Federal

From the Capital Press The Washington Association of Wheat Growers is emphasizing the need to have a farm bill by the end of the year. The 2018 bill has been extended twice and expires Sept. 30. WAWG executive director Michelle Hennings and president Jeff Malone, a farmer in Douglas and Grant counties, both wrote about the need for a new ... Read More »

According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, there were 6.8 days suitable for fieldwork in Washington. Washington crop progress: Spring wheat harvested: 90% this week 74% last week 84% last year 79% 5-year average Barley harvested: 92% this week 76% last week 85% last year 80% 5-year average Read More »

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) announced the rapid implementation of significant enhancements to federal crop insurance programs following the enactment of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on July 4, 2025. Under the new legislation, beginning farmers and ranchers will receive substantially increased premium support during their first decade of farming operations, making crop insurance more ... Read More »

On Aug. 19, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins alongside Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Sen. Bill Hagerty, Rep. John Rose, and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden, announced USDA will no longer fund taxpayer dollars for solar panels on productive farmland or allow solar panels manufactured by foreign adversaries to be used in ... Read More »

From Successful Farming Government Executive’s Eric Katz reported that “the Agriculture Department is confident its push to move more employees out of Washington and into five new hubs around the country will retain most staff and large-scale layoffs will not be necessary, a top official told lawmakers on Wednesday.” Read the rest of the article here. Read More »

From Farm Policy News “If approved, the deal would be the largest ever buyout in the sector and combine Union Pacific’s stronghold in the western two-thirds of the United States with Norfolk’s 19,500-mile network that primarily spans 22 eastern states. The two railroads are expected to have a combined enterprise value of $250 billion and would unlock about $2.75 billion ... Read More »

Last week, Gil Crosby, vice president of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers and a wheat grower from Spokane County, took part in Washington, D.C., fly-in with the Modern Ag Alliance to emphasize the importance of crop protection tools in agriculture. “Crop protection tools play a critical role in our ability to raise a crop in an affordable, sustainable manner,” ... Read More »

From cropinsuranceinamerica.org Whether you are new to the world of farm policy, or a seasoned pro steeped in the details, it’s never a bad idea to keep helpful resources handy. To give you a leg up on all things crop insurance, we thought it would be helpful to provide a small library of policy essentials that you could flag in ... Read More »

From the National Association of Wheat Growers On July 16, the House Agriculture Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities, Risk Management, and Credit hearing titled, “Financing Farm Operations: The Importance of Credit and Risk Management.” This hearing focused on the severe downturn in the agricultural economy, with witnesses drawing direct parallels to the 1980s farm crisis. The central message was that ... Read More »

From world-grain.com One hundred miles east of Denver and at 5,350 feet above sea level, Ben Palen’s hard red winter wheat crop is a low-carbon project on a large scale. Planted across 6,300 acres of land owned by Palen, his wife Leslie Hammer-Palen and two other family farms, it’s one-half blueprint, one-half labor of love long in the making for ... Read More »