03/16/07 Preparing for major crop report

Washington Ag March 16, 2007 Two weeks from today a major and much anticipated report on what farmers intend to plant this spring will be issued by the U. S. Department of Agriculture and Chris Messer who heads up the Washington Agricultural Statistics Service says her agency is just wrapping up gathering the data for it in this state. Messer: "And the national publication will be released on March 30th. The Prospective Plantings report you were talking about. And there is going to be quite a bit of interest in the Prospective Plantings report as always, but especially this year due to the increased interest in the biofuel, specialty commodities and also for farm policy." Randy Suess, Chairman of the Washington Wheat Commission, says strong prices for numerous commodities not just wheat will make for some tough planting decision making, but it's a nice problem to have. Suess: "It is also good for the pulse crops. The pea and lentil prices are up, garbanzos. So it will be interesting. Also with barley prices being up to see if traditional barley growers are going to back to growing barley again." Nationally there is great interest in corn planting intentions because of ethanol demand for corn and how that might impact seedings of other crops like spring wheat. Farmers of course could still change their plans depending upon weather and the market impact of the report itself. I'm Bob Hoff.