By Diana Carlen WAWG Lobbyist Friday marked the 40th day of the 2022 Legislative Session. On Feb. 15, the Legislature reached an important milestone—the deadline to pass bills out of their house of origin. This meant that House bills had to be voted out of the House and Senate bills had to be voted out of the Senate by that ... Read More »

From the Capital Press The University of California-Davis is leading a $15 million, five-year research project to accelerate wheat breeding to meet new climate realities and train a new generation of plant breeders. A USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture grant will create a coordinated consortium of 41 wheat breeders and researchers from 22 institutions in 20 states. Researchers ... Read More »

The ARC/PLC deadline is quickly approaching. Failure to make a valid election and enrollment for the 2022 program year by March 15, 2022, will result in ineligibility for the 2022 crop year payment. To complete election and enrollment, all signatures must be submitted by the March 15 deadline. Important Note: There was some confusion in a previous announcement that if ... Read More »

By Diana Carlen WAWG Lobbyist Friday marked the 34th day of this 60-day legislative session, and we have passed two key cut-off dates. The cut-off dates guide the session and help to whittle the thousands of bills that are introduced down to the few hundred pieces of legislation that may actually pass into law. Last week saw the passing of ... Read More »

The National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) recently sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack highlighting wheat growers’ challenges during previous iterations of ad hoc disaster assistance programs. The letter emphasized the timeliness of getting this aid rolled out and noted several past issues experienced by wheat growers in earlier programs – like WHIP+ and QLA. The ... Read More »

From Farm Progress U.S. agricultural exports soared to a record-breaking $177 billion during the 2021 calendar year, besting the previous record of nearly $155 billion set in 2014. It represented an increase of 18% from 2020 export sales receipts on soaring commodity prices and robust international food and feed demand. Read the rest of the article here. Read More »

From the Capital Press A lawyer for Washington farm groups disputed Friday that the state’s new capital gains tax will pinch only the very rich, telling a Central Washington judge that the pending tax already is influencing business decisions by farmers. Although the tax exempts income from selling livestock or farmland, it will tax capital gains from selling business partnerships ... Read More »

By Diana Carlen WAWG Lobbyist Last Thursday was the first legislative deadline for the 2022 session. All bills had to be voted out of their policy committee by 5 p.m. to remain under consideration this year. Legislation not covered by the first deadline includes bills that been referred to fiscal committees and bills that are considered Necessary to Implement the ... Read More »

The newest member of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers’ (WAWG) leadership team, Anthony Smith, isn’t actually new to either WAWG or the industry. Smith grew up on his family’s Benton County farm, which was settled by his grandfather in the early 1930s. The family grew dryland wheat and raised tree fruit and grapes. After graduating from Prosser High School, ... Read More »

Agricultural producers and landowners can now sign up soon for the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), a cornerstone conservation program offered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and a key tool in the Biden-Harris Administration effort to address climate change and achieve other natural resource benefits. The General CRP sign-up runs from Jan. 31 to March 11, and the Grassland CRP sign-up will ... Read More »