As Marc Arnusch of Keenesburg said, farmers are optimists. They have to be. But the way the winter wheat season has started, it makes staying an optimist hard.

It was an unseasonably dry and warm fall. Winter seems to be finally cooperating, at least a little; the snow that fell just before Christmas was equal to the large storms expected in October or November. Yet the need for moisture is still there.

Arnusch planted both irrigated and dryland wheat this fall. He prolonged planting as long as possible in hopes of better conditions, but the crop insurance deadline in early October called for it to be finished by then.

Arnusch said his irrigated crop is doing well, but the dryland wheat has places where there isn’t even a sprout. The recent snow would help with that.

“There isn’t really anything we can do,” Arnusch said. “In spring, we will re-evaluate.”

Some farmers around him decided to replant to see if that will help. It won’t be until spring farmers know what they’re dealing with, but for Arnusch, it could mean farmers plant corn, sunflowers and millet to salvage some of the lost winter wheat crop.

Not everyone has had bad luck. Dave Anderson farms in Haxtun, which is in Phillips County, in the northeast portion of the state. Anderson said his area has received enough moisture. All of his wheat has emerged and has strong stems.

“I think this crop is off to a really dry but good start,” Anderson said in early December. “At least around here.”

Brian Brooks, president of the Colorado Association of Wheat Growers, didn’t see any moisture in the fall. Brooks said early August was the last time his fields saw rainfall. Brooks farms in Walsh, which is in the far southeast corner of the state.

As of Monday, according to the National Weather Service, there was no snowcover in or near Walsh.

Brooks said with a dry start to fall, he and other farmers waited to plant their crops until some moisture set in. It didn’t until much later this year.

“These other people, they sat there — like myself included — we sat here and waited for the rains, and it just never did come, so we dusted it in, and we’re still dry,” Brooks said.

Farmers also need a good winter start to the crop to offset the low prices farmers got with this summer’s crop.

Last year, Colorado had its largest winter wheat crop in history, coming in at 48 bushels per acre. The high yields were bittersweet, though, as the low prices meant most farmers were set up to just break even. Some growers, like Arnusch, Anderson and Brooks, stored some of that wheat in the hope prices would rise.

Atop the warm temperatures and dry fall, Australia farmers aren’t doing a lot to help ease some of the worry for Colorado farmers.

Like Colorado farmers saw with the 2016 harvest, Australian farmers are riding the wave of high yields. With the wheat market in Colorado highly dependent on international prices, the chance of a decent rebound doesn’t look great at the moment.

Unfortunately for some farmers, the lack of moisture during planting and early growing could carry over and beat up the summer harvest, too.

“In particular for our area, the entire fall on our dryland acres felt very dire in terms of the kind of planting conditions we had and the moisture prospects we received,” Arnusch said.

Source - http://www.greeleytribune.com