July 10, 2015
CapitalPress.com
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Idaho
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Idaho leadership program seeks more farmers, ranchers
By SEAN ELLIS
‘I’m a big believer in (LIA). A lot of good has
come out of that program.’
Capital Press
BOISE — Leadership Ida-
ho Agriculture officials are
trying to get more farmers and
ranchers to attend the leader-
ship development program.
To do that, they are trying
to engage more closely with
the state’s commodity com-
missions and agriculture asso-
ciations, which can encourage
members to attend the course,
whose aim is to train commu-
nity and business leaders to be
advocates for agriculture.
“It’s the best leadership
training organization in the
state for agriculture,” Pat
Purdy, a member of LIA’s
board of trustees, told fellow
Idaho Barley Commission
board members recently. “We
as a commission need to get
more engaged with growers
in talking to them about this
program.”
In addition to training busi-
ness and community leaders,
LIA cultivates producers to be
leaders in agriculture. Among
its 850 alumni, many hold key
leadership positions in the in-
dustry.
While the program has al-
Duane Grant, farmer and LIA course graduate
Submitted photo
Participants in Leadership Idaho Agriculture’s 2014 class tour the Port of Lewiston in November. LIA
officials are trying to get more growers to attend the course and are working closer with the state’s
farm commissions and associations.
ways had strong support from
agribusiness, the support has
not been as strong from farm
groups, said Kendra Dustin,
LIA’s development director.
The LIA board wants to
re-engage with those groups
and convince them to buy in
to the program, she said. That
could mean financial support
or by convincing members to
attend.
LIA’s goal is to ensure
at least 30 percent of each
year’s 30-member class are
producers.
“It shouldn’t be difficult for
us to get growers to attend,”
Purdy told fellow IBC mem-
bers shortly before they voted
to give the program $1,600
this year. “It’s just a matter of a
commitment of time.”
Other farm groups that have
responded in a significant way
to the LIA’s recent attempt to
re-engage with them include
the U.S. Dry Pea & Lentil
Council, Idaho Beef Council
and Idaho Wheat Commission,
Dustin said.
Rep. Clark Kauffman, a
Republican farmer from Filer
and an LIA graduate, said he
was glad to hear the group is
trying to get more farmers to
attend the course.
He said the course was
a real eye-opener for him in
terms of getting him to realize
how important it is for farmers
and ranchers to be involved
with public policy making and
the regulatory process.
After attending, he went on
to become involved with the
barley commission, served as
president of Idaho Grain Pro-
ducers Association and was
an Idaho representative on the
U.S. Grains Council.
“If nobody leaves their
farm long enough to do these
things, somebody that knows
nothing about farming will
make the rules,” he said. “I’m
really glad (LIA) is looking to
do that.”
Rupert farmer Duane
Grant, chairman of the Snake
River Sugar Co-op, graduated
from the LIA course in 1987
and credits the experience
“with giving me both the vi-
sion and confidence to get
involved and, I hope, make a
meaningful difference in agri-
culture in Idaho.”
He has since encouraged
a son, two nephews and his
farm’s agronomics manager to
attend.
“I’m a big believer in
(LIA),” he said. “A lot of
good has come out of that
program.”
Hard white winter wheat options
showing potential in irrigated fields
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
European barley variety
bred for craft brewing
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
Limagrain Cereal Seeds of-
ficials say a high-yielding irri-
gated barley variety developed
in Europe has performed well
in Pacific Northwest trials and
should fill a critical need for
the growing U.S. craft brewing
industry.
Bred by Limagrain U.K.,
Genie — as in genie in a beer
bottle — has the attributes
craft brewers desire but have
trouble finding, given that
most U.S. malts were devel-
oped for the American lagers
that dominate the market.
Mass-produced
Ameri-
can lagers typically use sugar
from secondary sources, such
as corn or rice, called adjunct
brewing, requiring different
malt specifications.
Limagrain Chief Operat-
ing Officer Frank Curtis said
a few hundred acres of Genie
are being raised in Idaho and
Washington, both for seed
and commercial malting, and
120 acres were planted in
Colorado. Curtis said a small
malting company in Fort Col-
lins, Colo., has contracted for
some Genie, and Great West-
ern Malting Co. has also been
evaluating Genie.
“We are hoping to go to sev-
eral thousand acres of malt pro-
duction next year,” Curtis said.
Most large, U.S. brewing
companies require malt high in
free amino nitrogen, providing
the energy to ferment supple-
mental corn or rice sugars.
In all-grain craft brewing,
however, residual FAN contrib-
utes to undesirable flavors. In
addition to having lower FAN,
Genie has high extract, yielding
more beer per pound of malt,
and low beta glucan levels and
viscosity, enabling hot water to
filter through grain at the ideal
timing.
Curtis said the predominate
craft variety now available is
CDC Copeland, which is best
suited for dryland growers and
doesn’t yield well. But Genie
has shown good disease resis-
tance and has ranked among the
top yielders in University of Ida-
ho trials.
Limagrain chose Genie after
evaluating 50 advanced Euro-
pean malting lines and entered
the variety in American Malting
Barley Association trials in 2012
and 2013. Great Western saw
promise in Genie and malted a
large batch of 2014 crop for fur-
ther evaluation.
