Memorandum of Understanding & Lack of Snowpack

Memorandum of Understanding & Lack of Snowpack. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

On Friday, seven national organizations, members of the Beef Checkoff Enhancement Working Group, signed a revised Memorandum of Understanding regarding agreed-upon enhancements to the national Beef Checkoff Program. The Beef Checkoff Program is funded through a $1 per head assessment each time cattle are sold. Due to inflation, the $1.00 per head checkoff which was implemented in 1986 has deflated to $.47. The group will continue its work to develop a road map for simultaneously recommending and advocating for the outcomes highlighted in the revised MOU.

The lack of snowpack in the west is getting a lot of national press and while it's not the worst it's ever been, it is pretty close. Meteorologist Brad Rippey says at the moment the water situation looks pretty good.

RIPPEY: We have seen basically average precipitation going back to October 1st across the Pacific Northwest but so much of that has fallen in the form of rain that the reservoirs have already filled up for the year in fact in some cases where the rains have become heavy at times, water managers have had to let some of that water go to the ocean prematurely. So we see reservoirs in pretty good shape I will say that in parts of Oregon, especially southern and eastern Oregon that's not necessarily true, the kind of fall more in line with the California drought situation. But as you move northward and westward through the northwest, the reservoir situation is good but the snowpack situation is dire.

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