February 27, 2015
CapitalPress.com
7
Group defends Idaho sheep station
Committee
petitions Congress
to reject closure
20
By SEAN ELLIS
32
Wyo.
Dubois
15
33
33
Rexburg
Sn
BOISE — A diverse com-
mittee that is trying to prevent
the closure of the USDA’s sheep
experiment station near Dubois,
Idaho, has fi nalized a document
that defends its continued exis-
tence.
The document, which high-
lights some of the important
research being done at the Agri-
cultural Research Service’s U.S.
Sheep Experiment Station, will
be distributed to members of
Congress, who will be asked in
the next few weeks to prevent its
closure.
The station conducts re-
search designed to improve
the genetics, reproduction
effi ciency and nutrient use of
domestically grazed sheep.
The USDA has proposed
closing it, citing factors such
as litigation by environmental
groups over grazing activities
at the station, which covers
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Idaho
Capital Press
U.S. Sheep
Experiment
Station
ak
e River
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Idaho Falls
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Capital Press graphic
about 48,000 acres in Idaho
and Montana.
A committee of industry,
university and state and fed-
eral agency personnel seek-
ing to keep the station open
agreed on a fi nal document
Feb. 23 following a sev-
en-hour meeting.
“In fi scal year 2016 and
beyond, Congress must reject
the USDA closure request for
(the station) to ensure that
valuable livestock, rangeland
and wildlife research efforts
and an irreplaceable fi eld lab-
Photo submitted
Sheep graze at the USDA Agricultural Research Service Sheep Experiment Station in Dubois, Idaho.
The facility has been proposed for closure in Fiscal Year 2016 in President Barrack Obama’s proposed
federal budget.
oratory are not lost forever,”
the document concludes.
It also lists the research done
at the station, including the use
of new genomics data to try to
increase sheep production effi -
ciency and tackle disease chal-
lenges.
“There’s a lot of good data
in there that describes what the
station does,” said Idaho Wool
Growers Association Execu-
tive Director Stan Boyd. “This
document will go to (Congress)
and be used to show ARS
the reasoning why the station
should not be closed.”
The three-page document
calls for the creation of a con-
sortium that will include pri-
vate industry and university
partners, federal laboratories
and other stakeholders that will
“fully utilize the irreplaceable
resources and opportunities”
of the station in “ongoing and
future collaborative research
efforts....”
In a letter to Congress ex-
plaining why the station is slat-
ed for closure, USDA Secretary
Tom Vilsack noted a lack of fi -
nancial and human resources at
the location and costs associated
with animal feed, infrastructure
and staff.
The committee’s document
addresses those issues as well
as the USDA’s main concern:
litigation against the station’s
use of high-elevation grazing
allotments.
ARS has been sued three
times since 2007 over grazing
activities at the station, with
various environmental groups
claiming land used by the sta-
tion is a source of wildlife con-
fl ict and possible disease trans-
mission between domestic and
wild sheep.
Among other factors, “con-
tinued challenges from envi-
ronmental groups opposed to
livestock grazing along a corri-
dor that includes the ... summer
range has eroded ARS’ ability
to sustain a viable range sheep
research program at the Dubois
location,” Vilsack’s Nov. 10,
2014, letter states.
The committee’s document
states that a solution to the
higher-elevation grazing issue
that is mutually agreeable for
industry, wildlife and ARS
interests will be identifi ed by
Oct. 1.
Analysts: Hay prices at point of no return
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
A short-term decrease in
hay exports, lower milk pric-
es and shipping delays at West
Coast ports could soften west-
ern hay prices in the short term,
but long-term global demand
will keep quality hay trading
on a new, higher price plain,
according to industry analysts.
Growing global demand
for U.S. hay, 95 percent sup-
plied by western states, has
largely contributed to western
hay prices nearly doubling in
the last 10 years, increasing to
a new price plain, Rabobank
economists Vernon Crowley
and James Williamson said in
the bank’s latest hay outlook.
Local demand for hay has
also grown as western state
dairies increased milk produc-
tion 20 percent over the last
10 years and hay production
declined 8 percent, the econo-
mists said.
UI Extension
offers land
buying class
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
The University of Idaho
Clearwater County Extension
offi ce in Lewiston offers a
three-evening workshop on
purchasing rural land.
The sessions start at 6 p.m.
on March 12, 19 and 26.
The program covers such
issues as water rights, wells,
easements, fi nancing, govern-
ment assistance programs and
appraising rural land values.
The fi rst evening of the se-
ries is an introduction to pur-
chasing rural land. The sec-
ond offers a real estate agent’s
perspective and what buyers
should know about rural land
property taxes. The third in-
cludes information on rural
land titles, fi nancing options
and technical assistance and
cost-share programs.
The workshop is intended
for fi rst-time rural land buy-
ers, said William Warren, UI
assistant professor and ex-
tension educator in Orofi no,
Idaho.
