00a0 His wheat fields are a short drive away. The kernels are plump.\u00a0 The field stirs and sways in the breeze.<\/p>\n

“You can hear the wheat rattling as we walk through,” Tiede observes.<\/p>\n

A crop like this isn\u2019t luck.\u00a0 After the wheat came up in spring, it was irrigated for 60 days straight.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Molly Messick \/ StateImpact Idaho<\/p>

Tiede expects his wheat crop will bring in a good profit in this year when wheat is selling for more than $8 a bushel.<\/p><\/div>\n

Stan Gortsema is retired now, but he spent 34 years as the county extension agent.<\/p>\n

“There\u2019s no such thing as drought under a pivot irrigation system,” he says.\u00a0 “I mean, turn the water on!”<\/p>\n

Gortsema says this divide \u2013 between the so-called dry-land farmers, who don\u2019t have irrigation, and the irrigated farmers, who do \u2013 is especially big in this area.\u00a0 A dry-land farmer plants, and prays.<\/p>\n

“He\u2019s looking to the heavens, saying ‘Come on, big guy! Give me some rain!’\u00a0 And if it happens, it happens.\u00a0 And if it doesn\u2019t, he can lose his whole crop!”<\/p>\n

The irrigated farmer is in a completely different business.\u00a0 Wheat is an Idaho dry-land farmer\u2019s livelihood.\u00a0 For irrigated farmers like Tiede, potatoes and sugar beets are the cash crops.\u00a0 The wheat is there to give the fields a rest.\u00a0 Most years, Tiede breaks even growing it.\u00a0 He says that\u2019s because irrigated farming has a hefty price tag.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ll just give you a rough example, my operating loan for 3,000 acres is about $2.3 million,” Tiede says.<\/p>\n

Every year, Tiede takes out a $2.3 million loan just to cover the upfront costs of getting his crops in the ground.\u00a0 Costs like his $100,000 monthly power bill.\u00a0 It takes a lot of electricity to pump water in a desert.<\/p>\n

These big differences between Hans Hayden and Jim Tiede\u2019s operations are mostly a matter of historical accident.\u00a0 Both men farm land settled by their grandfathers. \u00a0A century ago, all southeast Idaho farming was dry land.\u00a0 Then well-drilling technology came along, and the Tiedes struck gold.\u00a0 Their farm sits over an aquifer.\u00a0 Hayden\u2019s doesn\u2019t.\u00a0 \u00a0But he\u2019s okay with that.<\/p>\n

“I really like raising wheat,” he says.\u00a0 It\u2019s a simple sentiment.\u00a0 But for him, it\u2019s enough.<\/p>\n

“The bigger the irrigated farmer, the more he becomes a personnel manager.\u00a0 He never drives his own tractor,” Hayden explains.\u00a0 “Sometimes if you get very big, you just manage the managers.\u00a0 So then you\u2019re sitting in an office, and you changed your position.”<\/p>\n

This year, Hayden will lose money, while irrigated farmers nearby have a chance at record profits.\u00a0 But Hayden will stick with the life he has.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Idaho\u2019s arid, high desert, the drought has a mixed effect.\u00a0 There\u2019s a big divide between farmers with deep wells and irrigation, and those without. Hans Hayden is a rare find: a talkative farmer.\u00a0 He likes to explain things.\u00a0 But when it comes to the wheat he planted this spring, there\u2019s not much to say.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":9989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[49,68,97],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9984"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}