For more than 40 years, the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) has been helping Eastern Washington growers address natural resource concerns. But lately, some growers in low rainfall zones have been feeling like their participation in CRP is more likely to break the bank than help keep the farm afloat. The…
Wheat Life reached out to Patrick Bell, the Farm Service Agency (FSA) state executive director, to ask him about growers’ concerns with the Conservation Reserve Program. These are the written answers Bell provided. As rental rates continue to decrease in Eastern Washington, CRP is becoming less attractive to growers. What…
Getting to experience Olympia Days and everything that it brought forth was an experience that was not only personally eye-opening, but also one that made me all the more proud to come from a community that champions agriculture. It was really rewarding to see how a group of farmers and…
The 2026 Agricultural Marketing and Management Organization’s (AMMO) Wheat College will be held June 2, in Colfax, Wash., at the Palouse Empire Fairgrounds. The keynote speaker will be Dennis Pennington, a wheat systems specialist at Michigan State University (MSU). His presentation is titled, “Stacking the Bushels: Small Decisions, Big Yield.”…
This month’s column, focusing on mental health in agriculture, is a bit of a challenge to tackle. It’s a crucial issue that we should all be mindful of, especially given the current state of the industry. It’s important for us to look after our own mental well-being and support our…
American farms and ranches, which now number under 2 million, are operating in an economic environment characterized by chaotic extremes. This creates both challenges and opportunities requiring a high level of management skill. Some operations are specialized single enterprises, such as grain, row crops, specialty crops, or large-scale livestock businesses….
The devil’s often found in the details, and one Lincoln County grower is shifting through a wheat field of data to find answers. Jesse Brunner, a fifth-generation farmer north of Almira, Wash., is going into his third year participating in the Great Lakes Yield Enhancement Network (YEN). The program, which…
Returning to her family’s Whitman County farm may not have been in the cards for Carrie Bellecourt, but she’s found a way to honor her background by sharing her wheat-growing knowledge with her first-grade classes. Bellecourt grew up in Steptoe, Wash., the daughter of Jim and Cathy White. Jim was…
When William Jasper Spillman began applying Mendel’s Laws of genetics and inheritance to wheat improvement in the 1890s, he set in motion a tradition of agricultural research that has defined Pacific Northwest farming ever since. By 1958, the industry’s needs — for new varieties, tools, practices, and education — had…
In February, wheat growers had the opportunity to learn some basic information about using options as part of their portfolio of risk management tools. The seminar was presented by Allison Thompson, a commodity broker and owner of The Money Farm, a commodity advisory service based in Minnesota. Thompson’s family owns…
