More cows, more milk in Washington; CIG grants

More cows, more milk in Washington; CIG grants

Washington Ag Today August 24, 2011 USDA’s recent milk production report for July showed output in Washington was up 6.6 percent last month over July of 2010. Nationally production was up just eight-tenths of one percent.

Feed costs are up but USDA Outlook Board Jerry Bange says dairy prices have been strong for producers and he is forecasting a 2011 all milk price of $20.40 a hundredweight, which would be a record high.

Bange: “A very strong price there, an incentive for milk producers to hang on as long as they can.”

Not just hang on but producers are adding cows to the herd. In Washington dairy cow numbers in July were 265-thousand head, 13-thousand more than July of last year. And while output per cow nationally may be down because of summer heat, in Washington production per cow was up 30 pounds.

Recipients of Conservation Innovation Grants for 2011 have been announced by the USDA. The grants address a broad array of existing and emerging natural resource issues. Among the recipients in Washington are Washington State University which is getting 410-thousand dollars for work on mitigating air emissions from dairy operations; the Colville Confederated Tribes get 160-thousand for a project to demonstrate the effectiveness of crop rotation using canola; and Northwest Natural Resources Group gets 185-thousand dollars for monitoring environmental benefits for small forest landowners.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on Northwest Aginfo Net.

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