Download - Wheat Life

W 

L 

HEAT IFE 

The official publication of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers 

JANUARY 2012 

A well-dealt hand 

The 2012 Legislative playbook 

Scott Barr 

Farming and politics meet in one 

extraordinary man 

Beyond a 10-day forecast 

Art Douglas’ 2012 weather 

predictions 

Washington Association of Wheat Growers 

109 East First Avenue, Ritzville, WA 99169 

Address Service Requested

W 

WAWG MEMBERSHIP 

(509) 659-0610 • 800-598-6890 

$125 per year 

EDITOR 

Kara Rowe • kararowe@wawg.org 

(509) 456-2481 

ART DIRECTOR 

Trista Crossley 

AD SALES MANAGER 

Kevin Gaffney • KevinGaffney@mac.com 

(509) 235-2715 

GRAPHIC DESIGN 

Devin Taylor • Trista Crossley 

AD BILLING 

Michelle Hennings • michelle@wawg.org 

(509) 659-0610 • 800-598-6890 

CIRCULATION 

Address changes, extra copies, subscriptions 

Chauna Carlson • frontdesk@wawg.org 

(509) 659-0610 • 800-598-6890 

Subscriptions are $50 per year 

WAWG EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 

PRESIDENT 

Eric Maier • Ritzville 

VICE-PRESIDENT 

Ryan Kregger • Touchet 

PRESIDENT EMERITUS 

Ben Barstow • Palouse 

APPOINTED MEMBERS 

Brad Isaak • Coulee City 

JP Kent • Walla Walla 

Dan McKinley • Dayton 

L 

HEAT IFE 

Volume 55 • Number 1 

www.wheatlife.org 

The official publication of 

WASHINGTON 

ASSOCIATION OF 

WHEAT GROWERS 

109 East First Avenue 

Ritzville, WA 99169-2394 

(509) 659-0610 • 800-598-6890 

In association with: 

www.washingtongrainalliance.com 

Wheat Life (ISSN 0043-4701) is published by the 

Washington Association of Wheat Growers (WAWG): 

109 E. First Avenue • Ritzville, WA 99169-2394 

Eleven issues per year with a combined August/ 

September issue. Standard (A) postage paid at 

Ritzville, Wash., and additional entry offices. 

Contents of this publication may not be reprinted 

without permission. 

Advertising in Wheat Life does not indicate 

endorsement of an organization, product or political 

candidate by WAWG. 

President’s Perspective 

Concerning the budget crisis 

By Eric Maier 

Having been over in Olympia numerous times in the 

past, it was interesting to be on campus and experience 

the intensity of the recent protests employed by Occupy 

Olympia and the different labor groups. Through their 

protests and passion for a cause, they have been able to 

disrupt the fluidity of our state’s capital. With the state’s 

current budget situation, it is truly going to become very 

interesting to see how the current budget debate evolves and just how agriculture 

and wheat as economic drivers in Washington State will be affected. 

Before they reconvene regular session this month, lawmakers in Olympia 

worked throughout December toward managing an anticipatory reduction in 

the state’s $1.4 billion shortfall, with $400 million in preliminary budget cuts. The 

expected outcome by lawmakers is a $2 billion cut in budget to remedy the loss of 

$1.4 billion dollars, while allowing for a $600 million dollar buffer. Along with the 

assistance of Governor Christine Gregoire, the state has proposed a bevy of cuts, 

fund transfers and delayed state program payments. The implications of these 

cuts will be felt throughout Washington with, perhaps, a shortening of the school 

year by four days, the elimination of some social programs and early release of 

prisoners. 

To offset the effect of the cuts, Gregoire has proposed that voters approve a temporary 

bill that will increase sales tax statewide to allow for relief from the deficits. 

The increase will be a half of a cent added to the current tax rate and would sunset 

in three to four years. Agricultural groups have ultimately agreed to remain open 

to the idea of Gregoire’s tax increase proposal, provided the executive and legislative 

branches still uphold and require an honest and focused budget. They would 

like it to be based upon the core functions of state government—which would 

include finding every savings and efficiency that can be found—before any new 

revenue options would be entertained. 

Agricultural research at Washington State University, the B&O tax proposal 

and agriculture’s current tax exemptions are still on the table for discussion as 

well. The Washington Association of Wheat Growers’ leadership will continue to 

monitor these issues of concern. WAWG and other agricultural commodity groups 

are advocating and working towards maintaining your current tax exemptions, 

maintaining research programs implemented by WSU and holistically minimizing 

the anticipated effects of the budget crisis to ensure the success of our industry. 

In order for these enacted efforts to come to fruition, all WAWG members, 

family farmers and those affiliated with Washington wheat should to be prepared 

to become advocates for the industry. 

Cover photo: While on a tugboat ride on the Willamette River, the 2011 Wheat Export and Quality Workshop 

tour group got a bird’s eye view of their wheat coming and going through the CLD terminal. In the 

foreground, a barge unloads its cargo of wheat. In the background, the ocean-going vessel, Wadi Alkarnak 

out of Alexandria, is in the process of loading wheat. For more pictures of the tour, see pages 32-33. 

2 WHEAT LIFE JANUARY 2012

WAWG President’s Perspective 2 

WAWG at Work 4 

Policy Matters 12 

2012 Legislative Playbook 

Playing with a smart hand in both Washingtons 20 

Fluctuations in fertilizer prices 

If a butterfly flaps its wings in China . . . 28 

Wheat, coming and going 

The 2011 Wheat Export Tour/Quality Workshop 32 

Profile 

Scott Barr, farmer, statesman, philanthropist 34 

WGC Chairman’s Column 41 

WGC Review 42 

Whither the weather 

Art Douglas’ forecast through August 2012 46 

Don’t leave home without it 

Smart phones are quickly becoming 

a standard piece of farming equipment 

50 

FSA services hit by budget woes 

Planning for cutbacks in staff, shortened hours 54 

Nitrogen requirements for protein 

Worksheet will help with calculations 55 

Messing with our numbers 

Major changes may be coming to NASS 58 

WGC Wide World of Wheat 60 

Old-time advertising 

Colorful cards document early advances 

in agricultural equipment 

62 

A roof-raising good time 

A “how to” on using heritage barn grants 68 

Your Wheat Life 72 

Advertiser’s Index 74 

Contributors 

Eric Maier, president, Washington Association of Wheat Growers 

Tom Zwainz, chairman, Washington Grain Commission 

Scott A. Yates, communications director, Washington Grain 

Commission 

Kevin Gaffney, ad sales manager, Wheat Life 

Inside This Issue 

Rich Koenig, chairman, WSU Department of Crop and Soil Science 

Hope Bellie Tinney, Washington State University 

Norman Reed, historian 

Heidi Scott, writer, Spokane, Wash. 

WHEAT LIFE JANUARY 2012 3

WAWG 

at 

work 

Wheat farmers oppose 

Occupy’s port shutdown 

Occupy came. Occupy went. But, they went with 

more negative headlines than they probably expected. 

In an attempt to show solidarity for worker 

rights and a plight against the wealth of America, the 

Occupy movement showed up at West Coast ports in 

mid-December with the idea of shutting off all trade 

from the Pacific for a day. In their attempt to have 

a negative effect on trade and, subsequently, Wall 

Street, they managed to infuriate the workers they 

claim to represent. Longshoremen refused to join the 

protest. 

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Port of 

Oakland officials said disruptions caused by protesters 

likely cost businesses, workers and the surrounding 

community millions of dollars. Officials estimate 

the port generates around $8.5 million per day in 

business revenue, wages, taxes and other economic 

activity. 

Closer to home, between 60 and 80 union workers 

were not paid due to port shutdowns orchestrated 

by the Occupy Seattle movement, a union leader told 

seattlepi.com. 

In Portland, the Oregonian editorial board wrote 

that if nothing else, the port protests demonstrated 

Oregon’s deep reliance on trade. “As the picketers 

meandered from one terminal to the next, they took 

a day’s pay away from almost 400 International 

Longshore and Warehouse Union workers who were 

told to avoid the protests and stay home. It’s doubtful 

that large exporters and ship-owning companies 

such as Goldman Sachs were affected in any way by 

the protest—but hundreds of Oregon families took a 

holiday hit to their paychecks.” 

A barge unloads its cargo of wheat at the Columbia Grain export terminal in Portland, 

Ore. Billions of dollars worth of agricultural products are shipped through 

Pacific Northwest ports every year. 

Representing thousands of wheat farmers in the state, the 

Washington Grain Alliance took a firm stand against the protesting 

that shut down the West Coast ports last month. 

“We need everyone to work together in order to keep grain 

moving to our customers,” said WAWG President Eric Maier. 

“Thousands of jobs on both sides of the state rely on our wheat, 

including the export facility workers who oversee the ports, the 

workers who load the ships, the river and bar pilots who guide 

the ships...the list is long. They need us, and we need them.” 

In the organization’s resolutions, WAWG opposes any mea- 


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WAWG AT WORK 

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sures that interfere with the international 

shipment of grain. WAWG 

also opposes the withholding of 

food as leverage to achieve political 

objectives. 

“Trade is vital not only to wheat, 

as we export about 80 percent of our 

crop, but to the rest of agriculture in 

the state as well,” said Maier. Nearly 

$13 billion in food and agricultural 

products were exported through 

Washington ports in 2010, the third 

largest total in the U.S. 

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WAWG presses 

for fairness in 

state budget fix 

In December, Governor 

Gregoire sat down with 

Washington agriculture sectors 

to hear ideas and to discuss 

a compromise to fix the financial 

stability of the state. 

The Governor acknowledged 

that agriculture is vital to the 

state’s economy. The $40-billion 

food and agriculture industry 

employs approximately 160,000 

people and contributes 12 percent 

to the state’s economy. In 

fact, Yakima, Grant and Benton 

counties are traditionally the 

largest ag producing areas in 

the state. The wheat industry 

alone generated nearly $1 billion 

in production value in 2010. 

While each group represented 

their own interests, they 

were united on opposing the 

removal of ag’s tax exemptions. 

They agreed that any solution 

to the state budget crisis must 

be fair across all industries and 

citizens. 


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DC agenda set 

Washington’s wheat leader team is primed and ready to hit the Hill in 

Washington, D.C., later this month. The officer team and staff plan to advocate 

for farmers with Washington’s 11 Congressional delegates and their 

staff (see page 20 for more information). The highest priority is to preserve 

a baseline for a safety net for our family farmers in the new 2012 Farm 

Bill. Transportation issues, foreign market access, pesticide regulation and 

agricultural research funding also top the priority list. 

The team also plans to join forces with leaders from Idaho and Oregon 

to meet with various federal agency staff including Chief Dave White 

of the Natural Resources Conservation Service, NOAA Administrator 

Jane Lubchenco and administrators from the Environmental Protection 

Agency, Farm Service Agency, Agricultural Research Service and Risk 

Management Agency. 

“By joining forces with our friends in Idaho and Oregon, we are truly 

utilizing the tri-state effort to its fullest capacity,” said WAWG National 

Legislative Chair Brett Blankenship. “Our goal is to unite on topics and 

concerns we have in common. Together, we can make more of an impact 

than by ourselves.” 

Leaders will also attend the joint winter conference for both the National 

Association of Wheat Growers and U.S. Wheat Associates while in the 

capitol. 

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The Washington Wheat Foundation building was again full with more than 50 farmers from Adams, 

Franklin and Walla Walla counties interested in learning more about the new deep furrow drill. 

Research on the drill is being conducted by the WSU Dryland Research Station at Lind, led by WSU 

Research Agronomist Bill Schillinger. The new drill is seen as phase two of the original undercutter 

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new drill will allow farmers to plant seeds deep, even through the high residue left by the undercutter. 


WL 

WAWG AT WORK 

Mark your calender 

The Risk Management Agency 

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spring sales closing dates for the 

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programs, the Adjusted Gross 

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especially which crops to insure and 

which level and type of coverage to 

obtain, prior to the sales closing date. 

Note: Billing dates for federal crop insurance 

policies were changed effective for 

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POLICY MATTERS 

Agriculture 

vs. football 

Not really. But, with the recent 

signing of Mike Leach as the 

new WSU head football coach 

for $2 million annually while 

students pay higher tuition 

costs and programs like agriculture 

continue to battle funding 

cuts, many have 

wondered what’s 

going on. No, 

the WSU Athletic 

Department is not 

stealing money 

from the university’s 

general fund to 

pay for Leach. No, the college of 

ag is not hurting worse because 

of the new hire. In fact, the 

two don’t have anything to do 

with each other from a budget 

standpoint. It seems the “education” 

side of WSU has nothing 

to do with the “athletics” side. 

Specifically, WAWG will still 

be pounding the pavement in 

defense of WSU ag research 

funding in both Olympia and 

Washington, D.C., regardless of 

the new windfall in athletics. 

WSU is able to afford Leach 

because of a recent $3 billion 

PAC-12 television deal with Fox 

and ESPN. Because of equal revenue 

sharing, each of the PAC-12 

schools will eventually reap 

more than $20 million annually 

from the 12-year contract. 

As for the struggling backbone 

of education and research 

at WSU, as years progress, it 

may improve because of the 

Leach hire. Donor funds to 

WSU says NO to further cuts 

By Hope Bellie Tinney 

WSU News 

Washington State University administrators have not started working on a 

plan to make additional cuts to the WSU operating budget, said WSU Provost 

and Executive Vice President Warwick Bayly, because the 17 percent cut on the 

table is untenable. 

Bayly spoke with WSU’s Administrative Professional Advisory Council 

(APAC) in December, discussing a wide range of topics including shrinking 

budgets, increasing enrollment, differential tuition and the importance of athletics. 

But much of the discussion focused on the budget. 

In November, Governor Christine Gregoire proposed that the state’s four-year 

institutions take a 17 percent cut in the upcoming biennium budget as part of 

a plan to deal with a $2 billion shortfall. At WSU, where the operating budget 

already has fallen from $530 million to $260 million in the last four years, a 17 

percent cut would put WSU’s operating budget at $220 million. 

“The only thing we’ve said is that the governor’s proposal is unacceptable,” 

Bayly said. The governor called the Legislature into special session in November 

in the hope that it would pass the $2 billion in budget cuts before the holidays, 

but legislators were unable to accomplish the task. 

Bayly and WSU President Elson S. Floyd had both been scheduled to meet 

with APAC, but, Bayly said, the president had been called to Olympia by the 

governor. 

When asked if WSU’s stance—refusing to plan for a 17 percent cut—would 

exacerbate the difficulty of cuts later on, Bayly said the problem with creating a 

plan is that as soon as you do, the Legislature can decide the plan is a workable 

one, even if it isn’t. 

“We don’t have a plan because this (current proposal) doesn’t warrant a plan,” 

he said. 

Previous budget cuts have resulted in 570 positions lost, he said, out of a total 

workforce of more than 6,000 employees. Every job lost is devastating to the 

person who lost it, he said, but WSU has managed to limit job loss to about 10 

percent of the total workforce, even while the operating budget has dropped 50 

percent. 

“Can we continue doing that” he asked. “I don’t know; I don’t know.” 

As part of her budget proposal, the governor also has proposed a temporary 

half-cent sales tax that would bring in nearly $500 million in fiscal year 2013 and 

would expire in 2015. If approved, much of that money would be used to restore 

education funding. 

According to a story in a December Spokesman Review newspaper, Gregoire 

told reporters that she does not believe legislators will ask voters to approve the 

sales tax. 


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the university have substantially increased. According 

to KING 5 television out of Seattle, the WSU Foundation 

has seen a huge bump since the hiring. “It’s been a great 

windfall for the foundation for immediate gifts,” WSU 

Vice President for University Development Gil Picciotto 

told KING 5. He claimed the WSU Foundation took in 

more than $300,000 in less than a week after Leach’s hire 

was announced. The school also sold more than $200,000 

in season tickets within days, meaning Leach’s hiring 

prompted more than a half million dollars in revenue in 

the first week of his hire. 

Ag committee leaders talk 

timelines for 2012 Farm Bill 

From NAWG 

Agriculture leaders in Congress began opening up 

about their plans for the 2012 Farm Bill process. 

The leaders—and the ag community at large—have 

been examining options for renewing the law since attempts 

to attach a farm policy proposal to a debt reduction 

bill failed with the debt-deficit 

super committee last month. 

Senate Agriculture Committee 

Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow 

(D-Mich.) said Congress must 

complete the farm bill rewrite 

before the current bill expires. 

Speaking at the Farm Journal 

Forum in Washington, she said her 

Committee will resume hearings 

on farm bill issues this month, 

with the goal of having an “initial 

product” by spring. 

She also said 12 public hearings 

held in 2011 and the lessons 

learned from the super committee-related attempt “have 

helped us identify ways to streamline 

and strengthen programs 

to reduce the deficit and create 

agriculture jobs” and will be the 

framework for coming efforts. 

House Agriculture Chairman 

Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) 

Senate Agriculture Committee 

Chairwoman Debbie 

Stabenow (D-Mich.) 

In an interview with Oklahoma 

farm broadcaster Ron Hays, House 

Agriculture Chairman Frank 

Lucas (R-Okla.) noted Stabenow’s 

plans to hold hearings, but did not 

commit to do the same. 

He was generally positive about 

the package he and Stabenow negotiated prior to the super 

committee’s collapse—which has yet to be released publicly—and 

indicated the House’s schedule could mean an 

extension of current policy is needed. 

NAWG supports biotech 

regulatory certainty 

From NAWG 

NAWG and coalition partners recently submitted comments 

supporting full deregulation of biotech sugar beets 

and urging continued evolution of the regulatory process 

to address the court challenges that crop has faced. 

In individual and group comments, NAWG told USDA’s 

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) that 

full deregulation of Roundup Ready sugar beets, which 

have been determined to be safe by a number of government 

reviews, would be the appropriate regulatory 

decision. 

Roundup Ready sugar beets were deregulated in 2005 

by USDA, but in 2010, a U.S. District Court judge ruled 

the Department should conduct a more extensive review, 

known as an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Since 

the court challenge was based on process and not safety, 

the widely-adopted crop was partially deregulated in 

early 2011, in time to allow farmers to plant it this growing 

season. 

In the Association’s individual statement, NAWG Chief 

Executive Officer Dana Peterson told regulators NAWG 

strongly believes growers should have the choice to plant 

new and safe agricultural technologies, and they should 

have access to a reliable regulatory process. 

