12/11/06 10th annual PNW Direct Seed Conf.

December 11, 2006 The 10th Annual Northwest Direct Seed Conference is being held January 10-12th at the Three Rivers Convention Center in Kennewick, Washington. The Pacific Northwest Direct Seed Association puts on the event and its president Mark Sheffels highlights some of the main speakers. Sheffels: "One of our keynote speakers will be Carlos Crovetto who is a Chilean farmer quite well known in direct seed circles who has written several books. We will also have Warren Mason who manages AgriNorthwest a very, very large irrigated farm that is doing a lot of direct seed work. And Bill Horan who will talk about U.S. energy policy and agriculture. Those will be our three keynote speakers. Sheffels says there is a focus on irrigated agriculture. Sheffels: "We put some priority on irrigation, a little bit newer to direct seeding than some of the conventional so a little emphasis on that, but check our website and take a look at what we have and I think no matter what a grower's interest I'm sure we have a breakout session to give them some valuable information." There are 18 production and technology sessions targeting annual rainfall areas so you can pick a rainfall to suit your needs. For all the details and registration information go to www.directseed.org I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.