PULLMAN, Wash. (AP) — Optimism about future Pacific Northwest wheat production was expressed here Wednesday by a high-ranking Department of Agriculture official.
Dr. Carroll Brunthaver, associate administrator of the USDA’s farm program, said wheat production should pickup as reserves dwindle. He spoke during the second day of a wheat marketing workshop at Washington State University.
The new federal farm bill, Brunthaver said, puts more emphasis on marketing of wheat and less on acreage control. He also said wheat producers in the Pacific Northwest now can substitute wheat for feed grain crops without diverting feed grain acreage and losing federal payments.
Another speaker, Robert Sheffels, past president of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers, said wheat growers should consider joining with the American Farm Bureau in seeking a National Labor Relations Act specifically for agriculture.
Sheffels, of Govan, Wash., suggested the act prohibit strikes during wheat harvest, provide a total, annual hours-to-work provision to protect farmers from excessive overtime, and a right-to-work provision for laborers.
This story was published in the Jan. 21, 1971, edition of the Lewiston Tribune.
