A new 'farmer-friendly" crop-hail insurance policy has been announced for the 1999 season that will allow farmers to insure their wheat, barley, small grains and other crops with coverage that takes effect two (2) hours after the application is received by the company.

This new 2-hour policy was introduced by Rural Community Insurance Services (RCIS), the second highest ranked company in the United States and the leader in the Pacific Northwest.

"This innovative policy allows farmers to manage their risks in a timely manner", said Larry Heitman, RCIS Western Region Manager. "The two-hour coverage allows farmers to increase their protection while harvesting in the field when they discover increased yields". Previously, coverage was not available until a 48-hour waiting period.

Unlimited transit coverage to the first place of storage is also part of the policy. Plus, coverage is provided while the grain is stored on the farm for fire, theft, and other perils, according to Heitman.

"We're pleased to have leading crop insurance agents representing our company", said Heitman. "Last year, our policies increased four times in Oregon and doubled in both Washington and Idaho which reflects the care our agents have for their client's risk management

Two hour coverage and free coverage for farm stored grains are the major points of this new program, concluded Heitman. He encouraged farmers to contact their local RCIS agent or to call toll-free, 1-888-447-7247, for the name of their closest agent.

A typical lawn of 2,000 square feet generates about 30 pounds of grass clipping per mowing. Don't bag your grass clippings, grasscycle instead by leaving clippings on your lawn.

Grass clippings can supply up to one third of a lawn's nitrogen fertilizer needs. Grass clippings can contain as much as 44% nitrogen, 0.5% phosphorus, and 2% potassium in addition to smaller amounts of other essential nutrients, including sulfur. Being high in nitrogen, grass clippings decompose rapidly and return nitrogen to the soil, reducing the need to apply fertilizer.

According to Managing Grass Clippings at Home, (University of Idaho College of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension System) there are a few tips you should follow to grasscycle your clippings efficiently:

* Aerate your lawn in spring

* Use a sharp mower blade. This will make finer clippings that will decompose quickly

* Avoid over fertilizing your lawn

* Do not overwater. Lawns require 1 in. or less water per week

* Apply lawn chemicals only when problems have been correctly diagnose. Remember that some pesticides may harm or kill beneficial soil organisms.

There has been a frenzy in the grain trade over the past weeks concerning the insurance program called Crop Revenue Coverage (CRC) for durum wheat, which is a popular plan sold by many insurance agents across the U.S. CRC gives farmers a revenue guarantee at the time of planting through a formula that includes the approved yield and market price currently available. On Feb. 8, the plan was amended by the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation, reducing the adjustment added to the February average daily settlement price for hard red spring wheat on the Minneapolis Grain Exchange from $1.92 per bushel to $1.15. The change was made to establish a contract basis that is not as volatile and emphasizes the market price of the previous year in the establishment of the base price. The change is said to better represent the market price for durum wheat, as the original $1.92 "adjustment" was viewed as over-inflated by most of the grain trade, which argued such a level would skew the durum market for years.

For a thorough explanation of CRC, see American Agrisurance's website at : http://www.amag.com/

Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman has signed a new agreement to provide for continued donations of agricultural commodities to the World Food Program (WFP) under USDA food aid programs. The WFP is the food aid agency of the United Nations and the Food and Agriculture Organization.

"This agreement paves the way for further USDA food donations to needy people around the world, including Kosovo refugees, and famine victims in North Korea," Glickman said. "The United States is the world's largest donor to the World Food Program, with USDA expecting to supply around 1 million metric tons of wheat through the WFP this year."

The agreement to donate surplus U.S. commodities under USDA's Section 416(b) program was signed for the WFP by its Executive Director Catherine Bertini. The new agreement replaces a previous agreement with the WFP that was signed last year. In addition to several technical changes, it authorizes continuing USDA donations to the WFP. The commodities to be donated, quantities, and recipient countries will be announced later.

The WFP conducts emergency food aid, longer term relief, and development programs in more than 80 countries. The United States provides food to the WFP under both Section 416(b) and P.L. 480, Title II. USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service administers the Section 416(b) donation program. The P.L. 480, Title II, program is managed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

The annual Benton County Wheat Growers Research Field Tour will be held Tuesday, June 8. Research on winter and spring wheat varietal development, no-till annual cropping and ecology of native vegetation will be presented by Washington State University scientists.

The tour will begin at 8:30 a.m. at the Horse Heaven Community Hall on County Well Road, just off of Highway 221 southeast of Prosser.

The tour is free, including a lunch hosted by the Benton County Wheat Growers.

The meeting is sponsored by the wheat growers, WSU's crop and soil sciences department and WSU Cooperative Extension.

For more information, contact Doug Rowell, Benton County Wheat Growers president, at (509) 884-5309 or Bill Schillinger, WSU extension dryland research agronomist, Ritzville, at (509) 659-0355.

The total world population was 5.7 billion in 1995.

The world population is expected to grow by 2.5 billion by 2025 (8.2 billion) and nearly double by 2050(10.2 billion).

While population nearly doubles by 2050. ag economics note rising affluence among developing countries will increase food demand as much as three times over current levels.

And the debate over whether supply will meet demand continues. Scientists with the Consultative Group on International Ag Research (CGJAR) insist we're developing the resources and technology to feed more than 8 billion by 2025.

Water quality improves as grassland vegetation becomes denser and soil conditions improve. A University of Wisconsin study showed that Grasslands are the best "crop" for reducing runoff, erosion and phosphorus pollution.

