PENDLETON — The wheat harvest started early this year on Starvation Farms, named for the frequently harsh growing conditions on the 7,000-acre plot of land roughly 10 miles north of Lexington.

Chris Rauch, the farm owner, said conditions are looking grim for this year’s crop, with sparse patches of harvestable wheat among big swaths of nothing.

“It’s been dry from day one,” said Rauch, whose family built his farm back in 1918. It used to be called Poverty Flat, he said. “We’re coming off a dry year last year. And this year’s been even worse. We’ve only had two events — some snow in February and some rain back in November. And that’s been it. It hasn’t been fun.”

Rauch said local farmers over the age of 55 remember the dry spell of 1977 as one of the worst the region has faced. But this year seems worse to Rauch. The ongoing drought, declining crop conditions and spiking prices are placing Rauch in a bind with contracts he has yet to fill.

“You may have to go into the market, with how short you are, and buy even more expensive wheat to fill what you thought were good prices, which are not that great now,” he said.

Record-breaking drought conditions have consumed much of Eastern Oregon. Wheat industry experts say meager precipitation stretching back through the spring of 2020, coupled with high overall temperatures, have all but assured a challenging year for farmers.

“It’s an exceptionally dry year,” said Larry Lutcher, an extension agronomist for Oregon State University based out of Morrow County, adding, “It’s too late for most of the wheat in Morrow County.”

Luther said the crop-year precipitation in Morrow County ranges from roughly 4 to 6 inches — about half of the region’s long-term average. And a late-season rain would do little to help now, he said.

“Most folks are disappointed that our yield potential will be much less than average,” Lutcher said.

The drought stretches across Eastern Oregon. Conditions in Umatilla County range from extreme drought in the west to moderate in the east, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. More than three-fourths of Morrow County is experiencing extreme drought.

“For us, things aren’t as bad as other drier areas,” said Emery Gentry, Umatilla County president of the Oregon Wheat Growers League, who farms on the foothills of the Blue Mountains near Weston. “But it’s definitely a poorer year for us too. Typically we rely on rains in April and May. And it’s June. And the amount of rain we got is just dismal compared to what we would normally expect.”

The month of March was the sixth driest on record in Pendleton and the second driest in Hermiston. In April, conditions hardly improved, with Pendleton reporting the seventh driest month on record and Hermiston the third driest, according to the National Weather Service in Pendleton.

A May 2021 climate summary from the National Weather Service in Pendleton said many stations throughout Northeastern Oregon and Southeastern Washington reported conditions from March through May that ranked in the top 10 driest three-month periods on record, and some stations reported the driest three-month period on record.

Gov. Kate Brown already declared a state of drought emergency in Jefferson, Deschutes, Crook, Harney, Malheur, Sherman, Wallowa, Lake, Jackson and Klamath counties. In April, Umatilla County declared a drought and asked Brown to follow suit.

“Basically, between February and now, we have not had any substantial rain in a good segment of the state,” said Amanda Hoey, the chief executive officer for the Oregon Wheat Growers League and Oregon Wheat Commission. “The crop conditions have certainly declined. We have a lot of wheat in fair condition, very little that’s in good or excellent condition.”

Hoey said farmers statewide are voicing concerns over the conditions.

“I don’t think anybody is expecting to see anything that is above average, for certain,” she said. “Average would be ambitious. We’re probably looking at below-average overall.”

But average wheat prices have remained strong throughout the year, experts say, ranging from about $7 to more than $8 per bushel. Hoey said new international trade agreements with places such as China have bolstered the sale of soft white wheat this year, as the majority of wheat grown in Oregon is exported internationally.

But a meager crop this year will impact the region’s economy regardless, Hoey added.

“As an industry, agriculture has a huge ripple effect down the supply chain,” she said. “You need to have a healthy agriculture industry to have a healthy economy overall. We’re resilient. I will say, it will be an extraordinarily tough year with what we have out there.”