State Drought Estimates

We know that this last year was a bad one as far as drought's go but what kind of effect did it have on the agriculture in the state. Kelly McLain, Sr. Natural Resource Scientist with WSDA says they were contacted by the Dept. of Ecology to find out the answers.

McLAIN: We designed a study that would do that in two parts. It would pull all the data that was available this fall and put it out in a report at the end of December and then a future report that will be out at the end of 2016 that'll include all of the data that's been available from NASS and others.

The study showed that there wasn't anywhere in the state that wasn't affected by the drought.

McLAIN: It wasn't just the Yakima Basin although they were hard hit and it wasn't just wheat growers in the Palouse. It was also berry growers in Whatcom and Skagit counties and vegetable seed producers and dairies with corn production. The impacts were far reaching.

Bottom line is that the study estimates more that $335 million dollars in ag losses and that figure will go up as more data is added to the mix.

McLAIN: I think the main way we're hoping to see it used is to mobilize drought resources earlier and target them better. So we're hoping that it will be used by the state family and the legislature to identify ok, if we only have the pot is this big for the next drought, where do we target those resources first.

And that's Washington Ag Today. I'm Greg Martin, thanks for listening on the Ag Information Network of the West.