Interest Rate Holding & Cowboy Gathering

Interest Rate Holding & Cowboy Gathering plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. First off...I hope everyone remembered to set your clocks back. If not, you are probably running a bit ahead of yourself today, not that that is a bad thing. Now, a bit of news about the economy. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says the Fed is keeping interest rates where they are while buying 600-billion dollars of Treasuries through June. That announcement was good for the financial markets and should mean good news for agriculture. By buying Treasury debt, they remove some of it from the market and at the same time, put new money into the economy, hopefully boosting monetary velocity. Jim Bower of Bower Trading says the Fed's action wasn't totally unexpected. BOWER: The fed is essentially looking to support the mortgage market given that most of its purchases are going to be between the 5.5 and 10.0 years. Maybe the surprise is that they're looking at it from a kind of much, much shorter window than what they were talking about in the past. Well if you are into cowboy poetry like I am make plans to head to Idaho's Magic Valley for the 14th annual Diamondfield Jack Cowboy Poetry and Western Music Gathering. Over 30 performers from storytellers and musicians to arts and crafts will be featured at Rupert's Historic Wilson Theatre. If you've never been to a cowboy gathering just come as you are and be prepared to enjoy yourself. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. When you think about perfect "couplings" do you envision pretzels and beer, or Pitt and Jolie? How about poo and politicians? Seems a perfect match to me. It did to the makers of Cow Wow too. Cow Wow is an odorless liquid compost product made from dairy cow waste. In an effort to get the word out about their powerful "poo product" the owner of Cow Wow teamed up with an agency in Texas and decided to put this year's political elections to good use; in and of itself a refreshing change, and they created two giant clay heads made in the likenesses of the two gubernatorial candidates; one who just happened to have a very well known head of hair. The 250 pound traveling heads sported hair of ivy nourished with Cow Wow, showing up at festivals, rallies and farmer's markets. How this marketing campaign worked out for the politicians is anyone's guess, but it worked well for Cow Wow, grabbing consumers' attention and hearts. Fact is, selling cow poop can be a bit tough and attracting the consumer can take some thinking outside the box. Besides, who doesn't harbor a secret fondness for those funny clay creatures that grow plants? Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.