They pull their trucks and trailers into the Rosauers Supermarket parking lot in Colfax around 6 a.m. Inside, they gather around tables, enjoying a warm breakfast and each other’s company, cracking jokes through tired sips of coffee. All dress the same: jeans, worn sneakers and baseball caps. Some wear Coug sweatshirts. They are identifiably farmers — wheat farmers, that is.

“American farmers are very proud of what we produce,” Palouse wheat farmer David Lange said. “Quality is our number one job.”

Lange has farmed in the Pacific Northwest for more than 30 years. He said the wheat farmers sell grain to local co-ops before trucks ship it to Portland and then the Pacific Rim. He said their main concern is the satisfaction of their end users: the makers of Pacific Rim noodle and sponge cake.

This year wheat farmers across the Palouse experienced low falling numbers. According to an article by Penn State Extension, low falling number tests involves dropping a plunger to the bottom of a mixture of wheat meal and water to test the quality of the wheat. The falling number indicates the time it takes in seconds. Greater than 300, no wheat damage exists. A number between 200 and 300 indicates some damage, while below 200 is severe.

“I had mine at 150,” Palouse wheat farmer Dan Harder said. “It cost me about $80,000.”

Farmers do not cause this issue, said Mike Pumphrey, associate professor and endowed chair of the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences.

“There is no way to insure against this loss, like other crop loss events,” he said. “It is particularly frustrating and economically damaging.”

Before the falling numbers, Lange said farmers had high expectations for the season.

“This year was the most beautiful crop ever harvested,” he said. “Big, fat kernels, heavy test weight.”

He said an average bushel weighs 60 lbs. and theirs weighed 63 to 64 lbs. Nevertheless, rain damaged the wheat by breaking down starch right before harvest, he said.

“It got warm. It got cold. It got warm. It got cold,” Harder said. “It was just normal Pacific West weather in the wrong time. It was the second best crop I’ve ever raised and I’m not going to make anything.”

The problem stems from the wheat, not the testing, Lange said.

“It’s like selling green bananas,” he said. “The banana that leaves the farm isn’t the banana on your counter.”

He said the falling number returns to normal after a six-month travel to the Pacific Rim.

“If there are falling number problems in the fall, they are usually gone by March, “ he said. “But we get dinged a dollar on our side.”

According to many farmers, the falling test can vary in points in the same sample.

“And it’s slow,” Lange said. “It’s like you’re getting your fall semester grades in the spring and you found out you flunked Chem 101 and you’re taking Chem 102.”

The farmers said it is impossible to predict next year’s outcome.

“Last year it was protein. This year it was falling numbers,” Harder said. “The world’s got a big supply of wheat they can just hammer on us.”