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Market Offers Soft Red Winter Buying Opportunity

By Claire Hutchins, USW Market Analyst

Soft red winter (SRW) export prices had been climbing steadily since the end of the 2019 harvest on reduced production, tight ending stocks and stable domestic and overseas demand. Then after Jan. 24, 2020, export basis and FOB prices dipped, offering an opportunity for SRW importers to lock in a lower price through the end of marketing year 2019/20.

From mid-July 2019 to mid-January 2020, SRW export basis rose 65 percent from $0.85 per bushel (/bu) to $1.40/bu, 33 percent higher than last year at this time and 47 percent higher than the 5-year average.

However, between Jan. 24 and Jan. 31, 2020, a dip in export demand pressured SRW export basis for the first time since early September. SRW export basis fell 7 percent to $1.30/bu, the lowest since early December 2019. Lower basis and softer futures prices also pressured SRW FOB values 4 percent between Jan. 24 and Jan. 31 from $262/MT to $251/MT.

Market watchers, including those at U.S. Wheat Associates (USW), believe this price decline is a good buying signal. They believe SRW export basis will remain high through the end of 2019/20 based on still tightening exportable supplies and stable demand from overseas customers. Members from the grain trade also believe SRW export basis will be higher than average through the 2020/21 harvest based on significantly reduced beginning stocks year-over-year and substantial reductions in SRW planted area in states tributary to the Mississippi River, where a significant amount of SRW is transported from the countryside to export facilities in the Gulf.

Specifically, farmers reduced SRW planted area for harvest in 2019 due to overly wet field fields in the fall of 2018 and unprofitable prices. SRW production fell 17 percent from last year to 6.50 million metric tons (MMT), the lowest since 2010/11. USDA expects SRW ending stocks at the end of 2019/20 to fall 49 percent to 2.88 MMT, the lowest in 10 years. USDA predicts SRW exports will total 2.72 MMT, in line with the 5-year average.

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USMCA Moving Closer to Reality

By Dalton Henry, USW Vice President of Policy

The U.S., Mexico, Canada Agreement (USMCA) is moving steadily, if somewhat slowly, to becoming an implemented trade treaty. Mexico’s government first ratified the agreement in June 2019. At the request of the U.S. House of Representatives, the agreement was revised and signed again by all three countries in December 2019, after which Mexico’s government voted to ratify the revised agreement.  President Trump signed the U.S. implementing language for the agreement in a widely attended ceremony on January 29, 2020. And now, ratification is being considered by Canada’s parliament, a process many trade watchers expect to run through March 2020 at least.

The latest step puts us a mere hop, skip and a jump from having a new trade agreement in place with two of the U.S. agriculture’s largest customers. Most importantly to wheat industry stakeholders, the new agreement moves us past the bold threats of withdrawal from NAFTA and fully protects access to U.S. wheat on a duty-free basis for Mexican customers, modernizes sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) provisions and removes the largest remaining barrier (eligibility for grades) for U.S. producers who want to sell wheat to Canadian elevators.

On that final point, USMCA assures that U.S. wheat sold in Canada is not automatically graded as feed. It is one of the more significant new provisions in the USMCA. President Trump specifically mentioned it in his remarks at the White House signing ceremony. Western Canadian wheat growers support it.

Under the agreement, U.S. farmers interested in taking wheat across the border will still have to verify that wheat is one of the varieties registered in Canada. But it is worth celebrating that farmers near the Canadian border will have additional local outlets for grain, potential market arbitrage opportunities and a basic fairness between growers on either side of the border. These grain grading changes will give Canada a reprieve from the threat of non-compliance with the WTO’s “national treatment” standard and forces legislative changes that the Canadian government had promised to make for the better part of a decade (but never actually put into place).

Necessary changes in domestic regulations across all three countries are still needed. Those changes will be followed by a 60-day monitoring period to verify the changes are being implemented. An exchange of letters between the three countries is the seal for the deal. Wheat growers and buyers in USMCA – the new NAFTA – are very much looking forward to that day.

