01/23/07 Wheat growers in D.C.

Farm and Ranch January 23, 2007 Members of wheat grower organizations in the Pacific Northwest are in Washington D.C. this week for a meeting of the National Association of Wheat Growers. Gretchen Borck, director of issues for the Washington Association of Wheat Growers, says producers will also be making visits to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and members of Congress. She says the top issue is the writing of the 2007 Farm Bill. Borck: "And there are some imbalances between wheat and other commodities that we want them to address during the writing of the new farm bill and looking at what can be done for wheat. Things like the Counter Cyclical payment that none of us have received. We want to make sure that that three-legged stool is available as a safety net and explain the reasoning behind that and why it didn't work in the 2002 bill." Borck says another issue to be addressed is research and congressional efforts to eliminate earmarks. Borck: "We are going to be looking at earmarks for the Continuing Resolution. And the concern we have with STEEP and the PM-10 programs, ARS research programs that are frozen in time right now because of the Continuing Resolution the way it is stated." Those regional research efforts are at risk of losing their funding. Washington State University says it could lose nearly five million dollars a year in research funding if earmarks are eliminated. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.