“Farmers, processors and consumers should be able to 

count on biotech crop approvals issued by the experts in 

federal agencies,” she wrote. 

Policy on endangered species 

eligibility proposed 

From Columbia Basin Fish & Wildlife News Bulletin 

A new proposed federal policy is intended to clarify 

which species or populations of species are eligible for 

protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). 

Public comments will be accepted for 60 days on the 

policy proposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 

(USFWS) and NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service, 

the two federal agencies responsible for administering the 


Transition Planning - Asset Protection 

Getting the next generation ready in today’s environment 

2012 Spokane Ag Expo-Farm Forum Schedule 

Tuesday, Feb. 7, Noon ............Succession Planning From A-Z 

Tuesday, Feb. 7, 1:30 pm .........Keeping The Farm In The Family, Session 1 

Tuesday, Feb. 7, 3 pm ............Keeping The Farm In The Family, Session 2 

Wednesday, Feb. 8, 10:30 am .....Overview Of Elder Law & Estate Planning 

Wednesday, Feb. 8, Noon .........Keeping The Farm In The Family, Session 3 

Wednesday, Feb. 8, 1:30 pm ......Keeping The Farm In The Family, Session 4 

Wednesday, Feb. 8, 3 pm .........Farm Taxes and Planning A Secure Retirement 

Thursday, Feb. 9, 10:30 am .......Wind Energy, Water Law, Real Estate & More 

Thursday, Feb. 9, Noon ...........Life Insurance And Money-Keep It Simple 

(Schedule subject to change, refer to seminar listings at Ag Expo Show) 

Other Brock Law Firm 

Seminars Coming Up: 

Quincy, Wash. 

Thursday, Jan. 19, 9 am 

Grant Co. Fire District 

Dayton, Wash. 

Tuesday, Jan. 24, 8:30 am 

The Weinhard Hotel 

(Call Lauren at 509-622-4707 for info 

or to RSVP for these seminars) 

Jan. 25, AMMO-Davenport, Wash. 

1:00 pm, Memorial Hall 

Jan. 26, AMMO-Colfax, Wash. 

1:00 pm, Palouse Empire Fairgrounds 

Over 40 Years Serving Inland Northwest Farming Clients 

Wheat life_bw.pdf 1 11/21/11 3:40 PM 

Corey F. Brock 

Spokane-Kennewick 

509-622-4707 

Norman D. Brock 

Davenport 

509-725-3101 

Northwest’s Largest Ag Show 

NORTHWEST AGRICULTURE 

SHOW 

It’s the 2nd largest Ag Show west of the Mississippi with the best 

and brightest in NW Ag on display. Talk to industry professionals 

and specialists. Check out what’s new in equipment, products and 

services. Participate in our first-ever industry-shaping roundtable 

discussions. Bring the entire family on Family Day, Wednesday, 

January 25th! One $15 ticket gets the whole family in the door! 

Celebrate NW Agriculture…don’t miss the NW Ag Show! 

FFA 

Equipment 

Contest 

See What 

Tomorrow’s 

Farmers Are 

Working On 

PORTLAND EXPO CENTER 

JAN 24-26 

Tues 10-6 • Wed 10-9 

Thur 10-5 

EVERYTHING FOR 

EVERY FARMER 

UNDER ONE ROOF 

THE REGION’S#1 SHOW FOR 

AGRIBUSINESS PROFESSIONALS 

Hundreds Of On-Site Meetings 

Exhibitors 

& Seminars 

Farm equipment, supplies, Dozens of industry and 

products & services 

business building meetings 

at the Expo Center! 

Safety Zone 

Check out the “Safety Zone” 

interactive displays and 

demonstrations 

take a look into 

NW FARMING’S PAST 

WITH THE AG SHOW’S 

DISPLAY OF 

VINTAGE FARM 

EQUIPMENT 

Family Day 

Wednesday the 25th Only. 

One $15 ticket gets the whole 

family into the show! 

For Detailed Information Visit: 

nwagshow.com 

Sponsored by: Oregon Association of Nurseries, 

Oregon Horticultural Society & Nut Growers Society 

of Oregon, Washington & British Columbia. 


WL 


To-may-to, to-maa-to 

Earmarks were the dirty word of 2010. While some 

call them “pet project” funds (think wooden arrows and 

bridges to nowhere), agencies like the U.S. Army Corps of 

Engineers (Corps) use the funds for maintenance projects. 

Specifically, many of the earmark funds went to maintain 

projects along the Columbia-Snake River System. 

Earmarks help cover projects that are not included in the 

President’s budget. Even the most conservative members 

Endangered Species Act. 

The proposed policy, the agencies say, will define the 

key phrase “significant portion of its range” in the ESA 

and “provide consistency for how it should be applied, 

aiding the agencies in making decisions on whether to 

add or remove species from the federal list of threatened 

and endangered wildlife and plants.” 

The phrase is not defined in the ESA, but appears in the 

statutory definitions of “endangered species” and “threatened 

species” in the ESA. The policy would clarify that 

the USFWS and NOAA Fisheries could list a species if it 

is endangered or threatened in a “significant portion of its 

range,” even if that species is not endangered or threatened 

throughout all its range. 

Under the proposed policy, a portion of the range of 

any given species would be defined as “significant” if its 

contribution to the viability of the species is so important 

that, without that portion, the species would be in danger 

of extinction. 

While the agencies say they expect this circumstance 

to arise infrequently, this policy interpretation will allow 

ESA protections to help species in trouble before largescale 

decline occurs throughout the species’ entire range. 

“This proposed interpretation will provide consistency 

and clarity for the services and our partners, while making 

more effective use of our resources and improving 

our ability to protect and recover species before they are 

on the brink of extinction,” said USFWS Director Dan 

Ashe. “By taking action to protect imperiled native fish, 

wildlife and plants, we can ensure a healthy future for our 

communities and protect treasured landscapes for future 

generations.” 

“A clear and consistent policy will help our partners 

and improve the process of evaluating species status 

under the Endangered Species Act,” said Eric Schwaab, 

NOAA’s assistant administrator for Fisheries. 


Industry, work, character, 

honesty, and fair dealings. 

You will find all of these at our Spokane Ag Expo booth. 

We look forward to the opportunity to visit 

about things we both believe in… 

the future success of your farming operation. 

www.mcgregor.com 

Envizio Pro II 

FIELD COMPUTER 

POWERING YOUR POTENTIAL WITH COMPLETE SYSTEM CONTROL 

Raven’s Envizio Pro II multi-function field computer is specially designed to give 

growers the power to control, simplify and improve every operation. From your first 

pass to the last, you now have the perfect quarterback for running all of your precision 

ag functions—and rewarding you with greater efficiency, performance and 

savings. Now with four-product VRA. 

WINNING POINTS 

Total Capability. A driving force for all system functions. 

From integrated GPS technology, advance data mapping 

and record keeping to multi-product control, boom management, 

assisted steering and planter controls, Envizio Pro 

II works seamlessly to deliver higher efficiency and performance. 

Doing More With Less. Packed with the latest in advanced 

computer software and RTK technology, Envizio Pro II brings 

a new level of accuracy and control to every aspect of your game. That means greater savings 

in farm inputs—and greater efficiency and productivity from planting to harvest. 

Built To Grow. Ready to accommodate your every farming need—and let you add to your 

system’s capabilities when the time is right. Compatible with commonly used industry software 

and equipment. 

Spray Center Electronics 

9721 W Flight Drive, Spokane WA 

www.spraycenter.com 

✓Integrated dual-frequency GPS receiver, 

upgradeable to RTK and GLONASS accuracy 

✓ Specially trained to quarterback Raven’s 

powerful OmniRow advanced planter control 

system with ease 

✓ Works seamlessly with Raven’s new 

SmartYield TM yield monitoring system for 

superior crop management capability 

✓ Slingshot-ready for wireless RTK corrections, 

data transfer, remote support capabilities, 

high-speed Internet access and more 

✓Complete multi-function capabilities for 

improving every stage of your operation 

✓ Multi-product control for added efficiency, 

including direct injection 

✓NEW four-product VRA for more precise planter 

and application controls. 

✓ Real-time data mapping, field reports and 

record keeping for better decisions and 

performance 

Raven Open House 

Thursday, Feb. 23. Join us! 

(Includes Free Lunch) 

RSVP at (800) 477-7729 


WL 


of Congress understand these funds are vital for necessary 

projects. In a public relations spin, Congress is now calling 

them “additional funding” or “policy riders” rather than 

their negative predecessor. Even though the Republican 

conferences in both chambers adopted temporary earmark 

moratoriums in 2010, members are still attaching individual 

funding projects to legislation. 

Some are working to stop it completely. Sen. Claire 

McCaskill (D-Mo.) said the moratoriums still contain loopholes, 

and the recent defense spending bill that passed 

includes a number of earmarks. McCaskill and Sen. Pat 

Toomey (R-Penn.) are pushing a permanent earmark ban 

by creating a new Senate rule granting every senator the 

power to challenge any bill containing earmarks. A twothirds 

majority of the Senate would be required to overrule 

the challenge. 

Meanwhile, on the PNW home front, the additional 

funding is working in favor of the Corps and 

Washington’s river system. Recently, the House approved 

their FY2012 Energy & Water appropriations bill which 

calls for additional funding in the General Investigations, 

Construction and Operations & Maintenance accounts to 

be made available to the Corps, with the Administration 

having discretion over how these additional monies are 

spent. The Senate followed the same pattern, but with 

more funding proposed. 

Protect Your Investment 

For more information,contact an Authorized Meridian Dealer near you: 

Boise, ID Marian at Bratney Companies (800) 853-5926 

Caldwell, ID Larry at Superior Steel (800) 743-9550 

Lewiston, ID Ken at Primeland Cooperatives (208) 743-8551 

Legrande, OR Tim at Wallender Farm Service (541) 910-7800 

Ontario, OR Leon at Leon James Construction Company Inc. (541) 889-6483 

Cheney, WA Dale at AG Enterprise Supply Inc. (800) 782-7786 

Colfax, WA Joe at The McGregor Company (800) 727-9160 

Kalama, WA John at ABM Equipment (503) 248-0711 

Moses Lake, WA Phil or Ryan at Farm Chem (509) 764-9396 

Spokane, WA Tom at Keigley & Co. (800) 333-4889 

Spokane, WA Michael Dunlap & Associates (509) 844-4695 

Spokane Valley, WA Tom at Bratney Companies (800) 853-5926 

The value of seed and fertilizer continues to grow – Protect your investment with 

Meridian powder coated, smooth-wall bins. Check out www.meridianmfg.com to 

see the newest evolution of storage to fit all your on-farm needs. 


POLICY MATTERS WL 

Jetties at top of list 

According to the Pacific Northwest Waterways 

Association (PNWA), the President’s FY2012 budget 

included $750K for completion of the Mouth of the 

Columbia River Jetties’ major rehab report, which is due 

to be complete in March 2012 for FY2014 budget submittal. 

PNWA is also advocating for unfunded jetty needs as 

the House and Senate continue their appropriations work. 

PNWA is also advocating for funding in the FY2013 budget 

and is working with the Portland District to support 

their completion of the rehab study. WAWG is a member 

of PNWA and supports maintaining and repairing the 

jetties. The maintenance of the jetties is vital to keeping 

international trade moving from the Pacific Northwest 

port system. 

Proudly Serving The Inland 

Northwest Farm Community 

For More Than 70 Years 

• Farm Corporations • Real Estate 

• Water Rights • Farm Estate Planning 

• Elder Law • Probate 

• Agribusiness Planning 

Visit our booth at Spokane Ag Expo! 

Davenport, WA Odessa, WA Ritzville, WA 

509-725-4100 509-982-2672 509-659-0425 

Fairfield, WA Rosalia, WA St. John, WA 

509-283-4223 509-523-5809 509-684-3683 


WL 

FEATURE 

Playing 

with a full deck 

As a helpful tool to our farmers, landlords and industry 

representatives, we use the January issue of Wheat Life as 

a playbook of sorts on our state and national delegates. As 

you review Washington’s key policymakers, don’t hesitate to 

contact WAWG or the delegates directly with your comments, 

concerns and ideas about state and national policy. Your voice is 

heard, and it can make an impact on each decision being made 

in both capitols. We urge you to connect with us and them! 


The Washington, D.C., hand 

FEATURE WL 

a 

] 

Sen. Maria CANTWEll (D) 

First elected to office: 

Nov. 7, 2000 

(888) 648-7328 

311 Hart 

Senate Office Building 

Washington, DC 20510 

a 

] 

Sen. pATTY MURRAY (D) 


Dec. 3, 1992 

(866) 481-9186 

448 Russell 

Senate Office Building 


Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation 

Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security-Chair 

Subcommittee on Competitiveness, Innovation, and Export 

Promotion 

Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and Internet 

Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast 

Guard 

Subcommittee on Science and Space 

Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine 

Infrastructure, Safety and Security 

Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources 

Subcommittee on Energy - Chair 

Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests 

Subcommittee on Water and Power 

Senate Committee on Finance 

Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources, and 

Infrastructure 

Subcommittee on Health Care 

Subcommittee on Taxation and IRS Oversight 

Senate Committee on Indian Affairs 

Senate Committee on Small Business and 

Entrepreneurship 

a 

] 

Secretary of the Democratic Conference 

Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction 

Senate Committee on Appropriations 

Subcommittee on Defense 

Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development 

Subcommittee on Homeland Security 

Subcommittee on Military Construction & Veterans’ Affairs, and 

Related Agencies 

Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban 

Development, and Related Agencies - Chair 

Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human 

Services, Education, and Related Agencies 

Senate Committee on the Budget 

Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and 

Pensions 

Subcommittee on Children and Families 

Subcommittee on Employment & Workplace 

Safety - Chair 

Senate Committee on Rules & Administration 

Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs - Chair 

a 

] 

a 

[ 

Rep. Doc 

HASTINGS (R) 

Chelan, Douglas, Grant, 

Yakima, Benton, Kittitas, 

Klickitat, Franklin counties 


Nov. 1, 1994 

(202) 225-5816 

1203 Longworth HOB 


House Committee on Natural Resources 

- Chair 

a 

[ 

a 

} 

Rep. Rick lARSEN (D) 

Whatcom, Skagit, 

Snohomish, King counties 


Nov. 7, 2000 

(202) 225-2605 

108 Cannon HOB 


House Committee on Transportation and 


Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime 

Transportation - Ranking Minority Member 

Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and 

Hazardous Materials 

House Committee on Armed Services 

House Defense Business Panel - Ranking 

Minority Member 

Subcommittee on Seapower and 

Projection Forces 

Subcommittee on Strategic Forces 

a 

} 

a 

[ 

Rep. Jaime 

HERRERA BEUTler (R) 

Clark, Cowlitz, Lewis, 

Pacific, Skamania, Thurston, 

Wahkiakum counties 


Nov. 2, 2010 

(202) 225-3536 



House Committee on Transportation and 


Subcommittee on Highways and Transit 

Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and 

Hazardous Materials 

Subcommittee on Water Resources 

and Environment 

House Committee on Small Business 

Subcommittee on Healthcare and 

Technology 

Subcommittee on Investigations, 

Oversight and Regulations 

a 

[ 


WL 

a 

[ 

a 

} 

FEATURE 

Rep. Cathy 

McMORRIS RODGERS (R) 

Okanogan, Ferry, Stevens, 

Pend Oreille, Spokane, Lincoln, 

Adams, Whitman, Walla Walla, 

Columbia, Garfield, Asotin 

counties 


Nov. 2, 2004 

(202) 225-2006 

2421 Rayburn HOB 


Vice Chair Republican Conference 

House Committee on Energy and Commerce 

Subcommittee on Energy and Power 

Subcommittee on Environment and 

Economy 

Subcommittee on Health 

Rep. Jim McDERMOTT (D) 

King County 


Nov. 8, 1988 

(202) 225-3106 



a 

[ 

House Committee on Ways and Means 

Subcommittee on Human Resources 

Subcommittee on Oversight 

Subcommittee on Trade - Ranking Minority 

Member 

a 

} 

Rep. Norm DICKS (D) 

Clallam, Jefferson, Gray’s 

Harbor, Mason counties 


Nov. 2, 1976 

(202) 225-5916 



House Committee on Appropriations - Ranking 

Minority Member 

Subcommittee on Defense - Ranking Minority 

Member 

a 

} 

a 

} 

Rep. ADAM SMITH (D) 

King, Thurston counties 

a 

} 

Rep. Jay Inslee (D) 

King, Kitsap, Snohomish 

counties 


Nov. 3, 1998 

(202) 225-6311 



House Committee on Energy and Commerce 

Subcommittee on Energy and Power 


Nov. 5, 1996 

(202) 225-8901 


Washington, DC 20515 a 

[ 

Rep. Dave REICHERT (R) 

House Committee on Armed Services - 

Ranking Minority Member 

a 

} 

King, Pierce counties 


Nov. 2, 2004 

(202) 225-7761 



House Committee on Ways and Means 

Subcommittee on Health 

Subcommittee on Trade 

a 

} 

a 

} 

a 

[ 


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WL 

FEATURE 

The Olympia hand 

2011/12 House Leadership 

Democratic Caucus 

Republican Caucus 

Speaker 

Rep. Frank 

Chopp 

Seattle 

Majority 

Leader Rep. 

Pat Sullivan 

Auburn 

Minority 

Leader 

Rep. Richard 

DeBolt 

Chehalis 

Deputy 

Minority 

Leader Rep. 

Joel Kretz 

Omak 

Majority 

Caucus Chair 

Rep. Eric 

Pettigrew 

Seattle 

Majority 

Whip Rep. 

Kevin Van 

De Wege 

Sequim 

Minority 

Caucus Chair 

Rep. Dan 

Kristiansen 

Snohomish 

Minority 

Whip Rep. 

Bill Hinkle 

Ellensburg 

Majority Floor 

Leader Rep. 

Tami Green 

University Place 

Minority Floor 

Leader Rep. 