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Celebrating Farmer Commitment and Global Partnerships in USW’s 40th Year

By Steve Mercer, USW Vice President of Communications

On January 12, 1980, wheat farmer leaders with Great Plains Wheat and Western Wheat Associates officially merged to become one organization, U.S. Wheat Associates (USW), to focus on building overseas demand for U.S. wheat.

To mark its 40-year anniversary in 2020, USW has launched an outreach effort to recognize and celebrate the people who produce the wheat and their enduring partnerships with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, wheat buyers and wheat food processors around the world.

This anniversary is a platform for us to reinforce our authentic story—that behind the world’s most reliable supply of wheat are the world’s most dependable people. That despite the different roles or distances, all of the people in our story share an unspoken connection through USW and through our shared values of growth, hard work and family.

So, throughout this year, in online media (#USWturns40), new marketing materials and face to face with overseas wheat buyers, we are going to talk about the legacy of commitment from farmers and the important partnerships that are a unique and valuable part of importing U.S. wheat.”

The primary component of the USW campaign is a new page on www.uswheat.org titled “Our Story.” The page includes historical background, and profiles of U.S. wheat farm families and overseas customers. USW also produced a new video that highlights the value created by the entire U.S. wheat export supply system and the service the USW organization offers to flour millers and wheat food processors around the world.

 

 

A significant element of the campaign will describe how previous generations of U.S. farm families organized, invested their time, talent and treasure and reached out to the federal government to build overseas markets for their wheat.

Many of the millers and food processors USW works with overseas are also family-owned and going through the same generational changes as U.S. farm families. That is one reason why we will emphasize past and present connections between our farmers and customers in those stories, through our Wheat Letter blog and in Facebook and Twitter posts.

USW is truly built around its partnerships at home and abroad.

Farmers represented by 17 state wheat commissions work closely with USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service through our organization to demonstrate the need for export market development support. Those organizations and the rest of the efficient U.S. supply chain share in the challenges and rewards of wheat trade. The campaign will also demonstrate how the world’s wheat buyers, millers and food processors view their partnership with our organization.

This legacy and those partnerships provide advantages USW believes no other wheat exporting country can provide. They help supply the highest quality wheat for almost every customer need. Pricing is set by market conditions and remains transparent to the buyers. U.S. wheat is backed by trusted third-party certification by the Federal Grain Inspection Service. USW representatives and technical service experts provide unmatched service before and after the sale. Together, these advantages build differential value for our customers.

In many ways, this story built and sustains the culture of the USW organization and it underpins what the U.S. wheat “brand” stands for in the world wheat marketplace.

USW invites U.S. wheat farmers, our state wheat commission members and our overseas customers to visit https://ourstory.uswheat.org/ often and to share their own stories as we continue to update content throughout 2020.

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Cheers to the Long and Beneficial Relationship with Japan

Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), its grain trade, flour millers and wheat food processors have developed a strong trust in the quality and consistency of U.S. wheat and the entire U.S. wheat supply system. It is a trust that has weathered many challenges, including concerns about U.S. wheat competitiveness under the multilateral CPTPP agreement. Working together, however, the partners played important parts in successful negotiations of the U.S.-Japan trade agreement that on Jan. 1, 2020, put effective U.S. wheat import tariffs back on equal footing with Canadian and Australian wheat.

To commemorate the successful conclusion of the trade negotiations, and to renew its connection with the U.S. wheat industry, MAFF recently brought a team of officials to Portland, Ore., to meet with state wheat commissions and the grain trade. Mr. Yusaku Hirakata, Director-General for Crop Production, in MAFF’s Crop Production Bureau headed the delegation. The Director of the Oregon Department of Agriculture Alexis Taylor, the Oregon Wheat Commission, Washington Grain Commission, Wheat Marketing Center and U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) welcomed the delegation at a reception held at the Wheat Marketing Center Jan. 23, 2020.

Mr. Yusaku Hirakata, MAFF, and Darren Padget, USW.

We want to share remarks and a toast to the MAFF delegation by USW Vice Chairman Darren Padget, a wheat farmer from Grass Valley, Ore.

