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April 17, 2015
By GEORGE PLAVEN
EO Media Group
PENDLETON, Ore. — U.S. Sen. Ron
Wyden is lobbying Secretary of Agricul-
ture Tom Vilsack to maintain support of
the Columbia Plateau Conservation Re-
search Center north of Pendleton.
The station stands to lose $911,000 —
nearly half its annual funding — in President
Barack Obama’s proposed 2016 budget.
Such deep cuts would force the center to end
its research into no-till farming for winter
wheat and lay off three staff scientists.
Established in 1970, the station is part of
the federal Agricultural Research Service, or
ARS, which serves as the USDA’s principal
in-house research agency. Located on Tubbs
Ranch Road, the Pendleton center shares a
building with Oregon State University’s Co-
lumbia Basin Agricultural Research Center,
though they are different programs.
In a letter sent April 7 to Vilsack, Wyden,
D-Ore., said the president’s budget would end
critical research on cropping systems for the
Columbia Plateau, one of the largest wheat
producing areas in the Pacific Northwest.
Wyden also hopes to save forage and turf
grass research on the ARS chopping block in
Corvallis, Ore.
“The research developed in Oregon will
have lasting impacts on advances in preci-
sion agriculture and have clear benefits to
farm productivity and profitability of wheat
production nationwide,” Wyden said.
Wyden had proposed a budget amend-
ment to continue funding for all agricultural
research through 2025, though it was not ad-
opted into the president’s final recommenda-
tion. Money from the cuts would be shifted to
pay for what the administration has identified
as higher priority projects within the ARS.
Since 2010, the Pendleton center has ex-
perimented with reduced tillage and no-till
practices to save farmers money and im-
prove soil health. Jerry Zahl, a crop consul-
tant from College Place, Wash., and liaison
E.J. Harris/EO Media Group
Soil scientist Stewart Wuest holds a thermometer he uses to measure soil temperatures
below the surface of a field.
between the ARS and OSU, said he cannot
think of a greater return on taxpayer dollars
than finding new ways to increase the re-
gion’s farm production.
The project also has support from the Or-
egon Wheat Growers League, the industry’s
foremost advocate for local growers.
Stewart Wuest, soil scientist and lead
researcher on the project, said the idea is
to find more and more places where wheat
farmers can cut down on their tillage, which
if done right could save them money on fuel
and boost their bottom line.
“Growers are slowly experimenting
with no-till, but it’s a very gradual process,”
Wuest said.
Because the region is so dry — some
areas receive less than 14 inches of rain per
year — farmers are unable to plant a crop
in every field for every season. Instead,
they rotate one year of winter wheat with
one year of fallow, which allows moisture
and nutrients to rebuild enough in the soil
to generate decent yields.
When farmers till, it allows them to tap
into that water underground and plant their
wheat earlier in the fall, usually around Sep-
tember. Otherwise, they won’t be able to
plant until the next big rain, which might not
come until late October.
The concern with starting late is it gives
the plants less time in the ground before
harvest, and could drop yields as much as
30 percent.
Wuest’s trials, however, have shown no-
till can be just as productive. Without tilling,
the soil stands a better chance of keeping
water from evaporating and withstanding
erosion. Farmers could also save 0.45 gal-
lons of diesel per acre if they don’t have to
run their tractors as much in the field.
“In some of the driest areas, we’re find-
ing that we can get good yields even with
late-seeded wheat,” Wuest said. “There’s
still the opportunity to improve crop yields
and reduce fuel use, making the systems
more profitable and more sustainable at
the same time.”
BYU-Idaho ag students improving life in Ghana
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
REXBURG, Idaho —
Yields are poised to increase
and a wider variety of food is
being produced at a farm and
ranch feeding rural school
children in Ghana, due in large
part to a few agricultural stu-
dent interns from Brigham
Young University-Idaho.
The latest students to visit
the West African nation, Emily
Tolley and Nicole Emmett, re-
turned March 20 from their 11-
week internship with Golden
Sunbeam International College
of Science and Technology.
The program, run by a
BYU-I graduate, operates a kin-
dergarten-through-12th-grade
school in the village of Aden-
ta and a college and farm and
ranch in the village of Ayikuma.
Five BYU-I students have
now spent time in Ghana, teach-
ing crop and animal science
to high school students, devel-
oping new agricultural curric-
ulum for Golden Sunbeam’s
programs and introducing new
crops and industries to help the
people become more self-suffi-
cient. A donor who runs a Fres-
no, Calif., agricultural business
contributes airfare.
BYU-I agricultural eco-
nomics professor Stephen
McGary led an investigatory
trip to Ghana in November
2013. After assessing the pop-
ulation’s needs, BYU-I raised
money to buy equipment to
Courtesy of Emily Tolley
Staff at Golden Sunbeam International College of Science and
Technology in Ghana plant soybeans by hand at their college farm.
Brigham Young University-Idaho has partnered with the program to
improve its farming practices and agricultural courses.
process soybeans into soy
milk, tofu and yogurt. The uni-
versity installed the system in
June. Student interns taught
the locals to raise soy.
