12/01/05 Grains Conference hearing from economist

12/01/05 Grains Conference hearing from economist

Farm and Ranch December 1, 2005 Grain growers from the region are gathered in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho for the Pacific Northwest Grains Conference. It is a joint meeting of the Idaho Grain Producers Association, the Oregon Wheat Growers League and the Washington Association of Wheat Growers. One of the speakers conference goers are hearing from today is Barry Flinchbaugh, retired Kansas State University agricultural economist. He's an expert on Farm Bills and at the recent American Bankers Association meeting he addressed the question of whether the existing Farm Bill should be extended or a new one written for 2007. Flinchbaugh: "It depends clearly upon what comes out of WTO. We need to know where WTO is headed before we write a Farm Bill. Afterall 27% of everything we produce is exported. If we can get some progress out of the Hong Kong meeting and next year we make considerable progress it is not in our best interest to extend it. Let's do it no sale. If Hong Kong blows up. The Doha Round fails. We don't get an answer in 06 then I don't think we have any choice but to extend it. So it is too soon to argue whether or not to extend it. We don't know enough yet." In addition to hearing from Flinchbaugh, the conference at the Coeur d'Alene Resort features seven different educational workshops. Tomorrow there will be reports from U.S. Wheat Associates, the National Association of Wheat Growers, the National Barley Growers Association and the U.S. Grains Council. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
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