“It is a great privilege and honor to welcome our friends from MAFF and other distinguished guests to this evening’s reception.

“I would like to first acknowledge the long relationship between the United States wheat industry and Japan that began in 1949 when the Oregon Wheat Growers League organized a trade delegation to your country. This relationship is a success story that is worthy of being repeated again and again. For me and other farmers, it has now spanned four generations. And my father, my son and I are proud to be part of this partnership today. 

“In September, USW Chairman Doug Goyings and I had the honor of being invited to attend the signing of the bilateral trade agreement between Japan and the United States in New Your City. It is a day that will remain in my memory forever. We had the opportunity to meet Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, a most gracious individual. The agreement he and President Trump signed that day will keep U.S. wheat on a level playing field with Australia and Canada…a result that all of us here have worked hard to help achieve.

“In 2020, our organization is celebrating its fortieth year operating as U.S. Wheat Associates. USW and its member farmers now look forward to forty more years serving the Japanese people.

“Thank you for the opportunity to address you as representatives of this crucial market. Now I toast to the continuation of our long trade relationship with Japan…Kanpai!”

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An Invitation to a Stronger Relationship with Mexico’s Milling and Wheat Foods Industries

By Vince Peterson, USW President

Today, I had the unique privilege to accept an invitation to the White House to represent U.S. wheat farmers, our state wheat commission members and U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) as President Donald Trump signs implementing legislation for the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) into U.S. law (that’s my viewpoint at the ceremony in the picture above).

While this invitation came addressed to me, it is only because I occupy a specific desk at USW with the consent of our U.S. farmer board of directors. I sincerely hope that everyone associated with our organization feels the same pride I do to witness this important national event because everyone put in a tremendous amount of work to help bring it about.

The trade agreement USMCA will replace (after Canada’s parliament approves it and implementing changes are made, as we are sure will happen) opened mutually beneficial trade between U.S. wheat farmers and Mexico’s flour millers and wheat food industry. Under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), USW focused on helping Mexico’s buyers, millers and food processors solve problems or increase their business opportunities with U.S. wheat classes—as it does with all U.S. wheat importing customers. This effort, supported by wheat farmers and the partnership with USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service, has fostered a productive relationship that has endured through many challenges.

So, when the Trump Administration announced in 2017 it intended to renegotiate NAFTA, USW quickly engaged in the process on many levels to advocate for continued duty-free wheat trade and other improvements in the agreement.

For example, I invited José Luis Fuente, President of the Mexican Millers Association (CANIMOLT), to address the USW board of directors meeting in October 2017. Sr. Fuente had been appointed as an advisor to the Mexican Minister of Agriculture in the negotiations. He made a passionate plea for USW to work together toward resolving the trade agreement as soon as possible. In addition, our former Vice President of Policy Ben Conner was granted status as an advisor to the U.S. Trade Representative and was one of only a few agricultural industry representatives who participated in side-briefings at almost all the official negotiating sessions. Vice President of Communications Steve Mercer, his team and our friends at the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) published an on-going series of press statements, social media posts, comments and fact sheets supporting our positions. As the U.S. Congress considered the agreement, NAWG’s staff and its dedicated farmer officers and directors continued to advocate for its passage.

Regional Vice President Mitch Skalicky and our staff in Mexico City steadfastly maintained contact with Sr. Fuente and our other customers. Then, last year at a USW marketing conference in Mexico, USW and Mexican millers renewed our agreement to work together toward approval of the USMCA. We also made it very clear that our commitment to serving their industries was among our most important goals.

“We have 14 farmers here representing 13 different state wheat commissions, and U.S. Wheat Associates staff from 3 offices here to show you that we take your business seriously,” Past Chairman Chris Kolstad told the millers. Those farmers, state commission members and USW, he added, “are all united in our desire to earn your full trust in the United States as your primary source of imported wheat.”

After I received the White House invitation to the USMCA signing ceremony, I forwarded a copy to Sr. Fuente with a note of thanks and congratulations to him and CANIMOLT members for their work and the collaborative effort toward a favorable agreement for each of us.

