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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
By Diana Carlen WAWG Lobbyist State lawmakers have completed their seventh week of the regular session. Last week, they reached their second deadline where the focus was on the fiscal and transportation committees. Legislators on those committees worked long days and evenings to hear and pass out bills having a financial impact to the state. Feb. 24 was the fiscal ... Read More »
From the Capital Press A bipartisan riparian buffer bill supported by farm groups and many tribes but opposed by Gov. Jay Inslee has failed to get out of the House Capital Budget Committee. Read the rest of the article here. Read More »
From Washington State University Crop and soil scientist Surendra Singh will lead research into better agriculture for the Inland Northwest’s arid country as the new dryland cropping systems agronomist and next director at Washington State University’s (WSU) Lind Dryland Research Station. Starting in early April 2023, Surendra Singh replaces longtime agronomist and director Bill Schillinger, who retired in early 2022 after 29 ... Read More »
WAWG