A Record-Breaking Wheat Harvest Expected
Horse Heaven farmers prepare for an unprecedented bounty as national grain forecasts predict a billion-bushel harvest.
Unless most severe drought conditions prevail within the next few weeks, the Horse Heaven wheat farmers will harvest one of the largest wheat crops in the farming history of the hills. The hill farmer figures that if he can get a little rain in June he is practically assured of a good yield, and the soaking rain of last week came just at a time when it was needed. In fact weather conditions have been most favorable since early spring. In speaking of the wheat prospects Saturday Carl Williams said: 'I can’t conceive of any weather conditions that can beat us out of a crop now. Hot winds in June are the terror of all hill ranchers but the rain that fell the first of the week has put the crop in shape to withstand almost any kind of weather between now and harvest time.' The wheat crop in Kennewick’s dry farming belt is only in keeping with crop conditions in all parts of the country. According to the June 1 forecast of the federal crop reporting board, the United States will harvest a billion bushels of wheat this year, the greatest crop ever grown in the nation’s history.
“Hot winds in June are the terror of all hill ranchers.”
The 'Horse Heaven' hills remain a massive agricultural engine for Washington, but the 1915 optimism regarding a 'billion-bushel' national crop reflects the era's reliance on dry farming before the massive irrigation projects transformed the lower Columbia Basin. Today, the scale of wheat production is more climate-sensitive than ever, echoing the same nervous watching of June weather that Carl Williams described over a century ago.
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