Charles Ross 

Yakima 

Democratic Caucus 

2011/12 Senate Leadership 

Lieutenant 

Governor 

Brad 

Owen, 

President 

of the 

Senate 

Republican Caucus 

Majority 

Leader 

Lisa Brown 

Spokane 

Majority 

Caucus 

Chair Karen 

Fraser 

Olympia 

Republican 

Leader 

Mike 

Hewitt 

Walla Walla 

Republican 

Caucus 

Chair Linda 

Evans 

Parlette 

Wenatchee 

Majority 

Floor Leader 

Tracey J. Eide 

Federal Way 

Majority 

Whip 

Nick Harper 

Everett 

Republican 

Floor Leader 

Mark Schoesler 

Ritzville 

Republican 

Whip Doug 

Ericksen 

Bellingham 


2011/12 Senate 

Committees 

Senate Agriculture, 

Water & Rural 

Economic 

Development- 

Chairman Brian 

Hatfield (D) 

South Bend 

Turbo Till Tillage System 

Tillage and Planting 

Equipment 

3S-4000 HD 40' Mini-Till Drill 

Senate 

Transportation- 

Chairman 

Mary Margaret 

Hougen (D) 

Oak Harbor 

Turbo Chopper 

2N-3010 30’ No-Till Drill 

Senate Ways & 

Means-Chairman 

Ed Murray (D) 

Seattle 

2011/12 House 

Committees 

Great Plains Turbo Chisel 

NTA 3007 AirDrill 

House 

Transportation- 

Chairman 

Judy Clibborn (D) 

Bellevue 

Flex Harrow 

3S-4010 HD 40’ No-Till Drill 

House 

Agriculture 

and Natural 

Resources- 

Chairman 

Brian Blake (D) 

South Bend 

Great Plains Disk Harrow 

Yield Pro Corn Planter 

For these implements and many more, contact your local Great Plains dealer. 

House Ways & 

Means-Chairman 

Ross Hunter (D) 

Bellevue 

WALTER IMPLEMENT, INC. 

Odessa, WA — 509-982-2644 

CENTRAL MACHINERY SALES 

Moses Lake, WA — 509-765-1257 

FARM & HOME SUPPLY 

Pomeroy, WA — 509-843-3395 

MORROW COUNTY GRAIN GROWERS 

Lexington, OR — 800-452-7396 


Pasco, WA — 509-547-8920 


Sunnyside, WA — 509-837-3833 

MORROW COUNTY GRAIN GROWERS 

Wasco, OR — 800-824-7185 

FARM EQUIPMENT HEADQUARTERS 

Pendleton, OR — 541-276-6222 


WL 

FEATURE 

Do political action committees work 

While political action committees are as pungent sounding 

as lemon juice, they do work. The passing of last fall’s 

Initiative 1183 by almost 60 percent is simple proof. 

The measure called for closing state liquor 

stores and allowing state licensing of private 

parties. The initiative called for a 17 percent 

fee from retailers on all liquor sales, as well 

as other fees from distributors. The state office 

estimated that the 2011 initiative could 

generate an extra $42 million a year for the 

state and $38 million for local government 

over the span of six years. According to 

proponents, the proposed measure would 

generate $200 million more than the current 

system for both state and local governments 

in the measure’s first two years of enactment. 

Supporters included Costco Wholesale 

Corp., the Northwest Grocery Association, 

Washington Restaurant Association, 

Washington Retail Association and Attorney 

General Rob McKenna. 

The opposition argued that the vague 

wording in the initiative would lead to minimarts 

having the ability to sell hard alcohol. 

They argued that it would lead to more 

alcohol availability and the ruin of small 

liquor store businesses. Opposition included the Wine and 

Spirits Wholesalers of America, Rosauers, the Washington 

Food Industry Association and Governor Christine 

Gregoire. 

By the end of the campaign, voters heard a smattering 

of television ads with local public safety officers on both 

sides of the argument. Both sides were disputing the others’ 

“facts,” and voters were ultimately confused on who 

Top Political Action Committees in Washington 

(monies raised as of December 2011) 

Washington Education Association ..........................$1.1 million 

Washington Beer & Wine Distributors Association ..............$846,700 

Realtors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$683,400 

Washington State Dental ......................................$383,200 

Service Employees International Union Local 925 ..............$291,400 

Stand for Children Washington ................................$263,500 

Help Us Help Taxpayers .......................................$250,200 

Farmers Employees and Agents ...............................$236,200 

Washington Teamsters ........................................$234,500 

Washington Restaurant Association ...........................$219,200 

The race for governor: Who’s got more money 

(as of December 2011) 

Rob McKenna (R) .............................................$3 million 

Jay Inslee (D) ...............................................$2.5 million 

was telling the truth. In the end, the overwhelming passage 

may have had more to do with the amount of money 

behind each campaign and whose message was heard 

more often. Supporters of I-1183 raised more than $22 million 

and the opposition raised about $12 million. 

“Flex Frame” = Smoother Ride and Durability 

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Jarod Barker, Barker Farms, Puryear, Tenn. 

Flex Frame consists of C-channel flex 

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Learn more about the 2012 Apache Sprayers at www.ETsprayers.com 


WL 

FEATURE 

Global 

Demand, 

Local 

Impact 

What CAuSES FERTILIzer PRICE VOLATILITy 

AND WHAT TO exPECT THIS yEAR 

By Kara Rowe 

It’s not news that 2012 fertilizer prices will not only be 

volatile, they’ll most likely be higher than last year. Put 

simply, because commodity prices have remained relatively 

good, farmers throughout the nation have not cut 

their production or their demand for inputs. Demand for 

fertilizer is high, so prices remain high. 2011 was higher 

than 2010, and experts don’t expect that to change for 2012. 

In 2011, ammonia prices increased 24 percent, urea was 

up 40 percent, liquid nitrogen rose 32 percent, phosphorus 

was up 18 percent and potash leaped 38 percent according 

to Ag Economist Barry Ward of Ohio State University. 

Ward told Farm and Dairy that he expects a slight to 

moderate increase this winter and spring in the price of 

fertilizer if demand continues at the same rate. 

Fertilizer manufacturer The Mosaic Company agreed 

Cranes unloading a ship of urea. 

that the 

demand for 

fertilizer, particularly potash, reflects 

an effort among the world’s farmers to increase yields as 

crop prices remain relatively high. Their 2012/13 crop year 

estimations indicate that global wheat acreage could rise 4 

percent from last year. Farmers throughout the world need 

some type of nutrient base to increase productivity. 

While we tend to think locally, in actuality, a farmer in 

Prescott, Wash., is not only competing with his neighbor 

for the best fertilizer prices, but also with a farmer in 

Punjab, India. This demand is profiting well for the manufacturers. 

Mosaic received an average of $446/metric ton 

of potash in its first 2012 fiscal quarter, up from $331 in the 

same period a year ago. The company estimated potash 

prices for the second quarter at $440-$465/metric ton. For 

its phosphate products, Mosaic received $576/metric ton in 

the first quarter, compared with $431 in the same period 

a year ago. Phosphate prices for the second quarter were 

predicted to be at $600-$625/metric ton. 

Bill Bienapfl of WestLink Ag Cooperative Corporation 

agreed that the future prices of fertilizer go well beyond 

the local co-ops and fertilizer shops. “I look at what’s going 

on globally. Are there major fertilizer suppliers down 

Are major countries, such as India, taking what they 

normally buy or are they holding back And what are the 

reasons You have to look at all that,” he said. WestLink is 

a nonprofit corporation which helps source fertilizer and 

chemicals for their 31 members, including Ag Enterprise 

of Eastern Washington. “As a group, we can compete with 

the bigger outfits, like CPS, Wilbur-Ellis, McGregor.” 

Bienapfl graduated from Boise State and has been in the 

chemical industry since the 1960s. He’s seen input markets 

rise and fall over the years, but he said one thing remains 


FEATURE WL 

the same: fertilizer price is determined by supply and 

demand. With that said, however, manufacturers must 

realize that farmers tend to stick to their guns regardless 

of what the crop pays. 

“Just because a farmer is scheduled to make a lot of 

money does not mean he thinks the sky is the limit on 

buying fertilizer,” Bienapfl said. “Every farmer has a set 

price on NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium/potash), 

and they will use that set price point 100 percent.” 

Bienapfl agreed there is, however, one similarity between 

most farmers. “The last place they’ll cut is nitrogen. 

But, they will cut all their inputs if they deem the price 

is too high. It doesn’t matter if they make $2 or $200 per 

acre. Manufacturers don’t get it. Manufacturers look out 

their windows and see equipment. Farmers look out their 

windows and see soil and there’s an emotion. It’s a philosophical 

difference. Farmers have a different feel for what 

they’re doing. Growing a crop is much more an emotional 

thing than manufacturing a fertilizer.” 

Through his tenure, Bienapfl believes this philosophical 

difference is why, at times, there seems to be a rub between 

manufacturers and farmers. In fact, farmers quickly 

notice that when their commodity prices rise, so do input 

costs. It doesn’t take a nuclear physicist to realize there 

must be some playing of the system by manufacturers 

to get the most for their products. While this may be the 

case in some instances, the fertilizer market is no different 

than the commodity market. There are global players, 

global suppliers and global users. New Orleans is the 

main entry point for fertilizer coming into North America. 

Manufacturers know what’s coming into the country and 

what’s happening around the world. 

“Manufacturers set the prices, and you will always see 

their bullish nature when commodity prices are higher, 

like this year,” said Bienapfl. “Commodities were high. 

Because of those prices, the manufacturers believe farmers 

will buy 110 percent of what they need. What comes first, 

the chicken or the egg” He added that just like in Wall 

Street, speculators play a role in fertilizer rates. “Recently, 

the price of urea at New Orleans dropped $80 per ton in 

a week. Like so many commodities, you have speculators. 

Speculators buy barges of fertilizer. When they deem 

things will soften, they offload them. There’s a sudden 

mass supply on the market, and the price drops.” 

Experts warn, however, that our global economy will 

also play a key role in fertilizer pricing. If the economy 

goes into a recession in the U.S. or Europe, farmers may 

face lower commodity prices, creating less of a demand, 

meaning lower prices. Bienapfl believes that’s a stretch. 

“In my old age, the bigger the perceived problem, the 

less likely it will happen. With the Greece and Europe 

situation, I believe countries will step in. Farmers will continue 

to plant. There’s not a farmer on earth who likes to 

see his soil empty. One thing this country has done is keep 

people fed. If you keep people fed, you keep people happy. 

Happy people equal stable markets.” 

For now, Bienapfl isn’t worried about supply, and he 

believes once the EU settles down, prices will lose their 

volatility. “People are worried about the EU, which caused 

a temporary downturn on urea. It may last a week or a 

month, but at some point, everybody will start filling storages. 

Once that happens you will see price firming.” 

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WL 

FEATURE 

Where does our fertilizer come from 

In the U.S., nitrogen, phosphorus 

and potassium/potash are the 

standard NPK fertilizer combination 

most people know. They are considered 

the macronutrients, or most 

important. But most farmers use other 

elements as well to improve the 

health of their soil. Sulfur, calcium 

and magnesium are considered 

secondary nutrients. Boron, cobalt, 

copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum 

and zinc are micronutrients. 

There is some confusion as to 

whether fertilizers are natural. The 

simple answer is yes. The three main 

ingredients in fertilizer—nitrogen, 

potassium and phosphorus—come 

from nature; they are not manmade. 

Fertilizer companies simply convert 

them into a form that plants can use. 

Fertilizer manufacturers can blend 

nutrients into precise combinations 

to match the unique needs of 

different farms, crops and fields. In 

this way, farmers can feed their soils 

with the most effective and efficient 

blend of potassium, phosphorus and 

nitrogen to achieve optimal yields. 

Here are some other great fertilizer 

facts from our friends at the 

Canadian Fertilizer Institute: 

Where does phosphorus come 

from 

Phosphorus used in fertilizers 

comes from the fossilized remains of 

ancient marine life found in rock deposits 

in the U.S. and other parts of 

the world. This raw ore is processed 

to create water-soluble compounds 

that make the phosphorus available 

to plants as a nutrient. 

Phosphorus helps early plant 

health and root growth. It is involved 

in seed germination and 

ensures plants use water efficiently. 

Phosphorus is the plant world’s 

equivalent of carbohydrates—it 

Phosphate mining in the West African country of Togo. 

provides the energy that a plant needs to grow. 

Where does potassium come from 

Potassium is the seventh most abundant element in the earth’s crust. Through 

natural processes, it is filtered into the planet’s seas and oceans. As these bodies 

of water evaporate over time, they leave behind mineral deposits. Fertilizer 

companies mine potassium from these deposits. 

Potassium is a mineral that helps crops fight stress and disease. It helps plants 

grow strong stalks, in the same way that calcium gives people strong bones. 

Where does nitrogen come from 

The air all around us contains huge amounts of nitrogen. In fact, nitrogen 

makes up about 78 percent of the atmosphere. Fertilizer producers combine 

nitrogen with natural gas to change it into a form that plants can digest. 

Nitrogen is nitrogen, whether it’s used by plants, animals or people. It is a key 

element in protein. Like the human body, plants need nitrogen to grow. Often 

used in greater amounts than other nutrients, nitrogen helps make plants green 

and plays a major role in boosting yields. 

Aren’t organic foods better because they’re grown without fertilizer 

Actually, most organic growers use fertilizer too. It’s made from different 

ingredients though, such as livestock manure or sewage sludge. However, these 

natural fertilizers are not available in sufficient quantities to meet the demands 

of today’s high-yield farming nor do they provide nutrients in the fine-tuned 

combinations possible with commercial fertilizers. For example, using enough 

manure to provide an adequate supply of nitrogen would mean adding four to 

five times more potassium and phosphorus than a crop needs. So it’s easy to 

over- or under-fertilize in this type of farming. 


Have wheat, will travel 

Photos BY TRISTA CROSSLEY AND GLEN SqUIRES 

What does it take to get your grain from the local elevator to the customer 

For most PNW wheat, it is sent to an export facilities in the Lower 

Columbia River via train or barge, where it is inspected thoroughly and loaded 

into vast, ocean-going ships from all over the world. The 2011 Washington 

Wheat Export Tour & Quality Workshop, hosted by the Washington Grain 

Commission, took a few lucky farmers, landlords and agency officials and 

showed them how that journey happens. The tour made stops at Bonneville 

Dam, Franz Bakery, Columbia Grain Export Terminal along the Willamette 

River, the Federal Grain Inspection Service and the Wheat Marketing Center 

in Portland. Several speakers, such as the river and bar pilots, also spoke to 

the group. The trip was capped off by a tugboat ride where the group got to 

see the grain-loading process in action. 

At the Federal Grain Inspection Service in Portland, Jerry 

Kuseck demonstrates how samples from shipments are 

weighed and checked for moisture and dockage, analyzed 

for protein content and tested for vomitoxin. The samples are 

labeled and kept for at least 90 days. FGIS must give approval 

before grain is loaded on a ship. 

At the Wheat Marketing Center in Portland, different wheat 

classes are tested for different end uses, such as breads, 

crackers and noodles. The center offers educational courses 

and provides research to wheat buyers, processors and sellers. 

Here, Bon Lee explains milling to Wade and Jens Foged. 

(Above) The ocean-going vessel Wadi Alkarnak out of Alexandria loads wheat at the Irving 

export terminal. The tour group was fortunate enough to get a tug boat ride up the Willamette 

River from the Shaver Transportation company. (Right) Tour participants learn the intricacies 

and challenges of export terminal operations inside the “brain center” of Columbia Grain Inc.’s 

terminal in Portland, Ore.

At the Wheat Marketing 

Center in Portland, 

an alveograph is used to 

measure gluten strength of 

doughs made out of different 

classes of wheat. A ball 

of dough is placed on the 

alveograph and is blown 

into a bubble. Stronger 

gluten flour requires more 

force to blow the bubble. 

In the captain’s deck of the tug, Washington Grain Commission Chairman Tom Zwainz (left) 

and Washington Association of Wheat Growers President Eric Maier share a laugh. The two 

organizations have worked together on projects as the Washington Grain Alliance for a 

number of years. 

“Putting the whole process together,” said Jeanne Schmitz (left) when asked what stood 

out on the tour for her. “There’s almost a whole second phase after we ship the grain.” 

Jeanne and her husband Joe (middle, in the red cap) and Brad Bowers (right) watch a barge 

unloading grain at the Columbia Grain Export Terminal. 

Another machine used at the Wheat Marketing Center, the extensigraph, 

determines the resistance and extensibility of a dough by 

measuring the force required to stretch the dough until it breaks. 

Looking on are Katie Walters (left) of Walla Walla, WAWG President 

Eric Maier (center) and Mike Quest (right) of Ritzville. 

(Above) WGC Vice President Glen Squires (left) looks on as Dee Hale from the USDA’s Foreign Ag 

Service and Eve and Randy Fortenbery of Pullman demonstrate how different ingredients and the 

type of flour used in commercial breads can affect the breads’ appearance and floppiness. (Left) Tour 

participants also got an up-close and personal look at the Bonneville Dam lock system. 

Wheat farmers interested in attending next years’ tour, please contact Glen Squires at 

the Washington Grain Commission to reserve your spot: 509-456-2481.

WL PROFILES 

Scott Barr 

Farmer, rancher, legislator and philanthropist 

By Kevin Gaffney 

As the current crop of elected officials wrestle with the 

budget deficit problems of Washington state, Scott Barr, 

former house and senate member, is satisfied to be retired 

from politics. At age 95, Barr still manages his farm and 

ranch interests from his home in the Colville valley. 

Still active and well-spoken, Barr agreed to sit down and 

talk about his life and his career in farming, ranching and 

politics. 

Barr was born in 1916 and was raised on the breaks 

of the Snake River in southern Whitman County near 

Hooper, Wash. 

His years growing up were not easy ones, as he vividly 

remembers tough times during the Great Depression. 

The oldest son, Barr attended country schools, but only 

sporadically after the age of twelve as he was needed at 

home on the farm, living on the land previously lost to 

foreclosure. 

“The sons in most farm families didn’t go to school 

regularly once they were old enough to work,” noted Barr. 

“Commodity prices were depressed, and no one had very 

much money.” 

When Barr was 13, the family scraped up all the money 

they could spare and went to Spokane to buy some cattle. 

They purchased six head of yearlings for 4.5 cents per 

pound. One of them died soon afterward, but that small 

initial investment eventually grew into a herd of more 

than 800 head over 80 plus years. 

By the time Barr was 19, he was the ranch foreman and 

was three years older than all the hired hands on their 

farm at harvest. Scott and his brother Clay agreed to stay 

on the farm and not seek any higher education in return 

for the promise from his father and stepmother that they 

would be full partners. 

The agreement also included the stipulation that if one 

of the sons decided to get married, the parents would 

move off the farm to allow the new family to live there. 

By the time he turned 26, Scott had found the woman 

of his dreams, the local schoolmarm, Evelyn Heimbigner. 

