Recent news and highlights from around the wheat industry.

Speaking of Wheat: “[It has been] an immense honor to represent the people of the 11th district of Texas in Congress for the past 16 years. [I am] humbled [by] witnessing the hard work of Americans to feed, clothe and fuel the world and used it to help fight for America’s farmers, ranchers and the entire agriculture industry in the decisions that affect their lives and future generations.” – Former House Agriculture Committee Chairman Michael Conaway, R-Texas, at the ceremony unveiling his official Chairman’s portrait for the House of Representatives’ art collection.

Vince Peterson Talks Trade, COVID-19 and more on Episode 195 of the “Wheat All About It!” podcast produced this week by the Washington Grain Commission (WGC). WGC Director of Communications Scott Yates talked to USW President Peterson about the Phase One China deal, the bi-lateral trade deal with Japan and the USMCA treaty. A second episode with Peterson will be posted next week. 

Grain Craft Relocates to the Kansas Wheat Innovation Center. On Sept. 10, Grain Craft announced plans to relocate its corporate laboratory to the Kansas Wheat Innovation Center in Manhattan, Kan., in 2021. The laboratory will be housed in newly finished space within the innovation center, which is located on the Kansas State University Campus. Grain Craft said the move is consistent with the company’s commitment to enhancing wheat quality as well as to flour quality and consistency and to “ongoing exploration of innovation activities.” Read the full announcement here.

Idaho Wheat Commission (IWC) Plans New HQ. The IWC plans to replace the building it owns near the state Capitol building in downtown Boise. The commission since 2003 has owned a 7,500-square-foot building with a partial second story. IWC aims to construct a three-story, 27,300-square-foot building that it hopes to be a central hub for many of the state’s agricultural organizations. Former USW colleague Casey Chumrau is the IWC Executive Director. Read more here.

Golden State Grains Community. The California Wheat Commission (CWC) is the prime mover behind a new “Golden State Grains” online community of participants in California’s grain economy. Golden State Grains is designed to be an innovative and sustainable marketplace for California grown and processed grain. In addition, this web tool is intended to bring all participants together to support production practices that improve the environment, increase profitability and sustainability, and provide food that improves human health. Find out more about Golden State Grains here.

NAWG Leads on Science Behind Glyphosate. Writing in a recent edition of “Agri-Pulse,” National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) President Dave Milligan detailed the effort of NAWG and top agricultural groups across the country to fight an unjustified California law that would have forced food manufacturers to put a warning label on products made from agricultural products that may have been treated with the herbicide glyphosate. NAWG and the other organizations cited the risk to the national agricultural economy and sustainable wheat production that would result from the loss of glyphosate as a valuable farming tool, as well as confusion among consumers when glyphosate has undergone decades of regulatory and safety review.

Subscribe to USW Reports. USW publishes a variety of reports and content that are available to subscribe to, including a bi-weekly newsletter highlighting recent Wheat Letter blog posts, the weekly Price Report and the weekly Harvest Report (available May to October). Subscribe here. 

Follow USW Online. Visit our Facebook page at for the latest updates, photos and discussions of what is going on in the world of wheat. Also, find breaking news on Twitter, video stories on Vimeo and more on LinkedIn.

Recent news and highlights from around the wheat industry.

Speaking of Wheat: “Even though the customers cannot be here in person, we want to assure them that they are welcome to ask questions and reach out to us, as well as visit us when it is safe to travel.” – Glen Squires, CEO, Washington Grain Commission, from an article about virtual wheat export promotion by state wheat commissions and U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) in Capital Press.

Congratulations to Ian Flagg and his wife Serena on the birth of their first child Aug. 11, a girl named Thea Juliette. Ian, who is USW’s Regional Vice President for Europe, Middle East and North Africa, says Mom and baby, who is named after her great grandmother, are doing well.

Pacific Northwest wheat producers rely on a complex system of rivers, rail, and highways to transport their product. Of all the wheat produced in Washington state for example, about 60% of it is transported via the Columbia-Snake River System. A comprehensive environmental impact analysis of the lower Snake River dams was recently completed and published. The Washington Association of Wheat Growers (WAWG) stated that the report balances the needs of farmers, salmon, power supply, and social welfare in the Pacific Northwest.

USW Recommends www.farmbabe.com. With an average social media reach of 2-3 million a month and 120K followers, Michelle Miller has made a name for herself as a dedicated myth-buster in the food industry as the Farm Babe™. Michelle brings a unique perspective as a big city globetrotter turned Iowa Farm girl, and plants the seed inside the minds of those looking to understand the truth about modern agricultural production. Farm Babe™ is one of the most popular and vibrant food and farming personalities in social media.

Registration Underway for Three September IAOM-KSU Milling Courses. IAOM has joined with Kansas State University’s IGP Institute to offer a variety of milling courses, which will be held in Manhattan, Kan. Review the class information and register here.

