All wheat is in! Last night, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a second round of Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) payments that extends eligibility to all classes of wheat. In the first round of CFAP only hard red spring and durum wheat qualified for payments. The $14 billion package will provide payments for commodities that saw at least ... Read More »
From the Capital Press Washington’s air fleet and efforts to catch wildfires while they’re still small have helped keep the number of blazes down but the state is still headed for a record in acreage burned, the state forester says. “There have been literally dozens and dozens of fire starts that have been stopped at less than 10 acres,” George ... Read More »
From NASS There were 6.0 days suitable for fieldwork in Washington last week, down from 6.8 days the previous week. In western Washington, there were smoke intrusions from the fires in the east and now Oregon and California. Smoke did not stop harvest, but made it much more difficult and dangerous. The weather was hot and dry. CSA operations continued ... Read More »
The Farm Service Agency (FSA) provides assistance to qualifying farmers and ranchers within Washington state to help them recover from production or physical losses due to natural disaster events, such as the fires currently burning. This assistance is provided through FSA’s Emergency Loan Program or one of its many disaster programs. Below is a quick overview of FSA’s disaster programs ... Read More »
USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) announced this week that the application deadlines for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) Classic in Washington state with a strong focus on conservation planning, conservation implementation, and solving natural resource concerns. EQIP is a voluntary, technical and financial assistance program designed to help farmers, ranchers, private forestland owners, Tribes and other private landowners/managers ... Read More »
From NASS There were 6.8 days suitable for fieldwork in Washington last week, down from 6.9 days the previous week. In western Washington, it continued to stay dry. Irrigation continued where it was possible. Tree fruit began to ripen. CSA farms continued to haul in large harvests. Livestock were running low on pastures. Pastures started to suffer from lack of ... Read More »
From NASS There were 6.9 days suitable for fieldwork in Washington last week, the same as reported the previous week. Washington grain harvest continued in a weather week that saw a little of everything. Crop conditions remained relatively unchanged. In western Washington, warm and dry weather continued with the exception of some quick rain late in the week. Fruit trees continued ... Read More »
From NASS There were 6.9 days suitable for fieldwork in Washington last week, up from 6.8 reported the previous week. A cooler weather pattern gave way to much warmer temperatures late in the week. Several state records for high temperature were set on Sunday in the western portions of the state. The swing back to hot and dry weather had ... Read More »
By Trista Crossley “With travel being curtailed during the pandemic, it has been more difficult for us to meet in person with our legislators, so we want to thank Rep. Newhouse for coming to Ritzville to sit down with us,” said Michelle Hennings, executive director of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers (WAWG). “We also want to thank those growers ... Read More »
From the Capital Press The USDA on Tuesday extended COVID-19 relief to nurseries, sheep ranchers and producers of dozens of other farm goods, while turning down aid to dozens of other commodities. Washington hop and wheat farmers were among those who were denied. USDA said there wasn’t evidence their prices slumped by 5% or more between mid-January and mid-April as ... Read More »
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