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May 6, 2016 CapitalPress.com 7 Idaho hop growers to add hundreds of acres By SEAN ELLIS Capital Press Courtesy of University of Idaho College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Dean Michael Parrella is seen with UI mascot Joe Vandal. Farm groups help ag college exceed fundraising goal By SEAN ELLIS “I think it will speak vol- umes that this group is endors- ing this new dean and really MOSCOW, Idaho — The getting him set up on the right 8QLYHUVLW\RI,GDKR¶V¿UVWIRU- foot,” Kim O’Neill, CALS as- ay into social media fundrais- sistant dean of development ing was a success for the Col- and communications, told FPI lege of Agricultural and Life members. “That endorsement Sciences and its new dean. is what we’re after.” The college raised $30,425 Besides FPI’s overall from 143 donors during the 36- $1,000 donation, the Ida- hour campaign, which started ho Cattle Association, Idaho April 26. That far surpassed Grain Producers Association, the campaign’s $15,000 goal. Idaho Co-op Council, Idaho The money will go into Honey Industry Association, the CALS Dean’s Excellence Idaho Dairymen’s Associa- Fund, which will be used by tion, Northwest Farm Credit Michael Parrella, the college’s Services, Idaho Sugarbeet new dean, for special projects. Growers Association and Ida- 8,RI¿FLDOVVDLGWKDWZKLOH ho Grange, all FPI members, they were happy with the donated toward the campaign amount, they were more happy individually. with Food Producers of Ida- O’Neill told Capital Press ho’s support for the campaign. WKDW XQLYHUVLW\ RI¿FLDOV ZHUH FPI includes 40 of the state’s pleased with FPI’s response to farm groups, and its members the campaign because it serves ZHUHDVNHGE\8,RI¿FLDOVODVW DV D YRWH RI FRQ¿GHQFH IRU month to kick off the cam- CALS and Parrella, who took paign by pledging $7,500. over as dean in February. FPI members quickly voted “This is an endorsement to donate $1,000 from the or- of the dean,” she said and FPI ganization, and its individual members said their support groups donated $7,000 sepa- was intended for that purpose. rately. “We wanted to show our Capital Press support for the dean and we thought that was a good way to demonstrate it,” said Bob Naerebout, executive direc- tor of IDA, which donated $1,000. “We are in full support of the college and the dean. They do a lot for agriculture and this is one way of repaying the favor,” said Milk Producers of Idaho Executive Director Brent Olmstead. The $15,000 goal was set to honor the college’s 115th year and Parrella’s tenure as the college’s 15th dean. The excellence fund mon- ey will be used to help CALS students participate in scientif- LFFRQIHUHQFHVDQGJRRQ¿HOG trips. It can also be used for scholarships. O’Neill said it will also be used to help achieve one of Parrella’s main priorities of increasing graduate and un- dergraduate enrollment. The money “will allow greater contact with prospec- tive CALS students, increas- ing overall enrollment in the college and on the UI cam- pus,” Parrella said in an email. WILDER, Idaho — Ida- ho’s hop acreage continues to expand at a robust rate, with growers planning to add hun- dreds of additional acres this year. “It’s still a pretty positive (environment) for hops right now,” said Brock Obendorf, whose hop operation will add 350 acres in 2016. “I think this year there will be approximately 700 new hop acres in Idaho.” That would be a 14 percent increase over Idaho’s 2015 total of 4,863 hop acres. Hop grower Nate Jackson said that estimate sounds sol- id and based on the amount of hops sold recently, “There will probably be a larger increase next year.” Idaho hop acreage has been on a rapid rise since 2013, when it totaled 3,356. Acreage increased to 3,743 in 2014 and 4,863 in 2015. The increase is almost all related to soaring demand from the craft brewing industry, hop growers said. Craft brewers use roughly four times as much hops to pro- duce beer than the industry av- erage, according to the Brewers Association, which represents small and independent craft brewers in the United States. According to the Brewers Association, U.S. craft brewing volume totaled 24.5 million bar- rels in 2015 and the retail dollar value of that production totaled $22 billion, a 13 percent in- crease in volume and 16 percent increase in value. The number of craft brewer- ies in the U.S. grew 15 percent to 4,269 in 2015, according to Bart Watson, the group’s chief economist. “It’s all driven by craft,” Obendorf said