Cattle & Fire

The cattle industry in the northwest has been keeping an eye on the wildfires. Jack Field, Executive Vice-President for the Washington Cattlemen’s Association says they are keeping in contact with producers.

FIELD: It’s pretty tough to find anywhere in Washington State or anywhere in the west that isn’t on fire or just adjacent to somebody that has been impacted and as a result we’re in the process of hearing and talking to producers on a daily basis that have been directly impacted or appear to be eminently impacted.

One key issue for cattle affected by fire is the lack of grazing.

FIELD: The Washington Cattleman’s Association has made a formal request through the Farm Service Agency office requesting that FSA extend the CRP grazing beyond the September 30th expiration date. The reason that that’s so critically important this year obviously is that the need for forage is going to go far beyond September 30th.

Field says there are other programs that cattle producers will want to look at.

FIELD: The Farm Service Agency is rolling out a new program called the LFP, Livestock Forage Program. That’s a program that may be able to provide some assistance to producers that are grazing livestock on non-irrigated improved pastures.

There is a lot more to this story and tomorrow we will continue our talk Jack.

And that’s Washington Ag Today. I’m Greg Martin, thanks for listening on the Ag Information Network of the West.