Fields of change

Washington has lost 1,800 of its wheat farms during the past decade as the effects of low grain prices, soaring fuel and fertilizer costs and the reluctance of the next generation to take up farming take hold.

While the decline may seem startling, the newly released 2007 Census of Agriculture also shows that despite the 40 percent drop in the number wheat farms, the total acreage was more stable, keeping with the trend of fewer but larger grain farms.

In 2007 there were 2,612 farms growing wheat across 2.1 million acres of Eastern Washington. That compares with 4,416 farms with 2.6 million acres of wheat in 1997.

Tom Mick, chief executive of the Washington Grain Alliance, called the numbers surprising.

“On the other hand, it’s what we’ve been hearing about for years,” Mick said. “We know that there have been a lot of farmers who have simply retired and put their land into CRP.” The Conservation Reserve Program is a federal government initiative that pays farmers to turn cropland into wildlife habitat.

It’s the same story in Idaho, where the number of wheat farms has dropped from 5,381 in 1997 to 2,850 in 2007.

Yet much of the rest of agriculture is going the opposite direction.

Washington has been gaining farms over the past five years, said state agriculture statistician Dave Knopf, as more and more people grow fruits and vegetables or raise small herds of livestock and chickens to supplement their day jobs.

“That’s one thing we can be proud of: Over 90 percent of farms in Washington are still family farms,” Knopf said.

The number of farms in Washington grew 9 percent in five years, to 39,284 by 2007.

The trend is similar across the United States. Small farms are blooming amid a growing desire by shoppers to know more about the origins of their food. The total number of American farms rose by about 76,000, to 2.2 million, in the 2002-07 period, with most reporting sales of less than $10,000.

One of the drivers is organic farming. Though still small by comparison, organic farm acreage continues to expand rapidly across the Northwest and the nation.

“It’s true that there’s a lot more smaller farms coming up, but remember, most of the acreage is still from the big farms,” said Lynne Carpenter-Boggs, coordinator of Washington State University’s BIOAg program, which promotes sustainable and organic farming practices.

There were 1,207 farms in Washington growing organic crops on 64,830 acres in 2007, according to the census.

Yet Washington wheat farmers have avoided going organic. Just 18 farmers grew organic wheat in 2007.

Louise Tuffin, of Arabesque Bakery in Spokane, sells at local farmers’ markets and said she has to buy her organic flour from Montana. She can’t find a supplier in Washington.

“Many of my customers buy my bread because it is made with organic ingredients,” Tuffin said. “If I could source it from Washington, I would.”

There is some organic wheat grown. Wade Troutman, whose family has farmed for a century in Douglas County, has been growing organic wheat and plans to boost his acreage to 300 acres. His grain is milled into flour and baked by a Seattle bread company.

Most of Troutman’s farm acreage is used to grow conventional wheat for export, but he enjoys the organic angle. Recently he ate, for the first time, a slice of bread baked with wheat flour produced on his land.

“Isn’t that really something?” he said.

But it hasn’t been easy. Hurdles include weeds, the relative safety of growing surefire wheat varieties backed by government programs, and changes in farming practices and soil conditions.

“To grow organic wheat takes a real commitment. You have to be an evangelist,” said Fred Fleming, who farms near Reardan.

Fleming doesn’t grow organic wheat, even though it fetches a premium price. But he does practice no-till farming, and, unlike most other farmers, some of his wheat crop is milled and marketed to local bakers as Shepherd’s Grain.

Farmers responding to a WSU survey cited inadequate weed controls, poor yields, the expense of green manure as a replacement for chemical fertilizers and lack of information on organic growing methods.

“The challenges are real and difficult to overcome,” Mick said.