of this year’s ex- pansion of hop acres in Idaho. “It’s all aroma hops” for the craft industry. Jackson said the ability to get decent yields for baby or ¿UVW\HDU KRSV LQ ,GDKR LV DQ- other factor in that growth, and there is also less competition for ground in Idaho than in Wash- ington and Oregon. Washington and Oregon have also experienced sizable increases in hop acres in recent years but the percentage growth is greater in Idaho. According to USDA’s Na- tional Agricultural Statistics Service, total hop production in Idaho has increased from 5.8 million pounds in 2013 to 6.9 million pounds in 2014 and 8.7 million pounds in 2015. Yields averaged 1,740 pounds per acre in Idaho in 2013, 1,847 in 2014 and 1,794 in 2015. 3DFL¿F1RUWKZHVWKRSDFUHDJHVWLOOFOLPELQJ Capital Press MOXEE, Wash. — Hop acreage is increasing for the fourth straight year in the United States and for the third year globally. U.S. hop acreage is pro- jected to increase by 6,000 acres this year, a 13 percent rise. That follows a 19 per- cent last year, according to the Hop Growers of Ameri- ca. The 13 percent is a con- servative estimate and could be higher by the time final figures are available. Last year’s initial estimate was 15 percent, but the actual in- crease was 19 percent, said Jaki Brophy, Hop Growers of America spokeswoman. Of the increase, 5,400 acres are in Washington state, Oregon and Idaho and 600 acres are in other states. With the new acreage, the U.S. total is 51,275 acres, widening the gap with Ger- many, the other leading producer at 45,468 acres. Germany’s acreage is up 10 percent. The worldwide increase is 8,347 acres, up 6.7 per- cent, which was predicted by the International Hop Growers Convention in Paris on April 18. The convention estimates 2016 production at 232 million pounds global- ly, up from 190.4 million in 2015. In the U.S., the esti- mated production is 97 mil- lion pounds, up from 80.2 million in 2015. Of the U.S. estimate, 60.6 million pounds are aroma varieties and 36.4 million pounds are alpha. Aroma varieties are mainly used by craft breweries and alpha are mainly used by large brew- ers. Drought in Europe re- duced the worldwide produc- tion in 2015. U.S. yields are expected to be better due to more acreage coming into production and no drought in the Yakima Valley, where about 70 percent of the U.S. crop is grown, Brophy said. The acreage increase continues to be driven by the growing number of craft breweries, said Ann George, administrator of Hop Growers of America and the Washington Hop Commission. The number of breweries in the U.S. reached 4,144 at the end of November, topping the historic high of 4,131 in 1873, according to the Brewers Association in Boulder, Colo. Brewery openings ex- ceeded two a day in 2015 with 15 states each now home to more than 100 breweries, the association said. California, Oregon and Washington are among the top 15. The U.S. inventory of hops was 131 million pounds on March 1, up 10 percent from a year earlier. For per- spective, that compares with 190.4 million pounds har- vested worldwide in 2015. “We are finally begin- ning to see some signs of breathing room in the supply chain, especially in popular craft varieties hard-hit last summer, although we have not reached comfortable lev- els quite yet,” said Pete Ma- hony, vice president of sup- ply chain management and purchasing at John I. Haas in Yakima. Early maturing aroma va- rieties in the Yakima Valley experienced lower yields last year due to drought but there’s adequate water this year from a larger mountain snowpack. 15-5/16 x 10 x 2 18-3/4 x 14-3/8 x 3 It looks like a good sea- son and more breweries are buying hops by contract ver- sus the spot market, resulting in more breweries reliably having their needs met at a known price, George said. “We hope to see this con- tinue, reducing reliance on the spot market, which acts as a good buffer for unantic- ipated need and yield vari- ances,” she said. Too much spot market supply causes market price volatility and more grower risk, she said. Forward contracting also allows growers to secure necessary capital from lend- ers, as they can prove their crop is sold, George said. That’s crucial for expan- sion estimated at a minimum of $40,000 per acre, includ- ing the cost of land, growing supplies, rootstock, labor, equipment, harvesting, cold storage and packaging, she said. 19-1/#4 19-4/#7 By DAN WHEAT CALL FOR PRICING AND AVAILABILITY. Delivery Available 503-588-8313 2561 Pringle Rd. SE Salem, OR ROP-19-3-4/#4N