Senior Field Editor Larry Dreiling and Associate Editor Jennifer Latzke are now attending the North American Grain Conference.

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NAWG looks at declining membership

(SAN ANTONIO, Texas)—The board of directors of the National Association of Wheat Growers met here Feb. 7 and stared the South Plains drought in the face, looking at a possible five percent reduction in its nearly $1 million budget.

The reduction is primarily being caused by the Texas Wheat Producers Association’s $49,000 formula payment obligation reduced to a $9,535 payment. TWPA is basing this payment on what is likely to be one of the smallest wheat crops in state history. Other southern states are offering smaller commitments as well.

The Texas Agricultural Statistics Service Feb. 6 rated the state’s winter wheat crop as 88 percent poor or very poor.

“We always have come up with our full obligations. We meet our commitments,” said Foy Gibson, a Bend, Texas producer who serves as TWPA president. “If we had any wheat, it would have burned up in the barn (referring to recent South Plains wildfires.). We wish we could increase our commitment, but we just can’t do it.”

NAWG is hoping that new income can be derived through the group’s foundation, which owns NAWG’s Washington, DC offices. The three-story building, appraised recently at $5 million, is about to undergo a $157,000 facelift to its first floor.

NAWG CEO Daren Coppock is hoping that the building’s second floor, left vacant for over a year in anticipation of a possible wheat industry consolidation, will again see tenants soon.

“We’ve had a tenant recruitment firm market the building,” Coppock said. “One interesting contact was the Lyndon LaRouche PAC. We declined.”

The NAWG board also is looking at how to staunch the flow of declining membership. A report delivered at a meeting of the NAWG foundation board of directors unveiled results of the beginning of a Six Sigma -driven study of American wheat farmers who are not members of their state grower associations and, in turn, NAWG.

Marty Wojcik, cereals product manager for DuPont, presented the study commissioned for NAWG.

The study showed that while most wheat farmers were aware of NAWG and their state wheat commissions, they were less clear of the missions of U.S. Wheat Associates and Wheat Export Trade Education Committee.

The study also indicated that 20 percent of wheat farmers were unaware of wheat organizations, another 40 percent were aware but didn’t know the value of membership while the other 40 percent were aware but too busy to be involved.

“There’s no shortage of other organizations competing for farmer’s time,” Wojcik said. It’s not just farm groups; there are civic groups like the local school board, and there are recreational and wildlife groups like Ducks Unlimited. With all that diversity, competition became a lot stiffer.”

As a final word to the board before stepping down as NAWG president, Sherman Reese, an Echo, Ore., producer, called for a summit meeting of all stakeholders in the industry to address the shrinking amount of U.S. wheat acreage and the gains made by other crops.

“We look at the wheat industry and I see wheat’s in a crisis. We’re in the center of it,” said Reese. “We have all these input costs driving us to extension rapidly. We get the cost and price squeezed and we’re caught in the middle.

“A good parasite never kills its host. Well, we’re the host and we’re being eaten. We need to have a wheat summit, with two or three people from each segment talking together. Let’s get these groups talking about the question: How can we get wheat profitable? Wheat’s no longer profitable, even with a massive infusion of money. If you could buy into the vision, we could fill in the blanks.”

The board voted to approve the concept and called on staff to seek funding.

The board also elected new officers for 2006. Elected were Dale Schuler, president, Carter, Mont.; John Thaemert, 1st vice president, Sylvan Grove, Kan.; David Cleavinger, 2nd vice president, Wildorado, Texas; and Karl Scronce, Merrill, Ore., secretary-treasurer.

Sorghum producers begin new committee format

The National Sorghum Producers met for the first time in their newly formed Work Teams today, Feb. 7, at the North American Grain Congress in San Antonio, Texas. In 2005, NSP not only voted to change its name, but to also change its leadership structure. Part of that change are the new Work Teams that focus on various topics important to the sorghum industry, including: foreign market development, legislative and regulatory issues, communications, domestic marketing, business development, and research and technology. Today the committees are also deciding the new chairmen of each Work Team, who will lead the teams for the next year. The morning Work Team meetings focused on legislative strategy for the new farm bill. NSP wants to be sure to emphasize to the congressional leadership that sorghum should have a place in any progressive farm policy. Because of its "water sipping" attributes, it plays an important water conservation role in the High Plains and elsewhere. And, with the recent State of the Union address and its emphasis on new sources of renewable fuels, sorghum has a role to play in energy policy. It's also vitale to NSP that any public research efforts on sorghum continue to be fully funded in any new farm policy. Additionally, the Foreign Market Development Team met and discussed new developments from the U.S. Grains Council and how they pertain to sorghum. This afternoon, the rest of the work teams will meet and plan for the coming year of sorghum promotion, marketing and research efforts. The NAGC will conclude this evening, but be sure to watch for the special insert in an upcoming edition of High Plains Journal/Midwest Ag Journal

