W A S HIN G T O NG R A IN C O MM IS S IO N - Wheat Life

W L 

HEAT IFE 

The official publication of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers 

OCTOBER 2012 

Address Service Requested 

Washington Association of Wheat Growers 

109 East First Avenue, Ritzville, WA 99169 

Making the grade 

Public, private breeds in field-sized trial 

Inslee, McKenna answer farm questions 

California GMO labeling: just say NO! 

WSU winter wheat breeding program

W L 

HEAT IFE 

Volume 55 • Number 9 

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 

WAWG MEMBERSHIP 

(509) 659-0610 • (800) 598-6890 

$125 per year 

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF 

Kara Rowe • kararowe@wawg.org 

(509) 456-2481 

EDITOR 

Trista Crossley • editor@wawg.org 

(435) 260-8888 

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 

SECRETARY/TREASURER 

Nicole Berg • Paterson 

PRESIDENT EMERITUS 

Ben Barstow • Palouse 

APPOINTED MEMBERS 

Brett Blankenship • Washtucna 

JP Kent • Walla Walla 

Randy Uhrich • Waterville 

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. 

2 WHEAT LIFE OCTOBER 2012 

President’s Perspective 

a role. 

Farm bill held hostage to politics 

By Eric Maier 

Politics. Nobody really likes them in their personal life, 

business life or in the media and public. But, politics are part 

of life beyond our state and national capitols. No matter how 

we try to avoid them, they are in nearly every facet of life. 

Politics, by nature, are the relationships we foster between 

people. The word itself comes from the ancient Greek word 

politikos meaning “of, for, or relating to citizens.” Even at 

church or in our kids’ school activities, personal politics play 

In Washington, D.C., however, daily life is politics on steroids. Every detail of 

decision making on Capitol Hill depends on the personal relationships between our 

Washington state delegates and their peers. If you break down how these delegates 

get things done, it’s really no 

different than what happens 

in junior high hallways. There 

are the popular delegates, the 

scholarly delegates, the outspoken 

delegates...and, yes, there 

are the bullies. There’s always 

drama. But the difference is 

that the drama of Capitol Hill 

affects billions of lives throughout 

the world and trillions of 

dollars within our national 

budget. 

We as wheat farmers were placed in a precarious position among the politics and 

drama of Washington, D.C., this fall. Our main safety net, the farm bill, somehow 

transitioned from a completely nonpartisan, traditional piece of legislation into a 

piece held for ransom. You’ll read on the following pages the steps we took as your 

farming organization to pressure our national politicians to remove their partisan 

motives from the most important piece of legislation for rural America and the food 

system. 

The farm bill is the one piece of national legislation that consistently improves our 

nation’s economy. It is not a stimulus package that gives a brief shot in the arm to 

business. Even the food stamp portion of the bill provides larger economic returns 

to each state’s economy than the money originally spent (see chart). The farm bill allows 

us to feed the hungry on our own American soil. It also allows us to keep our 

grocery store shelves filled with the safest, healthiest and most affordable food in 

the world. The farm bill also provides food to people throughout the world who we 

have a moral obligation to help. The farm bill provides some stability in our international 

markets as international politics are gambled. Finally, the farm bill keeps 

family farmers on the farm. Without a safety net, family farms would be forced to 

consolidate. The business of farming would change drastically. There would no 

longer be affordable crop insurance. There would be no conservation incentives. 

The Washington Association of Wheat Growers represents farmers of all walks 

of life, farming practices and political parties. Individually, we may sometimes 

disagree on philosophies, but in my experience, we’ve always figured out how to 

unite for the greater good. We asked our Congress to do the same. We will continue 

fighting for a long-term bill by Christmas. Thank you to all of you who contacted 

our Congressional delegates. Your voice was heard. You can make a difference, and 

together we can make Congress do their job for America. 

Cover photo: Paul Porter at the field day for his private variety trial. See story on page 32. Photo by Kevin 

Gaffney. All photos are Shutterstock images or taken by Wheat Life staff unless otherwise noted.

WAWG President’s Perspective 2 

Membership Form 5 

WAWG at Work 6 

Policy Matters 16 

Thanks but no thanks 

Why GM labeling is wrong for California 

Race for the governor’s seat 

Q&A with McKenna, Inslee on agriculture 


Field-sized variety trial of private, public breeds 

Profiles 

Central Wind and Solar 

Contributors 

Eric Maier, president, Washington Association of Wheat Growers 

Tom Zwainz, chairman, Washington Grain Commission 

Glen W. Squires, CEO, Washington Grain Commission 

Scott A. Yates, communications director, Washington Grain 

Commission 

Kevin Gaffney, ad sales manager, Wheat Life 

Inside This Issue 

22 

28 

32 

36 

WGC Chairman’s Column 41 

WGC Review 42 

Growing a market 

SWW stars at Latin America Buyers Conference 

Rising to the challenge 

Alan Tracy, U.S. Wheat Associates’ president 

It’s all about the traits 

A look at WSU’s winter wheat breeding program 

WGC Wheat Watch 

Wheat exports expected to strengthen in 2012/13 

46 

52 

56 

60 

WGC Wide World of Wheat 62 

64 

Your Wheat Life 70 

Advertiser’s Index 74 

From Germany with love 

Eastern Washington’s German heritage 

NO! 

labeling NO 

INSLEE 

on Prop. 37 

VS 

MCKENNA 

Vote NO! 

on 

Prop. 37 

2012 RACE FOR GOVERNOR 

Arron Carter, Ph.D., winter wheat breeder, WSU Dept. of Crop and 

Soil Sciences 

Gary Shelton, research technical supervisor, WSU Dept. of Crop and 

Soil Sciences 

T. Randall Fortenbery, Ph.D., Tom Mick Endowed Chair in Grain 

Economics, WSU 

WHEAT LIFE OCTOBER 2012 3

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BECOME 

A 

MEMBER 

Please understand that your wheat checkoff does NOT 

pay for your WAWG membership. 

Also, receiving Wheat Life does NOT mean 

you are a member. 

We fight every day to ensure that life on the 

family farm continues to prosper and grow. 

WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT. 

For a $125 annual membership, farmers, landowners and 

industry representatives can show their solidarity and 

lend their voices to ensure responsible state and national 

agricultural policy remains in place. As a result of WAWG’s 

half century of advocacy, millions of dollars have been 

returned to Washington farm country. Show your support. 

Share your ideas. 

Become a member today and you will be signed up 

through the summer of 2013. 

LEVELS OF MEMBERSHIP 

Green Sheet 

Newsletter 

Wheat Life 

Magazine 

National Wheat 

Grower Newsletter 

Annual Harvest 

Prints 

WAWG Convention 

Free Registration 

One Vote per 

Individual 

One Vote per 

Partner 

WAWG MEMBERSHIP FORM 

Please check level of membership 

Producer/Land Owner 

Grower $125 

Landlord $125 

Family $200 (up to 2 members) 

Partnership $500 (up to 5 partners) 

Convention $500 

Lifetime $2,500 

Name 

Farm or Business 

Address 

Producer/Landowners (Voting Membership) 

Grower or Landlord $125 X X X X 

Family $200 

(2 family members) 

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(1-5 family members) 

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Convention $500 

(1 individual) 

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(1 individual) 

X X X X X 

Wheat Industry Supporters (Non-voting Membership) 

Industry Supporter $125 

(1 individual, branch, company) 

X X X X 

VIP $300 (1 individual) 

X X X X X 

CEO $500 (1 individual) 

X X X X X X 

Convention Sponsor $1,000 X X X X X X 

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(1 company) 

X X X X X X 

Recognition Dinner 

Exhibit Booth at 

Convention 

City 

One Free Ad in 

Wheat Life 

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Phone Fax 

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Industry Supporter $125 

VIP $300 

CEO $500 

Convention Sponsorship $1,000 

Associate Lifetime $6,000 

If you do not have an email address, or prefer hard 

copies, please include an extra $25 for Greensheet postage. 

County Affiliation (if none, write state) 

Circle all that apply: 

Producer Landlord Individual Industry Rep. Business Owner Other 

Return this form with your check to: 

WAWG • 109 East First Ave. • Ritzville, WA 99169. 

Or call 800-598-6890 and use your credit card to enroll by phone. 

More member benefits! 

Wall Plaque 

Weekly Email correspondence 

• Greensheet ALERTS 

• WAWG updates 

• Voice to WAWG through 

opinion surveys 

National Wheat Grower updates 

Call 800-598-6890 

or visit 

www.washingtongrainalliance.com 

Washington Association 

of Wheat Growers 

109 East First Ave. • Ritzville, WA 99169 

509-659-0610 • 800-598-6890 • 509-659-4302 (fax) 

www.washingtongrainalliance.com

WAWG 

at 

work 

2012 Farm Bill message: 

Thank you Senators 

As local Congressionals travel from town to town campaigning 

for votes and trust throughout farm country this 

October, one vital piece of legislation follows them around 

like a bad smell: the farm bill. 

Despite the efforts of WAWG and its membership, a farm 

bill was not passed before the 2008 bill expired. While some 

argue this is nothing new to farm legislation, it is something 

of a quandary for farm country politicians like Rep. Cathy 

McMorris Rodgers (R-Spokane) and Rep. Doc Hastings 

(R-Pasco) to explain during an election year. While the U.S. 

House of Representatives was unable to pass a farm bill, the 

Senate succeeded. The full Senate passed its bipartisan $500 

billion farm bill in June, which offered up more than $23 billion 

in cuts. Both of Washington’s Senators Maria Cantwell 

and Patty Murray voted in support of the Senate version. 

In July, the House Agriculture Committee approved its 

own bipartisan, five-year measure with deeper spending cuts. 

And there it still sits. For more than two months, Speaker of 

the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) refused to bring the House 

version of the farm bill to the floor for a vote before Congress 

left at the end of September for campaigning. 

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) 


WAWG President Eric Maier, of Ritzville, talks to the press via phone after 

the Farm Bill Now rally in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 12. 

(Left) Farmers from around the nation got off their tractors and headed to 

Washington, D.C., to rally for a farm bill. 

Farm bill supporters including Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), center, 

and Sen. Tom Harken (D-Iowa), right, spoke to a crowd of hundreds at the 

Farm Bill Now rally on Capitol Hill on Sept. 12.

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WAWG AT WORK 

“Never before have I seen the farm bill be treated as such a political pawn,” 

said WAWG President and Ritzville farmer Eric Maier. 

A divide among Boehner’s party over the bill’s level of funding cuts made the 

leadership team fear that they did not have the votes needed to pass it. House 

leadership held the bill hostage and refused to bring it to the floor, silencing all 

the farm-district members. 

In a last-ditch effort, some farm-district delegates tried to force leadership 

to bring the House Ag Committee-approved bill to the floor through a “discharge 

petition” process. If signed by at least 218 House members—a majority 

of the 435 members—the farm bill would have gone to an immediate vote, 

overriding leadership’s decision. Out of the total 64 signatures on the petition 

before the House adjourned, nine of them were Republican. Rep. Rick Larsen 

(D-Bellingham) was the only Washington state delegate to sign the petition. 

Congress won’t return to session until mid-November, and now, farm country 

is left with a vague promise of a long-term bill being brought up in the lame 

duck session after elections. 

“We will deal with the farm bill after the election,” Boehner has told reporters, 

but he wasn’t willing to be more specific about what course that will take. 

Even House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) recently 

said he has not received an explicit promise that his five-year bill will be called 

up in the lame-duck session. 

For the record, Boehner voted against the 2008 Farm Bill, as did House 

Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.). 

Meanwhile, WAWG’s focus hasn’t diminished. “We will continue the fight for 

a long-term bill approval to happen soon,” said Maier. “We’ve been fighting for 

this since last fall, and we’ll continue to do so until the job is done. Thank you 

to everyone who sent a message to our delegates in September. They heard your 

voices. Sadly, this was a fight beyond ‘doing what’s right.’ This was all politics, 

(Above and below) National Association of 

Wheat Growers’ First Vice President, Bing Von 

Bergen of Moccasin, Mont., spoke at the rally as 

did Rep. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.). 

WAWG President Eric Maier (left) of Ritzville and WAWG Secretary/Treasurer Nicole Berg of Paterson at the farm bill rally in Washington, D.C. 

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WL 

WAWG AT WORK 

and the farm bill got caught in the fray. Thankfully, the 

Senate has a bill that is ready and waiting. We’ll keep beating 

the drum for a long-term bill by Christmas.” 

Farmers participate in Farm Bill 

Now rally; state delegates do not 

While in Washington, D.C., recently, WAWG leaders 

joined wheat farmers from Idaho, Montana and Kansas to 

demand a new farm bill move through Congress before 

it expired in September. More than 90 ag, consumer and 

conservation groups joined forces at a rally in the shadows 

of Capitol Hill to tell Congress that they demand a fiveyear 

farm bill immediately. 

Multiple members of Congress from farm country attended 

and/or spoke at the rally to demand a farm bill. No 

delegates from Washington state attended the rally. During 

their visit to D.C., WAWG’s officer team met with every 

Washington delegate office from both the House and 

Senate carrying the “Farm Bill Now” message. 

Scholarship program available 

for high school seniors 

We are excited to launch this program for high school 

seniors! This program is sponsored by WAWG, and it is 

available to children of WAWG members living 

in Washington state. The program is designed 

to provide young adults with an 

excellent leadership and scholarship opportunity. 

It is also designed to increase 

the public’s understanding of the wheat 

industry and how farming affects their 

daily life as consumers. 

Two candidates will be selected as 

Washington Wheat Ambassadors. A $2,500 

scholarship will be awarded to the top ambassador, and 

a scholarship of $1,000 will be awarded to one alternate 

ambassador. Both ambassadors will be expected to participate 

in various activities and opportunities throughout 

the year. The application deadline is Oct. 15, 2012. For 

more information and to download the application packet, 

visit http://www.wheatlife.org/ambassador.html. 

Saving state tax exemptions 

still WAWG’s top priority 

At the recent WAWG meeting, the board of directors 

agreed that saving agriculture’s tax exemptions is still the 


organization’s top priority within state topics. Each year, 

tax exemptions such as sales tax on fertilizer, seed and repairs 

are attacked. That aggression has heated up over the 

past couple years with the state budget tightening process. 

This year, depending on how elections sway seats in the 

state House of Representatives and Senate, those attacks 

may be harder to hold off. 

Other state priorities include addressing the potential 

cuts to agricultural research at WSU, monitoring the Dept. 

of Ecology roadside water pollution study in the Spokane 

River and Palouse River watersheds, addressing the GM 

labeling initiative and monitoring a potential pesticide application 

notice and buffer requirement. 

There are other priorities as well, however these topics 

were voted the most important at this time. 

WAWG, WGC support 

Hastings’ hydropower bill 

Both the Washington Association of Wheat Growers and 

Washington Grain Commission recently offered united 

support for Rep. Doc Hasting’s (R-Pasco) H.R. 6247. The 

bill is designed to protect the Federal Columbia River 

Power System, Power Marketing Administration customers, 

Bureau of Reclamation dams and other facilities and 

to promote new federal and other hydropower generation. 

Hastings, who serves as the federal Chairman of the 

House Natural Resources Committee, introduced legislation 

intended to take back the offensive on saving 

dams, he said at a rally held in 

Pasco prior to a Congressional 

hearing held on the bill. He 

describes it as a “common 

sense” approach to protecting 

hydropower. 

H.R. 6247 would prohibit federal 

money from being used to 

remove or study the removal of 

hydropower dams without the 

authorization of Congress and 

would prevent groups from 

collecting federal grants for 10 years if they sue to breach 

dams or reduce hydropower. 

“If you want to sue the federal government, don’t expect 

a handout,” said Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) who 

attended the hearing with Hastings as the chairman of the 

Water and Power Subcommittee. 

In written testimony, WAWG said, “Half of the wheat 

exported from the system moves by barge. Barging along

Bon voyage, wheat. 

A growing amount of the wheat you grow is exported every year, and 

that makes a huge difference in farm gate prices. In fact for every $1 you 

contribute to export market development through your state checkoff 

program, you get back $23 in net revenue. U.S. Wheat Associates 

wants you to understand how we work with state commissions to 

build overseas demand for all six classes of U.S. wheat. 

VISIT WWW.USWHEAT.ORG/SUCCESS TO READ MORE. 

And don’t forget your passport. 

The world’s most reliable choice. 

© 2011 U.S. Wheat Associates. All rights reserved. 

The U.S. Wheat Associates logo is a registered service mark of U.S. Wheat Associates. PA-AD0811-A 


WL 

WAWG AT WORK 

the 365-mile inland waterway is the cleanest and most fuel 

efficient mode of transportation—four times better than 

trucking. Breaching dams would end barge navigation 

and put up to 700,000 more trucks on the highways and 

increase greenhouse gas emissions. The infrastructure of 

the dams simply saves lives.” 

Similarly, the Washington Grain Commission offered 

support as well. “...One of the great successes the federal 

government can point to in the Northwest is its work to 

mitigate obstacles to the successful passage of salmon, 

both upstream and downstream of the dams located along 

the Columbia-Snake River System. Because of efforts 

undertaken by the Bonneville Power Administration, fish 

passage has reached levels that were not seen even before 

the dams were built...Once again, good old-fashioned 

American ingenuity has proven that our natural resources 

can be managed in a way that protects wildlife needs even 

as they serve human requirements.” 

GMO labeling group launches 

Washington initiative 

Also while in Washington, D.C., WAWG officers met 

with the government affairs division of the Grocery 

Manufacturers Association to better understand their 

position on GM labeling. 

Recently, a group supporting GM labeling launched an 

effort in Washington to collect more than 320,000 signatures 

before the end of 2012 to put I-522 on the 

ballot. According to the Secretary of State’s website, 

this measure would require foods produced 

entirely or partly with genetic engineering, as 

defined, to be labeled as genetically engineered 

when offered for retail sale in Washington, 

beginning in July 2015. The labeling requirement 

would apply generally to raw agricultural 

commodities, processed foods, seeds 

and seed stock, with some exceptions, but 

would not require that specific genetically-engineered 

ingredients be identified. 

The measure would authorize state 

enforcement and civil penalties and allow 

private enforcement actions. 

An independent group called “Washington 

Wheat Farmers to Save our Export Markets” supposedly 

endorsed I-522. THIS IS NOT THE WASHINGTON 

ASSOCIATION OF WHEAT GROWERS. 

WAWG supports voluntary labeling of food products, 

provided it is consistent with U.S. law and international 


trade agreements and is truthful and not misleading. 

WAWG opposes government-mandated labeling of wheat 

products in both the U.S. and international markets based 

upon the presence or absence of biotechnologicallyderived 

traits that do not differ significantly from their 

conventional counterpart. 

Best Grains campaign launched 

We all know the best, well, everything, comes from 

Washington, especially grains! WAWG is working to 

showcase why the safest, healthiest and most affordable 

grains come from our state’s family farms. 

In it’s public outreach division, WAWG has partnered 

with Enigma Ag Strategies out of Yakima to create video 

and audio components 

of the consumer trust 

campaign entitled “The 

Best Grains.” It is one 

part of the overall trust 

campaign funded by 

the Washington Grain 

Commission, Washington Wheat Foundation and WAWG. 

The goal is to help our farmers share their stories and 

educate our state’s consumers about our family farms. 

