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February 27, 2015 CapitalPress.com 13 Fruit companies join forces By DAN WHEAT Capital Press John O’Connell/Capital Press Barley is harvested in Soda Springs, Idaho, on Aug. 20. The Idaho Barley Commission has received $382,088 in research funding requests for 2016. Idaho Barley Commission mulls research requests Capital Press BOISE — Idaho Barley Commission members are excited about the quality of research funding requests they’ve received for fiscal year 2016. Finding enough money to fund them all could be a chal- lenge. “We have an excellent group of proposals. It’s the best I’ve seen during my time on the commission,” said IBC member Pat Purdy, who is serving his third year on the commission. The commission, which funded $322,507 worth of research proposals in fis- cal 2015, received a total of $382,088 in research funding requests for 2016. But because of significant losses due to record August rains, the commission will have less money this year. As of Feb. 13, with more than four months left in fiscal 2015, the commission was down more than $90,000 in Idaho barley checkoff receipts compared with the same time last year. “We have to balance the reality of reduced income with a lot of great research proposals,” Purdy said. Commissioners will decide which projects to fund during a March conference call. The IBC’s current budget is $681,00 and the commis- sion is going to be careful about dipping into its com- paratively small reserve of $358,000, said IBC Adminis- trator Kelly Olson. Eight of the 12 research funding requests are for ongo- ing projects. Three of the four new projects are proposed by Chris Rogers, University of Idaho’s new barley agrono- mist, and each of them are in the area of fertility research. Fertility and agronomic re- search is what the commission had in mind when it agreed to fund a $1 million research en- dowment at UI that helps fund Rogers’ position, Olson said. “We think we need to have a much better understanding of cost-effective, sustainable fertility practices,” she said. Two of Rogers’ proposals deal with developing new soil test methods for determining recommendations for nitro- gen and phosphorous appli- cations. Phosphorous and nitrogen are barley’s two main fertility costs and the soil test method- ology used by Idaho growers is more than a decade old, Ol- son said. Purdy said that technical data has not been applied to the malting barley varieties and cropping rotations being used today. “It’s very important we get those recommendations up- dated,” he said. Rogers has asked for $22,370 for the nitrogen study and $15,140 for the phospho- rous study. He has also asked for $10,420 to study how dryland barley grain yields are affect- ed by nitrogen source rate and timing. The other new proposal is by UI cropping systems agron- omist Xi Liang, who wants to study the effects of barley yel- low dwarf virus on water and nitrogen use in barley. Olson said UI has its deep- est bench of cereal scientists in decades and the commis- sion received proposals from all of them. “The challenge for us is to have the resources to fund the (research),” she said. IBC member Timothy Pel- la said the commission will do its best to fund as much of the research as possible. “There are some great projects and I think growers will see some real value from them.” Beef, pork groups critical of dietary recommendations By CAROL RYAN DUMAS Capital Press Organizations representing beef and pork producers are pro- testing proposed dietary recom- mendations that advise Ameri- cans to reduce their intake of red and processed meats. That recommendation was included in a nearly 600-page report released Feb. 19 by the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advi- sory Committee. The report will be used by USDA and the Department of Health and Human Services to update the federal government’s Dietary Guidelines for Ameri- cans, which influence consumer eating patterns and medical rec- ommendations and form the ba- sis of federal nutrition programs, including school lunches. “The report is very incon- sistent and misleading,” said Shaylene McNeill, a registered dietitian and executive director of human nutrition for the Na- tional Cattlemen’s Beef Associ- ation. There are plenty of studies showing the beneficial role of beef in a healthy diet, and there’s no reason for Americans to re- duce their intake, she said. Beef fits into a healthy di- etary pattern and protects Amer- icans from nutrient shortfalls. Every 3-ounce serving of beef delivers 10 essential nutrients and only 150 calories, she said. “When it comes to nutrient enrichments, beef is unparal- leled,” she said. McNeill said recommenda- tions to cut back on red meat since the 1970s have had un- intended consequences. Amer- icans replaced those calories with refined grains and sugar, and obesity rates rose signifi- cantly, she said. She said research shows that high-quality protein helps sat- isfy appetites longer so people stick to a healthy diet, and peo- ple enjoy eating beef. The 2015 guidelines recom- mend 12.5 ounces of red meat per week, and Americans are consuming an average of 11 ounces. That would suggest a needed increase in consump- tion, she said. “It makes absolutely no sense to recommend lowering intake,” she said. National Pork Producers Council said the advisory com- mittee has taken the wrong ap- proach and was more interest- ed in addressing what’s trendy among “foodies” rather than providing science-based advice. will have a 500,000-bin ca- pacity if running two shifts. “We will run at half that, so we will have room to grow,” Gardner said. Larson and Valley both needed new packing lines for productivity and quali- ty improvements to remain competitive, Garner said. A minimum of 200,000 bins of apples were needed for pack- ing to justify costs, he said. Neither company had that volume alone but together will pack 250,000 bins or 4.5 million, 40-pound boxes of apples, he said. Legacy also will pack 16,000 bins of pears and some apples at what has been the Larson warehouse in Selah. Joint packing allows for