Sorghum producers begin new committee format

The National Sorghum Producers met for the first time in their newly formed Work Teams today, Feb. 7, at the North American Grain Congress in San Antonio, Texas. In 2005, NSP not only voted to change its name, but to also change its leadership structure. Part of that change are the new Work Teams that focus on various topics important to the sorghum industry, including: foreign market development, legislative and regulatory issues, communications, domestic marketing, business development, and research and technology. Today the committees are also deciding the new chairmen of each Work Team, who will lead the teams for the next year. The morning Work Team meetings focused on legislative strategy for the new farm bill. NSP wants to be sure to emphasize to the congressional leadership that sorghum should have a place in any progressive farm policy. Because of its "water sipping" attributes, it plays an important water conservation role in the High Plains and elsewhere. And, with the recent State of the Union address and its emphasis on new sources of renewable fuels, sorghum has a role to play in energy policy. It's also vitale to NSP that any public research efforts on sorghum continue to be fully funded in any new farm policy. Additionally, the Foreign Market Development Team met and discussed new developments from the U.S. Grains Council and how they pertain to sorghum. This afternoon, the rest of the work teams will meet and plan for the coming year of sorghum promotion, marketing and research efforts. The NAGC will conclude this evening, but be sure to watch for the special insert in an upcoming edition of High Plains Journal/Midwest Ag Journal.

Research for wheat, work teams for sorghum

(SAN ANTONIO, Texas)—It’s research for wheat growers and work teams for sorghum producers at the final day of the North American Grain Congress here Feb. 7.

The National Association of Wheat Growers will hold their annual research forum in the morning, with discussions on Clearfield wheat, the Global Rust Initiative, sequencing of the wheat genome, the wheat and barley scab initiative and forage sorghum quality.

The highlight of the forum will be a presentation by Dr. Forrest Chumley, assistant director of the Agricultural Experiment Station at Kansas State University. Chumley will be discussing the scientific cost of not pursuing genetically modified wheat.

NAWG activities will conclude in the afternoon, with the group’s board of directors meeting and a meeting of the NAWG Foundation.

Meanwhile, NGP members will be attending work team breakout sessions throughout the day. The Foreign Market Development/U.S. Grains Council; Legislative Resources; Legislative and Regulatory; Communications; Domestic Marketing, Business Development, Industry Relations and Membership as well as Research and Technology Work Teams will meet.

The NAGC will conclude with a banquet in the evening.

Research forum an NAGC highlight

(SAN ANTONIO, Texas)—The scientific costs of not pursuing genetically modified wheat are as immense as the financial costs, one research leader said here at the research forum of the North American Grain Congress.

It’s estimated that the financial costs to wheat research and industry may be as much as $100 million since the first license for the planting of biotech wheat was issued for tests in Montana in 1996, according to Dr. Forrest Chumley, assistant director of the Agricultural Experiment Station at Kansas State University.

The scientific cost meanwhile can be seen in the number of licenses issued for various crops, Chumley said.

“While there have been 5.535 tests for biotech corn since 1996, there have been only 396 tests for biotech wheat,” Chumley said. “That amounts to only 3.2 percent of the biotech testing licenses issued since Monsanto received the first license for biotech wheat.”

Of those licenses, Monsanto received 225 of them, compared with 46 licenses for other companies. Universities accounted for 95 licenses and government received 30 licenses, Chumley said.

There are no biotech wheat products, a big difference compared with the wide range of other biotech products that address agronomic benefits and enhanced nutrition, from non-allergenic soybeans to decaf coffee plants, Chumley said.

“One thing that we could create from biotechnology is celiac friendly wheat, keeping the gluten strength but remove the allergenic traits,” Chumley said. “Drought tolerance is being researched at CIMMYT (The international corn and wheat research center based in Mexico.) The gene construct is from Japan and is funded by Australia. We’re just not in the scene in the U.S.”

