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Show Page 16, SPECIAL SECTION, LEADER-GARLAN- TIMES, February D 17. 1977 Dryland former bos r unique problems MS L to deal ivfrti on form About one third of Utah's cropland is For the farmers who attempt to make their living from growing crops under these dry conditions, it presents a set of unique problems to be solved. Earl .Fuhriman and his son, Syd, are second and third generation dry farmers in the Pocatello Valley and Blue Creek area. A. J. d Fuhriman originally the 2,000 acre ranch when he came from Providence, Utah, in Cache Valley. During the 70's the annual rainfall for Fuhriman and his neighbors has been a meager 14.78 inches per year, on the average. Consequently, the choice of crops is limited. Winter wheat has stood the test of time as being one of the few crops that will grow in the region. The crops annually return $20 million to the Utah farmers who pass their product multi-millio- n the to on dollar milling and baking industries. Like most dry tarmers, Fuhriman prefers the hard red winter variety that is good for milling. "Ninety percent of the grain that is grown around here has been developed at the U. S. U. home-steade- Agricultural Experiment Station in Blue Creek," Fuhriman added. Fuhriman, who is an advisor to the station, was one of the original farmers who donated a portion of the 40-ac- research facility twelve years ago. He is also president of the Utah Grain Growers Association and has been secretary of the Northern Utah Soil Conservation Service for eight years. He has also served as a zone director for the State Soil Conservation Service for the last three years. Some of this experience includes directing the efforts of the federal employees in building terraces, drainage systems, and irrigation systems. "I'll do anything I can to maintain soil quality and conserve water," Fuhriman said. Traditionally, snow mold or winter kill has been the dry farmers' biggest worry. It occurs when plant material is affected by certain snow conditions while it is still in the soil. It occurs after the soil loses the frost after six to ten inches of snow fall. The soil builds up heat from the warm summer months which melts the frost under the deep snow, creating conditions that are favorable for the mold's growth. While working with Rex NVilson of U.S.U. at the . station, Fuhriman tested ways to reduce the snowpack and eliminate the heat that encouraged the unwanted growth activity during the wrong part of the year. Neilson, who is an associate professor of soil at Utah and State, was the one who did the research work on using fly ash to combat the disease. Fly ash is the of the coal-fire- d generating plants. It is a powdery talc that is uncontrollable even in the slightest wind. When it is applied to the snow it absorbs the radiation from the sun and melts the snow-pac- J$t Tit H mi ii t( 'A V I J ' B ct k. It was found a seven to ten day period in January was sufficient time to melt enough snow to kill the mold. "At first it was applied by airplane," Fuhriman noted. But this didn't prove as practical as applying it with snow Thiokol's soft-trac- k vehicles. By loading the ash with a front-en- d loader, Syd averaged about 160 acres a day at the cost of $2.52 per acre," Fuhriman said. In the past, Dwarf Smut was another disease that hindered the dry farmers and in 1930 it got so bad that it practically wiped out the whole industry. The. smut attempted a comeback in the early '70s but thanks to the emergency efforts to control the blight in the '30s, widespread disaster was averted. The smut is caused by a fungus whose spores inhabit the soil. In the 1930's 75 percent of the wheat contained smut when a crash program at the University of Utah was initiated to save the crops. "New strains of wheat were developed," Fuhriman said. The one that saved Fuhriman and other dry farmers was appropriately named, "Relief." Since then many new strains have been developed and grown by the farmers in the an attempt to mutating fungus that hybridize. The Fuhrimans apply Anhydrous Ammonia two weeks before planting. "About every four to five years we send soil samples to the USU lab for analysis," Fuhriman said. "We are usually short of nitrogen," he added. The planting time was from August 24 to Sept. 17 last year, but because of the technology now available to melt the snow, the Fuhrimans want to start earlier. They use one John Deere 6600 combine to bring in out-gue- their 13 percent protein wheat. The Fuhrimans feel that the one combine is enough for their family oper- - . .DURING THE WINTER months dry farmers such as Earl Fuhriman of Tremonton are the "loneliest" men in town. This time of year is usually spent researching new products and equipment. ation. The Fuhrimans have their own grain storage bins for the entire harvest. "We think you can bargain better with the grain out here rather than in town," Fuhriman said. "It cost us $70 an acre to grow wheat nowadays. We have been getting on the average between 20 to 25 bushels per acre," he added. The Fuhrimans claim that their overhead to run the farm increases 10 to 15 percent every year, but that the price of grain stays the same. "There is only 4V2 cents of wheat in every loaf of bread," Fuhriman pointed out. "When wheat was up to $5 per bushel the price of bread went up, but when wheat came back to $2.50 per bushel, the cost of bread stayed the same," he added. At the present there is no restriction on the amount of wheat planted, but if there ever gets to be too much acreage, allotments will occur like in the '40s and '50s. "It all depends on world trade," Fuhriman shrugged. "When we didn't sell our grain to the communists, it left us with a surplus that the Government bought. This meant storage fees that the taxpayer picked up the tab for." "The truth is farmers can't control themselves, they must have government controls because they are too greedy," Fuhriman laughed. Our best assets? Our customers, of course! And we never forget it To us . . .you're the boss! You really do make the difference. T Science tells us the average human is getting bigger -but the people who design airplane seats must think the opposite. TREf.lOIITON TTvU braTcohgn 40 WEST TREMONTON, SAVINGS & MAIN UTAH 84337 mda th2 cGferenre LOAN J |