March 6, 2015
CapitalPress.com
3
Customers remain committed to
Idaho wheat despite 2014 losses
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
Bill would require
giant cane growers
post $1 million bond
Critics fear the
biomass crop will
become invasive
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
SALEM — Farmers who
grow giant cane, a plant used
for bioenergy productionB
would be subject to bond
requirements and potential
penalties under legislation
proposed in Oregon.
Under House Bill 2183,
producing up to 400 acres of
giant cane would require fil-
ing a $1 million surety bond
with the Oregon Invasive
Species Council, an entity
within the Oregon Depart-
ment of Agriculture.
Planting a larger parcel
of the species Arundo donax
would require filing a surety
bond of $25B000 per acre.
The money would pay
for removing the plants that
spread beyond the plot and
ODA could also impose civ-
il penalties of up to $25,000
for violations of bond condi-
tions.
Supporters of the legisla-
tion fear that giant cane will
become an invasive weed to
the detriment of Oregon’s en-
vironment by crowding out
other plants.
“It will inevitably escape
control if planted on an in-
dustrial scale,” said Billy Don
RobinsonB vice president of
the Native Plant Society of
Oregon, who testified during a
March 3 hearing of the House
Committee on Agriculture
and Natural Resources.
Spraying the plant with
an herbicide such as gly-
phosate won’t necessarily
prevent its resurgenceB as the
chemical may not kill inac-
tive tubers that can remain
viable for several years,
Robinson said.
“It’s a real ticking time
bomb down in the groundB”
he said.
The concern over Arundo
donax stems from trials con-
ducted by Portland General
Electric, which is examining
the use of the plant as a feed-
stock for power generation.
PGE will stop using coal
at its power plant in Board-
manB Ore.B in 2020 and is
considering giant cane as a
replacement, said Brendan
McCarthyB government af-
fairs analyst for the compa-
ny.
Rather than shutter the
facility, modifying it to use
biomass would preserve jobs
in area and allow PGE to
keep it as an asset, he said.
The
aggressiveB
fast-growing qualities that
make giant cane attractive
as a feedstock also make it
a potential invasive species,
McCarthy said.
Ironically, PGE has re-
duced its trials of Arundo
donax because the plant
hasn’t performed as well as
expected due to frost kill and
other issuesB he said.
PGE doesn’t believe that
HB 2183 is necessary, as the
company is taking precau-
tions to prevent the plant’s
escapeB he said.
Growers and harvesters
must comply with “sani-
tation check lists” such as
baling the crop and cleaning
trucks after hauling it, Mc-
Carthy said.
“We’ve been extraordi-
narily careful about how
we’ve started growing this
plant,” he said. “Due to our
project, I think we’ve im-
proved our state’s knowl-
edge of this species.”
ODA is not taking a po-
sition on the bill but Katy
CobaB the agency’s directorB
noted that Arundo donax is
already subject to restric-
tions under its “control area”
authority for potential pests
and diseases.
For example, anyone who
wants to grow the crop must
provide ODA with a map of
where it will be planted and
keep the plant away from
waterways, she said. Parcels
must also be monitored for
three years to ensure eradi-
cation.
PGE has also filed a $1
million bond with ODA for
its existing trials, she said.
Committee chair Brad
Witt, D-Clatskanie, said the
testimony of HB 2183’s sup-
porters “has succeeded in
alarming me.”
Further hearings will be
held on the bill to get input
from scientists at Oregon
State University and ODAB
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
Wheat is harvested in a Southwestern Idaho field last July. Idaho Wheat Commission Executive Direc-
tor Blaine Jacobson told lawmakers March 2 the state’s wheat customers remain committed to Idaho
growers despite major losses last year caused by heavy August rains.
He said the rains were
devastating but the industry’s
customers “did everything
they possibly could in order to
make it work.”
Moon said that included
using some wheat with low-
er falling number test scores,
which measure wheat quality,
than they normally would.
“They didn’t run away
from usB” said IWC commis-
sioner Gordon Gallup. “They
definitely worked with us.”
Jacobson said buyers did
everything they could to use
as much of that damaged
wheat as possible.
“They wanted to keep the
growers healthy so that the
industry would bounce back
this yearB” he said.
Jacobson said the 2014
losses have also impacted the
commission’s fiscal year 2015
budget. The approved budget
is $3.2 million but the com-
mission will end up spending
only about $2.8 million in fis-
cal 2015 because of reduced
revenue from the state’s wheat
assessment.
And by the end of this yearB
the commission’s $3.8 million
reserve is expected to decrease
to about $3.4 million.
Despite the 2014 losses,
wheat remained the state’s
second largest crop in terms
of revenue with $732 million
in cash receipts last year, Ja-
cobson said.
Calif. manual survey shows 5% of normal snowpack
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
SACRAMENTO
—
Snow in the Sierra Nevada
last weekend may have ex-
cited ski and snowboard en-
thusiasts, but it did little for
California’s pitiful snow-
pack.