Chumley applauded the decision by the wheat industry to a pass a resolution stating its support of continued research and development of Syngenta’s fusarium head blight tolerant transgenic trait in wheat.

“We need this tool here we have a trait that can get a toxin out of the environment without chemicals it also opens the way to other things,” Chumley said.

He also praised U.S. Wheat Associates for beginning to craft a worldwide education campaign to promote biotechnology.

“We need to concentrate on what’s being done, rather than what not is being done,” Chumley said. “There will come a time when we look back at this and wonder what all the fuss was about.”

Wheat committees finish work

(SAN ANTONIO)—U.S. Wheat Associates and the Wheat Export Trade Education Committee along with committees from the National Association of Wheat Growers concluded their work at the North American Grain Congress here Feb. 5.

USWA approved final committee reports in quick order, including those of its budget committee and food aid task force. WETEC, meanwhile went into a special session, this time to approve the proposal passed by USWA two days earlier to select two members to a joint committee of the three groups to plan the dissolution of WETEC by the end of the 2006 fiscal year in July.

At the end of the USWA meeting, secretary treasurer Ron Suppes, reminded the other members that the position a unified Kansas wheat structure thinks all organizations should be co-located.

“There is a unified position on the matter,” said Suppes, a Scott City, Kan. producer. “We just want to go on record in support of this.”

Added Kansas wheat commissioner Dean Stoskopf: “I add my sentiments to Ron’s statements. Another part of this refers to the (low number of a) weighted vote. Notice that we didn’t have a single weighted vote at this meeting. “

With that, action moved from the historic Menger Hotel to the Hyatt Regency on the Riverwalk, where NAWG’s biotechnology committee voted to approve changes in a position statement approved by the other two groups earlier in the weekend.

Two members of the committee argued over what they thought was “some bad grammar” in the document, but they eventually came around to the realization that if that committee changed any language, even for poor syntax, the other two groups would be forced into having to vote for the new document.

“We haven’t had unanimity for two years now,” said joint biotechnology committee chairman Darrell Hanavan. “This is a unified strategy. I think we should keep it that way for awhile.”

Committee member Art Brandli, a Warroad, Minn. producer, made the need for biotech wheat with traits that can benefit consumers apparent in a presentation that described how other crops with biotech benefits have muscled their way into his state’s agricultural system.

“We’ve lost a million acres of wheat in the last ten years to other crops,” said Brandli. “Examine the trends and you’ll see that soybeans have surpassed wheat. Consider the prices, yields and the costs of both crops and soybeans surpass wheat as a profitable crop.”

It had been announced over the weekend that Syngenta is in the research phase of developing wheat varieties genetically modified to resist fusarium, a bane of farmers, handlers, shippers, millers and bakers alike.

“We just need to provide a good product and the customer can decide. I told you a few years ago that we didn’t need (other types of biotech) wheat a few years ago, but this different,” Brandli said. “We need this kind of technology and we need it now. It’s our do or die.”

Brandli’s statement was the lead-up to final approval of a resolution stating its support of continued research and development of Syngenta’s fusarium tolerant transgenic trait in wheat and to work proactively with stakeholder in the food system for the benefit of customers and consumers worldwide, U.S. wheat producers and the whole U.S. wheat industry.

NAWG’s domestic policy committee also concluded its work, with members remaining focused on passage of a 2007 farm bill, which they would like to be titled a “food security act.”

The committee is awaiting research from the Congressionally-chartered Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute on proposals for new farm legislation before making any solid resolutions on the matter.

Wheat groups hold historic joint meeting

(SAN ANTONIO)—In an historic meeting here, board members from the three wheat industry organizations sat down together Feb. 4 for a joint discussion of issues facing them.

Kansas and Idaho representatives of U.S. Wheat Associates, the Wheat Export Trade Education Committee and the National Association of Wheat Growers called for the meeting last fall when efforts at consolidating the three groups collapsed.

“This isn’t going to be a meeting of wheat groups,” said Ray Buttars, a Weston, Idaho, producer and president of the Idaho Grain Producers Association. “This is a meeting of wheat farmers, that’s it.”

An outside facilitator was hired by NAWG president Sherman Reese to direct the meeting. Dr. Bryan Gentsch, co-owner of Association Strategies, an Austin, Texas-based firm that has performed leadership training and strategic planning sessions for wheat producer groups nationwide. A few years ago, Gentsch led training programs for NAWG’s Ambassador Program.

