RESEARCH

Agriculture by the numbers

USDA releases census data on the state of farming throughout the U.S.

May 2019

It was a few weeks later than planned, but in mid-April, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released the 2017 Census of Agriculture.

The new census spans 6.4 million new points of information about America’s farms and ranches and those who operate them. Information for the census is collected by the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) by surveying farmers and ranchers. The Census of Agriculture is done every five years and includes national, state and county-level statistics.

“The importance of the census and the need for growers to accurately fill out the surveys can’t be underestimated,” said Michelle Hennings, executive director of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers (WAWG). “Many USDA agencies, such as the Farm Service Agency, use census data to develop and administer farm and conservation programs, and lawmakers use the data to help inform policymaking decisions. We know growers are busy, but WAWG encourages them to participate in NASS surveys to the best of their ability.”

According to the 2017 census, the number of farms and the amount of land in farms has declined slightly since the last census in 2012. There also are fewer middle-sized farms with the largest and smallest farm operations growing. Finally, the average age of all farmers and ranchers continues to rise. Read more

POLICY

Planting woes?

Tough field conditions leave farmers facing crop insurance decision

May 2019
By Trista Crossley

In some years, just getting seeds planted is a struggle for farmers. The fields may be too wet, or, conversely, too dry. The fields may be fine, but access to those fields may be blocked, thanks to flooded roads or washed-out bridges.

In any case, the longer a farmer has to wait to plant, the more likely it is that they’ll run afoul of the Risk Management Agency’s (RMA) final planting deadline, and when that happens, farmers will need to make a choice: forego planting altogether and receive a crop insurance payment (called prevented planting coverage), which is 60 percent of their total insurance guarantee, or plant late and take a deduction on their crop insurance production guarantee. For many Eastern Washington wheat farmers, neither of those choices makes them particularly happy. Read more

FARMER'S TOOLBOX

Overcoming production challenges

Workshop focuses on using variety selection, proper chemicals for pests

April 2019
By Trista Crossley

Production challenges and options to overcoming them was the topic of the final session of the Agricultural Marketing and Management Organization’s 2019 winter schedule in February. Ryan Higginbotham from HighLine Grain Growers talked about disease pressure and how choosing the right variety can help address those issues, while James Zahand of James Zahand Consulting talked about herbicides and weed resistance. See more

MARKETING

Working out the global wheat market

Soft white wheat is only bright spot in outlook

April 2019
By Trista Crossley

According to Darin Newsom, when you talk about wheat, you can’t just talk about U.S. wheat, because out of all the grains, wheat is the most global market of all.

“There’s always a major wheat crop hitting the market somewhere in the world,” he explained. Newsom was the guest presenter at one of February’s Agricultural Marketing and Management Organization (AMMO) seminars. Newsom is a former senior analyst with DTN/The Progressive Farmer. He now owns his own marketing company. “The bottom line is the world is oversupplied with wheat, and there’s a lot of competition out there. Everybody is growing wheat.” See more

POLICY

To burn or not to burn

Washington state farmers use Ecology, Ag Burning Task Force to answer that question

April 2019
By Trista Crossley

For more than two decades, the Ag Burning Task Force has been quietly going about its business helping keep the air over Eastern Washington clear. They’ve had to balance the impacts of air pollution on public health with the needs of growers who rely on burning as part of a successful farming operation. These days, maintaining that balance is more difficult thanks to a wildfire season that is starting earlier with bigger, more intense fires. Read more

POLICY

Data dispute

Growers get a victory in 2018 Farm Bill, but industry still fighting to correct past years

POLICY

Rail funding finalized

$5.6 million BUILD grant will help stabilize Washington's PCC Shortline Rail

February 2019
By Trista Crossley

For the state-owned Palouse River and Coulee City (PCC) Shortline Rail in Eastern Washington, the path to a well-maintained, stabilized system just got a little smoother.

In December, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced that $1.5 billion in discretionary grant funding would be awarded through the Better Utilizing Investment to Leverage Development Transportation Discretionary Grants Program—otherwise known as BUILD grants. The PCC was one of 91 projects nationwide to be awarded a BUILD grant; it will receive $5.6 million, which will be matched with $5.6 million of state and private funding. The money will be used to replace or rehabilitate approximately 10 bridges, replace about 4.5 miles of rail and rehabilitate nearly 16.3 miles of track. The repairs will increase operating efficiency on the shortlines by allowing heavier freight cars to be moved faster.

“The Department of Transportation statewide could submit only three grants,” said Ron Pate, the Washington State Department of Transportation’s (WSDOT) director of rail, freight and ports. The project proposals weren’t limited to rails, but could include any transportation project. “In a department as big as we are, with as many road miles, bridges, airports and infrastructure projects as we have, the secretary of transportation decides which three grants get submitted. The secretary supported this project wholeheartedly. He understands the PCC moves a lot of wheat, which is very important to the east side of state. We wanted to make sure that as a transportation organization, we weren’t just looking at highways.”

