Stripe rust forecast; cattlemen in Olympia

Washington Ag Today February 8, 2010 Stripe rust is predicted to be moderate in 2010. That is the forecast from Xianming Chen with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service at Pullman. Chen says that based on several newly developed prediction models this year will likely be a normal stripe rust year in the Palouse and other major wheat growing areas in the Pacific Northwest. Even so Chen says a yield loss forecasting model using weather conditions so far suggests that susceptible winter wheat varieties could potentially suffer 30 to 34 percent yield reductions.

Members of the Washington Cattlemen’s Association are in Olympia today for the association’s Legislature Day. WCA President and cattle producer Dick Coon says the big issue for his members is exempt stock water wells.

Coon: “We are worried about the fact that environmentalists and some of these folks think that by restricting the amount of water we use in the cattle business, that somehow that is going to restore the aquifers and replenish the in-stream flow. And the truth is that the amount of water that the beef business uses in this state, I‘m talking about the cow-calf operations, forage based operations, use is really insignificant in the greater scheme of things. You take all of the cattle in the state it is about the same water as on ten circles of alfalfa.”

There is a court case underway on unlimited stock watering and Coon says there are people, including himself, that think it would be best to await the outcome of that litigation before acting legislatively.

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