“Any little bit you can do
in Ghana or any African na-
tion, it will go a long ways,”
McGary said.
Tolley, raised on an Ohio
farm, developed curriculum
for an agricultural business
class, which covers soybean
production and processing.
Three students from Burki-
na Faso enrolled in the class,
planning to build a soybean
processing operation in their
own village.
At the college farm, Tolley
developed a business plan to
better match production with
demand. She and Emmett ad-
vised the farm staff to remove
wood chips from the rabbit
manure they used, explaining
microbes were consuming the
nitrogen to support breaking
down the bark. Tolley also
discovered diseases and pests
in the field, keeping in contact
with BYU-I faculty to assist
with insect identification.
Tolley and Emmett helped
improve livestock genetics
on the ranch through changes
in the breeding program, and
they helped to introduce sheep
and goat production.
Tolley admits she felt pres-
sure teaching pest life cycles
and soil management to high
school students, upon learning
they get one shot at a college
entrance exam and their future
options are limited if they fail.
Her students also put class
skills to work on their own,
small family farms, which pro-
vide the bulk of their nutrition.
Tolley plans to become an
agricultural teacher.
“They would come out to
the farm on Fridays and get
to do hands-on lab,” Tolley
said. “I’d be talking about soil
fertility, and we would be do-
ing soil testing, and their eyes
would light up.”
She intends to continue
her education as a master’s
student working in wheat at
University of Idaho.
Her most memorable ex-
periences came during village
walks. She witnessed children
with protruding bellies — a
sign of starvation — and rou-
tinely gave candy to the mobs
of children who followed her.
She was often invited to share
meals in homes with dirt floors
and no plumbing or electricity.
11
Rural communities vie
for prize to revitalize
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Nearly 350 rural commu-
nities and small towns and
cities across the country are
competing for $10 million in
prizes and hope to be chosen
America’s Best Community
for the $3 million top prize in
a contest launched by Frontier
Communications.
The contest to bring togeth-
er community leaders, business
owners and local elected offi-
cials is the brainchild of Maggie
Wilderotter, chairman and for-
mer CEO of Frontier.
Wilderotter fostered the
concept of local engagement
at Frontier, and the contest
was born from the need to
back up that philosophy, said
Mike Towne, Frontier general
manager for the company’s
Idaho and eastern Washing-
ton region.
The contest is meant to
jumpstart communities and get
community leaders talking and
working together to strengthen
their area’s economic viability,
he said.
Frontier is partnering with
DISH Network, CoBank and
the Weather Channel to encour-
age entrepreneurship and light a
spark for a stronger economic
future in rural communities and
small towns, he said.
Country singer/musician
and rural-America advocate
Vince Gill has acted as ambas-
sador for the contest, visiting
communities and encouraging
community members to enter
the competition and possibly
win financial support to help
deliver on their dreams.
“We all know all these
small towns across the United
States have struggled in vari-
ous ways with the economy,
jobs and loss of industry,”
Towne said.
The contest has fueled a
lot of excitement across rural
America, he added.
Contest participation was
limited to towns and com-
munities over 9,500 in pop-
ulation and under 80,000
with the intention of serving
rural and small communi-
ties. Towns with populations
less than 9,500 were allowed
to partner with other towns
in their community with a
shared goal, he said.
Towns in the
running for
America’s Best
Community and
their populations.
California: Susanville, 17,994;
Patterson, 20,565.
Idaho: Coeur D’Alene,
46,118; Rathdrum, partnering
with Post Falls and Hayden,
49,700; Moscow, partnering
with Pullman, Wash., 54,762;
Valley County, 9,606.
Oregon: Coos Bay, 15,959;
Newberg, 22,515; Tualatin,
26,684; La Grande, 13,162;
Tri-City, partnering with
Myrtle Creek, Canyonville and
Riddle, 10,674.
Washington: Kennewick,
77,420; Mountain Lake
Terrace, 20,042; Redmond,
56,337; Arlington, partnering
with Darrington, 19,724; Lyn-
nwood, 36,268; Oak Harbor,
21,860; Wenatchee, part-
nering with East Wenatchee,
46,176.
Contest officials have re-
ceived 138 applications from
community application teams
representing 437 communi-
ties. Many of the applications
are comprised of multiple vil-
lages, towns and cities, said
John Mackowiak, Frontier
public relations manager.
Those applications include
two in California, four in Ida-
ho, five in Oregon, and seven
in Washington.
Those and others from
across the country will now
be reviewed by a panel of in-
dependent, expert judges that
will select 50 winning quar-
ter finalists, to be announced
April 29.
Those finalists will each
receive $50,000 to develop a
comprehensive community
revitalization plan and will be
partnered with a large corpo-
ration that will help them with
their plans, Towne said.
The quarter finalists will
have six months to refine and
submit those plans. Early next
year, 15 semifinalists will be
selected to attend America’s
Best Community summit to
present their strategies. Eight
finalists will then be award-
ed another $100,000 each to
continue implementation of
their plans.
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Two Oregon ARS research
centers face large budget cuts
CapitalPress.com
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