“We congratulate U.S. Wheat Associates on behalf of the Mexican millers for all of the collaborative work, negotiations, and achievements attained (in negotiating the new USMCA),” Sr. Fuente responded to Mitch Skalicky and me. “I am very happy and proud to have been part of the effort and above all to confirm the excellent relations and friendship that exists between the Mexican milling industry and the U.S wheat industry.”

That is a humbling and generous confirmation that our relationship stayed strong throughout the negotiations. USW will continue to work hard to make our partnership even stronger in the future.

José Luis Fuente, President of CANIMOLT, addresses the USW Mexican Wheat Trade Conference in June 2019.

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Wheat Industry News

Recent news and highlights from around the wheat industry.

Speaking of Wheat: “The last time that U.S. farmers planted so few acres with winter wheat, William Howard Taft was president and the opening salvos of World War I were still five years away.” – Ryan Dezember, Wall Street Journal Reporter, from his article Jan. 17, 2020.

USMCA Pact Moves to Pres. Trump. Senate Finance Committee chairman Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), as president pro tempore of the Senate, led a ceremony Jan. 22, 2020, to sign the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) Implementation Act. Grassley’s signing of the legislation is the final step before it goes to President Donald Trump for his signature within 10 days. Canada has still not ratified the measure, which its parliament must do before the agreement enters into force, which is expected to happen within the next two months.

Mid-Year U.S. Commercial Sales Update. As of Jan. 2, 2010, total U.S. export sales for marketing year 2019/20 (June to May) of 18.9 million metric tons (MMT) are 6 percent ahead of sales at the same time in 2018/19. Hard red winter (HRW) and durum sales are both significantly ahead of last year’s pace. USDA projects total 2019/20 exports will hit 26.5 MMT (973 million bushels) which, if realized, would be 4 percent greater than 2018/19 and 7 percent more than the 5-year average. USW believes the high quality and competitive pricing for select U.S. wheat classes and other factors support USDA’s estimate. Export sales to date are 71 percent of USDA’s total projected U.S. exports of 26.5 MMT. Commercial sales to 11 of the top 20 markets for U.S. wheat are ahead of last year. Read the latest Commercial Sales report here.

Farmers Follow the Wheat. Intermountain Farm & Ranch reported that group of Idaho wheat farmers and industry representatives visited Portland, Ore., recently on a tour designed to give them a better understanding of the region’s wheat industry and the importance of the Columbia-Snake River system. Portland is the third largest grain export gateway in the world and more than 50 percent of U.S. wheat that is exported travels through the port. Every January, the Idaho Wheat Commission takes two growers from each of five districts in Idaho, and a handful of industry representatives on similar tours. Photo above, Copyright Intermountain Farm & Ranch. Read more online.

Condolences. U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) was sad to receive the news of Mr. Poyen Policarpio’s passing on Jan. 12, 2020. Mr. Policarpio for many years led Pure Foods and, through its acquisition, served as President of San Miguel Flour Milling in the Philippines. Always with a smile and warm, friendly outlook, Mr. Policarpio was a good friend to USW and our extended U.S. wheat family. We offer our sincere sympathy to the Policarpio family and to his many friends and colleagues.

In 2012 at an event in Manila celebrating USW’s 50 years with an office in the Philippines, Mr. Poyen Policarpio of San Miguel Flour Mills accepted this recognition from USW and U.S. wheat farmers.

Subscribe to USW Reports. USW publishes a variety of reports and content that are available to subscribe to, including a bi-weekly newsletter highlighting recent Wheat Letter blog posts, the weekly Price Report and the weekly Harvest Report (available May to October). Subscribe here.

Follow USW Online. Visit our page at https://www.facebook.com/uswheat for the latest updates, photos and discussions of what is going on in the world of wheat. Also, find breaking news on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/uswheatassoc and video stories at https://www.youtube.com/uswheatassociates.

