I didn't want to hi-jack Wabbie's farm report thread but I thought Sam, Jim, Wabbie, and the other poor mouth ( ) farmers might like to see how they do it around here.
I know it's not like the endless flat fields others farm but the land is so fertile and the crop yields are so high the farmers don't seem to mind.
It's also a lot prettier than a mid western corn field.

Big plant for tiny paddocks
And in no way is my post meant to be derogatory, that is beautiful country.

Nice!

Take a lots of loaves of bread to pay for that combine and tractor...

Bet there's coyotes there too!

I moved to SE Washington years ago for work; I was amazed when I got to Walla Walla area and saw the small grain planted on such steep hillsides. the guys up there call a tractor with wheels, get this.... a wheel tractor! many 1,000s of acres are cultivated and planted with crawlers, and the "self-levelling" combines are pretty cool.

SInce barge shipping is available on the Snake and Columbia rivers, it makes soft winter wheat readiy marketable to the Japs and Chinese.

Have raked hay on hill sides where you had to ride the uphill brake,
if you left up, the front end of t he tractor slid down hill.

Have seen wagons wrap the baler around the tractor making too tight
downhill turns. Smaller tractors get rolled, big ones hold and only the baler gets destroyed.
One can spend a lot of money in 10 seconds here.


A hill on our farm destroyed a tractor, manure spreader, and ruined my older brother.

Always interesting to see crops other than corn, soybeans, hay, and oats grown.

Sure was expecting one of these, a CA Moose.

You know it Barry......If you can find a rock pile or some brush to break up your out line there's a pretty good chance of calling a whole family of Coyotes out of one of those canyons. They also hold a lot of good grain fed Whitetail as well as a few Elk in some area's.

As far as the farming goes....it must be profitable because all the farmers I see bitching about the price of wheat or lack of rain at the feed store when I buy dog food are all driving brand new $50,000 pick up's........and good for them...they work hard for it.

PS...they also grow a lot of Barley which is greatly appreciated by brewery's and myself.

I remember hunting pheasant, Huns, and chukar up there. some good waterfowling too, when the still water froze up and the streams were still open. I used to hunt the "eyebrows" (steepest north facing slopes you had to slip around when farming) near Steptoe, WA

Yea......the land in that pic is pretty flat compared to a lot ot the stuff they farm around here.
Just looking at it I'm amazed you don't hear of more equipment roll over's than you do.......like I said..."they work hard for it".

Don't forget that a lot of that land gets cropped only every other year. The fallow year is necessary to build up soil moisture so they can pull off a crop.

When I was in college in Moscow, maybe 75 miles north of there, back in the 60's, most of the tractors you'd see were Cats. They've been modernized considerably since then.

Maybe in Eastern ID or up on the Palouse Prairie but I can count the number of fallow fields I've seen in the 15 years I've lived here on one hand

Have not done that biannual rotation for several years. Everything around here is fence to fence three year rotations. Over all yield average this year was 117. High was 160 bu. to the acre. The machinery now is so wide roll overs are not very common any more. Combines are dueled with an outside width measurement of 21' with 40' headers. Only problem you really have to watch for now, which happened this year is bankout wagons full of grain coming down hills in heavy stubble. The wagons when they are full way around 70,000 lbs and tend to push the quad tracks around and jack knife them on the hillsides. Scares the willies out of the drivers because once it happens you are along for the ride.

That'd get my attention as well!

Maybe in Eastern ID or up on the Palouse Prairie but I can count the number of fallow fields I've seen in the 15 years I've lived here on one hand[/quote]
Same here. Most people were half and half until we got the proper machinery to allow us to continuous crop profitably that was about 20 years ago. The soil has improved and so have yields. My soil has went from 2% organic matter in 1980 to over 6% now and we are in probably the best farming area in Saskatchewan. Canola Durum and Lentils are the big 3 crops here.

That explains the change from when I lived there in the '80's then.

And it's CamAs prairie, thank you....

The old wooden RR trestle's are pretty cool in that area too.
I keep threatening to spend a day checking all of them out but I never seem to get around to it.
Maybe next year....or the next. grin





There's a lot more pix on the interweb if anyone's interested.

Camus....Camas.......either way it's still just a root.

https://franceshunter.wordpress.com...ick-lewis-and-clark-meet-the-camas-root/

Those trestles where used in the filming of the Charles Bronson movie Breakheart pass.

