July 24, 2015
CapitalPress.com
3
Bushue running for American Farm Bureau Federation presidency
SALEM — The leader of
the Oregon Farm Bureau has
announced his bid for the pres-
idency of the American Farm
Bureau Federation.
Barry Bushue, who has been
president of the Oregon Farm
Bureau since 1999 and vice
president of American Farm
Bureau since 2008, will seek
the national organization’s
top office at its January con-
vention, according to an OFB
press release.
“In recent years, Oregon
has been on the front line of
numerous challenges facing
American agriculture. We
continue to engage in public
policy debates around genet-
ically modified organisms,
immigration, animal welfare,
pesticides, water use, endan-
gered species, and other en-
vironmental issues,” Bushue
said in the press
release. “I’ve
been
blessed
as a leader to
work for farm-
ers in my com-
munity, county,
state, and across
Bushue
the country. To
serve as AFBF
president would be an unri-
valed opportunity to use these
experiences for the benefit all
American farmers and ranch-
ers on the national stage.”
Bob Stallman, AFBF pres-
ident for 16 years, announced
last week that he would not
seek re-election.
Bushue has served as pres-
ident of Multnomah County
Farm Bureau, a regional direc-
tor on the Oregon Farm Bu-
reau Board of Directors, and
as OFB’s first vice president.
In 2008, in addition to re-
taining the presidency of the
Oregon Farm Bureau, Bushue
was elected vice president of
the American Farm Bureau
Federation. His leadership at
the national level includes ser-
vice on the AFBF Nursery &
Greenhouse Committee, AFBF
Trade Advisory Committee, a
national labor taskforce, and a
National Food Quality Protec-
tion Act workgroup.
Bushue continues to serve on
the USDA Advisory Committee
on Biotechnology & 21st Cen-
tury Agriculture, the Executive
Committee of the United States
Biotech Crop Alliance, and the
Board of Directors of the Gener-
ic Event Marketability & Access
Agreement Biotech Accord.
In Oregon, he serves on the
Executive Committee of Ore-
gonians for Food & Shelter, a
coalition that protects and advo-
cates for access and safe use of
pesticide, fertilizers, and biotech
tools for the agriculture and nat-
ural resource communities.
Named Agriculturalist of
the Year in 2014 by the Oregon
Agri-Business Council, Bushue
has worked on numerous task
forces at the request of the gov-
ernor, the state legislature, and
with natural resource agencies
on critical issues, including wa-
ter quality and quantity, pesti-
cide use, biotech, labor, naviga-
bility, public land grazing, and
wildlife depredation.
Bushue is the third member
of his family to run the farm in
Multnomah County, Ore. He
and his wife raise vegetables,
berries, flowers and pumpkins
at the nearly century-old farm
near Portland. They sell directly
to the public and host events for
the local community.
After attending college,
Bushue taught high school in
South Australia. It was during
those years “down under” that
he met his wife Helen. The
Bushues returned to Oregon in
the late 1980s to take over the
family farm. They have three
grown children.
“At the county, state, and
national level, Farm Bureau
is a true grassroots, democrat-
ic organization,” Bushue said.
“Farms and ranches of all sizes,
commodities, and production
types have an opportunity to
bring their issues forward and
have their voices heard. Our
unity is our strength, and there
is no more effective way for
family agriculture to be heard in
the legislative arena than Farm
Bureau. It would be an honor to
serve our members at the nation-
al level.”
NE Washington wolves
linked to more cattle deaths
Ranchers urge quick
and lethal response
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Courtesy of WSU
Joseph Davidson, WSU doctoral student, and Changki Mo, assistant professor of mechanical engi-
neering, talk about physical design of apple-picking robot.
Researchers hope to test
robotic apple picker
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
RICHLAND, Wash. — En-
gineers and scientists hope to
test a robotic apple picker this
fall that is able to pick apples
fast and gently enough to make
it economically viable.
Such a system could be
a huge boost to the apple in-
dustry in labor savings and in
overcoming labor shortages.
The Washington State Uni-
versity team has been working
on the project with a USDA
National Robotics Initiative
grant of $548,000 awarded in
2013.
Apples require a system
delicate enough to pick fruit
without bruising it while ma-
neuvering around tree branch-
es, leaves and other obstruc-
tions, said Manoj Karkee,
assistant professor of biolog-
ical systems engineering and
project lead.
“That’s why it is more chal-
lenging and difficult compared
to the robotics we have in in-
dustrial applications,” he said.
The robot will do 95 to 98
percent of the job with the as-
sistance of a human operator.
