Impacting Hops & Organic Seizure

Impacting Hops & Organic Seizure. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

Drought conditions the last two summers in the Northwest may impact how hops grow. USDA meteorologist, Brad Rippey, discusses how drought the last two years has impacted production and yields.

RIPPEY: In 2015, more than 32-thousand acres of hops harvested in Washington State and the national total is just over 43-thousand acres. When you have such a specialized growing area, you're prone to droughts or other weather extremes that can really throw off a crop and that has certainly been a player in the hops production and yield over the last couple of years. In 2014-15 hops production was hurt quite a bit by drought and heat in the northwestern production areas. At the same time, it's very interesting to note that acreage has increased but we've seen yields go down.

Saul Farms in Buhl,Idaho is under suspicion and officials want to seize vehicles, farming equipment, cash and other property after a routine inspection by the Idaho State Department of Agriculture last year turned up a case of organic-farming fraud. The inspection uncovered the fraud where the Sauls' repeatedly bought nonorganic seed and resold it as organic, which commands higher prices. No charges have been filed. Businesses in other states that bought what they thought was organic alfalfa seed from the operation are scrambling to find new suppliers.

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