06/06/07 Rollercoaster Weather & Cherry Update

Rollercoast Weather & Cherry Update plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. The weather in the Pacific Northwest has been interesting lately to say the least. Over the weekend I was up on Whidbey Island with beautiful 68 degree temps while at home in Eastern Washington, they were melting with record high temperatures over 100. Now it's cooled off and the rains have been falling. In fact, most of the states have been enduring odd weather. Meterologist Brad Rippey takes a look at the 8-10 forecast for the U.S. RIPPEY: Looks like the wet weather will continue for that period for the North Central United States including the Northern Plains and upper Midwest. Meanwhile it's going to be mostly dry across the South and in the East. In terms of temperatures it looks like some rather hot weather for the Eastern cornbelt into the Northeast while it's going to be cool across the Northern Plains and the Northwest so in that 8-14 day timeframe, one of the things to watch will be continued wetness on the Northern Plains and that trend towards dryer, hotter weather in the Eastern cornbelt so we have quite a contrast set up across the Midwest and the Northern Plains. And speaking of weather, significant rain fell in cherry country. BJ Thurlby from Northwest Cherries says no news is good news. He had checked with a couple of growers in the Basin yesterday and the feeling was that as it has stayed relatively cool & that the limited amount of precipitation we have had will not have a large affect. Most feel that the overcast weather and current wind patterns will help keep the earliest varieties from cracking. It is important to note that most of the crop is still a week or more away from being susceptible to rain damage. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Susan Allen. If didn't continue to negatively impact our nations cattle producers the situation would seem almost laughable, worthy of a Leno joke. So who's the fool? The super power who allows tainted food from Asia to flow to it's citizens unchecked or the little country that bans the safest and most affordable source of protein, American beef for the sake of political ping-pong? Japan continues to snub their nose at US beef despite the fact the World Organization for Animal Health, just gave our beef a clean bill of health, virtually the second highest safety rating, stating that all of US beef can be safely traded. Except of course to persnickety Japan who remains focused on the political folly that Ag Secretary Mike Johanns calls "one of the ultimate trade distortions without science that I have ever seen". While steaks from 35 million head of cattle slaughtered each year in the US sizzle away on our grills, Japan won't budge on its policy towards US beef. Meanwhile the flow of tainted imports continues to flood our country while our trade policies remain unchanged. Thanks Susan. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.