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ATP Funding Supports Technical Service and Staff Training in South Asian Markets

The Agricultural Trade Promotion (ATP), administered by USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service, is intended to help U.S. agricultural exporters develop new markets and help mitigate the adverse effects of other countries’ tariff and non-tariff barriers. One of the ways U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) is applying ATP funds is to expand its ability to conduct technical support to wheat buyers and end users in rapidly growing South Asian markets.

USW has had a long-term effort to help customers improve their products and processes through technical support because inexperience in developing market milling and food production sectors can be a constraint to demand for U.S. wheat. In the highly sophisticated wheat food industries in Japan, Korea and other countries, USW’s long-term investment has benefited customers and consumers while establishing strong and consistent export markets for U.S. wheat producers.

USW Baking Consultant Adrian Redondo

In such markets as the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand, the imported wheat customer base is expanding, and USW saw a need to increase its technical capabilities to match the growth. At the same time, USW knew that would require additional technical staff and needed to prepare for natural transitions for some senior technical experts.

The addition of ATP funding gave USW the opportunity to add a new Bakery Technician position to work with customers across the South Asian region. Mr. Adrian Redondo, an experienced food technologist and account manager, joined USW in June 2019. He is training with his experienced colleagues and building customer contacts through 2021 when the senior USW bakery consultant based in the Philippines plans to retire. Without additional ATP funding, USW would have had to fund a new technician position from a more limited pool of resources that would, in effect, cut its ability to fund customer activities.

South Asian imports of U.S. hard red spring (HRS), soft white (SW) and hard red winter (HRW) wheat from family farms in the Pacific Northwest to the Northern Plains have grown from an average of about 3.0 million metric tons (MMT) per year 10 years ago to about 5.0 MMT in 2018/19. Future demand for wheat foods is expected to keep growing in the region.

ATP funding provides a wide range of additional opportunities to continue differentiating U.S. wheat in markets like those in South Asia, with no local wheat production and where increasing incomes and urbanization are driving a rapid expansion of wheat food demand.

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Income Potential and Weather Fight Against Winter Wheat Seeding for 2020

By Claire Hutchins, USW Market Analyst

With winter wheat prices remaining at or less than the cost of production and with a very wet planting season, it is no surprise that many U.S. farmers chose to plant slightly less winter wheat for harvest in 2020. USDA’s 2020/21 Winter Wheat Seedings report, released Jan. 10, reported U.S. farmers planted 30.8 million acres (12.5 million hectares) of winter wheat, down slightly from 2019/20 and 7% less than the 5-year average of 33.2 million acres (13.4 million hectares). Decreases for HRW and white winter wheat more than offset an increase in SRW planted area. USDA noted that this is the second smallest number of winter wheat acres on record.

Hard red winter (HRW). USDA assessed HRW planted area at 21.8 million acres (9.35 million hectares), down 1% from 2018. Planted acreage is down year-over-year in several major HRW-producing states with the largest decreases reported in Colorado, Montana and Nebraska. Colorado planted area fell 12% year-over-year to 1.90 million acres due to extreme dryness in the southeast, depressed commodity prices and pest pressure in the northeast. Record low planted area of 900,000 acres (364,000 hectares) in Nebraska can be attributed to weaker marketing conditions and an overly wet, late soybean harvest which prevented fall HRW planting.

“This didn’t just happen overnight,” says Royce Schaneman, executive director of the Nebraska Wheat Board. “State-wide plantings have been trending down for a number of years due to poor marketing conditions.”

HRW planted area in Kansas and Oklahoma is stable year-over-year at 6.90 million acres (2.79 million hectares) and 4.20 million acres (1.7 million hectares), respectively.

Total winter wheat planted area in Texas jumped 9% year-over-year to 4.90 million acres (1.94 million hectares). About 95% of Texas winter wheat is HRW and 5% is SRW.

“Adequate soil moisture in many regions, combined with favorable marketing conditions compared to cotton, allowed producers to maximize HRW acres,” says Darby Campsey, director of communications and producer relations for the Texas Wheat Producers Board.

