From the beginning of Coastal Warehouse in 1958, the business focus has been on agricultural infrastructure and betterment of local agricultural communities by providing storage and marketing opportunities for grain producers in Wharton and the adjacent counties. After 62 years of service to those farmers in Wharton and surrounding counties, Coastal Warehouse is proud to announce a change of ownership to Dr. J. Thomas Wynn of Egypt, Texas, effective April 12, 2021.

After over 35 years of ownership, increasing the storage capacity to over 5,400,000 bushels and developing the successful Premium Deer Corn brand, the managing partners of Coastal Warehouse, Ltd. Ronnie Wittig, William Loocke and Laurance Armour III. have elected to retire. They are very pleased that Dr. Wynn will carry on the business with a similar philosophy and dedication to serving farmers in the Upper Texas Coastal area. Dr. Wynn will keep on all current employees and will add some new, key employees to enhance the success of the business. He also looks forward to helping his customers remain successful in making informed and beneficial marketing decisions.

In embarking on this venture, Dr. Wynn is committed to maintaining and enhancing the strong reputation for service and support for agriculture that has been developed over the years. Already a partner in East Bernard Rice Marketing, Thomas will further hone and broaden the services that Coastal Warehouse can provide to farmers.

Wynn, an Aggie to the core earning his undergraduate degrees at A&M and completing his Ph. D. in International Agriculture brings a wealth of experience to his new role as the owner of Coastal Warehouse. While with the U.S. Rice Producers based out of Houston, he traveled extensively in Latin, Central, and South America and Mexico. His workplace travels have included Thailand, Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, Switzerland, and most recently the country of Georgia in the former Soviet Union. During his tenure in the industry, he spent a great deal of time in Washington DC working with Congress and USDA on behalf of farmers and farm policy.

At the graduate level, he studied risk management techniques with clear insights being developed in futures and basis contracts, which he has mastered and employed to the satisfaction of his agricultural customers. He brings this experience into application at Coastal for its longstanding agricultural clientele.

Married with three daughters, he and his wife Mary will continue to live in their 100-year-old home enjoying the benefits of a life in the country. In addition to his responsibilities as the new owner of Coastal Warehouse, he will continue as the managing partner of M&W Farm and Ranch in Egypt, Texas.

In mid-April the Texas Department of Agriculture granted registration to Adama for Highcard™ herbicide, a novel safened herbicide used as part of the RiceTec Max-Ace™ Rice Cropping Solution.

The US Rice Producers Association played a key role in the support of this registration and is glad to hear this product will be available for growers this season. The Max-Ace Rice Cropping Solution gives rice growers an excellent tool for weed control, high-yield, a rice rotation alternative to the FullPage™ Rice Cropping Solution, and conventional offerings from RiceTec.

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Missouri rice farmer and USRPA board member, Chris Berry is in the midst of planting RiceTec's FullPage 7321 in the Bootheel using a 60' wide planter with section command. Berry plants both on a 0-grade flat field and a row rice field.

The House and Senate are in recess this week but a ruling by the Senate Parliamentarian on the use of another reconciliation measure is good news for President Biden’s infrastructure proposal and the ability of Senate Democrats to pass the proposal.  A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced that the parliamentarian “has advised that a revised budget resolution may contain budget reconciliation instructions.”  The ruling would allow Democrats to use the reconciliation process to move another bill with only majority support (51 votes).  Although there are ongoing discussions surrounding the President’s infrastructure proposal, there is much skepticism on whether a bi-partisan proposal can be achieved.  Although the reconciliation process is more constraining regarding matters that can be included a bill, the Parliamentarian’s ruling opens an additional pathway to passing an infrastructure proposal without support from Senate Republicans.

SNAP CONNECTION

USDA released a report this week which analyzes how the coronavirus, and the resulting U.S. economic contraction, has led to increased food assistance to U.S. households. Overall, an average of $8.4 billion in combined SNAP and P-EBT benefits were redeemed per month during the 6-month period of April through September 2020—an increase of 86.4 percent compared to the same period in 2019. The value of benefits redeemed online also grew quickly, from $2.9 million in February 2020 to $196.3 million in September 2020. By September, online redemptions accounted for 2.4 percent of the total value.