Seed News
Winter is back in La Grande! Looks like those guys might have been right. Here's hoping we can rebuild a good portion of the snow pack over the next few weeks.
Some interesting grass seed news has been released in the last week or so. The USDA National Agriculture Statistics Service (NASS) published the 2018 Oregon Grass Seed Forecast report last week.
As a brief summary of the report, Annual Ryegrass and Tall Fescue (turf and forage) acreages are up while Perennial Ryegrass is down slightly.
For those of us in the NE corner of the state of Oregon bluegrass is conspicuously absent from the report. We reached out to Dave Losh, the Oregon State statistician who did a ton of work on this report, to see if he had some unpublished insight on bluegrass acreage in the region but he is not yet available. We'll update you if we learn more.
There's a couple other reports from USDA NASS you may find pertinent for the PNW (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Alaska). Both the 2018 Annual Crop Summary and the 2018 Winter Wheat Seedings reports were released to the press last month. One point of note for winter wheat is the slight national drop in acreage from 2017 while Oregon ticked up one percent. The national drop means this year "represents the second lowest United States acreage on record." Will this help out local wheat prices at harvest or will increased production from Argentina and Ukraine offset the dip in US acres and keep the price flat?
In somewhat related local news, Oregon State House of Representatives approved a bill that expands protections against "slow pay, no pay" to more seed growers producing proprietary seed under contract. While the grass seed market saw similar legislation seven years ago, this bill broadens the scope to include other specialty seeds. So, a question, do you think this helps growers in NE Oregon?
These are pretty good topics of discussion for your CPS Fieldman as you swing by the office on one of these ridiculously cold mornings. We'll have the coffee hot for you.
Have a great week!
UPDATE: 3:35PM
Dave Losh called back and we had the chance to discuss bluegrass statistics. Bluegrass acreage is not included in this report simply because the report is funded by the Ryegrass and Fescue commissions. We'll share the info if we get our hands on a bluegrass acreage report.
Some interesting grass seed news has been released in the last week or so. The USDA National Agriculture Statistics Service (NASS) published the 2018 Oregon Grass Seed Forecast report last week.
As a brief summary of the report, Annual Ryegrass and Tall Fescue (turf and forage) acreages are up while Perennial Ryegrass is down slightly.
For those of us in the NE corner of the state of Oregon bluegrass is conspicuously absent from the report. We reached out to Dave Losh, the Oregon State statistician who did a ton of work on this report, to see if he had some unpublished insight on bluegrass acreage in the region but he is not yet available. We'll update you if we learn more.
There's a couple other reports from USDA NASS you may find pertinent for the PNW (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Alaska). Both the 2018 Annual Crop Summary and the 2018 Winter Wheat Seedings reports were released to the press last month. One point of note for winter wheat is the slight national drop in acreage from 2017 while Oregon ticked up one percent. The national drop means this year "represents the second lowest United States acreage on record." Will this help out local wheat prices at harvest or will increased production from Argentina and Ukraine offset the dip in US acres and keep the price flat?
In somewhat related local news, Oregon State House of Representatives approved a bill that expands protections against "slow pay, no pay" to more seed growers producing proprietary seed under contract. While the grass seed market saw similar legislation seven years ago, this bill broadens the scope to include other specialty seeds. So, a question, do you think this helps growers in NE Oregon?
These are pretty good topics of discussion for your CPS Fieldman as you swing by the office on one of these ridiculously cold mornings. We'll have the coffee hot for you.
Have a great week!
UPDATE: 3:35PM
Dave Losh called back and we had the chance to discuss bluegrass statistics. Bluegrass acreage is not included in this report simply because the report is funded by the Ryegrass and Fescue commissions. We'll share the info if we get our hands on a bluegrass acreage report.
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