They were married in 1943. For five years, things 

went well, with the farm expanding and the economy 

improving. 

They bought a neighboring farm for $18.50 per acre, and 

another for $22 per acre. The Barr brothers were building 

an efficient operation. 

Scott Barr and his wife Dollie. 

Suddenly, Scott’s parents decided they hated living in 

Colfax and wanted to move back to the farm. Following 

some uncomfortable negotiations, Scott and Clay decided 

to pack it up and find a farm elsewhere. 

They found a nice, 2,200-acre farm near Edwall. Several 

of the locals had wanted to buy the land, but felt the asking 

price of $165 per acre was too high. There was plenty 

of skepticism among neighbors that wasn’t very well hidden, 

said Barr. 

“Several neighboring farmers openly stated that no one 

could pay that much per acre and survive. ‘Those Snake 

River kids won’t be here in three years, they’ll go broke,’ 

they said. That was 63 years ago. I guess we lasted a bit 

longer than they expected,” Barr said with a smile. 

For many years, Barr and his brother put themselves 

to the task with a vengeance. Eventually, Clay decided to 

go into real estate speculation as a career. Scott was more 

comfortable with farming and ranching, so they split the 

partnership and went their separate ways. 

When Barr finally felt that the farm had reached a stable 

financial footing, he decided to devote 50 percent of his 

time to various volunteer pursuits. 


PROFILES WL 

“I decided that in lieu of attaining higher education at a 

college, there would be other ways of gaining knowledge, 

skills and experience,” said Barr. “I wanted to be able to 

serve and also to give myself an alternative education.” 

Barr began putting in many hours of work for the 

Lincoln County Conservation District, including lobbying 

the state legislature in Olympia for 25 years. He served on 

the Edwall Grain Growers’ board of directors for many 

years. Barr spent the better part of a year traveling around 

the U.S. to help raise funds for the agriculture exhibit for 

Spokane’s Expo ‘74 World’s Fair. 

He was heavily involved with the Washington 

Association of Wheat Growers from its inception in 1954, 

chairing several committees. Barr became the first WAWG 

officer to be elected to serve from a floor nomination. 

“I had to learn quickly before serving as president, because 

the vice president was in poor health and resigned, 

so I moved up one slot,” said Barr. “Then the president 

took a sabbatical, going on a world tour with Western 

Wheat Associates (now U.S. Wheat Associates), essentially 

leaving me in charge. So I began my term early and served 

over a year. It was very intense, because at that time the 

WAWG office had only one employee on staff.” 

The amount of service Barr was providing would not 

have been possible without having an excellent manager 

on the farm in Edwall all those years. Surprisingly, the 

perfect person for the job was found quite by accident. 

“I had arranged to have a hired man come help temporarily 

on the farm, and the next day a 16-year-old kid with 

an old Model A Ford showed up,” remembered Barr. “I 

thought, this is going to be a disaster. I could see this kid 

taking off in that car every chance he got or spending too 

much time working on it. I was planning to replace him. 

“But, this ‘Skinnie’ teenager asked me where he could 

park his car, so I told him right over there under that tree. 

It was the only tree on the entire farm. 

“Amazingly, from May of that year until Christmas 

Eve, he didn’t touch that car. He never even looked at it. 

That was Skinnie Ebert, who ended up working with me 

until he passed away. Now, Skinnie’s grandchildren are 

involved in the operation of our farm.” 

With his many years of lobbying experience, it seemed a 

natural for Barr to run for public office. With some encouragement 

and a lot of help from other 7th District folks, he 

ran for the state senate, losing in his first campaign. 

Not being one to give up, Barr was elected to an open 

house seat for the 7th District in 1979. Barr spent six years 

in the house and eleven years in the senate, retiring one 

year before his final term was up in 1996. 

(Above) Scott Barr’s 1989 Senate photo. (Below) Barr’s 1979 House of Representatives 

photo. 

Obviously, Barr looked out for the best interests of the 

agriculture industry during his service in Olympia. He 

also championed other specific causes. 

“I was known for focusing on three main issues: water 

rights, small school districts and rural community hospitals,” 

explained Barr. 

Barr served as chairman of the Agriculture and Water 

Resources Committee for five years. Since that time he has 

been referred to as “Mr. Water.” 


WL 

PROFILES 

He continually fought to help rural hospitals survive 

and provide critical health care for residents in sparsely 

populated towns and counties in his district. 

Barr was known for standing up for rural school 

districts, sometimes raising the ire of the Washington 

Education Association (WEA) teachers’ union. 

“I was so frustrated fighting the WEA, because they 

simply didn’t care about the smaller school districts,” said 

Barr. “I also defended the cause of parents’ rights to home 

school their children. Our work definitely helped to save 

home schooling in the state of Washington by creating a 

competitive atmosphere. 

“One of the WEA presidents was headquartered in 

Spokane, and she told the local newspaper that I was the 

worst legislator serving in Olympia,” noted Barr. “She had 

no idea what an incredible boost that gave to my popularity 

with my constituents. She couldn’t have done me a 

bigger favor in a rural legislative district, the largest in the 

state.” 

Incongruously, one of the legislative accomplishments 

that Barr was most proud of turned out to be somewhat of 

a disaster. 

“When a bill was passed increasing the tax on cigarettes, 

I added an amendment that allotted 10 percent of those 

funds for nonpoint pollution work that would go to the 

conservation districts all over the state. Their work is very 

important, and there was always a shortage of money for 

important projects. 

“I must admit, I didn’t anticipate what lengths the 

Department of Ecology would go to in their efforts to grab 

that money,” said Barr. “Nonpoint pollution had always 

been related specifically to agriculture. But they changed 

some rules and definitions and took all those funds away. 

The conservation districts never received a single dime.” 

There were some lighter moments in the legislature. 

Barr was known as a farmer with large landholdings, and 

the 7th district was the largest in the state. When he was 

elected in 1979, there was only one traffic light in his entire 

district. 

One fellow House Member in particular, Rod Chandler, 

often teased Barr about the rural nature and the size of his 

district. Chandler served an urban district in the Seattle 

area and was a polished speaker. On several occasions, he 

had joked that Barr owned his entire eastern Washington 

district. One day, various potential redistricting maps 

were being shown and commented upon. A proposed new 

7th District map was put on the big screen. It was an oddshaped 

district extending from the Idaho border clear over 

to the border of Chelan County. 

Barr was asked his opinion of it, and he responded, 

“That would be fine with me, I’d only have to buy 50 more 

acres to own the district.” Pandemonium broke loose in 

the chamber for some time. 

Barr has been blessed with two happy marriages. He is 

now in the third decade of his marriage to Dollie, whom 

he met during his first term in the house when he was 

meeting with his constituents in Colville. 

Deciding he wanted to spend more time with her, Barr 

hired Dollie as the secretary for his Olympia office. His 

plan worked out well; they were married within a year. 

Barr fondly remembers the years with his first wife, 

Evelyn. She was giving of her time, having earned a home 

economics degree in college and serving as a notorious 4H 

leader for many years. 

When she was stricken with cancer in 1979, they discussed 

what to do with her share of the farm which had 

been built up to 3,500 acres of wheat land, over 10,000 

acres of pasture and several farm units in the Columbia 

Basin. 

They decided to donate her half of their property to two 

entities. One half went to the 4H Foundation, and the other 

half was donated to Whitworth University in Spokane 

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PROFILES WL 

as part of a living trust. Since that time, Barr has continued 

the same philanthropic approach to his life. 

Being charitable can have a high cost. Barr had been assured 

by his accountant and his lawyer that the donation 

would qualify as a nontaxable charitable gift. The Internal 

Revenue Service (IRS) did not agree. 

Because Barr had retained the capability to use the 

land until his death, the IRS ruled that he had to pay up 

front for potential future earnings. He was ordered to pay 

$600,000 in taxes and interest. 

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“That decision bothers me to this day,” said Barr. “But 

maybe I’ve had the last laugh after all, because I doubt 

they expected me to live this long.” 

Barr helped the Rainbow Girls’ organization when they 

asked for his assistance in the 1960s. 

“They told me they needed to buy some rural property 

that wasn’t too far out of the way, and they didn’t want 

any water or any snakes,” said Barr. “I gave them 30 acres 

of land between Sprague and Edwall. They built a house 

on the property and used it for their activities for years.” 

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WL 

PROFILES 

Asked to reflect on changes in farming over his lifetime, 

Barr pointed out the amazing developments in farm 

equipment and the introduction of crop fertility and crop 

protection products. But he chose the development of 

high-yielding, semi-dwarf wheat varieties as the single 

most significant advancement. 

“The work of Dr. Orville Vogel at Washington State 

University was simply incredible. It literally transformed 

the business of raising wheat on a global scale,” Barr said. 

Barr specified hard work as the key to his success over 

the years. “I certainly made my share of mistakes, but you 

have to be able to take some risks to be successful,” said 

Barr. “If you make plans and goals and work harder than 

the average person, you will survive and prosper. 

“I always believed there were three types of farmers 

back in my day. There were those who really didn’t know 

what they were doing, and they needed to be lucky to 

make it. There were those who knew what to do, but they 

didn’t really have their hearts in it. And the really successful 

farmers were those who knew what they were doing 

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a timely and efficient manner.” 

Contemplating the future, Barr 

revealed his master plan. “I have a target,” 

he confided. “Five more years. I’ve 

told so many people about it that it has 

to happen. I think I just might make 

it to 100. On my hundredth birthday, 

we’ll throw a party in the Edwall City 

Park like Lincoln County has never 

seen. I’m committed to this for everyone 

to have the chance to celebrate the 

life of a century-old doer.” 

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By Tom Zwainz 

“May you live in interesting times” is said to be a 

Chinese curse, to which I say, I’m glad I live in America. 

You see, I believe the challenge of living in interesting 

times is what makes us stronger both individually and 

as a nation. That said, these are interesting times at the 

Washington Grain Commission. As the new chairman 

of the WGC Board, I am both excited and apprehensive 

about the year ahead. The issues that confront us as an 

industry are like nothing we’ve faced before. 

There’s no doubt my great-grandfathers, who homesteaded 

near Reardan in the late 1800s, also faced obstacles 

that were, for them, like nothing they’d dealt with 

before. But there’s a difference between evolutionary 

change and revolutionary change—the type of change 

futurists refer to as a paradigm shift—when everything is 

knocked off kilter by a radical new approach. 

It is still unclear whether the recent embrace of the 

American wheat industry by large private corporations 

including Monsanto, Syngenta, Limagrain, Dow and 

Bayer CropSciences is the type of hug that makes for 

good feelings, or one that squeezes the breath out of you. 

One thing is certain: the coming change will not only 

affect our individual operations, it will affect one of our 

most important partners and allies, Washington State 

University. 

For more than a hundred years, WSU has released 

the varieties that have allowed us to prosper. Since 1958, 

when farmers voted to form the Washington Wheat 

Commission and tax themselves on each bushel of 

grain they produced, millions of dollars have flowed 

into winter and spring breeding programs in Pullman. 

Lately, that support has become even more crucial as state 

government pulls back from its investment at the university. 

In the 2011/12 budget year, more than $2 million 

worth of growers’ money will flow into breeding-oriented 

research. 

Among wheat and grain commissions throughout 

the nation, the WGC is by far the most generous with its 

funding of university programs. I believe that generosity 

has been well repaid until now. The question that faces 

us—indeed the entire university land grant system—is 

whether the money we have invested, the equity we 

have built, will survive against the competition of private 

companies for whom a million dollars is a rounding error. 

That is the big question, but there are numerous smaller 

questions that must be wrestled with as we go forward. 

One that must be addressed quickly is ensuring that 

private companies maintain the same commitment to 

quality as to yield. 

It goes without saying that all of the farmers who serve 

on the WGC understand yield is what pays the bills. But 

your commissioners also understand it is quality that 

helps ensure we maintain market share. And without 

markets, a big yield is worthless. 

Since 1997, the WGC has been investing in evaluating 

the quality of varieties being grown in Eastern 

Washington. Recently, however, we have had a situation 

where private companies are opting out of having their 

wheat lines planted by WSU’s variety testing program. 

They are not just complaining about the cost, though that 

is part of it, they are also critical of some of the factors 

involved in evaluating their lines in the field. 

There are several problems when private lines aren’t 

planted side-by-side with public varieties. First, growers 

don’t get the opportunity to see how the lines perform 

in replicated trials from a yield and disease standpoint. 

Second, the absent lines cannot be evaluated for quality 

in the Genotype and Environment Study conducted 

by the Western Wheat Quality Lab (WWQL). Owing to 

environmental effects, three years of data is required to 

evaluate how a variety will perform. 

Private companies will tell you the quality of their varieties 

are evaluated prior to release at their own facilities. 

I’m sure that’s the case, but every lab is a little bit different 

in how they look at quality. At the WWQL, we are assured 

of a standard protocol, an apples-to-apples comparison 

against a control variety. As such, it is imperative 

we be assured that private companies’ wheat lines and 

the varieties they ultimately release are made available 

for quality evaluation. The only way that can happen is if 

they are part of WSU’s variety testing program 

Which is why, if need be, I’m in favor of the WGC 

providing the money required to assure private varieties 

are planted in the state trials. The cost is not insubstantial, 

but the data, as the credit card company commercial puts 

it, is priceless. There are some who might object to the 

WGC paying for private company entries. After all, we’re 

talking about an organization with a 2011 budget of $5 

million against corporations that measure their bottom 

lines in the billions. I don’t like it myself, but if private 

companies won’t ante up, then I don’t see an alternative. 

The WGC has staked the future of the industry in part, 

on ensuring that growers know the quality of the wheat 

they are growing. Without that information on private 

releases, it seems to me we’ll be whistling in the dark 

through these interesting times of ours. 

WASHINGTON GRAIN COMMISSION 



Apply here 

In an era of government belt tightening, it is rare to hear of a state agency that is 

hiring. But due to planned retirements and the expansion of grain export facilities, 

the grain inspection office of the Washington State Department of Agriculture 

(WSDA) is looking for a few good men and women. Brad Avy, assistant director of 

the Commodity Inspection Division at the WSDA, said 20 individuals out of 280 who 

applied, were recently brought in to go through a 12- to 15-month training program 

that is the first step toward inspection licensing. Avy said the agency is being very 

selective about potential hires. “One of the goals is to elevate the level of professionalism,” 

he said. “We want them to look at the job as a career path and not a stop 

gap.” Among the talents a grain inspector must possess is the ability to differentiate 

between a variety of grains, the ability to smell certain grain anomalies as well as to 

“climb on top of grain cars and not panic.” For information about the grain inspection 

program, go to www.youtube.com/watchv=kPRWMKh_0Uc&lr=1 

Bob Hoff (left) interviews Aaron Carter. Hoff retired earlier this year from the Northwest Ag News 

Network. 

Au Revoir, mon ami 

Eastern Washington wheat farmers who listen to Northwest Ag News Network will 

no longer hear the gravel-voiced Bob Hoff. The veteran agriculture journalist retired 

at the first of the year. Hoff was honored for his long career at the Washington 

Association of Wheat Growers’ annual meeting during the 2011 Tri-State convention 

held in November in Spokane. 

Catch 22 

Wheat farmers have first-hand 

knowledge of the protective effect of 

applying fungicides to protect wheat 

against rust, but not many of them 

realize that the fungicide application 

itself has been correlated with reducing 

falling number scores. While the 

decline is small, research in England 

where the climate demands the application 

of fungicides on a regular basis, 

the connection is clear. According 

to one of the many papers written 

on the subject going back to the 

mid-1980s, the 

effect is caused 

by greater alpha 

amylase activity 

though the exact 

mechanism 

by which fungicides 

affect 

falling numbers 

is not clear. It 

is thought fungicides 

could 

reduce falling 

number by retarding grain drying. 

Those who have followed the falling 

number controversy know that cool 

weather during heading can trigger 

alpha amylase activity which is indicative 

of sprout. This is also the sort of 

climatic condition, not to mention 

the timing, which calls for fungicide 

application. Mike Pumphrey, spring 

wheat breeder at Washington State 

University, believes the magnitude of 

the effect is smaller than the falling 

number variation among varieties. 

“The effect of fungicides on falling 

numbers is probably part of the low 

falling number issue, but not the biggest 

part. For a variety with a consistently 

high falling number, this effect 

would not make any difference,” he 

said, indicating the effect may, however, 

push those varieties already on 

the margin below the level at which 

point discounts are often applied. 


WGC REVIEW WL 

Weed scientist do over 

In March 2011, the Washington Grain Commission 

voted to contribute $1.5 million toward a weed science 

professorship at Washington State University. 

After a nationwide search and interviews with the 

two finalists, Rich Koenig, chair of the Department 

of Crop and Soil Sciences, said faculty members 

were unable to reach a consensus on the top 

candidate. “Both had excellent academic records. 

However, neither was deemed a good fit for the 

extension responsibilities,” he said. The decision was 

unanimous to continue the search, Koenig said. For now, the position 

is considered “open until filled.” 

Believe It Or Not! 

America’s longest running side-by-side 

comparison of organic and chemical 

agriculture, a 30-year study sponsored 

by the Rodale Institute, has found that 

after an initial decline in yields during 

the first few years of transition, the 

organic system not only rebounded to 

match or surpass the conventional system 

in yields, but far exceeded conventional 

income. Different organic systems were used including organic 

manure and organic legumes. Although the study looked at corn and 

soybean rotations primarily, wheat was added to the conventional 

system in 2004 and proved to be the study’s most profitable crop, 

netting $835/acre/year. The organic system was said to be especially 

cost effective during drought years when its yields were 31 percent 

higher than conventional. For the complete report go to 

www.rodaleinstitute.org/fst30years 

Into the red— 

wheat, that is 

The spring wheat breeding program at WSU has 

turned a corner. After decades of predominantly 

breeding and releasing varieties of soft white 

wheat, 65 percent of the program’s efforts are 

now directed toward developing hard red spring 

cultivars. Another 10 percent is directed toward 

hard white. Michael Pumphrey recently told the 

Washington Grain Commission that while the yield 

of hard red types will not be 100 percent of soft 

white, they will be close. Research and breeding efforts 

are focused on improving their ability to make 

protein. As for quality, Pumphrey said he would 

line up today’s WSU’s red spring varieties with any 

competitor available. 


