Monday, August 31, 2009

Wind-down of Harvest 2009

08.31.09



The Farm Perspective



Harvest around the Palouse is almost finished. Winter wheat, spring wheat, peas, lentils, barley have been cut and all that remains so far is the occasional field where the spring wheat field is still a tad too green to harvest plus the garbanzo beans aren't ready for harvest until mid-September. So this allows a breather from the fast and furious pace.







Yesterday I helped my hubby move equipment from one field to another by flagging. Flagging is something that I find needs a little bit of thought and timing to be perfect. The vehicle flagging for the farm equipment needs to be just the perfect distance in order to give the implement driver enough time to find a place to either pull off or try to move the equipment over when meeting a vehicle. Plus the terminology when referring to trucks or pickups is important. We find that many people refer to their pickups as "trucks". On the farm, a pickup is called a pickup, and semis are called trucks. So when radioing back to the equipment driver that a "truck" is heading their way, it is important to have the terminology right as they would be expecting a semi-truck and would therefore, make width allowances for the big rig. Just one of those little details the normal public doesn't think about.





Last Thursday, we hosted a wonderful legislative aid (Staci) for Senator Crapo around the area. She asked lots of questions, listened intently about concerns those of us in the Ag industry had and all in all, was a good visit. I volunteered to write a follow up letter to give a re-cap on areas we chatted about. We got a nice picture of Staci and my husband so we could send it on for the Idaho Grain Producers publication. It was a good opportunity for us to make a connection with the people that represent us in Washington DC.