WSU Preparing Conservation Ag Handbook

Washington State University is putting the finishing touches on its Conservation Ag Handbook.  Chad Kruger, one of the lead authors said this reference will help dry land growers when comes to soil health.  He told the Washington Ag Network it’s all part of the REACH project at WSU, meaning they looked at the potential impact of climate change on Northwest Farmers.  Kruger added their research suggests future weather could be more extreme than what we currently see, which could greatly impact dry land growers.

“We anticipate going forward in the future a lot of similar kinds of [weather systems], but some of the  major kind of climatic factors that we already deal with like we’re a winter precipitation dominated system will be exacerbated a little bit.”

He added the anticipation is the region could see summers that are slightly warmer and dryer, and winters that have even more precipitation.  In the more immediate term, Kruger said growers will be able to use this handbook as a real-time guide.

“We felt like there’s enough information that we can provide some fairly practical within season kind of season support for producers.  A lot of that’s on the crop protection side, weeds insects and diseases, etc.”

Kruger said he sees this most effective as an off season reference.  The Conservation Ag Handbook won’t be available for a few more weeks, but when it is there will be mobile and print copies available.

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