Our Hearts Go Out to Farmers in Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana who lost crops and suffered damage from a devastating, long-lived thunderstorm Aug. 10. With straight line, hurricane-force winds, this “deracho” storm affected an estimated 37.7 million acres, primarily corn and soybeans. Reuters reported that “the toll from the derecho storm has worsened as farmers and grain handlers have spent the week assessing flattened corn fields and crumpled steel storage bins.” The storm also caused widespread damage to rural towns and cities in its destructive path.

Subscribe to USW Reports. USW publishes a variety of reports and content that are available to subscribe to, including a bi-weekly newsletter highlighting recent Wheat Letter blog posts, the weekly Price Report and the weekly Harvest Report (available May to October). Subscribe here.

Follow USW Online. Visit our Facebook page at for the latest updates, photos and discussions of what is going on in the world of wheat. Also, find breaking news on Twitter, video stories on Vimeo and more on LinkedIn.

Recent news and highlights from around the wheat industry.

Speaking of Wheat: “I hope in another century our future generations look back at our world and see how we worked to improve it for all for them. And I hope that despite farming changes and progress, wheat remains growing in farm fields.” – Katie Pinke, Publisher, Agweek. Read more.

USW Past Chairman Awarded Dr. James R. Miller Award. Jason Scott, a Maryland wheat farmer who served as USW’s 2016/17 Chairman, was recently awarded the Dr. James R. Miller Award during Maryland’s 22nd Annual Commodity Classic, held virtually this year. This award recognizes an individual for their contributions to Maryland’s grain industry. Scott, who has been on the Maryland Grain Producers board for 16 years and has served in several leadership positions, works alongside his family growing wheat, corn, soybeans, malt barley, and sweet corn for processing, as well as selling seed for Pioneer. Learn more about Scott and the award here.

USW recommends a visit to the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) YouTube channel to see a series of presentations on how plant breeding innovations like gene editing can positively address continuing access to safe and affordable nutrition – despite new and evolving threats to our global food security. Visit the channel here.

2020 National Wheat Yield Contest. On February 18, 2020, the National Wheat Foundation officially opened the 2020 National Wheat Yield Contest! The Contest is divided into two primary competition categories: winter wheat and spring wheat, and two subcategories: dryland and irrigated. The Foundation is currently accepting entries for the Spring Wheat category. The deadline to submit is August 1. Learn more here. 

USW expresses sympathy to the family and friends of Dr. Owen J. Newlin, a U.S. grain industry pioneer who passed away recently. During and after his career with Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Dr. Newlin actively supported: ballot initiatives to create state corn checkoff programs; initiating overseas industry missions to educate future farmer leaders; and defending the USDA/FAS Foreign Market Development program, a source of funding for USW export market development. Read more in this statement from U.S. Grains Council.

Cereal Science Events Calendar. Every month, cereal scientist M. Hikmet Boyacioglu, Ph.D., compiles an industry calendar of events. Click here to see the mid-July 2020 calendar. To receive the calendar, please write to Dr. Boyacioglu at [email protected].

BASF and PowerPollen collaborate in research on hybrid wheat. BASF and PowerPollen® have signed an agreement to further develop and apply the company’s patented pollen preservation and application technology to improve cross-pollination and enhance BASF’s proprietary wheat program. Read the joint statement here.

Study Finds Whole Grains Lower Risk of Diabetes. Researchers found consuming one or more servings a day of whole grain cold breakfast cereal was associated with a 19 percent lower risk of becoming diabetic. Read more about the study here.

Registration Underway for Three September IAOM-KSU Milling Courses. IAOM has joined with Kansas State University’s IGP Institute to offer a variety of milling courses, which will be held in Manhattan, Kan. Register for these classes here.

Subscribe to USW Reports. USW publishes a variety of reports and content that are available to subscribe to, including a bi-weekly newsletter highlighting recent Wheat Letter blog posts, the weekly Price Report and the weekly Harvest Report (available May to October). Subscribe here.

Follow USW Online. Visit our Facebook page at for the latest updates, photos and discussions of what is going on in the world of wheat. Also, find breaking news on Twitter, video stories on Vimeo and more on LinkedIn.

Recent news and highlights from around the wheat industry.

Speaking of Wheat: “Our export markets are critical to U.S. wheat farmers’ bottom lines as they see 50 percent of U.S. wheat exported each year. The grain inspection system is one of our key advantages over our competitors that has helped wheat and other U.S. commodities grow export markets. Our overseas customers value the independent system in place through the Grain Standards Act.” – Doug Goyings, USW Chairman and Paulding, Ohio wheat farmer, in response to the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture’s business meeting to markup the United States Grain Standards Reauthorization Act (GSA) of 2020

Congratulations Colleagues. We are fortunate to have devoted, loyal colleagues at U.S. Wheat Associates, including two that recently celebrated milestones. Ann Murchison, Office Manager, USW West Coast Office, recently celebrated 25 years with USW, while Joe Sowers, Regional Vice President for Philippines and Korea, USW Manila Office, recently celebrated 15 years. Thank you, Ann and Joe, for your service to our organization, U.S. wheat farmers and our customers.

