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8 CapitalPress.com May 8, 2015 Idaho Subscribe to our weekly Idaho email newsletter at CapitalPress.com/newsletters Potato growers file lawsuit against PCN quarantine By SEAN ELLIS Capital Press John O’Connell/Capital Press University of Idaho Extension seed potato pathologist Phil Nolte reflects on his career from his office in Idaho Falls, during his second to last day before retirement on April 29. UI has offered Nolte’s job of superintendent of its Tetonia Research & Extension Center to an internal candidate and is seeking someone to fill his faculty position. University of Idaho filling key ag positions By JOHN O’CONNELL Capital Press IDAHO FALLS — Uni- versity of Idaho has made an offer to an internal can- didate to run its Tetonia Re- search & Extension Center, said College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Dean John Foltz. UI Extension seed potato pathologist Phil Nolte, who had served as the rural re- search facility’s superinten- dent since February of 2011, retired on April 30, following 24 years of serving the spud industry with the university. UI officials say they hope to close the application pro- cess for Nolte’s replacement by June 1 and have the po- sition filled by August, sep- arating Tetonia supervisory responsibilities to avoid over- whelming their new hire. Foltz said UI has also made an offer to a candidate to serve as a new area extension econ- omist and anticipates making an announcement within a few days. The master’s-level position will serve a 100 per- cent extension role and will be tasked with duties such as completing production cost studies, analyzing the finan- cial state of Idaho agriculture and running farm manage- ment schools. Foltz said UI Extension economist Paul Patterson, who will retire in June, has been taking on many of those responsibilities. “One of their focuses is to work with our county faculty and get them up to speed on things related to economics and working with producers,” Foltz said. Foltz said the college is also seeking approval to ap- point a search committee to find a direct replacement for Patterson. It would be a Ph.D. position with a 70 percent emphasis on extension and a 30 percent focus on research. Patterson said he has ten- tative plans to continue com- pleting a cost-of-production analysis for the potato indus- try, at least for one more year. “My focus has always been to help producers and clientele solve problems,” Patterson said. “Because of that focus, I think I’ve built some pretty good relation- ships with the producers and commodity groups, partic- ularly potatoes, barley and sugar beets.” Nolte was regarded as a leading international expert on bacterial ring rot in pota- toes, Foltz said. “We’re going to look for somebody who has similar training and education to serve the industry,” Foltz said. Nolte has helped the spud industry cope with emerging disease threats since he start- ed with UI in 1991. Shortly after his hiring, Nolte said the potato industry was ill prepared for fusarium dry rot that could no longer be con- trolled by the major class of fungicides used to manage it. Nolte led an educational campaign on managing for fungicide resistance. A while later, he had to deal with potato virus Y developing chemical resistance and be- coming better acclimated to Idaho’s climate. In recent years, he’s helped the industry respond to the arrival of zebra chip disease. Don Thill, UI’s director of the Idaho Agricultural Experiment Station, said the state is once again fully funding the Tetonia facility, which was tapped for clo- sure during the recession and spared thanks to investments by Idaho commodity groups. Thill said UI has upgraded equipment at the facility, done electrical work, made irrigation system improve- ments, overhauled buildings and added a new equipment storage facility. Thill said Tetonia provides a crucial high-elevation re- search environment for breed- ing trials and is home to de- velopment of foundation seed for commercial potato, barley, wheat and oat planting. BOISE — A group of po- tato growers in East Idaho affected by a federal pale cyst nematode quarantine has filed an administrative lawsuit that seeks to over- turn it. The lawsuit claims the PCN program has failed to comply with the legal re- quirements of several fed- eral acts and that state and federal regulators have en- forced the regulations in an ad hoc manner. “The PCN program and regulations were put in place without proper no- tice to or input from the ap- propriate stakeholders,” a joint news release from the growers stated. “As a result, (plaintiffs) have been bur- dened by the arbitrary and capricious manner in which the PCN program has been handled in Idaho.” The lawsuit was filed April 28 in federal court in Boise and names USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and the Idaho State Department of Agriculture as defendants. The lawsuit was filed by a group of 15 potato farm- ers, landlords, packaging sheds and ranchers from the Shelley area impacted by the quarantine, put in place fol- lowing the discovery in 2006 of a potato field infested with PCN. PCN is a tiny worm that feeds off potato plant roots and can reduce yields in high numbers. It is considered a quarantine pest by more than 80 nations. Stephanie Mickelsen, one of the plaintiffs, said the producers tried in vain to get regulators to make changes to the program and filed the lawsuit as a last resort. “We’ve run out of op- tions,” she said. “This was not our first choice. This was our last choice.” Spokeswomen for APHIS and ISDA said their agencies couldn’t comment on pend- ing litigation. The 38-page complaint alleges APHIS failed to com- ply with its legal obligations under the National Environ- mental Policy Act, Plant Pro- tection Act and Administra- tive Procedure Act. “APHIS’ ad hoc and ev- er-changing protocols have put, and will continue to put, fields owned or farmed by plaintiffs into a circuitous and undefined state of reg- ulation for an undefined pe- riod of time,” the complaint states. It says the federal agency “has applied and continues to apply ad hoc and impos- sible-to-satisfy conditions on plaintiffs” and “continues to change