03/29/06 Water management funds;dairy competition

Washington Ag March 29, 2006 The state Ecology Department has provided 243-thousand dollars to Jefferson, Walla Walla and Spokane counties and the Foster Creek Conservation District in Ephrata to continue their work on setting minimum stream flows and conducting watershed studies. The largest chunk of the funds, 198-thousand dollars will go to the Foster Creek Conservation District to perform a series of environmental studies necessary for a multi-purpose water storage assessment that will identify needs, feasible methods and sites for potential surface and ground water storage in Moses Coulee. Washington State University and the University of Idaho are co-sponsoring the North American Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge this weekend in Twin Falls, Idaho. Students from 27 universities will be involved in the competition, which U of I dairy science professor Amin Ahmadazdeh says includes evaluation of actual dairies. Ahmadazdeh: "They are provided with some raw data, some computerized data and records. Based on those three sources they have to evaluate that enterprise, recognize their strengths and weaknesses and opportunities." Ahmadazdeh says the challenge also serves the dairy industry as a recruiting opportunity to meet the cream of the crop among dairy students. I'm Bob Hoff.