Eight motors will operate an
arm and hand using cameras
and sensors. Using algorithms
to identify color, shape and
texture, the machine differ-
entiates fruit from the rest of
the plant and determines fruit
location so the robotic arm can
be directed for picking, Karkee
said.
He said he is pleased with
the progress that’s been made
and optimistic that a prototype
could be commercialized in
the near future.
Others involved in the proj-
ect are Qin Zhang, director
of WSU Center for Precision
and Automatic Agricultural
Systems; Karen Lewis, WSU
Extension tree fruit specialist;
and Changki Mo, assistant
professor of mechanical engi-
neering, WSU Tri-Cities.
Various levels of mechani-
cal harvest assist are being de-
veloped by the apple industry
in Washington, New York and
Michigan. Most involve mo-
bile platforms replacing lad-
ders for pickers.
A robotic apple picker was
tried in France in 2007 but
proved to be too slow and ex-
pensive, Terence Robinson, a
Governor declares drought
in 3 more Oregon counties
grazing livestock over a large
landscape.
“We are talking about thou-
sands and thousands of acres,”
he said.
WDFW reported the produc-
er, who was grazing 166 cattle
before depredations, has moved
the herd. Nielsen said that other
ranchers are grazing in the pack’s
territory. Even if the wolves are
hazed from the area, they will
find cows wherever they go, he
said.
“It doesn’t matter which way
you chase them, you’re chasing
them to somebody’s cows,” Niel-
sen said. “Stevens County is vir-
tually blanketed with livestock.
We graze everywhere.”
To stop the Huckleberry
pack from preying on a sheep
herd in Stevens County last year,
WDFW authorized lethal remov-
al of up to four wolves. The agen-
cy suspended the hunt after one
wolf was shot because the sheep
were no longer in the pack’s ter-
ritory.
WDFW killed seven mem-
bers of the Wedge Pack in
2012 after the department
concluded the wolves were
targeting livestock over natu-
ral prey in Stevens County.
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ing with it is part of the “con-
tinuing challenges of climate
change.”
The governor’s drought
declaration does not bring
any help in the form of aid
or loans, but does allow in-
creased flexibility in how wa-
ter is managed.
Last winter saw a re-
cord-low snowpack, leading
to low streamflows this sum-
mer that have affected irriga-
tors as well as fish.
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GRANTS PASS, Ore.
(AP) — Gov. Kate Brown has
declared drought emergencies
in three more Oregon coun-
ties.
With Tuesday’s declara-
tion, 23 out of 36 counties
are under drought emergen-
cies. The new ones are Curry,
Hood River and Union coun-
ties.
Brown says this year’s ex-
treme drought reflects a new
reality for Oregon and deal-
Cornell University fruit physi-
ologist, said at the Washington
State Horticultural Association
annual meeting in 2013.
The robot detected only 80
percent of the fruit, pulled 30
percent of stems and picked
eight apples per minute com-
pared to humans detecting 100
percent of fruit, pulling 2 to 3
percent of stems and picking
33 apples per minute, he said.
Stevens County ranchers are
calling on Washington state wild-
life managers to take lethal action
to deter wolves in the Dirty Shirt
pack, which has now claimed
three adult cows and a calf.
“I think when there are four
dead cows, the department
should have initiated removal
by now,” Stevens County Cattle-
men’s Association Vice President
Scott Nielsen said Monday.
The Washington Department
of Fish and Wildlife reported 10
days ago that the pack, known
to have six members, had killed
two cows on a U.S. Forest Ser-
vice grazing allotment in north-
eastern Washington. The agency
has not disclosed details of the
discovery of a third cow and a
calf from the same herd killed by
wolves, though sources say the
department confirmed the dep-
redations.
The cattlemen’s association
Monday posted a statement on
its website reporting that the dep-
redations occurred on or before
July 10.
“We know that wolf attacks
on livestock can only be stopped
by immediately removing the of-
fending wolves before the behav-
ior spreads to the whole pack,”
the association’s president, Justin
Hedrick, said in a written state-
ment.
Efforts to reach WDFW offi-
cials Monday were unsuccessful.
Shawn Cantrell, Defenders
of Wildlife’s Northwest director,
said it’s too early for WDFW to
consider shooting wolves.
Cantrell, a member of the de-
partment’s wolf advisory group,
said the depredations occurred
before WDFW put range riders
in the area to haze Dirty Shirt
wolves away from the herd.
The department’s policy de-
mands for multiple depredations
to occur after non-lethal mea-
sures have been employed before
it will authorize shooting wolves.
Considering lethal removal
now “seems, A, unnecessary,
and, B, inappropriate, given the
fact these other tools are work-
ing,” Cantrell said.
Nielsen said non-lethal mea-
sures such as range riders, flags
and loud music won’t protect
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