06/23/08 Northwest wheat grower visits Black Sea region

Farm and Ranch June 23, 2008 Countries who export through the Black Sea region of the former Soviet Union have become competitors to U.S. and Pacific Northwest wheat growers in the world export market. Randy Uhrich, Washington Association of Wheat Growers President was one of a handful of U.S. wheat industry people who recently visited the Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan. Uhrich says the wheat growing capability of the Ukraine in particular is huge. Uhrich: "I mean it is some of the best soil probably in the world there. Since the Soviet era there has been a lot of inefficiency there, but there is a lot of money going into that area right now, port facilities, transportation, new equipment, new technologies and fertilizer. We are going to be seeing a lot more out of that area." Uhrich says production costs in the Ukraine are similar to here but the yields are so much higher that the cost per bushel is lower. Uhrich: "They are expecting about a 100 bushel average in a lot of the areas we saw. They said last year was a crop failure at 60. And every once in a while they will get 150 bushel to the acre." That's just the modern farms but Uhrich says about 80 percent of the farms in the Ukraine have yet to adopt modern practices and when they do, we'll see a big jump in production. He says where the U.S. has the advantage is in quality and our research system and we need to maintain those to be competitive. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.