Love that country, killed alotta bucks up there over the years

I know.....there's a lot of history in those trestles
Hell there's a lot of history in the whole area....that's why I need to get off of my dead ass and spend a day or two following those tracks but the Ground Squirrels, Coyotes, and Pheasants keep distracting me.

If you get a chance, and if the road is still driveable, take a jaunt up to Buffalo Hump. Even 20 years ago, there was nothing much left to see, but at one time during the gold rush up there, it was one of the biggest towns in Idaho.

How far north of Grangeville?

Idaho tends to be underrated for whitetails. Everyone seems to think it's all mulie country but I've seen some real dandies in the north half of the state.

That is some crazy country to be farming!

My first cross-country motorcycle ride was 32 years ago; 2,100 miles from College Station TX to Moscow ID in 2 1/2 days in August, on an unfaired 550cc Yamaha no less. Didn't know about earplugs back then, when I finally lay my head in Moscow that night I could still hear the motor running Phenomenal ride.

First day across Texas and up onto the Panhandle; slept out on the ground outside of Clayton, NM.

Second day; Raton Pass over the top of Monarch Pass and down to the Great Basin. The climb to Monarch Pass reeked of anti-freeze on account of all the vehicles nearly overheating and my wrist got sore from cranking the throttle and clutch so much while passing them. Utah down around Green River looked like a moonscape compared to where I'd been. The crowd at a McDonald's in Provo looked like an episode of the Stepford Wives. Finally I was so tired running through Salt Lake that night I was seeing double. Seen trucks off the highway, thought it was a truck stop, it wasn't, it was a big motel parking lot. Drove to the very back, lay down on a sidewalk next to the motorcycle, threw a groundsheet over me with my feet sticking out and fell asleep instantly.

Got woken up three hours later by someone kicking my right boot. It was the Cops, someone had reported me as a dead body. Left Salt Lake 4am, saw a tremendous meteor burn up overhead near Snowville. Then hung a left towards Boise, north of Boise the McCall country was so winding I figured motorcyclists there wear the outside of their tires out first before the middle. Long afternoon rolling north through Idaho.....

...and why this is relevant here.....

I was blown away by the golden wheat fields in the rolling Nez Perce country, it was like the friggin' Promised Land

After that the long, long hill climbing out of Lewiston going north, I do believe that was the longest, steepest hill I have ever encountered, even my motorcycle was struggling.

The cause of that epic ride of course was a woman, it was worth it. A week later I had to get back to Grad School. Left Moscow at noontime on Saturday after changing the oil, this time I stopped in on the way back to see good friends in Capitan NM. Slept a couple of hours Saturday night in a motel somewhere in Southern Idaho, by Sunday morning i was rolling through Salt Lake traffic, seen the golden-roofed temple from Interstate, down past Arches and Coronado (??) that afternoon, past Durango, Silverton (??) and Taos, lost daylight at Espaniola NM, rolled into Capitan late Sunday night after a few hours playing mule deer roulette along the highway.

Monday night back in College Station it was time to change the oil again, 2,500 miles later.

I remember the same thing back when I was growing up in Pullman in the 70's.
My Dad remembers when they used horses...

"...After that the long, long hill climbing out of Lewiston going north, I do believe that was the longest, steepest hill I have ever encountered, even my motorcycle was struggling..."

I used to run that grade on a KZ440 in the early 80's , I am sure you know we were both running the new Lewiston grade, there is an even older worse one that had been blocked off for a very long time. I used to note the substantial temperature change from bottom to top in the winter. In summer it was reversed but not as noticable.

[edit: you were definitely on the "old grade", my trips were on the "new grade" although I did drive the old grade occasionally. wageslave's correction a few posts down put my memory-fault in evidence.}

For clarification,
6 miles long
7% @ its steepest.

The old road has not been blocked........ever.

Until the early 70's, there were 3 infamous hills between Boise and Moscow, Horseshoe Bend, Whitebird, and Lewiston. Whitebird was the worst with something like 21 switchbacks where you'd slow down to about 25 mph. Through the 70's, they rebuilt all 3 which cut over an hour off the 300 mile trip north. I think Lewiston was the steepest. Now you can go over all 3 at 70 if you have the power to do it...and a good enough radiator to keep the engine cool.
Lawyers Canyon, in the middle of the Camas Prairie, was pretty bad, too, but not from being so steep. It was narrow, winding, and often fogged in during the winter. There was always the danger of hitting deer there, too. Now there's a bridge over the canyon and the entire highway is up on top. MUCH faster. Is that the same canyon in the OP photo? Looks like it.

