KULM, N.D. -- Blaine Lundgren figures this year's untimely rains have cost him $250 per acre in barley quality. What looked like a major payday in mid-August looked much worse on Sept. 6.
"Malt barley turned to feed barley now," Lundgren says. "It's less than half the price" of what it should have been.
The National Agricultural Statistics Service on Sept. 7 reported that barley harvest in the state was 62 percent complete, behind 76 percent last year and 86 percent average. Conditions were 5 percent poor, 23 percent fair, 60 percent good and 12 percent excellent.
Steve Edwardson, executive administrator of the North Dakota Barley Council, says yield reports across the state have been good, but there are going to be " a lot of problems the longer the harvest gets delayed." Only about two-thirds is harvested, compared with a typical 95 percent.
"Some of the folks that got the crop planted as early as you could have possibly gotten it in have been done harvesting for two or three weeks," Edwardson says. "They've had some excellent yields and good quality."
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Some producers in the Kulm area have reported a good crop, but Lundgren's crop wasn't so good. He farms in a joint venture deal with local implement salesman Wes Gackle. Each farms some of their own land and together they raise barley, wheat, corn and soybeans.
The two estimate they've harvested nearly half of their barley. They went after the spring wheat through the week and by Sept. 8 had gotten all of it -- 13.5 percent protein, 61 pound test weight and 65 to 70 bushels per acre.
Gackle says the pair sent in some barley samples and the laboratory confirmed they had sprout damage.
"We'd tell people that 'We'll tell you in September whether putting this barley in was smart," Gackle says. "It looked like it until the middle of August. It looked good. And that's what looked like was going to be the moneymaker for us this year -- the barley."
Water torture
Three to 4 inches of rain have fallen in the past month. It doesn't sound like a lot, Gackle acknowledges, but it's been 0.05 inches one day, a dry day and then another 0.1 inches, followed by 0.2 inches and 0.3 inches.
"It doesn't make for harvesting weather," he says.
One question is whether there will be much of a market at all for grains that have had several inches of rain. Gackle and Lundgren had contacted elevators about the value of the feed barley. One elevator 110 miles away in Casselton, N.D., would pay $2.75 a bushel, but that doesn't count the freight costs.
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"The local elevator, we'll find out next week if they'll even buy it," Gackle said on Sept 6.
On Sept. 8, he got the answer: $1.40 per bushel.
Recovery mode
For now, Lundgren and Gackle are in a recovery mode.
One positive: Lundgren and Gackle had produced their barley on a contract with a malster.
"There's an act of God (clause) on barley, thank goodness," Gackle says. They had crop insurance on it, which offsets the loss somewhat. But Lundgren still estimates he's about $250 an acre short.
"The yields were great when we started -- 95 to 100" bushels per acre, Gackle says. That declined to about 75 bushels an acre, because rain and wind had caused some to lay on the ground.
"We lost 15 to 20 percent there, and we have 700 acres or more left standing," Gackle says.