If there’s commercial in-
terest, Curtis said additional
Limagrain craft lines in devel-
opment — LCS Overture, LCS
Odyssey and LCS Pilot — could
be two years from entering the
market. Another 70 lines are a
year behind them.
“We are intending to provide
the industry with a steady prod-
uct flow,” Curtis said.
Curtis said 14 breweries
from Washington state to Kan-
sas made special beers with
Genie, serving them at a June 9
event in Fort Collins. He plans
to repeat the demonstration next
year in Idaho. He’s also sched-
uled to serve a beer made with
Genie and UI Stone wheat at a
July 15 field day at University of
Idaho’s Aberdeen Research &
Extension Center.
CHS Primeland in Lewiston,
Idaho, is the sole distributor of
this year’s Genie seed and will
offer additional seed to partner-
ing cooperatives next season,
said Kevin Whittaker, the com-
pany’s seed plant manager.
“We’re thinking it’s going
to be a big boomer for us that
the maltsters will be after,
especially Great Western,”
Whittaker said. “Not only is it
a good barley, but it out yields
some of the good feed barleys
out here. It’s going to be good
for our growers.”
John O’Connell/Capital Press
University of Idaho wheat breeder Jianli Chen discusses the characteristics of IDO 1101, a hard white
winter wheat she developed with good yield and agronomic traits, during a recent field day of Arbon
Valley research plots. The Idaho Wheat Commission has asked Chen to step up her efforts to develop
hard white winter varieties well suited for irrigation to fill an industry need.
end-use quality, but Chen be-
lieves the sample came from
a stressed field and plans to
resubmit the variety for eval-
uation.
A third line Chen bred
with doubled haploid tech-
nology — a breeding short-
cut that eliminates variation
in progeny — IDO 1209 DH,
may be too tall to appeal to
irrigated growers. Tall plants
tend to tip in fields, called
lodging, complicating har-
vesting. Chen has already
released a high-yielding hard
white winter wheat for dry-
land growers, UI Silver, and
has about 200 doubled hap-
loid hard white winter wheat
lines in development and
testing.
“The Idaho Wheat Com-
mission requested that my
breeding program work hard-
er to release short, hard white
winter wheats for southeast
Idaho,” Chen said.
UI Extension cereals pa-
thologist Juliet Marshall is
overseeing a first year of
hard white test plots at the
Aberdeen Research & Ex-
tension Center in partner-
ship with Limagrain Cereal
Seeds. Marshall said the
plots include many hard
white winter wheats devel-
oped by Limagrain and other
programs, as well as Europe-
an varieties under evaluation
in Idaho conditions.
Marshall said a couple of
irrigated hard white winter
varieties developed by Ore-
gon State University wheat
breeder Bob Zemetra are un-
der evaluation, and a Clear-
field variety, UICF Grace, is
already on the market, though
it’s prone to lodging under ir-
rigation.
Idaho is the top produc-
ing hard white wheat state.
Limagrain Chief Operating
Officer Frank Curtis be-
lieves Idaho is in a unique
position to benefit from the
class because it has a freight
disadvantage for foreign ex-
ports and emphasizes the do-
mestic market, which tends
to have narrower product
specifications.
“We’re hoping very much
to have a (hard white winter
variety) to release after we
get this year’s data,” Curtis
said.
rop-6-26-5/#17
Courtesy of Zach Gaines
Kevin Bolin, owner of the Mayor of Old Town tap house, pours a
beer made with Genie malt during a recent tasting event in Fort
Collins, Colo., featuring 14 beers made with the variety. Genie is
a high-yielding new Limagrain variety with ideal characteristics for
the craft brewing industry.
ABERDEEN, Idaho —
Wheat industry leaders say
several new hard white winter
wheat varieties are showing
promise in Eastern Idaho ir-
rigated field conditions and
could help the state meet
strong demand for the hard
white class.
Hard white is growing in
popularity for its ability to
produce a whole wheat prod-
uct without the bitter taste of
red wheats.
However, the state lacks
a good winter variety for ir-
rigated growers, and spring
wheat acres must compete
with more profitable crops,
said Cathy Wilson, director
of research collaboration
with the Idaho Wheat Com-
mission.
For example, Ritchie
Toevs, who farms under irri-
gation in Aberdeen, planted
soft white winter wheat this
season and replaced his spring
wheat acres with corn and
malt barley.
“The one area where we
could increase hard white
wheat would be in winter
acreage,” Wilson said. “It
could compete very well as a
winter crop.
University of Idaho wheat
breeder Jianli Chen said IDO
1501 appears to be an espe-
cially promising hard white
winter line for the region’s ir-
rigated growers, demonstrat-
ing good yield, good end-
use quality and resistance to
diseases including stripe rust
and dwarf bunt. Chen hopes
to have IDO 1501 breed-
er seed — controlled by the
breeding institution to devel-
op certified seed — available
in 2016.
Chen also retains hope
for IDO 1101, a short, hard
white winter wheat she bred
that’s high yielding and ideal
for irrigated fields. A recent
test raised questions about its
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