Recently, organizations along the North American wheat value chain sent a letter to President Trump, President Peña Nieto and Prime Minister Trudeau, as well as with lead negotiators from each country, Ambassador Lighthizer, Minister Freeland, and Minister Guajardo, stressing the importance of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to the wheat industry. Ranging from seed to bread and baked goods, key ... Read More »

By Diana Carlen WAWG Lobbyist The Washington State Legislature convened for the 2018 regular session on Monday, Jan. 8. In even calendar years, regular legislative sessions are scheduled for 60 days and are referred to as “short” sessions because the Legislature does not need to adopt the state operating budget, which occurs in odd-numbered years. During short sessions, the Legislature ... Read More »

From U.S. Wheat Associates and the National Association of Wheat Growers U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) and the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) are expressing concern that a revised Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that excludes the U.S. puts overseas demand for U.S. wheat at serious risk. “On Jan. 23, 2017, exactly one year ago, President Trump announced the United States would pull ... Read More »

From the Capital Press Fleets of trucks, lines of railcars and bustling ports send U.S. agricultural products to far-flung foreign markets each day. Last year alone, those exports exceeded $140 billion with a trade surplus of more than $21 billion. They also supported more than 1 million jobs to deliver those products around the world and generated $178.8 billion for ... Read More »

From the National Association of Wheat Growers In April of 2017, President Trump established an Interagency Task Force on Agriculture and Rural Prosperity with Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue serving as chair. The task force was comprised of cabinet members of several federal agencies. The task force outlined five general principals that would allow rural America to have the resources, ... Read More »

From the Farm Bureau Whether farmers are raising cattle in Oklahoma, milking cows in Vermont, growing fruits and vegetables in Florida, or growing corn, soybeans and wheat in America’s heartland, their agricultural income depends on trade. USDA estimates that 25 percent of all U.S. agricultural production is exported, and for some commodities that percentage is even higher. Many of these ... Read More »

From the Capital Press Cold weather that damaged wheat across the central and southern Plains and southern Midwest illustrates the need for a new farm bill with adequate crop insurance coverage, a National Association of Wheat Growers leader says. Gordon Stoner, a Montana farmer and president of NAWG, cited “unusually cold temperatures and snowy conditions,” with damage to about one-quarter ... Read More »

From the Capital Press A Senate committee heard complaints Monday that a Democratic plan to reopen rural Washington to new wells would leave landowners high and dry. The proposal would cap withdrawals from new wells at 400 gallons a day, compared to the current 5,000-gallon limit. Some property owners told the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee that the lower lid ... Read More »

By Dr. Xianming Chen November field survey On Nov. 7, 2017, we were checking winter wheat fields in Whitman, Lincoln, Adams, Grant and Douglas counties in Eastern Washington. We did not see any rust, indicating that the fall infection of winter wheat by the stripe rust pathogen was low. This was different from the high rust incidences observed in many ... Read More »

From the National Association of Wheat Growers Recent extreme winter conditions in major wheat-producing states re-affirm the need for a 2018 Farm Bill and strong federal crop insurance program. According to Radiant Solutions, a data collection and analysis company based in Herndon, Va., “Solid snow cover in the northern Plains and Midwest gave wheat fields enough protection from the bitter cold conditions, ... Read More »