“The overall goal of my
program is to inform individ-
uals on how to make produc-
tive use of their property to
benefi t themselves fi nancially,
contribute to the local econo-
my and be good stewards of
the land and natural resourc-
es,” Warren said.
The program also intro-
duces new rural landowners
to UI Extension, USDA Nat-
ural Resources Conservation
Service, USDA Farm Service
Agency and other agencies.
Cost is $15 per person
or $20 per household for all
three sessions. Enrollment is
limited to 30 participants. To
register, contact UI Clearwa-
ter County Extension at 208-
476-4434 or clearwater@
uidaho.edu.
Global
demand
for
high-quality hay, especially
from China and United Arab
Emirates, and continued con-
straints on western U.S. pro-
duction have squeezed an
already tight market, driven
hay prices to record levels and
have raised the bar on mini-
mum prices, they said.
“Ultimately, these factors
have changed the industry …
,” they said.
Average prices have shifted
to new levels. Along with in-
creased prices, market constit-
uents are facing a more vola-
tile marketplace, they said.
Rapid development of
large, corporate dairy farm
projects in China and pro-
longed drought in UAE have
been the primary drivers of the
30 percent increase in export
demand for hay over the last
fi ve years, the economists said.
Prolonged drought in the
West and increased compe-
tition for water for perma-
nent crops has pulled about
300,000 acres out of hay pro-
duction, and competition for
land and water from high-val-
ue crops continues, the econo-
mists said.
“A short-term decrease in
global demand, coupled with
restraints at West Coast ports,
will put downward pressure on
(hay) prices. However, prices
are expected to remain above
history lows. Long-term prices
and global demand are expect-
ed to increase, while compe-
tition from high valued crops
continues,” the economists
stated.
Water in the Middle East is
an extremely scarce resource,
leading governments to reduce
the amount of water farmers
are allowed to use. In 2008,
the UAE government banned
hay production altogether to
protect limited water supplies.
By 2013, UAE was respon-
sible for 28 percent of total
U.S. hay exports — more than
800,000 tons, Rabobank re-
ported.
U.S. average hay prices received
(Dollars per ton, by marketing year)
$250/ton
Alfalfa
All hay
Other
$203.50
200
*May through Dec.
Source: USDA NASS
$181
150
$104
$132.75
100
$98.20
Carol Ryan Dumas and
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
$81.40
50
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Columbia-Snake River Irrigators Association
Policy Memorandum
DATE:
February 20, 2015
TO:
Mr. Estevan Lopez, Commissioner, USBR; Ms. Lorri Lee, Regional Director,
PNRO-USBR; Mr. Robert Quint, Chief of Staff, USBR
FROM:
Ron Reimann, CSRIA President
Darryll Olsen, Ph.D., CSRIA Board Representative
SUBJECT:
Irrigators’ System 1, North-I-90 Project, Water Service Contract Request
___________________________________________________________________________________________
The ability of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to offer responsible water resources management
for the 21st Century is being tested by whether the agency can execute a new water service
contract (WSC), for the System 1 Participants, North I-90, Odessa Subarea (Columbia Basin
Project). It is now necessary for the Commissioner to oversee personally this effort, requiring the
Pacific NW Regional Office to work effectively with private sector Irrigators, to embrace water
management practices that will overshadow the future of Western irrigated agriculture.
At our January 28th meeting with Regional Director Lee, a meeting requested since August of
2014, she spoke of “relationships.” To that end, we left the meeting with an understanding that
USBR-CSRIA legal counsel would pursue substantive discussion on the pending WSC, provided to
the USBR in May 2014, followed by a letter from the East Columbia Basin Irrigation District for
the USBR to take the WSC review lead. Instead, CSRIA legal counsel received renewed
obfuscation from your legal counsel, not cooperation.
Working with the CSRIA, the System 1, 2, and 4 Project Irrigators have completed all necessary
preconstruction engineering/economics analyses and water right transfer review; and the System
1 Project participants have secured $42 million of private capital to commence construction, now,
with receipt of a new WSC. But the Region has displayed a remarkable ambivalence toward
private capital and state water law; and its disregard for efficient water use applications,
paramount to making the Project economics viable, is bewildering.
The Regional USBR has vacillated between lethargic and obstructive action; and the District’s
unfunded “normative” approach is being rejected by many--if not most--of the Irrigators, as it
rests on complicated (speculative) public sector financing, and it increases costs for most of the
Irrigators. The wells are running dry, and the USBR and District are delaying Project construction
while falsely claiming some obscure “social benefits.” So whose interests are really being served
here—the USBR Region, the District Board members/staff, the Irrigators?
This deteriorating circumstance begs for USBR intervention from the highest executive level.
3030 W. Clearwater, Suite 205-A, Kennewick, WA, 99336
509-783-1623, FAX 509-735-3140 DOlsenEcon@AOL.com
2014*