Yields of 11-bushel durum wheat were reported just south of Minot and Donnybrook, due to scab. Wheat planted beyond May 19 has very little scab and above-average yield potential. It is also optimally located to meet our needs. Lee says the plant purchase allows USWP to keep in step with its timeline, which calls for operations startup in the spring of 1999. Jerry Kress, an Idaho wheat producer, was installed as USW's new chairman.
Slow exports are one of the reasons wheat prices are so low.
The statement was adopted during USW's summer board of directors meeting in Omaha, Neb., August 2-4. The new USW policy statement says that U.S. wheat export prospects are seriously limited because several growing markets are closed to commercial U.S. wheat exports. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agriculture Service, this is the largest percent of global wheat trade from which the U.S. has been excluded since the then Soviet Union 1980 wheat embargo. These include long-standing prohibitions against selling wheat to Iran and Cuba. Iran was once one of the U.S.' largest wheat customers, while Cuba represents a very large opportunity just off our shore.