Washington Ag Today June 16, 2009 USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan has a message regarding an organic survey that was mailed out last month.

Merrigan: “Calling all organic producers, ranchers, farmers, June 17^th is the deadline to get your survey in.”

The organic survey was mailed in May to known organic producers but if you didn’t get the survey in the mail Merrigan says;

Merrigan: “You can go to our website and download the survey, www.agcensus.usda.gov.”

Merrigan emphasizes that information from individual respondents is kept confidential.

Merrigan: “Individual information is aggregated and is put into the big scene about what is going on in organic and never does it go back to an individual farm. We are just trying to understand broadly what is going on in the organic sector.”

Again, survey responses are due tomorrow, June 17^th.

Researchers from Columbia Basin College, USDA-ARS and WSU will be hosting a public field day at the Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center Roza Research Unit at Prosser July 2^nd. The field day will highlight switch grass and other perennial warm-season grasses as feedstocks for ethanol biorefineries and as forage. Those attending will learn about irrigation and water use efficiency, weed management, stand establishment, fertilization and biomass yields for the cellulosic ethanol industry.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network.

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