The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) has announced appointees who will serve on the Washington FSA state committee. Members of the FSA state committee are appointed by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and are responsible for the oversight of farm programs and county committee operations, resolving program delivery appeals from the agriculture community, maintaining cooperative relations ... Read More »
State
Senate Democrats propose more Snake River dams studies
From the Capital Press Washington Senate Democrats propose funding studies on replacing the electricity and irrigation benefits from the four Lower Snake River dams. Read the article here. Read More »
Washington 2023 legislative report, week 11
By Diana Carlen WAWG Lobbyist March 25 marked the 76th day of the 2023 Legislative Session. Policy committees are busy voting on bills passed by the opposite chamber. The regular session is scheduled to end on April 23. Before then, legislators have several key deadlines to meet: they must pass policy bills out of the opposite chamber by March 29 ... Read More »
WAWG leaders take part in national meetings
Leaders and staff of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers (WAWG) spent a week in Orlando last month, attending the National Association of Wheat Growers’ (NAWG) annual meeting where they discussed national wheat priorities, participated in committee meetings and helped set policy for the national organization for the coming year. The annual wheat meeting takes place concurrently with Commodity Classic, ... Read More »
Washington 2023 legislative report, week 10
By Diana Carlen WAWG Lobbyist Friday, March 17, marked the 68th day of the 2023 Legislative Session. There are 36 days left of the scheduled legislative session. The Legislature is busy meeting in policy committees hearing bills that passed the opposite chamber. Bills need to pass out of their respective policy committees by March 29 to continue to advance through ... Read More »
Agricultural overtime law cuts farmworker income and pushes up food prices
By Pam Lewison Director, Washington Policy Center The recent shift in how farm work is viewed has created laws in seven states for agricultural overtime pay at time-and-a-half. The move toward overtime pay in agriculture has hurt the income outlook for many farmworkers. Two years ago, Washington state became the first state in the U.S. to force agricultural work into ... Read More »
WAWG State Legislative Report, week 9
By Diana Carlen WAWG Lobbyist March 10 marked the 61st day of the 2023 Legislative Session. On March 8, the Legislature reached a milestone — the deadline to pass bills out of the house of origin which means House bills must have been voted out of the House and Senate bills must have been voted out of the Senate. Bills ... Read More »
PNW stripe rust threat forecast to be moderate
By Xianming Chen Wheat stripe rust is forecasted to be in the moderate epidemic level range (20-40% yield loss) in the 2023 growing season, based on the predication models using the weather data from November 2022 to February 2023. The models predicted highly susceptible varieties to have 37% yield loss with a standard deviation of 16%. This value is higher ... Read More »
Washington farmer’s year as NAWG president ending
From the Capital Press Nicole Berg’s year as president of the National Association of Wheat Growers will end at the Commodity Classic this month when Brent Cheyne of Klamath Falls, Ore., assumes the top NAWG office. Berg farms in Paterson, Wash., with her father and two brothers. They grow wheat, bluegrass seed, field corn, sweet corn, sweet peas, green beans ... Read More »
Crop progress report 02/23: Winter carries on through February
From NASS In south-central Washington, it was an extremely dry February. There were small skiffs of snow and wind in recent weeks, with lows dipping to the single digits. Weather was not ideal for crops or livestock, but calving had begun around the region. In Yakima County, nearly all the precipitation came in the first week of February and measured ... Read More »