During harvest, the video crew visited the Isaak and 

Bodeau family farms in the Coulee City and Wilbur areas, 

as well as the Barstow farm near Palouse. WAWG has also 

been working with Zipline Interactive out of Spokane to 

launch new web components of the campaign. The campaign 

launched in September. Visit www.thebestgrains. 

com to see the new site. 

WAWG is also working with the Washington Potato 

Commission through an alliance called Washington’s 

Farmers and Ranchers in order to launch a larger, statewide 

outreach campaign. 

“All of these outreach efforts will move us in the direction 

of education,” said WAWG’s Outreach and Affairs 

Director Kara Rowe. “We are working hard to spend 

money as efficiently as possible without sacrificing effectiveness. 

The first step was to get our websites in order 

so that people have a place to go to learn more. The web is 

becoming the main source of news and media for most of 

our society. This was a good place to start, and our campaign 

will build from here.” 

WAWG has also increased its efforts in social media including 

Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest to more efficiently 

spread news and updates to farmers and the public. 

Follow WAWG and Wheat Life on Facebook for updates!

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It’s time for a true conservative 

in Olympia… 

A quick candidate comparison: 

Edwards 

➜ believes in traditional 

marriage (one man 

+ one woman) 

➜ 100% Pro-Life 

➜ committed to GOP 

principles 

➜ stands for personal 

property rights 

➜ former Marine 

Endorsed by Clint Didier, Franklin County 

Republicans, Human Life of Washington, and 

rated “Outstanding” by Citizens’ Alliance for 

Property Rights. 

OR 

Walsh 

➜ co-sponsored and 

voted for bill to 

redefine marriage 

➜ Pro-Choice 

➜ voted with 

Democrats 30%+ 

on key votes (www. 

votesmart.org/www. 

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Convention seminars 

What now? The Farm Bill 

Increasing small grains production 

Barley: a panel discussion from the Beer Institute 

Conservation Reserve Program changes 

Using your technology and GPS prescription 

The future of risk management and crop insurance 

Climate change research and projects 

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November 12, 13 & 14, 2012

POLICY MATTERS 

Renewable fuel comment 

period extended by EPA 

From NAWG 

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced 

recently it will allow farmers and other stakeholders 15 

additional days to comment on a proposed waiver of the 

renewable fuels standard (RFS). The new deadline will be 

Oct. 11. 

The extension is a response to a request from the 

National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) which asked 

for more time because many farmers are 

busy this time of year with fieldwork and 

because of ongoing uncertainty in the 

corn market. 

The call for comments was triggered 

by requests from four governors for 

an RFS waiver reducing the amount of 

renewable fuels needing to be produced 

under the law. The governors and 

legislators who have made similar calls 

have said they are concerned about the ongoing 

drought’s effects on feedstocks for livestock. 

NCGA said this week that the extension will allow 

farmers more opportunity to participate in the important 

policy process, which could attract thousands of 

comments. 

NAWG supports the existing RFS and similar policies 

to expand the use of conventional ethanol and cellulosic 

ethanol, the latter of which could be produced in some 

regions using wheat straw and biomass. NAWG plans 

to submit comments on the waiver proposal before the 

deadline. 

Groups press need for Vietnam 

access in TPP agreement 

From NAWG 

NAWG and 45 other agricultural organizations are 

warning USDA and trade officials that the pending Trans- 

Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade talks could fall short if 

“meaningful market access” in Vietnam is not achieved. 

In a letter sent late last week, the groups told 

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and U.S. Trade 


Representative Ron Kirk that Vietnam remains the key 

growth market that U.S. agricultural producers could 

access through a successful 

TPP. The organizations 

stressed that their 

support is contingent on 

achievement of a comprehensive 

free trade deal 

with Vietnam. 

“Of the current participants 

in the TPP negotiations, 

Vietnam holds far 

and away the greatest 

market potential for the 

vast majority of U.S. food 

and agricultural products,” 

they wrote. 

The U.S. already has free trade agreements with Chile, 

Peru, Australia and Singapore; New Zealand, Malaysia 

and Brunei are not considered large growth markets. 

Without a TPP agreement, U.S. agriculture would be at a 

competitive disadvantage to Australia and New Zealand, 

which have preferential access to Vietnam through an 

existing trade agreement. 

Since Vietnam joined the World Trade Organization in 

2007, U.S. agricultural exports to the country have grown 

more than six-fold, from $216 million to $1.64 billion. A 

successful TPP agreement would link the U.S. to rapidly 

growing economies and populations in countries of the 

Asian Pacific region, several of which are quickly growing 

markets for U.S. wheat. 

The latest round of TPP negotiations is going on now in 

Leesburg, Va. More on the talks is at www.ustr.gov/tpp. 

The recently sent letter, in its entirety, is at 

www.wheatworld.org/trade. 

PNW receives NRCS grant 

for water quality project 

Washington, Oregon and Idaho received more than 

$1.5 million in USDA grant money through the Natural 

Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). The funding is 

from the Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) program. 

NRCS administers CIG as part of the Environmental 

Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). Grants are awarded to 

state and local governments, federally recognized Indian

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tribes, nongovernmental organizations 

and individuals. NRCS uses 

CIG to invest in innovative, on-theground 

conservation technologies 

and approaches with the goal of 

wide-scale adoption to address 

water quality and quantity, air quality, 

energy conservation and environmental 

markets, among other 

natural resource issues. 

“We’re announcing 59 grants 

today in 47 states that will help some 

of America’s top agricultural and 

conservation institutions, foundations 

and businesses develop unique 

approaches to enhancing and protecting 

natural resources on agricultural 

lands,” USDA Secretary Tom 

Vilsack said. “The grants will help 

spur creativity and problem-solving 

to benefit conservation-minded 

farmers and ranchers. Everyone 

who relies on our nation’s natural 

resources for clean water, food and 

fiber for their way of life will benefit 

from these grants.” 

The Willamette Partnership, 

which includes Washington, Oregon 

and Idaho, has successfully facilitated 

trades of water temperature 

credits to improve salmon habitat in 

Oregon. The Partnership was awarded 

$1,589,751 to help the partnership 

develop a multistate agreement and 

rules for trading water quality and 

temperature credits within the three 

states. 

The primary objective of this 

effort is to secure multistate consensus 

and Environmental Protection 

Agency support for a Joint Regional 

Agreement that will include: multistate 

agency guidance; general 

restoration project and best management 

practices quality standards; 

credit tracking procedures; and accounting 

methods for “credits” that 

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for nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) 

and temperature in Oregon, 

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Research debunks GF diet for weight loss 

From NAWG 

While NAWG is primarily a policy advocacy organization and does not 

work on nutrition issues directly, we are committed to spreading accurate 

information about the many health benefits of the food our farmers work so 

hard to produce. 

AACC International, a professional society of cereal chemists, has recently 

published an indepth paper examining various claims about wheat’s effect 

on human health, written by Julie Miller Jones, Ph.D., a professor at St. 

Catherine University. That paper is available for free and in full at AACCI’s 

home page at http://www.aaccnet.org. 

NAWG also encourages all readers to visit its sister associations, Grain 

Foods Foundation, www. 

gowiththegrain.org, and Wheat 

Foods Council, www.wheatfoods.org, 

for reliable and 

extensive information about 

wheat foods’ nutritional value. 

In an article published in 

August by the Grain Foods 

Foundation, new research casts 

doubts on the benefits of going 

gluten-free as a way to lose 

weight. 

Editor’s note: Recently, the talk show 

The View asked NAWG to provide a short 

statement to show the “other side” of a 

segment it produced including inaccurate 

and misleading claims about wheat’s 

nutritional value. NAWG’s response, which 

was read on the show, is available in full 

at http://www.wheatworld.org/ 

news-events/2012/09/nawg-statementto-the-view-on-wheat-nutrition/. 

According to the article, 

research published in the latest issue of the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition 

and Dietetics indicates there is no benefit for the average healthy adult to follow 

a gluten-free diet. It also debunks the perception that going gluten-free is 

an effective way to lose weight. 

The paper, Gluten-Free Diet: Imprudent Dietary Advice for the General 

Population? authored by Arizona State University professor and researcher 

Glenn Gaesser, Ph.D., addresses common misperceptions about the glutenfree 

diet and explores the scientific support for following it. 

Despite purported health claims often seen in the media, Dr. Gaesser 

found there is no evidence that the gluten-free diet provides benefits to the 

general population, and that gluten itself may, in fact, provide important 

benefits, such as supporting heart, gut and immune system health. 

Likewise, he explored the perception that the gluten-free diet is effective 

for weight loss. After reviewing the existing research on gluten, Dr. Gaesser 

concluded the gluten-free diet is not an effective weight-loss method. In fact, 

it frequently leads to weight gain because many gluten-free products contain 

more added fats and sugars than their gluten-containing counterparts. 

These findings run counter to a recent Harris survey of more than 2,000 

adults polled about their perceptions and use of the gluten-free diet. Of those 

participants who followed the diet, half reported doing it to “feel better” and 

26 percent as a “diet for losing weight.” 

Furthermore, according to a 2011 report from Packaged Facts, the glutenfree 

product market grew by a rate of 30 percent each year between 2006 and 

2010; reasons for this rapid growth include more accurate testing methods for 

celiac disease and gluten sensitivity and the perception gluten-free products 

are healthier, in addition to endorsements from celebrities. 

For expert nutrition advice, and more information about the gluten-free 

diet, please visit www.gowiththegrain.org.

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of guidance or framework in place to inform water quality 

trading, providing a strong foundation from which to 

develop a Joint Regional Agreement. 

Harvest prices set for small 

grains, canola revenue products 

USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) announced 

approved harvest prices for 2012 crop year for revenue 

protection plans of insurance within the Common Crop 

Insurance Policy for wheat, barley and fall canola and 

rapeseed in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington as 

applicable. 

Harvest prices for spring canola and Alaska barley will 

be announced in early October. Harvest prices for corn 

and soybeans will be announced in the next couple of 

months. 

CROP TYPE HARVEST PRICE 

Barley Winter $7.26/bu. 

Barley Spring $7.26/bu. 

Canola Fall $0.283/lb. 

Canola Spring TBD approx. 10/12 

Rapeseed Fall $0.307/lb. 

(set equal to Projected Price) 

Rapeseed Spring (set equal to Projected Price) 

Wheat Winter $8.69/bu. 

Wheat Spring $8.69/bu. 

For producers who purchased a 2012 crop year Multi- 

Peril Crop Insurance (MPCI) Revenue Protection and 

Revenue Protection with Harvest Price Exclusion policies, 

the harvest price is used to determine the calculated 

revenue. The harvest price is multiplied by the appraised 

and/or harvested production to determine the calculated 

revenue. The calculated revenue is subtracted from the 

final revenue guarantee to determine possible indemnities 

(insurance losses). 

Producers should contact their insurance agent to learn 

additional program details related to these price announcements. 

Washington state receives 

healthy school money 

The USDA recently announced new grants to support 

schools as they strive to serve healthy food, provide 

nutrition education and create an environment focused on 


healthy eating and physical activity. 

“When we serve our children healthy school meals, 

we’re making a critical investment in their academic 

performance, their physical health and their future,” 

said Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan. 

“Today’s announcement reflects our ongoing commitment 

to provide states with the tools they need to build a 

healthy school environment.” 

Funded in support of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids 

Act of 2010, the Team Nutrition training grants will assist 

schools in meeting the new school meal requirements, 

encourage Healthier U.S. School Challenge participation, 

support students’ nutritious choices by structuring the cafeteria 

environment in a way that encourages the selection 

of healthy foods and promote healthier environments to 

align with the Local Wellness Policy requirements established 

in the act. 

The USDA is awarding approximately $5.2 million in 

18 states and one territory, including Washington which 

received nearly $50,000. Funding will be made available 

for the period of Sept. 30, 2012, through Sept. 30, 2014, to 

assist state agencies in achieving the Team Nutrition goals. 

States must apply Team Nutrition’s three behavior-focused 

strategies: 

• Provide training and technical assistance to child nutrition 

foodservice professionals to enable them to prepare 

and serve nutritious meals that appeal to children. 

• Provide fun and interactive nutrition education for 

children, teachers, parents and other caregivers. 

• Build school and community support for creating 

healthy school environments that are conducive to healthy 

eating and physical activity. 

This school year, 32 million students are benefiting 

from new meal standards for the National School Lunch 

Program for the first time in more than 15 years. The 

healthier school meals are a key component of the Healthy, 

Hunger-Free Kids Act, which was championed by the First 

Lady as part of her Let’s Move! campaign and signed into 

law by President Obama. To learn about the new meal 

standards, go to www.fns.usda.gov/healthierschoolday.

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WL 

FEATURE 

Just saying NO 

While Californians continue to debate their GMO labeling 

bill, Prop. 37, Washingtonians are seeing the fight 

move closer to home. 

A new Washington state ballot initiative to require GMO 

labeling has been launched, and supporters have until the 

end of the year to gather signatures. Initiative 522 would 

require most raw agricultural commodities, processed 

foods and seed and seed stocks, if produced using genetic 

engineering, to be labeled as genetically engineered when 

offered for retail sale. As in the California proposition, 

there would be some exceptions, such as food sold for immediate 

consumption or food that is certified as organic. 

Your WAWG leadership will continue to monitor events 

in Olympia, but for now, all eyes are focused south, waiting 

to see if California becomes the first state to require 

GMO labeling. The implications, if they do, could ripple 

through the U.S. food and agricultural communities. 

In our August/September 2012 issue of Wheat Life, 

we talked to the California Right to Know campaign to 

understand their reasons for wanting to label GMO foods. 

This month, we talked to Kathy Fairbanks, spokeswoman 

for the No on Prop. 37 campaign, which represents a 

group of manufacturers, growers and retailers opposed to 

the GMO labeling initiative. Here are some excerpts from 

that conversation. 

Obviously, the groups you represent are opposed 

to Prop. 37. In a nutshell, why? 

This is not a simple measure as proponents claim. It is 

complicated, and it is costly. It is deceptive. It is very, very 

flawed. It will establish a new food-labeling mandate that 

is going to add more government bureaucracy and more 

taxpayer costs. It will allow lawyers to file more lawsuits 

and the measure will increase grocery bills for California 

families. 

NO! 

labeling NO 


on Prop. 37 

Vote NO! 

on 

Prop. 37 

Prop. 37 

Give Wheat Life readers a little bit of background 

on who “No on Prop. 37” represents. 

Our coalition of groups opposed to Prop. 37 is wide 

ranging and broad because there are so many problems 

with this measure. We have a lot of opposition from the 

California agricultural community. Prop. 37 will increase 

the record keeping and red tape they have to maintain. 

It increases the cost of doing business that puts them 

at a disadvantage against their competitors outside of 

California. 

The retail community is also opposed. They will be on 

the front lines of getting hit with lawsuits if this measure 

passes. We have consumer groups who are opposed to 

higher grocery costs. 

Ethnic groups like the California NAACP and local 

chambers of commerce who are concerned with higher 

food costs are opposed to the measure. 

Numerous tax-payers’ groups who oppose needless regulation 

and bureaucracy are opposed to Prop. 37. The high 

state costs (that would result if the measure passes) means 

the state must either cut programs or raise taxes. Another 

key group opposed to Prop. 37 are scientists who believe 

labeling of biotech foods is unnecessary because they are 

safe and misleading because labeling will give people the 

impression the foods are unsafe when the opposite is true. 

Speaking of the science behind GMOs . . . 

The overwhelming majority of the scientific community, 

as well as the evidence out there and tests that have been 

done on GMO and biotech foods, has determined that 

they are safe. Over the course of 25-plus years, there have 

been more than 400 studies on biotech foods. The World 

Health Organization, the American Medical Association, 

the USDA, FDA all agree that GMO foods are safe. 

NO! to higher 

food costs! 

Vote NO! 

on Prop. 37 

Stop GMO 

Labeling 

NO! 

GMO labeling 

GMO Labelin 

Higher Costs

Genetic modification of crops has been happening for 

literally thousands and thousands of years. Over time, 

plants take on different characteristics and become modified, 

or they are crossbred through hybridization or cross 

pollination. The only difference is that today, science 

and technology has improved to such a degree that the 

modifications can be done at a very precise level where 

they can modify different genes. Scientists know exactly 

what they are doing on a one-to-one level, gene by gene by 

gene. That makes it safer than cross pollination; it can be 

controlled. It produces crops that are safer, more resistant 

to drought and need fewer pesticides. All of this is good 

for the environment and for workers that don’t have to 

spray heavy duty pesticides. 

The evidence is overwhelmingly on our side that GMO 

foods are safe. The discussion now moves to whether or 

not California Prop. 37 is good for California. We don’t 

think it is, obviously. 

What about those that say people have a right to 

know what they are eating? 

They do have the right to know, and they can look on 

the ingredient list and see what is in the food. If someone 

doesn’t want to eat a food with a GE (genetically engineered) 

ingredient, they can buy organic food that is non- 

GE, and they can get food that is labeled non-GMO. But 

the Prop. 37 labeling requirements give people the wrong 

impression that there is something wrong with the food. 

The labeling implies a warning, a reason to have a concern 

about a product when no reason for concern exists. It 

is misleading to give consumers information that may lead 

them to the wrong conclusion. 

Why do you think this fight is so passionate? 

This measure was not written to improve people’s health 

and safety. It was written so that trial lawyers would have 

a new way to file lawsuits. The groups that are going to be 

hit with these lawsuits will see a significant increase in the 

cost of doing business. And for what? So that a trial lawyer 

can line his pockets? Those additional costs will be passed 

onto California consumers. 

How will trial lawyers benefit from Prop. 37? 

The trial lawyer who wrote this, James Wheaton, has 

made millions of dollars suing over alleged violations 

of Prop. 65, which is also a labeling law. He is now engaged 

in Prop. 37, which, as we know, is another labeling 

requirement. 

FEATURE WL 

(Editor’s note: California Prop. 65, passed in 1986, requires 

business to warn consumers about chemicals that they use.) 

Under the liberal terms of Prop. 37, an attorney could go 

up and down the grocery store aisle identifying products 

with no label and file lawsuits against the grocery store, 

the food manufacturer, the food distributor and family 

farmer, alleging the product was made with GE ingredients 

and is mislabeled. The lawyers can file this suit without 

testing the product or having any proof there’s been a 

violation. They don’t even need to show damages. 

For example, you may have a package of granola bars 

with no label. It has no label because there’s no GE ingredients. 

The food company switched to all non-GE 

ingredients after passage of Prop. 37, thus the packaging 

is following Prop. 37 requirements. But because attorneys 

don’t need to do any testing, researching or have proof 

that there is a GE ingredient in the granola bars, they can 

file a lawsuit alleging that the product does contain a GE 

ingredient and should have a label. 

For those on the receiving end of a lawsuit, they have to 

choose: Do I hire attorneys, hire labs to conduct tests on 

the food to prove myself in court, or do I settle this lawsuit 

and make it go away? No doubt that this will happen with 

Prop. 37. It allows for predatory extortion lawsuits with no 

proof. 

Prop. 37 also requires that very detailed records be 

kept of all crops in California, such as where they were 

grown, where they go, how they are handled, processed, 

distributed, into what products they are included and in 

what grocery store or market did they get sold. All the 

red tape and the records will have to be kept by everyone 

in the food industry from farmer to grocery store. It is a 

paperwork burden, a paperwork nightmare. There is no 

health and safety reason, no consumer benefits to that paperwork, 

just record keeping to cover themselves in case 

they are sued. And if they are sued, it still doesn’t really 

help them since it is likely cheaper to settle a lawsuit. Trial 

lawyers exist to file lawsuits. 

