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…
On Sept. 30, the most recent farm bill, passed in 2018, will expire. This means we are, once again, facing a critical deadline. If you’ve been paying attention to how Congress handles the farm bill, you know we’ve been limping along on a series of extensions. A new bill should…
The inspiration for this article occurred on the convention floor of the recent Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting. This was a historical event as the CEO, Warren Buffett, announced his retirement. In his four hours of questions, answers, and profound thoughts, he mentioned managing a business in an unsettling type of…
