Join NAWG’s advocacy campaign to engage with legislators on increasing Market Access Program (MAP) and Foreign Market Development (FMD) programs authorized in the Farm Bill. MAP’s authorized funding has not changed since 2006 and FMD funding has remained the same since 2002. Inflation and sequestration have significantly eroded our ability to compete with other countries who are steadily investing more in their agricultural export promotion efforts. Please visit NAWG’s website to participate in the grassroots efforts to make your voice heard.

Twenty trade associations representing various agricultural, food and environmental interest groups are urging Congress to pass a new farm bill this year. On Wednesday, the groups launched a campaign called “Farm Bill for America’s Families: Sustaining Our Future.” The campaign’s website includes information about the legislation and a call for the public to get involved. The farm bill is one of the most impactful pieces of legislation when it comes to protecting our food supply and food security, advancing conservation and environmental stewardship, and ensuring the men and women who produce our food are able to feed a growing population.

The Idaho Wheat Commission (IWC) takes a wheat variety survey twice a year, spring and winter, to gather data on variety usage. Please take a few minutes to fill out the survey. Your responses are anonymous and aggregated across multi-county reporting districts.

Most reports on wheat and barley crops in Idaho are positive, but yields will be down in northern Idaho due to drought. Winter wheat is in the final stages of grain fill, and growers are trying to make sure irrigation is cut off at the soft dough stage with a full soil profile, said Juliet Marshall, plant pathologist with the University of Idaho and plant sciences department head at Idaho Falls Research and Extension Center.

Cliff Tacke, Greencreek, has been appointed by Governor Brad Little to serve as a commissioner with the Idaho Wheat Commission (IWC) representing District 2. Tacke replaces Bill Flory, Winchester, who was appointed to the Commission in 2010.

As mid-year approaches, volatility and uncertainty are the key characteristics of dry bulk shipping markets. International grain supply chain stakeholders can expect more of the same during the rest of 2023. Geopolitical turmoil continues to cast a dark cloud over shipping (and grain) supply and demand forecasts. Certainly, relations between the United States and China remain harried, at best, while Russia’s destructive and tragic invasion of Ukraine shows no sign of being resolved any time soon.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in its July 12 Crop Production report forecast US 2023 winter wheat production at 1.206 billion bushels, up 6% from the June forecast of 1.136 billion bushels and up 103 million bushels, or 9%, from 1.104 billion bushels in 2022. The USDA forecast production of spring wheat other than durum at 479 million bushels, down 3.6 million bushels, or 0.7%, from 482.2 million bushels in 2022. Durum production in 2023 was forecast at 54 million bushels, down 9.9 million bushels, or 16%, from 64 million bushels in 2022. It was the USDA’s first other spring wheat and durum estimates of the season.