The other side seems to portray this as a “David vs. 

Goliath” fight with people on one side and big business 

on the other side. 

The author of this measure has made millions of dollars 

filing lawsuits against businesses, and we expect a 

number of contributions from trial lawyers. This David vs. 

Goliath argument is a little overblown. 

g = to GMO labeling 

By Trista Crossley 


WL 

FEATURE 

Do you think there is an 

“agenda” behind this besides 

trial lawyers, such as organic 

companies? 

Organics? They do (have an 

agenda). They are funding this to 

a large extent. They exempt themselves 

from the effects of Prop. 37. 

Their largest contributor is Joseph 

Mercola (owner of a website that 

promotes alternative health-related 

products and ideas). The products 

he sells on his website would 

be exempt. I can draw a clear line 

there. He has contributed $800,000 

so far. You don’t do that if you 

don’t expect something from it. 

According to the pro-labeling 

folks, it is just adding a few 

words to the existing label. 

Again, the overwhelming evidence 

and opinion from the scientific 

community is that biotech or 

GE ingredients are safe. A label, 

as outlined in Prop. 37, implies a 

warning when none should exist. 

People will get the wrong idea 

that something is wrong with 

the food when that’s simply not 

the case. In fact, just two months 

ago, in June 2012, the American 

Medical Association voted to 

adopt a policy which says, “There 

is no scientific justification for 

special labeling of bioengineered 

foods.” The FDA has said that 

labeling policies like what’s 

outlined in Prop. 37 “would be 

inherently misleading.” 

Besides the legal costs, Prop. 

37 opponents say there will 

be increased costs to both the 

state and to the taxpayers. 

Prop. 37 requires the 

(California) Department of Public 

Health to do spot checks and review 

paperwork. Basic bureaucracy 

and oversight of Prop. 37 will 

cost the state money. People will 

have to be hired and trained. 


A local perspective 

Even though there is no GMO wheat currently being grown in the U.S., 

research and development of GMO wheat varieties is happening. Here’s what 

some Eastern Washington farmers had to say on the issue: 

“I would be on the side of not needing labels. As I look at some of the pictures of cattle 

that my father-in-law showed in the early sixties, that Angus steer was waist high. Now 

the cattle we raise today are at least 10 inches taller. So what constitutes genetic modification? 

Does this include selective breeding programs or just adding one plant gene to 

another plant? How long will it take if we go back to selective breeding programs to get 

the same result as genetically alternating a plant? For many years we have been using 

corn and soybeans that are genetically modified, as ingredients, in many of the products 

that we use. What has changed? Who is going to do the labeling? What is “their” 

agenda behind the labeling? These are important questions that need to be asked.” 

—Wendi Kregger, Touchet 

“I am against GMO labeling because I think it creates an aura of hysterical perception 

in that people who aren’t informed about GMOs are going to see it as something that 

is negative or not safe. I think the food produced in the U.S. is some of the safest food 

in the world. The science behind GMOs is good and healthy. And by healthy, I mean 

economically as well as nutritionally. We’ve seen examples in the past where consumers 

who are uninformed but well intentioned see something they don’t understand, and 

they perceive it to be bad, and I don’t believe it is.” 

—John Rustemeyer, Sprague 

“I think GMO labeling is more or less to scare the market that GMOs are unnatural, and 

they are totally natural. The only thing is that we’ve speeded up the process through science 

to get to better plant values and nutrition. This is not some made up type of thing. 

It’s no different than what we’ve done in universities for years. Where it used to take 10 

to 20 years, this takes three to four years.” 

— Bruce Nelson, Farmington 

“I’m not afraid of the labeling. I think it is a small percentage of the population that 

are worried about GMOs, and we need to be careful not to put our whole society in 

the fear with labeling. But there are a whole lot of people who have questions about 

GMOs. Making sure we have a good clean dialogue about GMOs is what is important 

going forward. In wheat growers, especially in the dryland world, there is a little bit of 

misconception as to where we are at with GMOs, and I think, public wise, there is some 

misconception. We have to figure out what GMOs are before they get to Washington. 

The good new for wheat growers is that it has already happened. There are already 

GMOs out there. The bad news is that there is very little GMO food items for human 

consumption, most of it is being processed into something else.” 

—Brad Isaak, Coulee City 

“I have two thoughts. First, I don’t mind it, but then let’s label all GMOs including corn, 

sorghum, fish—all the sorts of things that have been genetically modified to produce 

more food for us. And two, let’s know what a true GMO is. Let’s define it. I mean you can 

genetically modify wheat over the course of 6 years and not have it considered GMO, 

but the gene splice is considered GMO. Do you mean it is not natural to do what nature 

does, only speed it up. I think the biggest scare is the word chemical. You mention the 

word chemical and everybody seems to freak out.” 

—Jerry Snyder, Ritzville 

“I’m kind of indifferent about it because I think GMO, the initials GMO, can mean a 

lot of different things to different people. It needs to be defined what GMO means. In 

the wheat world, we’ve been genetically modifying wheat for years, for centuries. You 

crossbreed the wheat to create taller wheat or shorter wheat. And now we have safe 

food that feeds the world. As far as the labeling part of it, if you look at a loaf of bread 

and the contents, the labeling is there. It already shows fiber and calories and such. I 

think it is a pretty transparent process already.” 

—Nicole Berg, Paterson

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WL 

FEATURE 

Prop. 37 contains several exemptions, notably alcohol 

and food sold for immediate consumption, such 

as in a restaurant. 

There are a lot of special loopholes. We don’t know why 

they are in there, and these arbitrary exemptions don’t really 

make any sense. 

Alcohol is made with GE grain (corn, not wheat or 

barley), yet it is exempt. All dairy is exempt, including 

milk and cheese. Interestingly, there is a GE enzyme that 

is used to make cheese. All meat is exempt although all 

cows, chickens and pigs are fed GE grains. Food sold in 

restaurants is exempt, even if it is the same food you buy 

at the grocery store. 

The measure says that food coming in from foreign 

companies would not need a label as long as the shipment 

had a statement saying that this shipment of food does not 

contain GMOs. There are no checks, no validation done. 

Unscrupulous foreign companies could have this statement, 

but still have the shipment contain GMOs. 

One of the main charges opponents level at Prop. 

37 is that they say it is too restrictive on what can 

be called “natural.” 

We think the whole “natural” thing is an error, but 

we’re not sure. We think perhaps the point was to prevent 

processed foods with GE ingredients from being called 

natural, but because he (the lawyer) used an “or” instead 

of an “and”, the measure prevents all processed foods 

from being labeled as natural, even it they aren’t GE. For 

example, an olive farmer grows non-GE olives (GE olive 

trees don’t exist) and then presses the olives into olive oil. 

The olive oil is not GE, but he wouldn’t be able to call his 

olive oil natural because it was pressed, and in Prop. 37, 

pressed is listed in the language as one of the definitions 

of processing. 

Another example is almonds. Almonds are a huge 

industry in California, and they are not GE. Raw almonds 

can be called natural, but smoked or salted almonds, or 

almonds turned into almond butter can’t be called natural 

(because they have been processed), and there are no GE 

almonds. That is a very, very big deal. 

This is unique to the California measure, and the only 

way to fix it would be to refile. But that will not happen 

with Prop. 37. Once something is on the ballot, it is on the 

ballot and can’t be changed. There is not enough time to 

get enough signatures to get a new measure on the ballot; 

it is too late to fix this for this year. 

Prop. 37 is now something voters have to vote on, and 

the negative impacts are probably not something that 

people will understand right away. The bigger issue for 

most people will be higher food costs, the lawsuits and the 

taxpayers’ costs. 


Proponents say that there will be a minimal cost to 

implementing the labeling since most manufacturers 

change their labels on a regular basis. 

I absolutely disagree with that. There is a cost to change 

ingredients, a cost to change labels, a cost to change to 

a California-only distribution system if Prop. 37 passes. 

There will be shake-down lawsuits and frivolous lawsuits, 

and Prop. 37 will have a cost to state government. 

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Is there an alternative to this 

labeling bill that would give 

people the information they 

want? 

This isn’t about what could happen, 

what should happen or what 

people want to happen. This is about 

Prop. 37 and what voters have before 

them in November. Groups opposed 

to the measure are working to try to 

defeat it on Nov. 6. Beyond that, that 

is a discussion for another day. 

If this passes in California, what 

impact do you think it will have 

nationwide? 

I can’t answer that question. 

Opponents are concerned with 

defeating the California measure. 

It would hurt our California ag 

industry, and if Prop. 37 passes, 

our ag industry will face higher 

costs of doing business, yet still 

have to compete against out-of-state 

industries that can operate more efficiently 

than they can. This disadvantage 

will have a major impact on 

California’s economy and jobs. Our 

hope is that in November, voters 

reject Prop. 37, and we don’t have to 

have this conversation. 

If this bill passes, do you think 

there will be a chilling effect on 

farmers planting GMO crops? 

It is tough to tell. Food companies 

will be faced with two choices. Will 

they keep the same ingredients, 

repackage, relabel and set up a 

California-only system, which will 

be costly? Or do they change to 

non-GMO ingredients, like organics, 

which also would be costly. These 

costs will be passed on, no doubt, 

and consumers will have higher 

grocery bills. None of the food 

manufacturers or producers have 

determined what they will do. 

Right now, our focus is making 

sure voters understand what they 

are getting with Prop. 37. It is not 

simple. It is not easy. It is going to 

be costly. It is going to increase state 

bureaucracy, invite more frivolous 

lawsuits and result in the consumer 

paying more at the grocery store. 

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WL 

FEATURE 

CANDIDATES MCKENNA, INSLEE 

MAP OUT AGRICULTURE POSITIONS 

Editor’s Note: Sometimes the divide between the East side and West side of our state 

seems impossibly large, and never more so than during an election year. From GMO labeling 

to tax exemptions to clean air and water policies, the next few years could usher in a 

new era for Eastern Washington wheat farmers. With the governor’s seat up for grabs, 

Wheat Life wanted to give the candidates, Rob McKenna and Jay Inslee, an opportunity 

to explain their positions on issues that hit home for our readers. Both candidates were sent 

the same set of questions at the same time. Below you will see their exact responses. In an 

effort to keep this as impartial and fair as possible, we have not edited for content. 

What do you feel is a fair balance in policy regarding 

current farming practices and the Clean Water 

and Endangered Species acts? 

INSLEE: I do not believe that economic and environmental 

sustainability are mutually exclusive. Protecting 

Washington State’s clean water and biodiversity is in the 

best interest of the agricultural industry. I believe the most 

important thing I can do as governor is to ensure that 

all stakeholders, including farmers, are included in the 

decision-making when questions of environmental regulation 

arise. 

MCKENNA: Farmers want to protect the land and use 


Olympia 

or bust! 

farming practices that safeguard our natural resources. 

I don’t believe the state or federal governments should 

pile on ever-growing regulations on our farmers. We can 

ensure clean water and protect wildlife through current 

laws. 

What do you believe is the definition of sustainable 

farming? 

MCKENNA: Washington needs farms that are environmentally 

sustainable and economically sustainable. 

Through a vibrant agricultural sector that keeps farmland 

productive and economically valuable, we can protect the 

land through some of the best stewards around: farmers.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jay Inslee 

INSLEE: Sustainable farming is exactly that: farming 

with the capacity to endure. To be sustainable economically, 

farms must be able to access the markets for their 

products without having to endure prohibitive overhead 

costs. Environmental sustainability requires that we all be 

stewards of the land and water that provides the infrastructure 

for their success and growth. Sustainable farming 

strikes a balance between profitable agronomics and 

environmental sustainability. 

Wheat is Washington’s third largest ag commodity. 

What do you feel are the top three state priorities 

that will ensure a strong future for our wheat 

farmers? 

INSLEE: The vast majority of Washington’s wheat crops 

are exported. A reliable transportation and port infrastructure 

that ensures growers from throughout the state can 

get their crops to port in a timely fashion. 

Continued support for agricultural research at our 

higher education research institutions. Institutions such as 

WSU provide invaluable research into combatting UG99 or 

their online stripe rust alert for farmers. 

Water is the other critical issue we must make progress 

on. For years, the Yakima, Columbia, and Walla Walla 

basins have suffered from a scarcity of water. In drought 

years, the problem is exacerbated, with growers locked in 

a perennial battle over water rights and riverbeds unable 

to support wild fish runs. Development of these longterm 

projects will address the water resource and ecosystem 

problems affecting our agricultural, municipal and 

domestic water supplies, and fish stocks. I am committed 

to working with all parties involved to find solutions and 

shared funding sources from the state, municipal, and 

federal level. 

MCKENNA: 

1. Washington wheat is an export-dependent crop, so 

FEATURE WL 

reducing trade barriers and keeping markets open is essential. 

I have heard from many farmers who feel this has 

been handled on too much of an ad hoc basis. Washington 

wheat farmers need a single point of contact at WSDA to 

take the lead on trade barrier resolution. 

2. Our transportation system needs new investments. 

I am the only candidate for governor to commit to crafting 

a transportation package to take to the voters. We 

cannot let our farm-to-market roads deteriorate, even to 

the point of some returning to gravel. Our river, rail, and 

road system are critical for taking advantage of our export 

opportunities. 

3. It’s time for state government to actually prioritize 

education and quit disinvesting in our universities. WSU’s 

ag research is incredibly valuable for increasing yield and 

productivity, and developing sustainable practices such as 

direct seeding. To turn our backs on this is the definition 

of penny-wise, pound-foolish, but the majority party in 

Olympia has slashed university budgets because it’s the 

easiest cut for them to make. 

There is often a strong sense of divide between 

the East and West sides of our state, but both need 

each other to survive financially and sustainably. 

How will you ensure a fair and honest respect for 

agriculture and the Eastern side in state affairs? 

MCKENNA: As Attorney General, I have taken very 

seriously the fact that I represent all of Washington. As 

Attorney General, I have visited Eastern Washington 

hundreds of times and have met many times with agricultural 

groups and individual farmers. East-West divides 

don’t help move our state forward. I will be a governor 

who truly understands the value of Washington’s agricultural 

community to our state. That’s why groups like the 

Farm Bureau and the Dairy Federation have endorsed my 

campaign. 


WL 

FEATURE 

INSLEE: I lived in the Yakima Valley for nearly 20 years 

and raised my three boys there in a 100-year-old farmhouse. 

My wife, Trudi, and I grew alfalfa and it’s where I 

got my start working on agriculture issues as a congressman. 

I helped lead efforts to pass the Yakima River Basin 

Enhancement Act to balance water supplies for growers 

with increased in-stream flows for salmon, and worked to 

open up trade to Japan for Washington’s apple growers. 

At 160,000 workers strong, agriculture is Washington’s 

biggest employer. The $40 billion industry is the second 

most diverse agriculturally, growing everything from 

potatoes and peppermint to hops, wheat, and apples. 

Because it’s such an essential asset to our economy, my 

jobs plan includes an entire section about how we can 

grow Washington’s agriculture industry. My plan includes 

ideas such as partnering with our military to grow and 

refine the next generation of biofuels for military equipment 

to moving forward on important water projects that 

are necessary to farmers in regions such as Walla Walla, 

Yakima Valley and Columbia-Odessa. 

How do you feel about labeling GM foods and 

ingredients? 

INSLEE: Agriculture continues to become more advanced 

in facing challenges related to drought, pests and 

increased production. At the same time, there is a growing 

expectation among consumers for transparency and 

information about where their food is coming from and 

how it was grown. I believe we can find the right balance 

between providing consumers the information they want 

in a way they can understand without restricting the 

growing practices that enable growers to feed our communities. 

GMO technology can be utilized to the extent that 

an educational program and market development trials 

indicate consumer acceptance of any new technology. 

MCKENNA: Labeling GM foods isn’t a bad thing, but I 

believe it should remain a voluntary practice. There isn’t a 

need for government to mandate a labeling policy. 

What are your thoughts about the advancement of 

genetically modified wheat? 

MCKENNA: I am glad to see research that increases 

yields and reduces pests and disease. That is how 

Washington helps feed the world. 

INSLEE: I have supported research into crop advancements 

that can be used for biofuels. I understand the 

potential benefits this research can provide for a wide 

range of agricultural uses, including food and biomass 

production. Research can continue to explore new avenues 

of crop improvement, but should be very respectful of 

consumer attitudes so that end users are in no way threatened 

by real or perceived contamination of objectionable 

technology. 


How do you feel about free trade agreements? How 

can our state ensure fair trade and open global 

markets? 

INSLEE: Washington State is the most trade-dependent 

state in the nation. Free and fair trade is essential for 

ensuring the strength of nearly every one of our major 

industries, from information technology and aerospace to 

life sciences, clean tech and agriculture. 

I supported the North American Free Trade Agreement 

as a Congressman serving the Yakima Valley, as well as 

the recent agreements with Colombia, South Korea and 

Panama. 

It’s also why my jobs plan includes a maritime section, 

so we can take full advantage of opportunities in growing 

Asian trade markets. 

MCKENNA: As I mentioned earlier, I think it is important 

to have a designated person at WSDA whose job it 

is to work on trade barrier reduction and be a point of 

contact at the agency to partner with associations like 

the Grain Alliance and help all Washington farms with 

an export crop. Free trade should mean exactly that, and 

the state and the federal government both need to work 

on preventing protectionism and silly rules that keep our 

crops out of world markets. 

Do you think that closing agricultural tax exemptions 

will put an unfair tax burden on the state’s 

farmers? 

MCKENNA: I believe that the exemptions currently in 

place make sense. The fuel tax, for instance, is a way for 

road users to contribute to maintenance and new improvements. 

Taxing the fuel used in the fields isn’t a rational 

way to fund roads. 

INSLEE: As someone who used to sell and grow hay, I 

know firsthand the economic challenges facing many of 

our growers and how even modest tax relief can make 

a significant difference. My top priority is job creation, 

and there are tax measures that help employers from a 

wide range of industries create jobs. That’s why I support 

regular review of all our tax exemptions to ensure they 

are effectively helping create jobs and grow our economy, 

and only removing those that are no longer needed or 

effective. 

The shortline rail system is vital for getting our 

wheat to market. As governor, how will you make 

sure that Washington’s transportation infrastructure 

is maintained and improved? 

INSLEE: Our transportation network is an asset worth 

billions of dollars, yet we are facing billions in backlogged 

repairs to our basic network of highways, rail lines, ferries 

and bridges, despite the broad coalitions that have facili-

tated significant investments over the past decade. This 

is affecting all parts of Washington: rural and urban, east 

and west, north and south. 

We must prioritize investments with an eye towards 

freight mobility projects that help our industries move 

their products to market, and pursue new private-public 

partnership opportunities to fund important projects. 

MCKENNA: I have been very concerned about the need 

for upkeep and maintenance in local and rural transportation 

infrastructure. An effective and efficient transporta- 

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WL 

FEATURE 


A 2012 private variety trial brings the results back to the farm 

(Left) Paul Porter and Mike Miller at the field day in July. More than 100 people, 

including farmers, breeders, researchers and political attendees, gathered to 

discuss the trial and hear about upcoming releases. 


