The growing cost of growing wheat

Between rocketing costs for fuel and fertilizer, low prices for their crop, increased shipping surcharges and worries over whether this will be another dry winter, local wheat farmers say the future is looking pretty grim these days.

“I’m not sure anyone is aware of it, but energy prices are quickly making the continuation of wheat farming questionable unless something begins to change soon,’ said Walla Walla County farmer Nat Webb.

The bottom line, as Washington State University farm management specialist Herb Hinman said, is the rising prices are “cutting into (farmers’) profit margins, and a lot of these guys are operating on a pretty thin profit.’

Walla Walla Union-Bulletin