Million Acres and MMT 

40.0 

35.0 

30.0 

25.0 

20.0 

15.0 

Wheat in Canada 

Acres Production Yield Poly. (Acres) 

1991 

1992 

1993 

1994 

1995 

1996 

1997 

1998 

1999 

2000 

2001 

2002 

2003 

2004 

2005 

2006 

2007 

2008 

2009 

2010 

1.40 

1.20 

1.00 

0.80 

0.60 

0.40 

0.20 

0.00 

Yield - MT/acre 

Acreage goes south up North 

Look at a graph of Canadian wheat acres from 1991 to 2010 

as Glen Squires, vice president of the Washington Grain 

Commission, recently did, and a not-so-subtle downward 

trend is the picture revealed. From more than 35 million 

acres, Canadian acreage declined to just over 20 million 

acres in 2010. Did the Canadian Wheat Board have 

anything to do with the decline Some might argue that 

farmers shifted out of wheat and into crops they could 

market themselves, like canola or peas and lentils. Now, 

the question is whether the demise of the board will lead 

farmers to see new marketing opportunities and reasons to 

increase acreage. 



WL 

WGC REVIEW 

That’s water 

over the dam 

Remember last spring when the 

Snake and Columbia rivers were running 

so high that Bonneville Power 

Administration (BPA) told wind turbine 

providers to shut down at nights and 

on weekends so that hydroelectric 

power generated by dams (at a significantly 

lower cost) would have someplace 

to go Turns out the Federal 

Energy Regulatory Commission told 

BPA they goofed. The electric system 

administration now has to come up 

with plans that don’t discriminate 

against wind generators in the event of 

a similar situation. 

Crystal ball gazing 

wheat:Quality 

Three keys of The Washington Grain Commission has hung its hat on ensuring 

farmers have access to the highest quality varieties. So when news 

comes that two Northwest millers have indicated a reluctance to take 

shipments of a specific variety, it is indeed a moment for concern. The 

variety in question, Xerpha, is a WSU cross between Eltan, an Eastern 

Washington soft white wheat workhorse, and Estica, a feed-type hard 

red winter wheat from Europe. Xerpha has proven to be an excellent 

yielder and, as yet, there has been no rumbling from export customers 

about the quality of grain they are receiving. It is important that 

farmers bear in mind the domestic millers’ concerns when it comes 

to Xerpha. There are many varieties available that exceed its quality 

attributes and nearly meet its agronomic performance. Keeping our 

customers happy is worth something. 

Judge not-good-enough steps down 

District Court Judge James Redden, who has rejected three salmon 

restoration plans from three U.S. presidents for the Columbia Basin 

hydroelectric system, announced in an email that he is taking himself off 

the case. Last August, he ruled the Obama’s update of the Bush restoration 

plan, known as a biological opinion, was vague. Although he left 

the plan in force for now, he said it was time to consider new options, 

including removing some of the dams. Redden, who is 82, gave no 

reason for asking the case be reassigned. Will Stelle, Northwest regional 

director of the NOAA Fisheries Service, doesn’t expect a new judge to 

divert much from the course set by Redden. “He has already laid out the 

road map for us,” Stelle said. “We will follow that road map.” 

Tom Mick, CEO of the Washington Grain Commission, recently attended a meeting 

in Minneapolis where the impact of the elimination of the Canadian Wheat 

Board (CWB) on the U.S. market was discussed. 

Although there is some concern about a flood of 

Canadian wheat headed south, Mick said experts at 

the meeting believe it doesn’t make economic sense 

to move wheat into the U.S. much beyond 40 miles 

from the border. Meanwhile, there is a belief that 

the quality of Canadian wheat will decline. Currently, 

growers can only plant a limited number of authorized 

varieties in Canada. With the elimination of the 

CWB, not only will farmers be able to market wheat 

on their own, they’ll be able to choose which varieties 

to grow. It’s expected that some U.S. wheat varieties 

will head north as a result. The question, which doesn’t have an answer for 

now, is how Canada’s foreign customers will react. Under the CWB they received 

special benefits, like cleaned wheat, at no cost. 

But not faster than 

a speeding bullet 

A report on National Public Radio highlighted 

the efficiency of the U.S. barge industry and 

barge company efforts in the Midwest to ensure 

the public knows exactly which transportation 

alternative is the most efficient. Television commercials 

tout barges as superior to railroads and 

trucks both in terms of fuel burned and emissions 

released into the atmosphere. To help the 

public understand barge capacity, the companies 

are redefining loads in terms more easily 

understood. For instance, 

instead of saying a 

barge can carry 1,500 

tons of wheat, they’re 

saying it carries the 

equivalent of 2.5 

million loaves of bread. 

Barges ply 12,000 miles of 

navigable waterways in the U.S. (including the 

360 miles along the Snake and Columbia rivers), 

but the locks which make the system possible 

have outlived their 50-year lifespan. A U.S. Army 

Corps of Engineer spokesman said the agency’s 

$180 million repair budget is only enough to fix 

things as they break and not enough for preventative 

maintenance. In all, the system needs 

$8 billion worth of work. 


WGC REVIEW WL 

Somebody’s got to do it 

You never know who you’re going to meet as 

chairman of U.S. Wheat Associates. Just ask 

Randy Suess who had a nice conversation with 

the 2011 Miss America, Teresa Scanlan, during 

the National Association of Farm Broadcasters’ 

meeting in Kansas City. Scanlan grew up on a 

wheat and cattle farm in Gering, Neb. At 17, she 

was the youngest contestant to have ever been 

chosen as Miss America, which came with a 

$50,000 scholarship. Suess said Scanlan was quite 

knowledgeable about wheat farming, and the 

two spent a lot of time comparing notes. 

(From left) U.S. Wheat Associates Chairman and Colfax farmer 

Randy Suess, 2011 Miss America Teresa Scanlan, National 

Association of Wheat President Wayne Hurst and U.S. Wheat 

Associates President Alan Tracy. 

What lies beneath, what lies on top 

If you missed Oregon State University (OSU) Plant Pathologist Dick Smiley’s fascinating 

webinar on nematodes or Tim Murray’s educational presentation on snow 

mold, you can still access both via a library of webinars hosted by the Idaho Wheat 

Commission. The three Northwest commissions have joined together to produce 

webinars on a variety of subjects of interest to wheat growers. The OSU scientist 

addressed the different types of nematodes found in the region, the extensive soil 

testing that has been conducted, how wheat reacts at various nematode population 

levels and what growers can do to combat the pests. Murray, a plant pathologist 

at WSU, updated viewers on the latest snow mold research and indicated how 

variety selection can make a difference in resistance. Go to www.idahowheat.org 

to access both programs. 

Hard work. What’s that 

“Are we going to outlaw children helping mom bake cookies in the kitchen because 

they might get their hand in the blender” That was the question posed by 

Scott Neufeld, a farmer in Oklahoma, about a proposed rule that would restrict the 

chores children can be hired to perform on the nation’s farms. Neufeld, who said 

he was driving combines for 10 hours at 14, believes the U.S. Department of Labor 

proposal would mean he couldn’t hire local kids to move hay or pull grain carts at 

harvest. The rule would bar most farm hands younger than 16 from jobs such as 

operating power equipment, branding and breeding animals and working atop 

ladders higher than six feet. The new regulations would not apply to children who 

work on farms owned by their parents, but it would apply to teens who work at 

farms owned by their uncles or grandparents. 

Making a splash 

Bayer CropSciences, which until recently 

had only been thought of as an 

agrichemical company, has jumped 

into the wheat breeding business 

big time. Its latest agreement is a 

nonexclusive accord for wheat breeding 

and germplasm access with South 

Dakota State University. The 

company has already signed 

wheat agreements with 

companies in Romania, 

France, Israel, Ukraine and 

Australia as well as the 

University of Nebraska- 

Lincoln. For at least the next 

10 years, due to Europe’s 

fear of agricultural innovation, 

Bayer’s breeding 

efforts will be done without 

using genetic engineering. 

Nevertheless, a spokesman 

believes that by turbo 

charging traditional 

classical breeding 

techniques, it will 

still be possible 

to develop heat 

and drought 

tolerant 

varieties. 

WHEAT LIFE JANUARY 2012 45 

WASHINGTON GRAIN COMMISSION

WL 

WGC REPORTS 

EPORTS RWASHINGTON GRAIN COMMISSION 

A favorable forecast 

popular Tri-STATE CONVENTION SPEAKER GIVES CONTExt FOR WEATHER CONCLuSIONS 


By Scott A. Yates 

Whether it’s wheat farming or long-range weather 

forecasting, the end product is what’s important, but 

it’s the process that makes it all possible. Which may be 

why wheat farmers so enjoy Art Douglas’ meteorological 

presentations. He doesn’t just anticipate Mother Nature’s 

moves, he provides the context for his conclusions. 

Douglas, who has been traveling to 

the Pacific Northwest almost every 

year since 1979, spoke at the Tri-State 

Wheat Convention in late November. 

The Washington Grain Commissionsponsored 

event drew a large and 

appreciative audience. It didn’t hurt that 

Douglas’ forecast through August 2012 

predicted a relatively benign weather 

pattern of adequate, but not heavy 

moisture, moderate temperatures and a 

dry harvest period for the region. 

Although the future should be similar 

to last year, this season won’t be a repeat 

of 2010/11 because of a cooler than 

normal body of water off the Pacific 

Northwest coast. This phenomenon is 

reducing evaporation, which means 

fewer clouds, which means less potential 

precipitation. As such, Douglas 

predicts a smaller amount of snow in the Cascade 

Mountains as well as “not having excess moisture 

through the winter” in wheat growing areas. 

“You are not going to have the heavy snow cover you 

experienced the last few years,” he said. 

The main factor influencing Douglas’ forecast, however, 

is the reemergence of a cool body of water off the west 

coast of South America. Called La Niña, it will dictate 

world crop conditions for the next three or four months. 

Meteorologist Art 

Douglas predicts 

a relatively benign 

weather pattern for 

the PNW through 

August of 2012: 

•Adequate, but not 

heavy moisture 

•Moderate 

temperatures 

•A dry harvest period 

for the region 

In the Northwest, it generally means adequate moisture. 

Its opposite number, called El Niño, is represented by a 

warm body of water off the west coast of South America. 

When El Niño dominates, it also has implications for 

much of the world. In the Northwest, it signals drought. 

It is good news for the region, therefore, that a La Niña 

reasserted itself this season. Other areas of the U.S. will 

not be as pleased. In the Southwest, 

including Texas north to Kansas and 

Colorado, La Niña means dry weather 

in a section of the country already reeling 

from a lack of moisture. 

“You have to be concerned about winter 

wheat production in the Southern 

plains,” Douglas said. 

At the same time, he cautioned 

his audience of wheat farmers from 

Washington, Oregon and Idaho that 

if El Niño develops this summer, they 

may face drought conditions going into 

the fall. 

European climate modeling data, 

which Douglas believes is among the 

most accurate, predicts an El Niño 

developing this summer after the 

Northwest wheat crop has been made. 

U.S. climate modeling is not as aggressive 

about its strength, but also foresees an El Niño 

replacing the current La Niña by summer. Australian 

models are the exception. Last year, Australian meteorologists 

were predicting an El Niño that didn’t form. This 

year they are predicting no El Niño. 

Like the Northwest, Australia is frequently hammered 

by drought during El Niño years. If the warm water off 

the west coast of South America reasserts itself in the 

June-August time frame, wheat growers Down Under 


WGC REPORTS WL 

Winter 2011 temperature and precipitation outlook 

Summer 2012 temperature and precipitation outlook 


Slides taken from Art Douglas’ presentation at the 2011 Tri-State Wheat Convention 

could be in for difficult times as their crop is still in its 

growing phase. Harvest in Australia begins in October 

and continues through January. 

Not all parts of the world are influenced by the La 

Niña/El Niño phenomenon and that includes Ukraine 

and Russia. However, Douglas said satellite vegetation 

maps show drought is redeveloping in much of the Black 

Sea area. Not only that, there was considerably more 

snow cover in the grain-growing region indicating cold 

temperatures and the potential for winter kill for wheat 

under drought stress. 

Back in the Northwest, Douglas’ prediction of an average 

growing season has one caveat: sunspots. Not long 

ago, the sun went for a long period without any sunspot 

activity. Now, at 120 sunspots, numbers are way above 

normal. 


WL 

WGC REPORTS 


Long-range weather forecaster Art Douglas (left) talks with Washington Grain Commissioner Hal Johnson at the Tri-State Wheat Convention. 

He said it is possible a massive solar flare 

could heat the atmosphere above Greenland, 

where solar energy initially strikes the earth, 

and create an upper stratospheric warming 

event. As opposed to expectations, that high 

altitude warming could result in a sudden 

chill in the Eastern U.S., a freezing event 

which has the potential to extend as far west 

as the Pacific Northwest. Unfortunately, solar 

flares can’t be forecast more than six or eight 

hours in advance. 

A coronal mass ejection hit Earth on Oct. 24, 2011 at 

approximately 2:00 p.m. EDT. The impact strongly 

compressed Earth’s magnetic field, directly exposing geosynchronous 

satellites to solar wind plasma and sparked 

an intense geomagnetic storm. As night fell over North 

America, auroras spilled across the Canadian border 

into the contiguous United States. A U.S. Department of 

Defense satellite photographed the crossing. 



Not so fast 

Man’s CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT quESTIONED 

It’s not that wheat farmers are skeptical of global warming and the potential for 

climate change, it’s that many of them believe man’s impact on the environment is 

puny compared to the planet’s self-regulating mechanisms. Art Douglas couldn’t 

agree more. 

Professor emeritus at Creighton University in Nebraska where he taught for 25 years, 

Douglas now lives in Arizona where he continues to consult. Although most mainstream 

scientists agree climate change caused by humankind’s CO2 contribution to the 

atmosphere is occurring, Douglas begs to differ. Not only that, he questions whether 

rising CO2 levels are necessarily a bad thing, especially when viewed against a historical 

record of ice cores that reveal levels 15 to 20 times higher during various prehistoric 

periods. 

“Don’t let anyone tell you CO2 is a bad for you and is going to kill us. It’s always been 

much higher than it is now,” he said, adding the earth has also tended to be warmer 

than it is now. 

Douglas calls on the work of Milutin Milankovic, a Serbian geophysicist and 

civil engineer who lived from 1879 to 1958, to back up his contention that man has 

very little to do with the changing climate. While interned in Hungary during the First 

World War, Milankovic worked out a theory on the occurrence of ice ages based on periodic changes in earth’s orbit in 

relation to the sun and the tilt of its axis. 

In a nutshell, the change in the tilt of the Earth’s axis and the placement of the earth in an elliptical orbit which sometimes 

takes it further from the sun creates a 100,000-year climate cycle. Although Milankovic’s work was just a theory 

during his lifetime, deep sea core samples have proven a cycle of rapid warm ups of the planet followed by a slow cooling 

down with a corresponding rise and fall in CO2. 

Showing a graph of the rhythm of warming and cooling over 400,000 years, Douglas asked, “Where are we now A 

rapid rise in temperature. Humans who are so worried about what we are doing with CO2 have got to realize we are 

in a Milankovic cycle that is at the peak of 

Sun spot numbers and 

global sea surface temperatures 

warming.” 

Another aspect of climate change unrelated 

to Milankovic’s work looks at sunspots. 

Douglas said there is a relationship 

between sunspots and the temperature of 

the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. 

“What is controlling our climate The 

Atlantic and the Pacific. What is causing the 

oceans to warm up and cool off Sunspots. 

We are seeing a natural phenomenon. 

There’s a lot more to the story than what 

is being told to you,” he said. “Should we 

be worried about CO2 in the atmosphere 

No, because it is not going to be there much 

longer.” 


Slide taken from Art Douglas’ presentation at the 2011 Tri-State Wheat Convention 


WL 

WGC REPORTS 

$MARTPHONES 

FARMERS 

FUTURE 

Efficiency with a rub 



Ask an Eastern Washington wheat farmer to list his 

most valuable pieces of equipment, and it’s unlikely the 

small device he carries in his pocket or in a holster on 

his belt would even make the inventory. And yet the cell 

phone—nowadays the smart phone—has dramatically 

increased farmers’ efficiency while improving their bottom 

lines. 

Nationwide, farmers are well aware of the advantages. 

A survey by the magazine, Successful Farming, found that 

94 percent of farmers own 

a mobile phone or smart 

phone—11 percent more 

than the general public. The 

same survey found that 

while farmers with internet 

access on their phones do 

less internet browsing than 

the general public, they 

access their email more 

frequently. 

Talk to a few farmers and 

it’s easy to understand the 

reason. Farmers view their 

phone primarily as a business 

tool, not an avenue for 

entertainment. Updating 

their Facebook page (in the 

unlikely event they have a 

Facebook page) or watching 

a television show or YouTube 

video, is not a priority. Getting marketing advice or finding 

an online parts manual for a piece of equipment— 

that’s a horse of a different color. 

Back in the beginning of the cell phone revolution, 

the ability of a farmer to make a phone call wherever he 

was located (at least, wherever he had a signal), initially 

gained converts to the technology. Suddenly, farmers 

Michelle Hennings, director of administration and finance for the Washington 

Association of Wheat Growers, shows off her iPhone, a must-have 

work accessory which comes complete with a photo of her children as a 

screen saver. 

who had been out of touch while they tilled or sprayed 

their fields, drove in their pickups or harvested their 

crops, were reachable, although in those early days, dead 

zones were a widespread problem. 

Conversing directly with another person is still a valuable 

function of the cell phone, but like a Leatherman 

tool, the advent of the smart phone has incorporated 

many different gadgets into a single device. So many, in 

fact, that one-on-one conversation is no longer the technology’s 

strong suit. 

That change is reflected 

nationally. A analysis of 

60,000 cell phone bills by 

the media research firm, 

the Nielsen Company, 

found the number of actual 

telephone calls declined 25 

percent from 2009 to 2010, 

and the length of those calls 

diminished as well. What’s 

happening 

Nicole Berg, who farms 

near Patterson, Wash., said 

it’s about efficiency. By 

texting—that is, sending a 

short, typed message—you 

save time. 

“It’s a quick, easy way to 

communicate, and unlike 

calling, you don’t have to ask 

about the kids or how things are going,” she said. 

Text messages are also superior over voice for another 

reason. Unlike phone conversations which need an 

uninterrupted line-of-sight link with a cell phone tower 

to avoid dropping the call, a text will be sent (or received) 

with even a momentary connection. The same thing goes 

for emails. 

