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March 27, 2015 CapitalPress.com 13 PCN-affected spud growers plead case to lawmakers By SEAN ELLIS Capital Press BOISE — Spud growers who have spent nine years dealing with federal regula- tions designed to eradicate potato pale cyst nematode from a small area in East Idaho traveled to the state’s Capitol March 16 to plead for help. They asked for more man- ageable regulations and less strict testing requirements that they said are far tougher than world standards. Steve France, who has farmed for 50 years, said the reg- ulations are difficult to live with. “The last two years have really hammered us financial- ly wise,” he told members of the House Agricultural Affairs Committee. “It’s about more than we can take.” PCN, a parasite that can sig- nificantly reduce potato yields, was first detected in Idaho in a small area around Shelley in 2006. Eighteen growers in that area are in a federal PCN mon- itoring program, which regu- lates 7,734 acres, including 26 infested fields encompassing 2,897 acres. Shelley farmer Bryan Searle said those growers have faced stiff and unnecessary regula- tions and they have been asked to bite the bullet for the entire Idaho potato industry by helping ensure the parasite is not spread. “If we’re going to carry one for the team, we need help to continue,” he said. “We feel it’s time we received ... some financial help.” Searle and France were among 16 growers who came to Boise to educate lawmak- ers about the PCN regula- tions and the financial diffi- culties they are facing. Mark Mickelsen of Rigby said the regulations have cost his farm $700,000 in the past six months alone. Kirt Oler said they cost him about $40,000 this past year and he has decided to no longer grow potatoes. “I’m much too small to afford something like that,” he said. A bill supported by the growers that would have al- lowed them to ask the Idaho Potato Commission for a refund of the state’s potato assessment was rejected by the House ag National wheat yield contest planned By JOHN O’CONNELL Capital Press The National Wheat Foun- dation plans to revive a nation- wide wheat yield competition, hoping it will drive grower in- novation and lead to improved production methods. The industry last hosted a yield competition in 1993, said National Wheat Foundation Chairman Dusty Tallman. Tallman said the foundation — a sister organization of the National Association of Wheat Growers tasked with wheat pro- motion and education — hopes to iron out rules in April and have the contest ready for win- ter wheat planted this fall. Com- panies including John Deere, BASF and Monsanto have al- ready agreed to be partners. The foundation met in Jan- uary in Washington, D.C., for its first contest organizational meeting. Tallman said U.S. corn and soybean growers have learned from top growers in their own yield competitions, which have spurred the implementation of cutting-edge production meth- ods into more fields. John O’Connell/Capital Press The 2015 spring wheat crop is planted in southeast Idaho. The National Wheat Foundation is reviving a U.S. yield competition to drive innovation in the industry. “The reason we want to do this is to help drive innovation in the industry,” Tallman said. “We look at what corn has done with increases in their yields. Wheat yields have continued to grow, but it’s a fraction of corn.” The National Corn Growers Association awards trophies to the top three growers in each of six classes — based on soil type, irrigation or dryland and tillage — for each corn state. Rachel Jungermann-Orf, manager of the corn yield competition, said 415 growers were recognized as winners in 2014, and seed and equipment companies offered special prizes to winning pro- ducers who used their products. The association requires minimum 10-acre plots, and many growers later expand practices used in their contest plots to their other commercial plots, she said. In 2014, she said six corn contest growers topped 400 bushels per acre. “It’s a good trial and error for them,” Jungermann-Orf said, adding the contest also highlights hybrid advances made by seed companies. Tallman said the wheat com- petition will likely be divided by region, with subcategories for irrigated or dryland, winter or spring planting and the six dif- ferent wheat classes. He hopes land-grant universities will get involved and share their latest research with growers seeking to push yields. Travis Jones, executive director of Idaho Grain Pro- ducers Association, said Idaho should be competitive, both on dryland farms in the Northern Panhandle and irrigated farms in the south and east. Jones said Idaho’s wheat industry has ad- vocated for quality as a contest parameter. Wheat Foundation board member Wayne Hurst, of Burley, Idaho, said U.S. wheat grow- ers averaged in the mid-30s for bushels per acre when he was in high school, and today, that aver- age remains in the low-40s. In 2008, Hurst said the foun- dation set a goal of improving wheat yields by 20 percent over the course of a decade, and the competition is part of the effort to “send a clear signal to private re- searchers throughout the country that wheat growers are finally se- rious about improving yields.” committee earlier in the session. Stephanie Mickelsen, Mark Mickelsen’s wife, said grow- ers in the PCN monitoring area have their soil tested at a rate of up to 40 pounds per acre, while the world standard