A smaller Washington Cattle Herd; Spokane Ag Show
Washington Ag Today February 1, 2010 There were one-million 40-thousand head of cattle and calves in Washington this January 1st. The Agricultural Statistics Service says that inventory is down four percent from January of 2009. The biggest drop was in the state’s beef cow herd which fell over the past year from 271-thousand head to 227-thousand, a decline of 16 percent. That was the second largest percentage decrease in the nation. The number of beef replacement heifers was down about two percent. Washington’s dairy cow numbers were only down about one-thousand head from January of 2009. The number of dairy replacement heifers was up about 11 percent. Washington’s calf crop in 2009 was 410-thousand head, down five percent for the previous year. Spokane Ag Expo and the Pacific Northwest Farm Forum get underway tomorrow in Spokane. O’Leary: “Besides a full building of exhibits we have Farm Forum, the main sessions going on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We are just looking to have a great show this year.” Show manager Myrna O’Leary who says there are things of interest for both the large and small scale farmer at the event. The Farm Forum kicks off tomorrow morning with the weatherman, Art Douglas and John Oades of U.S. Wheat Associates That session is in the DoubleTree Inn and all the exhibit are in the adjacent Convention Center. The ten dollar cost of admission gets you into everything. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network. ? ? ? ? ?
