Federal

From the Capital Press Cold weather that damaged wheat across the central and southern Plains and southern Midwest illustrates the need for a new farm bill with adequate crop insurance coverage, a National Association of Wheat Growers leader says. Gordon Stoner, a Montana farmer and president of NAWG, cited “unusually cold temperatures and snowy conditions,” with damage to about one-quarter ... Read More »

From the National Association of Wheat Growers Recent extreme winter conditions in major wheat-producing states re-affirm the need for a 2018 Farm Bill and strong federal crop insurance program. According to Radiant Solutions, a data collection and analysis company based in Herndon, Va., “Solid snow cover in the northern Plains and Midwest gave wheat fields enough protection from the bitter cold conditions, ... Read More »

From the National Association of Wheat Growers Attorneys General in Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wisconsin have filed an amicus brief in support of the preliminary injunction sought by agriculture groups against California’s flawed Prop 65 regulation. In addition, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the California Chamber of Commerce filed their ... Read More »

The  tax reform bill has passed the U.S. Senate and House and is now headed to the president’s desk. While many details about the bill are still unknown, some information about how it might affect farmers is starting to trickle out. Follow these links for more information: K-Coe Isom, a firm that provides consulting and CPA services in the food and ... Read More »

From Farm Policy Facts Farmers and ranchers across America will have their voices heard in the USDA Census of Agriculture, and the data collected in the coming months will certainly help shape agricultural policy for years to come. The census began in 1840 and is conducted every 5 years to get a complete picture of American agriculture. Farm operations that produced ... Read More »

By Trista Crossley Wheat Life Editor As the clock begins ticking louder on the 2018 Farm Bill, Josh Tonsager, the National Association of Wheat Growers’ (NAWG) vice president of policy and communications, gave a farm bill update at last month’s Tri-State Grain Growers Convention. “From a national level, we’ve (NAWG) been interacting regularly with House and Senate ag committee staffs ... Read More »

By Gordon Stoner For The Hill The United States is known for producing the highest quality wheat in the world, yet when U.S. farmers market their wheat at a Canadian elevator, it is automatically labeled as “foreign wheat” and given the lowest possible grade (a way to measure grain quality). Cross-border wheat faces major hurdles in Canadian marketing channels, primarily ... Read More »

A national coalition of agriculture groups led by the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) is seeking to immediately halt the California state’s misguided labeling requirement for glyphosate, citing irreparable harm to American farmers, consumers and the nation’s agriculture economy.  The agriculture coalition has filed a motion for a preliminary injunction with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of ... Read More »

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) has announced changes to its crop insurance policies. Major changes for 2018 focus on conservation compliance certification and choice of unit structure based on the risk management needs of producers. “Every producer’s situation is unique. At RMA we want to ensure the policies we provide are flexible enough so that producers are ... Read More »

By Ben Conner Director of Policy, U.S. Wheat Associates Many European farmers breathed a sigh of relief this week as the European Commission chose to extend registration of the broad-spectrum herbicide glyphosate for five years. But farmers in Europe and elsewhere around the world are justifiably worried about the challenges represented by the European Union’s pesticide policy. The extension of glyphosate ... Read More »