Mike Carstensen
District 1 Wheat (Spokane, Lincoln, Ferry, Stevens, Pend Oreille)
Mike Carstensen is a Lincoln County wheat grower representing five counties in the northeast corner of the state.
Mike grew up in Almira and received his bachelor’s degree in business management and accounting from Whitworth University, and an MBA with an emphasis in economics from the University of Phoenix. He worked for the company now called AgWest Farm Credit before following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, returning to the family farm near Almira full-time in 1985. Mike and his wife, Lorie, farm with their son Justin. Their dryland farm receives about 12 inches of precipitation annually and is in a three-year rotation raising soft white wheat, club wheat, and feed grains, using a high-level mulch till and direct seed.
Mike serves on the boards of HighLine Grain Growers, Inc., a cooperative grain handler; Tri-Cities Grain, a barge loading river terminal; and the Lincoln County Conservation District. Mike also serves on the U.S. Wheat Associates board of directors and the National Wheat Improvement Committee. He served as WGC chairman from 2021-22.
His wife, Lorie, worked for the National Park Service at Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area until her retirement. The couple have three sons. The two oldest, Blinn and Jake, work off the farm.