Federal

From the Capital Press The USDA on Tuesday extended COVID-19 relief to nurseries, sheep ranchers and producers of dozens of other farm goods, while turning down aid to dozens of other commodities. Washington hop and wheat farmers were among those who were denied. USDA said there wasn’t evidence their prices slumped by 5% or more between mid-January and mid-April as ... Read More »

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced yesterday that additional commodities will now be covered by the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) in response to public comments and data. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is extending the deadline to apply for the program to Sept. 11. Unfortunately, USDA did not extend eligibility to any additional classes of wheat. ... Read More »

Producers can help protect APH with new crop insurance rule By Trista Crossley Wheat farmers now have another tool in their arsenal when it comes to utilizing crop insurance to safeguard their livelihoods. Beginning with the 2021 crop year, growers will be able to elect a quality loss option that protects their 10-year actual production history (APH), especially in cases ... Read More »

The much-anticipated Columbia River System Operations Final Environmental Impact Study (FEIS) was released late last week. It was developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Bonneville Power Administration, and the US Bureau of Reclamation, with input from tribal nations and Northwest states, and provides a comprehensive, final analysis of the four lower Snake River dams. The Washington Association ... Read More »

Guest commentary by Vince Peterson, U.S. Wheat Associates From the Capital Press I can say with certainty, there is no food industry relationship in the world that goes back farther than the relationship between U.S. wheat producers and the Japanese flour milling industry. Read the rest of Peterson’s column here. Read More »

From the Capital Press The Environmental Protection Agency defended the pesticide chlorpyrifos on Tuesday, telling a three-judge panel in San Francisco that the agency has never found that exposure limits set in 2006 were unsafe. EPA’s attorney, Mark Walters, disputed claims that the agency’s studies support a ban. “It is inaccurate to say that the EPA has made a series ... Read More »

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) has announced the acceptance of more than 1.2 million acres in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) Grasslands program during the recent sign-up period that began March 16 and ended May 15. The number of acres offered during this sign-up period was 1.9 million acres, more than three times the number ... Read More »

From Ag Professional U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue says the department is looking at options for future coronavirus relief for producers. According to Farm Journal Washington Correspondent Jim Wiesemeyer, Perdue says USDA is in the process of evaluating the COVID-19 impacts on the agricultural economy and looking at the “lessons learned so far” as another round of CFAP ... Read More »

From Farm Journal’s Ag Professional It’s a serene setting this time of year. Amber waves of grain surround these mountains as combines are starting to move through the harvest-ready golden fields in the Pacific Northwest. “This is day two,” says Kevin Duling of KD Investors in north central Oregon, while he was in the field harvesting. “We started yesterday afternoon.” ... Read More »

The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is a new economic and trade agreement that modifies the terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), adding provisions for continued growth in agricultural trade among the three member countries. Agriculture has a large and growing stake in interregional trade in the free-trade area created by NAFTA. The total value of intraregional agricultural ... Read More »