Shutdown Looms, Small Grains Field Day & Alfalfa Outlook

Shutdown Looms, Small Grains Field Day & Alfalfa Outlook

I’m Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

State government employees are bracing for a shutdown if legislators cannot reach an agreement on a state budget by June 30th. While the WSDA has announced that most agriculture inspection and certification services will not be affected, a government shutdown would impact pesticide waste disposal and plant protection, marketing and promotion, and would leave just two employees available to respond to any food-borne illness outbreak, waterway contamination events, and animal disease events.

This Thursday the WSU Mount Vernon Northwestern Washington Research and Extension Center will be hosting its annual Small Grains Field Day. WSU Professor and Wheat Breeder Stephen Jones will be leading the small grains tour along with several other researchers who will direct farmers, bakers, millers, brewers, and distillers through research plots where they can view wheat, oats, barley and other crops being bred specifically for western Washington growing conditions. For more information and directions to the event, which is free and open to the public, visit mountvernon.wsu.edu.

Rod Christensen, who farms around the Tri-Cities, reports on how alfalfa crops are doing in the area.

CHRISTENSEN: There was a fair amount of damage particularly up in the Basin north of Pasco on first cutting because of all the rain. The Yakima Valley, the other big producing area, had rains also but they tend to green chop a lot more of their hay so the rain doesn’t have as much of a detrimental affect on them as it does up in the basin where they have to let it dry and bale it. Overall the market for alfalfa has been good, it’s remained strong. The damage on first cutting helped keep the market strong - overall, season long, with good prices, things look pretty good.

I’m Lacy Gray and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Ag Information Network.