In South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming, a very wet fall also prevented more HRW seeding, although these states usually plant a relatively small percentage of total U.S. HRW.

Soft red winter (SRW). Total SRW planted area of 5.64 million acres (2.28 million hectares) increased 8% from 2018. Increases in most SRW-producing states more than offset decreases in Delaware, Illinois Indiana, Michigan, Missouri and Wisconsin.

According to Tadd Nicholson, executive director of the Ohio Corn and Wheat Growers Association, the state’s SRW planted area increased 12% over last year to 560,000 acres (227,000 hectares) due to ideal, timely planting conditions following a miserably wet spring which left many corn and soybean acres unplanted.

In Illinois, SRW planted area fell 25% from last year to 490,000 acres (198,000 hectares).

“It was one of the craziest years for weather in Illinois,” says Mike Doherty, interim executive director of the Illinois Wheat Association “It was the third wettest year on record and most of the precipitation fell in the first eight months. Farmers were beside themselves trying to manage other crops through the wet weather. Across the state, corn and soybeans were harvested 30 to 60 days late. You just can’t plant winter wheat if you can’t get the other crops out of the ground.”

There is also SRW grown in areas of Texas and Campsey reports that “strong marketing opportunities and better, dryer planting conditions for SRW compared to last year’s overly wet field conditions led to a significant increase in SRW acreage year-over-year.”

White winter wheat. White winter wheat planted area fell to an estimated 3.37 million acres (1.36 million hectares), down 4% from 2018. White winter wheat planted area in Idaho, Oregon and Washington fell below last year. Idaho farmers reported planting 720,000 acres (291,000 hectares) compared to 730,000 acres (295,000 hectares) in 2018. Planted area in Oregon fell 5% from last year to 700,000 acres (283,000 hectares). Washington planted area fell slightly less than 2018 to 1.70 million acres (688,000 hectares).

Durum. Winter durum planting in the southwestern United States is estimated at 70,000 acres (28,300 hectares), up 9% from 2018 but 41% less than 2017. Arizona and California plant Desert Durum® from December through January for harvest May through July.

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Cereal Chemistry Training in Emerging Wheat Markets Features SRC Analysis

U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) is applying Agricultural Trade Promotion (ATP) program funding to hold “Cereal Chemistry Seminars” in 2020 for the milling industries across several countries that are growing in sophistication to meet expanding demand for wheat foods. USW believes that with a more complete understanding of the functional value of wheat proteins, carbohydrates and other properties, flour milling quality control managers will have additional information with which to evaluate the high-quality characteristics of U.S. wheat compared to competing supplies.

To provide the knowledge that will help these managers fully understand the end-use value of U.S. wheat supplies, USW has developed a comprehensive seminar that will be conducted over the next two years in several markets. One of the topics to be covered in the seminars is Solvent Retention Capacity (SRC) analysis of flour (photo above Copyright © Chopin Technologies).

USW believes that the evidence is strong supporting SRC as the most effective method for evaluating the true performance characteristics in flour for biscuits (cookies), crackers and cakes, as well as many hard wheat flour applications, is testing for. The SRC Method was created by scientists to identity the important components of wheat flour that affect end-product cost and productivity for cookie and cracker manufacturing. SRC testing reveals that U.S. wheat has strong “character.” In other words, it functions effectively and produces desirable end-products without heavy additive manipulation.

In a brief video, Bongil (Bon) Lee, operations manager with the Wheat Marketing Center in Portland, Ore., describes the basic functions of SRC flour analysis. Click here to view the video.

USW anticipates that after the seminars, participants will have enhanced skills, like being able to use SRC analysis, to assist co-workers, suppliers and customers in developing new formulations requiring more specific flours and increased volumes of U.S. wheat classes. Participants will gain expertise in flour analysis and the importance of specifications required in large production bakeries. And quality control staff will have enough technical capabilities to defend the functional value of high-quality flour from U.S. wheat.

By funding opportunities like Cereal Chemistry Seminars, ATP, an export market development program administered by USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service, is helping USW continue to give flour milling and baking managers the information they need to meet demanding consumer needs in their local markets while building a preference for U.S. wheat supplies.