A set agenda was placed before the board members for the two-hour meeting. The agenda included scheduling more joint meetings in which presentation by joint committees could be held at one time, rather than at the meetings of each group.

“We need to have one common area for people to speak. It’s more respectful of those who come into speak to us,” said Dean Stoskopf, a Hoisington, Kan., producer and member of the Kansas Wheat Commission. “I realize schedules get tight for us, but we need to think of others sometimes.”

It was decided to have the executives and leaders of the three groups examine the idea of presentations followed by joint discussions and then votes by each of the groups, so as to reduce duplication of effort.

“This is what a consolidated board could do,” said one producer who did not want to be identified. “But this is the best we can do under the circumstances.”

Scheduling such a meeting sooner rather than later may prove to be another challenge to the groups. USWA is slated to hold a meeting in July at Boise, Idaho. Harvest and planting schedules may preclude some people from attending, according to USWA chairman Boyd Schweider.

“Summer meetings simply are not well attended,” said Schweider, a Idaho Falls, Idaho, producer.

For certain, the groups will meet during the 2007 Commodity Classic, set for March 1 to 3 at Tampa, Fla. Wheat producers will be joining corn and soybean groups in the Commodity Classic next year for the first time and it is likely that this joint meeting of wheat groups will be a day or two prior to the Classic.

“We are committed to the classic,” said Reese, an Echo, Ore., producer. “We are committed to making this work. I’m hoping good things will happen.”

Following the talks on meetings, Buttars, NAWG’s domestic policy committee chairman, joined with staff members for a strategy update on the 2007 Food Security Act, a name NAWG is giving to the upcoming farm bill.

The fiscal year 2007 budget will be formally released by the Bush Administration Feb. 6 and could produce a lot of debate.

“As soon as we get back from Washington we’ll be hearing more on a fight, a real fight, for baseline funding for the farm bill in the next couple of months,” said Mark Gaede, NAWG director of government affairs for environmental policy. “It seems most of the commodity groups think that we’ll see additional restrictions on the budget and whatever comes out of the Doha round of World Trade Organization talks.”

Gaede told the farmers that a supplemental appropriation for emergency agricultural energy assistance, placed into a bill for added funding for the war in Iraq and for Gulf Coast relief following Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma, was stripped out at the last minute.

“We have heard from the staff of (Senate Agriculture Committee chairman) Sen. Thad Cochran, which said this fight’s not over yet,” said Gaede. “There likely will be a disaster payment as an economic loss package.”

The final part of the discussion concerned co-location of the groups in a single building. It has been the consensus of the majority of the groups that this should occur. USWA’s lease on its current office space end in July 2008 while NAWG’s Foundation is looking for a tenant to fill a floor in its building. The groups decided to continue to look for a solution to the issue.

“You’ve taken a great leap in going forward,” Gentsch said at the end of the meeting. “There is consensus. We are all on the same page on many issues. This was a great meeting, one these groups should be proud of.”

NAGC to begin wheat-sorghum sessions

(SAN ANTONIO)—With two of three wheat organizations completing their work and the National Sorghum Producers having held their board of directors meeting, the North American Grains Congress gets into full swing here Feb. 6.

Leading off with a series of speeches is Teresa Lasseter, administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency. She is expected to discuss delivery of farm programs in light of announced beginning of studies to further consolidate USDA field offices.

Former USDA special assistant for international policy Paul Drazek, now in private consulting, will discuss the future process of World Trade Organization negotiations.

A panel discussion will then take place featuring NSP president James Vorderstrasse, National Association of Wheat Growers president Sherman Reese, American Farmland Trust president Ralph Grossi and Keira Franz of the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association.

Growers updated on policy, energy challenges

Insert data here Monday morning of the North American Grain Congress began with the General Session, which brought together wheat and sorghum producers to learn about farm policy and changes that will affect their businesses in 2006 and beyond.

Teresa Lasseter, administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency, started off the morning with a discussion on the producer partnerships with FSA.

Lasseter spoke about various farm support programs and their execution in different regions. She also updated wheat and sorghum producers about the restructuring of the FSA and how that will be implemented. She said it is now up to the assorted state committees to review the opportunities in their own states to cut unneccesary operations. There is no mandated plan, but rather FSA is asking the states to use their best judgement in streamlining the offices. She emphasized that FSA doesn't take this process lightly, but that it is necessary in order to offer a more economical service to farmers.

