CASTLEFORD, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — A farmer in Castleford is getting national attention for his wheat yield.
Rylee Reynolds has been farming pretty much his entire life.
“This is the house I grew up in, and I’ve been farming here my whole life, that would be back in the 4th and 5th grade, I’ve been on the farm,” said Rylee Reynolds. “We raise corn, beans, wheat, hay, we raise a few peas on dry years, they help us with our rotation a little bit.”
But, his most recent wheat yield is where Reynolds is getting national attention.
His yield recently won the national wheat yield contest, which is open to farmers all across the United States.
“My favorite part is to get to speak to other farmers from across the nation, they get to see how they farm and how different it is, and a lot of places, wheat isn’t a cash crop, they just use it to, they grow two crops and it fits in their schedule that way, but here for us it’s a main crop,” said Reynolds.
Wheat is a good crop for Idaho, because it doesn’t require as much water as other plants do.
“Wheat is great for water, and it helps our rotation a lot, so wheat is usually done with irrigation the first week of July which is awesome for us because we raise quite a few dry pinto beans, and that’s when they really need water, so first week of July we can completely shut the water off the wheat and focus on our beans and our corn,” said Reynolds.
The contest is judged by the quality and yield of each individual wheat entry.
“My grandpa told me a long time ago, if you take care of the corners, the middle will take care of itself, meaning if you pay attention to the details, everything else is okay. That’s what we try to do here,” said Reynolds.
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Local farmer gets recognized on a national level – KMVT