At 40 and 36, Berg and her brother Steve are part of a 



Brett Blankenship (left), chairman of the domestic policy 

committee of the National Association of Wheat Growers 

and a farmer from Washtucna, and Wayne Hurst, an Idaho 

farmer who is president of NAWG, were all fingers as they 

communicated with the national office about the latest 

farm bill developments at the recent Tri-State Convention. 

Nicole Berg never knows when the camera 

on her smart phone will be called into action. 

Sometimes it is used to photograph a rainbow. 

Other times, it’s used to document a breakdown 

like this one. 

younger generation of farmers who have embraced smart phones as 

the high-powered pocket computers they are. Working a farm that 

is both irrigated and dryland, the ability to control and monitor irrigation 

pivots by phone has revolutionized the way they operate. 

“Back in the day, we used to need an individual—or two or 

three—on the farm 24 hours a day to physically go to the pump 

and push a button to start the water and troubleshoot. Now, we can 

turn on and off our pumps and pivots by our smart phones, we can 

see on a map which circles are running and which ones aren’t and 

if there are any in trouble,” she said. 

Berg said the ability to have control in the palm of their hands 

has saved the operation thousands of dollars and countless 

headaches. 

“It’s not just the extra help we don’t need to hire, it’s the extra 

pickup we can do without. And it’s so fast. If something goes 

wrong, there’s a phone alert, and we can transfer water to another 

pivot or shut down immediately so we don’t have lines blow up 

that will hurt the rest of the system,” she said. 

At 57, Steve Hair, who farms near Walla Walla, is close to the 

average age of the Eastern Washington wheat farmer demographic. 

That, however, is about all that’s typical about him. Hair wowed 

a team of Natural Resource Conservation Service personnel who 

came to his farm by using a Global Position System application on 

his phone to show them moving across the topography. The screen 

also highlighted the individual tracks he was thinking about put- 



WL 

WGC REPORTS 


ting into a permanent Conservation Reserve Program. 

Although he still uses a D-5 crawler tractor on his farm 

with levers instead of a steering wheel, Hair is a bit of a 

geek when it comes to his smart phone. He laughingly 

begs to differ, arguing mastery of the phone isn’t about 

being a geek, it’s about desire and patience. But then, in 

all seriousness, he’ll brief you on various phone operating 

systems including Froyo, Gingerbread and Ice Cream 

Sandwich. He’s very excited about trading up to Ice Cream 

Sandwich. Enough said. 

Despite his technical know-how, Hair’s No. 1 use of 

his phone is to access email. He’s learned to text mainly 

because that’s how his kids communicate. 

The camera function on cell phones may be old hat now, 

but Hair finds it to be incredibly useful. He uses the smart 

phone camera as a visual journal of what is happening on 

the farm. For instance, 

by taking a photo of 

his initial tillage, he’s 

not only able to see 

later how it looked, 

but the date attached 

to the photo tells him 

exactly when he started 

the operation. He also 

takes photos of parts he 

needs to ensure he gets 

what he’s ordered. If his 

daughter is gopher for 

the day, he can email 

her the photo on the 

A photo with the time it was taken attached 

can communicate a thousand 

words to the trucking company that didn’t 

adhere to its schedule said Nicole Berg. 

way to the dealership. 

And in a nod to social 

networking, he will 

use the camera’s video 

function to record “massive breakdowns,” which he posts 

to YouTube for a select few. 

Brett Blankenship, 53, who farms near Washtucna, 

initially purchased a smart phone to aid him as he went 

through the officer chairs of the Washington Association 

of Wheat Growers. Now, he is chairman of the domestic 

policy committee of the National Association of Wheat 

Growers and in the running to serve as an officer in that 

organization. 

Although his role as a WAWG officer is what compelled 

him to make the transition to a smart phone in order to 

check and respond to emails on-the-fly, he subsequently 

became aware of its capabilities for the farm. 

“Once I had the phone, I discovered the other things it 

could do, such as checking the markets and being more 

Sometimes, a single phone just isn’t enough. Kara Rowe, editor of Wheat 

Life and outreach coordinator of WAWG, packs two: one for work and one 

for her personal life. 

During a break at a recent Washington Grain Commission meeting, Mike 

Miller checks the latest wheat prices. 

What would a meeting be without a cup of coffee and a Blackberry 



responsive to the moves on the board of trade. I have it 

set up now that I get text alerts every half hour when the 

market is open. Plus, I receive email notifications from 

some marketing advice groups. That, and I have cell 

phone capability to call my broker. All of those things are 

now happening at the same time,” he said. 

Does it make a difference Blankenship said if nothing 

else, the connectivity keeps him focused on the idea that 

marketing is a year-round endeavor. 

“This is not the old days when, after harvest, you 

counted your bushels and sold a contract or two. Now, it 

is a 12-month plan,” he said. 

Brit Ausman, who farms near Asotin, Wash., and is the 

newest member of the Washington Grain Commission, 

has had cell phones since the mid-1990s, and he agrees 

they have helped make him more efficient. Accessing 

the weather, the market, using the calendar function, 

GPS and texting and emailing throughout the day has 

provided him with a range of capabilities to stay on top 

of an increasingly complicated operation. 

And yet Ausman, 40, sees a dark side to all that productivity. 

He feels it is rude and unproductive when he 

goes to a meeting and 60 percent of the room is sending 

or reading a text or on the internet Facebooking. 

“We are losing the face-to-face contact of a meeting. It 

is almost as if the world is becoming disconnected from 

personal conversation, and I don’t think that is good,” he 

said. 

He admits he’s part of the problem. Like Berg, he likes 

the text function because it’s quick and direct when he 

doesn’t want to spare time for an actual conversation. 

But removing face-to-face contact and now even voiceto-voice 

contact can lead to conflicted “conversations” 

that result in miscommunication due to a text or email 

without an emotional connection. 

For Ausman, the cell phone opened Pandora’s Box, 

and the smart phone is just the latest iteration. On his 

farm, the linkage will become even more sophisticated 

next year when his sprayer is connected to the internet. 

Thanks to new software from a precision ag company, 

he will be able follow the sprayer in real time from his 

phone. It’s not that he necessarily needs the ability to 

know what his sprayer is doing at any given moment, 

but by connecting its functions to the internet, he will 

have an automatic record of all of his chemical applications, 

something he believes will be more important as 

time goes on. 

Like most farmers, Ausman occasionally chooses to 

turn his phone off. Reading bedtime stories to his young 

children is one of those interludes. As for time to reflect 

and plan without being disturbed by endless interruptions, 

he has two intermissions. One is while he’s taking 

a shower. The other is when he’s on an airplane. 

Unfortunately, as airlines begin to offer high speed 

internet connections on their flights, it appears that for 

smart farmers like Ausman, the only respite from smart 

phones and today’s 24/7 business of farming will be taking 

longer showers. 


Email is one of Nicole Berg’s most used functions on her phone—and it’s 

not all about the farm. 

Some people like to dress up their phones, like Mary Palmer Sullivan, 

program director for the Washington Grain Commission. 


WL 

WGC REPORTS 

Belt tightening at FSA farmers 


Patience is a virtue the State Executive Director of 

Washington State’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) is asking 

wheat farmers to practice in 2012. 

Cutbacks at the Washington State FSA due to a declining 

administrative/operational budget will necessitate 

growers planning further ahead and paying for some 

of the materials previously supplied by the agency. Due 

to a program of incentivizing retirement, it is also likely 

that farmers who have worked with specific staff in the 

past will no longer see those people 

behind county office counters. Not 

only that, those positions will probably 

remain vacant for now. 

The number of permanent, fulltime 

employees at the state FSA will 

decline from 130 to 118 by September 

2012. Judy Olson, who serves as state 

executive director and also operates 

a wheat farm with her husband, 

Rich, expects staffing reductions will 

all be achieved through retirement. 

Meanwhile, funding for temporary 

employees who are brought in to 

county offices to help during busy 

sign-up periods has been eliminated, 

and no overtime has been authorized in more than a 

year. 

Olson has been making the rounds of agricultural 

organizations to let them know what to expect, but even 

that is a problem. The state agency’s travel budget has 

been cut by more than 50 percent, and there is no money 

for per diem, which means overnight travel is out. Olson 

made it clear, however, that funding is still available to 

make spot checks of farmers’ field or to measure grain 

bins to ensure compliance under the programs the 

agency administers. 

With belt tightening extending to items like paper, 

printer ink cartridges and postage, farmers and their 

landlords will no longer receive printed newsletters. 

Monthly electronic newsletters will replace them and 

will be available on the Washington State FSA website 

at www.fsa.usda.gov/wa. For those individuals without 

high speed internet, Olson said various ideas are being 

considered to reach them, including leaving a few printed 

newsletters at county office counters or at locations 

where farmers gather. Individual letters will continue to 

be sent, but not bulk mailings. 

The cutbacks are extending even to the materials 

farmers have come to expect over the years. Olson said 

farmers will be limited to one set of maps and one set of 

documentation. If they need additional copies for landlords, 

they will either have to make copies themselves or 

pay the FSA to do it. It will be possible for county offices 

to download the information onto thumb drives or disks 

for farmers, but Olson noted that such storage devices 

must come to the offices in new, unopened packaging 

due to security concerns. 

The operational cutbacks are part of a national mood 

aimed at making government smaller 

by reducing federal agency funding 

while attempting to balance the 

budget. This national debate sets the 

scene for what members of Congress 

submit regarding annual appropriations 

for all federal agencies, Olson 

said. In Washington, the state FSA 

cuts amount to about 10 percent from 

the Fiscal Year 2011 funding level. 

These administrative/operational 

funding reductions are not expected 

to change deadlines for sign-ups 

which are set nationally. That could 

create challenges, especially in some 

county offices which will be left shorthanded 

by retirements. 

“We are urging patience, and we are encouraging 

producers to make appointments, especially where that 

hasn’t traditionally been the case,” Olson said, adding 

that a register will be established that can extend service 

to farmers past the imposed deadlines. She cautions, 

however, that only those who have attempted to make a 

timely appointment will be included on the list. Because 

the FSA doesn’t have a say in who retires, office staffing 

around the state is likely to be unbalanced until staff can 

be repositioned. Staff may be asked to change duty station 

assignments to assist with workload demands. 

Some county offices which are understaffed may be 

shut part of the week, and farmers who don’t phone 

ahead may be greeted by a sign on the door noting the 

closure. In Eastern Washington, Asotin and Garfield, 

Columbia and Walla Walla, Okanogan and Ferry and 

Chelan and Douglas counties all have shared management, 

although each county has its own county 

committee. 

Additional temporary shared management situations 

may occur as employees retire. Shared management 

refers to a single county executive director managing 

multiple county offices. 



Nitrogen and protein 

go together like a horse and carriage 

Ensuring PROTEIN LEVELS IN HARD WHEATS 

By Rich Koenig 

The 2011 crop season proved challenging when it came 

to making protein for Eastern Washington’s hard wheat 

crops. Above-average precipitation and an extended cool 

spring and early summer combined to increase grain 

yields while driving down grain protein concentrations. 

Managing nitrogen (N) for grain protein in hard wheat 

is a moving target, and there is 

no one-size-fits-all solution across 

Publications available 

online for more reading 

Three briefs from the Washington 

Grain Commission: 

Hard white spring wheat N and 

protein management: http://css.wsu. 

edu/people/faculty/soils/Koenig_ 

files/Hard_White_Spring_Wheat_ 

Nitrogen_Protein_Brief_WGC.pdf 

Hard red spring wheat N and 



files/Hard_Red_Spring_Wheat_ 


Hard red winter wheat N and 



files/Hard_Red_Winter_Wheat_ 


The PNW publication Nitrogen 

Management for Hard Wheat Protein 

Enhancement: http://www.cals. 

uidaho.edu/edComm/pdf/pnw/ 

pnw0578.pdf 

The WSU Dryland winter wheat 

fertilizer guide: http://cru.cahe.wsu. 

edu/CEPublications/eb1987/eb1987. 

pdf 

the state’s diverse rainfall zones. 

Year-to-year variability based on 

weather and variability within 

fields adds to the complexity. 

There are, however, key principles 

involved in managing N to produce 

hard wheat with high grain 

protein. 

Recommendations given here 

are based on research conducted 

at Washington State University 

and by the fertilizer industry, 

three hard wheat “briefs” published 

in 2005 by the Washington 

Grain Commission and the experience 

of various crop consultants 

serving eastern Washington 

agriculture. 

Planning. Wheat yield 

and grain protein are influenced 

by moisture and N availability. 

For hard wheat, the amount of N 

necessary to achieve high grain 

protein is slightly above that necessary 

to achieve maximum yield. 

An accurate estimate of yield 

is critical. If you underestimate 

yield, you will under-fertilize 

for protein. Predicting yield then 

is the largest source of error in 

managing fertilizer for high grain 

protein. 

A simple worksheet for calculating 

fertilizer N requirements for hard wheat (Table 

1) permits a grower to establish yield goals based on 

historic trends or measured soil moisture and in-season 

precipitation. Nitrogen requirements are approximately 

3.6 lbs/bushel for 14 percent protein DNS, 3.2 lbs/bushel 

for 12.5 percent protein hard white, and 3.0 lbs/bushel 

for 11.5 percent hard red winter wheat. These figures 

represent the total (soil+fertilizer) 

N requirement for these crops. 

Growers never apply this much 

fertilizer N because the total is 

always discounted by residual 

N maintained in the soil. Testing 

is critical to assess this residual. 

Sulfur (S) is also recommended 

at a ratio of 1 lb S for each 10 to 15 

lbs of N applied to hard wheat. 

Most of the N required by 

wheat is taken up during vegetative 

growth before flowering and 

contributes directly to grain yield. 

Vegetative N is later transported 

to the kernels to form protein 

during grain filling. Early season 

N availability is critical to 

make yield and a moderate level 

of grain protein. Additional N 

absorbed by wheat after flowering 

primarily increases grain protein. 

In dryland situations, N stranded 

near the surface in dry soil 

will not be available for absorption 

and protein formation later 

in the growing season. The key is 

to manage fertilizer application 

timing so that some N is present 

near the surface early in the season 

to meet plant requirements 

for vegetative growth and yield, 

and some is present deeper in the 

soil profile (3 to 4 feet) later in the 

season, where active rooting and 



WL 

WGC REPORTS 

Table 1. Worksheet for calculating dryland hard wheat nitrogen needs 

A 

N supply needed by the crop to meet yield and protein goals 

B 

1. yield goal: bu/acre 

2. N supply needed: bu/acre (line A1) x 

1 

lbs N/bu = 

Soil inventory 

lb N/ac 


1. Current soil test N (ammonium + nitrate) 

(ammonium in the first foot only, nitrate in all depths 

sampled) 

2. Credit from organic matter release 

(15 to 20 lb N per % organic matter in the soil test) 

3. Debit for residue decomposition 

(35 lb/ac for winter wheat, 30 lb/ac for spring wheat 

and 25 lb/ac for barley as the preceding crop) 

4. Other N credits 

5. Total soil N inventory (lines 1 through 4) = 

N to apply (fertilizer recommendation) 

C line A2 – line B5 = 

1 

Enter values of 3.0 for hard red winter, 3.2 for hard white, or 3.6 for DNS. 

water absorption are occurring, to 

ensure high grain protein. 

For hard red and white winter 

wheat in low rainfall zones, N 

applications in the fallow period 

or just before or at planting are normally 

adequate to achieve the optimum 

soil distribution described 

above. For DNS and hard white 

spring, fall application of a portion 

of the total N requirement has been 

used to promote movement of some 

N deeper into the profile where it 

will be available to the crop later in 

the growing season. Fall application 

may reduce the potential for “burning 

up” (stimulating excessive 

vegetative growth and depleting 

soil moisture) a spring wheat crop 

that can occur when high rates of N 

are applied at or near planting. Fall 

fertilization also allows growers 

Yield and protein 

Yield-Protein 101: Cereals 

Low Moderate Adequate Excessive 

Grain yield 

Grain protein 

+ lb/acre 

+ lb/acre 

- lb/acre 

+ lb/acre 

Nitrogen (N) availability 

- 

lb N/ac 

= 

lb N/ac 



The three hard wheat “briefs” published in 2005 by the Washington Grain Commission. 

to re-evaluate spring wheat yield potentials before the 

remainder of the N is applied at or near planting. 

The timing of fall fertilization for DNS and hard white 

spring is critical. Early fall application is desirable in low 

rainfall areas to ensure adequate time for some of the 

N to convert from the ammonium form, which is not 

mobile in soil, to nitrate (mobile form) and move down 

the profile with over-winter precipitation. In high rainfall 

zones, late fall application after soil temperatures have 

dropped below 50º F is recommended. This not only limits 

the conversion process, it also helps to prevent excessive 

movement within the soil profile and the potential 

loss of nitrates through leaching out of the root zone. 

Monitoring. When yield potentials increase due 

to favorable weather conditions, grain protein potential 

will decrease unless additional N is supplied to compensate 

for the higher yield. Hard wheat growers should 

periodically evaluate whether the yield potential of the 

crop has increased and ask themselves whether the N 

supply (Table 1) is still adequate given the higher yield 

potential. If not, supplemental N should be applied as 

early as possible to adjust for the higher yield potential. 

Tissue sampling can be used as a guide to determine 

whether a crop contains adequate nutrients at various 

growth stages. Whole-plant samples can be tested for N 

and S content and compared to established critical values 

to determine sufficiency. Many commercial agronomic 

labs in Washington are capable of performing tissue testing 

services. For DNS, a flag leaf N concentration of 4.5 

percent at flowering is associated with 14 percent grain 

protein. 

Adjusting. In situations where an adjustment in 

the N program is necessary to respond to a higher yield 

potential, an in-season application may be warranted. 

Late winter/early spring applications of N can effectively 

supplement pre-plant applications and help achieve yield 

and protein goals. Research shows the earlier in-season 

applications can be made on dryland winter wheat the 

better. Positive yield and protein response diminishes 

with later in-season applications and may lower test 

weights in low rainfall areas. Some consultants also recommend 

a small amount of S be applied with in-season 



WL 

WGC REPORTS 


N applications to improve grain 

protein content. 

In dryland systems, N is most 

effective in influencing grain yield 

and protein content when it is 

absorbed through the root system. 

However, some growers have successfully 

used foliar applications of 

fluid urea or urea ammonium nitrate 

to manage grain protein content 

in hard wheat. Research shows 

this practice is highly dependent on 

favorable weather conditions (cool, 

moist) after foliar applications are 

made. 