FSA is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Conservation Reserve Program, Lasseter said, and overall its been successful. She stated that more than 450 million tons of soil are not eroding each year and that the environmental benefits continue to increase. However, one audience member did raise the question of CRP acres taking more land out of agriculture production, adversely affecting rural communities during the question and answer session.

Jim Wiesemeyer, of Informa Economics, Inc., brought a Washington insider’s point of view about the upcoming farm bill negotiations. Issues such as ethics violations in Congress, a budget deficit, WTO trade policy negotiations, and the potential for leadership changes after the 2006 election cycle will all have an affect on how the new farm bill shapes up.

Tom Tucker, president of John Stewart & Associates, San Antonio, spoke on the future of renewable energy. Corn ethanol production s predicted to increase with the Renewable Fuels Standard, up to about 10 to 11 billion gallons, and corn ethanol’s share of U.S. use is estimated to be four to five percent of motor fuel oil.

Gas prices will continue to be dramatically high due to volatile world oil markets and so corn ethanol, on the wholesale market, could stay at 45 to 55 cents below the motor gas pump price. Ethanol is growing at a fast pace and folks are throwing caution to the wind, he said. There are announcements of new plants daily.

The Department of Energy is predicting natural gas demand will increase as the economy expands. The warm winter has translated into the price for natural gas. However, nitrogen will increase in price, and phosphorus and potash will follow suit in the near future.

The NAGC continues through Tuesday, Feb. 7, in San Antonio, Texas.

Stakeholders talk about farm policy

The latter half of the Monday morning General session at the North American Grain Congress in San Antonio, Texas, discussed the WTO process and included a panel discussion of industry leaders who talked about their hopes for the next farm bill.

Paul Drazek, of DTB Associates, gave his predictions for the trade environment in the next few years and the importance of trade negotiations to American agriculture.

Drazek stated that trade agreements are important to U.S. growers because the world population offers the best opportunity for growth potential. Also, in recent years, the middle class has increased in number in developing countries, which translates into higher exports for American agriculture. Contrary to some beliefs, NAFTA wasn’t entirely bad for all segments of American agriculture, and has resulted in a trade surplus with Mexico and Canada.

There are several expectations the U.S. has for WTO negotiations. Among them is the expectation that the EU must decrease its domestic supports by a much bigger percentage than currently, and that it must eliminate export subsidies by a certain date.

Drazek also discussed the differences between trade distorting and non-distorting payments and how they relate to WTO negotiations.

The morning session wrapped up with a round table discussion from stakeholders in the new farm bill, including Ralph Grossi of the American Farmland Trust; Sherman Reese, president of the National Association of Wheat Growers; Keira Franz, of the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association; and James Vorderstrasse, president of National Sorghum Producers.

Grossi spoke on his organization’s mission of preserving farmland from urban sprawl, and how that translates into farm policy. He said his group would like to see a higher commitment of federal dollars to landowners for conservation programs. Additionally, he said he’s hearing more farmers who want market-oriented programs with less government influence, and yet have a safety net in place that won’t over stimulate production, or drive down prices.

Franz said that the fruit and vegetable growers would like equal consideration in the next farm bill and that any policy should focus on building upon and increasing the competitiveness and sustainability of U.S. fruit and vegetable growers.

Reese and Vorderstrasse both touched on the need for stability in agriculture, which a new farm bill could provide. Vorderstrasse said that conservation programs and energy issues should be play a more important part in any new farm policy.

The NAGC continues through Tuesday, Feb. 7, in San Antonio, Texas.

USWA condemns Aussie kickbacks to Iraq

(SAN ANTONIO, Texas)—U.S. Wheat Associates meeting here Feb. 4 blasted AWB Ltd., the former Australian Wheat Board, for secret financial arrangements between AWB Ltd. and Saddam Hussein's regime, which accounted for more than 14 percent of illicit payments made to Iraq in connection with humanitarian purchases under the United Nations’ Oil for Food Programme between 1999 and 2003.

In a resolution that was unanimously approved, the USWA board resolution read that “kickbacks that propped up the Saddam regime are a moral outrage, and, in most countries, a crime.”

The USWA resolution urges the U.S. Congress, the State Department, the Justice Department, the Export-Import Bank and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to examine the ramifications of AWB's actions and take whatever actions are necessary to protect the integrity of U.S. market development and export programs.

The resolution also called for insisting the final agreement of the World Trade Organization Doha Round dismantles the monopoly status of AWB Ltd.