By Trista Crossley 

Wheat farmers are always searching for information 

to help them decide what varieties to plant where. 

And thanks to the efforts of Paul Porter of AgVentures 

NW, LLC and farmer Mike Miller of the Ritzville- 

Odessa area, they’ve got another great tool at their 

disposal. 

After taking last year off, Miller and Porter once 

again teamed up to test some of the most popular and 

some of the newest wheat varieties from both public 

and private sources on Miller’s farm. They planted a 

total of 15 varieties, with four of them being hard red 

winters, two club wheats and nine soft white winters. 

Each variety was planted in two, 1,320-foot strips 

under dryland conditions. The varieties were donated 

from most of the major breeders such as WestBred, 

Washington State University (WSU), Oregon State 

University, AgriPro, Limagrain and USDA-ARS. 

According to Porter, the main goals of the trial were 

to test for emergence, winter hardiness, rust tolerance 

and yield. They also wanted to see how well the plant 

tillered. 

“We had nitrogen use as a goal, but none of us 

had the energy to go pull soil samples,” Porter said, 

laughing.

The results of the trial tracked with 

what farmers saw in the fields, and 

while there were no big surprises, 

Porter said the hard red winters came 

through near the top of the list, yielding 

better than some of the soft whites. 

“After we got the results and looked 

at the HRW yields, we decided we 

needed to take them to Aaron Esser 

(WSU extension specialist for Lincoln- 

Adams counties) so he can do some 

economic work with them,” said 

Porter. “Does it make economic sense 

if they yield more even with the lower 

protein?” 

Another result Porter saw was that 

some of the varieties were not as well 

adapted to the location and had lower 

yields. Those varieties will likely be left 

out of future trials. 

Miller was also surprised with the 

yield results, noting that the top yielder 

(SY107) was a private variety. 

“Overall, the university and the 

USDA varieties showed very little 

weaknesses,” he said. 

Unlike the 2010 trial which saw some 

extreme weather, including high winds 

and high winter wind chills, this year’s 

trial had fairly normal weather conditions. 

Porter said they had good planting 

conditions, with moisture coming 

when it was needed. 

“Mother Nature took her shots, but 

we weren’t in danger of losing anything,” 

Porter said. 

In order to share their results with 

other area farmers, Miller and Porter 

hosted a field day in July. More than 

100 people attended, with many of the 

major breeders bringing in their own 

people to participate. 

“It was great,” said Porter about the 

field day. “When we let the breeders 

talk about their variety, we’ll ask them 

to talk about what they have coming, 

and what they are working on. What 

is of interest down the road? What are 

they expecting to accomplish in the 

next three or four years? You get a plate 

SWH 

HRW 

CLUB 

JR Miller 2012 Strip Trial Results 

FEATURE WL 

Average Test Perten 

Bushels Weight Protein 

SY 107 57.91 58.0 7.77 

XERPHA ELTAN 50.97 57.6 9.09 

WSU OTTO 50.64 56.9 9.77 

ORCF 103 50.19 59.8 9.71 

USDA-ARS 602 50.07 58.7 9.38 

ELTAN 49.44 59.4 10.22 

LIMAGRAIN 4009 46.59 59.4 10.41 

WB JUNCTION 46.00 46.0 11.09 

WB 1081 CL 42.85 60.5 12.02 

LIMAGRAIN AZIMUT 57.41 57.41 9.86 

WSU 8119 52.96 52.96 10.80 

WSU FARNUM 48.60 59.6 11.34 

WB ARROWHEAD 47.16 58.8 11.64 

USDA-ARS CRESENT 53.30 59.3 8.87 

BRUEHL 48.69 58.4 9.34 

of food, sit down and talk about things. It is a great “boots on the ground” 

experience for farmers and researchers. 

“I have people who tell me that is was the best tour they’d been to. People 

are going away saying ‘I got something from this.’ That makes you feel like 

you got it right.” 

Besides sharing valuable information, the field day was also an opportunity 

for farmers and breeders to interact with some of Washington state’s 

top political leaders. Representatives from the offices of Rep. Doc Hastings, 

Sen. Maria Cantwell, Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, 

among others, attended the tour. 

Over the past year, Miller said, he had had the various political offices asking 

to be invited, so he was anticipating at least some of them would show 

up at the field day. He said it was a chance to educate the political leaders 

on the hurdles farmers are faced with and why research is such an ongoing 

endeavor and can’t be turned on or off according to budgetary whims. 

“After speaking at a briefing in Washington, D.C., I understood how 

poorly we paint a picture of our work,” Miller said. He also explained that 

by having the political people at the field day, it gave farmers, who might 

feel that their concerns aren’t being addressed, a chance to make their voices 

heard. 

“Each attendee has asked to be included again, and even more encouragingly, 

it helped industry folks gain some accessibility,” Miller said. 

Miller said that the responses from the political attendees were immediate 

and full of questions. One person remarked that he had no idea that there 

were different varieties of wheat and how vulnerable the wheat could be to 

disease or the environment. 


WL 

FEATURE 

According to Miller, a lot of the credit for such a successful 

trial and field day goes to Porter. 

“Paul really did a great job this year. He had a good 

collection of industry people, some real heavy hitters,” he 

said. 

Porter, on the other hand, said it’s the industry’s support 

and cooperation that makes the trial so successful, 

from the major breeders who donated their varieties to 

Syngenta’s AgriPro who did the harvesting and gathered 

the data. 

Porter said that at the field day, they handed out hats 

with all of the participating companies’ logos on it. “It is 

rare to find this caliber of companies that will have their 

logo on the same hat as their competition. The collaboration 

is really, really wonderful. A lot of companies want to 

save this information for just their customers, but we do 

not. By design, this is meant to be for our industry.” 

Miller said that area farmers have been calling him to 

find out the results from the trial. 

“Farmers are pretty well educated and are doing their 

homework and finding out what grows best on their 

ground,” he said. “They aren’t just taking the information 

from a pamphlet.” 

Miller said even he takes something away from the trial. 

“I’ve actually found out by doing this the last couple of 

years that if I have some poorer yielding ground, I will 

choose a different variety to plant there. Normally, I’d just 

do one variety across the board. I am micromanaging better 

because I am paying attention to what is happening in 

the trial.” 

Porter said that next year’s trial will probably be quieter, 

with the data being published, but no field day. Varieties 


being planted are WSU Otto, SY107, 

Eltan, USDA-ARS Crescent, Limagrain 

4009, WestBred DZ6W07-458, WestBred 

DZ6W07-451 and WestBred Junction. 

Miller predicts that in the next few trials, 

breeders will start donating prereleases 

or ready-to-release lines that are 

targeted for the Ritzville-Odessa area. 

“This is turning into a big deal,” said 

Miller. 

Whatever the reason for the success 

of the trial, it is clear that the collaboration 

between Miller and Porter is a key 

component. 

“I would like to find a collaborator 

along Highway 2 to do the same thing 

with,” said Porter. “It will allow us to 

demonstrate varietal performance in a 

high rainfall area.” 

For more information, contact Porter at (509) 253-4604, 

(509) 348-0060 or email him at paul@agventuresnw.com. 

Trial results can also be found at www.agventuresnw.com 

under seed news. 

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Available on a first-come, first-serve basis. 

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WL PROFILES 

Central Wind and Solar 

Firefighter turned farmer advocates solar power 

By Kevin Gaffney 

While there are plenty of farmers in eastern Washington 

who serve as volunteer firefighters, it is far less common 

for a career firefighter to take up farming. It is especially 

uncommon to become a Whitman County wheat farmer 

who also sells wind and solar power energy systems. 

Bob Venera, firefighter at North Bend, Wash., is that 

type of guy. He has an entrepreneurial nature, and when 

he sold off some business interests, he used that capital to 

purchase farmland acreage southeast of St. John, Wash. 

His career work gave him a work schedule with alternating 

shifts of multiple days on followed by several days 

off. 

“I had to find something to keep me occupied when I 

wasn’t at the firehouse,” said Venera. “I had a drive to be 

productive during all the free time I was fortunate enough 

to have available to me.” 

Venera started a quick lube and oil change business that 

did well. He added an espresso shop. Feeling he had pursued 

that business model as far as he should, he sold out. 

Bob and Lauren Venera on their farm property near St. John, Wash. 


Venera then used that money to buy Whitman County 

farmland from Louie and Lorena White. 

Venera and his wife Lauren won’t be moving to the farm 

full time soon. He is nearing retirement, but she teaches 

school in Yakima and loves her work. 

Venera does plan to begin taking over farming his land 

with direct seeding practices, so he will be visiting often. 

“My son and I are avid hunters,” said Venera. “We have 

a unique property here with plenty of deer and game 

birds. We are looking forward to enjoying that.” 

Finding himself without a business venture to keep 

himself occupied, Venera and his wife Lauren decided 

to take advantage of how much the wind blows in the 

Ellensburg region and the growing popularity of green 

energy production. 

After much research, the Veneras started up Central 

Wind Energy in 2008. They began selling and installing 

wind turbine generators for residential use. The company 

soon became Central Wind and Solar as they learned more 

about the incentives available for residential solar power

generation installations. 

“The solar power systems provide an ideal tax incentive opportunity for 

farmers,” explained Venera. “Either wind or solar systems receive a 30 percent 

federal tax credit for the installation costs. On tax day, that comes right off the 

top of your tax liability. For farmers, who earn most of their income in a lump 

sum, that can be very advantageous. 

“If you install a standard 10-unit solar panel system, that 30 percent credit 

is worth about $5,400. But, that is not all. The state of Washington offers an annual 

incentive of 15 cents per kilowatt hour (kwh) produced if the solar unit is 

manufactured out of state. However, if the unit is made in Washington state, 

that incentive jumps to 54 cents per kwh produced. The wind generator incentive 

tops out at 12 cents per kwh.” 

The incentive was designed to stimulate local business, and it has worked. 

Two major solar panel manufacturing companies have established production 

in Washington over the past two years. 

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PROFILES WL 

“An average, 10-panel solar unit 

will produce about 4,000 kilowatts 

annually,” estimated Venera. “Using 

an average rate of 10 cents per kwh, 

that means you will save about $400 

annually off your power bills. This 

is roughly about one quarter of the 

average home electrical power use. 

“Adding up all the benefits, $5,400 

tax credit, the 54 cents per kwh 

times the 4,000 kilowatts produced, 

which totals about $2,150, and the 

saved power use of around $400 

equals $7,950. At that rate, it doesn’t 

take too long to pay off the standard 

cost of around $18,000 for each 

10-panel unit.” 

Central Wind and Solar installs 

mostly solar units now. The wind 

turbines need winds of at least 15 

mph or so to operate efficiently. They 

also have moving parts and need 

maintenance. The average life of a 

turbine is 15 to 20 years. The solar 

units work efficiently all year, and 

with no moving parts, they can be 

expected to last for 30 years or more. 

There is a limited amount of 

return available to home-generating 

systems. There is a cap at the state 

level of $5,000 per year. Any power 

produced beyond that level will just 


WL 

PROFILES 

be free power to the regional power 

company. Generally, two 10-panel 

solar units are as much as each home 

can efficiently use without going 

over that limit. 

The generating systems are usually 

installed near the homes on a 

metal post mounted in concrete. In 

some applications, they can be attached 

to a roof, but in many Pacific 

Northwest locations, winter snow 

and ice become a problem. 

A typical 10-panel unit is approximately 

10 feet wide by 15 feet in 

height. Most farm sites have plenty 

of room for two units, which must 

face due south. The ground-mounted 

units can be adjusted seasonally 

to stay at the optimum 90-degree 

angle to the sun for efficient power 

generation. 

The local power company is 

required to “net meter” the generating 

system, which means the 

exact amount of power generated is 

continuously recorded. If the home 

is using less power than is being 

generated, the system will track 

and bank the power. During higher 

power usage months, the system 

will automatically begin using the 

power credit that has been built up 

during the months of less usage. 

The current incentive system offered 

by Washington state is effective 

through the year 2020. It may be 

extended, as it has been in the past, 

but that is not guaranteed. 

Central Wind and Solar has installed 

more than 50 systems all over 

the state. Venera handles the installation 

labor. Lauren is the paperwork 

expert and helps their clients work 

through all the regulatory and 

inspection steps necessary to get a 

residential generating system installed 

and certified. All units must 

be inspected by Washington State 

Department of Labor and Industries 

before they can go online. 

38 WHEAT LIFE OCTOBER 2012

“We are getting pretty good at all 

the paperwork, although each power 

company has a slightly different 

system,” said Lauren. “We actually 

have helped some counties write the 

regulations for these systems. The 

industry is still in its infancy. For 

the most part, the utility companies 

have been very cooperative with us.” 

Venera first became familiar with 

Whitman County when he attended 

Washington State University. He and 

Lauren are passionate Cougar sports 

fans. They also love the beauty and 

the solitude of the Palouse country. 

Lauren has come a long way 

geographically from her early childhood 

home in Johannesburg, South 

Africa. She moved to Washington 

state with her mother before the 

social upheavals occurred following 

the abolishment of apartheid in 

the early 1990s. First settling near 

Issaquah, Lauren later attended 

and received her teaching degree 

at Central Washington University. 

While living in Ellensburg, she met 

Venera. They were married and have 

established a happy marriage and a 

successful business partnership. 

To learn more about Central Wind 

and Solar, visit them online at 

www.centralwind.net. 

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You don’t find many people who have anything bad to 

say about research, a word defined as the “methodical 

investigation into a subject in order to discover facts, to 

establish or review a theory or to develop a plan of action 

based on the facts discovered.” My own quote on the 

subject would go like this: “Research is the lifeblood of 

agriculture.” 

And yet, last year’s Washington Grain Commission 

(WGC) research prioritization effort 

drew far fewer participants than in the 

past. Sixteen growers were ultimately 

on hand to help decide how to divvy up 

the $2.2 million the WGC distributed to 

scientific projects to benefit the industry. 

Don’t get me wrong, those 16 did a 

fine job, but I’m sure they would have 

welcomed more people and more 

discussion. While the WGC ultimately 

decides which projects to fund, we rely 

heavily on the input we receive from 

those who attend the meetings which 

introduce, then winnow down, projects 

presented by scientists. 

I realize Eastern Washington farmers 

elect us, your WGC board, to make many of the tough 

decisions about which direction to steer this industry. 

But research is one of those segments I believe requires 

engagement by more of our community. We are at the 

beginning of an era which could result in wholesale 

changes to the research dynamic we have operated 

under for almost 60 years. Much faster than a glacier, but 

with the same resolve, private companies are poised to 

carve up the old way of doing things. What is the role of 

the WGC in this new reality? Do we anticipate changes 

or await their introduction? Although the Washington 

Grain Commission directs almost all of its research 

funding toward scientists in academic settings, research 

is not just something done at universities. Private companies 

with well-funded R & D departments are often more 

focused than anything you’ll find at a university, and 

they are making important inroads into wheat research. 

Ten months ago in this space, former WGC Chairman 

Nat Webb raised a question about whether we can 

continue to fund only public research when much of the 

assessment income collected by the commission comes 

from private varieties being grown. It’s a good question, 

one that I hope some time will be set aside for the growers 

who do attend research meetings to discuss. 

Which begs the question, do we make an effort to invite 

private companies to participate in our Request For 

“Research is creating new 

knowledge.” 

—Neil Armstrong 

“Research is what I’m doing 

when I don’t know what I’m 

doing.” 

—Wernher von Braun 

“Research is the process of 

going up alleys to see if they are 

blind.” 

—Marston Bates 

By Tom Zwainz 

Proposal process? As I noted above, privates’ funding 

can make farmers’ contribution pale in comparison, but 

might it be possible that a scientist working for a private 

company has a project he wants to pursue independently? 

These philosophical questions go beyond setting 

priorities about the next three years of research projects, 

but a conversation about the bigger picture can help provide 

a framework for how you want your commissioners 

to maneuver during the transition we are facing. 

For those of you who are hazy on the 

details, the WGC will host a number of 

meetings over the next six months to 

decide how to allocate the funding we’ll 

be assigning to research projects in 2013. 

Some of the proposals are no-brainers, 

others are back for a second look, and 

a few will be brand new. Over a series 

of meetings, growers learn about them, 

vote on their favorites and count the 

results to establish priorities. 

There is another quote which, I’m 

told, has no original source, although 

it’s been attributed to everybody from 

Benjamin Franklin to Woody Allen. 

We’ve all heard it, but few of us act upon it. It goes: 

“Decisions are made by those who show up.” 

Be one of those who show up to help guide our industry 

into its research future. Approximate dates, times 

and places for setting your industry’s 2013 research priorities 

are listed below. Call Mary Palmer Sullivan, WGC 

program director, for more information at (509) 456-2481. 

Oct. 17, 2012: Preproposal meeting to discuss new research 

projects as well as renewals of those already funded. 

Commissioners and country representatives vote to 

determine if projects move forward. WSU, Pullman. 

Nov. 12, 2012: WSU research discussion at the 

Washington Association of Wheat Growers Convention, 

Coeur d’Alene Resort. 

Jan. 1, 2013: Full proposal due to the WGC. 

Mid-February 2013: Research Review includes presentations 

by researchers. Pullman. 

Late February 2013: Review of the Review, a prioritization 

of every project made by those who participated at 

the Research Review with one-man, one-vote determining 

the final priority list. WAWG Office. 

March 2013: The WGC board reviews the Review of 

the Review priorities. 

May 2013: The WGC annual meeting assigns funding 

to those projects that are accepted. 


WASHINGTON GRAIN COMMISSION

WASHINGTON GRAIN COMMISSION 

Red in white makes farmers blue 

In the “if it’s not one thing, it’s another” department, this year’s wheat crop had 

a higher-than-normal incidence of red wheat contaminating soft white wheat 

samples. A discount for such “contrasting class” contamination begins at 1 percent, 

and some samples have come in at almost 5 percent. Sam White, manager 

of the Pacific Northwest Farmers Cooperative, said the problem might have 

been caused by last year’s dry fall and mild winter. “We sent agronomists out 

to look at the suspect fields, and they were finding plants growing between 

seed rows. The guys who’ve never grown hard red on their fields are coming 

up clean so it looks to me like a volunteer issue,” he said, referring to vestiges 

of crops from previous rotations by the term “volunteers.” Don Potts, regional 

manager of the Washington State Grain Inspection Service, said contrasting 

classes haven’t been an issue in the Spokane or Tri-Cities office, but the problem 

did show up in the Colfax office in a big way. “It looks like about 10 percent 

of the soft white samples are involved, averaging between .8 to 1.5 percent 

contrasting classes. There are some at four percent,” he said. Potts agrees with 

White that the problem is likely the result of volunteer hard red winter and 

hard red spring wheat plants germinating into fields subsequently planted to 

soft white. “I talked with one elevator company employee who said the winter 

wasn’t severe enough and the farmers didn’t put on enough chemicals to do 

the job to kill the volunteers,” Potts said. However, there are a couple of other 

explanations for the predicament as well. Some suggest it’s possible new 

soft white varieties that have a hard red wheat heritage in their background 

may be reverting back to their original parentage. The Washington State 

Crop Improvement Service (WSCIA) begin seeing the problem of low levels 

of contrasting classes—white in red and red in white—occurring in certified 

wheat fields a couple of years ago. They funded a Washington State University 

graduate student to investigate whether the occurrence was the result of volunteers, 

a genetic component or some environmental influence affecting the 

seed coat coloring. From the research conducted by Caleb Squires, it appears 

a large amount of the contrasting class problem is the result of contamination. 