WSU’s wheat breeders have made 

great strides in developing superior 

hard wheat varieties for Eastern 

Washington’s climatic conditions, 

but their efforts can only go so far. 

Farmers are key to ensuring the 

varieties of hard red winter, hard 

red spring and hard white wheat 

meet the protein levels which will 

reimburse them for the additional 

management the crop demands. 

Rich Koenig is a soil scientist and 

chairman of the Department of Crop 

and Soil Science at Washington State 

University 

State statistic service 

changing to handle cuts 


The National Agricultural Statistic Service (NASS) has already announced 

that it intends to eliminate an array of commodity-related 

program reports, but what could be even a bigger change would see 

the agency’s main functions consolidate into nine regional centers. 

David Knopf, director 

for the Washington Field 

Office of NASS, made it 

clear the change is still 

a proposal, but it has 

been reported elsewhere 

that a senior executive 

team within NASS has 

accepted the plan and is 

awaiting approval from 

the U.S. Department of 

Agriculture. The initiative 

would streamline the 

agency’s 45 field offices 

into nine regional offices 

while maintaining a token 

presence of two employees 

in each state. Currently, 

Washington State’s field 

office has 16 employees. 

Under the proposal, 

many of the functions 

currently performed within Washington would be transferred to a 

regional hub based in Sacramento. State and county estimates would 

be done from the consolidated location. Part of the task of the two individuals 

who would remain behind would be to serve as commodity 

organization contacts and to work with the state’s 70, part-time enumerators 

who gather information for reports that can’t be conducted on 

a regional basis. 

Knopf said it’s anticipated the 14 individuals who would not be staying 

at the state office, nine of whom are statisticians, would have the 

opportunity to transfer to a regional office or receive an early retirement 

buy-out, among other possible options. Besides California, the 

regional hubs would be located in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Florida, 

Iowa, Missouri, South Dakota, Texas and Colorado. It’s expected each 

hub would have a workforce of approximately 45 employees. In creating 

the regional offices, NASS senior staff is said to have considered 

which states have similar cash receipts, agricultural issues, existing 

survey programs as well as the average workload of the current state 

staff. 



The National Agricultural Statistics Service can trace 

its roots to 1863, the year after Abraham Lincoln created 

the agriculture department. Recently, the agency 

revealed it would eliminate numerous reports based 

on a “mission and user-based criteria” to ensure only 

the most important and useful data remained available. 

Wheat reports were unscathed. 

Knopf, who has worked for the agency for 28 years, 

said the current proposal has rocked his world, but 

obviously it wouldn’t have been floated were it not for 

the realities of the funding being apportioned to federal 

agencies. 

“We internally have always felt we are a NASS family, 

and we have always enjoyed the structure of state field 

offices that has given us the chance to work with a lot of 

people across the country. The structure proposed is the 

most significant change I have experienced, but obviously, 

I have to get us moving toward the new structure 

if we go that route,” he said. 

Money—or the lack of it—is the driver in all of the 

changes that have either come to pass or are being proposed. 

Various initiatives have already been put in place, 

including video teleconferencing, computer-assisted personal 

interviewing using iPads, the creation of a national 

operations center which opened in the fall of 2011 in St. 

Louis to centrally process data and the creation of virtual 

networks which have transferred computer data storage 

from each state to “the cloud,” as centralized locations 

are referred to. The fifth initiative, what Knopf calls “the 

beast,” is system standardization which would promote 

data collection and data processing efficiencies. 

Officials within Washington’s NASS office have spent 

many years pointing out the importance of grower 

cooperation in agricultural surveys. Growers, on the 

other hand, indicate that as their numbers decline they 

are experiencing survey fatigue. Will growers show even 

less desire to answer telephone surveys knowing the 

enumerator (interviewer) is located at a distant call center 

Knopf said one of the reasons St. Louis was chosen 

as a national operation center was because of the area’s 

neutral accent. 

The Washington Grain Commission pays the 

Washington field office of NASS $11,600 to conduct a 

survey of wheat and barley varieties planted in the state 

each year. The WGC also pays enumerators to collect harvested 

wheat for testing at the Wheat Marketing Center 

in Portland. Other commodity groups also share the cost 

of various data collection efforts, a function that Knopf 

said will remain very important even if the agency does 

consolidate into regional centers. 


A NASS interviewer uses an iPad for data collection for the September Agricultural Survey. 

United States DEPARTMENT OF AGRICulture PHOTO 


WIDE WORLD OF WHEAT 

Photo by ANDREW SMITH 

A New Holland combine harvester dispenses its grain 

into a trailer as it harvests a field of wheat just east of 

Childrey, Oxfordshire, Great Britain. 

Low water in Europe’s Rhine and Danube 

rivers helped Britain’s wheat exports 

climb to their highest levels in nearly a 

year. The river levels meant some European 

exporters have only been able to partially 

load ships and barges. Recent rains have replenished 

Rhine water levels, and traffic was 

returning to normal at the end of the year. 

Danube levels remain low, sapped by a lack 

of rain evident by the poor health of winter 

grain seedlings in Ukraine, where the river 

flows into the Black Sea. U.S. Department of 

Agriculture foreign staff in Belgrade report 

100 barges are blocked in Serbia, a situation 

they fear may not improve until spring. 

Britain is the European Union’s third-ranked 

producer of wheat. 

Russian wheat is cheap, but at least 

a third of it is also substandard. Research 

carried out by specialists with the Center for 

Quality Assessment, a division of the Russian 

Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary 

Surveillance, checked three million tons of 

grain and grain products in August. 

They found about 987,000 tons of 

grain destined for the domestic 

market and 920,000 tons allocated 

for export was substandard. Most 

of the grain was contaminated by 

pests. The Russian government 

does not monitor the quality and 

safety of grain and its products, 

but recently Russian President 

Dmitry Medvedev said a reinstatement of state grain inspection is a 

possibility. 

A Federal Court judge ruled that Canada’s agriculture minister broke 

the law by failing to put the elimination of the Canadian Wheat Board to 

a vote of farmers. Gerry Ritz isn’t impressed by the power of the judicial 

branch, however, and said the ruling will not change his plans to create 

an open market for prairie wheat and barley growers by next August. The 

CWB held a vote of its own, and 62 percent of farmers cast their ballots in 

favor of maintaining the board. At the time, Ritz said the vote was nothing 

more than an opinion poll and not binding. But Justice Douglas Campbell 

sided with a group calling itself “Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board.” 

They had argued that Ritz violated the CWB Act that calls for the minister to 

consult with the wheat board and hold a farm vote before making substantial 

changes to the agency’s marketing power. The government plans to 

appeal the judge’s ruling and is telling growers to act as if the board will be 

abolished. 

Egypt has given tentative 

approval to adding Hungary 

and Bulgaria to its official list 

of wheat providers. The two 

countries recently made the 

request during a conference of 

wheat importers and exporters 

in Geneva. First, Egyptian officials 

want to examine the wheat 

Laszlo BALOGH/REUTERS 

quality in both countries. Until Farmers harvest wheat at a field near Mezokovesd, 

130 km (80.8 miles) east of Budapest, 

recently, almost 90 percent of 

Hungary. 

Egypt’s imports this year were 

coming from Russia. Egypt is the world’s largest wheat importer. 

Officials in Ukraine say they have experienced the driest autumn in 

50 years. That translated to emerged wheat that was 22 percent smaller 

on Dec. 8 than a year earlier. Winter wheat sprouted on 12.7 million acres, 

down from 16.3 million acres a year earlier. It’s expected crops on 3.2 million 

acres won’t emerge at all. 

South kOREA is developing a growing interest in consuming whole 

grain products, which is the basis of a three-year project to investigate 

whole wheat processing and quality. Washington 

State University Cereal Chemist Byung-Kee 

Baik and South Korean Scientist Induck Choi 

are funded by a $220,000 grant from the 

International Technology Cooperation Center 

in Korea. They will investigate various milling 

methods that affect flour particle size and 

processing quality with the goal to develop 

novel flour processing technologies to 

make whole wheat behave more like white 

flour in baking. Ultimately, they want to 


develop a protocol for selecting varieties 

that are most suitable for making whole 

wheat products. Wheat is the second major 

staple in Korea, and close to 99 percent of it 

is imported. 

The Port Kembla Grain Terminal facilities are owned 

and operated by GrainCorp Limited on land owned 

by the Port Kembla Port Corporation. 

Lack of investment in rail infrastructure 

over the last 50 years has caused 

Australia’s New South Wales government 

to lift a long-standing curfew on 

grain trucked to Port Kembla’s terminal. The 

terminal now has approval to receive grain 

by road around the clock due to the inability 

of rail to adequately service the location. 

GrainCorp pushed for the change because 

of the fear grain exports would be lost to 

other ports, despite resident’s concerns 

about increased traffic, pollution, noise and 

road damage. Moving grain by truck to port 

is expected to cost an extra $10 million and 

increase greenhouse emissions by 200,000 

tons annually. Despite the transportation difficulties, 

Australia is poised to export more 

than 20 million tons of wheat, helping cap 

gains in global prices. 

A nitrogen grain storage method is being 

promoted by China’s Grain Reserve 

Corp. as a method to reduce food losses and 

prevent food contamination and environmental 

pollution caused when using chemicals. 

The company has so far stored 3.5 

billion kilograms of grains with the nitrogen 

moderation method. A 2-billion-kilogram, 

nitrogen-based grain reserve project is currently 

under construction. China Grain, also 

known as Sinograin, said nitrogen moderation, 

which displaces oxygen with nitrogen 

in a sealed storage space, could be a new 

chapter in the safety of food storage and 

food savings. 

There’s a lot of talk about whether or not 

agriculture can feed 9 billion people, but ac- 

cording to Simon Bentley, head of grains at LMC International, the Black 

SEA region has tens of millions of hectares of additional and accessible arable 

land that can be sown to grain and oilseeds. “If we get the price, we will 

get the area response,” he said. Already, since 2004, the area has added more 

than 17 million acres to planted grains. “It’s provided most of the swing capacity 

in the world grain market. When you look around the world at where 

agriculture can expand, two regions jump out, South America and this one,” 

he said. Black Sea wheat producing nations are 

generally thought of as Russia, Ukraine and 

Kazakhstan. 

Soap sold in Japan which contained “wheat 

derived substances” was responsible for 471 

cases of wheat allergy, including swelling, 

rashes and breathing difficulties. At least 66 

people had to be hospitalized as a result of 

using the “Drop of Tea” soap, which was sold by 

mail order. 

World wheat production is up, and prices are 

down, which is usually a signal to pull back on acreage. Not in France, 

however, where the European Union’s largest grain producer is boosting the 

planting of winter soft wheat to 12.5 million acres, matching the record set in 

2008. The average cost to produce a ton of wheat in France next year is estimated 

at between 140 to 145 euros, based on average yields. In the first part 

of December 2011, milling wheat for delivery after harvest 2012 was pegged 

at 175 euros ($233.87). 

Drought during Kenya’s main wheat growing season slashed production, 

missing output targets by close to two-thirds. The Agriculture Ministry 

said the country harvested 2.18 million, 90-kg bags during its long rainy 

season against a target of 5.69 million bags. Kenya is a net importer of wheat 

with consumption of about 1.4 mmt ton per year. Domestic production 

stands at about 200,000 mt. 

Kazakhstan, the world’s largest landlocked country with a territory 

bigger than Western Europe, harvested a record 24 million tons of wheat in 

2011/12, a new record. Spring varieties constitute about 85 percent of the 

country’s grain 

production. 

Phenomenal 

weather conditions 

through 

the growing 

period generated 

a huge amount 

of lower-thanusual 

quality 

wheat, while lack 

of snow through the beginning of November allowed farmers to complete 

the harvest. According to the agricultural ministry, Kazakhstan may increase 

grain exports by 150 percent to 15 mmt. Kazakhstan has 230 million acres of 

arable land and 99 million acres of “plough” land. “We have only used 16 million 

hectares (40 million acres) this year and have enough room for potential 

for growth,” said Vice Minister of Agriculture Marat Tolibayev. 


WL 

FEATURE 

Getting the word out 

A collection of colorful cards capture the history of the farm implement evolution in the PNW 

By Norman Reed 

My collection of colorful, very early advertising cards intrigued 

me to research the men and their firms resulting in this 

brief history of our farm implement dealers, their fascinating 

founders and the equipment that they provided to build our territory’s 

great farming success. 

When pioneer settlers first arrived in the Oregon 

Territory, they came with little more than the clothes on 

their backs. They probably had a shovel, ax, scythe and 

saw, and that was about it. The farming techniques that 

they knew had changed very little in the last hundreds 

of years. In Champoeg, Toledo, Salem, Silverton and 

Walla Walla, they found great farm land and were able to 

carve out subsistence for their families, but even with the 

outstanding soil, profitable farming, as we have come to 

know it, was not possible with such primitive tools. 

During those same years, great changes were occurring 

in American agriculture. By 1847, Cyrus McCormick 

in Rockbridge County, Va., had perfected the reaper to 

harvest grain. By 1863 in Racine, Wisc., Jerome I. Case had 

improved on the complicated grain threshing machines. 

Deere, Deering, Oliver and Russell were improving plows, 

binders, engines and other implements. These changes 

revolutionized farming throughout the United States and 

world. Not all inventions came from the east. The combined 

harvester and the track tractor were invented here 

in the west, with Daniel Best and other Oregon men making 

significant inputs. 

At this same time another idea began: marketing and 

advertising through the lithographic printing of colorful, 

giveaway cards. These cards, now called Victorian Trade 

Cards, were the first colored images ever produced in 

mass quantity by marketers, and they were distributed to 

farmers who really were the first buyers of large, massmanufactured 

items. Previously, only small, black ink line 

drawings were available in magazines, and they promoted 

household items like patent medicine. This article introduces 

the companies who used the cards as advertising 

to help them bring improved agricultural methods to 

Oregon, Washington and Idaho. It tells of the fascinating 

men who built these companies and describes how the 

companies helped our region. 

Knapp, Burrell & Company 

In those early days, after a firm member had gone east to place the orders, 

equipment had to be shipped around the horn of South America. 

Managing such an enterprise took great skill and courage, and Martin 

Strong Burrell had it. He may have been the most diverse businessman 

of the implement dealers. He came to Portland from Ohio in 

1856 and gained employment as a bookkeeper for the firm of Knapp 

& Hull commission merchants. In 1860, Hull retired, and Burrell 

became a partner with his cousins, Jabez B. Knapp and Richard 

B. Knapp, in Knapp, Burrell & Co. on Front and Alder streets. 

Soon, agricultural implements grew from just a department to 

the whole interest of the company. Burrell’s abilities allowed 

him time to found a system of national banks in Baker City, 

Pendleton, Walla Walla, Dayton and Colfax. He also invested heavily in 

a fleet of sailing vessels managed by a New Bedford, Mass., sea captain. 

In 1870, Jabez B. Knapp sold his interest to his brother Richard. Burrell died in 1885, and 

Richard Knapp carried on as president. As the business prospered, so did Portland, as it grew from a 

thousand inhabitants into the region’s major city by the turn of the century. The Knapps and Burrell demonstrated 

aggressive, progressive leadership over the years. Jabez B. Knapp, who sold out in 1870, went across the Columbia 

River and started a lumber business and cement mines at a site that became the town of Knappton. 

MAJOR LINES: McCormick reapers and binders, farm and mill machinery, fine carriages 

LOCATIONS: Seattle, Spokane, Walla Walla, Colfax, Wash.; La Grande, Ore. 


FEATURE WL 

Charles H. Dodd & Company 

From the beginning, Charles H. Dodd became one of the most 

influential people in the territory’s agricultural future. He established 

supply depots throughout the territory. He loaned equipment to 

farmers expecting payment only when the crops came in and were 

marketed. As early as 1869, thousands of dollars in equipment was 

loaned. When Indian wars drove farmers from their homes, Dodd 

suffered great losses, but his reputation as one who the farmers 

could rely on was cemented. 

Dodd was the most adventuresome of the men who formed 

the implement companies. He was born of English parents in 

New York City on Feb. 26, 1838. He was given a fine education and 

grounding by relatives in Stamford, Conn., and entered Yale College at the age of 15. 

Though he intended to continue at Yale until graduation, near the end of his sophomore year in 

1855, a recruiter convinced him and three classmates 

to go to Panama to supervise crews of workmen building a 

railroad line across the Isthmus of Panama. While on that job, 

he came down with the dreaded Chagres fever, but recovered 

in time to finish the job. He gained experience in engineering, 

construction and crew supervision. After the Panama experience, 

Dodd tried gold mining, then went to San Francisco and 

joined a hardware firm. Needing a strong and resourceful man 

to recover a lost or stolen cargo vessel in South America, the 

Peabody Co. of Boston hired Dodd, and he began the search. 

He traveled much of South America before finding the vessel 

in Montevideo, Uruguay. After another brief foray into the 

hardware business, Dodd joined the Arizona Rifle Company 

and went off to fight in the border wars with Mexico. 

Marriage convinced the adventuresome Dodd to settle down, and he came to Salem, Ore., and established a hardware 

store in 1866. In 1868, he moved to Portland and opened Hawley, Dodd and Co. Hawley was a San Francisco 

financial backer. In 1880, Dodd bought out Hawley and became the sole proprietor. 

I have not found reference to when the company ended, but presumably it carried on for many years. 

Dodd became a prominent leader of Portland affairs as chairman of the School 

Board, president of the Board of Trade (Chamber 

of Commerce) and chair of the State 

Immigration Board. He was certainly a hard 

working and brilliant businessman. His 

sons were educated in the east at Amherst 

College, and then spent their lives back there. 

Charles Dodd died in Portland on June 12, 

1921. 

MAJOR LINES: Schuttler wagons, Buckeye 

mowers and reapers, Altman threshers, Deere 

plows 

LOCATIONS: Portland, Albany, Athena, Ore.; 

Spokane, Pullman, Colfax, Walla Walla, Wash.; 

Moscow, Lewiston, Idaho. 


WL 

FEATURE 

Mitchell 

& Lewis 

Co. 

During the 

mid 1800s, two 

young men in 

Wisconsin could 

not know that 

they would 

form businesses 

in 

Portland, Ore., 

that would last into the 

21st century. The first, 19-year-old William 

Henry Mitchell, left Wisconsin by oxen wagon for Olympia, 

Wash., in 1853. Though he was the eldest son of Henry Mitchell, 

the founder of the Mitchell Lewis Wagon Company in Racine, 

Wisc., he wanted to strike out for himself. He entered into a 

sawmill business in Tumwater as the Ward & Mitchell Mill. 

