Earlier today, the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) released their prospective planting report. For wheat, all wheat planted area for 2016 is estimated at 49.6 million acres, down 9 percent from 2015. The 2016 winter wheat planted area, at 36.2 million acres, is down 8 percent from last year and down 1 percent from the previous estimate. Of this total, ... Read More »
From the Capital Press Washington State University’s new president says he was drawn to the school because of its land-grant mission. “I spent my career at land-grants, they have a certain style and philosophy that I think really speaks to the state they reside in,” said Kirk Schulz, currently the president of Kansas State University, in a telephone interview with ... Read More »
From U.S. Wheat and the National Association of Wheat Growers Over the past few years, U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) and the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) have demonstrated how the policies of a few advanced developing countries are distorting world wheat trade and hurting farmers in the United States and other wheat exporting countries. In 2015, an Iowa State ... Read More »
From the Capital Press The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) has dropped plans to buy a ranch and riverside grasslands in Eastern Washington, signaling the agency’s increasing sensitivity to complaints that state land purchases rob taxes from rural counties. WDFW had identified 5,542 acres of Lincoln County rangeland and 2,560 acres in Walla Walla County along the Touchet ... Read More »
From the Capital Press Based on the volume and distribution of recent grower reports about barley yellow dwarf infections in winter wheat, University of Idaho Extension cereals pathologist Juliet Marshall said it’s clear the disease will be rampant again this season. Last season, southern and eastern Idaho grain growers coped with the most widespread barley yellow dwarf outbreak they’d ever ... Read More »
By Diana Carlen WAWG Lobbyist Last night, the Legislature adjourned on the 60th day of the legislative session without passing a supplemental budget. While each chamber had previously passed competing supplemental budget proposals, they could not reach a final agreement by the deadline on how much more to spend for the upcoming year and whether to use the Budget Stabilization ... Read More »
By Diana Carlen WAWG Lobbyist Today is the 57th day of the regular legislative session. Last Friday was another important deadline. It was the last day to consider bills from the opposite house, except initiatives and alternatives to initiatives, budgets and matters necessary to implement budgets. With only four days left of the regular session, the primary focus of the ... Read More »
By Xianming Chen USDA ARS Plant Pathologist Severe stripe rust forecasted for the eastern Pacific Northwest Based on our forecast models using the weather conditions from November 2015 to February 2016, stripe rust will potentially cause yield loss of 53 percent on highly susceptible varieties, indicating an epidemic in the severe (40-60 percent yield loss on susceptible varieties) range. This ... Read More »
By Diana Carlen WAWG Lobbyist Last Friday was the deadline for bills to pass out of their policy committees from the opposite chamber. Monday was the deadline for bills to pass out of fiscal committees unless they are bills needed to pass the budget. This Friday, March 4, at 5 p.m. is the last day to pass opposite house bills, except ... Read More »
The Washington Association of Wheat Growers (WAWG) joined with other stakeholder groups, including the Washington Grain Commission, to fund a study on the economic impacts of the last year’s West Coast ports slowdown on Washington State businesses. According to the study, which was released in late February, between October 2014 and March 2015, slowdowns at West Coast ports cost Washington ... Read More »
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