Last October, a report by the Independent Inquiry Committee into the United Nations Oil-for-Food (OFF) Programme named the AWB as the most egregious violator of the humanitarian segment of OFF. The report explains how nearly $222 million in OFF money was diverted through an Iraqi transportation company in Amman, Jordan, directly back to the Saddam Hussein regime.

“Folks, this is serious stuff. A wheat company was the largest source of kickbacks to Saddam Hussein’s regime under a humanitarian program,” said Alan Tracy, USWA president, before a room filled with U.S. wheat producers and as many Australian reporters as American reporters. “These were kickbacks that NBC News reported could be funding insurgent attacks against our soldiers—and Australian soldiers.

“We must hold this corporation accountable for paying millions of dollars of kickbacks to Saddam Hussein at the exact time that Saddam was trying to shoot down U.S. pilots who were patrolling the no fly zones.”

Demanding corporate accountability from AWB is not, as some have suggested, an attack on an ally, Tracy told the crowd.

“The AWB is not the Australian government, nor is it a nonprofit organization made up of hardworking Aussie farmers,” Tracy said. “It is a vast independent multinational corporation that uses its monopoly control of Australian export wheat supplies to compete unfairly against American farmers.”

“I am proud that USW has stood up for American farmers—and for American values—and is actively exploring a range of possible responses to AWB’s illicit payments in a market that was closed to U.S. wheat.”

Tracy also told of investigations into AWB bribes for wheat sales to Pakistan, Yemen, Indonesia and South Africa, have led to reduced U.S. wheat exports, which in turn leads to lower U.S. prices—which costs American wheat farmers in the pocketbook and increases government support program costs.

The reported bribes to Pakistan, exposed in hearings held in Australia, may have been as much as $12 million over a three-year period, an amount as much per year as U.S. Wheat’s entire producer-funded budget.

“How can we compete against that,” Tracy asked. “Of course, Australian farmers, who unknowingly paid the bills, buried into their wheat pool price, didn’t have any say in this matter either. This wasn’t OFF money in this case. This was their money.

“U.S. Wheat has long called for disciplines on the export monopolies. The Oil for Food travesty adds new urgency to the need for reform.”

USWA budgeteers look at shortfall

The U.S. Wheat Associates Budget Committee Feb. 3 approved a $4.087 million producer-funded 2007 fiscal year budget, based on the assessment to member states of $4.495 million.

The budget includes a 4% increase in domestic staff salaries. The budget also includes a $110,000 shortfall, due to estimated reductions in wheat production by USWA member states. This means that USWA likely would tap into their current reserves of $2.349 million.

Also, two states, North Carolina and Kentucky, have grower organizations that have dropped out of USWA while Maryland growers have told USWA president Alan Tracy their group likely will leave in July at the end of the 2006 fiscal year.

As committee members announced their funding commitments, it was clear that weather would be the deciding factor in whether or not those commitments would be met.

For example, Kansas committee member Dean Stoskopf offered that his state would pledge its full commitment of $898,806, but with a caveat.

“We are looking at an average crop so far, but we’re dry,” Stoskopf said. “If we don’t get some moisture, we may have to come back and reduce our pledge.”

Other states, such as South Dakota and Texas, said pretty much the same thing.

Meanwhile, Tracy informed directors that USWA would receive matching funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Market Development Program and Market Access Program that amount to a match of $2.8 federal funding to every dollar of producer funds spent.

The committee also approved a list of disbursements. One disbursement of note was in November 2005 when past Chairman Keith Kisling was reimbursed $1,600 for seeking private legal advice on consolidation.

“I just wanted to make sure everything was fair as to the weighted votes on consolidation,” said Kisling, a Burlington, Okla., producer.

The committee also approved a plan by USWA chairman Boyd Schweider to begin looking at new office space in Washington, D.C. for the organization when its current lease expires in 2008.

Schweider, an Idaho Falls, Idaho, producer, said he would direct this new committee to also include the current facilities of the National Association of Wheat Growers.

“Nebraska would prefer something that would be a co-location with NAWG,” said Chuck Tines, chairman of the Nebraska Wheat Board. “It could be the current building. It could be someplace else.”

WETEC votes to examine dissolution

(SAN ANTONIO, Texas)—It appears the end is near for the Wheat Export Trade Education Committee (WETEC).

