A story of partnership, commitment, and service for more than 40 years.

A Strong Legacy

A Legacy of Forward-Thinkers

Wheat farmers in post-World War II America were producing more wheat than ever before. But, they found that meeting demand at home left too much of their bountiful harvests without buyers. So, to improve marketing opportunities for their wheat, they organized by state and reached out to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for help. These visionary state wheat leaders ultimately formed two regional organizations to coordinate export market development: Great Plains Wheat Market Development Association and Western Wheat Associates.

The Great Plains Wheat Market Development Association, chartered in 1958, was tasked with promoting wheat exports from the Plains states, while Western Wheat Associates, formed in April 1959, aimed to expand international markets for wheat from the Pacific Northwest.

"In such a period of instability, the fact that wheat farmers find themselves disposed to help themselves, direct themselves, according to the fine program of the national and state wheat groups, to build and maintain stability in agriculture, is an encouraging note." —Joe Berkely, publisher, High Plains Journal, Feb. 5, 1951

By the 1970s, the industry had grown tremendously and demand for specific classes of U.S. wheat was growing beyond the rather narrow geographic distinctions of the two organizations. USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service suggested one organization would help reduce overlap and assure that overseas buyers were prepared to import the wheat classes they most needed. So, in 1980, Great Plains Wheat Market Development Association and Western Wheat Associates merged to become one organization focused on building overseas demand for wheat: U.S. Wheat Associates.

Today, we remain fixed on the mission of the farmers who created an enduring legacy of commitment and partnership to provide the highest quality wheat for almost every customer need, backed by transparent pricing, trusted third-party certification and unmatched service before and after the sale.

U.S. wheat farm families grow six distinct classes of wheat across the diverse landscape of the United States. Those farmers take great care in producing the highest quality wheat in the most sustainable ways possible to honor their family legacies and to ensure greater value for their customers at home and abroad.

U.S. Farmers

Peters Farms

Peters Farms is a family-owned operation that started when Michael Peters’ great-great-grandfather homesteaded a piece of land in central Oklahoma in the 1880s. Today, Michael farms with his father Fred Peters and his son Tyler. They grow HRW wheat and graze beef cattle on some of that crop over the late fall and winter.

Hard Red Winter

Versatile, with excellent milling and baking characteristics for wheat foods like hearth bread, hard rolls, croissants and flatbreads. HRW is also an ideal wheat choice for some types of Asian noodles, general purpose flour and as an improver for blending.

Peters Farms • Oklahoma

Volk Farm

Philip and Lisa Volk and their five children grow HRS on their family farm in North Dakota that was founded in 1942. Responsibilities are shared among them all, even their youngest who rides along with Mom or Dad during wheat harvest.

Hard Red Spring

The aristocrat of wheat when it comes to “designer” wheat foods like hearth bread, rolls, croissants, bagels and pizza crust. HRS is also a valued improver in flour blends.

Volk Farm • North Dakota

Goyings Farm

“Working hard and going strong” is the theme of wheat harvest at Doug Goyings’ family farm in Ohio. They work from morning to night, harvesting the wheat, baling the straw and planting soybeans in the same fields they had just harvested. Challenging work and long days are made slightly easier when spent doing something that you love surrounded by the people that you love.

Soft Red Winter

SRW is a profitable choice for producing a wide range of confectionery products like cookies, crackers and cakes, and for blending for baguettes and other bread products.

Goyings Farm • Ohio

Bailey Farm

After starting his career at a major farm lending institution, Gary Bailey left to join his family's farm full-time in 1989, working alongside his parents and two brothers. He wanted to be a part of the legacy that his parents started and to give his children the same kind of upbringing that he had. Today, Gary works the farm’s 4,500 acres alongside his brother Mark and his young niece Erin, the next generation.

White Club

White club wheat is a subclass of soft white (SW) and is a low moisture wheat with excellent milling results, and is ideal for exquisite cakes, pastries, and other confectionery products. Club wheat has very weak gluten and is most often exported in Western White, a blend of SW and up to 20 percent club wheat.

Bailey Farm • Washington

Padget Ranches

Padget Ranches sits on the arid Columbia Plateau above the John Day River in Oregon, where Darren Padget’s family has farmed since 1910. Today, Darren farms with his wife Brenda and their son Logan, as well as his dad Dale, a retired wheat farmer who participated in his 67th wheat harvest in 2019. Their dryland wheat and summer fallow rotation currently produces registered and certified seed on 3,400 acres annually.

Soft White

Low moisture wheat with excellent milling results, SW provides a whiter and brighter product for Asian-style noodles and is ideal for exquisite cakes, pastries and other confectionery products.

