Yes, wheat does grow in Mineral County

Starting around mile marker 55 along Interstate 90, you may have noticed over the years golden fields of…wheat.

This is a crop you’d expect to see on the flatlands of eastern Montana or Kansas, Nebraska or Arkansas. But nestled in the Ponderosa pines and Douglas fir on rolling hills are 140

acres of wheat that Kevin Donally has been growing and harvesting for years.

“Gosh, Grampa started growing wheat back around the time the house may parents are living in right now was built which was 1906.”

Donally is a fourth generation wheat farmer making his daughter the fifth to work these fields. His parents, Phil and Nancy Donally, put in their time on the weed sprayers, plows and the combine so this is one of the family farms that isn’t disappearing.

By Kevin’s commitment, hard red winter wheat will remain on their property.

It is stored in silos on the ranch until it’s sold and then the buyer comes with big semi trucks and transports it to market. One way they have done this is by selling it to Cenex in Kalispell who delivers it to Lewiston, Idaho where it is barged down the Columbia River to Portland.

Most of Donally’s wheat is sold and shipped overseas and even though this hasn’t been a good wheat market this year, Kevin will be planting next year’s crop around mid-September.

Crop damage is mostly done by elk who either eat it when it’s low and green, however, this hiccup will mostly grow back.

But when it’s ready to harvest and the elk run through the fields, the heads of the wheat are knocked off and that becomes a total loss.

Donally’s target is 60 bushels an acre and since this is strictly a dry land crop, Mother Nature has a big part in helping them make that goal.

This alone keeps him hustling, but Donally also operates Meadow Creek Contracting, Inc. with his cousin Shawn Heyer. They joined forces three years ago and have been busy with road building and obliteration.

Road construction into timber sales for companies like Idaho Forest Group and Thompson River Lumber, and then when the last log is hauled out, they “put them to sleep” he says.

Making it look like a road never existed by regrading and seeding so it disappears entirely after a year or so. Reconstructing roads by replacing culverts, cleaning ditches and installing rain drips is also part of their service plan and then the fellas have more equipment for mechanical logging which is done mostly in the winter months.

Donally is a very modest man so mentioning his strong involvement of time and energy for the Mineral County Shooting Sports Association with the development of a world class shooting range near the Lozeau exit off of I-90 will have to wait for another time.