12 CapitalPress.com
CAFO
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to pollutants seeping into
groundwater from manure la-
goons and ields.
The proposal potentially
expanded federal jurisdiction
over groundwater and opened
the possibility that dairies
could be sued in U.S. dis-
trict courts by environmental
groups unhappy with DOE’s
enforcement of permit re-
quirements.
DOE has dropped that pro-
posal.
June 17, 2016
Instead, dairies that dis-
charge to groundwater only
will have the option of obtain-
ing a state permit that can’t be
challenged in federal court.
DOE also proposed to
exempt dairies with fewer
than 200 mature cows, an
acknowledgment that small
dairies would have faced i-
nancial hardships in comply-
ing with the new rules.
Puget Soundkeeper lobby-
ist Bruce Wishart said envi-
ronmentalists are disappoint-
ed that DOE has backed away
from its original proposal.
DOE has been lax about
policing agriculture, and law-
suits by environmental groups
could be vital to ensuring
dairies comply with permit
requirements, he said.
“Overall, there’s less pub-
lic accountability with this ap-
proach,” Wishart said.
DOE’s special assistant on
water policy, Kelly Susew-
ind, said the agency opted for
a state-only permit because
most dairies will only need a
permit to discharge to ground-
water.
“We have every intention
of upholding the permit,” he
said. “I think the state will
do a good job of managing
permits and making sure
they are implemented.”
The Legislature this year
failed to pass a bill that would
have required DOE to offer a
state-only permit to dairies.
After the session, nine
lawmakers wrote DOE, stat-
ing there was still strong sup-
port for the idea.
“My concern is not the
health of the litigation indus-
try. My concern is the health
of the environment and the
dairy industry,” House Agri-
culture Committee Chairman
Brian Blake, D-Aberdeen,
said Monday.
“I’m hopeful we can come
through with a process that
leads to a good strong regula-
tory program and a strong, vi-
able dairy industry,” he said.
Even without the threat of
federal lawsuits, a state-en-
forced CAFO permit will
bring new requirements for
producers.
“Do I think it will be a heck
of a lot less than the combined
state-federal permit? No,”
Gordon said.
DOE won’t require dairies
to line lagoons with synthetic
material, but the agency main-
tains that even well designed
and well built clay-lined la-
goons seep pollutants.
Susewind said he suspects
because of the economics of
it.”
Share
Collaborative
farming
CONTINUED from Page 1
In visiting with Midwest-
ern farmers at the event, he
learned he commences har-
vest a few weeks earlier than
Corn Belt growers. He formed
an LLC with Nebraska farmer
Don Cantrell to jointly own a
combine, each contributing an
annual sum based on his hours
of use.
They each own headers for
their respective crops to it the
machine. The following year,
the brothers formed a second
LLC to share another com-
bine with an Iowa farmer, Tim
Richter. They formed a third
LLC to share a combine with
another Iowa farmer, Ben
Riensche, two years later.
They still cooperate with
the Nebraska farmer.
Though their business ar-
rangements have ended with
the Iowa growers, the farm-
ers all remain close friends,
which Nate Riggers insists
has been the best part of the
agreement.
“(Riensche) will be at my
son’s wedding next year,” he
said. “It’s a neat relationship.”
He also rents a combine
designed to work hillsides to
an Oregon grower.
Nate Riggers said other
growers are skeptical when he
tells them that he ships heavy
equipment a third of the way
across the country to save
money. But he’s found the
shipping cost — $2,400 one-
way when he started and now
about $4,500 — is offset by
sharing the interest and insur-
ance on a combine.
“You’ve got to have a party
on each end that is committed
to the savings and sees the big
picture and doesn’t get hung
up on details,” Nate said.
O’Brien said there’s now
a glut of used farm equip-
ment on the market, and
sales have dropped con-
siderably for large, new
farm equipment, as growers
bought heavily when com-
modity prices were high-
er but have been forced
to be more conservative
lately.
O’Brien said the strength
of the market is in smaller
equipment, including trac-
tors under 40 horsepower,
purchased by hobby farm-
ers with secondary income
streams. O’Brien is uncer-
tain how much equipment
growers may be purchasing
cooperatively.
“A lot of the harvest and
planting is at the same time.
