Wheat Growers history

1938: The United States government price-support program, the Commodity Credit Corporation, was formed.

Yet by 1941, "great, brightly painted dust-covered behemoths, like army tanks, go charging over the landscape" plowing 100 acres a day, wrote wheat-country newspaper editor Giles French (Brumfield, 157). Harvest crews had dwindled to a mere three.

1949: The International Wheat Agreement specifies quantities of wheat that could be sold abroad at a fixed range of prices.

1954: Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act or Public Law 480 allowed the United States government to make agreements for wheat sales or barter.

By 1955, the nation's three top wheat-growing counties in the United States were all in Washington: Whitman, Lincoln, and Adams.

Chicago, Ill.: Wheat Flour Institute, 1956.

1959: Public Law 480 was amended to include long-term agreements and credit extensions for sales of surplus farm products.

In 1962, "a world record was set on 11 irrigated acres near Quincy in central Washington that yielded 155½ bushels per acre" (Scheuerman and McGregor, 127). Wheat would eventually cover about 10 percent of the irrigated land in Grant County.

The National Wheat Council (NWC) was formed in 1965 to coordinate the activities and interests of the wheat complex as a whole.

Beginning in July, dozens of workers would arrive by train in wheat towns and wander "up and down Main Street, looking for work," as a 1968 history recalled:

Wheat growers were encouraged by the increasing domestic demand for wheat since 1970.

Fully incorporated on July 6, 1977, the Foundation set forth four primary goals: to advance wheat science; to advance conservation of natural resources; to develop new uses and new markets for United States wheat; and to develop educational programs to promote wheat and its allied industries.

From Werner L. Janney and Asa Moore, editors, John Jay Janney's Virginia: An American Farm Lad's Life in the Early 19th Century (McLean, Va.: EPM Publications Inc., 1978), 72-75.

In 1984, a permanent standing committee between the NAWG Foundation and United States Wheat Associates was formed to develop the crucial issue of wheat trade.

In 1986, the Foundation’s Development Committee was officially established to allow greater partnership with agribusinesses by identifying projects of need and matching them with funding resources.

However, since 1987, the FCS has operated in conjunction with a new entity, the Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation ("Farmer Mac"), which establishes underwriting standards for agricultural mortgages, and, to a degree, covers defaults.

By 1990, wheat had been established as one of Washington's main crops for more than a century, and its parameters were largely set.

Furthermore, 1995-96 period brought the industry some of its highest prices ever, averaging $4.55 per bushel from almost 70 million acres with a yield of 35.9 bushels per acre.

For example, west Asian countries, which were the cradle of wheat production (Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Yemen) and the earliest exporters of wheat to the Mediterranean and other early trade routes, imported 9.7 million tons of wheat in 1997.

In the fall of 1998, the USDA announced wheat donation programs to needy countries in an effort to curb the excess stock.

In early 1999, the USDA's CCC purchased more than 1 million metric tons of HRW wheat.

Wheat farms in the United States produced an estimated 2.9 billion bushels of grain in the 2001-02 season, harvesting approximately 53 million acres with an average yield of 42 bushels per acre.

Also known as the 2002 Farm Bill, this legislation gave wheat farmers access to marketing loans, as well as both direct and countercyclical payments, according to the USDA. Signed on May 13, 2002, this legislation is effective for a period of six years.

At its fall 2011 meeting, the Foundation Board voted to amend the organization’s articles of incorporation, modifying the organization to make NAWG its sole member.

The state produced 141 million bushels of grain in 2012.

By 2016, that number was up to 157 million bushels, which ranked fourth in the United States (Kansas was first). That year, wheat was the fifth-most-valuable crop in Washington, behind (in order) apples, milk, potatoes, and cattle.

Wheat fields near city of Palouse, Whitman County, October 15, 2017

2019 15th Annual Grain Growers Conference

CALGARY, AB: The Western Canadian Wheat Growers are celebrating their 50th anniversary in 2020.

In 2021, Washington Wheat growers harvested 2.33 million acres of wheat for total wheat production of 87.1 million bushels.