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CapitalPress.com
May 29, 2015
People & Places
Small farm grows larger with diversification
John and Becky
Klimes broaden
their offerings to
sell more to their
customers
Western
Innovator
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Snake River
Poultry
Capital Press
BUHL, Idaho — Farm-
ing was a natural choice for
John and Becky Klimes,
who both grew up on farms,
but they decided to do it
differently.
After meeting while work-
ing at the University of Ida-
ho’s Kimberly Research and
Extension Center, they mar-
ried and in 2005 purchased
a few acres in Jerome and
committed to using organic
practices.
The egg business they had
started in Kimberly, Snake
River Poultry, expanded be-
yond poultry to include veg-
etables, fruits, pork and beef,
which they sold locally.
Wanting to expand and
become certified organic, the
couple purchased 20 acres in
Buhl and gained certification
in 2014. They also added
broilers to their production.
They market their products
through Idaho’s Bounty,
Twin Falls Farmers’ Market
and direct to customers off
the farm.
Their vegetables span
Owners: John and Becky
Klimes
Capital Press
Established 1928
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Steve Forrester
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Chief operating officer
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Joe Beach ..................................... Editor
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Location: Buhl, Idaho
Acres: 20
Status: Certified organic,
Animal Welfare Approved
Entire contents copyright © 2015
EO Media Group
dba Capital Press
An independent newspaper
published every Friday.
Products: Organic veg-
Carol Ryan Dumas/Capital Press
John and Becky Klimes check cabbage starts on their 20-acre farm in Buhl, Idaho. The couple raises
organic vegetables, eggs, broiler chickens and hogs.
a wide variety, from leafy
greens to tubers. They have
150 laying hens and sell 45
dozen eggs a week this time
of year. The farm is home
to 600 broiler chickens, five
sows and about 80 finished
hogs a year.
The choice to farm organ-
ic is both personal and eco-
nomic, they said.
Organic is “what food was
intended to be and maintains
soil health and biodiversity,”
he said.
“As a concerned mother,
I feel it’s better for my body
and the kids, too, and better
for the earth,” Becky said.
It’s also a marketing ad-
vantage, John said.
“The marketability of
product is much higher with
organic certification,” he
said.
While the Klimeses had
used organic practices for
years, moving to larger acre-
age on land that hadn’t been
farmed in nearly 40 years
came with a learning curve.
Longtime organic farmer
and neighbor Mike Heath has
been a big help. He is well
versed in organic standards
and regulations and has the
connections to source organ-
ic seed and feed, John said.
Networking is important
in organic farming, both in
sourcing inputs and market-
ing, he said.
The diversification of the
farm allows the Klimeses to
sell more food to fewer peo-
ple. Yields are on par with
conventional ag, but quality
is higher because products are
not held up in transit or sitting
on store shelves, he said.
“I’m trying to capitalize
on every customer I have. I’m
trying to do more for them,”
he said.
John said he’s doing what
he always wanted and he’s al-
ways doing something differ-
etables, dry beans, fruit,
berries, eggs, broilers, pork
and pastured beef
Education: John has a
master’s degree in plant
science and bachelor’s in
ag education, University of
Idaho; Becky has a bache-
lor’s degree in ag science
and technology, University
of Idaho
Family: Three children, Eliz-
abeth, 9; Jacob, 7; Kylie, ..
Affiliation: John, Idaho’s
Bounty board of directors
ent because things change on
the farm with every season.
With their expanded pro-
duction, the Klimeses intend
to change the company name
to Agrarian Harvest, but that
will have to wait for the slow
season, John said.
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Wal-Mart presses meat suppliers on antibiotics, treatment
By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO
AP Retail Writer
NEW YORK — Wal-Mart,
the nation’s largest food re-
tailer, is urging its thousands
of U.S. suppliers to curb the
use of antibiotics in farm an-
imals and improve treatment
of them.
That means asking meat
producers, eggs suppliers
and others to use antibiotics
only for disease prevention or
treatment, not to fatten their
animals, a common industry
practice. Experts say Wal-
Mart is the first major retailer
to take a stance to limit the use
of the antibiotics.
The guidelines also aim
to get suppliers to stop us-
ing sow gestation crates and
other housing that doesn’t
give animals enough space.
