General

couple smiling

Spokane’s ‘truck whisperer’

By Kevin Gaffney
For Wheat Life

What do you get when you put together more than 150 years of experience in truck sales, service and maintenance? You get Class 8 Trucks in Spokane, Wash. Owner Marc Lange grew up on a wheat and cattle ranch near Garfield in Whitman County. He had the background and experience…

couple smiling

A little about me…

By Howard McDonald
WAWG President

Since this is my first time writing as president of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers (WAWG), I thought I’d take a few minutes to introduce myself and my family. I’m the third generation on my family’s Douglas County dryland wheat farm, which was settled in the 1950s by my…

Mechanic by truck

Mobile mechanic specializes in farm, construction equipment

By Trista Crossley
Editor

Big Iron Repair owner Scott Carroll has shifted gears in his career nearly as many times as he’s rebuilt heavy equipment transmissions and engines. His journey began in the late 1970s on his father-in-law’s Eastern Washington farm. Carroll was born and raised in Ephrata, Wash. After high school, he found…

family by tree

My supportive family made service possible

By Ryan Poe
For Wheat Life

Well, as this is my last president’s column, I want to pause for a minute and thank a number of people and reflect on the past two years. When I became the current Washington Association of Wheat Growers (WAWG) president at our convention in late 2019, COVID-19 was a foreign…

kids playing in snow

Relationships key to being a successful landlord

By Trista Crossley
Editor

In an industry where keeping the family farm in the family is often paramount, Jan Abrams’ father, George M. Miller, gave her a gift. “My father made it clear that the farm is a business. He said, ‘I don’t want you, out of some sense of sentimentality, to hang onto…

looking at wheat at sunset

Is a family farm by any other name still a family farm?

By Trista Crossley
Editor

What is a family farm? Definitions vary, depending on the person answering, but one thing is for sure—it shouldn’t be based on the farm name. “I think most people don’t realize that every business they interact with on a daily basis is in a legal entity of some kind,” said…

Stacy

What’s better than one job? Four!

By Kevin Gaffney
For Wheat Life

When you meet Stacey Rasmussen, a few things quickly become clear. She is a true Type-A personality, she likes to keep busy, and she is quite adept at handling many tasks simultaneously. One of her mottoes is “why have one job when you can have four?” Raised on the family…

wheat field

To seed or not to (re)seed

By Ryan Poe
For Wheat Life

There is something very satisfying about finishing up a field during seeding. On the contrary, there is something very dreadful about rain falling on that just-finished field. It seems 2021 is the year that just keeps on giving. We are wrapping up reseeding all our winter wheat acres as I’m…