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.

Farm bill discussions in the U.S. Capitol will likely take a back seat in the next few weeks as Congress works to keep the federal government from shutting down, according to the leader of the National Association of Wheat Growers. The 2018 Farm Bill expires Sept. 30. The government's fiscal year also ends that day.

Increased demand for railcars and performance issues sent U.S. rail rates soaring, with Secondary Railcar Auction Market Bids hitting their highest since 2014. Since then, rail rates have eased drastically. From March 2023 to July 2023 secondary bids for railcars have been negative, indicating that the current supply of railcars is sufficient for meeting the needs of shippers.Decreased volumes and the subsequent decrease in rail tariff rates and Secondary Railcar Market Auction Bids have added additional pressure to already low basis levels, helping boost the competitiveness of U.S. wheat to importers.

Exploring opportunities for hard red winter (HRW), soft red winter (SRW) and durum wheat in both established and emerging markets, U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) led a team of wheat producers and industry representatives to meet with customers and learn about milling and baking processes in Mexico, Ecuador, and Colombia. The goal of these Board Teams is to provide a broad canvas of a region, on-the-ground, face-to-face experiences in the mills, in the bakeries, and at the transportation facilities that support movement of U.S. wheat into the countries.

September is Idaho Preferred Month, an annual initiative during peak harvest season to promote food and agricultural products made in Idaho. This month, farmers, stores and Idaho Preferred, a state program, have partnered to promote local products that rank the Gem State seventh in the U.S. for agricultural goods and food product exports per capita. Laura Johnson, the market development division bureau chief of Idaho Preferredsays that consumers can look for the Idaho Preferred logo at select stores to know if the product was grown, raised or processed in Idaho.

Idaho's net farm income in 2022 set a record and was substantially higher than university agricultural economists initially estimated because producers spent less on inputs. Cash receipts and net farm income hit record highs last year, as the University of Idaho economists predicted, according to data USDA released Aug. 31. “We underestimated net incomes quite a bit,” Brett Wilder, a UI agricultural economist in Caldwell, said in an interview.

The 2023 US winter wheat harvest was 96% complete by Aug. 20, the US Department of Agriculture said in the final aggregate winter wheat harvest update in the Department’s weekly Crop Progress report. That compared with 94% a year earlier and matched the five-year average for the date. States with winter wheat remaining in fields at that time included California (97% complete), Colorado (99%), Idaho (70%), Michigan (95%), Montana (78%), Nebraska (99%), South Dakota (97%) and Washington (87%). The USDA’s Montana field office continued to publish harvest updates and said winter wheat in Big Sky Country was 80% harvested by Aug. 27 compared with 91% as the recent five-year average for the date.