As you prepare for spring planting, please keep in mind the following guidance the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has provided regarding cover crops for this very reason:

Nicole Berg has heard the debate about removing four dams on the lower Snake River essentially since they were completed in the mid-1970s. "Coming from around here, you just get a little numb to it because you have heard about taking the dams out your whole life," said Berg, a farmer in southeast Washington state and immediate past president of the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG). Berg farms along the Columbia River, just south of the confluence of the Columbia and Snake rivers at the Tri-Cities (Kennewick, Pasco and Richland, Washington).

Pasta is mechanically extruded through dies to create different shapes, and then is cut to length. It turns out the type of ‘die’ used to shape pasta is an important factor in quality and texture. Bronze dies, long the industry standard, have generally been replaced with Teflon dies. Teflon dies are cheaper, easier to replace, and last longer than their bronze counterpart. However, doughs extruded through Teflon dies have a smooth, more satiny surface. Bronze is a porous, soft metal. Pasta extruded through a bronze die has more texture and is a little rough on the surface.

A new paper on food security submitted by the United States at the World Trade Organization (WTO) has to date received little attention but it could signify a meaningful shift in dealing with agriculture issues at the WTO. That paper, entitled “The World Trade Organization’s Role in Enhancing Food Security” suggests that facilitating rules- and science-based trade should be the basis for building global food security. The concept sets up a new approach to discussing food security issues that will span multiple areas of jurisdiction.

Farmers and independent seed businesses have long expressed concern over concentration and consolidation in agriculture, including seed and ag inputs. Competition in the marketplace, diversity of choice, and regional commitments are important to a healthy ag industry. In 2021, an Executive Order was issued instructing the Secretary of Agriculture to report on concerns and strategies to ensure that intellectual property systems (IP), including Patents, while incentivizing innovation, do not unnecessarily reduce competition in the seed and input markets.

The US Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service recently estimated the total U.S. 2023-2024 wheat planted area will be 49.9 million acres. That’s up nine percent from the previous year and would be the highest total since 2016-2017. The total winter wheat area is projected up 13 percent as high prices and strong profitability provides major incentives to plant. Hard Red Winter Wheat is projected up 13 percent to 26 million acres, even higher than the January 12 forecast. HRW production regions continue to be impacted by drought, which is likely to affect harvested area and yield. Soft Red Winter Wheat plantings are forecast up 19 percent from the previous year to 7.8 million acres, slightly below the January forecast.

Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine is causing a global shift in the trading of grains — which feed billions of people every day — and Ukraine’s harvest this year could plummet by as much as 50% compared to before the war. “Trade flows change and fluctuate, they always have,” said Andrew Whitelaw, co-founder and director of Episode 3, an agricultural analysis firm. “Bearing in mind that 20-odd years ago, Russia wasn’t an important exporter of grains … It’s grown in the last 20 years [and] Ukraine and Russia have now become the top exporters.”