Gary pictures 5, 6, & 9 are Garbanzo beans, native of the mediterranean used to be grown extensively in Lompoc and Oxnard before the long growing season was bred out of it.

Gary looks like a good year for double cropping blackeyes behind wheat, only problem is getting rid of that straw since we can't burn it off.

OK,thanks.Yea I heard of contracts of $48 being signed.
Thw warehouse wanted us to plant some garbanzos years ago but we were just not sure about it.How did or does it work out for you?

Casey- I would guess that lower wheat should do 85bu/a but we will see. That field has grown a lot of 95+bu wheat and set our record high yield of 107bu/a back in 88' and then set another record of 113bu in 06', it is really rocky ground but get extra heat compared to up at home so the winter wheat usually does good.
Those are Austrian winter peas a non-edible black/brown coated yellow cotyledon pea. There are just a couple thousand acres grown for seed in the U.S. each year and that is all right around a 20 or 30 mile area here. Right now most of the seed goes for green manure/cover crop in various locations especially the southeast, midwest, and northeast where they plant them after harvest and spray them/till them out in the spring. Back in the 50s they were grown here and also seed sold to Japan then. They are an old style pea where they have long vines and fall to the ground in a thick mat so we have to harvest them with a pea bar instead of like the typical stand up spring peas that are grown now. They dont survive the winter well if it is cold and are always weedy so they arent something most people grow. Right now they are worth $.18/lb while spring dry green peas are something like .12/lb. A lot of vegetation but not always a lot of yield we expect 2000lb or a little more per acre but this crop probably wont make that because of a lot of thin spots and the wet spots died out. Best part about them is no fertilizer needed so the past few years the legumes have been making just as much or more than a wheat crop. They are working on developing other types of winter peas too but no dry green varieties yet.

There that is more than you ever wanted to know about winter peas, and I will add the longest vines we ever had were right at 9ft but 5-6 is much more common. Any more questions just ask.

CR- lots of garbanzos grown around here these days, $.40/lb right now so much better than a spring pea crop and easier to harvest than lentils. Main issue is being able to harvest them in time. Last year they werent ripe until October and people were anxious to get them off the field and get the winter wheat planted before it got too late. pretty much just the kabuli type grown here now.

Got our truck back from Prairie Fab near Grangeville, ID. They did an excellent job on the bed box and hoist. The inside dimensions show it should hold just about 550 bushels. A guy near there did the painting and also took the sleeper and 5th wheel off and patched the big hole in the back of the cab. It is a 1990 Peterbilt with a 425hp cat 3406B and a 15 speed transmission.

NIF, your wheat berries and lentils will be riding in style. That is the kind of equipment we always wanted to have but couldn't afford the CA license fees. The way you have that truck set up would be between $3,000 and $4,000 per year to tag and then you would have to up-date the engine to be tier 4 compliant for CARB. If you need another one, there are plenty in CA for sale and darn good equipment too. The ironic thing is the trailer for that truck would be $35 to $50 to license for 5 years.

Speaking of trailers. I know that ID and WA allow a 40' and a 28' set of doubles. Could you pull a 40' grain trailer with that truck and be legal?

Casey

Casey- Yes I think it is legal but I don't know much about trucking laws and such at all. I don't remember the price for a year for this truck but because it is for private use only it was cheaper than normal. Definitely way below the prices you are talking about.

Hi NIF A really nice Pete you have there, I noticed the rollover sheet is it law to make you use it on the highway.,we have regulations here to make us use sheets on most loads of any commodities. cheers Atlas

Gary on the Garbanzos they are planted in December and harvested in June on a typical year, this year Harvest has just began. The biggest problem with growing this crop is you figure on about a 20% loss due to theft. I have even heard of whole sections disappearing overnight in the real remote areas like Five Points.

Here is how grain is transported in these parts, the older trailers from the 70's hold about 27 tons of product, the newer trailers hold 32 tons of product.

Hi Northern Idaho Farmer!
Great pictures and posts! Please contact me when you get a chance (I've sent you a few emails). We'd like to feature this thread in the 100th issue of ACMOC magazine.

Kevin Kizer
ACMOC Editor

Looking amazingly green here for this late in July and that means one thing...really late harvest. We got over 1 inch of rain between Tuesday and Thursday this week and it has been very cool so the spring crops are doing better than expected considering how late they are.

The normal saying around here is it takes one month of average weather from the time the winter wheat starts turning to when harvest starts. Just took this first pic and you can see it is not really even turning color yet in this area of the field though the south slope is. Spring wheat and lentils are the other pics.