Washington ag by the numbers

wheat field

The value of Washington’s 2023 agricultural production totaled $14 billion, up almost 6% from the previous record high of $13.2 billion in 2022. The value of Washington’s crop production in 2023 was $7.71 billion, down about 10% from the record high value of $8.56 billion in 2022. The value of livestock production in 2023 totaled…

Read More

Spinning up grower education

This year’s slate of Agricultural Marketing and Management Organization’s (AMMO) winter sessions will focus on mental health, weeds, local and global markets, and U.S. Department of Agriculture agency updates.  “Our goal each year with the AMMO program is to bring information that is important and relevant to growers,” said KayDee Gilkey, outreach coordinator for the…

Read More

All river matters

A big part of the annual Tri-State Grain Growers Convention is educational breakout sessions that aim to educate and inform growers. At this year’s event, one super-sized session focused on Marine Highway 84, or M-84, and included a panel of stakeholders representing the entire Columbia-Snake River System, from Astoria, Ore., to Lewiston, Idaho. Throughout the…

Read More

Sowing success

They say good things come in threes, and this year’s Tri-State Grain Growers Convention proved it with three days of education, honoring fellow growers, and hearing from ag leaders about the challenges and opportunities coming our way in 2025. More than 300 growers, industry stakeholders, and exhibitors from Idaho, Oregon, and Washington gathered at the…

Read More

From grief to action

Darla Tyler-McSherry turned one of the worst moments of her family’s life into a life-saving mission to prevent other farm families from experiencing the same thing hers did. By 2016, Dick Tyler, Tyler-McSherry’s 82-year-old father, had worked on the family’s Montana wheat farm his entire life and was very proud of the fact that he…

Read More

Treaty agreement reached

After six years and 15 rounds of negotiation, the U.S. and Canada announced in July that they had reached an agreement in principle on modernizing the Columbia River Treaty. In August, the U.S. Department of State provided details on key elements of the modernized treaty during a public information session. According to Jennifer Savage, director…

Read More

Seasons of farming: Winter

As winter settles in, most farmers’ fields go quiet, but that doesn’t mean nothing is happening. In Eastern Washington’s Mediterranean climate, winter is when the region receives the majority of its precipitation, either as rain or, preferably, snow. Snow insulates crops from wind and excessively cold temperatures and allows soil microbes to stay active. Under…

Read More

Expert Q&A

wheat field

While no two farmers follow the same schedule, winter is generally devoted to more “indoor” tasks. Marci Green from Green View Farms in Spokane County points out that many bookkeeping tasks, such as paying bills, marketing crops, payroll, monitoring budgets, and cash flow, happen throughout the year. In this Q&A, she focuses on the tasks…

Read More

Nuts & bolts

wheat field

During winter, the fields may be sleeping under the snow, but that doesn’t mean farmers are. In shops across Eastern Washington, farm equipment is being cleaned and repaired, all in preparation for another year of hard work. Rob Wilkins, parts supervisor at Papé Machinery in Tekoa, Wash., believes the work being done right now —…

Read More

Covering crop rotations

Crop rotations date back thousands of years. Back then, farmers may not have understood the science behind rotating crops on the same land from season to season, but they used it in practice for crop production. Since then, science and experience have expanded our agricultural knowledge exponentially. Modern-day farms in Washington state still use crop…

Read More