The teff crop looks mostly good as harvest races to its finish across a stretch of the western United States — a win after a difficult start. "Right from the start, this spring was fairly challenging for our growers since teff is kind of a later-planted spring grain," said Charlie Fereday, farmer relations manager at Teff Co. "Up-and-down temperatures made it difficult for some of our growers, especially in Idaho and a few in Washington, to get the crop established early in the season," with erratic spring weather also bringing more weed competition.

The Boise-based company contracts growers in a handful of Western states, runs a large processing facility and sells packaged products under the Maskal brand. It grows about 6,500 acres of teff — a fine-grained annual grass native to Ethiopia and Eritrea, known once established for handling heat and using less water than some other crops — in south-central Idaho, Washington, northern Nevada, southern California and south-west Arizona.

Winter brought unusually low snowpacks to several growing areas, and summer mostly warm weather with some oddly timed storms, including heavy rain and hail in southern Idaho. The mild, dry winter cost the company acres: where a couple of growers had planned teff, "there was not enough water available to grow almost anything," said agriculture director Royd Carlson. Insect pressure came later in the season, possibly from higher overwinter survival, with substantial armyworm damage.

Overall quality looks about average, Fereday said, with armyworms trimming it a little, particularly in Idaho, and yield "probably going to be a little bit down this year across the board, on average" after a couple of high-yield seasons — though with bright spots among farmers. Wildfire smoke lingered late, including in southern Idaho. "The teff definitely doesn't like the smoke," Carlson said. "It's our belief that is one of the factors that caused yield to go down."

Company-wide acreage is slightly down on last year, contract prices are stable and harvest, which usually ends in September, is on schedule. Nineteen farmers grew the crop for Teff Co. in 2026, including a new organic producer near Moses Lake, Washington; two growers in the Richfield–Shoshone area of Idaho sat out over irrigation supply. The company is adding on-farm and near-farm storage and expanding its organic segment. "We're basically striving to ensure the end consumer of our product is getting the best experience of what teff can do for them," said executive director Gareth Carlson.

Source: Capital Press