The WETEC board of directors Feb. 3 voted to establish a six-member panel consisting of two members of the U.S. Wheat Associates board and president Alan Tracy along with two members from the National Association of Wheat Growers and its CEO Daren Coppock to come up with a plan to dissolve WETEC and merge the groups duties into the other two organizations.

WETEC’s mission is to educate the industry and members of Congress on issues affecting U.S. wheat exports and trade policy. According to its mission statement, WETEC monitors, analyzes and disseminates international trade information about administrative, legislative and international decisions influencing wheat exports.

In the last few years, WETEC has been used as a lever in consolidation talks, with USWA and NAWG wrestling with how to continue the organization’s mission. Indeed, at the Feb. 3 meeting, WETEC directors from Idaho and Montana announced they would no longer fund the body.

Kansas and Nebraska offered no commitment of funds for WETEC. Finally, Mark Darrington, a Declo, Idaho producer, moved to dissolve the organization.

After 45 minutes of spirited debate, a break was called for. During the break, Tracy, Coppock, USWA past chairman Keith Kisling and NAWG president Sherman Reese headed into a room near the ballroom where the WETEC meeting was being held.

There, the four men cobbled out a deal where the six-member panel would look at USWA covering work with administrative and diplomatic efforts while NAWG would expand its legislative efforts to cover trade issues.

The WETEC board approved the deal by a voice vote. The proposal will now go before the other boards of the other two groups. The USWA board is likely to vote on it Sunday, Feb. 5 while the NAWG board will vote on it Tuesday, Feb. 7.

Biotech wheat statement revised

(SAN ANTONIO, Texas)—Biotech wheat was part of the discussion at the Wheat Export Trade Education Committee meeting here Feb. 3.

The Joint Biotechnology Committee of WETEC, U.S. Wheat Associates and the National Association of Wheat Growers presented a revised position statement to the WETEC board, which passed by voice vote.

One of these revisions includes language stating the wheat industry will support and assist in the development by all segments of the industry of an orderly marketing system to assure delivery of non-transgenic wheat within reasonable tolerances to markets that require it.

“Syngenta is in the research stage in the development of biotech wheat with a fusarium resistant trait,” said committee chairman Darrell Hanavan, executive director of Colorado Wheat. “We on the committee have worked with Syngenta on this revised clause of the position statement.

“Syngenta is not ready to begin the regulatory process yet. It’s very costly and time consuming. However, it is the only consumer-ready trait that will be available in the next ten years and we need to be ready for it.”

The WETEC board also approved a resolution stating its support of continued research and development of Syngenta’s fusarium tolerant transgenic trait in wheat and to work proactively with stakeholder in the food system for the benefit of customers and consumers worldwide, U.S. wheat producers and the whole U.S. wheat industry.

Meanwhile, WETEC’s board was told that U.S. farmers need to work to keep the food in food aid.

“A few years ago, the EU decided to change their way of distributing food aid from food to cash,” said Bonnie Fernandez, executive director of the California Wheat Commission and chair of the joint Food Aid Working Group. “When they made that choice, the value of their total contribution declined. Isn’t interesting that happened?”

Fernandez also told the group that the Bush administration wants to move the independent U.S. Agency for International Development into Department of State and to have of giving aid by either food or cash only in cases of emergency.

“Once again, it’s interesting that most of these countries are in Africa,” said Fernandez, who sought WETEC’s endorsement of a position statement opposing any attempt by the World Trade Organization or any other organization to require that food aid be given as cash only instead of allowing donor nations to provide direct food assistance,

“Let’s keep the food in food aid, because if we don’t we will always wonder where the cash goes,” Fernandez said. “We want government to know what the wheat industry believes in.”

Smaller HWWW crop estimated

The U.S. 2006 hard white winter wheat was estimated Feb. 2 at 781,963.4 metric tonnes (28.643 million bushels) on estimated planted acreage of 757,400 acres, according to the Hard White Wheat Committee of U.S. Wheat Associates.

That estimate is down from 975,000 metric tonnes for the 2005 crop. The decline is thought to be from continued dry weather in the primary HWWW growing area.

Estimates ranged from Kansas at 300,000 acres to Colorado at 143,000 acres. Other High Plains state totals included Nebraska at 15,000 acres; Oklahoma, at 24,000 acres; South Dakota, at 11,000 acres and Texas at 50,000 acres.

The committee has just been given committee status after several years as working group.

