11/12/07 Fall potato production up; Farm Bureau Convention

Washington Ag November 12, 2007 The Agricultural Statistics Service pegged Washington's potato crop this year at 102.3-million hundredweight. That's up from last year's nearly 90-million hundredweight. Acreage was up over 2006 and yields at 620 hundredweight per acre, were up 40 hundredweight over last year. The Ag Statistic Service says however, that the quality of Washington's crop is not as good as in previous years. Nationally fall potato production was up two percent from 2006. The Washington State Farm Bureau's annual convention gets underway today in Spokane with a labor conference at the DoubleTree Downtown Hotel. There will also be numerous break out sessions on a variety of topics during the convention, which runs through Thursday. The Farm Bureau's Gary Joiner highlights one of the speakers. Joiner: "John Kasich, who was the House Budget Committee leader and also the first to write a balanced budget in Congress when he was the Representative from Ohio. Former presidential candidate. John is now a featured personality on Fox Television and has written some books about standing up for American values and standing up for things that have made this country great. And I think his message will be well received." Kasich's address Wednesday is entitled, "Stand for Something, The Battle for America's Soul." I'm Bob Hoff.