Wheat growers are intimately familiar with how wheat grows and develops throughout the growing season, but not everybody has the privilege of waking up every morning and seeing a changing field of wheat outside their window. With financial support from the Washington Grain Commission and technical assistance from AgriStudios in Lewiston, Montana, anybody with an internet connection can now watch wheat grow in eastern Washington. Two field cameras, one located at the WSU Lind Dryland Research Station near Lind, Washington, and another at the WSU Spillman Farm near Pullman, Washington are active so you can watch wheat grow.
The camera at Lind is set up in a winter wheat field and the camera in Pullman is set up next to the spring wheat variety trial at the Spillman Farm. Four times per day, the field cameras snap a picture of the field and the picture is viewable on the WSU Wheat and Small Grains website. The Lind pictures are also available on the Current Research page on the Lind Dryland Research Station website. The video feed also includes information about the current growth stage of the wheat crop.
While some growers might like to check out the progress of the crop near Lind or Pullman, the real target for these field cameras are non-farmers. We hope to educate non-farmers about wheat growth and development. The cameras are also to show domestic and foreign buyers of Washington wheat how the wheat crop is looking. We welcome your thoughts on how to make these field cameras as useful as possible.
I enjoy watching the wheat crop grow and develop every season. I hope these field cameras allow others to enjoy watching their food grow as well. The WSU Extension Dryland Cropping Systems team also plans to add additional video resources and other information to the WSU Small Grains website throughout the growing season.
For questions or comments, contact Drew Lyon via email at drew.lyon@wsu.edu or phone at 509-335-2961.