Second Avian Flu Quarantine in Okanogan County, Excellence in Ag Award & Farm Forum

I'm Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

A second quarantine has been put in place in Okanogan County around a 6 mile area near Oroville where avian influenza was confirmed in a backyard flock. A third quarantine area remains in place in Clallum County. USDA and WSDA veterinarians will continue to conduct tests on birds in flocks in the surrounding areas. The WSDA maintains that there is no immediate public health concern due to the avian influenza virus detected.

Washington Senate Majority Leader Mark Schoesler has been honored with the "Excellence in Agriculture" award by the Spokane based AgriBusiness Council. Myrna O'Leary, Director of the Spokane Ag Expo, said that Senator Schoesler is the "farmers go to guy" - and a great advocate of agriculture. Schoesler was presented the award in recognition of his "significant and positive influence on the ag industry in the Inland Northwest" in 2014.

The Pacific Northwest Farm Forum has been happening in conjunction with the annual Spokane Ag Expo this week and Matt Becker, Chairman of the Farm Forum, says that this year's seminars have covered everything from pesticide certification, to Big Data, to land value trends. Also going on today is a meeting of 600 to 700 FFA students from around the region.

BECKER: It's a jobs fair; basically we'll have somebody talking to the kids about their future employment possibilities, and then we will have between 13 and 15 actual employers there that they can talk to about careers in agriculture.

For more information on the Farm Forum and Spokane Ag Expo visit www.agshow.org.

That's Washington Ag Today.

I'm Lacy Gray with the Ag Information Network of the West.