Posts by Trista Crossley
‘YEN’ing for more information
The devil’s often found in the details, and one Lincoln County grower is shifting through a wheat field of data to find answers. Jesse Brunner, a fifth-generation farmer north of Almira, Wash., is going into his third year participating in the Great Lakes Yield Enhancement Network (YEN). The program, which is based on a similar…
Read MoreSprouting an interest
Returning to her family’s Whitman County farm may not have been in the cards for Carrie Bellecourt, but she’s found a way to honor her background by sharing her wheat-growing knowledge with her first-grade classes. Bellecourt grew up in Steptoe, Wash., the daughter of Jim and Cathy White. Jim was the fourth generation to farm…
Read MoreHedging Risk
In February, wheat growers had the opportunity to learn some basic information about using options as part of their portfolio of risk management tools. The seminar was presented by Allison Thompson, a commodity broker and owner of The Money Farm, a commodity advisory service based in Minnesota. Thompson’s family owns a farm that grows corn,…
Read MoreState of the estate
Financial presentations are usually popular with growers, but adding fried chicken and jojos from Sonny’s Tavern in Washtucna made February’s Agricultural Marketing and Management Organization’s (AMMO) seminar a slam dunk. Before getting to the victuals, growers heard about estate planning from Corey Brock, financial advice from Tara Wiswall, and an estate tax update from Jared…
Read MoreHill advocacy
Despite a major late January snowstorm that disrupted travel through much of the country, leaders and staff of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers (WAWG) trekked to Washington, D.C., to take part in national wheat organization meetings and spend time on the Hill, meeting with congressional offices and administration officials. “The trip was very productive,…
Read MoreDisease, pest pressure increasing
An unusually warm, wet winter appears to be increasing the pest and disease pressure Eastern Washington growers are facing going into spring, and at the top of the list is stripe rust. According to the last update from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service research plant pathologist, Dr. Xianming Chen, stripe rust in…
Read MoreFinding financial balance
It can be hard to find stability in today’s topsy-turvy ag economy, but an accurate balance sheet could make all the difference. That was the message growers heard in January at a workshop focused on “The Business of Farming,” presented by Jon Paul Driver. Driver is an ag economist with a background in ag risk…
Read MoreStart clean, stay clean
Aaron Esser’s message to growers at a workshop in January was fairly simple — the key to controlling weeds is starting clean and staying clean. Unfortunately, the way to accomplish that is anything but. “I’ve been doing this for 28 years now. Everyone remembers Maverick Herbicide, right? When that first came out, pow. That stuff…
Read MoreCombatting Italian ryegrass
Cereal rye might not be the answer to Eastern Washington growers’ Italian ryegrass problem, but Morgan Menaker is hoping there might be a few lessons to be gleaned from his work in North Carolina with it. Menaker is the new Washington State University Regional Extension agronomist covering Asotin, Columbia, Garfield, Walla Walla, and Whitman counties.…
Read MoreWheat industry leader is still a Pennsylvania farm kid at heart
Three months into his role as CEO of the National Association of Wheat Growers, Sam Kieffer finds it “exhilarating” to focus all his advocacy efforts on a single commodity. “It’s interesting and exciting to be able to dig deeper into wheat-specific challenges and provide more thorough explanations for a single commodity than I was doing…
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