Later he had his own mill in Olympia. He was the principal 

in establishing the Olympia-Tenino railroad. In 1882, Mitchell 

sold his interests and returned to Racine for a visit. His father’s 

Mitchell Wagon had become the leading farm wagon in the 

country. William saw opportunity and soon returned west to 

establish the Mitchell Lewis Office in Portland and the Mitchell 

& Lewis Co. began! Business was good, more lines were added 

and branches established. 

MAJOR LINES: The Mitchell Wagon, Canton Clipper plows, 

Champion bailing presses, Ingersoll compressors, Avery headers, 

Hoosier drills. 

LOCATIONS: Seattle, Spokane, Wash.; Boise, Idaho 

Frank Brothers 

Implement Co. 

George P. Frank was working as a clerk 

for a Chicago railroad when he got the 

urge to go west. He and his brother, A. S. 

Frank, moved to San Francisco in 1875 and 

opened a farm implement business. A few 

years later, they moved to Portland and 

incorporated as Frank Brothers Implement 

Company. The Franks enjoyed considerable 

success, giving George time for politics. In 

1894, he was elected mayor of Portland and 

served the customary two-year term. Frank 

A. Knapp was a key associate and manager 

during the 1890s and retired in 1903 

to became a very successful Portland real 

estate broker. 

LOCATIONS: Cheney, Colfax, Wash. 


WL 

FEATURE 

Staver & Walker 

George W. Staver grew up in Wisconsin, and after 

serving in the Civil War, he entered the hardware and 

farm implement business. His expertise in threshing 

encouraged the J. I. Case Company to employ him as a 

consultant and traveling sales representative. In 1879, 

Staver was sent to Salem, Ore., to sell a large stock of 

equipment that Case had sent out. Staver determined 

that Portland would be a better location, and in 1881, 

he partnered with another employee, W. H. Walker, to 

form Staver and Walker. Though they started with just 

the J. I. Case line, they soon expanded to a complete line 

of implements and built an immense warehouse on the 

New Market block on First Street. 

The company’s expansion was rapid due to Staver’s 

expertise in agricultural machinery, and they soon had 

branches in most major towns. 

MAJOR LINES: J. I. Case threshers, engines and plows; 

dairy, farm and mill machinery; engines, boilers and sawmills; 

wagons, buggies, carriages and carts. 

LOCATIONS: 

Seattle, Spokane Falls, Walla Walla, Pomeroy, Pullman, 

Colfax, Wash.; Moscow, Idaho; Medford, La Grande, Ore. 

The Perfect Partnership 

Walker died in a hunting accident in 1890. Over 

at Mitchell & Lewis, business was good, but could 

be even better with more lines to sell, so in 1892 

Mitchell merged with the 

Staver & Walker Company 

to become Mitchell, Lewis & 

Staver. The two Wisconsin men 

had merged! Henry Mitchell 

remained as president until 

1897 when his son, Henry W. 

Mitchell, became manager. 

Their Seattle branch occupied a 

substantial, four-story building and was managed by 

another son, Frank W. Mitchell. 

An advertisement in the Seattle paper, Argus, 

shows that by 1900, the company was beginning 

to branch into pumps and compressors and other 

mining equipment which was more in demand in 

Seattle. This diversity must have been important to 

the continuance of the company as Mitchell, Lewis 

& Staver is still in business today, headquartered 

in Wilsonville, Ore., with its many branches selling 

pumps throughout the western U.S. 


WL 

FEATURE 

Raising the roof on an old 

“Everybody loves a cool, old barn,” said Chris Moore, 

field director for the Washington Trust for Historic 

Preservation. 

According to the Department of Archaeology & Historic 

Preservation, “there seem to be less and less of these 

grandfather structures standing. The passage of time and 

harsh season changes continually take their toll on the 

barns still in existence.” 

The State of Washington has ensured that our historic 

barns are recognized and preserved. The Heritage Barn 

Preservation Bill, signed in 2007, plays a role in achieving 

this goal. The bill gives the Heritage Barn Advisory Board 

the charge “to examine tax incentives and land-use regulations 

that support barn preservation and use.” Governor 

Christine Gregoire even 

The historic Lund 

Barn as it stands 

today. The barn was 

rebuilt with help 

from the Heritage 

Barn Rehabilitation 

Grant Program. 

Story by Heidi Scott 

once voiced her support for the bill. 

“Barns can be beautiful buildings and a symbol of our 

state’s agricultural heritage. This bill will help family 

farms preserve their history, not only for themselves, but 

for all Washingtonians,” she said. 

Property owners of these once-grand structures interested 

in maintaining and/or restoring their barns have 

two options available through the bill. 

First, owners can nominate their barn to the Heritage 

Barn Register. Barns that are more than 50 years old, with 

a good amount of their original historic and architectural 

integrity, may qualify to be placed on this register. 

Second, owners can apply for matching grant funds 

through the Heritage Barn Rehabilitation Grant Program. 

Once barns are on the register, owners are eligible to 

submit applications for funds “to stabilize and 

rehabilitate their barns.” 

Roy and Karin Clinesmith from Benge, 

Wash., were some of the first to benefit 

from the program. Their barn, designated 

as the Lund Barn for its original 

owners, was placed on 

the register in 2008. 

Shortly after, 

they applied 

for matching 

grant 

Raising the roof on an old

FEATURE WL 

funds to stabilize and restore it. Originally 

a milking parlor, the structure was built in 

1916 but was almost completely destroyed 

by fire and had to be rebuilt in 1923. For 

more than 30 years, the Clinesmiths 

watched this lovely building slowly 

deteriorate. 

They admitted that filling out the application 

was a bit of a challenge. After 

adding pictures, letters of recommendation 

and thorough research on construction 

costs, the application filled 27 pages. 

They applied in November 2009 and were 

notified of the awarded grant in February 

2010. That is when anxiety really set in. 

The terms of the grant state that owners 

contribute half of the total funds for the 

project. In this case, a total of $68,000 was 

needed to restore the barn to its original 

state. Karin admitted that they dragged 

their feet in signing the papers, unsure 

of how to come up with the necessary 

$34,000. Some donated funds were volunteered 

to the Lund Barn project, but receiving 

and documenting donations can be 

tricky in this situation. Fortunately, Karin 

served on the board of the Adams County 

Historical Society. The Society agreed that 

this project fell within the parameters of 

their mission, and it created a separate account 

for owners of Adams County barns 

to access the 501c3 status. This allows grant 

money to be tax-deductable for donors and 

to qualify as matching funds in the grant 

program. 

Just when the undertaking seemed 

almost doable, the barn collapsed. The 

Clinesmiths were worried about how this 

would affect their status with the Heritage 

Barn Grant Program. “I got worried, but 

Karin kept pushing and just didn’t give 

up,” Roy admitted. 

Paul Parish, a homegrown boy from 

Benge, found out about their predicament. 

He is a long time employee/consultant 

of The International Lampson Crane 

Company of Pasco, Wash. Parish worked at 

the dairy as a young man earning money 

for college, so he had a sentimental attachment 

to the property. This personal regard 

led him to a generous donation, the use of 

a “small yard crane” to lift the collapsed 

roof and enough personnel to man the 

Irene and Edna Lund stand in front of their milking parlor. Originally built in 1913, the barn was 

rebuilt in 1923 after a fire destroyed it. 

The barn collapsed shortly after the grant was approved in 2010. 

The “small yard crane” donated by the Lampson Crane Company lifted the center section of 

the roof over the foundation so work on the walls could begin. For two weeks, the walls were 

rebuilt and stabilized before the roof was replaced. 


WL 

FEATURE 

project. The use of the massive crane alone 

was worth thousands of dollars. Many 

of the local men working the crane also 

had personal connections to the barn or 

the Lund family, and they were happy to 

donate their time to help out. This was 

an extraordinary personal favor to the 

owners and changed everything for them. 

Donations, volunteer labor and in-kind 

contributions qualify for matching grants. 

The Clinesmiths signed the grant papers 

right away. On Jan. 28, 2011, the crane 

operator, Marvin Meise, another former 

Benge local, came to lift the center section 

of the barn. The Clinesmiths expected that 

slowly lifting the roof in one piece would 

take many days. The process had many 

(Above) Custom-built windows by master craftsman 

Leon Avery are modeled after the originals. (Below) 

The underside of the center section. Workers preserved 

as much of the original wood as possible during 

the restoration. 

Roy and Karin Clinesmith stand in the door of the Lund Barn. 

unknowns, most importantly whether or not the old wood could sustain 

the pressure of being lifted without shattering. Fortunately, winter conditions 

created the perfect scenario with the wet wood becoming pliable. 

By the afternoon of the same day, the center section of the roof was dangling 

over the foundation, and the work on the walls could begin. For two 

weeks, the walls were rebuilt and stabilized before the roof was replaced. 

Meise admits that the day the crane supports were removed was a very 

nervous one for him. Footage of the miraculous lift is available at 

www.youtube.com, under the search “Lund Barn Raising.” 

All grant recipients, including the Clinesmiths, worked closely 

throughout the entire process with Chris Moore, the field director for the 

Washington Trust for Historic Preservation. 

“Washington State was great to work with. Chris was super. We learned 

a lot through it, and I think they learned a lot, too,” Karin said. After passing 

inspections and waiting patiently, they received reimbursement for 

half of the total, as agreed. Seeing the barn in its beautiful state today, few 

would argue that it wasn’t all worth it. 

Master craftsman, Leon Avery, of Colfax, Wash., restored the windows 

of the Lund Barn to their previous, simple beauty. He doesn’t charge much 

because, “it’s only a barn.” The Clinesmiths considered his skill absolutely 

critical to the beauty of the finished product. Avery is also working on 

the Coon family sheep shed, two miles away, which is another Heritage 

Barn Rehabilitation grant project. The sheep shed is still in the middle 

of its restoration, and, like the Clinesmiths, the Coons are utilizing the 

Adams County Historical Society’s 501c3 status account for tax-deductible 

donations. 

To be eligible to receive grant money for stabilizing roofs, foundations 

and structural elements, barns must be visible from a publicly accessible 

road. If not clearly visible from the road, barn owners must agree to open 

their barns to the public for as little as one day a year. More information 

about this program can be found at the Department of Archeology and 

Historic Preservation website. Grant funds for the 2011-13 biennium were 

recently awarded, with 14 barns across the state selected to receive funding. 

Information and nomination forms for the Heritage Barn Register 

are available at www.dahp.wa.gov/heritage-barn-register. The next round 

for grant applications is not until 2013, provided the legislature approves 

funding. For those curious to see pictures of Washington’s restored barns, 


look for the list at the bottom of the 

webpage mentioned above. 

Barn owners not interested or able 

to restore their barns are still encouraged 

to have them listed in the 

Heritage Barn Register. The committee 

meets several times every year to 

award barns a place on the register. 

This is simply an honorary title, requiring 

no alterations or future commitments. 

The register does not offer 

protection from elemental or human 

destruction, but it does come with a 

nice certificate and plaque to show 

friends and neighbors, and it might 

help persuade future generations 

to take better care of Washington 

State’s history. 

CANOLA 

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PLOW-DOWN MUSTARD 

Increase your 

wheat yields, break disease 

cycles and reduce weeds with 

spring and winter crop rotations 

Take Advantage of the exploding 

local BioFuel market opportunities 

Spectrum Crop 

Development :: Ritzville WA 

Vertical tillage is the new thing in 

dryland farming. Canola can achieve 

the same results for your soil, without 

the purchase of expensive equipment 

Enjoy domestic marketing opportunities 

and try out alternate crops before 

foreign nations’ over-production forces 

you to grow other commodities 

Curtis 509-659-1757 

Todd 509-641-0436 

HANDLE BULK SEED 

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The Best Direct Seed Drill System Just Got Better! 

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Fast efficient handling of bulk 

Remote controlled hydraulic motor 

Spring assisted lift for easy operations 

Long reach 6” auger and 14.5’ telescoping spout 

509.535.1177 

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Spokane, WA 99202 

NorthwestGrainAugers.com 

• Matching Seed Cart For The Cougar Drill 

• Built-In Load-Unload Auger 

• Steerable With Higher Capacity Poly Tanks 

NORTH PINE AG EQUIPMENT, INC. 

2007 E. Babb Road Rosalia, Washington 

509-994-2133 or cschmidt@att.net 

J&M Fabrication 

• Custom Welding • Tool Boxes 

• Fuel Tanks • Equipment Repairs 

• Custom-made Combine Parts 

• Custom Truck Bodies & Flatbeds 

• On-Site Millwright work 

• All types of Custom Design Work 

J&M Fabrication 

Call Justin Miller Today! 

509-235-5711 or 509-993-2890 (cell) 

Cheney, WA 

• Precision Placement Of Seed & 

Fertilizer 

• Proven 7.5” Paired-Row Design 

• Fertilizer placed Between and 2.5” 

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Clean Grain & 

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For newer model Case IH 

and JD models. 


Your wheat 

life... 

Two-year-old Jack Bafus ponders what’s 

next after a long day of harvest on 

Grandpa Darrell’s farm near Endicott. 

Bafus family photo 

Pond near highway 95 north of Moscow. 

Norma Schultz photo 

Send us photos of your wheat life! 

Email them to Kara at 

kararowe@wawg.org 

Kylee Bourquin in her great-grandparent 

Ogden’s wheat field near Colville. 

Kriss Lecaire photo

Eleven-year-old Riley Kuch checks to make 

sure the bank-out wagon is full on the 

Gering and Kuch Farm southeast of Lind. 

Kuch family photo 

The Swannack kids at harvest on their 

family’s farm near Lamont 

Amy Swannack photo 

Harvest on the A & M Farms 

north of Davenport. 

George Arland photo

CIH-PF-02 

Advertiser Index 

A & L Supply, Inc. 11 

Ag Enterprise Supply Inc. 65 

AGPRO 10 

AG-TEQ 37 

Barber Engineering 7 

BASF–Headline Advantage 8, 9 

BIAGRO Western Inc. 75 

Brock Law Firm 15 

Butch Booker Auction 13 

Byrnes Oil Co. 39 

Carpenter, McGuire, DeWulf, P.S. 19 

Class 8 Trucks 39 

Coleman Oil 13 

Cooperative Ag Producers Inc. 7 

Connell Grange Supply Inc. 39 

Connell Oil Co. 27 

Country Financial 65 

Diesel & Machine 40 

Edward Jones 29 

Farm & Home Supply 40 

Freedom Truck Centers 31 

Great Plains Equipment 25 

Hillco Technologies 38 

J & M Fabrication 71 

Jess Ford 27 

Jones Truck & Implement 26, 31 

Kincaid Real Estate 13 

Klesor Equipment 27 

Kralman Steel Structures 37 

Landmark Native Seed 40 

Lange Supply, Inc. 39 

Les Schwab Tire Centers 13 

LimaGrain Cereal Seeds LLC 76 

Meridian Manufacturing Group 18 

Micro-Ag 75 

Morrow County Grain Growers Inc. 23 

North Pine Ag Equipment Inc. 71 

Northwest Ag Show 15 

Northwest Farm Credit Services 7 

NU-CHEM 36 

OXARC 67 

PNW Farmers Cooperative 17 

Pioneer West, Inc. 6 

Pomeroy Grain Growers Inc. 67 

RH Machine 65 

Rabo AgriFinance 27 

Ramada Spokane Airport 31 

Raven Precision 23 

Rock Steel Structures 37 

Ronald J. Perkins, CPA 40 

Scales NW 75 

Spectrum Crop Development 71 

Spokane Ag Expo 11 

Spray Center Electronics 17 

SS Equipment 11 

St. John Hardware & Implement Co. 74 

State Bank Northwest 19 

T & S Sales 71 

The McGregor Co. 17 

The Whitney Land Co. 74 

Touchmark 16 

Walter Implement 67 

Western Reclamation 38 

Wheatland Bank 10 

Wheeler Industries 23 

Wilbur-Ellis–In-Place 5 

EZ-Guide ® 250 

• E-Z Steer Compatible 

• 4.3” color screen 

• Built-In GPS Receiver 

FM-750 TM 

with EZ-Steer ® 

• EZ-Steer & Autopilot TM 

• 8” touchscreen navigation 

• Precision Ag Capabilities 

FM-1000 TM 

Control Display 

• 12.1” Color Touchscreen 

• Easy prescription-based rate control 

• Deliver the exact amount of fertilizer 

• Two receivers for excellent precision 

St. John Hardware & Implement Co., Inc. 

Contact your area Precision Ag 

Specialist or Call Rich Gross at 

the Airway Heights store. 

Airway Heights WA St. John WA Fairfield WA Moscow ID NezPerce ID 

509-244-4902 509-648-3373 509-283-2111 208-882-7501 208-937-2422 

EASTERN OREGON FARMS 

Umatilla County, Ukiah, OR 

Grazing unit used as summer pasture. 840.07 acres near Ukiah, OR. New 

fences, cross fenced into 6 pastures. New water development. Cabin. 

$600,000 #WL01610 

LAKE COUNTY, FORT ROCK, OR 

Hay Ranch containing 1,520 total deeded acres. Premium hay ground 

containing 660 acres within 4 pivots and 860 acres of dryland pasture. 

Ranch style home, hay shed, horse barn, roping arena. 

$4,230,000 #WL02211H 

Lake County, Fort Rock, OR 

Premium Cattle/Hunting ranch containing 4,388 total acres. Includes 

130 acres of pivot irrigation, 348 acres of dryland pasture and 3,910 

acres of range. Includes 15,000.00 acres of “out the gate” BLM. New 

home, shop and livestock facilities. $2,467,000.00 #WL02211C 

989.40 ACRES 

With 346.2 currently under CRP contract. Improvements include two 

cabins. Douglas Fir is the principal species of timber. Grazing consists 

of 643+/- acres of native pasture and timber land, and includes seven 

ponds. Wind power is presently being looked at. 

$1,900,000 #WL02609 

UNION COUNTY, ELGIN, OR 

NE Oregon income property with large metal shed which has large 

doors for easy access. 236.24 acres total. Has CRP income and 

merchantable timber, grazing land for livestock. Good road access 

and well located. LOP tags for big game. $249,000 #WL03411 

The Whitney Land Co. 

(541) 278-4444 

www.whitneylandcompany.com

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