Idaho Ag Productions Up & Parasitic Wasp Discovered
Scientists have been touting the use of a parasitic wasp to help control the burgeoning populations of stink bugs here in the northwest and now researchers at Washington State University say they've recently discovered two small clusters of the wasp in Vancouver, Washington. Stink bugs do considerable damage to crops including tree fruit so this is good news. The tiny female wasps lay eggs inside clusters of stink bug eggs. After a wasp egg hatches, the larva eats the stink bug host, killing it.
The latest data from the National Ag Statistics Service shows that the of Idaho's 2014 agricultural production reached $8.8 billion, setting a new record high. Vince Matthews, Idaho's State Statistician explains.
MATTHEWS: Milk is the biggest contributor to it, it's number one and it's change was up over 24% from last year so that's probably one of the biggest contributors in terms of what's happened. Trout has made the top ten. Of course Idaho is the number one food-sized trout producer in the country so it's always a contributor but it did move up into the top ten.
Cattle and Calves remained in the second position and had value of production totaling $1.73 billion dollars in 2014. This was up 25 percent from 2013.
That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.