Federal

From the Tri-City Herald For more than two decades Eastern Washington residents have heard proposals to tear out the lower Snake River dams, but only recently has the idea gotten bipartisan support in the nation’s capital, said Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash. He organized a roundtable discussion in Richland on Tuesday, National Agriculture Day, that served as a rally to save ... Read More »

From U.S. Wheat Associates The Columbia Snake River System is the network of federal dams and locks on the Columbia River and connected water bodies, including the Snake River. This system enables grain barges to carry wheat 360 miles from Lewiston, Idaho, to export elevators as far west as Longview, Wash. In marketing years 2019/20 and 2020/21, more than 55% ... Read More »

Today, Nicole Berg was elected as the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) president. She is a 4th generation farmer from Paterson, Wash., where she farms alongside her dad and two brothers. They grow dryland and irrigated wheat, blue grass seed, field corn, sweet corn, sweet peas, green beans and alfalfa. Berg also sits on the board of the Federal ... Read More »

From the Capital Press The cost of production is likely to increase for U.S. wheat farmers as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the leader of the National Association of Wheat Growers says. “First of all and most of all, it’s a very unfortunate and sad situation what’s going on with the invasion of Ukraine by Russian military ... Read More »

The Farm Service Agency recently updated the annual and benchmark yields for ARC/PLC program years 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. This data is useful to producer in choosing to participate in either ARC or PLC. For added assistance with ARC and PLC decisions, USDA partnered with the University of Illinois and Texas A&M University to offer web-based decision tools to ... Read More »

National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) Vice President and Paterson, Wash., farmer Nicole Berg testified in front of the House Agriculture Committee today in a hearing to review the 2018 Farm Bill with a focus on Title I programs. Berg highlighted key improvements made during the 2018 Farm Bill and how those programs work for wheat farmers. During the testimony, ... 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 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 »

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 »