is 1.3 pounds per acre. “We’re putting the Idaho potato industry at a huge disad- vantage if we continue to test at such high rates in Idaho and they aren’t going to have the same testing in other places,” she said. Searle said he believes if other states and countries tested for PCN at the same rate growers in Idaho’s PCN area are tested at, the parasite would be discovered in a lot of other places. “These testing rates are way beyond what the rest of the world is doing,” said Jared Wat- tenbarger, president of the new- ly formed “Idaho PCN Group.” Rep. Ken Andrus, a Re- publican rancher from East Idaho and chairman of the House ag committee, said he invited the growers to Boise so lawmakers could better understand the situation they are facing. U.S. attorney settles wildfire lawsuit with Idaho rancher By CAROL RYAN DUMAS Capital Press The U.S. Attorney’s of- fice in Boise has settled a lawsuit for fire suppression costs against Gooding, Idaho, sheep producer John Faulk- ner and Faulkner Land and Livestock Co. The office collected $88,000 of the approximate- ly $124,000 in suppression costs in the case that involved two fires, the Faulkner fire in September 2008 and the Cas- tlerock fire in September 2010. Both fires started when pre- scribed burns on Faulkner’s private land near Gooding escaped to federal land on a windy afternoon, said Assis- tant U.S. Attorney Amy Howe. Faulkner did have a burn permit, she said. Both fires occurred on Forest Service land, threat- ening additional federal land, and required both ground and air attacks, Howe said. The Faulkner fire burned 21 acres of federal land in the area of Little Canyon Creek and Bennett Mountain Road. It began around 3 p.m. on Sept. 19, 2008, and was con- trolled shortly before mid- night, she said. The Castlerock fire burned 82 acres of federal land in the area of U.S. Highway 20 and Pine Featherville Road. It be- gan about 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 15 and was suppressed in the early evening of Sept. 17, she said. Faulkner had insurance to cover the suppression costs, she said. The money collected will reimburse the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management for funds ex- pended. The settlement is not an admission that the U.S. At- torney’s office had a weak case, nor is it an admission of liability by Faulkner, Howe said. Idaho burn permits re- quire permit-holders to pro- vide adequate containment equipment and personnel to contain private burns. The permits also require citizens to refrain from burning in windy conditions. Ag-backed trail bill passes Idaho Legislature By JOHN O’CONNELL Capital Press POCATELLO, Idaho — A bill barring the use of eminent domain to build recreational paths is headed to Gov. Butch Otter for his signature. It is supported by the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation and other agricultural organizations. In February, the Senate vot- ed 20-13 to pass S1044, and the House approved it with a 54-15-1 vote on March 16. The bill’s author, Sen. Jim Guthrie, R-McCammon, said Otter plans to sign it, though a spokesman for the governor could not be reached for comment. Guthrie, a farmer and ranch- er, said he became aware of the need for the legislation a few years ago, when he was a Ban- nock County commissioner. Property owners told him of the City of Pocatello’s threats to condemn their land to con- nect segments of a paved path following the Portneuf River, called the Portneuf Greenway. Guthrie said farmers and ranchers far beyond the city lim- its were concerned by the Port- neuf Greenway Foundation’s goals at the time of continuing the trail for up to 30 miles into the county. “People tend to want those greenways along the rivers, and they go right through farm land,” Guthrie said. “That was a big concern of some in the agri- cultural community.” In 2011, as a member of Idaho’s House of Representa- tives, Guthrie introduced the first version of the bill. It passed the House but died without a hearing in a Senate committee. Following his election to the Senate, Guthrie reintroduced the bill in 2013, but it again failed to pass out of committee. He decided to give the legislation a final try this session. Guthrie believes building trails will still be possible, but negotiations with property own- ers will have to take place in good faith. Guthrie believes the bill will be important for prop- erty owners throughout the state, based on the dozens of emails he’s received from Idaho city leaders opposing it. In the case of the Portneuf Greenway, foundation board president Rory Erchul believes the bill was unnecessary. He said the board has long since abandoned plans to use eminent domain and has instead moved on to building other sections of trail, following a master plan calling for a triangle of trails around Pocatello and Chub- buck. But Erchul also contends greenway trails serve the pub- lic good, providing nonmotor- ized transportation routes and enticing businesses to locate in communities. The choice of us- ing eminent domain to complete them should be a local issue, he argued. Erchul noted the Portneuf Greenway’s former intention was to use eminent domain on public rights-of-way through private property, on river levees built and maintained with tax- payer funding. Idaho Farm Bureau spokes- man John Thompson disagrees that the public good served by trail building warrants encroach- ing on private property. 13-4/#4N 13-2/#7