03/21/05  Washington winter wheat still looks good

03/21/05 Washington winter wheat still looks good

Washington Ag March 21, 2005 Thanks to good moisture last fall this year's Washington winter wheat crop is looking good so far despite the dry winter. That's what members of the Washington Wheat Commission said in their crop report at the commodity group's meeting last week. Commissioner Lynn Blair farms in Franklin County, a low rainfall area. Blair: "The winter wheat crop looks excellent. The later seeded stuff is really coming along. The early stuff is really big for right now. Now, if we do get some showers from now out we could have an excellent. I am anticipating average or little below if we don't get much rain." Commissioner Randy Suess is from the normally high rainfall Palouse where he says the winter wheat also looks pretty good for as dry as it is. The focus right now is spring crops. Suess: "The decision are being made right now on what kind of spring crops to put in, or whether to even put spring crops in. But the winter wheat does look pretty amazing for this time of year." Commissioners said growers in many areas are deciding against planting spring wheat. Some will plant barley instead. According to the Washington Agricultural Statistics Service farmers planted 1.9 million acres of winter wheat last fall, six percent more than the previous year. A report on what farmers intend to plant this spring will be issued March 31st. I'm Bob Hoff.
Previous Report03/18/05 Emergency order on TB testing
Next Report03/22/05 Gregoire estate tax would exempt farms