WSDOT is in the process of developing a construction plan using the grant money, and Pate said they hope to begin work on the PCC this summer. However, if the government shutdown continues, it could cause delays in getting the paperwork signed. Read more

MARKETING

Tracking the tariffs

Current trade environment theatens stability of Washington state's agriculture industry

February 2019
By Trista Crossley

Trade, to put it lightly, is a pretty big deal in the Evergreen state.

More than 300 crops are grown here, worth $10.6 billion in 2017. The processed foods sector, in 2016, generated more than $20 billion in revenues, and the value of food and ag products that were exported overseas in 2017 was approximately $6.7 billion.

The current trade environment puts all of that on uncertain ground. Rianne Perry, manager of the Washington State Department of Agriculture’s (WSDA) International Marketing Program, said in regards to the retaliatory tariffs from China, many of Washington’s agricultural products are on at least one of the lists of targeted products, if not more than one. WSDA estimates that approximately $1 billion worth of Washington agricultural exports are at risk from retaliatory tariffs, including those from China, Mexico, Canada, the EU and India. See more

POLICY

Dowsing for water

State agency balances developing new supplies for thirsty fish, farmers, families

January 2019
By Trista Crossley

Water is never far from the surface when you talk about the Columbia River Basin, and one state program is doing what it can to make sure there’s enough to meet users’ needs now and well into the future.

Established in 2006 as part of the process to solve the Columbia River water rights gridlock in the 1980s and 90s, the Office of Columbia River (OCR), part of the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology), is primarily tasked with the development of water supplies in the Columbia River Basin that benefits both in-stream users (ecosystem, fish) and out-of-stream users (irrigators, industry, municipalities) through storage, conservation and voluntary regional water management agreements. Read more

TRADE, TARIFFS, FARM BILL

2018 convention keynote speakers, panels focus on issues facing ag industry

December 2018
By Trista Crossley

For a few days last month, wheat farmers from the Pacific Northwest traded in the farm for a convention center in Portland, Ore., where trade, tariffs and other ag-related issues featured prominently on the menu.

Two panels of experts and presentations from top officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative detailed the state of agriculture and the issues the industry faces, both nationally and at home. Read more

POLICY

SOLAR ECLIIPSE

A new type of business could supplant some of DNR's grazing, crop leases

November 2018
By Trista Crossley

In the last year, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has seen increasing interest in state lands from a new sort of lessee—solar farm companies.

According to Kathryn Mink, DNR’s agriculture assistant region manager for the southeast region, the interest is coming from both in state and out of state companies. Those companies have identified approximately 30 parcels of DNR-managed, state-owned land with solar farm potential—about 16,000 acres—that also have easy access to the electrical grid. The land is located in Adams, Asotin, Douglas, Kittitas, Klickitat, Lincoln, Whitman and Yakima counties. In many cases, the solar farm companies are also interested in surrounding parcels that are privately owned, Mink said. Out of the 16,000 acres, less than 2,000 acres are currently in dryland wheat; the majority is in grazing. DNR has sent a letter to the current lessees of those 30 parcels notifying them of the solar farm potential. Read more

POLICY

RATE SHOCK

New CRP payment rates leave many Eastern Washington growers scratching their heads

November 2018
By Trista Crossley

Earlier this year, some Washington producers got a shock when they went to renew their Conservation Reserve Project (CRP) contracts. The rates had changed, and in many cases, not for the better. One farmer in Franklin County reported that his rate dropped by more than $20 per acre. In Asotin County, farmers saw their rates drop by more than half from last year.

The cause appeared to be twofold. First, the Farm Service Agency (FSA) changed their soil rental rates, but not all Washington county rates went down. Some even went up from last year (see Chart 1). The second change, and the one that might have hit harder, was the FSA’s change in their soil productivity factors. See more

FARMER'S TOOLBOX

HARVEST 2018

Harvest 2018 is over and farmers are now working on planting for harvest 2019. During the summer, Wheat Life staff were out and about taking pictures in as many counties as we could get to. We showed some of those photos in our October 2018 issue, but here's a bunch we couldn't fit. See more

POLICY

Mr. Northy goes to Washington

USDA undersecretary spends weekend in Evergreen state visiting with producers

August/September 2018
By Trista Crossley

In the last month, Washington state has been a popular place for U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials to visit. Fresh off the heels of Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue, Bill Northey, undersecretary for farm production and conservation, spent several days in Benton and Spokane counties, talking to producers about conservation practices and programs, crop rotations and trade.

