Friday, July 15, 2022
Volume 95, Number 28
CapitalPress.com
$2.50
Capital Press
EMPOWERING PRODUCERS OF FOOD & FIBER
SHAPING
A NEW
FARM
BILL
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Nicole Berg, president of the National
Association of Wheat Growers, on her
farm near Paterson, Wash.
NAWG president Nicole Berg wants to keep farm families in business
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
P
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Nicole Berg talks about a new farm bill and
crop insurance.
ATERSON, Wash. — Nicole
Berg is the best person to sit
next to during a wheat indus-
try meeting.
She’s quick with a laugh, a
joke or good-natured teasing.
It has a calming eff ect on the rest of the
room.
Perhaps Berg is so at ease because she
knows what she’s talking about during
the serious moments: She can easily shift
gears and talk to decision makers about
what crop insurance or high input prices
mean to farmers.
A fourth-generation farmer in Paterson,
Wash., Berg farms with her father and two
brothers. They grow dryland and irrigated
wheat, bluegrass seed, fi eld corn, sweet
corn, sweet peas, green beans and alfalfa.
Berg, 51, took over as president of the
National Association of Wheat Growers in
March. She will serve a one-year term.
“Nicole is a transformational and fear-
less leader for our organization and the
industry,” said Chandler Goule, NAWG’s
CEO. “She challenges the indus-
try to explore innovative and creative
approaches to diff erent issues and uses her
diverse farming and crop insurance back-
ground to bring a unique perspective to
the industry and policy conversations.”
NAWG recently identifi ed its priorities
for the next farm bill. Among them are
NICOLE BERG
Age: 51
Occupation: Farmer; presi-
dent, National Association of
Wheat Growers
Hometown: Paterson, Wash.
Education: Bachelor of sci-
ence degree in agricultural
communications, Washing-
ton State University
Family: Farms with her
father and two brothers
Hobbies: Travel, cooking
Website:
https://wheatworld.org/
See Berg, Page 11
Reclamation sues over irrigation water
diversions by Klamath Drainage District
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. —
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
is suing an irrigation district in
the Klamath Project for allegedly
making illegal water diversions in
the midst of a multi-year drought
that has left the basin exception-
ally dry.
Earlier this year, Reclamation
announced it would provide a lim-
ited water allocation for the Proj-
ect, which serves roughly 200,000
acres of farmland in Southern Ore-
gon and Northern California. That
included zero water for districts
with junior rights.
However, Reclamation argues the
Klamath Drainage District in Klam-
ath Falls, Ore. is taking water despite
its status as a junior contractor.
George Plaven/Capital Press
Upper Klamath Lake
A complaint was fi led July 5
in U.S. District Court in Medford,
Ore., seeking an injunction against
KDD to halt the “unauthorized
diversions.”
“KDD is bound by contract to
respect Reclamation’s allocation
determinations,” the lawsuit states.
“Reclamation has clearly commu-
nicated to KDD that (the district)
is not currently authorized to make
any diversions during the 2022
irrigation season, but KDD has
refused to cease its diversions.”
Reclamation claims it fi rst
learned of KDD’s diversions on
or around May 1. The agency had
previously issued its 2022 opera-
tions plan for the Klamath Project
in April, allocating 50,000 acre-
feet of water for irrigators — just
15% of normal demand.
Project operations must also
account for several species of
endangered fi sh, providing water
for suckers in Upper Klamath
Lake and coho salmon in the lower
Klamath River.
Three consecutive years of
drought has made it increasingly
diffi cult, if not impossible, to meet
all Project objectives, Reclama-
tion acknowledged. According to
hydrologic records, 2021 was the
region’s driest year in terms of
infl ows to Upper Klamath Lake.
The Klamath Tribes already
sued the federal government in
May, claiming that any water
diversions for the Project this year
will further threaten the survival
of endangered suckers, known as
C’waam and Koptu.
In turn, Reclamation claims that
KDD’s diversions interfere with
the agency’s obligations under
the Endangered Species Act and
decrease the amount of water that
will be available later this summer
for senior rights holders.
See Water, Page 11
Pacifi c NW wheat harvest delayed
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
The cold, wet spring has
delayed the Pacifi c North-
west wheat harvest, indus-
try leaders say.
“We are 10 days to three
weeks behind, depending
on the farmer,” said Casey
Chumrau, executive direc-
tor of the Idaho Wheat
Commission. “Normally,
we would have already
started at this time.”
The delay increases the
risk of rain, hail or thunder-
storms, but Chumrau said
wheat quality and produc-
tion can be just as good as
a normal season.
USDA’s Natural Agri-
cultural Statistics Service
Casey
Chumrau
Amanda
Hoey
rates 64% of the Idaho win-
ter wheat crop, 70% of the
Washington winter wheat
crop and 75% of the Ore-
gon winter wheat crop
as good to excellent, and
66% of the Oregon spring
wheat crop, 68% of the
Idaho spring wheat crop
and 98% of the Washington
spring wheat crop as good
to excellent.
A few farmers have
started,
but overall
harvest is
two weeks
delayed in
Oregon, said
Amanda
Glen
Hoey, Ore-
Squires
gon Wheat
CEO.
“The impact is mostly
benefi cial, given the fact
that we did have that addi-
tional precipitation in that
key time frame,” Hoey
said. “We’ll expect to see
that bump in yield, espe-
cially over what we saw in
2021.”
The region’s wheat har-
vest was reduced about
32% last year due to
drought.
Harvest start in Wash-
ington is delayed about
a week and a half or so,
said Glen Squires, CEO
of the Washington Grain
Commission.
“Washington is in much
better shape than last year
for sure,” Squires said.
“Topsoil is now about
73% adequate to surplus,
mostly adequate, and sub-
soil moisture is 82% ade-
quate to surplus, mostly
adequate.”
The increased moisture
means some weed and dis-
ease pressure, the leaders
say, citing stripe rust and
some freeze damage.
“I think a lot of farmers
still feel they would like a
little bit more” moisture,
Chumrau said. “The crops
are looking good, so we
can’t complain too much.”
Wheat prices have
declined from a $12
per bushel peak in mid-
May. Soft white wheat
ranged from $9.30 per
bushel to $9.75 per
bushel on the Portland
market.
“Nine dollars looks a lot
lower after the more recent
highs, but historically, we
need to be very happy with
$9 wheat as something that
helps us cover the cost of
production, even though
we have had elevated input
costs,” Chumrau said.
Prices are up from $8.07
per bushel at the same time
last year, Squires noted.