Although Squires is specifically investigating white wheat in red wheat, Jerry 

Robinson, manager of the WSCIA, said he doesn’t make a distinction when 

it comes to which class created the contrasting element. Both are equally a 

problem. “It is going both ways, and while volunteers are one piece of the 

puzzle, there is also potential seed contamination from combines that haven’t 

been adequately cleaned between certified fields, not to mention the genetic 

component. I do not think it is just one thing causing the problem, but a combination 

of several,” he said. Whatever the cause turns out to be, Sam White 

indicated one thing is certain. As more hard red wheat is grown in the area, 

more farmers need to pay closer attention to the management of their fields. 


Place your bets 

The betting is on a mild El Niño 

forming in the October/November 

time frame, but as one government 

summary put it, “individual models 

continue to show a moderate-to-high 

level of spread in their forecast, suggesting 

there continues to be a range 

of potential scenarios.” For the record, 

El Niño is the warming of sea surface 

temperatures in the equatorial Pacific 

that occurs every four to 12 years, affecting 

crops from Asia to the Americas 

and reducing the chances of storms 

forming in the Atlantic Basin during 

the hurricane season. In the Northwest, 

the phenomenon is associated with 

drought. This year’s El Niño 

development has baffled 

climatologists because the 

atmospheric and the ocean 

temperatures data are out of 

sync from traditional El Niño 

years. Although the money 

is on the formation of 

a mild El Niño, 

until it happens, 

there’s no 

telling whether 

or not the bet 

will pay off. 

Searching 

for research 

Have a problem on your farm that 

could be resolved through research? If 

so, the Washington Grain Commission 

(WGC) wants to hear from you! The 

WGC uses grower funding for research 

projects, and your input is valued. 

Speak to your commission representatives 

or contact Mary Palmer Sullivan 

by email at mary@wagrains.com or 

at (509) 456-2481, and we’ll use your 

feedback to work with Washington 

State University to develop a research 

project proposal.

Miles to go 

WGC REVIEW WL 

When Vince Peterson, vice president of overseas 

operations at U.S. Wheat Associates, gave a presentation 

in Russia recently, he pointed out that it made a 

great deal of sense for the country to be supplying 

grain to Egypt. After all, from 

Novorossiysk, Russia’s main 

Black Sea port and the port 

closest to the heart of Russia’s 

bread basket, to Alexandria, 

Egypt, is only 1,400 miles. 

Meanwhile, from the U.S. 

Gulf, the trip is 7,200 miles. 

Canada’s Thunder Bay is a little 

closer at just under 7,000 miles. 

Argentina wheat travels 8,450 

miles. (From the Northwest, it’s 11,500 miles, but depending on the price of soft white, sales into the 

Middle East can still occur.) Pointing out the obvious advantage Russia has into the Egyptian market is not meant to undercut 

U.S. exports. Rather, Peterson was attempting show how efforts to move grain into Russia’s Far Eastern port of Vladivostok is a 

logistical nightmare not worth the effort. The journey by rail from Omsk to Vladivostok in the Far East is nearly 4,400 miles. For 

the record, that would be an equivalent journey of moving grain from Houston, Texas, to Anchorage, Alaska. Moving the grain 

from Vladivostok to Indonesia by boat is another 3,850 miles. Although various companies have been talking up the prospect 

of improving Russian export facilities on its East Coast in order to move wheat into the Pacific Rim, Peterson is not too worried. 

“Moving wheat from central Russia and Siberia would require bridging monumental logistical and economic challenges. The 

models I’ve seen would require huge government rail subsidies to offset the high transportation costs. That alone would exceed 

Russia’s new WTO export subsidy expenditure caps,” he said. 

Thank you, thank 

you, thank you 

The Washington Grain Commission 

would like to thank the sponsors 

who made the U.S. Wheat Associates 

Summer Board Meeting in Spokane 

such a success. Platinum sponsors 

included: Bayer Crop Sciences, BNSF, 

Northwest Farm Credit Services, The 

McGregor Co., and Syngenta. Gold 

sponsors included Central Washington 

Grain Growers and Monsanto/WestBred. 

Silver sponsors included Limagrain 

Cereals Seeds LLC, PNW Farmers 

Cooperative and Ritzville Warehouse/ 

Odessa Trading Co. Bronze sponsors 

included the Bank of Fairfield, 

Cooperative Agricultural Producers and 

U.S. Trust-Bank of America Farm and 

Ranch Services. 

Big shoes available 

Rich Koenig, a soil scientist who 

was chosen to chair the department 

of Crops and Soils in 2008, has announced 

he has accepted the position 

of Director of Extension and Associate 

Dean at WSU’s College of Agricultural, 

Human and Natural Resource Sciences 

(CAHNRS). Koenig said for the foreseeable 

future he will remain the primary 

point of contact with the Washington 

Grain Commission. He will also continue 

to chair the Cereal Variety Release 

Committee and be available for other 

wheat-oriented meetings and events. CAHNRS Dean Dan Bernardo called 

Koenig an effective and accomplished administrator who has not just managed 

his unit, but led it. Tom Zwainz, chairman of the WGC, congratulated 

Koenig on his new post and thanked him for his efforts on behalf of the wheat 

industry. “Rich has helped create a new atmosphere of cooperation between 

the WGC and WSU. Extension is gaining a fine administrator. We look forward 

to collaborating with WSU on the selection of a new chair who will ably fill his 

shoes.” 




WL 

WGC REVIEW 

New lease on life? 

A herbicide-resistant feed barley line that is intended to help farmers beat 

the chemical plant back restrictions that frequently knock the crop out of 

a rotation, performed well enough in its first year of field testing that Kevin 

Murphy intends to enroll it in the Variety Testing program next spring. 

Murphy, who oversees Washington State University’s barley breeding program, 

said the herbicide resistant spring barley line was developed through 

mutagenesis, a non-GMO process which subjects seeds to a chemical bath 

that alters their genetic code. The new experimental line is tolerant to the 

chemical residue left in the soil from spraying Clearfield winter wheat with 

Beyond, but is not intended to be sprayed itself. (The approach also works 

against Pursuit-like chemicals used in the pulse industry.) “This should help 

increase barley acreage and overall crop diversity in wheat-based rotations 

as one of the primary reasons for the decline of the crop in recent years 

is due to plant back restrictions stemming from Clearfield winter wheat 

varieties,” Murphy said. Barley has two primary uses: for feed and as malting 

barley in the beer industry. Although corn has a myriad of GMO traits, the 

malting industry has been very dubious about creating genetically engineered 

barley varieties for fear they might contaminate the malting stream. 

Murphy said he has talked with an official at the American Malting Barley 

Association who indicated no opposition to the mutagenesis-created, 

herbicide-resistant barley “as long as it doesn’t affect quality.” 

A gusher of (canola) oil 

As a potential rotation with wheat, canola is heating up in Eastern 

Washington. The Canadian-based firm Legumex Walker is finishing up its 

crushing facility 

in Warden with 

commercial 

operations expected 

to start 

during the first 

quarter of 2013. 

The operation, 

which can crush 

1,100 tons of 

canola a day, 

will produce oil 

for human consumption 

and 

high-quality 

canola meal. 

The plant is the first commercial-scale canola crushing facility west of the 

Rockies. Joel Horn, president and chief executive officer of Legumex Walker, 

said the increased level of canola seeding in Washington, Idaho, Montana 

and Oregon (estimated at 100,000 acres in the 2012/13 season), “should enable 

us to source more feedstock for processing locally during our first year 

of operation than originally anticipated.” 


A new captain 

at the wheel 

An Odessa-based biodiesel manufacturing 

facility under the management of 

AgVentures NW LLC, the company that 

oversees both Reardan Grain Growers 

and Odessa Union Warehouse, has sold a 

significant interest along with other early 

investors in the operation, to a group of 

Seattle-area investors, 1138 LLC. Keith 

Bailey, AgVentures’ chief executive officer, 

said a number of challenges led to the decision 

to divest its relationship with Inland 

Empire Oilseeds, including the absence of 

a $1 a gallon blender credit during 2010 

and the fact canola had been excluded as 

an approved feedstock at the time in the 

Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). “With those 

events, the business couldn’t support the 

investment to keep it running,” Bailey said. 

In June 2010, the Inland Empire Oilseeds 

facility was essentially idled although some 

batches of biodiesel continued to be made. 

In February 2011, 1138 was identified as an 

investor. The limited liability company took 

over Inland’s debt and made the two co-ops 

a 24 percent partner. “We’re coming out of 

this well ahead. We took our lumps in 2010, 

but through the structure of this agreement, 

long term we’ll recover virtually all of the investment,” 

Bailey said. Equally important, he 

added, the sale will help make canola a viable 

alternative crop in the region, a rotation 

that can boost wheat yields. As more canola 

is grown, meanwhile, the additional handle 

of moving the oilseed through Odessa and 

Reardan is expected to add significant revenue 

to the cooperative’s bottom line.

Irrigation is no drought panacea 

The drought in the Midwest has been a boon to irrigation firms with Valmont 

Industries and Lindsay Corp. reporting record revenue during their third quarter. 

Only about 14 percent of U.S. cropland is irrigated now (46 percent of which is 

through center pivots), but the combination of rising food demand and climate 

change is expected to increase that another 7 percent in the next decade. In a significant 

drought, it’s estimated the return on a $50,000 irrigation investment is one 

to two years. It should be noted, however, that a scientist from the Netherlands 

found so much water is being withdrawn from the world’s aquifers, evaporated 

and transported to the oceans through precipitation and runoff that it accounts for 

25 percent of the annual rise in the planet’s sea level. Extend irrigated areas using 

groundwater that is not being recharged and “you will run into a wall at a certain 

point in time,” warned Marc Bierkens. Groundwater depletion is highest in northwest 

India and northeastern China, Pakistan, California’s Central Valley and the 

American Midwest. 

20/20 hindsight 

Magazines operate on at least a month’s lead time, so the fact World Grain’s July 

2012 issue included an article with the headline “How low can they go?”, referring 

to wheat and corn prices which were forecast dropping to $5 and $4 per bushel 

respectively, is somewhat understandable. And it’s true that several times in 

the article the author included the caveat, “Barring any unforeseen catastrophic 

weather events. . . “ Still, it’s remarkable how quickly Mother Nature can make the 

best crystal ball gazer appear blind—and dumb. By the end of July, it was clear a 

new pricing dynamic had emerged, and World Grain’s sister publication, the weekly 

Milling & Baking News, spoke of the “searing speed” at which the Midwest drought 

unfolded. Commenting on earlier reports of falling prices, the magazine’s editor 

wrote, “The swiftness with which that outlook went from glowing to disaster is 

unprecedented.” 

Make bread, not war 

Interested in improving your baking skills or showing off your handiwork? 

Kansas Wheat has created a new online community at 

www.americasbreadbasket.com which offers visitors the opportunity to share 

recipes, tips and more. The site includes information about the National Festival 

of Breads baking contest, the only nationwide, amateur bread-baking competition. 

Entries are being accepted until February 2013. 

WGC REVIEW WL 

Coal goal 

has wheat beat 

Depending on whether all the 

proposed export coal facilities are 

built, Spokane could be seeing up 

to 63, mile-and-a-quarter long trains 

passing through the city each day. 

For farmers who live along the BNSF 

corridor, that doesn’t just mean 

longer waits getting from one side 

of the track to the other, it has the 

potential to impact the rail infrastructure’s 

ability to get grain to port. 

A report prepared for the Western 

Organization of Resource Councils 

suggests major choke points and 

bottlenecks along the route from the 

Powder River Basin (PRB) coal fields 

in Montana and Wyoming to export 

locations could cause congestion 

along the entire line. Currently, there 

are only three coal export facilities 

in the Pacific Northwest, all in British 

Columbia, which handle 5 million 

tons of PRB coal per year. Six new 

facilities located in Washington and 

Oregon are being considered. If all of 

them come on line, 170 million tons of 

coal could be exported from the PNW 

to the Pacific Rim by 2022. According 

to the report, export grain traffic 

“would be adversely impacted by the 

reduction of rail capacity and would 

likely experience a deterioration of 

rail service such as higher transit 

times and would likely incur higher 

costs in the form of higher freight 

rates and equipment costs.” Spokane 

would be one of the most heavily hit 

cities with a potential five trains an 

hour passing through town. Oregon 

Governor Kitzhaber has requested a 

full Environmental Impact Statement 

of the export facility proposals as 

a result of environmental concerns 

associated with protection of water 

quality, coal dust emissions at the 

facilities and during transport and 

emissions of other pollutants including 

diesel particulates. Delay times for 

emergency vehicles at rail crossings 

along the route is also a concern. 




WL 

WGC REPORTS 

FIRMING UP THE SOFT WHITE MARKET 

AT LATIN AMERICAN BUYERS CONFERENCE 

By Glen W. Squires 

Nearly 200 millers and buyers from 16 countries 

throughout Latin America gathered in Bogotá, 

Colombia, recently for the 10th Latin American 

Buyers Conference, a venue that provided the ideal 

backdrop to accentuate the positive qualities of 

Pacific Northwest wheat and the farm families who 

grow it. 

Along with myself, the PNW was ably represented 

by Blake Rowe, CEO of the Oregon Wheat 

Commission (OWC), and Bob Newtson, an OWC 

commissioner. 

Considering the recently signed U.S./Colombia 

Free Trade Agreement that allows U.S. wheat to 

enter the country without tariffs, Bogotá was an 

inspired choice for the conference. After being shut 

out of Colombia during a brief period when Canada 

enjoyed tariff-free access and the U.S. didn’t, the 

American industry is now in the process of rebuilding 

its dominance. 

The conference was organized by the U.S. Wheat’s 

(USW) Chile office under the direction of Regional 

Vice President Alvaro de la Fuente and Marketing 

Specialist Osvaldo Seco, based in Santiago, Chile. 

They worked in concert with Regional Vice 

President Mitch Skalicky and Assistant Director 

Chad Weigland who is based in Mexico City. 

Latin America imported nearly 8 million metric 

tons of wheat from the U.S. during the 2011/12 marketing 

year worth almost $2.4 billion. The region is a 

growing market for the Pacific Northwest, especially 

for soft white wheat farmers (see accompanying 

story on page 48). 

EPORTS RWASHINGTON GRAIN COMMISSION 

Ready, set, Grow! 


Glen Squires, CEO of the Washington Grain Commission, addresses Latin 

American wheat millers and buyers during the U.S. Wheat Associates-sponsored 

Latin American Buyers Conference held in Bogotá, Colombia. 

The conference provided an excellent opportunity to thank 

current wheat buyers and speak with others about the potential 

for sourcing PNW wheat, particularly soft white. I provided 

the outlook for the class. Although harvest hadn’t begun at 

the time, much could be inferred about upcoming crop quality 

based on historic data which pointed to supply stability, consis-

tency, versatility and value. 

Regarding the last factor, I was 

able to show that soft white buyers 

during the last year experienced a 

significant boost in flour yield—a 

tangible dollar and cents advantage 

to millers. I also pointed out that 

soft white wheat has the lowest 

level of impurities among U.S. 

wheat classes (Figure 1). 

Much of the quality data I presented 

originates from the Idaho, 

Oregon and Washington wheat 

and grain commissions’ Soft White 

Wheat Marketing Plan. We now 

have ten years of detailed crop 

quality information on soft white 

available by production zones and 

protein level. This data includes 

wheat, flour, dough and end-use 

product information derived from 

testing at the Wheat Marketing 

Center in Portland. 

One key value of the soft white 

wheat crop is its versatility in terms 

of protein availability. While average 

crop protein is often discussed, 

soft white protein can be evenly 

divided by thirds as shown by the 

recent three-year average (Figure 2). 

This means higher protein is available 

for flat breads and crackers, 

lower protein for pastries and cakes 

and midrange protein for miscellaneous 

uses. 

Although my focus was on soft 

white, those who attended the 

conference also had the opportunity 

to learn about the latest U.S. 

wheat crop forecast, supply and 

demand changes, the direct impact 

of corn supply and price upon 

wheat, implications of changes to 

the Canadian Wheat Board and an 

update on biotechnology developments. 

A synopsis of current farm 

bill discussions was also provided 

as well as perspectives on wheat 

price volatility and factors behind 

Figure 1 

Figure 2 

WGC REPORTS WL 

the boom in U.S. agriculture. 

With competition for market share increasing among wheat exporters 

around the world, concentrating additional efforts upon Latin American markets 

is an initiative I believe will pay big dividends. Soft white wheat is more 

than a low protein cookie, cracker and confectionery class. It is an improver 

for end-use products of all kinds, not to mention Pacific Northwest farmers’ 

bottom lines. 




WL 

WGC REPORTS 

Milling 

consultants 

key to 

soft white 

success 


FoCuS on blEndinG vAluE 

The Washington Grain 

Commission (WGC) has been 

investigating the value of using 

soft white wheat in blends with 

other wheat as part of research conducted 

by Peter Lloyd, U.S. Wheat 

Associates’ (USW) regional technical 

director based in Casablanca, 

Morocco. 

In concert with USW and the 

WGC, container samples and other 

commercial work on blending has 

occurred in several countries, 

including Thailand, Morocco, 

Guatemala and Colombia. Blend 

percentages typically fall into the 

30 percent range for soft white, 

but some mills, such as those in 

Colombia, like 40 percent soft white 

blends. Others use still higher 

percentages. 

EnTER pATRiCK FRY 

Chile is currently the largest buyer 

of soft white in Latin America, 

where approximately 50 percent of 

it is blended in other classes. The 

WGC has been pushing hard for increased 

technical expertise at USW 

to assist buyers in the use of U.S. 

wheat and in particular, soft white, 

setting aside funding to assist the 

effort. Although Peter Lloyd is a 

champion of the blending concept, 

his many irons in the fire means he 

cannot devote the time the WGC 

feels is necessary to develop the 

practice. 


During a break at the Latin American Buyers Conference, Glen Squires, CEO of the WGC, speaks with 

Patrick Fry, a milling consultant from Chile. Fry touts blends of soft white in Argentine wheats of up 

to 70 percent for some products. 

Which brings me to Patrick Fry. 

A milling consultant recommended 

by USW’s Alvaro de la Fuente, Fry 

has extensive baking experience 

and his own state-of-the art laboratory. 

Upon meeting him, it was 

obvious Fry understands both the 

milling and product manufacturing 

side of the wheat equation. He consults 

for many companies, including 

Walmart. 

Our goal is to use Fry’s blending 

expertise to specifically target 

additional Latin American markets 

and do for them what he and de la 

Fuente have accomplished in Chile. 

Initially, we hope he will work one 

week a month with mills throughout 

Latin America. Depending on 

the outcome, we could solicit more 

of his time. 

In this year’s WGC budget, funding 

has been set aside to move the 

milling consultant project forward 

and to facilitate training and work 

looking at blending soft white. It’s 

anticipated that the container-size 

samples needed for the milling 

work could be sourced through 

the USW quality samples program. 

There will also need to be samples 

of red wheat that would be sourced 

from PNW export ports. This approach 

could help solidify replacement 

of Canadian Western Red 

Spring wheat. 