In Benton County, Northey was joined by Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) and Derek Sandison, director of the Washington State Department of Agriculture, as he toured the farm of Nicole Berg, National Association of Wheat Growers secretary. The group discussed USDA customer service and the U.S. wheat trade, among other topics. The next day, Northey travelled, well, north to Spokane County. He was joined by Vicki Carter and Ty Meyer, both from the Spokane Conservation District (SCD), and Mike Poulson, ag and natural resource policy director for Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers. The group started the morning out by talking about no-till and direct seeding with Bob Sievers, a farmer near Spangle. On the way to Washington Association of Wheat Growers President Marci Green’s farm near Fairfield, the group stopped to see the results of a SCD buffer program that pays farmers to put in buffers along streams based on the value of the crop the buffer replaces. See more

POLICY

'Roots' tour stops by Washington

'Sonny' weather during ag secretary's Pacific Northwest visit

August/September 2018
By Trista Crossley

To be a farmer means living with uncertainty. But over two days at multiple events last month, Washington state growers made sure to impress upon U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue that uncertainty in trade threatens their livelihoods.

Perdue was visiting the Pacific Northwest as part of his “Back to Our Roots” tour. Besides Washington, he also spent time in Idaho, Oregon and Alaska. While in Eastern Washington, he held a breakfast and fireside chat hosted by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) in Spokane, ate lunch with producers at The McGregor Company in Colfax and toured Washington State University’s (WSU) agricultural research facilities. The next day, before heading to Oregon and the ports in Vancouver, he and Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) held a farm hall breakfast in the Tri-Cities hosted by the Washington Farm Bureau. See more

POLICY

Powered by water

August/September 2018
By Trista Crossley

In a very literal sense, the Columbia River System fuels life in the Pacific Northwest—growers rely on it to water their crops, and residents depend on it to help power their homes and businesses. As Columbia River Treaty (CRT) renegotiations between the U.S. and Canada continue, two more industries with distinctly different vested interests are closely watching.

Watts up?

The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) is a nonprofit federal agency that markets wholesale electrical power from 31 federal hydroelectric dams throughout the Columbia River Basin, including Bonneville and Grand Coulee dams on the Columbia River and Lower Granite and Ice Harbor dams on the Snake River. Created in 1937, BPA currently provides approximately 28 percent of the electricity used across 300,000 square miles in eight western states: Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and California. It also owns more than 15,000 miles of transmission lines and employs almost 3,000 people full time. While there are other power generating companies who are directly impacted by the CRT, BPA is arguably the biggest, not only in terms of size, but also because it is directly responsible for fulfilling one of the basic conditions of the treaty, the Canadian Entitlement. See more

Andy M. Rustemeyer
January 14, 1935 - July 12, 2018

A celebration of life service will be held in honor of Andy on Sept. 22 at 2 p.m. at Strate’s Funeral Home in Davenport, followed by a reception at the Davenport Memorial Hall

Andy M. Rustemeyer passed away peacefully at his home near Sprague, Wash., on July 12, 2018. The youngest of six children, Andy was born on Jan. 14, 1935, in Asotin, Wash., to Peter and Ora Rustemeyer. In 1939 the family moved to the small lumber mill town of Old Lincoln, Wash. After the construction of Grand Coulee Dam, the family moved to the new Lincoln mill site which was relocated 11 miles north of Creston, Wash.

Andy graduated from Creston High School in 1953. Following high school, Andy moved to Chicago, Ill., where he attended electronics school. Within one year, Andy was drafted into the army and was accepted into the army security’s electronics program and eventually trained in classified communication. He spent the next three years stationed in Germany during the occupation of Germany following WWII. Upon his discharge from the army in 1957, he attended Gonzaga University. In 1957, Andy married his wife, Edith (Rosman). He and Edith were classmates at Creston school through elementary and high school and both graduated together. Andy graduated with honors from Gonzaga in 1961 with a double major in education and philosophy and a minor in math. Following graduation, he taught at Glover Junior High in Spokane, Wash.

In 1962, Andy and Edith returned to the Creston area and began farming and ranching. In 1966, they purchased a wheat and cattle ranch south of Creston, which proved to be one of his greatest joys, where they raised their three children. They relocated the farming operation to the Sprague area in 1992 where he and his wife resided until his death.

Andy’s love for his family, his faith and service to his community and country gave him tremendous joy. He was an avid reader, writer and musician. For many years, Andy’s family was blessed to enjoy the lively and beautiful music he would play either on the piano or his guitar.

Throughout Andy’s life, he served on many local, county and state boards and committees. Andy founded the Lincoln County Tax Board. He also served on the East Banks Development Association; the Upper Columbia River County Board; the Washington State Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council; the steering committee of the Lake Roosevelt Forum; the Eastern Regional Board of the Job Training Partnership Act representing eight counties; and served with the Lake Roosevelt Coordinating Committee of the Multi Party Agreement between the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Colville Confederate Tribes, Spokane Tribe of Indians, Bureau of Reclamation, the National Park Service and the Upper Columbia Counties. Andy served two terms as Lincoln County Commissioner and served on the County Road Administration Board. Additionally, Andy was a past president of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers, a member of the Washington Farm Bureau and Washington Cattlemen’s Association.

