Utah and Idaho members.

[RSKY]

Just got home from an eight day trip which took us up I15 from Salt Lake City thru Idaho Falls to the West Entrance of Yellowstone Park. Then we came back a different way to SLC airport.

I have some questions.

We saw LOTS of hay being baled. Most of this appeared to be loaded onto semis for shipment somewhere south. What kind of hay is this?

We saw some hay that looked brown, some green. Are those different types of grasses? Or has some laid in field after being cut to dry some. Here we never bale unless it has been cut a couple days before.

On the trip back there were fields of something drilled in rows like wheat. But the plants didn't look like wheat. What was that? My wife said it looked like rice but I can't see it being that. Was it alfalfa?

The huge fields of potatoes impressed both of us. Our experience with potatoes involves following behind a tractor pulling a potato plow and picking them up by hand. How in the world do you harvest those large fields and how many rows at a time can you harvest?

What other crops are grown in those areas?

There were two vans of us and my daughter was navigating in the front one while her husband drove. I haven't checked but he must wear a size 20EEE on his right foot because I was doing 85-90 most of the time (speed limit is 80) and having a hard time keeping up. That is beautiful country and I would like to return some day and take my time going thru it.

Thank you in advance for the info.

RSKY

 

[buckeyefarmer]

My nephew just moved to Rexburg ID.

 

[oosik]

Well - RSKY, I live just across the line here in Ea WA and will attempt to answer some of your questions. Wow - like you said, some kind of lead-foot. Really - I know of no road system in ID that has an 80mph speed limit - 70, yes. Perhaps it was 80 in UT.

Anyhow - you are familiar with hay that is green - well, in ID that's going to be clover hay. Anything brown, tan or any color in between will be field grass being cut and baled up for cattle feed. Yes - whatever is being baled had darn well better be field dried - otherwise, mold - mildew - potential fires.

Fields with drilled crops - wheat or some type of grain crop - rape(canola) - alfalfa. Hard to tell - around this part of the country - farmers will post very nice custom made signs telling travelers what crop is in their field. I guess - not so much in ID.

A lot of times the major N/S and E/W road systems will be the places where the farmers and local Ag Universities will plant the new experimental crops. More exposure to the public - a good showing of what your tax funded ag programs are doing.

Glad to see you enjoyed the trip thru ID - had you come further West - it would have been thru Ea WA. Ea WA is almost 100% wheat - from the southern border with Oregon up north to where I-90 crosses the state. A person can only tolerate never-ending wheat fields for so long........

Potatoes - I've watched the big tractors pull the spud harvesters. I would guess they could do maybe six rows at a time. Maybe only four. Same with the big fields of onions.

 

[RSKY]

We wondered if the drilled fields were canola. And the speed limits were 80mph on the interstate. I would love to go to Washington state and drive around the farming areas. But our trip last week was to Yellowstone Park.

RSKY

 

[oosik]

A lot of the farmers are planting canola as an alternate crop. It has got to be the WILDEST visual sensation ever - in the fall on an overcast day. I go on a M/C ride down south thru the wheat fields. All of a sudden - on the approaching horizon - the entire sky is brilliant fluorescent yellow/green. I'm riding toward a ripe field of canola that is reflecting off the overcast sky. It can easily be seen, on the overcast sky, for ten miles before reaching the field of canola.

The first time I ever saw this - it was pretty scary. I had stopped on the road to observe, still not knowing what I was witnessing. A fellow in a P/U pulled up behind me and told me what it was. Sort of a let down because I was thinking - "Close encounters of the third kind". Under the right conditions - it will be as wild a display as the wildfire charged sunrise or sunset.

 

[turnkey4099]

We wondered if the drilled fields were canola. And the speed limits were 80mph on the interstate. I would love to go to Washington state and drive around the farming areas. But our trip last week was to Yellowstone Park.

RSKY

Yep. I think they were raised last year in Southern Idaho. I think they are still 70 up in N Idaho (I90)