Weeds Have Been A Challenge For Central Idaho Growers This Season

The 2026 growing season had been an interesting one for dryland growers across much of the Pacific Northwest. And that started back in late 2025, with the winter that was almost non-existent.

Doug Finkelnburg, University of Idaho Extension educator in central Idaho said the open winter resulted in growers dealing with a lot of grassy weeds if they didn’t get a soil residual herbicide on last fall.

“Because we didn't see the season close. And so precipitation that we love to get over the winter was causing flushes of Italian rye and wild oats and volunteer cereals to keep coming and without some sort of residual residual holding them back," Finkelnburg said. "A lot of folks had a mess to deal with this spring. And that mess was earlier than usual because people were racing to try to get herbicides applied before their crops canopied over for their winter planted crops. And that really pushed the calendar this year.”

Too Soon To Tell If This Is The "New Normal"

Finkelnburg added in his 17 years of Extension experience, this season is one for the record books.

"We broke a lot of records across the West for temperature in winter months," Finkelnburg noted. "And I think that whether or not this is any kind of new normal or just a one-off pendulum swings or radically kind of a situation, I can't say that, It's not anything that we see commonly or have seen recently.”

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