04/21/06 Grape Summits Conclude

Grape Summits conclude. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Over the past month the Washington Wine Industry Foundation has been listening to ideas and presenting information for a program called Grower Decision Making Tool for Grapes and Tree Fruit. These Grape Summits have been held in Hood River, Oregon, Caldwell, Idaho and Kennewick, Washington to present the Grant Research Partnership. The WWIF along with northwest grower groups for tree fruit and wine and juice grapes submitted a grant proposal to the USDA Risk Management Agency to obtain funds to provide grower decision making tools to the Washington, Oregon and Idaho grape industries and the Washington tree fruit industry. These are tools that growers/producers in each state can use. Vicky Scharlau, Executive Director of the WWIF, explains where the idea came from. SCHARLAU: We were having an educational seminar in Oregon and it was an education grant we received from the Risk Management Agency for Education I think 4 years ago. We were doing a little brainstorming on where do we go from here, what's next? And one of the growers in Oregon said if we're talking about risk reduction, risk minimization, then what I need as a business owner is good information to make my decisions. The Grape Summits included presentations on Cost of Production Calculators, Acreage Inventory, Crop Load Estimation and Vineyard Mapping. Next we'll discuss some of these topics in detail. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.