They’re also being asked to
avoid painful procedures like
de-horning or castration with-
out proper pain management.
The push is part of an in-
dustry trend responding to
shoppers who want to know
more about where their food
comes from and who are
AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File
Customers walk outside a Wal-Mart store in San Jose, Calif. Wal-
Mart, the nation’s largest food retailer, is urging its thousands of
U.S. suppliers to curb the use of antibiotics in farm animals and
improve treatment of them.
choosing foods they see as
more healthy or natural. It
comes after activists have re-
ported animal abuse at farms
supplying Wal-Mart and other
major companies.
Wal-Mart wants its suppli-
ers to produce annual reports
on antibiotic use and their
progress on animal welfare
and post the reports on their
own websites. It’s also pres-
suring suppliers to report an-
imal abuse to authorities and
take disciplinary action.
Kathleen
McLaughlin,
senior vice president of Wal-
Mart’s sustainability division,
told The Associated Press in
a phone interview Thursday
that the retailer is not putting
deadlines on suppliers and the
steps aren’t mandatory.
Still, Wal-Mart’s size
gives it outsized influence on
its suppliers’ practices, and
changes it pushes can affect
products at all stores. For ex-
ample, when Wal-Mart asked
its suppliers to reduce pack-
aging about a decade ago, it
spurred innovations in the
consumer products industry.
For example, Procter & Gam-
ble introduced tubes of Crest
toothpaste that could be fea-
tured upright on shelves with-
out boxes.
“We think what’s needed
is a fresh look at how we can
look at producing food. This
is an industrywide change.
It won’t happen overnight,”
she said. “It’s about transpar-
ency.” For example, she not-
ed that with antibiotics, “We
don’t know a lot about who
was using what for what rea-
son.”
Wal-Mart’s moves won
praise from various groups.
Wayne Pacelle, president
and CEO of The Humane
Society of the United States,
called it “game-changing
progress and signals to agri-
business that the era of confin-
ing farm animals is ending.”
“Battery cages, gestation
crates and veal crates—along
with other long-standing
practices that immobilize an-
imals—have a short shelf life
in our food system,” he said.
Dr. Gail Hansen, a for-
mer practicing veterinarian
and a senior officer of Pew
Charitable Trusts’s antibiotic
resistance project, called Wal-
Mart’s move to curb the use of
antibiotics a “big deal.”
She noted the Food and
Drug Administration keeps
data on how much antibiotics
are used in farm animals, but
there’s no record of how they
are being used. Concerns are
growing that misuse can lead
to antibiotic resistance in bac-
teria, making human and an-
imal disease more difficult to
treat.
“This will help us under-
stand how antibiotics are be-
ing used in the food produc-
tion,” she said.
The guidelines, which
apply not only to suppliers
to Wal-Mart stores but also
to Sam’s Club, are part of
the company’s pledge to
make its food system more
eco-friendly and improve
food safety.
Bird flu crisis slows in Minnesota, focus now on recovery
By STEVE KARNOWSKI
Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS — Min-
nesota notched six straight days
without a new case of bird flu,
and though state officials aren’t
ready to say the outbreak is
over, they’re beginning to stand
down.
The first case of H5N2 in the
Midwest was confirmed in ear-
ly March at a Minnesota turkey
farm, and the virus then spread
to 88 farms in the country’s top
turkey producing state, affecting
nearly 8 million birds, mostly
turkeys. But new cases have
fallen off sharply and the focus
is turning toward getting poultry
farms back into production.
“I wouldn’t go out on a
limb to say that we’re done for
the season, but I would say it’s
been six days now since we’ve
had a presumptive case and
we are very optimistic that this
trend will continue,” Minnesota
Board of Animal Health spokes-
woman Bethany Hahn said.
To be sure, the disease re-
mains a threat. Iowa, the chief
egg producer in the U.S., has
reported 11 new probable out-
breaks last week alone, raising
its total cases to 63 and toll to
over 25.5 million birds, mostly
chickens. But no other Midwest
states had reported new cases as
of Thursday. Across the Mid-
west, the U.S. Department of
Agriculture puts the loss at near-
ly 39 million birds.
