Buhl farmer wins national yield contest

Burley--The USDA says that Idaho’s total wheat production is down 5 percent compared with 2018, The season got off to a slow start.
but wheat farmers and industry leaders report that the quality of this year’s crop was excellent.

Just ask Rick Pearson of Buhl…Pearson set the national wheat yield record, an astonishing 211 bushels per acre on irrigated land.

“I was surprised, I couldn’t even fathom that we’d grow grain that good,” said Pearson.

Grain, wheat so densely packed in that field that it topped every field in the nation, the best field in millions of acres across the US, Pearson topped thousands of other producers.

“So we had two different plots in that field. On one plot I had actually added some fertilizer. But as I was thrashing up and down the rows I realized that the plot that I didn’t do anything with, was actually yielding better on the combine. The first yields were around 200 bushels per acre. We harvested it and we have another plot, I said let’s check it, I did the numbers in my head and it came in at 207 bushels. Then we plugged all the numbers into the foundation's chart and came back with a yield of 211 and a half,” said Pearson.

US Farmers overall, averaged 65 bushels per acre, 120 bushels on irrigated land, so Pearson’s achievement of 211 bushels is monumental and this year goes down in history as the highest yielding producer in the US.

“We grow excellent wheat in the Pacific Northwest, added Pearson

And the same could be said about Pearson, who capitalized on a perfect, storm-free summer and optimal growing conditions.