Wheat Worries Pt 2
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson. Wheat growers had a rough year last year under extreme drought conditions. But even so, as the weather appears to be more cooperative this year, other challenges are out there for growers.
Washington Association of Wheat Growers, Michelle Hennings says another major challenge is the rising cost of shipping …
HENNINGS … “Transportation costs are up, you know, with the railroads. There’s some issues there on being able to even get products, our inputs to the farmers. So, there’s a lot of different variables going on right now that the farmers are very concerned about.”
Another transportation issue, Hennings says is the push for removal of Snake River dams …
HENNINGS … “Also, when we use barging, which is 60% of Washington wheat goes up the river, it’s the cleanest transportation there is. Washington state is very focused on being clean and climate-friendly and barging is how you do that.”
Hennings says there are other, better ways to protect salmon …
HENNINGS … “There’s a lot of different projects out there that could be funded and we’re looking into all of those. And there’s some that have already been tried to be funded so we’ve been promoting those projects to get off the ground so that we could start that process towards salmon recovery without having to remove the dams.”
Hennings says another big challenge for wheat growers this year is the potential impacts the war in Ukraine could have on the global wheat market.