I believe as buyers discover the 

value of soft white in blends, pur-

chasing from the PNW will encourage the use of combo 

cargos with other classes, ultimately steering buyers to 

obtain all their grain needs from the Northwest. 

FRY TouTS blEndinG 

Perhaps one of the most fascinating presentations during 

the Latin American Buyers Conference was conducted 

by Fry on the mechanics and benefits of blending soft 

white wheat. He began by asking millers to consider the 

question, “How do you generate a wheat mixture that is 

economical?” He provided insight into how to account 

for milling differences between soft and hard wheat; detailed 

layouts of flour mills; and illustrated changes that 

could be made to existing facilities to enhance blending. 

He described the technical features of soft white for mixing, 

such as lower moisture, quality of the gluten, lower 

ash, good color and higher flour yield, as well as benefits 

in manufacturing products with soft white blended flour. 

He also gave details on the mixing process. 

The Chilean mills where Fry serves as a consultant are 

effectively using up to 70 percent soft white in blends 

for specific products. He illustrated the benefits of using 

soft white in blends with Argentine wheat (30 percent 

Argentine wheat and 70 percent soft white), as well as 

Canadian wheat. Many Latin American millers utilize 

Argentine wheat due to close proximity and price, but 


quality is often a challenge. Incorporating soft white was 

shown to enhance the mixture. 

Fry explained that from a commercial view, the typical 

idea is to buy the cheapest wheat to make the product. 

However, he suggested from a technical point of view 

that millers should be able to mix any wheat available. 

By doing so, a miller and baker gains the true value of 

the wheat to make the best product possible at the lowest 

cost. He emphasized that manufacturers are less interested 

in flours that produce inferior products. 

Fry concluded that soft white gives better quality to 

the blended flour and gives more flour (extraction) from 

the wheat. He has received no complaints from bakeries 

when soft white is utilized in certain blends. In his 

words, “It works like a charm!” 

During breaks and lunch, Fry was swarmed with 

people wanting to learn more about his experience with 

blending. While there will be additional evaluations regarding 

the project, it appears with the blending “secret” 

out of the bag, we may soon be off and running in other 

areas of Latin America, setting the stage for significant 

growth in exports of soft white and other PNW wheat 

classes to the region. The WGC is committed to seeing 

this market expansion occur. 

Patrick Fry, a milling consultant who works from his base in Chile, explains proper techniques for blending wheat classes to the nearly 200 buyers and 

millers who attended the Latin American Buyers Conference. 




WL 

WGC REPORTS 

PNW exports to Latin America rise 


Just 1 percent of U.S. wheat exports to Latin American 

countries (excluding Mexico) originated from Pacific 

Northwest coast ports in 1994 (Figure 3). In 2010, the 

region accounted for more than 20 percent of U.S. wheat 

exports with 16.1 percent during 

the last marketing year. 

Including Mexico, the 

region imported 7.8 million 

metric tons (mmt) in 2011/12, 

or 35 percent of total U.S. 

exports. This is the equivalent 

to the combined imports of 

Japan, South Korea and the 

Philippines. 

Mexico was singled out of 

the mix when looking at Latin 

American imports originating 

from PNW export ports 

because U.S. wheat ordinarily 

moves by rail into Mexico. 

Until now. 

1,000 metric tons 

500 

450 

400 

350 

300 

250 

200 

150 

100 

50 

0 


MMT 

10.0 

8.0 

6.0 

4.0 

2.0 

0.0 

3.7 

2.9 

0.8 

3.7 

During the 2011/12 marketing year—for the first time 

ever—Mexico purchased PNW wheat that was delivered 

by ship. Hopefully, this is only the beginning of such 

deliveries. In total, Mexico imported 3.5 mmt of wheat 

from the U.S. during the last marketing year of which 

Figure 3: U.S. wheat exports to Latin American with 

North Paci�c Coast export percentage 

1.8 

5.5 

4.5% 

1.1% 

1994/95 1998/99 

Mexico 

Total Exports 

5.1 

2% 

7.6 

2.5 2.1 

16.4% 

4.3 

6.4 

20.6% 16.1% 

2.6 

5.4 

8.0 7.8 

4.4 

3.4 

2002/03 2006/07 2010/11 2011/12 

All Other Latin America 

PNW % of All Other 

Figure 4: U.S. wheat exports to Guatemala by class 

82/83 

83/84 

84/85 

85/86 

86/87 

87/88 

88/89 

89/90 

90/91 

91/92 

92/93 

93/94 

94/95 

95/96 

96/97 

97/98 

98/99 

99/00 

00/01 

01/02 

02/03 

03/04 

04/05 

05/06 

06/07 

07/08 

08/09 

09/10 

10/11 

11/12 

Marketing Year 

30% 

20% 

10% 

0% 

Source: USDA/AMS 

Total 

SWW 

SRW 

HRW 

HRS 

Durum 

Source: USDA

Panama: 

A beginning 

success story? 

At a dinner prior to the Latin American 

Buyers Conference, I sat with millers and 

industry representatives from Colombia, 

Venezuela, Honduras and Panama. A 

conversation with a Panamanian miller 

revealed little interest in PNW soft white 

wheat. “We buy soft red winter (SRW). 

We have always bought soft red winter 

and will always buy soft red winter.” 

Although it might have appeared the 

case was closed, the buyer was encouraged 

to at least consider the benefits to be 

obtained with soft white. We continued 

the conversation as we viewed Eastern 

Washington wheat land via Google earth 

on his iPhone. 

Fast forward to the conclusion of the 

conference. Mitch Skalicky, USW director 

of the Mexico/Central American region, 

informed me of an impromptu meeting 

between himself and the Panamanian 

miller. This side discussion revealed that 

after hearing the WGC presentation on 

the stability and consistency of the soft 

white crop supply, in addition to the 

presentation by Fry on the value, benefits 

and mechanics of blending soft white, 

the miller was reconsidering his soft red 

allegiance. 

406,000 metric tons was soft white. Only Japan bought 

more wheat from America. 

In the early 2000s, the Washington Grain Commission 

increased its marketing efforts in the Latin American 

market. Several trips by commissioners and staff to 

visit mills ensued. Millers were introduced to soft white 

wheat, resulting in several containers of soft white to targeted 

mills. Coupled with the steady work of USW staff 

in the region, efforts are beginning to show significant 

results. 

Guatemala is a classic example where exports of PNW 

Mitch Skalicky, regional vice president of U.S. Wheat Associates for Mexico, 

Central America and the Caribbean, talks with Glen Squires about the value of 

soft white wheat’s stability and consistency during the 10th Latin American 

Buyers Conference. 


Despite his “We always buy soft red” statement, he noted the 

variability of the soft red crop as well as other concerns. It’s too 

soon to say whether this interaction will lead to another market 

development success story for soft white wheat, but the fact 

the Panamanian miller and Skalicky wound up discussing the 

logistics of sourcing soft white and other wheat classes from the 

PNW to Panama was a good sign. 

soft white has risen from zero in 2004/05 to more than 

twenty percent (nearly 100,000 metric tons), replacing, 

for the most part, soft red winter wheat (Figure 

4). USW’s Skalicky and team, along with Washington 

Grain Commission efforts in the country, has resulted 

in the U.S. largely replacing Canadian wheat in the 

Guatemalan market—a clear market development success 

story. 




USW president rises to the challenge 

Elimination of AWB, CWB highlights Alan Tracy’s career 

By Scott A. Yates 

The flight path, if not the trajectory of Alan Tracy’s life, 

was transformed one Wisconsin summer evening when, 

as a young man after a long day detasseling seed corn, 

a familiar curve came up sooner than he expected. The 

car he was driving rolled, and Tracy crawled out from 

under it soaked in gasoline and paralyzed from the waist 

down. 

A spinal fracture required him to be in a brace for six 

months, and while he eventually regained full movement, 

his plan of joining the Army—he’d been sworn in 

before the accident—was finished. Although he loved 

farming and planned one day to help operate the seed 

business his father started, returning so soon was not in 

his plans. 

“My father had a strong personally,” Tracy said diplomatically. 

“I didn’t think I could work with him, but it 

turned out better than I thought.” 

One can argue that after the gut-wrenching change of 

direction that occurred when he failed to anticipate that 

curve in the road, Tracy’s entire life has turned out bet- 


ter than he might have thought. Throughout numerous 

twists and turns, he has successfully navigated his entire 

career connected to some facet of agriculture, the last 15 

years as president of U.S. Wheat Associates (USW). 

Tracy was born into a farming family in south central 

Wisconsin where his father established one of the 

country’s first hybrid corn seed businesses in the 1930s, 

expanding overseas in the 1960s. As if farming and seed 

production weren’t enough, the operation also had cattle 

and a farrow-to-finish hog herd. 

Unlike some farm kids who rankle at the “work til 

you’re done” mentality of agriculture, Tracy thrived. He 

went to Cornell University to earn a degree in agricultural 

economics because he expected it would serve him 

best when he returned to his roots. Ultimately, he also 

received an MBA specializing in International Business 

from the University of Wisconsin. 

With the Army no longer an option and other employers 

uninterested in hiring a young man recovering 

from a spinal injury, Tracy went into business with his 

father, working to expand the international reach of

Tracy Seeds. He stayed for 11 years, 

eventually becoming president of 

the company and husband to his 

wife, Kris. 

A lifelong Republican—at 23, 

Tracy was once the youngest 

Republican county chairman in 

Wisconsin and, he says, maybe the 

nation—he was an early backer 

of Ronald Reagan for president in 

1980. When it came time to staff the 

administration, Reagan advised 

his transition team to seek out 

young people to build the leadership 

ranks of the party. At 34, Tracy 

was made general sales manager 

in the Foreign Agricultural Service. 

He moved up quickly, serving 

as deputy assistant secretary for 

International Affairs and then 

acting undersecretary, followed by 

deputy undersecretary for the marketing 

and inspection service, and 

finally, the first special assistant to 

the president for agricultural trade 

and food assistance. 

“I was the only aggie on the 

White House staff representing 

agriculture. In 1988, we were in 

a drought and with Secretary of 

Agriculture Dick Lyng, we would 

brief the president who was genuinely 

interested. On a drought tour 

from Nebraska to Ohio, there was a 

stop in Wisconsin where I met the 

governor, Tommy Thompson. In 

two years, I was the state’s secretary 

of agriculture,” Tracy said. 

Tracy served for seven years in 

the position until he was chosen to 

lead U.S. Wheat Associates. 

“The international side is what attracted 

me. Here was a job that was 

totally international and had policy 

elements, but it wasn’t a lobbying 

job. It was a very good fit. I started 

work Aug. 1, 1997, in Manhattan, 

Kan., at a summer board meeting,” 

he said. 

During his tenure at the helm of 


Alan Tracy (center), president of U.S. Wheat Associates, listens as Washington farmer and outgoing 

chairman of the organization, Randy Suess (right), speaks with the incoming chairman, Darrell Davis 

of South Dakota, during the summer board meeting held in Spokane. 

Alan Tracy, president of USW, speaks with Glen Squires, CEO of the Washington Grain Commission, 

during a break in the action at the USW summer board meeting held in the Davenport Hotel in 

Spokane. 

an organization that serves as the U.S. wheat industry’s export development 

arm, Tracy has been involved in many dustups, but nothing as important as 

the full-court press USW brought to bear against the Australian (AWB) and 

Canadian (CWB) wheat boards. 

“I can’t take credit for the outcome directly, but certainly seeing those two 

monopolies go by the wayside were the most satisfying events of my career at 

U.S. Wheat,” he said. 

Tracy is being modest about the credit. USW was the first to publicly sug- 




WL 

WGC REPORTS 

gest something was rotten in Denmark about the AWB 

contracts written with Iraq in the lead up to the second 

Gulf War. As it turned out, in a bid to retain their market 

despite Australia’s joining the military coalition led by 

the U.S., the AWB resorted to bribery. 

“When we got hold of the contracts, we saw the price 

of wheat Australia was selling to Iraq had gone up by 

$50 a ton while the price in the market had only gone up 

$7 a ton. Now, you tell me, if you have an irate customer 

threatening to cut your imports by half, don’t you give 

him a discount instead of a big price increase? The only 

A tour of the Palouse following last summer’s USW meeting in Spokane found Alan Tracy (right) 

on top of Steptoe Butte with Mike Spier, regional vice president of USW’s South Asian region. 

thing that made sense was that the extra money was 

going back to the Iraqi regime. It was later proven that 

the Australian Wheat Board paid at least $283 million in 

kickbacks to Saddam Hussein, more than any other offender 

in the world,” he said. 

But it was a long wait from making the accusation to 

having it proven—four uncomfortable years—and during 

those years, USW was also going through its own 

rough weather. 

“We were involved in a family fight about merging 

USW and the National Association of Wheat Growers 

(NAWG) in those days, and there was also the first 

biotech debate. All of that: biotech, the merger and AWB, 

were politicized in the small “p” world of our industry. 

We knew we were right about the AWB, but until it 

was proven, the fact that we couldn’t prove it ourselves 

was used against us,” he said, adding that those issues, 


which came close to tearing the family apart, eventually 

evolved into a very collaborative relationship between 

the two national wheat groups. 

Tracy claims less credit for the elimination of the 

Canadian Wheat Board, but here again, the story is 

hardly straightforward. As president of an organization 

that depends on overseas staff spending years to build 

markets, watching them taken away by the CWB’s undercutting 

prices was incredibly frustrating. 

“There were all sorts of things buried in the CWB pool 

price that just drove us nuts. Market development is a 

long-term effort. Dealing with the CWB 

was like running a marathon where 

somebody cheats at the end of the race,” 

he said. 

During the decade-long debate over 

State Trading Enterprises, USW meetings 

regularly served as venues for wheat 

growers from the Canadian prairies to 

meet their free market allies and hone 

their arguments against the monopoly. 

Tracy also went to Winnipeg, delivering 

a speech which excoriated the CWB for 

practices that failed to ensure their growers 

got the best wheat price. 

“The CWB was sold in Canada like 

a cause, but the information we were 

bringing up about how they were using 

our transparent U.S. system to undersell 

was getting back to the rank and file. The 

Canadian farmers were not well served 

by their monopoly, but they had very 

little opportunity to learn that. The facts 

we were able to present had an impact,” 

he said. 

While the elimination of the AWB and CWB were a 

highlight of his career, Tracy said he is proudest of building 

a superb team of employees who make a difference 

for the bottom line of American wheat farmers. 

“We have great staff people. As a manager, I encourage 

and help them take charge of their work. I tell them 

when they come on board they will make mistakes. It’s 

important not to punish them for their mistakes, but to 

give them an opportunity to learn from them so they 

have the confidence to go out and take risks. If people are 

operating on the basis of fear, they aren’t going to accomplish 

anything new,” he said. 

Which sounds like advice the young Tracy, paralyzed 

at the side of road after an accident, might have given to 

himself.

The title of Kurt Haarmann’s 

presentation, “Do we still need 

U.S. Wheat Associates?,” delivered 

during the group’s summer board 

meeting in Spokane, was meant to be 

provocative. 

As vice president at Columbia 

Grain, Haarmann is in a better position 

than most to ask the question. 

After all, his company exports an estimated 

150 million bushels of wheat 

from its Portland facility each year. 

In his presentation and a subsequent 

interview, Haarmann said 

many people have seen U.S. Wheat 

Associates’ (USW) role in the past 

as the organization that did battle 

against the Australian and Canadian wheat boards. Now 

that both have been eliminated, “Do we still need an 

army?” he asked. 

Haarmann’s affirmative answer is the result of looking 

at how huge multinationals push volume regardless 

of origination. Or as he put it, “The Cargills, Louis 

Dreyfuses and Bunges of the world have sources around 

the world, and they are trying to push product at the 

buyer no matter where it comes from.” 

But isn’t Columbia, which is owned by Marubeni, a 

company which just purchased Gavilon for $5 billion 

and is no slouch in the multinational world of business, 

interested in the same thing? 

“People like to paint Columbia Grain as a foreignowned 

company, but we have always operated as a U.S. 

company, and as a local and regional player, we have 

always been separate from Marubeni,” he said. “For 

instance, we aren’t influenced by Marubeni’s global 

grain trading. When the company buys Brazilian soy to 

sell into China, we have little if anything to do with that 

trade. Our core business is originating U.S. product from 

U.S. farms and trading it overseas.” 

As a result, Columbia Grain welcomes the promotional 

clout USW brings to the table and often tries to piggyback 

on it. 

“Any organization is only as good as the people on the 

ground, and while I can’t speak about other regions, my 

exposure to the Southeast Asian market is such that I can 

say U.S. wheat farmers are very lucky to have Mike Spier 

there. He is well received and well liked by the millers. 

He’s not just a salesman. They believe he has their best 

interest at heart,” he said. 

In export promotion, that “best interest” includes 

highlighting the benefits of U.S. wheat when contrasted 


Exporter applauds wheat’s indispensable player 

with other production areas of the 

world in order to point out the comparative 

advantages. Those advantages 

usually do not extend to price. 

As Haarmann explained, there are 

usually cheaper sources of wheat in 

the world year in and year out, but 

the U.S. does have among the highest 

quality wheat, calling it the “one 

true comparative advantage for our 

customers relative to other products 

available.” 

Another advantage enjoyed by 

U.S.-produced grain is the level of 

infrastructure the country enjoys. 

While Haarmann is very concerned 

about the long-term ability of the 

Black Sea region to grow more wheat, the lack of infrastructure 

there will make exporting greater amounts 

insurmountable in the near term. 

“America has the best infrastructure in the world to 

move grain from farm to export points. There’s nothing 

even close,” he said. 

Although Haarmann said it’s unlikely any less wheat 

would be traded in the world if USW were suddenly 

to disappear, he does believe less of that wheat would 

originate from the U.S. 

“You would see reduced wheat exports and a decline 

in market share of U.S. wheat in the world. And if you 

don’t have exports to support the price, you have a lower 

overall price which leads to decreased production and an 

ever vicious cycle lower,” he said. 

In fact, Haarmann said even with USW’s efforts 

around the globe, the competition for acres in the U.S. 

is very intense and very real, describing it as the biggest 

challenge wheat faces going forward. 

“Do we expand wheat production in other parts of 

the world, or are we going to going to embrace the next 

shift—biotech or whatever—that affords us the opportunity 

to feed the world?” he asked. 

Speaking of biotechnology, Haarmann believes when 

it comes, it will come quickly, with wheat farmers accepting 

the technology even faster than corn and soybean 

producers. 

“Who is going to guide that? Who is going to work toward 

consumer acceptance? Who will manage commercialization? 

Who will promote the necessary protocols to 

stakeholders?” he asked. The questions are meant to be 

rhetorical, and Haarmann leaves no doubt that when it 

comes to the challenges requiring global wheat leadership, 

U.S. Wheat Associates is the indispensable player. 




WL 

WGC REPORTS 

In winter wheat breeding, it’s all about the 

TRAITS 

By Arron Carter 

The goal of the Washington State 

University (WSU) winter wheat breeding 

program hasn’t changed much since 

William Jasper Spillman started crossing 

cultivars in Pullman more than 

115 years ago. Providing high yielding 

varieties to Washington’s growers is essential 

to maintain their profitability. 

It is, however, only one of several 

traits the breeding program focuses 

on. Although end-use quality is not 

something growers are paid for specifically, 

maintaining the highest quality 

is essential in an ever competitive export market. Agronomic adaptability, 

meanwhile, is something every grower needs, and is a target 

that changes on almost every farm. Disease resistance is another key 

element, and the program focuses on developing varieties which can 

withstand the state’s major pests. 