Padget Ranches • Oregon

Millershaski Farm

In what is now the kitchen of the family farmhouse, Earl Kleeman was born in 1930, the same year his parents bought their farm north of Lakin, Kan. His son-in-law Gary Millershaski started farming with him in 1992 and grandsons Jeremy and Kyler joined the operation three years ago. Sadly, Earl passed away in 2019, but not before he proudly helped harvest what was one of the family’s best wheat crops in years. We honor the legacy of commitment and partnership that Earl and countless other farmers of his generation created to provide the highest quality wheat for almost every customer need.

Hard White

HW receives enthusiastic reviews when used for Asian noodles, whole wheat or high extraction applications, pan bread or flatbreads.

Millershaski Farm • Kansas

Stoner Farms

Gordon Stoner and his wife Bonnie are the fourth generation on the family farm near Outlook, Mont., which celebrated its centennial in 2009. Gordon grows durum and pulse crops on the glacial plains just south of the Canadian border using a no-tillage system that Gordon says has improved his soils, increased yields and helped make the farm far more sustainable. Gordon is a past President of the Montana Grain Growers Association and the National Association of Wheat Growers and currently serves on USDA’s Agricultural Policy Advisory Committee.

Durum

The hardiest wheat, durum has a rich amber color and high gluten content. Hard amber durum (HAD) sets the “gold standard” for premium pasta products, couscous and some Mediterranean bread.

Stoner Farms • Montana

Motter Farm

Roy Motter farms 2,500 acres in the Imperial Valley of California, and while that may be small compared to other U.S. wheat farms, his operation supports three families. Motter has been farming with his two brothers-in-law since the 1970s, and he oversees their wheat production. They grow Desert Durum® wheat, as well as lettuce, Napa cabbage, sweet onions and sugar beets. They also have previously grown sugar cane, alfalfa seed and hay, Sudan grass, melons, tomatoes, Brussel sprouts, artichokes, hard red winter wheat and onion seed.

Desert Durum®

Desert Durum® is a registered certification mark used only to designate durum grown under irrigation in the desert valleys and lowlands of Arizona and California. Hardest of all wheat, durum has a rich amber color and high gluten content. Hard amber durum (HAD) sets the “gold standard” for premium pasta products, couscous and some Mediterranean bread.

Motter Farm • California

Wheat producers contribute a portion of their wheat sales (based on production volume or value) to state wheat commissions, a contract that is called a checkoff, which is managed within the laws of each state.

Currently, 17 state wheat commissions are members of U.S. Wheat Associates and contribute a portion of their checkoff funds to help connect farmers to wheat buyers, flour millers and wheat food processors around the world. In turn, these contributions qualify U.S. Wheat Associates to apply each year for export market development funds from programs managed by USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service.

State Wheat Commissions

Arizona Grain Research & Promotion Council Phoenix, Arizona

California Wheat Commission Woodland, California

Colorado Wheat Administrative Committee Fort Collins, Colorado

Idaho Wheat Commission Boise, Idaho

Kansas Wheat Commission Manhattan, Kansas

Maryland Grain Producers Utilization Board Queenstown, Maryland

Minnesota Wheat Research & Promotion Council Red Lake Falls, Minnesota

Montana Wheat & Barley Committee Great Falls, Montana

Nebraska Wheat Board Lincoln, Nebraska

North Dakota Wheat Commission Mandan, North Dakota

Ohio Small Grains Marketing Program Delaware, Ohio

Oklahoma Wheat Commission Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Oregon Wheat Commission Portland, Oregon

South Dakota Wheat Commission Pierre, South Dakota

Texas Wheat Producers Board Amarillo, Texas

Washington Grain Commission Spokane, Washington

Wyoming Wheat Marketing Commission Cheyenne, Wyoming

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Service Washington, D.C.

Today, the original vision our founding members established is fulfilled by the dependable overseas offices that serve our customers all over the world by resolving issues and simplifying the process of importing and utilizing U.S. wheat.

Overseas Offices

Arlington

Beijing

Cape Town

Casablanca

Hong Kong

Lagos

Manila

Mexico City

Portland

Rotterdam

Santiago

Seoul

Singapore

Taipei

Tokyo

The highest quality food demands the highest quality wheat.

For more than 40 years, dependable people have made the difference.

Researchers & Breeders

Farmers & State Wheat Commissions

Grain Handlers

Exporters, Inspectors, & Overseas Offices

Despite the different roles or distances between us, all of the people in our story share an unspoken connection, not only through U.S. wheat but through our shared values of growth, hard work and family.

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Connection

RON MAAS

Retired Nebraska wheat farmer and Nebraska Wheat Board staff

"In addition to farming with my son in Nebraska, I spent 28 years representing the U.S. wheat industry in Japan and the Philippines. It would require a sizeable book to share all the memories and advances in trade servicing that I witnessed on the staff of Western Wheat Associates. For example, I was present at a post-event social gathering when Japanese officials agreed to open their market to hard red winter wheat in addition to Western White and Dark Northern Spring, demonstrating the importance of developing close relationships that USW representatives continue to do today."