and add to the ad hoc conditions it has placed on plaintiffs without a basis in law or fact to do so.” The complaint asks for both APHIS’ and ISDA’s Fungus may become widespread if more cool, wet weather arrives this spring By JOHN O’CONNELL Capital Press IDAHO FALLS, Idaho — A University of Idaho Ex- tension cereals pathologist is worried about the early ar- rival of stripe rust in winter wheat in western and south- central Idaho and northern Utah. Juliet Marshall said stripe rust — a destructive fungal pathogen of grain that can be carried long distances by wind — was discovered April 29 at the UI’s Parma Research & Extension Cen- ter. It was evenly distributed throughout a winter wheat field. On April 30, a crop con- sultant discovered stripe rust in a commercial winter wheat field in Filer, Idaho. “Right now it’s only showing up in small areas, but I fully expect it to be widespread,” Marshall said. The disease was also re- cently discovered in three winter wheat lines at Utah State University’s Small Grains Research facility. David Hole, a wheat breeder at the Logan, Utah, research facility, said this season promises to be ideal for eval- uating experimental lines for stripe rust resistance, though growers who irrigate could face a challenge. SMITH PACKAGING YOUR MAIN SUPPLIER FOR: “When it arrives this early, we still have a lot of cool, potentially wet- ter weather ahead,” Hole said. “If there’s an inocu- lum source and susceptible lines, there’s the potential to have significant infec- tions before things turn hot enough to turn it off.” Marshall said stripe rust is also expected to be severe in Washington, where it was found in January. It’s already widespread in Oregon and California. Marshall said Idaho’s winter wheat crops are nearing the flowering stage, when applications are pro- hibited by fungicide labels. In spring wheat, Marshall advises growers through- out Idaho to spray a fungi- cide along with their herbi- cide applications if they’ve planted susceptible varieties — including Bullseye, Jef- ferson, Klasic, Snow Crest, UI Winchester, WB-Palo- ma, WestBred 936, Penawa- wa, UI Pettit, UI Stone and Alturas. Some of the lines that have shown stripe rust resistance in UI trials include Cabernet, Dayn, LCS Star, SY Basalt, WB 9229, WB 9411, WB 9668, Seahawk and Alpowa. Marshall said Idaho had just a few late-season stripe rust cases near Ashton last season and experienced its last outbreak in 2011. She believes a mild win- ter helped stripe rust gain a foothold this season, and overwinter in Washington, Oregon, California and pos- sibly parts of Idaho. She said Idaho’s stripe rust infections typically don’t surface until late May, and the early arrival could cause more extensive crop damage. Spores compete for plant John O’Connell/Capital Press University of Idaho Extension cereals pathologist Juliet Marshall discusses the recent discovery of stripe rust infections in Parma and Filer, Idaho. Plants infected with the fungal disease are pic- tured on her computer monitor. nutrients and can cut wheat yields in half and reduce ker- nel size. She said growers may need to make an extra fungicide application to pro- tect their crops. She advises growers who discover infec- tions before spraying fungi- cides to apply triazole-based products, which are more costly but have a curative ef- fect on stripe rust. Marshall plans to begin scouting UI trial plots and growers’ fields for stripe rust, which is easily detectable by chalky, bright-orange spores. She believes heavy rainfall that damaged grain late last summer resulted in signifi- cantly more volunteer plants in fields, which provide a “bridge” to carry diseases such as stripe rust and barley yellow dwarf virus into the next crop. Marshall said the mild winter has also stressed win- ter grains by triggering them to break dormancy before ir- rigation water became avail- able, making them more sus- ceptible to disease. • Mesh Produce Bags • Plastic Pallet Covers • Bag Closure Products • General Warehouse Supplies Competitive pricing! Great quality products! Service you expect and trust! • Halsey, Oregon: 541-369-2850 • Eastern Washington, Ed Kropf: 509-936-2652 or ed@smith-packaging.com www.smithpackagingservices.com PCN rules to be vacated and it asks the court to “im- mediately end the quaran- tine and regulation of all fields owned or farmed by plaintiffs.” The complaint claims APHIS failed to conduct a proper environmental anal- ysis as required by NEPA of how its use of methyl bromide, a pesticide used to eradicate certain pests, could impact the environ- ment. APHIS’ applications of this pesticide has caused “significant disruption to plaintiffs’ farm operations, has made farm crops tox- ic and unsellable and has caused disease and death to livestock owned by multiple plaintiffs,” the complaint alleges. Walter Bithell, plaintiffs’ attorney, said the agency should have been aware of new scientific information that shows residue from the pesticide can harm certain crops, primarily hay, grown after it is applied. “It was the responsibility of APHIS to know that,” he said. Stripe rust shows up in Idaho wheat Bag needs? Bag solutions! • Polyethylene Bags • Polypropylene Bags • Paper Bags • Bulk Bags • Stretch Films • Hay Sleeves “The PCN program and regulations were put in place without proper notice to or input from the appropriate stakeholders.” 19-2/#5 19-1/#4 This file photo shows an exam- ple of a strip rust infection in winter wheat. A crop consultant discovered stripe rust in a commercial winter wheat field in Filer, Idaho. Idaho ranks No. 3 in milk production BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho was the third highest milk producing state last year, behind California and Wis- consin. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says Idaho cows produced about 13.9 billion pounds of milk in 2014. The Idaho Press-Tribune reports that’s an increase from 13.4 billion pounds in 2013 and helped Idaho take the No. 3 spot back from New York. California is the top pro- ducer with more than 42 bil- lion pounds of milk, and Wis- consin comes in second with more than 27 billion pounds. Idaho had 575,000 head of milk cows in 2014 that each produced an average of 24,000 pounds of milk.