12/01/06 Wheat growers to gather in Portland

Washington Ag December 1, 2006 Members of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers will join with their counterparts from Oregon and Idaho for the Pacific Northwest Grains Conference next Wednesday through Friday in Portland, Oregon. Gretchen Borck, director of issues for the Washington Association of Wheat Growers says the event is being held at the Doubletree Lloyd Center and there is something for everyone. Borck: "We have a trade show. We have networking. It is downtown in Portland right across from Lloyd Center for the ladies who are coming with their husbands. But, the issues that we have are very timely. We are going to have farm bill discussions daily. We are going to be talking about WTO. We are going to be talking about fuel and the fleet, risk management. Everything that leads up to the farm bill. We also have some things with hands on. We have some computer sessions for farm management so the farmers can take away from the convention some hands on information and go home and apply it right away hopefully to their computer. But I really think that biotech, trade, energy and of course the 2007 Farm Bill are going to be the hot issues." I'm Bob Hoff.