Finding one’s career path can be difficult and circuitous. It certainly was that way for Bill Schillinger. His journey included 10 years of working in agricultural development around the world in Asia and Africa before landing the position that would define his lifetime of work. After 29 years of conducting…
How hard would it be to grow your wheat without applying fertilizer? You’d get a crop, but it probably wouldn’t be a great one, and with the rising cost of inputs, you’d be lucky to break even. Continue trying to raise a crop year after year without using fertilizer, and…
It’s usually the items inside a sack that are interesting, but a new exhibition at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture (MAC) is taking a look at what the sack itself has to say. Golden Harvest: Flour Sacks from the Permanent Collection will be on display through Oct. 30,…
At December’s 2021 Tri-State Grain Growers Convention, two break-out sessions tried to clear the air concerning carbon markets. Shelby Swain Myers, an economist from the American Farm Bureau, looked at the developing national carbon market programs, while Chad Kruger, director at the Washington State University (WSU) Center for Sustaining Agriculture…
At December’s 2021 Tri-State Grain Growers Convention, Shelby Swain Myers, an economist from the American Farm Bureau Federation, looked at the developing national carbon market. Her takeaway was that while there may be a financial opportunity for agriculture, there are still more questions than answers. According to Myers, agriculture is…
The financial bottom line will be a key element in any farm and ranch game plan in 2022 and beyond. While the past two years have been both financially and mentally challenging, managing through uncertainty has had a silver lining. Prices for many commodities increased dramatically prior to inflating costs,…
This month, Benton County wheat grower Nicole Berg will step in as president of the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG). Berg has a long history of advocacy for the wheat industry, especially in Washington state, where she served as president of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers (WAWG) in…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and Farm Service Agency (FSA), along with the Washington State Conservation Commission (WSCC), teamed up Feb. 10 and 11 to bring Eastern Washington wheat growers the latest incentive programs and Climate-Smart information available for, and supporting, their operations. More than…
Farmers in Washington state face an extra tax at death that most other farmers in the U.S. do not. That is a Washington state estate tax. Oregon also has this tax, along with about 15 other states, primarily in the Midwest or back East. Even California no longer has an…
Along with marketing information (see page 52), weed resistance was also discussed at one of last month’s Agricultural Marketing and Management Organization’s seminars. Weed scientist Drew Lyon, a professor in Washington State University’s Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, spoke to growers remotely on the latest developments in Harvest Weed…