Livestock Disaster Sign Up & Egg Shortage

Livestock Disaster Sign Up & Egg Shortage plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

Easter is a little more than a week away and if you are wanting to have "cage-free" or "organic" eggs on the menu...you'd better be grabbing what you can. Many stores have signs up warning of shortages. Why are they so hard to come by? New regulations in California and increased exports to Mexico are part of problem. You may also see an increase in the price of what few are available. But producers are doing what they can to keep the eggs rolling.

Livestock producers who have had losses from natural disasters over the last couple of years should be gathering up documentation now to get ready to apply for livestock disaster programs. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says it has been unfortunate that so many livestock producers were caught without help and were forced out of business.

VILSACK: Today, we're announcing officially that the livestock disaster programs will in fact have sign up beginning on April 15th as we had promised. And hopefully starting April 15th we rectify that situation and make sure that we don't lose any further producers as a result of not having disaster programs.

Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray.

Milk is the number one requested item at food banks, but milk is rarely donated and on average families who utilize food banks will only receive one gallon or less per person per year. That's where "The Great American Milk Drive" comes in. The brainchild of the National Dairy Council, Dairy Management Inc., MilkPEP and Feeding America "The Great American Milk Drive" launched in late March and will make it easier for Americans to buy milk for local food banks by allowing them to make monetary donations that are then turned into vouchers for food bank recipients to redeem at stores. Since its launch there have been nearly 24 thousand gallons of milk donated. Hunger impacts one in six people in America, and many of these are children. Making a donation is as easy as a click of your mouse - just go to milklife.com, or you can text MILK to 27722 and by donating as little as $5 you can help a family in your area who would otherwise not have regular access to protein rich milk. And be rest assured every single dollar collected through The Great American Milk Drive will go to purchase and deliver fresh nutritious milk to families in need.

Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.