Know Your Farm Bill Workshop & Legislative Update

I'm Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

AMMO, the Agricultural Marketing & Management Organization, has been offering Farm Management Training Workshops to help Washington producers increase profitability by making better farm management decisions. On February 24 and 25 AMMO will be offering a "Know Your Farm Bill" workshop conducted by Dr. Art Barnaby, an agricultural economics professor at Kansas State University. Barnaby will be discussing the topics of market risk, government commodity programs, crop insurance and public policy as they relate to the 2014 Farm Bill. Lori Williams, Outreach Coordinator with the Washington Association of Wheat Growers, explains the importance of offering such workshops.

WILLIAMS: It's important to provide grower education to WAGG members. AMMO started in 2009 and it's just been a great asset to our growers to continue their education with important topics such as succession and business management.

Pre-registration for the workshops is required. For workshop dates, times and locations visit AMMO's website at lcammo.org.

Several ag related bills have been reviewed in committee recently. Two of those were SB 5584 and SB 5347. SB 5584 would require the Department of Ecology to do site-based, source-specific water quality testing prior to making "substantial potential to pollute" determinations. SB 5347 directs the state's natural resources agencies to work collaboratively with a stakeholder group to identify and implement two demonstration projects that reduce flooding and better protect ag lands from erosion.

That's Washington Ag Today.

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