09/21/06 Loveland elected leader of NASDA

Washington Ag September 21, 2006 Congress will be hearing the perspective of the 50 state departments of agriculture as it debates national farm policy for the next year under the leadership of a director from "the other Washington." Valoria Loveland, director of the Washington State Department of Agriculture, assumed the presidency this week of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture during the organization's annual meeting in Virginia. Loveland will continue to bring a western perspective to national agriculture issues with insights into water policy, grazing on public lands, grain crops, and specialty crops such as apples, potatoes and cherries. USDA's latest forecast for milk production in 2006 is somewhat higher than previously estimated but the outlook for prices next year is stronger. Department Outlook Board Chairman Gerry Bange, says the hot weather this summer did not impact milk production as much as had been thought, but: Bange: "The 183.2 will actually be only a seven-tenths percent increase over the 2006 year, which of course is giving us a stronger price outlook for the 2007 year. We expect the all-milk price to be around $13.40 in 2007. That would be up about 5% from the $12.75 that we expect to record in 2006." USDA's Gerry Bange. I'm Bob Hoff.