| SODA SPRINGS Potato, sugar and beet harvests are in full gear, but
for dry-land farmers its beginning to wind down. Hours of tractor work
remain, but the pressures of harvest are behind them.
For the past 76 years Elton Sorensen has been dealing with the
pressures dry farmers work with every day, from lack of moisture in the
spring to grow or plant the crop, to snow mold (when snow gets too deep on
grain) that can mold the tender shoots and kill the crop over the winter.
When Elton was 12-years-old his father bought their farm and they have
been raising hard red wheat and barley ever since with the help of his
wife Eva.
Today, at age 88, he and his wife farm their 1,600 acres of land with
the help of his son Rod, who works for them full time, and two daughters,
Karen Gilford and Wanda Jean Warbis, who both live in Idaho Falls but help
every chance they get driving tractor, picking rocks and cutting grain.
The whole family enjoys it, says Elton. I have been pretty Rod
Sorenson, left, and his father, Elton Sorensen, are farming the same land
Eltons father farmed in 1925. Journal photo by Kelton Hatch lucky that
everyone has enjoyed it and that its truly a family farm.
Even with the lack of rain this summer and winter moisture, they
averaged about 50 bushels to the acre on their red winter wheat.
We were pretty lucky this year, says Elton. We did get a
little damage from the frost and we got a few half- heads of grain, but
all and all it looks pretty good.
With the changing demands for wheat, many farmers grow white wheat. The
Sorensens are one of the few farmers in the valley still growing red
wheat every year and have been since they began farming.
With the grain harvested and in storage for the past few weeks, the
farming season still isnt over for the Sorensens.
This past week they finished planting next years crop of winter
wheat. A recent rain storm dropped enough rain on the parched soil they
were able to plant. Farmers in other regions of the area who didnt get
the chance storm are still waiting by their grain drills for moisture.
Without the moisture, seed planted into dry ground will not germinate
and begin to grow before the cold winter snows hit; fields would need to
be planted again in the coming spring.
After drilling their ground, stubble from this years crop still needs
to be dug.
We break the soil and rough it up so it will hold the snow, says
Rod. The ground we dont plant into barley in the spring will be
summer fallowed. This is a process where the farmer weeds the ground two
or three times over the summer in order for the soil to rebuild nutrients
from decomposing stubble and preserve moisture for the next seasons
winter wheat crop.
Ground we plant winter wheat on is usually rested one year and then
we plant barley on it for two years before we replant wheat in it, says
Rob.
After they finish digging this years stubble, its on to cleaning
this years grain crop. They will work all the grain, blowing the chaff
and weed seed from the crop and then store it until it is marketed.
They sell the crop when it reaches the price they are hoping for or when
prices start dropping, Elton says with a laugh.
Along with growing, harvesting and selling their wheat, the Sorensens
enjoy eating the fruits of their labor.
My wife grinds all our wheat she uses for bread, says Elton. Some
times she adds a cup of barley to it also. There is nothing as good as
homemade bread from wheat you have grown. We also crack it and eat it as
cereal in the mornings.
The work will begin to wind down in mid-November, as they begin to
service the farm equipment for the next spring in their shop at the farm.
Then its back to the fields when the snow melts and the soil dries out
enough to farm. |