Wheat Industry News
Recent news and highlights from around the U.S. wheat industry.
Speaking of Wheat.
“I don’t think anybody is expecting to see anything that is above average, for certain. Average would be ambitious. We’re probably looking at below-average overall. As an industry, agriculture has a huge ripple effect down the supply chain. You need to have a healthy agriculture industry to have a healthy economy overall. We’re resilient. I will say, it will be an extraordinarily tough year with what we have out there.” – Amanda Hoey, chief executive officer, Oregon Wheat Growers League and Oregon Wheat Commission. Read more about the record-breaking drought condition U.S. wheat farmers are facing here and here.
NAWG CEO Visits PNW to Discuss the Importance of the Columbia-Snake River System. This week, NAWG CEO Chandler Goule toured the dams and rivers that transport 40% of all U.S. wheat to markets overseas. Approximately 15 million metric tons (MMT) of wheat were transported on the Columbia-Snake River system in 2020, making it the nation’s single largest wheat export gateway. Goule joined several national and regional agricultural leaders to learn and join discussions about preserving the waters and how crucial they are to the success of U.S. wheat farmers. Read more about the visit here and here.
National Wheat Yield Contest for Spring Wheat. Registration for the spring wheat portion of the National Wheat Yield Contest is open. Spring wheat entries will be accepted until August 1. The contest offers U.S. wheat farmers the opportunity to compete with their peers across the United States and learn from each other’s innovative techniques to improve wheat productivity. Registration is available here.
From the Field: Farm Chat with Idaho Wheat. The Idaho Wheat Commission has taken its monthly webinar series “From the Field: Farm Chat with Idaho Wheat” and repurposed it for listening on the go. The webinars are now available as podcasts on Spotify and other preferred podcast platforms and YouTube. Join Idaho Wheat for conversations with Idaho wheat growers and experts on a wide range of topics related directly to production and profitability on the farm.
The Passing of Lajpat “Pat” R. Kandhari. USW received news today that our retired colleague Pat Kandhari has passed away in India. Pat was promoting U.S. wheat in India even before there was a Western Wheat Associates, already working as Assistant Director in a New Delhi office funded by Pacific Northwest state wheat organizations in April 1958. He continued in that position until he was named Director in 1974, six years before USW was formed. USW closed the Delhi office almost exactly 20 years ago, in June 2001, when Pat retired. We send our sincere condolences to Pat’s family and friends.
The late Lajpat “Pat” Kandhari, left, visited the USW office in Washington, D.C, in 2007. He is joined here (left to right) by USW Vice President of Finance Kevin McGarry, former Assistant to the Vice President of Marketing Programs Fleur Noeth, former Vice President of Marketing Programs Rick Callies, and former Vice President of Planning Jim Frahm.
U.S. Wheat Associates Publishes Commercial Sales every Thursday, documenting wheat export sales-to-date by country and class for the current marketing year compared to the previous marketing year on the same date. The report includes a 10-year commercial sales history by class and country. Data is sourced from the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service Weekly Export Sales Report. Read the latest report on the USW website.
Subscribe to USW Reports. USW publishes various 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.
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