Agriculture

Small Farms Program

The Small Farms Program is an interdisciplinary effort that involves over 40 faculty, staff, and external partners. The focus of this program is to strengthen small-scale agricultural enterprises and local food systems. The program offers entrepreneurial training, technical support, and market development training.

Over 250 business plans have been created as a result of the Cultivating Success program.
Several farmers have created new food products, businesses, and packaging/marketing systems.
Latino and Hmong farmers are employing modern marketing techniques to sell their products directly to consumers.
Latino organic growers from central Washington have established a joint venture with food processors in Mexico expanding markets for Washington-grown produce.

Integrated Pest Management

The Washington State University Extension Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program integrates research and outreach programming to solve pest problems and minimize the use of toxic materials. This generally leads not only to more effective control of agricultural pests but also to reduced cost and increased profit margin for farmers.

Application of new control techniques saved cherry growers $2.75 million in pesticides, labor, and application costs from 2005 through 2007. Future savings are estimated at $1.5 million per year.
Farmers employed non-toxic, oil-based control of powdery mildew in wine grapes and cherries. This strategy reduced input costs by $200 per acre.
Biological control of cereal leaf beetle eliminated costly spraying on 17 farms in northeastern Washington.

Wheat Breeding Program

The Washington State University Wheat Breeding program is an integrated research and outreach effort that develops and distributes new wheat varieties to producers in the Palouse region and beyond.

Producers who adopted WSU varieties increased their yields by five bushels per acre per year increasing farm-gate value by more than $30 million per year in Washington State alone.
The breeding program led to increased acreage of hard red winter wheat resulting in a $10 million increase in farm-gate value in 2007.

Animal Waste Management

The Nutrient Management Research and Outreach Program is a collaborative effort among WSU faculty in the department of Animal Sciences, Biosystems Engineering, Crops and Soils, Atmospheric Sciences, and the School of Economic Sciences. The goals of this program are to improve surface and groundwater quality and enhance profitability of animal agriculture and related enterprises.

The combined farm-gate value of products produced by animal agricultural enterprises in Washington State is approximately $2 billion annually. Effective waste management is the key to survival of these industries.
New technologies are being developed and implemented by WSU Extension faculty to extract phosphorus from dairy manure. This results in a dry, transportable product that can be sold off-site as a commercial fertilizer reducing potential land and water impacts and creating a new revenue stream for farmers in Washington State and beyond.

WSU Extension, PO Box 646248, Hulbert 411, Washington State University, Pullman WA 99164-6248, 509-335-2837, Contact Us