A larger apple crop; another record wine grape crop
Washington Ag Today August 16, 2010 The first estimate of Washington’s apple crop for 2010 has been made by the National Agricultural Statistics Service. Linda Simpson with NASS’s Washington Field Office says the crop is up from last year. Simpson: “Despite a cold, late spring apple growers are expected to pick about 5.5 billion pounds of apples, up five percent from last year and the same production as two years ago.” Washington apple production accounts for 60 percent of the U.S. total, which at 9.48 billion pounds is actually down four percent from 2009. While Washington’s all grape production estimate is down three percent from last year Simpson says for wine grapes the forecast is higher. Simpson: “Wine grape production continues to grow with production to be three percent above last year. If realized this will be Washington‘s largest wine grape crop on record, surpassing last year‘s record high crop.” Wheat yields in Washington are up from last year as is wheat acreage and the Statistics Service now says the state’s winter wheat crop at 115 million bushels is up 19 percent from 2009. The spring wheat crop is estimated at 31 million bushels, 18 percent more than last year. Washington barley production this year is forecast to be down 11 percent, alfalfa hay down 14 percent, but total hay production in the state up one percent. The plant and animal scientists at Washington State University are among the most productive and most impactful in the world. That according to recently released rankings by Thomson Reuters, a business and professional information gathering company. WSU was ranked 13th in the world and sixth in the U.S. based on the number of journal articles produced by faculty scientists that were cited by other scientists. I’m Bob Hoff on Northwest Aginfo Net.