joint management and “al- lowed us to attract some very skilled employees from the outside,” Gardner said. While the consolidation was planned before a huge 2014 apple crop was harvested and prices fell, Gardner said it will be very difficult for small- to medium-size packers to re- main competitive in the long term. Cost of labor, land, or- chard development and pack- ing all requires “pretty signifi- cant financial resources to stay in the game,” he said. Larson and Valley will package cherries separately, he said. Larson is a third-genera- tion company, owned by Bar- bara Walkenhauer and Keith Larson, that started as a pack- ing shed in Selah in the mid- 1930s. Valley is a third-gen- eration company that started with orchards and moved into packing in the 1990s. It is owned by Peter Verbrugge, John Verbrugge, Mary Jacky and Carol Buckingham. Novel breeding approach yields new Russet Burbank lines By JOHN O’CONNELL Capital Press Though Russet Burbank re- mains king of potato varieties 135 years after it was first developed, it’s functionally sterile and has seldom been used in breeding. Canadian researcher Dan- ielle J. Donnelly is changing that with an unusual approach to breeding spuds from only one parent, called somaclonal selection. Donnelly, an associate professor of plant science with McGill University in Quebec, started the project in 2005 and hopes to have her first four improved Rus- set Burbank lines released by this time next year. Her advanced lines are in the fi- nal year of variety trials, and she’s expanding seed in preparation for their release in the U.S. and Canada. Potato seed is commonly propagated from tissue cul- tures — made by exposing stem cuttings to a growth me- dium — that produce iden- tical clones. Donnelly starts her plantlets from a small piece of a Russet Burbank tuber, exposed to a medium that triggers sprout growth from the plant’s natural in- clination to heal wounded tissue. Plantlets originating from rapidly growing wound- ed tissue, however, can vary significantly from the parent. In addition to greater yield, lower sugar levels and improved storage, Donnel- ly’s advanced lines were bred to pack more nutrients and antioxidants. “There has never been enough emphasis on select- ing potatoes for nutritional quality,” Donnelly said. She said two of her lines yielded surprisingly strong compared with standard Rus- set Burbank, and if the results are the same in this season’s trials “we’ll have a lot to ad- vertise.” Donnelly and her gradu- ate students first investigat- ed the type of mutation that occurred in Burbank to form Russet Burbank in 2008, demonstrating the most pop- ular potato resulted from a single parent rather than a cross. Three years later, they won the Potato Association of America’s outstanding paper when they offered the “first description of a new technique for breeding (pota- toes) in many years.” Courtesy of McGill University Danielle Donnelly, an associate professor of plant science with McGill University in Quebec, Canada, examines a plantlet resulting from one of four advanced lines she’s developed from Russet Burbank, which is a sterile variety. In 2014, they collaborated with a nutritionist and pub- lished findings in the Ameri- can Journal of Potato Research about using the method to en- hance nutrition. North Carolina State Uni- versity potato and sweet po- tato breeder Craig Yencho believes conventional breed- ing remains the most effec- tive way to incorporate desir- able traits of parents, without genetic modification. With the wide range of germplasm and the broad availability of genetic markers to assist with selections, he doubts subtle differences achieved through somaclonal variation would make for an efficient breed- ing method. “I think you produce bet- ter genotypes in the long run using traditional breed- ing,” Yencho said. But he acknowledges the industry may be interested in improving on already proven varieties. Donnelly believes the best application for the technol- ogy is to improve on sterile varieties, or to give advanced lines in development an add- ed “boost.” Yencho’s colleague at North Carolina State, crop science professor Ron Qu, has used somaclonal vari- ation to develop a new turf grass cultivar from St. Au- gustine grass. Qu said he and his colleagues are in the pro- cess of attempting to com- mercialize the new cultivar, which is soft with small and compact leaves. “People have used tissue culture to identify some vari- ations,” Qu explained. “They don’t know whether it’s a gene mutation or not, so they call it a different term, which is somaclonal variation.” Northwest Bison Association Spring Meeting Saturday, March 14 th • Enumclaw, WA Park Center Hotel 9-2/#14 By SEAN ELLIS WAPATO, Wash. — Val- ley Fruit III of Wapato and Larson Fruit Co. of Selah have formed a new company, Legacy Fruit Packers, to build a $17 million apple-packing plant in Wapato. The collaboration has been in the works a year with Leg- acy commencing business on Jan. 1, said Dean Gardner, CEO of all three companies. “This is two viable ware- houses agreeing to merge their operations to have enough capital to build a new packing plant and remain competi- tive,” Gardner said. Valley and Larson will maintain separate orchard operations but will pack ap- ples together in Wapato and pears in Selah. Together with Olympic Fruit, Moxee, they already own and sell their fruit through Sage Fruit Co., Yakima. The new plant is a reno- vation of three Valley Fruit warehouses in Wapato, turn- ing them into one and replac- ing pre-size, tray-pack and bag lines with one commit-to- pack apple line. It will have 72 packing drops that will be able to do trays, bags, pouch- es and all types of packaging available today, Gardner said. Renovation of the 85,000-square-foot facility is just wrapping up and United Sales, Yakima, will begin in- stalling the new line March 1, he said. It will feature a high- tech sizer and defect sorter made by Greefa in The Neth- erlands, he said. It will be the largest Greefa installation in the U.S., he said. It will be operational for the 2015 crop on Sept. 1 and ROP-8-6-4/#16