Things have settled down
enough that Minnesota’s Board
of Animal Health stopped issu-
ing daily updates unless it has
new cases or other news. The
state’s emergency operations
center, which helped mobilize
agencies to respond to new
cases, is just partially activated
now. While an incident manag-
er remains on duty, the center is
“certainly not as busy as it was,”
said Bruce Gordon, spokesman
for the state Department of Pub-
lic Safety.
And federal personnel as-
signed to the state’s crisis have
fallen. Many came from the
Animal and Plant Health In-
spection Service, which had 139
responders in Minnesota last
month; that was down to 40 by
Wednesday, spokeswoman Jo-
elle Hayden said.
Hahn said the first Minne-
sota farm that was affected, in
Pope County, could resume
production in a few weeks, with
others following a few weeks
later. The barns must get a thor-
ough cleaning and disinfection
and if all tests are negative, the
barns go into 21 days of down-
time as a precaution. Officials
will then work with producers
to determine when it’s safe to
restock, Hayden said.
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Calendar
Wednesday, June 3
California Hot Wage & Hour
Issues, noon-1 p.m. Sutton
Hague Law Corp., Fresno, 559-
.25-0500. Useful for employers
of all sizes, owners, managers,
accountants, attorneys and hu-
man resource professionals. The
monthly webinars address a va-
riety of issues facing employers.
Participate from any touchtone
phone and submit questions
during the program.
Frozen Assets: How we can
and why we should save the
world’s frozen water, 7-9 p.m.
Walla Walla Public Library,
Walla Walla, Wash. 509-94.-
0705. Mountaineer and climate
scientist Steven Ghan takes us
on a visual journey along the
www.blogriculture.com
crest of the North Cascades,
showing evidence of glacier
retreat and shares solutions
to prevent global ice melt and
how to preserve our snowpack.
Thursday, June 4
Nevada Hot Wage & Hour
Issues, noon-1 p.m. Sutton
Hague Law Corp., Fresno, 559-
.25-0500. Useful for employers
of all sizes, owners, managers,
accountants, attorneys and
human resource professionals.
Wednesday, June 10
Oregon State University Exten-
sion Sherman Station Field Day,
7: .0 a.m. Sherman County
Extension, Moro, 541-565-
.2.0. Twelve speakers are
scheduled to talk on topics
that include wheat diseases
and screening for resistance,
soil pH and maximizing yields,
soil-borne pathogens and
Clearfield wheat trials.
Friday, June 12
Forestry Shortcourse, 10 a.m.-1
p.m. West Bonner Library, Priest
River, 208-446-1680. This 6-ses-
sion program will help forest
owners understand ecology,
silviculture, wildlife and other
topics. Register by June 5.
Saturday, June 13
Rickreall Gun Show, 8 a.m.-5
p.m. Polk County Fair Grounds,
Rickreall, Ore. 50.-62.-.048.
Sheep in the Foothills, 10 a.m.-1
p.m. Boise Foothills Learning
Center, Boise.
Sunday, June 14
Rickreall Gun Show, 8 a.m.-5
p.m. Polk County Fair Grounds,
Rickreall, Ore. 50.-62.-.048.
Friday, June 19
Forestry Shortcourse, 10 a.m.-1
p.m. West Bonner Library,
Priest River, 208-446-1680. This
6-session program will help forest
owners understand ecology, silvi-
culture, wildlife and other topics.
Sunday, June 21
Washington Potato and Onion
Association Annual Convention,
8 a.m.-9 p.m. Northern Quest
Casino, Airway Heights.
Monday, June 22
Washington Potato and Onion
Association Annual Convention,
8 a.m.-9 p.m. Northern Quest
Casino, Airway Heights.
Index
Drought ................................. .
Markets ............................... 1.
Opinion .................................. 6
Tuesday, June 23
Correction policy
Washington Potato and Onion
Association Annual Convention,
8 a.m.-9 p.m. Northern Quest
Casino, Airway Heights.
Accuracy is important to Capital
Press staff and to our readers.
Friday, June 26
Forestry Shortcourse, 10 a.m.-1
p.m. West Bonner Library,
Priest River, 208-446-1680.
This 6-session program will
help forest owners understand
ecology, silviculture, wildlife and
other topics.
If you see a misstatement,
omission or factual error in a
headline, story or photo caption,
please call the Capital Press
news department at
50.-.64-44.1, or send email to
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We want to publish corrections to
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