By Diana Carlen WAWG Lobbyist Rural areas are still waiting for relief from the Legislature to fix the controversial Hirst water decision issued by the Washington State Supreme Court last fall that has severely curtailed economic development by limiting the use of permit-exempt wells. While several bills were introduced this session to address the court decision, one bill (E2SSB 5239) ... Read More »

From the Capital Press Eastern Washington farmers who had snow mold on their wheat earlier this year had to wait to see if the crop would recover, and now it looks like the damage will be minimal, researchers say. Read the rest of the story here. Read More »

From NAWG Today, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced the creation of an undersecretary for trade and foreign agricultural affairs in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). He continued by declaring that the reorganization includes the formation of a newly-named Farm Production and Conservation mission area to have a customer focus and meet USDA constituents in the field. National ... Read More »

From NASS There were 5.9 days suitable for field work last week. Pasture and range conditions were reported at 0 percent very poor, 3 percent poor, 10 percent fair, 73 percent good and 14 percent excellent. A low temperature of 29 degrees F was reported in both the central and east central regions while a high temperature of 92 degrees F was reported in ... Read More »

By Dr. Xianming Chen May 5, 2017 On May 2-3, we were planting spring nurseries and taking stripe rust notes in Mount Vernon (Skagit County), Wash. Winter wheat ranged Feekes 5 to 7. As usual, wheat stripe rust developed up to 40 percent severity on susceptible varieties. Barley stripe rust was found only in two rows of the same susceptible check ... Read More »

Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers took the opportunity in mid-April, while Congress was in Easter recess, to hold a farm bill listening session with growers in Colfax, Wash. “Most of you are aware that the farm bill is up to be reauthorized in 2018, and this is intended to be an initial conversation about the farm bill,” McMorris Rodgers said, ... Read More »

In mid-April, legislation prompted by a dispute between dryland wheat farmers and the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) was signed into law by Gov. Jay Inslee. SSB 5051 requires DNR to provide at least 180 days notice before terminating an agriculture or grazing lease. DNR must also provide documentation that the state has a plan to sell, exchange ... Read More »

From Diana Carlen WAWG Lobbyist We are in the second week of the special session. The only major legislative activity last week was a hearing in the Senate on the House Democratic tax package. Senate Republicans, who oppose the taxes, nevertheless brought the tax package up for a hearing in Senate Ways and Means Committee to get House Democrats to either ... Read More »

From NASS There were 5.6 days suitable for field work last week. Pasture and range conditions were reported at 0 percent very poor, 11 percent poor, 14 percent fair, 66 percent good and 9 percent excellent. A low temperature of 28 degrees F was reported in the northeast region while a high temperature of 70 degrees F was reported in the southeast region. Statewide ... Read More »

From NAWG Last night, congressional leaders announced an agreement to fund the government through the remainder of FY 2017 (through September 30, 2017).  The full bill text of the agreement can be found here, and the report language for the Agriculture Appropriations bill (which provides explanations and some more details about the funding bill than is in the bill text) ... Read More »