Grain Handlers Agreement & Farm Sector Income Forecast

Grain Handlers Agreement & Farm Sector Income Forecast

Grain Handlers Agreement & Farm Sector Income Forecast plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

A new four-year collective bargaining agreement has been signed with grain handlers in the Pacific Northwest. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union ratified the contract with three large grain exporters: Louis Dreyfus Commodities, United Grain Corporation and Columbia Grain. The disagreement got quite ugly earlier in the year when inspectors refused to enter the facility without state police. Specifics on the contract have not been released, but the ILWU said wage increases and work rule changes were negotiated into the 45-month agreement.

USDA has released their Farm Sector Income Forecast. The report measures, forecasts, and explains indicators of economic performance for the U.S. farm sector and major crop and livestock farm groups. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack offers some takeaways from the report.

VILSACK: We're pleased that the numbers reflect an increase from the February estimate with crop prices coming down a bit. It's not quite surprising that farm income would be down a bit from record levels last year. But the reality is I think it compares very favorably to the ten-year average of farm income. It's still solid. Good to see the livestock numbers coming up which I think is reflective of good prices currently on all livestock markets so hopefully over time those grain markets improve as well as we increase livestock herds, as we continue record exports and as we work to make sure that our renewable fuel industry is as strong and viable as possible.

Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray.

The Pacific Northwest is a powerhouse when it comes to breweries and cideries. Both Oregon and Washington have new breweries and cideries going in practically on a daily basis, and tasting rooms and ale houses abound in both states. With this in mind I was tentative about reading a recent Yahoo article on the ranking of every state in the nation by their beer, but I was pleasantly surprised when California, Oregon and Washington all ranked in the author's top five when it came to the quality of their local brews. Usually in such articles favoritism seems to lean towards the east coast. It was quite obvious though that there were a lot of ruffled feathers over the article when reading some of the comments printed below. I do have to agree with the one comment about the Kansas rating, since I do originate from there, that Kansas is greatly under appreciated and often under rated just for being Kansas. Of course, everyone thinks that their state should be in the top five, no matter whether they deserve it or not. But I have to say that in this case Oregon and Washington rightly deserve to be rated in the top five. I would even go so far as to say that they probably should have tied for the number one spot, but then I might be just a teensy bit biased.

Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.

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