Phase One Deal with China Still Needed. USW joined the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) and a coalition of almost 200 other agricultural organizations in a letter reiterating to the Trump Administration the importance of the U.S.-China Trade Agreement for U.S. agriculture and exports. “Today, the world grain and oilseed market is experiencing the greatest oversupply of production since the 1980s, and the United States is facing increasing competition from foreign sources,” the letter stated. Read the letter online here.

2020 National Wheat Yield Contest. On February 18, 2020, the National Wheat Foundation officially opened the 2020 National Wheat Yield Contest! The Contest is divided into two primary competition categories: winter wheat and spring wheat, and two subcategories: dryland and irrigated. The Foundation is currently accepting entries for the Spring Wheat category. The deadline to submit it August 1.

New Virtual Offerings for Women in Agribusiness Event Series. In a pivotal move to ensure event excellence during the changing business climate, the Women in Agribusiness (WIA) Summit series has announced virtual attendance options for its 2020 U.S. and international conferences in July and September.

Open Position in OWGL. Oregon Wheat Growers (OWGL) is looking to fill their Administrative Assistant/Membership Coordinator position. For more details on the job opening and how to apply, visit www.owgl.org/careers!

Subscribe to USW Reports. USW publishes a variety of reports and content that are available to subscribe to, including a bi-weekly newsletter highlighting recent Wheat Letter blog posts, the weekly Price Report and the weekly Harvest Report (available May to October). Subscribe here.

Follow USW Online. Visit our Facebook page at for the latest updates, photos and discussions of what is going on in the world of wheat. Also, find breaking news on Twitter, video stories on Vimeo and more on LinkedIn.

Recent news and highlights from around the wheat industry. 

Speaking of Wheat: “There is a societal cost of not using new genome editing techniques or being slow in adoption. We have no time to lose in resolving our shared problems for food and nutrition security.” – Robin Fears, Director, European Academies Science Advisory Council, in a statement calling for reform of European regulation of plant breeding innovations. 

Today We Have Bread. All of us at USW feel very fortunate to continue working virtually, and our farmer board of directors agreed with our staff to share some of that good fortune with others in need. So, USW is donating bread, produced at Uptown Bakery, owned by Master Baker and USW consultant Didier Rosada, to three area food banks. One of the recipients is the food pantry at Columbia Baptist Church in Arlington, Va. Rev. Gregory Loewer recently shared this in a letter thanking USW for the bread donation: “The recipients of your donations were so grateful to receive the bread. I happened to be serving on the team yesterday and when I told the folks waiting in line that ‘today we have bread’ they were delighted.” 

“Killing Before Milling.” North Dakota State University (NDSU) researchers recently received a USDA Food Safety and Defense grant to explore the use of steam pasteurization to reduce pathogens in milled flour. Senay Simsek, NDSU’s Bert L. D’Appolonia Cereal Science and Technology of Wheat Endowed Professor, and Teresa Bergholz, associate professor of microbiological sciences, will work on a project titled “Killing Before Milling: Utilization of Vacuum Steam Pasteurization for Controlling Enteric Pathogens on Wheat.” The three-year USDA grant totals nearly $500,000. Read more about the project.  

Award of Excellence for Dr. Simsek. NDSU’s Senay Simsek has been awarded the NC-213 U.S. Quality Grains Research Consortium 2020 Andersons Cereals and Oilseeds Award of Excellence. Simsek, who has been with NDSU since 2007, leads the HRS wheat end–quality project in the Department of Plant Sciences. Congratulations to Dr. Simsek, who is a frequent collaborator with USW. Read more about the award and Dr. Simsek’s work. 

University of Maryland Professor Puts the UMD Small Grains Breeding and Genetics Program on the Map. Vijay Tiwari, assistant professor in Plant Science and Landscape Architecture at the University of Maryland, recently received the Leadership Award from the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC). This award is given annually to scientists who make a crucial impact in wheat genomics. This year, Tiwari was the sole recipient for his leadership and expertise in Radiation Hybrid mapping or RH mapping, a technique that was used to validate the entire wheat genome assembly. 

2020 National Wheat Yield Contest June 15th Early Bird Registration for Spring Wheat. The National Wheat Foundation officially opened the 2020 National Wheat Yield Contest in February 2020. The Foundation is currently accepting entries for Spring Wheat until Aug. 1 with an early registration deadline of June 15.

Subscribe to USW Reports. USW publishes a variety of reports and content that are available to subscribe to, including a bi-weekly newsletter highlighting recent Wheat Letter blog posts, the weekly Price Report and the weekly Harvest Report (available May to October). Subscribe here. 

Follow USW Online. Visit our Facebook page at for the latest updates, photos and discussions of what is going on in the world of wheat. Also, find breaking news on Twitter, video stories on Vimeo and more on LinkedIn.