“One person can make a difference,” exemplifies Walt Neff’s philosophy on determination to accomplish goals. The Neff family has a saying that accentuates what can be achieved by one determined person: “If you don’t think one individual can make a difference, you’ve never been in bed with a mosquito!” It’s…
The title of this article is one of those catch phrases that you may have heard over the years. It relays the fact that to make money trading commodities, you will make money as long as your trades align with the trend: selling short in a downtrend and being long…
As I sit in the tractor cab writing this column, the hum of the air drill in the background, I can’t help but reflect on the season we just wrapped up. Harvest is done, and the grain is in the bin. On our farm, it turned out to be an…
The intent of this article is to illustrate my opinions on how an LLC (a Limited Liability Company) can be utilized to accomplish leveraging valuations of assets through the concept of discounting. An example to start Let’s start with an example. Assume a husband and wife (H/W), a farm family…
In late June, Columbia-Snake River System stakeholders hosted a tour of the Pacific Northwest’s premier waterway for members of the Upper Mississippi Waterway Association (UMWA). The tour began in Astoria, Ore., and concluded in Lewiston, Idaho, and comes a year after a similar trip down the Mississippi River by many…
Understanding where our food comes from is something every person should know — and something every child should be taught. That’s the heart of the mission behind Washington Ag in the Classroom (WAIC), a program I’m honored to be a part of. My name is Alisha Klein, and I serve…
I was asked if I would write an article explaining the basis relationship between soft white wheat (SWH) and CBOT wheat futures, so here we go! I felt that this relationship could be best explained if I compared/contrasted the hard red winter wheat (HRW) KCBOT basis relationship with the SWH…
Washington’s thriving wheat industry relies heavily on a critical, often unseen, transportation artery: the Columbia-Snake River System. This “river highway” is the backbone of the state’s agricultural export system, efficiently moving millions of bushels of wheat from inland grain elevators to ocean ports at Vancouver, Portland, and beyond. The efficiency…
For Doug Bruce, drones seem like the perfect complement to his existing businesses; besides growing wheat, bluegrass, lentils, barley, oats, and a bit of alfalfa on his family’s farm near Farmington, Wash., he also sells ag chemicals through a local branch of the Hefty Seed Company. Drones flew onto Bruce’s…
An offhand comment about a crop insurance sales closing date during the January board meeting of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers (WAWG) sent Ben Thiel on a quest to see if he could streamline a crop insurance deadline to help growers for the 2026 crop year. Thanks to a…
