With the last administration’s push on climate-smart practices, a lot of attention has been focused on cover crops. But how do you implement a cover crop if your cash crop is winter wheat, and you don’t have many other rotation options? The answer, according to Jake Westlin, vice president of…
The Natural Resources Conservation Service in Washington (NRCS-WA) has begun to implement Conservation Harvest Management (NRCS Interim Conservation Practice Standard 809) to help increase sustainable agricultural practices in the wheat producer community. The conservation practice focuses on harvest or management techniques that optimize the amount, orientation, and distribution of plant…
On Nov. 7, the Natural Resources Conservation Services in Washington (NRCS-WA) implemented the Act Now policy. Through this program, NRCS-WA can quickly approve and obligate a ranked application in a designated ranking pool when an eligible application meets or exceeds a state-determined, minimum threshold ranking score. Applications are ranked according…
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,…
As a Whitman County native, I grew up spending countless hours helping around our family’s dryland wheat operation. From driving harvest truck, picking rye and rocks out of the field with my brother, and helping flag machinery when we moved from place to place, I was blessed to have had…
Following a months-long audit, the Washington State Farm Service Agency (FSA) office has announced that more than 500 Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) contracts in 21 counties may have been erroneously approved. Impacted producers were invited to join a call last month with FSA State Executive Director Jon Wyss to…
Nine farmers in the Hangman Creek Watershed are taking part in a pilot program that, if successful, has the potential to help solve a major water quality conundrum: installing riparian buffers without breaking producers’ bottom lines. The Hangman Creek Riparian Restoration and Conservation Program is funded by the Washington State…
Shelly Haas is one of the landowners signed up for the Hangman Creek Riparian Restoration and Conservation Program, but she and her husband, Jim, aren’t very happy about it. The program is funded by the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) and managed by the Spokane Conservation District. The program…
Cary Janson was one of the first farmers to sign up for the Hangman Creek Riparian Restoration and Conservation Program. The Janson farm runs between Latah and Tekoa, and quite a bit of their ground is along the creek. Janson said he didn’t have any reservations about giving up farming…
I have seen it work. As a graduate student, I researched cover crops in a California dryland wheat system, comparing a wheat-fallow system to one with a cover crop replacing fallow (McGuire et al., 1998). A wet winter allowed for successful wheat yields in both systems. However, research results suggest…
