From NASS Washington state is estimated to have 2.23 million total acres planted to wheat in 2018, up 2 percent from last year. Winter wheat planted acres are expected to total 1.7 million acres for this year, unchanged from 2017. Spring wheat acres planted are estimated at 530,000 acres, up 7 percent from last year. Wheat producers in Idaho expect ... Read More »

Hi, I’m Alex McGregor of The McGregor Company, a seventy- year old family fertilizer and crop protection enterprise, and of McGregor Land and Livestock, a ranch where we have raised wheat and livestock since pioneer days. (Editor’s note: Alex McGregor is a longtime advocate of agriculture in Eastern Washington. He served as president of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers ... Read More »

From NASS The statewide temperature differential for the month of March ranged from 4° F below to 2° F above normal. A low temperature was reported at 10° F in the northeast region. A high temperature was reported at 74° F in the western region. Washington had a normal March in terms of moisture and average temperature. Snow accumulation looked ... Read More »

For more than a year, the Washington Association of Wheat Growers has been working with a group of Pacific Northwest industry stakeholders and members of the region’s federal delegation to increase falling numbers research funding through an appropriations request. That request, $1 million to the Agricultural Research Service, was included in the Omnibus appropriations bill passed last week by Congress ... Read More »

While U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) and the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) understand and support the need to enforce international trade rules, we are very concerned about the implications of the Trump Administration’s decision yesterday to impose more than $60 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. We agree that unfair ... Read More »

By Diana Carlen WAWG Lobbyist The 2018 Legislative Session was scheduled as a short, 60-day session, focused on passing supplemental budgets and addressing the Supreme Court’s McCleary decision mandating that the Legislature speed up funding basic education. The Legislature also had carry-over work from last session to complete, including finding a legislative fix to the Supreme Court’s Hirst decision and ... Read More »

From the National Association of Wheat Growers Today concluded the 2018 National Wheat Improvement Committee (NWIC) Fly-in, where more than 20 researchers and farmers from across the country visited Capitol Hill to discuss with members of Congress and their staff the importance federal funding of research to the wheat industry. The NWIC is comprised of 24 members representing regional public ... Read More »

While croplands have shifted to larger farms in almost all crops, most farms are still family owned From USDA’s Economic Research Service Agricultural production in the United States has been shifting to larger farms for many years. However, such consolidation has become more complex since the 1980s, with major consolidation in cropland offset by shifts in grazing and pastureland away ... Read More »

From Agweb.com While the name would imply the farm bill has much to do with farming, 80 percent of the bill involves food and food stamps. On Wednesday, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Michael Conaway announced he’s delaying the release of a draft bill to find bipartisan support for a law that takes aim at government food programs. Read the rest ... Read More »

From the Capital Press What are the three priorities determining a Pacific Northwest wheat farmer’s success? 1.Trade. 2.Trade. 3. Trade. Upwards of 90 percent of the wheat grown in 20 Eastern Washington counties is exported. Include Idaho and Oregon in the calculation and around two-thirds of the nearly 300 million bushels of wheat produced in the Pacific Northwest in 2016-2017 ... Read More »