“I’m grateful the U.S. Wheat Board has now given us a committee status,” said Ron Stoddard, executive director of the Nebraska Wheat Board, who serves as committee chairman.

The USWA board had earlier appointed four other people to serve on the committee, which also includes Justin Gilpin, international marketing specialist for the Kansas Wheat Commission; Dan Maltby, director of southwest grain operations for General Mills, Kansas City, Mo.; Joe Anderson a Potlatch, Idaho, producer who serves on the Idaho Wheat Commission; and Laird Larson, a producer from Clark, S.D. who is a member of the South Dakota Wheat Commission.

The individuals were chosen to represent all areas where hard white wheat is produced, in order to give producers an equal voice.

Throughout the two-hour long meeting, the committee discussed adding more members to the committee. There were suggestions to add wheat breeders, exporters, millers, and country elevator operators. Also discussed was adding a member from the board of the National Association of Wheat Growers to assist in political strategy.

After a while, Stoddard said the committee needed to work its way into growth.

“I don’t want this committee to get so big it gets cumbersome,” Stoddard said.

Another part of the meeting centered on new variety releases, some that will be available next fall, with some in the pipeline that could be as much as 10 years away for growers to use.

Meanwhile, Maltby announced he was planning a “rolling thunder bus tour” for late March that would begin in eastern Colorado and pick up passengers on a trip to Kansas City to learn more from each other about HWWW.

“I want to bring producers, country elevators, and shippers together. We go to Kansas City and meet four millers , maybe two exporters. We may have someone from the railroad,” Maltby said. “It will be a hard white wheat lovefest. We are all in this thing together. We’re going to pull all the segments together and that will make them all feel better about what they are doing.”

USWA plans for the future

For the first time since October 2004, the Long Range Planning Committee of U.S. Wheat Associates held a meeting.

The committee had not met since then because it had been anticipated USWA would consolidate with the National Association of Wheat Growers and the Wheat Export Trade Education Committee.

Since consolidation was voted down in October, USWA directors decided to resume the planning process. “This entity, whatever name it is, still must go forward while networking and remaining in touch with the other organizations,” said Mattson, a Chester, Mont., producer and a member of the Montana Wheat and Barley Commission. “It has to move forward in order to be successful.”

Added USWA’s vice president for planning, Jim Frahm: “We’re trying to pick up where we were last year and to make sure that a sound plan is implemented.”

Part of the planning process is in developing what is called a Unified Export Strategy (UES) for the organization. The UES is presented to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agriculture Service in order to justify FAS funding of USWA overseas operations.

Mary Ponomarenko of the Grain and Feed Division of FAS attended the meeting. She told the committee that she had attended some conferences with USWA overseas staff and was pleased to see “a wonderful staff of people with such knowledge and experience and the dedication to your industry.”

Ponomarenko also credited USWA staff for the way they used the UES for its intended use.

“Usually the process is done for the government’s sake. You do it the way you want it for your industry,” Ponomarenko said. “You are to commended for that; for setting reasonable goals and expectations and seeing reasonable results. Doing it in a logical way. I only see good things from your group.”

She said some groups would often overpromise what they can do with FAS funds. USWA does not, which means their funding requests receive little criticism.

“You can’t go around exaggerating your claims about what you can with that money,” Ponomarenko said. “You promise to make an impact, make a difference in market development and you deliver.”

NAGC opens with U.S. Wheat meetings

The unofficial start of the North American Grain Congress is Thursday afternoon with committee meetings of U.S. Wheat Associates.

USWA is meeting at the historic Menger Hotel in San Antonio, a couple of blocks away from the NAGC venue. It was believed at the time the NAGC was originally planned for Host City USA, USWA, the Wheat Export Trade Education Committee and the National Association of Wheat Growers would be meeting as a single, consolidated organization.

Last fall’s vote not to consolidate pushed meeting planners to find more room at the convention hotel in order to accommodate USWA. There was no room for the group; hence the meeting at the Menger, down the block from the NAGC venue.

With a look toward a separate organization, USWA’s Long-Range Planning Committee will hold an afternoon-long meeting. Holding two-hour sessions each will be the Wheat Quality Committee and working groups on hard white wheat and on sanitary and phytosanitary issues related to trade. The USWA Budget Committee meets Friday morning, while the full USWA board begins its meeting Friday afternoon, the same time the National Sorghum Producers hold their Executive Committee meeting at the NAGC venue, the Hyatt Regency Hotel.