04/02/07 State`s farmers plan more spring grain

Washington Ag April 2, 2007 Strong prices for wheat, barley and corn has enticed Washington farmers to plan on planting more acres to those crops this spring. Chris Messer of the National Agricultural Statistics Service Washington Field Office in Olympia has the numbers from the Planting Intentions report issued Friday. It was based on farmers' planting plans from the first two weeks of March. Messer: "Washington field corn growers expect to plant 190-thousand acres for all uses in 2007. Up 36 percent from last year and up 27 percent from two years ago. Winter wheat was sown on 1.8 million acres, unchanged from last year. Spring wheat planted acreage is expected to total 460-thousand acres, up 7 percent from a year earlier. Barley planting intentions are up 10% to 220-thousand acres." The report showed dry edible bean acreage down ten percent in Washington at 55-thousand acres. Intentions are for nine percent fewer lentil acres this year, a ten percent drop in chickpeas but a 12 percent increase in dry edible pea plantings. Hay acreage for harvest in Washington is unchanged from 2006 at 770-thousand acres. I'm Bob Hoff.