Wildfire Season, More Disaster Counties & Thanksgiving Turkey

Wildfire Season, More Disaster Counties & Thanksgiving Turkey

Wildfire Season, More Disaster Counties & Thanksgiving Turkey. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

This is not news I relish delivering but the wildfire season has quickly jumped into high gear here in the NW. So far Washington State has had 313 reported wildfires. Lack of snowpack and a warmer, drier winter all around is cited as a prime reason. The Department of Natural Resources has already added five additional engines, 15 firefighters, two water-dropping aircrafts, and a Huey helicopter.

Sixteen counties in Idaho, Washington and Oregon have been added to the disaster list due to drought. Any county that borders a listed county is also part of the designation that the USDA uses to kick in disaster relief funds. Check with your local Farm Service Agency for details.

Finally, with all the troubles with avian influenza earlier this year how might that affect the turkey for the Thanksgiving table? Economist Shayle Shagam says that while output will be down 7% in the second half of the year...

SHAGAM: But in the first quarter of 2015 production was actually 7% higher.

The other good thing going for the turkey industry is that stocks of frozen turkeys are already larger than they were a year ago.

SHAGAM: Tom turkeys were up 11%, hen turkeys 13% from a year ago.

That may mean there will still be plenty of turkeys at only a minor increase in price.

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

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