That’s historically been the
deterrent,” O’Brien said. “It’s
certainly not surprising there
may be more (sharing) hap-
pening today than in the past
Texas A&M Extension
economist Danny Klinefelter
said equipment sharing is a
prime example of collabora-
tive farming, which was the
focal point of a national con-
ference his university hosted
June 13-14 in Nashville.
Klinefelter advises farmers
who collaborate to form legal
entities, such as LLCs, to ad-
dress potential problems. He
also suggests farmers irst get
to know would-be partners —
he knows of one partnership
that dissolved because one of
the participants was too rough
on the equipment.
“It’s like getting married.
You’ve got to be compatible,”
Klinefelter said.
Klinefelter said sharing
equipment can also provide
growers the wherewithal to
keep current on technology,
such as variable-rate prescrip-
tions.
But equipment sharing
merely scratches the surface
of how farmers are now col-
laborating to control their in-
puts.
Three farmers, for exam-
ple, formed a service bureau
to hire an accountant and data
entry professional, Klinefelter
said.
Other farmers have formed
operating entities in which
they retain their land owner-
ship but jointly hire inancial
oficers and other specialized
personnel. They also share
equipment, often inding they
can buy more specialized and
modern machines when they
pool their resources.
“They share the cost and
returns of the operating enti-
ty,” Klinefelter said.
Fairield, Wash., grower
Marci Green and her husband
employ a full-time mechan-
ic, who spends about four or
ive weeks per year helping a
neighboring farmer work on
equipment.
The
neighbor,
who
couldn’t afford to hire a me-
chanic on his own, pays Green
to cover her worker’s wages,
which helps her get the most
of the mechanic’s time.
“This week, we’re in a po-
sition where we’re caught up,
and it’s a rainy time of year,
and we didn’t have a whole
lot to keep him busy,” Green
said, as her mechanic worked
on the motor of her neighbor’s
truck.
She and her neighbors also
share equipment. Two years
ago, she and three neighbors
collaboratively bought a spe-
cialized drill, which Green
needed this season to seed
only 100 acres of alfalfa.
“Our share is $35,000 in-
stead of $140,000,” she said.
She and her neighbors also
bought a machine to lay drain-
age tile on low areas of ields
that sometimes lood. It’s nice
to have but wouldn’t be worth
buying on her own.
“We can’t do much about
the price of commodities, but
where we can control a little
bit is our inputs,” Green said.
“If you want to stay in busi-
ness, you have to watch your
inputs and try to be as efi-
cient as you can be.”
tions and threatening crops.
“When running smoothly,
the H-2A legal worker pro-
gram beneits farmers and
farmworkers alike. But when
one of the six government en-
tities involved messes up, the
entire application comes to
a screeching halt,” said Dan
Fazio, WAFLA’s CEO.
Six governmental agencies
each has to do its part within a
60-day window, he said.
In the past month, he said,
“DOL and the State Depart-
ment have really stepped up.”
The consulates, which are
under the State Department,
have “gone the extra mile,”
he said.
USCIS, on the other hand,
needs to commit to handling
H-2A applications in 10 days
or less and needs to commu-
nicate with applicants faster
than by the U.S. Postal Ser-
vice, he said.
WAFLA provided 67
percent of the 11,844 H-2A
workers in Washington last
season through contracts with
growers.
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
Sid Freeman, a Canyon County, Idaho, farmer, sprays a ield for a neighbor on June 8. In turn, his neighbor plows ields for Freeman.
Sharing equipment has saved both growers tens of thousands of dollars.
Working with
neighbors
Having good neighbors
has enabled Sid Freeman to
get by with one less plow and
a smaller leet of trucks.
Freeman said he has a bean
combine to offer his neigh-
bor, who in turn has plenty of
trucks.
“When it comes to harvest
time, I don’t have enough
trucks to keep things running.
He’s got a lot of trucks, and
during that particular time of
harvest season, he’s not using
all of his trucks,” Freeman
said. “I’ll go and cut beans for
him and he’ll come and do the
trucking for me.”
Another neighbor plows
for Freeman, who recipro-
cates with spraying services.
Spreading resources over sev-
eral farms has the added ben-
eit of maximizing farmwork-
ers’ time.
“It adds up to tens of thou-
sands of dollars being able to
trade back and forth in that
manner,” Freeman said.
Equipment sharing used
to be standard practice for
farmers and fell out of fashion
somewhat when commodity
prices spiked a few years ago,
Freeman contends.
