Farming can be stressful at the best of times, so when Dale Childers, a semiretired, long-time Grant/Lincoln County farmer died in August, the local community sprang into action to help the family finish harvest. Ben McKay, a good friend of Dakota, Dale’s son, organized the harvest bee. At first, it…
For farmers in a pickle about pesticide labels, there’s online help available through Washington State University’s (WSU) Pesticide Information Center OnLine (PICOL). While PICOL has been around for more than 40 years, it has just recently been rebuilt and upgraded and is the only database in the country that can…
With the holiday season right around the corner, growers across the Palouse have an opportunity to make a life-changing gift. “Pullman Regional Hospital’s Gifts of Grain program is a great way for landlords and farmers to give back,” explained Wayne Druffel, farmer and president of the board of directors for…
Oct. 15 marked my six-month anniversary with the Washington Association of Wheat Growers (WAWG) team. Thank you to those growers that have reached out to me recently with recommendations of practices that I pass on to our state Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) team. There have been some fantastic recommendations,…
Raised on a farm homesteaded by his grandfather, Dan Blankenship had a typical wheat farm upbringing. His parents, Dwayne and Beulah Blankenship, had a large family with one daughter and five sons. The fifth of six children, Blankenship worked on the farm as a youth and was also “loaned out”…
Sitting down to write my last President’s Perspective, I suddenly realized how fast this year has gone by. When I took the role as president last November, I was a little overwhelmed to be in such an important leadership position for the wheat industry. There were many challenges we faced…
Our discussion topic is a review of a subject matter from January of 2018 — do landlords need crop insurance? I’ve made this comment previously and will again here: everyone has a different appetite for risk, varying circumstances cause each situation to be different. What risk(s) are present and, most…
The 2024 Tri-State Grain Growers Convention is quickly approaching, but there’s still time to take advantage of early bird registration and enjoy three days focused on the Pacific Northwest’s small grains industry. Staff from the Washington Association of Wheat Growers (WAWG), the Oregon Wheat Growers League, and the Idaho Grain…
One of the authors of the 2014 and 2018 farm bills will be on hand at the 2024 Tri-State Grain Growers Convention to give his perspective on ag policy in the coming year. Bart Fischer may still be heavily involved in the operation of his family’s wheat farm in Oklahoma,…
Derrick Josi, a 4th generation dairy farmer from Oregon who posts about farm life to thousands of followers across multiple social media platforms, doesn’t like being called an influencer. “I hate it,” he said. “I’m not trying to influence anything. I’m just showing the reality of dairy farming in my…