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Wheat Industry News

Recent news and highlights from around the wheat industry.

Speaking of Wheat: “Over the last five years or so, U.S. wheat producers have shouldered many challenges and continued to produce the highest quality, most wholesome milling wheat in the world, as they have done for decades. We do not yet know if positive shifts in market and trade factors will provide the economic boost they need. But in that hope, our team at USW will be watching how they affect the markets – and how that will affect our overseas customers.” – Vince Peterson, President, U.S. Wheat Associates.

From Wheat Fields to Trade Deals. On Dec. 26, 2019, Ohio Farmer magazine profiled USW Chairman Doug Goyings. Here is the opening of the story: When something needs doing, Doug Goyings isn’t the type to pass a job off to someone else. When he needed fields drained, he figured out how to mount a trencher on a tractor and started installing drain tile. When his house needed to be rewired, he rewired it. When a windstorm wrecked his grain legs and bins, he and his family rebuilt them. And, when wheat buyers around the world need a little encouragement to buy U.S. wheat, Goyings gets on an airplane, flies off to meet with potential buyers and tells them about his farm, his family and the superior quality of U.S. wheat. “They all like to know it comes from a family farm,” he says. “Around the world, it’s that way.” Read the entire article here.

Congratulations to Cassidy Marn. The Montana Department of Agriculture has selected Cassidy Marn as the new bureau chief for the Montana Wheat and Barley Committee (MWBC), which is a long-standing state wheat commission member of USW. Cassidy has served as MWBC’s Trade and Marketing Manager since 2010 and has developed many important relationships with USW staff and overseas wheat buyers.

USW Welcomes New CEO at Oregon Wheat Commission. The Oregon Wheat Commission (OWC) and Oregon Wheat Growers League (OWGL) have selected Amanda Hoey as chief executive officer of both organizations. She replaces Blake Rowe who plans to retire soon. OWC is a long-standing state wheat commission member of USW. Amanda comes to the new position after serving as executive director of the Mid-Columbia Economic Development District. She grew up on a dryland wheat farm in Wasco County, Ore.

Who’s Who in Private Wheat Breeding. Successful Farming magazine recently posted an article on its agriculture.com website that profiles the technology companies that are breeding wheat seed for commercial sales in the United States. Much of the certified wheat seed in this country are “public varieties,” financed by farmers through checkoff funds administered by state wheat commissions and bred at land grant universities. The Successful Farming article asserts that private companies, for the most part, still believe that wheat is a viable cropping option for U.S. farmers. Read the entire article here.

NCI Pasta Production and Technology Course. This course at the Northern Crops Institute April 28 to 30, 2020, introduces participants to the fundamental and applied aspects of pasta production and quality through lectures, demonstrations and hands-on processing. Grain and ingredient quality, specifications and processing variables and their impact on final pasta product quality are presented in detail. The course focuses primarily on traditional dry durum-based pasta; however, non-traditional ingredients and fresh pasta are also covered through lectures and demonstrations. Read more and register for the course here.

IGP Grain Procurement and Purchasing Course. Two sections of the IGP-KSU grain procurement and purchasing course will be offered to enhance grain industry professionals’ ability to purchase U.S. grains and commodities with greater effectiveness. The basic course will be held April 20 to 24, 2020, and the advanced course will be offered April 28 to May 2. Participants have the option of attending a supply chain field trip April 24 to 27 and may take both sections of the course concurrently. Read more and register for the courses here.

Subscribe to USW Reports. USW publishes a variety of reports and content that are available to subscribe to, including a bi-weekly newsletter highlighting recent Wheat Letter blog posts, the weekly Price Report and the weekly Harvest Report (available May to October). Subscribe here.

Follow USW Online. Visit our page at https://www.facebook.com/uswheat for the latest updates, photos and discussions of what is going on in the world of wheat. Also, find breaking news on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/uswheatassoc and video stories at https://www.youtube.com/uswheatassociates.

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