Expanding a Wheat Farmer's Perspective

Expanding a Wheat Farmer’s Perspective

I’m KayDee Gilkey with the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report.

Often farmers and ranchers are consumed with the day-to-day activities of their agricultural operation. A trade mission visiting foreign end customers has a way of reminding farmers of the consumers who enjoy the that farmer’s end product thousands of miles away.

Steve Claassen, a Washington Grain Commission board member recently participated in a two-week U.S. Wheat Associates trade visit to Japan, Philippines and China. He shares that the experience really did remind him to keep his end product -- wheat -- constantly in mind.

Claassen: “I think as a farmer as such, we have a tendency to go out into our fields and forget about our end product and end consumer. All we want to do is get our crop seeded, take care of it, get it in the truck, and dump it in the pit and get paid for it. Think the biggest thing I realized in all three countries that we visited is that the end product is something we should be thinking about.”

A large percentage of the soft white wheat grown in the Pacific Northwest is exported. What feedback did Claassen receive from the mills and bakeries he visited within the three countries?

Claassen: “Those countries came back to us and said we love your wheat because of the quality and the consistency. You are a consistent supplier and the quality is always top notch.”

I’m KayDee Gilkey with the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.