05/30/08 Providing a Break & Mosquito Repellant

Providing a Break & Mosquito Repellant. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. Livestock producers need a break on feed costs and a newly announced program may provide a little bit of that help. Ag Secretary Ed Schafer. SCHAFER: We are asking farmers and ranchers to be involved in this program to provide a better and more stocks of hay and forage out there. We talked to livestock producers, they're concerned. We think this is a way we can provide some feed and forage for the livestock industry through the use of CRP acreage. The new program says that land owners with CRP contracts can cut hay once or graze animals on land but only after the nesting season is finished. Contact your local FSA office for more details. Most mosquito repellant have depended on DEET for over 50 years as the primary ingredient but now a computer model is looking at other compounds that may provide relief up to 3 times longer. The USDA's Agriculture Research Service and the University of Florida have been using the new computer model on some 23 different compounds and have found 7 to be highly effective. But don't look for the products any time soon as testing is still going on and it may take several years before you can purchase any of these at the store. Now here's today's Washington Grange Report. (GRANGE) That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.