Once in a while I go up the old Whitebird Grade......

just to relive old times.

It's hard to believe that erosion isn't an issue but the ground obviously can handle it. That wouldn't work here!


Is most of the spraying done by plane? I bet it would be a real treat to run a ground sprayer over those hills. They must have uber baffles in the tanks.

Lots of them self propelled, auto steered sprayers now.
Planes do a lot of work, too.

Thanks for the correction, memory failed..
Birdwatcher must have been on the old grade after all.

Erosion is an issue.....
What makes all them deep draws???

They have come along way in that regard, though.

And, as has been stated, continuous cropping helps with that.
If there is fallow now, most is "chemfallow".

Sam, I have experienced Hi-Line soil......wet and dry......
That stuff would definitely NOT work here.

This is an interesting thread.

A little farther north, in the Palouse, erosion has been a major problem for many years. I'm not up there much any more to see the latest. Maybe they've figured out ways to slow it down.

Are you talking wind, or water erosion?

In that photo, the smoking factory on the left is a paper mill. At one time, before the EPA make them clean it up, you wouldn't see that valley much of the time. It would be entirely smoked in and this photo wouldn't have been possible. You'd come off the top of the hill and drop into a cloud of smoke. You could smell it for 50 miles or more. Your eyes would burn if you had to spend much time there. Cleaning that up was one good thing the EPA has accomplished.

Seems like I remember some of the hills in The Palouse in Washington having horizontal strips of crop, then fallow, then crop, etc. At least I thought that's what they were doing. Maybe wheat, peas, wheat..?

Old days. That was done in the late 60s, 70s, 80s. Then we figured out how to burn and go to 3 year rotations. Now the majority is fence to fence.

The road to Buffalo hump is still passable, but you have to have a lot of patience and a very good off road vehicle or a UTV. That road is solid granite rock about the size of basketballs and granite shelves you have to traverse. When you get to the top there are about 4 cabins up there that have been built around the lake. You can go by there and take the road out to the end and have a great view out to the south. There are still some working mines up there. You can camp in Orogrande or travel into elk city and stay there.

Yeah, those "stair steps" are brutal.
Wonder if they had to helicopter in those building materials at Hump Lake?

Ahh the old armpit of Idaho. Bought my first pistol in Lewiston...

Spent a few years in Moscow, with friends in Lewiston. Very special place. Almost died outside Pullman on the way to Spokane. Driver hit a patch of ice, we plunged off the road. Wheat harvest time on the Palouse was pretty amazing sight

What's with all the farm talk PRIEST?



Comrades, some wheat harvest in Siberia.

Love that country.

Was out by there yesterday getting after birds. Beautiful day to be out there!

After 30+ years really all I remember is a series of images, the Whitebird grade must’ve been the one that I rode in the morning where I got the impression of wearing out the sides of my tires before the center tread, On that grade the sharpness of the turns was the limiting factor as to how fast I could go. On the Lewiston grade I had it pegged flat out, I was probably trying to do about 80 and it wouldn’t .

I was on an early 80s Yamaha Vision, a short-lived water-cooled 550 v-twin that was Yamaha’s answer to the Honda Silverwing 650, another great bIke that never sold very well. It was designed for riding rather than image and actually handled quite well. I was one of those guys who actually bought a motorcycle to save money (ha ha) back then,

It's still smelly at times......I don't think anybody will ever get all of the stink out of a pulp mill.

I live 25 miles up river so it doesn't bother me.

They get vehicles up there..A couple years ago my son and I were riding up there and stopped for lunch just shy of the top..Heard an engine sound coming from above us,I said no way..lol..Then here came a fancy 4X4 van down the hill with a guy and his wife..One of those expensive 4X4 camper van that bends and tweaks..Dang..I have also seen trucks at the other cabins up there...I wouldn't do it but they do...That last shelf is getting brutal..The wife gets out every time with the Rhino..

They ruined it with that cabin on the rock...

Here are several pics of Buffalo Hump that I stole off the web.

first you have to get there

Wages, one decent thunderstorm and it would be an epic washout in the making......

Agreed, Ron.

I'm a shepherd........

Happens all the time, people wanna build their dream home ON TOP of something, they don’t GAS of what it looks like from below.

Not sure the year, but there is some old time fallow, in this Palouse picture.

Wowee.

He should have just bought an old fire lookout......

Would have "fit in", then.

This is waaayyy out amongst high mtn. lakes...