Posts by Trista Crossley
Harvest 2022
Every year, as June rolls into July, excitement starts to build across Eastern Washington for thousands of wheat farmers and their families who are stewards of more than 2 million acres of land. Nearly all of Washington’s wheat farms are family owned and operated, and they are often passed down from generation to generation with…
Read MoreDNR mapping potential solar farm sites
The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is in the final stages of mapping their Eastern Washington properties for potential solar farm development. Lessees who might be impacted have been notified by postcard. According to Dever Haffner-Ratliffe, DNR’s Clean Energy Program manager, the goal of the mapping project is to identify properties that are…
Read MoreUW faculty field tour
Teachers generally do the educating, but last month, a group of University of Washington (UW) faculty members found themselves on the other side of the desk when they visited Sen. Mark Schoesler’s Ritzville farm to learn about the Washington wheat industry. The visit was part of UW’s Faculty Field Tour and is open to faculty…
Read MoreWhere WAWG started
Nowadays, the Washington Association of Wheat Growers (WAWG) is the main organization dedicated to legislative advocacy for Washington wheat growers, but it wasn’t always that way. Fourteen years before growers first met under the WAWG banner, it was the Washington State Farm Bureau (WSFB) that was performing those duties. In February 1940, WSFB President Herbert…
Read MoreGrowing a new kind of crop
Have commodity farmers become so efficient that they’re hurting themselves and the rural communities that they live in? Finding ways to add value to a crop could bolster the bottom lines of both. “We are producing more than we ever have before, and we are doing it cheaper than we ever have, so food prices…
Read MoreGenerating a show of support
Last month during a tour through Eastern Washington that included a boat ride to Ice Harbor Dam and a tour of the facility, members of the Congressional Western Caucus learned about the energy infrastructure the lower Snake River dams provide and the measures the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has implemented to boost salmon survival.…
Read MoreThe case of the disappearing dollars
With wheat prices hovering north of $10 per bushel, wheat growers may look like they are doing pretty well, but appearances can be deceiving as rising production costs keep eating away at producers’ profits. According to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates, total U.S. production expenses increased 5.5 percent from 2021 to 2022, on top…
Read MoreWheat College recap
According to Peter Johnson, better agronomy is the key to unlocking a crop’s yield potential. Johnson, an agronomist from Ontario, Canada, was the featured speaker at the Agricultural Marketing and Management Organization’s (AMMO) 2022 Wheat College, held last month in Ritzville, Wash. More than 75 producers spent the morning learning about factors that impact yield…
Read MoreConnection with end users drives farming family
Down in the Horse Heaven Hills, Garrett Moon and his wife, Jessica, have begun selling small grains to regional flour mills and directly to consumers in an effort to look beyond the commodity market. “I think part of it was a little bit of curiosity to break outside of the commodity mold and see if…
Read MoreLandrace grains help diversify commodity farmer’s income
Neil Appel and his wife, Liz, have been growing commodity crops on their family’s Dusty, Wash., wheat farm for nearly two decades, but in the last couple of years, they’ve given over some of their acreage to raising landrace grains for Don Scheuerman at Palouse Heritage. Read more about Palouse Heritage. “That first year, I…
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