03/03/06 Surging milk production

Washington Ag March 3, 2006 Twenty dollar a hundredweight milk prices in 2004 unleashed a torrent of dairy expansion nationwide, particularly in the West and University of Idaho Extension economist C. Nelson Gray says milk production has been increasing like a building storm, outpacing demand. The result says Gray is that 2006 milk prices are projected to fall not only below the last two years' strong milk prices, but below the 5-year average of $12.87 per hundredweight. He says in a nutshell, the outlook for the next 12 months is not good. Farmers in Grant and Yakima counties now have Group Risk Plan and Group Risk Income Protection available under federal crop insurance for their corn grain and silage. Jo Lynne Seufer of the regional Risk Management Agency office says the products use a county yield average to establish an insurance guarantee for individual producers. Seufer: "That means producers don't necessarily have to have individual production records to apply for that Group Risk or Group Risk Income Protection Plan. They can obtain an insurance policy that guarantees them coverage on the county established yield." The sales closing date is coming up though, March 15th for this and several other spring seeded crops. Check with your crop insurance agent. I'm Bob Hoff.