He is survived by his wife of almost 61 years, Edith Rustemeyer, and three children: son Bill Rustemeyer and his wife Kay; daughter Beth (Rustemeyer) and her husband Mike Finch; and son John Rustemeyer and his wife Annette. He is also survived by six grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; two sisters, Ardel Morgan and Jo Robertson; and numerous nieces and nephews. Preceding Andy in death were his parents, two brothers and one sister. A beautiful private inurnment was held on July 19 at the Washington State Veteran’s Cemetery.

A celebration of life service will be held on Sept. 22 at 2 p.m. at Strate’s Funeral Home in Davenport, Wash., followed by a reception at the Davenport Memorial Hall.

Memorials can be made to Lincoln County Historical Society Scholarship, P.O. Box 585, Davenport, WA 99122; Big Bend Historical Society, P.O. Box 523, Wilbur, WA 99117; or Department of Veterans Affairs Volunteer Services, Veterans Medical Center Mann-Grandstaff, 4815 N. Assembly Spokane, WA 99205.

Editor's note: A much shorter obituary with incomplete information for Andy Rustemeyer ran in our August/September issue. Out of consideration for the family, we have decided to run the complete obituary here. The staff of Wheat Life regrets the error.

FARMER'S TOOLBOX

Ag tour is in session

Legislators, staff spend day learning about challenges industry faces

July 2018
By Trista Crossley

State legislators got a little taste of agriculture in June during the all ag legislative tour in Prosser, Wash., where pesticides, labor needs and environmental stewardship were all on the menu.

“This was a great opportunity to bring legislators out to the farm to see first hand the challenges and opportunities faced by growers,” said Marci Green, president of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers (WAWG). WAWG was one of the sponsors of the tour, along with other commodities such as potatoes, wine, tree fruit, dairy and asparagus. “No matter what we are growing or where we are growing it, we all face similar issues, whether those are regulatory, environmental or workforce related. Legislators were able to ask questions directly to farmers and see the problems or solutions rather than just hearing about them.” See more

POLICY

Going with the flow

Treaty's results have steered development of navigation, transportation industries

July 2018
By Trista Crossley

It’s accepted wisdom that rivers shape the landscape, but in the case of the Columbia River, that landscape includes more than just rock and dirt. It has also shaped the commercial and urban environment that has grown up around it. This is especially true for the navigation and transportation industries.

For more than 50 years, the Columbia River Treaty (CRT) between the U.S. and Canada has regulated the river’s flow by storing water behind Canadian dams in the spring as the snow melts and releasing that stored water in the fall when the river level tends to drop. That regulated flow has given the river system some predictability that it otherwise wouldn’t have, reduced flooding and allowed both nations to maximize hydropower production. The treaty has also allowed the navigation and transportation industries to develop their business infrastructure to take advantage of a more predictable river system. See more

POLICY

Looking for solutions 60 years in the past

Is now the time for the federal government to finish the Columbia Basin Project?

June 2018
By Trista Crossley

From the very beginning, concerns about the cost of surface water have dogged the Odessa Groundwater Replacement Project and sent invested parties scrambling for funding alternatives. One group of farmers think they’ve found a viable lead by going back more than 60 years—asking the federal government to finish the Columbia Basin Project.

In 1943, Congress authorized the Columbia Basin Project (CBP), which was intended to use Columbia River water to irrigate 1.1 million acres of cropland in central Washington. To date, only 671,000 acres have access to that water with the rest of it relying on deep-water wells that tap the Odessa Aquifer. That aquifer is now running dry, threatening not only irrigated cropland, but towns and residents who rely on it for drinking water. The Odessa Groundwater Replacement Project (OGWRP) hopes to move more than 87,000 acres off those wells to relieve the pressure (see related article on page 22), but there are fears that the project will be too expensive to meet its goal. See more

POLICY

State funnels funds to irrigation project

Capital budget included $15 million for Odessa Groundwater Replacement Project

June 2018
By Trista Crossley

When the state legislature passed last year’s capital budget in January of this year, it included a $15 million funding boost for the Odessa Groundwater Replacement Project (OGWRP).

The funding will be split, with $5 million earmarked for increased delivery capacity in the first distribution system slated for construction, the 47.5. The other $10 million will be used to continue East Low Canal expansion work, specifically the two Kansas Prairie siphons, said Mike Schwisow, director of government relations for the Columbia Basin Development League, a nonprofit group that advocates for development of the Columbia Basin Project. See more