Although the goal of providing high yielding, agronomically adapted 

cultivars may sound simple enough, selection for multiple beneficial 

traits must be performed simultaneously, making it much more 

difficult to realize the objective. In order to find varieties with high 

yield potential, breeding lines are grown throughout the state under 

different agronomic systems to evaluate the potential of each. The first 

and second year of testing is done at the Spillman and Lind research 

farms. This first look allows us to eliminate all of the breeding lines 

that aren’t adapted to the specific climatic zones we are targeting. 

Once lines have demonstrated high yield potential at these locations, 

they are entered into advanced yield testing at multiple locations 

in each rainfall zone. This testing is executed on grower-cooperator 

fields. Without growers’ selfless donation of land, this multiple-site 

testing would be much more difficult. Lines with high yields after two 

to three years of testing in advanced trials are entered into the WSU 

Variety Testing program and are considered for release. 

Simultaneously, lines are evaluated for end-use quality potential. 

Samples from each yield plot are submitted to the WSU wheat qual- 


✔ Yield 

✔ End-use quality 

✔ Pest resistance 

✔ Disease resistance 

✔ Drought resistance 

✔ Climate adaptability

ity lab where tests are performed 

to evaluate the line’s performance. 

Seed is milled and either cookies 

or bread are baked as an end-use 

quality indicator. At more advanced 

levels, noodles and sponge cakes 

are also made. 

Quality testing actually begins 

before yield plots are planted. Seed 

planted into the first-year-yield 

plot testing is analyzed using 

small-scale predictor tests. Only 

lines with predicted high end-use 

quality will be advanced to yield 

testing. 

Due to the diversity of agronomic 

zones in Washington, we constantly 

screen our material for adaptability. 

Whether it is surviving the cold 

winters, coming up from a planting 

depth of eight inches or maturing 

at the proper date, we are always 

trying to attain wheat lines that are 

adapted to each individual growing 

region. 

Grants from various organizations 

help us complete needed research 

to identify lines with specific 

adaptations. The Amen Foundation 

funds research on identifying lines 

which can germinate under low 

water conditions and emerge from 

deep planting depths. The U.S. 

Department of Agriculture-funded 

Triticeae Coordinated Agricultural 

Project (T-CAP) is dedicated to 

identifying lines which perform 

well under drought conditions. 

Along with agricultural diversity 

comes pest diversity. We constantly 

screen our breeding lines for 

stripe rust resistance, snow mold 

resistance, foot rot resistance and 

Cephalosporium stripe resistance. 

Emerging pests like nematodes and 

wireworms are also on our radar 

screen, and efforts to identify resistance 

have begun. 

None of this work is done solely 

through the efforts of the winter 


wheat breeding program. We work closely with both the spring and USDA 

breeding programs to mitigate many of the pest issues we are facing. Since all 

wheat, whether spring or winter, is affected by similar pests (stripe rust for 

instance), we have found it is better to join forces to fight the battle together. 

Stephen Guy, agronomist in charge of Washington State University’s variety trials, speaks at the St. 

John field day as behind him, Arron Carter looks over his notes in preparation for his presentation 

on new winter wheat cultivars. 

Justice could never be done trying to name the numerous groups we collaborate 

with to solve wheat production concerns, but we work closely with 

entomologists, pathologists, molecular geneticists, cereal chemists, agronomists, 

cropping systems specialists, soil scientists and weed scientists in order 

to develop new varieties of wheat. We also team up with groups throughout 

the nation and around the globe. 

Although collaboration with outside groups is important, the technicians 

that work under the breeders are what keep us running. Kerry Balow maintains 

the greenhouse program 365 days a year, doing crossing, seed increases 

and doubled haploids, not to mention assisting with many research projects 

for graduate students. Jenny Hansen works tirelessly in the lab running DNA 

markers and identifying lines with certain combinations of genes needed 

to succeed under field conditions. She also leads our doubled haploid effort. 

Ryan Higginbotham and Gary Shelton work all summer long to ensure data is 




WL 

WGC REPORTS 

In the toolbox 

NEW FIELD TOOLS ENHANCE WSU BREEDING 

By Gary Shelton 

There has been a great deal of excitement in 

wheat development technology in the past few 

years. Catch phrases like double haploid, molecular 

markers, sequencing, association mapping and 

genomic selection are just a few used to describe 

much of the ongoing wheat research effort here at 

Washington State University (WSU). 

These powerful technologies promise to change 

the face of wheat breeding and speed up the release 

of new and better varieties. Most of this work is done 

in a laboratory or greenhouse, but to fully realize the 

benefits of such technologies, a robust field research program 

needs to be in place. That’s where the rubber meets the road, 

since there is no technology currently available that will predict 

with certainty how a breeding line will perform outside the 

laboratory or greenhouse. 

The WSU Winter Wheat Breeding Program has a robust field 

component with 11 breeding locations and nine satellite locations. 

In 2012, nearly 120 individual field trials were established. 

More than 25,000 plots and nearly 30,000 individual 

breeding lines were planted and evaluated for the crop year. 

Through the generous donations of the Washington 

Grain Commission and the funds garnered from competitive 

grants, multiple improvements have been realized 

for the winter wheat field research component. Here are 

highlights of some of the equipment we are currently 

utilizing to enhance the speed and precision of research 

conducted in the field. 

It takes a village to manage all these field trials, and 

knowledge of the new technology is paramount. Much of the 

effort to understand the new devices and conduct 

the work falls on the back of research technicians, 

graduate students and undergraduate 

student workers. 

As a group, we would like to thank 

Washington wheat growers for the check-off dollars 

they so generously provide the Winter Wheat 

Breeding Program. The addition of the latest 

equipment enhances our efforts in an increasingly 

competitive market. 


Zurn Plot Combine: Two combines, which are shared 

by the winter and spring wheat programs, are being 

used for the first time this season. These machines 

collect yield, test weight and moisture, thereby eliminating 

the need to process grain by hand. 

CropScan Multispectral Radiometer: 

Measures reflectance of specific wavelengths 

of light transmitted by the wheat canopy. 

These wavelengths are useful in quantifying 

stresses of various kinds, such 

as drought or foliar disease. 

Trimble GPS: These 

units are being used 

in establishing trials 

across the state. 

Guided with auto 

steer and connected 

to the planter, seed 

can be planted with 

a precision of less 

than one inch.

Perten NIR: Utilized as a screening tool prior to 

submitting seed for end-use quality evaluations, it 

measures test weight, protein content, kernel hardness 

and moisture. 

(From left) Gary Shelton, James Lewis, Austin Garza, Megan Lewein, Shiferaw Gizaw, 

Yukiko Naruoka, Ryan Higginbotham, Ivy Shipley-Johnson, Nick Gruenenfelder, 

Caleb Squires, Josh DeMacon, Kerry Balow, Arron Carter and Jonathan Kuehner. Not 

pictured is Jenny Hansen. 

Minolta SPAD 

Meter: Used to assess 

chlorophyll and 

nitrogen status of 

plants in a nondestructive 

manner. 

Data generated 

indicates the relative 

health of the wheat 

plant during the 

growing season. 


collected on yield trials and that they are 

managed properly. 

The bottleneck for the breeding programs 

is the harvest and planting cycle. 

We have about five weeks from harvest 

until we have to plant again. During this 

time, all harvest data must be collected 

and analyzed, selections made, quality 

analysis completed and selections made 

again and then the seed organized and 

prepared for planting. It gets crazy during 

those five weeks, but with the guidance of 

Gary and Ryan, along with the assistance 

of Jenny and Kerry, the process is an efficient 

one. 

Although breeding goals have not 

changed much over the past century, 

the tools and technology at our disposal 

have. Gone are the days of collecting data 

by paper and pen. Data is entered directly 

into data loggers which can then be 

downloaded into computers at the end of 

the day. This allows for faster analysis and 

fewer mistakes. Field collection equipment 

now exceeds what the human eye 

can see, and we can look at how plants 

are behaving in the near infrared. New 

combines allow yield data to be collected 

instantly, eliminating the need to bring 

grain samples back for processing and 

again allowing for immediate analysis of 

data. GPS technology allows auto-planting 

of research plots, reducing the errors 

made in planting. Molecular marker 

technology ensures certain genes for 

resistance are present before the breeding 

lines even leave the greenhouse, making 

field selections more efficient. 

The list goes on, and as part of our efforts, 

we continue to look for new technologies 

that will enhance our ability 

to effectively select adapted wheat lines 

as efficiently as possible. Much of this 

new technology has been made possible 

by the contributions of Washington 

growers through the Washington Grain 

Commission. In today’s fast-changing 

era of wheat breeding, I believe such 

assistance, along with the efforts of the 

entire breeding team, will enable WSU 

to extend its 115-year legacy of providing 

high yielding varieties to Washington’s 

growers. 




WHEAT WATCH 


Wheat exports expected to strengthen in 2012/13 

For more than a decade, Glen Squires has assessed the state 

of the wheat market in his four-times-a-year Wheat Watch 

analysis. His appointment as chief executive officer of the 

Washington Grain Commission has required him to reapportion 

his responsibilities. The new Wheat Watch will appear 

monthly and be written alternately by Washington State 

University agricultural economist Randy Fortenbery and Mike 

Krueger of the Money Farm. 

By T. Randall Fortenbery 

U.S. wheat trade is expected to improve 

this marketing year compared to 

year-ago levels (the wheat marketing 

year runs from June through May). The 

increase in U.S. exports comes despite 

a 10 percent reduction in overall world 

trade compared to the record trade 

level last year. 

U.S. exports across all wheat classes are currently 

projected to total 1.2 billion bushels, an increase of more 

than 14 percent over last year. As a result, the U.S. share 

of world trade in wheat, flour and products is expected 

to increase to 24 percent from less than 19 percent last 

marketing year (Figure 1). 

The expected increase in U.S. wheat 

exports is driven entirely by increases 

in hard winter and soft red wheat. 

Hard spring and durum exports are 

projected to decline modestly from last 

year, and white wheat exports are projected 

to be down 22 percent relative to 

the 2011/12 marketing year. 

Despite current forecasts of increased 

exports, however, export 

activity through early September 

has lagged last year’s pace. Total U.S. 

wheat exports through Sept. 6 were 

268.7 million bushels, compared to 

284.5 million bushels at the same time 

last year, a decline of more than 5.5 

percent. Only white wheat is ahead of 

last year’s export pace, although outstanding 

sales (wheat sold but not yet 

exported) are behind last year, making 

total commitments for white wheat 

(actual exports plus outstanding sales) 


29% 

27% 

25% 

23% 

21% 

19% 

17% 

15% 

less than year ago levels. 

The good news is that inspections for export picked up 

in September, and on Sept. 17, recorded their largest level 

of the year at 29.4 million bushels, well above the weekly 

pace needed to meet U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 

(USDA) export projections for the year. This increase 

in activity is likely to continue given a reduction in the 

world wheat production estimate in mid-September. The 

largest production decline comes from Russia, where the 

Siberian harvest is expected to be the lowest in 50 years. 

This will result in reduced export competition from 

the Black Sea region and work to the advantage of U.S. 

exporters. 

Based on improved export prospects coupled with 

an increase in domestic feed use of wheat, total ending 

stocks for U.S. wheat on May 31, 2013, are expected to be 

6 percent lower than May 2012. This leads to an expected 

increase in the average farm price compared to last year, 

despite a slight increase in expected world ending stocks. 

The USDA currently projects the average U.S. farm 

price for all wheat to be between $7.50 and $8.70 per 

bushel. Figure 2 illustrates the relationship between the 

average U.S. farm price for wheat and the average futures 

price for soft red winter wheat traded in Chicago. The 

Figure 1: U.S. market share of world trade 

in wheat, �our and products 

(Marketing years run from June 1 through May 31) 

2008/09 

2009/10 

2010/11 

2011/12 

2012/13

futures price average is calculated from the closing prices 

of the futures contract closest to delivery on each trading 

day of the year. 

Using this information, we can get a sense for whether 

current futures market prices support the USDA cash 

price forecast. Note that generally, with the exception of 

2007/08 and 2010/11, the average U.S. farm price is quite 

close to the average annual futures price. Through the 

week of Sept. 14, the futures price for the 2012/13 marketing 

year was near the midpoint of the current USDA 

price forecast range for 2012/13. Nearby futures prices 

have averaged $8.16 per bushel since June 1, and the midpoint 

of the USDA forecast is $8.10 per bushel. 

As we look forward, however, futures prices for later 

delivery (delivery through May 2013) are substantially 

higher than the average futures price from June 1 

through mid-September. Combining average futures 

prices from the start of the marketing year with current 

futures prices for delivery through May 2013 suggests 

the current market expectation is for futures to average 

about $8.60 per bushel over the entire marketing year 

(the $8.10 per bushel it has averaged thus far, combined 

with the current prices for December, March and May 

going forward). If cash prices maintain their historical 

relationship to futures, then we might expect the average 

2012/13 farm price for all wheat to be near the top 

end of the USDA projected range. However, since cash 

prices are already near the top end of the range in most 

PNW markets, producers who continue to store wheat 

WHEAT WATCH WL 

Figure 2: Wheat futures vs. cash prices Futures through Sept. 14, 

$9.00 

$8.00 

$7.00 

$6.00 

$5.00 

$4.00 

$3.00 

$2.00 

$1.00 

$0.00 

2005/06 

2006/07 

2007/08 

2008/09 

Soft red wheat futures 

2009/10 

2010/11 

All wheat cash 

2011/12 

cash is the mid-point 

of the USDA forecast 

2012/13 

unpriced are essentially betting that both the futures 

market and the USDA are too low in their current price 

expectations, and prices will increase going forward at 

least enough to cover storage costs. 

From early 2011 through midsummer 2012, wheat 

prices were heavily influenced by fundamentals and 

price activity in the corn market. In recent weeks, wheat 

appears to be breaking free from the corn market and 

trading based on its own fundamentals. 

As of mid-September, Chicago wheat futures prices 

for December delivery were $1.30 per bushel higher than 

December corn futures, despite the drought damage 

done to the midwest corn crop. Likewise, July 2013 prices 

for soft red wheat were nearly $1.20 per bushel higher 

than corn prices for July delivery. These premiums are 

more consistent with relative prices observed prior to the 

overall run-up in commodity values experienced in 2008. 

With the wheat market starting to separate itself from 

corn, price activity the remainder of the marketing year 

will be quite sensitive to activity in the export market. 

Maintaining current price levels will require the recent 

surge in export inspections to be maintained and translated 

into actual shipments. 

T. Randall Fortenbery holds the Tom Mick Endowed Chair in 

Grain Economics at Washington State University. He received 

his Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the University of 

Illinois-Urbana/Champaign. 




WIDE WORLD OF WHEAT 

An early winter frost and then drought has dramatically 

reduced RUSSIA’S wheat crop, but the country’s agricultural 

minister says there will not be a repeat of the 2010 

embargo. Nikolai Fyodorov said, “All instruments are on the 

table, except for an embargo, which could do more harm 

than good.” Estimates have put Russia’s wheat harvest at 

40 million metric tons (mmt), which is actually less than the 

41.5 mmt harvested in 2010. Not to mention a survey of 10 

market analysts believe the country will run out of 2012/13 

exportable grain in November, potentially requiring the government 

to impose export restrictions that may include duties. 

“We believe export restrictions may be imposed before 

the end of the calendar year,” said Jenia Ustinova, an analyst 

for the Eurasia Group. Dan Hofstad of INTL FCStone Inc., a 

risk management consultant, said it is highly likely Russia will 

have to resort to some sort of export control before year’s 

end. The U.S. Department of Agriculture expects Russia’s 

wheat exports to fall to 8 mmt from 21.6 mmt last season. 

The country reportedly has two special state reserves holding 

some 23 mmt of grain for emergency situations. 

A scientist working for AUSTRALIA’S national science 

agency, CSIRO, accidentally happened upon a new wheat 

line that could result in a major yield leap. Matthew Morell 

was looking to breed a wheat line with lower starch content 

and viscosity for industrial uses. Instead, he created a new 

cultivar that could increase wheat yields by 30 percent. The 

new wheat, bred using genetic engineering, has a naturally 

occurring enzyme gene in the plant’s genetic makeup which 

has been silenced or turned off. The chance discovery has 

been described by some as one of the most exciting scientific 

advances for wheat in decades. Plants with the silenced 

gene grew 30 percent larger with 30 percent bigger heads 

and 30 percent increase in grain yield. The new wheat has 

piqued the interest of Bayer CropSciences, which signed a 

joint venture agreement with CSIRO to take the advance 

through to international commercialization. 

Mitsubishi and Toyota want it. The Japanese government 

wants it. But farmers in JAPAN don’t like the Trans-Pacific 

Partnership (TPP) trade pact that is being pushed by the 

Obama Administration. The idea behind the TPP is to 

dramatically reduce tariffs and other trade barriers throughout 

the Pacific Rim. Currently, tariffs protect $48 billion in 

Japanese agriculture produce. Without them, said Tetsuro 

Shimizu, manager of the agricultural cooperative, JA Group, 

99 percent of the wheat, almost all the sugar and most 

beef production in Japan would stop being competitive. 

Currently, Japan depends on agricultural products from 

abroad for 60 percent of its food. Without the tariffs, that 


number would climb to 90 percent. But Tetsuhide Mikamo, 

director of research at Marubeni, Japans biggest trading 

house (which operates Columbia Grain in Portland), said protecting 

farmers has only weakened their competitiveness. 

Both U.S. Wheat Associates and the National Association of 

Wheat Growers support TPP. 

Once the breadbasket of Africa, ZIMBABWE’S wheat 

harvest is expected to be just 20,000 tons in 2012/13, a far 

cry from the 300,000 tons the country produced in 2001. 

Bread is the country’s second most popular staple, and more 

than 450,000 tons is needed to help feed the population of 

13.5 million. Officials blame everything from poor planning, 

an expensive and erratic electricity supply, dilapidated irrigation 

infrastructure and lack of credit for the problem. 

Wheat imports into MEXICO through June rose by nearly 

a third, registering a new 

record for the first 

half of the year. Much 

of the increase is the 

result of livestock 

operations importing 

cheaper wheat for feed 

as corn prices spiked. For the 

first half of 2012, Mexican wheat imports 

totaled 3.13 million tons, nearly 

double the amount imported during 

the same period last year. 

The high price of wheat would logically 

dictate that farmers in ARGENTINA 

plant more. Instead, farmers have planted 

22 percent less wheat this season than in the 

previous crop year. Growers seeded 8.9 million 

acres with 2012/13 wheat. The USDA estimates 

Argentine wheat production at 12 mmt, down 

from 14.5 mmt the prior crop year. Argentine 

wheat is planted from June to August and 

harvested from November through January. 

Many farmers are shifting out of wheat and 

towards barley to avoid government-imposed 

wheat export limits. The curb is meant to 

ensure ample supply domestically, but farmers 

say it hurts profits by reducing competition among 

buyers. 

