12/08/06 WSU leads national feed program

Washington Ag December 8, 2006 Washington State University Extension is leading a nationwide program to help livestock and poultry operators and others develop ways to meet stricter environmental regulations for managing nutrients and to protect water quality by managing how and what livestock eat. Joe Harrison, an Extension specialist at the WSU Puyallup Research and Extension Center, is project director for the National Feed management Education Project, which is funded with a two-year $425,000 grant from the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service. Harrison: "We are trying basically to develop the infrastructure for NRCS to implement their feed management practice standard. Within NRCS they have very few staff members that have much knowledge of feeding management, how to feed animals. So, we are fortunate to get this national grant to develop that practice standard for them." Technical service providers and consulting animal nutritionists will be educated to help producers adopt feed management practices that keep farms from accumulating excess nutrients, such as phosphorous, and losing those nutrients to the environment. Harrison says the ideal situation would be that everything a farmer imports onto his farm in the way of feed, fertilizer and other inputs balances with what he exports. I'm Bob Hoff.