With agriculture using more than 40% of total U.S. freshwater withdrawals in 2015 and hay and forage crops weighing in at 37% of U.S. irrigation water use, environmental groups and the media have been known to blast alfalfa producers for excessive water use.

With 24,600 farms and ranches in Idaho, accessing remote fields and moving commodities to market place a big demand on the roadways. Never is that so obvious as when harvest is in full swing and motorists find themselves sharing the roads with trucks, combines and other large equipment.

“The bottom line is,” says Mike Thornton, “if you have a lot of smoke, you can expect potatoes to be less productive, especially top-grade potatoes.” He found that yield in the smoke-treated plots dropped 2% to 3% each year.

“I’m an optimist, but I have seen fields overrun by kochia, and last year we learned that we have Palmer amaranth and waterhemp,” says Dr. Albert Adjesiwor, University of Idaho Extension weed scientist in Kimberly.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a producer in possession of any type of farm or ranch must be in want of updated machinery. So what considerations should play into a producer’s decision to custom hire versus purchasing, maintaining and operating their own equipment?

“Wheat has been my bread and butter most of my life, and I wanted to give something back,” says the newest member of the Idaho Wheat Commission, Cliff Tacke. He was appointed District 2 commissioner in 2023, after a lifetime of farming near Greencreek.

“Everyone knows what these practices are. Many farmers are doing them already,” says Dr. Sanford Eigenbrode, professor of entomology at the UI and a project lead for the Innovative Agriculture and Marketing Partnership (IAMP).

“We’ve been preparing for this for a long time – since 2008,” says Michael Stephenson, senior biologist for Idaho Power Company, regarding Idaho’s response to the September 2023 discovery of quagga mussels in the Snake River in Twin Falls.

“I keep saying, ‘This was a year that we’d never had before,’” says Keith Fehringer, after two decades as an agronomist with Bingham Ag Services in American Falls.

People can argue about anything, including the best definition of a weed. However, every land manager I know can agree about their loathing for invasive thistles. Unfortunately, a new species has made its way to North America and found an ideal habitat on the stark hillsides of Hells Canyon.