02/04/08 Spokane ag show starts tomorrow

Washington Ag February 4, 2008 The largest farm machinery show in the Inland Northwest kicks of tomorrow. It is the Spokane Ag Expo held at the Spokane Convention Center. The event which runs through Thursday, also includes the Pacific Northwest Farm Forum with speakers and seminars. Publicist Jack Reber says the scope of the event was expanded this year to include exhibits and seminars of interest to small acreage and part-time producers. Reber: "Some of these owners have other jobs and they own 20, 30 or 40 acres and they don't know what to do with it. So we have seminars that cover fencing, types of crops they can use. Maybe hay. Whether to lease it out and so on and so forth." Tuesday morning at nine a.m. at the DoubleTree Hotel the Farm Forum will once again feature Dr. Art Douglas with his long range weather outlook for the growing season. Also speaking is Dr. David Kohl who will discuss "Mega Trends, A Macroeconomic Agricultural Outlook for 2008." There will be a farm bill update Wednesday and Thursday a panel on food security. Ten dollars gets you into all events with free parking at the Spokane Arena. More information is available at www.agshow.org I'm Bob Hoff.