The Prairie Star: Montana Ag Newspaper

FORSYTH, Mont. - With this year's harvest in the bin, dryland farmer Harlin Steiger is gearing up for the fall planting of his winter lentils and winter wheat crops, especially after a late summer rain storm went through the area.

“We had 0.8 inches of rain last week,” said Steiger, who farms with his wife, Jody, near Forsyth, Mont. “That will be enough to sprout the cheatgrass and volunteer grain. I hear they are calling for more rain, which will play right into our hands for fall planting.”

Steiger is currently rounding up all the equipment and seed necessary for fall planting. He took a trip to central Montana to get his winter lentils cleaned for fall seeding recently.

“I took a truckload of winter lentils up to Denton (Mont.) to be cleaned,” said Steiger, who farms with his wife, Jody, near Forsyth, Mont. “I cannot find a seed plant that will clean lentils around here, and Barber Seed in Denton does a good job of it.”

Steiger also lined up fertilizer for his fall crops.

“I got a good surprise when I checked the price of fertilizer,” he said. “It's going to be a good shock. It makes it hard to accept the new price of things - the price of wheat may be higher than in the past, but so is everything else we need to put into our wheat crop.”

Local fertilizer prices increased more than the fuel, said Steiger. Chemical prices also increased.

“I think they call that inflation,” said Steiger.

Two years ago, Steiger paid 20 cents per unit of nitrogen fertilizer. Today, he said it is $1 per unit.

“Nitrogen went up five times in two years,” said Steiger. “I think phosphate and potash may have gone up about that much as well.”

There are ways to farm without using fertilizer, but it requires a lot of change in farming practices.

“You have to be a better farmer than I am to farm without using fertilizer,” said Steiger. “I have to keep using the same amount of fertilizer or my crops won't do as well.”

In addition to lining up clean seed and fertilizer, Steiger said he and his employee, Larry, plan to revamp the air drill this week prior to planting the winter lentils and winter wheat.

Initially, Steiger had planned to seed his winter lentils first, but that may change.

“I had wanted to plant the winter lentils before the winter wheat, but I have to plant the lentils in stubble so they don't winter-kill,” he said. “I have to wait for the weeds to come up over the stubble so I can spray them, but with the winter wheat, I can cultivate the fields and kill the weed sprouts without chemical.”

There may be some benefits to planting winter wheat early, but there is also some risk.

“I heard that if you plant early, there is potential for higher yields, as well as disease prevalence,” said Steiger. “It's a balancing act.”

Montana State University (MSU) studies suggest the best time to seed winter wheat is between Sept. 10-25 in the Forsyth area, said Steiger.

“It's been such a short season - we only had a week or two between harvest and fall planting - that I don't know if we'll get it done in that time period,” he said. “It depends on the weather.”

Steiger said he plans to seed Pryor winter wheat this fall.

“I have studied the different varieties and do not know if there are any better varieties for this area,” he said. “There is the Ripper, a Colorado variety, that is good for drought and baking, but it winter kills easy. And, I haven't heard yet if Yellow-stone, a Montana State University variety, has beat Pryor yet.”