Western CANADA wheat farmers who were convicted 

of taking their grain across the border in the 1990s to sell in 

the U.S., were recently pardoned by Prime Minister Stephen 

Harper. He said the farmers, who drove small amounts of 

MEXICO 

ARGENTINA

grain across the border as 

part of a symbolic rebellion 

against the Canadian Wheat 

Board, were responsible for initially 

bringing the controversy 

to public awareness. “Never, 

never again will western 

farmers—and only western 

farmers growing their 

own wheat on their 

own land—be told how 

they can and can’t market 

their products,” he 

said. In some cases, farmers 

were jailed, one for 

several months, for crossing 

the border with grain. One spent 23 

days in jail for taking a bag of wheat 

to donate to a 4-H club in Montana. 

“For these courageous farmers, their 

convictions will no longer tarnish 

their good names,” Harper said. 

Increasing the price for domestically 

produced wheat in EGYPT should 

increase domestic production, right? 

Unfortunately, the price premium 

paid to its farmers has given some 

a golden opportunity to pass off 

cheap foreign grain as locally grown. 

Although it happens every year, 

this year it’s happening even more 

because the spread between cheap 

origin wheat and Egypt’s local wheat 

price is bigger. Egypt pays $63.60 

per 140 kg bag for local wheat. It’s 

reported that imported wheat, represented 

as local, can result in a $100 

per ton profit. A ministry spokesman 

said the government has tried to control 

questionable claims by clamping 

down on small farmers selling large 

quantities of wheat. “Now when we 

come to buy the wheat from farmers, 

we require to see documentation to 

see how much land he owns.” For the 

last three years, Egypt has consistently 

imported between 10 and 11 

mmt of wheat. 

The tiny country of KOSOVO, 

which was wracked by war in 1998 

and 1999, is taking measures to 

reduce its dependence on wheat, 

flour and corn imports by subsidizing 

farmers who grow the crops with a 

ARGENTINA 

ALGERIA 

GERMANY 

KOSOVO 

ALGERIA 

GERMANY 

BULGARIA 

KOSOVO 

BULGARIA 

EGYPT 

ZIMBABWE 

RUSSIA 

JAPAN 

AUSTRALIA 

$127 per hectare (2.4 acres) payment. 

Financial support for wheat production 

reached $5.6 million in 2012, 

with an additional 14,800 acres of 

wheat planted as a result. Kosovo, a 

country with a population of 1.8 million, generally 

needs around 410,000 tons of wheat annually. The 

country’s overall wheat import is 130,000 tons, mostly from Serbia and Russia. 

ALGERIA, a country of 34 million, is beefing up its large-scale agricultural 

production ability by creating a “motoculture” unit which has spent $122 million to 

buy 1,250 combines, 350 tractors and more than a thousand seeders. The Algerian 

Grain Office also plans to equip a grain area of 1.2 million acres with supplemental 

irrigation systems, up from the 234,000 acres currently equipped. The country 

reserves a total of 8.1 million acres for grain production. 

A climate friendly cellulose ethanol pilot plant fed by wheat straw has been 

opened in GERMANY. Located in Straubing, Bavaria, the $36 million pilot project 

will produce up to 1,000 tons of cellulosic ethanol from around 4,500 tons of 

wheat straw. It’s estimated around 22 million tons of wheat straw in Germany can 

be used for energy production without compromising essential soil regeneration. 

That’s enough to cover 25 percent of the country’s gasoline needs. The pilot plant 

is intended to prove Sunliquid technology, which is said to reduce production 

costs enough to make the cellulosic process commercially viable. 

BULGARIA is playing up its role as home to einkorn, an ancient variation of 

wheat. Part of the diet of Copper Age man, the 5,300-year-old man dubbed Otzi, 

found frozen in the Alps in 1991, had einkorn in his colon. In Bulgaria, the grain can 

be traced back to the Neolithic Age 9,000 years ago. Wild varieties still grow in the 

country, but even under cultivation, its yield is low, its hulled ears need additional 

processing, and it has a type of gluten that makes baking problematic. With interest 

in ancient grains growing because of renewed health consciousness, however, 

einkorn is making a comeback. From no production in 2009, there is now almost 

1,000 acres in Bulgaria. Studies show the grain is richer in proteins, and the level 

of antioxidants that fight aging and chronic diseases is almost eight times higher 

compared to cultivated wheat. 

EGYPT 

ZIMBABWE 

RUSSIA 

AUSTRALIA 

JAPAN 

INDIA 



WL 

FEATURE 

From Germany 

with Love 

In Eastern Washington, you don’t have to look far to see the area’s German heritage. From surnames to sausage 

feeds to Oktoberfests, the influence is clear. 

The German road to Eastern Washington began in 1763, when Russia’s Catherine the Great invited European 

colonists to settle the region around the lower Volga River in Russia. Those colonists, mostly made up of Germans, 

established more than 100 colonies along the river and greatly contributed to Russia’s wheat exporting dominance in 

the middle 1800s. Often referred to as the Volga Germans, this group of people began immigrating to the U.S. in the 

late 1800s due to rising tensions between them and the Russian government. 

Richard D. Scheuerman, a professor at Seattle Pacific University and an Endicott native, and Alex McGregor, an 

Eastern Washington farmer and businessman, have co-authored a book, tentatively titled Harvest Home: Heirloom 

Crops and Agricultural Origins of the Pacific Northwest, looking at the influence of the Volga Germans on 

Washington’s agriculture. Here is an excerpt: 

A harvest scene, presumably 

taken by Joshua Elmer, near 

Odessa between 1905-1915. 


PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ODESSA PUBLIC LIBRARY, WASHINGTON RURAL HERITAGE AND WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY

TThe approaching 2013 sesquicentennial of Tsarina 

Catherine the Great’s 1763 “Manifesto of the Empress” 

inviting European colonists to settle in Russia will commemorate 

the remarkable global travels of a people who 

have significantly influenced Pacific Northwest agriculture. 

Popularly known as the Volga German “Magna 

Carta,” Catherine’s invitation 250 years ago led to the 

eastward immigration of some 27,000 colonists—mostly 

Germans, who established 104 colonies on the fertile 

steppes of the lower Volga River. Similar legislation enacted 

a generation later by Tsar Alexander I brought a similar 

wave of German colonist farmers to Ukraine’s Black Sea 

region and Bessarabia. After several years of challenging 

adjustment to conditions on the empire’s frontier borderlands, 

the German colonies began to flourish and significantly 

contributed to Russia’s position by the middle of 

the 19th century as Europe’s largest exporter of wheat. The 

Russian-Germans were heavy consumers of inexpensive 

rye bread flour and yellow millet, but grew semi-hard red 

spring Saxonka (Saxon) bread wheat for export as well as 

the Saratov and Beloturk durums. 

A rising tide of conservative pan-Slavism led to the 

undoing of many settlement privileges extended to the 

Germans by Catherine and Alexander. After 1871, their 

young men were subject to formal instruction in the 

Russian language and the dismal prospect of military 

service, while the dramatic rise of their population had led 

FEATURE WL 

to recurrent redistribution of farmland leaving many with 

uncertain prospects for the future. Volga German colony 

leaders began sending scouts to the U.S. in 1871, which led 

to the immigration of significant numbers to Kansas and 

Nebraska throughout the decade and until the Bolshevik 

Revolution in 1917. An intrepid cadre of these people 

relocated to Portland, Ore., in 1881 searching for available 

farmland, and some were directed to the Palouse Country 

a year later by representatives of Henry Villard’s Northern 

Pacific Railroad. Villard had just organized the Oregon 

Improvement Company to promote sales of the railroad’s 

150,000-acre Palouse tract of “the finest agricultural lands 

in the northwest” and other land grant properties to the 

west in present Adams and Lincoln counties. 

The Kansas group, including the families of Phillip 

Green, Peter Ochs, Henry Litzenberger, Henry Repp, 

Conrad Schierman, John Kleweno and John Helm, traveled 

by rail and wagon in the fall of 1882 from Portland 

to the vicinity of present Endicott, Wash., where they 

settled along the Palouse River. In later years, Helm often 

reminisced about the vanguard’s first glimpse of the area’s 

steeply rolling prairies which his grandson, Palouse country 

native Harry Helm, rendered into verse. 

Grandpa said: 

The grass was like Europe’s grass, 

Soft and waving like a sea. 


WL 

A 

FEATURE 

It hissed and whispered like a friend 

In well-known German words to me. 

The hills were like German hills, 

Green plumed against a feckless sky. 

As I went riding bunchgrass trails, 

Where the prairie chickens fly. 

Clear waters tumbled through the trees 

In every golden, sun-swept vale. 

While flowers tipped their hats to me, 

As they touched my prancing pinto’s tail. 

A Nebraska colony of Volga Germans led by Frederick 

Rosenoff, Henry Kanzler, Jacob Schoessler, George Dewald 

and Jacob Thiel journeyed in the spring of 1881 from 

Hitchcock County to Ogden, Utah, by rail where they 

joined with others to form a train of 40 wagons for the trek 

northward. The column lumbered along the Oregon Trail 

to Walla Walla where some remained to scout the area for 

settlement prospects while some continued on to Portland. 

Jacob Thiel was among the Walla Walla contingent and 

found employment from pioneer developer Phillip Ritz, 

who had recently acquired 5,000 acres from the railroad in 

the vicinity of present Ritzville. The promoter encouraged 

Thiel and his kinsmen to settle in the area which led to the 

genesis of significant Russian-German immigration to the 

fertile Ritzville-Odessa grain districts. 

Black Sea German farmers familiar with Russian 

Ukraine’s famed, high-quality Turkey Red bread wheats 

began settling in Washington’s Big Bend grain belt 

from Lind northeast to Ritzville and Odessa following 


PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ODESSA PUBLIC LIBRARY, WASHINGTON RURAL HERITAGE AND ODESSA HISTORISCHES MUSEUM 

Gottlieb Pflugrath’s exploration of the region in 1887. Their 

Mennonite kinsmen had introduced drought-resistant, 

winter hardy Turkey Reds to Kansas in 1874 which transformed 

the Midwest wheat industry. Russian-German 

farmers from the Beresan colonies settled in near Eugene, 

Ore., beginning in 1891, while Bessarabian German families 

settled soon afterward near Marlin, Ruff, and Warden, 

Wash., areas. Leaders of some Midwest Mennonite colonies 

like Cornelius Jantz, J. R. Schrag and Adolf Gering 

relocated to the Ritzville-Odessa area to establish the first 

Mennonite colonies on the Columbia Plateau around the 

turn of the century. The names of several Adams County 

rural districts like Batum, Moscow and Tiflis (Tbilisi) 

testify to the area’s original South Russia immigrant origins. 

“Wherever wheat is grown you’ll find Mennonites,” 

observed Jantz’s son and colony historian John Jantz. 

Historian Richard Sallet estimated that by 1920, approximately 

21,000 Germans from the Volga and Black Sea 

regions were living in the three Northwest states, where 

most were engaged in farming. 

— Excepted from Harvest Home: Heirloom Crops 

and Agricultural Origins of the Pacific Northwest 

By Richard D. Scheuerman and Alex McGregor 

W 

While the Volga Germans weren’t the only German 

immigrants to settle in Eastern Washington, they were the 

majority, and there are several websites and organizations 

dedicated to this group of people. The Center for Volga 

German Studies at Concordia University in Portland 

(cvgs.cu-portland.edu/index.cfm) is dedicated to preserving 

the history and traditions of the Volga Germans.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MANUSCRIPTS, ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, WSU LIBRARIES, 

WHITMAN COUNTY LIBRARY AND WASHINGTON RURAL HERITAGE 

Townspeople gather for a parade in Uniontown, Wash. Date unknown. 

EASTERN OREGON FARMS 

Umatilla County, Pendleton, OR 

2835.21 acres, rare find winter cattle ranch with 577 acres of wheat 

ground planted to grass. Winter feed source of 120 irrigated acres, 40 

acres of sub-land, 2 older homes. Great fishing for steelhead, salmon 

and trout. Good hunting for deer, turkey, pheasant, chukar, huns. 

Good water fowl hunting for ducks and geese. 

$1,650,000 #WL02210 

Lake County, Fort Rock, OR 

5,957 total deeded acres of which 744 ac circle irrigation with balance 

in rangeland. Includes 15,000 acres of BLM. 3 homes - 1 new, shop, 

livestock facilities, hay shed and other amenities. 

$5,500,000.00 #WL02211 

Umatilla County, Pilot Rock, OR 

1998 (+/-) acres of mountain, pasture and timberland. Has cabin with 

pond and trees for a relaxed setting. Used as summer grazing unit. 

Great views and recreation. Live stream with springs and ponds. 

Good hunting for big game deer and elk, with upland birds. 

$1,200,000 #WL01511 

Union County, Elgin, OR 

NE Oregon mountain and timber tract that borders Grande Ronde 

River. 477+ acres that has merchantable timber with recent cruise. 

Very private with great views. LOP tags for hunting. Big game 

hunting, fishing on river. Salmon, steelhead, trout. 

$550,000.00 #WL03511 

Gilliam County, Arlington, OR 

Located in Gilliam County, the Blalock Canyon Farm contains 195 

total acres of which 140 acres are irrigated. Contains 3 Zimmatic 

pivots and 2 wheelines. Includes main residence, guest quarters, 

horse/livestock barn, shop and hay barn. Water is provided from 

agricultural well with 250 HP motor. $685,000 #WL00912 

www.whitneylandcompany.com 

FEATURE WL 

The center, opened in 2009, is staffed by 

trained volunteers. Their website contains 

extensive history and research, as well as 

links to literature, genealogy information 

and upcoming exhibits and events. 

Another informative website is the 

Columbia River Basin Ethnic History 

Project (archive.vancouver.wsu.edu/ 

crbeha/home.htm). Covering the 

Columbia Basin and all the ethnic groups 

that settled there, the website has a section 

dedicated to German immigrants, as 

well as links to other useful websites. 

The American Historical Society of 

Germans from Russia (www.ahsgr.org/ 

index.htm), based in Lincoln, Neb., is a 

good resource for all things related to 

German settlers in Russia. And finally, a 

little closer to home, HistoryLink.org is 

an online encyclopedia of Washington 

state history and includes essays and 

information on various communities and 

regions around the state. 


WL 

FEATURE 

Locally celebrating 

German food, drink 

Besides farming, Eastern Washington’s German settlers 

also brought a love of food and drink with them, 

and that influence is alive and well throughout the 

region. Here’s a look at several of the German-themed 

festivals and events held in our region. 

Deutschesfest, Odessa. One of the largest German 

festivals in the Eastern part of the state, Deutschesfest is 

held on the third full weekend of September each year. 

The four-day event draws more than 6,000 visitors to 

this small rural community, situated 200 miles east of 

Seattle and 75 miles west of Spokane. The 

festival includes German music, traditional 

German food which is all locally 

made, a parade, arts and crafts exhibits, 

sporting events and a biergarten. 

According to Korianne Scheller, advertising 

chair for the Odessa Chamber 

of Commerce, the festival began in 1971 

to celebrate the German heritage of the 

Odessa area. 

“Most of our forefathers were Germans who migrated 

from Russia or Germany and settled here as farmers,” 

she said. “The festival takes a lot of community 

involvement to run. Volunteers run the booths, and all 

the food is homemade by church groups, youth groups 

and different nonprofit groups in town. Everyone from 

the very young to the very old gets involved. It is very 

much a town event.” 

The festival typically starts on Thursday evening 

with races and the opening of the biergarten which 

will host live music for most of the festival. On Friday, 


PHOTO COURTESY OF ODESSA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 

PHOTO COURTESY OF ODESSA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 

the food booths open, along with the arts and 

crafts booths. Saturday morning starts with a 5k 

and a 10k fun run and a parade, and the festival 

wraps up on Sunday, with the food booths usually 

closing earlier in the day due to a shortage of 

food, Scheller said. For more information, visit the 

Deutschesfest website at www.deutschesfest.com. 

Sausage Feed, Uniontown. On the first 

Sunday in March, the small farming community 

of Uniontown, located about 90 miles south of 

Spokane and 15 miles south of Pullman, serves up 

homemade sausage and sauerkraut as a fundraiser 

for the Uniontown Community Building. The sausage 

feed includes a beer garden that runs throughout the 

day. 

Besides the sausage feed, Uniontown also celebrates 

its German heritage by holding an Oktoberfest on the 

third Sunday in October. For more information, visit 

www.uniontown.us. 

Leavenworth. No discussion about German festivals 

in Washington state would be complete without talking 

about the town of Leavenworth, one of the state’s 

major tourist draws. Leavenworth began as a logging 

town, but was forced to redefine itself in the early 1900s. 

Taking advantage of the mountain scenery, the people 

of Leavenworth turned the town into a year-round 

Bavarian village that celebrates all things Bavaria. As 

to be expected, Leavenworth’s Oktoberfest is one of 

the nation’s top-ranked Oktoberfest celebrations and is 

held on the first three weekends in October. For more 

information, visit www.leavenworth.org. 

Besides Leavenworth, many towns in the region celebrate 

fall by holding an Oktoberfest, including Spokane, 

Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and Sandpoint, Idaho.

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(Above and below right) 2012 harvest at KW Farms of Wapato, Wash. 

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(Above) Jorgensen Farm’s first day 

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Advertiser Index 

2nd Harvest Food Bank .........................69 

Ag Enterprise Supply Inc. .......................19 

AGPRO .......................................71 

AmericanWest Bank .............................9 

Biagro Western ................................17 

Butch Booker Auction ..........................13 

Byrnes Oil Co. .................................25 

Citizens For Mary Ruth Edwards ................13 

Class 8 Trucks .................................25 

Coleman Oil ...................................71 

Committee To Elect Jeff Holy ....................21 

Committee To Elect Mary Baechler ...............9 

Committee To Re-Elect Maureen Walsh ..........19 

Connell Oil Co. .............................38, 69 

Cooperative Ag Producers Inc ...................71 

Country Financial ..............................21 

CrustBuster Drills ..............................9 

Diesel & Machine ..............................27 

Edward Jones ..................................31 

Evergreen Implement ...........................40 

Farm & Home Supply. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 

Great Plains Equipment ........................39 

Great Plains Manufacturing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 

Jones Truck & Implement .......................35 

Kelleher Motor Co. .............................73 

Kincaid Real Estate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 

Klesor Equipment ..............................37 

Landmark Native Seed .........................27 

Lange Supply Inc. ..............................37 

Les Schwab Tire Centers ........................35 

Meridian Manufacturing Group .................13 

Micro-Ag ......................................21 

North Central Washington Fence ................39 

Northwest Outdoor Properties ..................74 

NU-CHEM ....................................19 

OXARC .......................................67 

People For Joe Schmick .........................25 

PNW Farmers Cooperative ......................40 

Perkins & Zlatich P.S. ..........................71 

Pomeroy Grain Growers Inc. ....................73 

RH Machine ...................................69 

Scales Northwest ...............................74 

Seedmaster Drills–Kevin Klein .................73 

Spectrum Crop Development. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71 

SS Equipment .................................73 

State Bank Northwest ..........................26 

Syngenta–Vibrance .............................75 

T & S Sales ....................................25 

The Whitney Land Co. ..........................67 

U.S. Wheat Associates ..........................11 

Walter Implement ..............................31 

Washington State University–CAHNRS ..........40 

Western Reclamation ...........................17 

Wilbur-Ellis–AquaFusion .......................76 

Wilbur-Ellis–Till-It Zoned .......................7 

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W A S HIN G T O NG R A IN C O MM IS S IO N - Wheat Life

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