State

For more than a year, the Washington Association of Wheat Growers has been working with a group of Pacific Northwest industry stakeholders and members of the region’s federal delegation to increase falling numbers research funding through an appropriations request. That request, $1 million to the Agricultural Research Service, was included in the Omnibus appropriations bill passed last week by Congress ... Read More »

By Diana Carlen WAWG Lobbyist The 2018 Legislative Session was scheduled as a short, 60-day session, focused on passing supplemental budgets and addressing the Supreme Court’s McCleary decision mandating that the Legislature speed up funding basic education. The Legislature also had carry-over work from last session to complete, including finding a legislative fix to the Supreme Court’s Hirst decision and ... Read More »

From the Capital Press What are the three priorities determining a Pacific Northwest wheat farmer’s success? 1.Trade. 2.Trade. 3. Trade. Upwards of 90 percent of the wheat grown in 20 Eastern Washington counties is exported. Include Idaho and Oregon in the calculation and around two-thirds of the nearly 300 million bushels of wheat produced in the Pacific Northwest in 2016-2017 ... Read More »

By Dr. Xianming Chen Based on the forecast models using the weather data from November 2017 to February 2018, stripe rust will potentially cause yield loss of 17.9 percent on highly susceptible varieties. This number is much higher than the 6 percent forecasted in January based only on the November-December weather conditions. The number is an average of the prediction ... Read More »

In February, leaders of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers (WAWG) took their advocacy efforts to Washington, D.C. For four extremely busy days, they met with policymakers to discuss farm bill, trade, crop insurance and conservation. “Because of the relationships we’ve developed with our congressional delegation, we were able to get access to high level meetings such as the office ... Read More »

By Gary Bailey Washington Grain Commission Chairman, USW Director and a wheat farmer from St. John, Wash. As Washington Grain Commissioners, trade has consumed a great deal of our time this past year. Relationships with our international partners are critical to the survival of our trade with countries such as Japan. Most of us have seen the proposed effects on ... Read More »

U.S. Wheat Associates (USW), the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) and 33 state wheat organizations have expressed hope in a letter to U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer that the administration will immediately prioritize accession to TPP to save the valuable Japanese market for U.S. wheat farmers. “Once TPP is ratified, U.S. wheat exports to Japan will be at serious risk,” ... Read More »

By Diana Carlen WAWG Lobbyist This Thursday is the last scheduled day of the legislative session. Unlike recent years, there is no talk of a special session. Another important legislative deadline occurred last week, in which all bills must have passed out of both chambers to remain “alive”, unless they are deemed necessary to implement the budget. Over the next ... Read More »

From the Capital Press Pesticide legislation that Washington lawmakers recently passed only faintly resembles the bill that unnerved farmers in January. Senate Bill 6529 no longer requires growers to notify the state Health Department at least four business days before spraying. Gone is also a mandate to file monthly public reports on chemical use. Read the rest of the story here. Read More »

By Diana Carlen WAWG Lobbyist Today marks the 52nd day of the 2018 Legislative Session. With just more than a week left remaining for the regular session, the legislature is focused on moving the supplemental budget through the final days of the session and passing bills off the floor. This Friday at 5 p.m. is the deadline to pass bills ... Read More »