The state Department
of Water Resources’ third
manual snow survey of the
season on March 3 turned
up just 0.9 inches of water
contentB or 5 percent of av-
erage for the dateB at a snow
course 90 miles east of here.
The department’s elec-
tronic readings found the
water content of the north-
ern Sierra snowpack at 4.4
inches on March 3B or 16
percent of average for the
date, while the statewide
snow water equivalent aver-
age of 5 inches was 19 per-
cent of normal.
Most of the DWR’s 103
electronic sensors are at
higher elevations than the
snow courses where chief
of snow surveys Frank
Gehrke and other officials
take readings, so they tend
to receive more snowB the
agency explained in a news
release.
The snow survey fol-
lowed a weekend system
that brought heavy down-
pours to Southern Califor-
nia, light showers to the
Central Valley and 12 to 18
inches of snow in parts of
the Sierra Nevada.
But much of California
saw a historically dry Janu-
ary, and even the early-sea-
son and February storms
Courtesy of Calif. Dept. of Water Resources
Frank Gehrke, the California Department of Water Resources’
chief of snow surveys, measures snow depth for the agency’s third
manual snow survey of the season March 3 at Echo Summit east
of Sacramento.
that improved reservoir lev-
els and pushed up commu-
nities’ rainfall totals didn’t
produce much snow.
Sacramento is only
slightly below its normal
seasonal rainfall total, reg-
istering 13.22 inches since
Oct. 1 while it averages
13.63 inches for the periodB
according to the National
Weather Service. But elec-
tronic snowpack readings
in the central and southern
Sierra on March 3 came in
at 20 percent and 22 percent
of normal, respectively, the
DWR reported.
Snowpack levels are a
key factor in determining
the year’s state and federal
water allocations, as they
give an indication for how
much runoff will fill res-
ervoirs in the spring and
summer months. For the
second straight yearB farm-
ers without senior water
rights who rely on federal
Central Valley Project water
have learned they will likely
get non this year, while the
DWR has set its allocation
at 20 percent of requested
deliveries.
Only in 1991 was the wa-
ter content lower than this
year in early March, regis-
tering 18 percent of normal
statewide, but there’s little
hope the state can repeat the
“miracle March” that dra-
matically improved condi-
tions that year.
The federal Climate
Prediction Center foresees
warmer-than-normal tem-
peratures throughout the
West in the next monthB so
any storms that do come
will likely have high snow
levels. And areas north of
Sacramento are expected to
be drier than normal.
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Courtesy of Frank Callahan, Native Plant Society
Giant cane is seen growing near the Talent area in Oregon. A bill
proposed in the Oregon House of Representatives would require
those growing the plant as a fuel stock post a minimum $1 million
bond to pay for eradication should it spread beyond its plot.
BOISE — Major Idaho
wheat customers remain com-
mitted to the state’s growers
despite the significant losses
in 2014 caused by heavy Au-
gust rainsB Idaho Wheat Com-
mission Executive Director
Blaine Jacobson told lawmak-
ers March 2.
Jacobson said the wettest
August in parts of Southern
and Eastern Idaho since 1953
caused an estimated $210 mil-
lion in losses to Idaho’s wheat
and barley crops, with wheat
accounting for about two-
thirds of that total.
Idaho produces a consis-
tent crop every year and the
state’s wheat customers un-
derstand last year’s losses
were a rare eventB he said.
“These companies come to
Idaho because of the consis-
tency of our harvest” and they
understand “it’s been 60-some
years since we had something
like that,” he told members of
the House Agricultural Affairs
Committee.
IWC commissioner Ned
Moon told the Capital Press
that millers helped Idaho
growers survive the losses by
using as much of the damaged
wheat as they could while still
meeting their quality parame-
ters.
Lawsuit claims malfunction killed chickens
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
An Oregon egg producer is
seeking $500,000 in damag-
es from a Washington com-
pany it accuses of improper-
ly installing equipment that
led to the deaths of 100,000
chickens.
Willamette Egg Farms,
based in CanbyB Ore.B has
filed a lawsuit claiming that
an electrical malfunction
halted ventilation at its fa-
cility in Moses Lake, Wash.,
asphyxiating 100B000 hens.
The complaint alleges
that Spectrum Communica-
tions of Moses Lake is liable
for negligence and breach of
contract because it installed
a control system that failed
to set off an alarm when the
ventilation system stopped
operating.
Capital Press was unable
to reach the owner of Spec-
trum Communications for
comment as of press time.
U.S.
District
Judge
Thomas Rice in Spokane,
Wash.B is presiding over the
lawsuit, which was filed in
the Eastern District of Wash-
ington.
IMMEDIATE GROWER
OPPORTUNITY
Kerr Concentrates is
currently seeking
red beet growers in the
Willamette Valley for harvest
the summer of 2015.
Contact Rory Hayden
at 503-587-8327 for more information.
Byron Ellis
Senior Vice President, Investment Officer
101 S. Capitol Blvd., Boise, ID 83702
208-338-1200 • 800-992-9318
Byron.Ellis@wellsfargoadvisors.com
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