CAFO Permit Update & Change In Ag Leaders

Washington State has released detail of the updates to the state's Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations Permit. The aim of the state-led Clean Water Act permit is to protect surface and groundwater from being polluted by manure coming from facilities that confine and feed large numbers of animals, like cattle, pigs and chickens. The permit, which is up for renewal every five years, expired in 2011. Ecology seeks to renew the permit to allow additional facilities to have permit coverage. Facilities with documented manure discharges must be covered by the permit. Having permit coverage provides legal protections to concentrated animal operators.

For the first time in 20 years, there's a new leader among Oregon's diverse agricultural commodities in terms of production value, Newly released preliminary statistics for 2014 show a new number one. Kathryn Walker, special assistant to the director of the Oregon Department of Agriculture says the record goes back to 1994.

WALKER:  Cattle and calves are topping the chart. They haven't been number one since the early 90s, so it's exciting to see a new leader. They've had some really strong prices this past year and that's really reflective of the value of production.

Interestingly, Walker notes that in 1994 the greenhouse and nursery industry surpassed the cattle industry to claim the top spot in Oregon.

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