“Back when farms were
a lot smaller and there were
a lot more farms, trading
like this was commonplace,”
Freeman said. “The ag indus-
H-2A
CONTINUED from Page 1
the U.S. Citizenship and Im-
migration Services.
“For the past two years,
H-2A employers have experi-
enced unacceptable delays in
the processing of labor certi-
ications, visa petitions and
interviews for inal border
crossing and arrive on farms
and ranches,” the letter states.
It said delays this spring
have been seen at the Depart-
pollutants seeping from la-
goons reach groundwater in
the “vast majority” of cases,
triggering the need to get a
permit.
Dairies with permits will
have to assess their manure
lagoons to minimize seepage
and test ields more often to
ensure they aren’t applying
too much manure.
Dairies that don’t obtain
a permit risk being penalized
if DOE can show they are
discharging pollutants into
groundwater.
Wednesday’s proposal will
be subject to public comment
before becoming inal.
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
Sid Freeman, a Canyon County, Idaho, farmer, sprays a ield for a
neighbor on June 8. In turn, his neighbor plows ields for Freeman.
Sharing equipment has saved both growers tens of thousands of
dollars.
try has gotten fat in the last six
to eight years.”
Cathy Wilson, vice presi-
dent of research collaboration
at the Idaho Wheat Com-
mission, said even within
the state, the wide variety of
crops and differences in cli-
mate have opened a window
large enough to make sharing
of planting and harvesting
equipment possible for some
farmers.
Wilson said there’s about
a two-week difference in
the planting and harvesting
schedules of south-central
Idaho’s Magic Valley and
Swan Valley in Eastern Idaho,
which has opened the door for
some farmers in those areas to
share equipment. Wilson also
knows of an equipment-shar-
ing agreement involving
brothers who farm at different
elevations with slightly differ-
ent seasons, avoiding poten-
tial scheduling conlicts.
Most farm equipment is
expensive. A farmer can eas-
ily spend more on a tractor or
combine than on his house.
Shane Mitchell, market-
ing director with Milestone, a
Blackfoot, Idaho-based potato
seed cutter manufacturer, said
equipment costs have been
driven up in recent years by
new features and innova-
tions.
His company’s original
seed cutter in the 1960s had
a single deck with no sizing
capabilities. The latest Mile-
stone cutter has a double
deck with three sizers and
speed controls. The cost of
a new, basic model ranges
from $130,000 to $190,000,
depending on size.
The same trend holds
true with tractors and other
implements that now come
standard with GPS-guided
computer technology for
variable-rate applications.
Charlie O’Brien, senior
vice president with the Associ-
ation of Equipment Manufac-
turers, said new environmental
requirements on machinery,
especially governing engine
exhaust, have spurred equip-
ment price increases.
ment of Labor, and that US-
CIS, at times, is not following
a requirement in law that ap-
plications be responded to 30
days prior to a farmer’s date
of need.
“DOL must comply with
the law and the failure to com-
ply is unacceptable,” the letter
states while urging the agen-
cies to handle H-2A applica-
tions expeditiously.
Among the signers are:
• Washington Republicans:
Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodg-
ers, Dave Reichert and Jaime
Herrera Beutler.
• Washington Democrats:
Reps. Jim McDermott, Rick
Larsen, Denny Heck and Der-
ek Kilmer.
• Oregon Democrats: Reps.
Suzanne Bonamici and Kurt
Schrader. An aide for Rep.
Greg Walden, R-Ore., said the
congressman was not aware
of the letter but supports it.
• Idaho Republicans: Reps.
Mike Simpson and Raul Lab-
rador.
• California Democrats:
Reps. Julia Brownley, Jim
Costa, Sam Farr, John Gara-
mendi and Juan Vargas.
• California Republicans:
Reps. Ken Calvert, Jeff Den-
ham, Doug LaMalfa, David
Valadao and Devin Nunes.
WAFLA, formerly the
Washington Farm Labor As-
sociation, has been dealing
with federal delays of H-2A
applications since February
and on April 21 the Ameri-
can Farm Bureau Federation
warned that H-2A delays in
more than 20 states was fast
approaching crisis propor-
John O’Connell/Capital Press
Texas A&M University Extension economist Danny Klinefelter
speaks in March during a symposium on farm technology in
Pocatello, Idaho, about ways to make a farm successful. Klinefelter
highlighted the opportunities for growers who share equipment to
keep costs down.
Big investment