11/29/06 Winter wheat should handle cold okay

Washington Ag November 29, 2006 Some areas of eastern Washington wheat country were forecast to drop below zero last night and thanks to snowfall that preceded the artic cold most of the winter wheat should come through okay. John Burns, Washington State University agronomist, says there wasn't an extreme, sudden drop in temperature and the wheat had a chance to harden off. So as long as the snow cover stays and doesn't blow away; Burns: "And as we know just an inch of snow will keep the surface of that soil at 32 degrees. So, what we are really trying to protect are those crowns that are an inch or two below the ground. You know the tissue above the ground, we can lose a little bit of it and not have any consequence." According to the last crop condition rating of the fall issued by the USDA this week Washington's winter wheat crop was 62 percent good to excellent, 32% fair and six percent very poor to poor. A year ago at this time only 57 percent of the crop was rated good to excellent. The Big Bend Resource Conservation and Development Council will be holding their annual meeting at the Circle T in Ritzville from noon till 2 p.m. December 14th. The speakers for this meeting are Carol Moser and Tim Fredrickson who will speak to the theme of Sustainable Rural Communities. The annual meeting will include election of officers for 2007, awards and a regular board meeting to discuss the needs and status of ongoing projects. I'm Bob Hoff.