A similar study done at the USDA-Agricultural Research Service North Appalachian Experimental Watershed at Coshocton, OH showed that both surface and ground water from a grassland watershed was as good as or better than water from the adjacent pristine forested watershed.

Grassland soils are an excellent biological filter to recover nutrients passing through the soil. Grass roots are active almost year-round and can recover nutrients from the soil that can leach out from other land uses.

Because of their permanent and diverse plant cover, grasslands provide good habitat for wildlife as well as forage for livestock. Research has consistently shown that ground-nesting birds and small mammals thrive in properly managed pastures. Grazing lands can provide nesting habitat, cover, and food when adequate plant residues remain following grazing or mowing.

Research has shown that grazing animals can be used to manage stream bank vegetation to enhance fish populations. Studies in Minnesota and Wisconsin resulted in fish populations two to three times greater in streams inside pastures where cattle were being grazed in a management-intensive grazing system compared to pastures where cattle were totally excluded from the streams.

The "greenhouse effect" is the warming of the Earth's atmosphere due to increased levels of some gases (primarily carbon dioxide) that allows incoming short-wave radiation from the sun to reach Earth, but absorbs the outgoing long-wave radiation from Earth's surface back to space.

Grassland soils are a tremendous reservoir for storage of this organic carbon. Think of them as "carbon sinks". The top meter of soil worldwide contains almost double the amount of carbon contained in vegetation and the atmosphere.

Total organic carbon is twice as abundant in prairie soil as in forest soil. In grassland ecosystems, more than 90% of the organic matter produced is found in the roots, while more than half of the organic matter in a forest ecosystem is above ground.

Grasses and legumes use atmospheric carbon as building blocks for plant tissue. The un-utilized and decomposed plant tissue is returned to the soil and becomes part of the carbon pool. This process helps reduce carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and reduces the "greenhouse effect".

A permanent grassland ecosystem stores significantly more soil carbon than cropland areas do. Any initiative that supports grassland agriculture will, over the long term, support an effective carbon sink.

New research developments in crops and crop management technologies will be featured at the University of Idaho's Plant, Soil and Entomological Sciences Department Field Day on June 29 at the UI Parker Research Farm. Registration and refreshments begin at 8:00 a.m. Research tours will be from 9:00 to 11:30 a.m. and 1:00 to 3:30 p.m. The UI Parker Research Farm is located 1.5 miles east of Moscow on Highway 8.

A hosted lunch at 11:30 a.m will feature "Idaho Cuisine." University of Idaho's President Bob Hoover will be the luncheon speaker.

Research tour topics tentatively include: new varieties of wheat, barley, canola, rapeseed, mustard, linola and pulse crops; crop rotation comparisons; direct seeding systems for peas and other crops; herbicide effectiveness and soil persistence; and insects and disease management technologies. An extensive research poster exhibition will be open for viewing throughout the day. Field Day participants will also receive the 1999 Department Research and Extension Report. Credits have been requested for state pesticide applicator recertification and Certified Crop Adviser continuing education.

For more information about the Field Day, contact the Department office at (208) 885-6276, or Roger Veseth, Field Day Chair, at 208-885-6386 (e-mail: rveseth@uidaho.edu).

Every June and July, the Treasure Valley's alfalfa seed growers bet their yields on the pollinating power of their alfalfa leafcutter bees. Simultaneously, seed-stripping lygus bugs&emdash;the state's No. 1 alfalfa seed pest&emdash;begin their annual population explosions, eventually reaching up to four generations.

Kill the lygus bugs, and you'll likely kill some of the bees. Don't kill the lygus bugs, and you won't get a crop. With the profit-eating lygus bug apparently developing resistance to a popular prebloom spray, it has become even more critical to find ways to check lygus damage without checkmating bees.

At the University of Idaho's Parma Research and Extension Center, entomologists are evaluating new chemicals that would be friendlier to bees. They are also examining the lygus-reducing potential of biological control agents. In 1996 and 1997, they released tiny Braconid wasps they hope will successfully parasitize the pests.

"We need to explore all these possibilities," says Craig Baird, UI extension entomologist at Parma. "It's finding the right combinations of things to make it work."

Combinations are the scientific focus of ecologists. While most studies of alfalfa seed production and bee mortality address individual factors, UI pollinator ecologist Karen Strickler is beginning to model the dynamic and complex system of interacting factors within alfalfa seed fields.

According to Strickler, maximizing seed production while minimizing bee mortality will demand a precise understanding of the relationships among bloom times, bee numbers, bee release dates, temperature, humidity, soil moisture, carbohydrate reserves, and pests like lygus bugs and thrips.

To manage alfalfa seed for bee survival, growers would put out fewer bees and keep their flowers blooming later into the season, says Strickler. But that would compromise seed yields, which benefit from early releases of generous numbers of bees. Those generous numbers of bees, on the other hand, produce high seed yields but pollinate flowers so rapidly that the alfalfa plants divert their energy toward maturing seed pods&emdash;starving out the bees. "We need lots and lots of bees, but the tradeoff is that a lot of them are going to die as the resources decline," Strickler says.

Each year, Idaho alfalfa seed growers spend about $150 an acre to manage their bees or to replace those they have lost. Through an industry-sponsored X-ray service she provides at Parma, Strickler helps growers monitor the health of their overwintering bees. The X rays tell Strickler how many bee-board cells are occupied by live larvae and how many other larvae have fallen victim to the bee-killing fungus chalkbrood, to predators, or to parasites. But the ecological secrets within alfalfa fields will take more than a diagnostic test to unlock. They will take patient and persistent ecological research.

For more information, call (208) 885-6681.