Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Capital press. (Salem, OR) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 14, 2015)
August 14, 2015 First Iowa turkey farm restocks 5 Idaho reports average grain yields, lower test weights By JOHN O’CONNELL Capital Press By DAVID PITT Associated Press MANSON, Iowa (AP) — Thousands of small young tur- keys ran around the barns on the Moline family farm Monday near Manson, the first Iowa farm to restock birds after a bird flu outbreak decimated flocks in the Midwest. Owner Brad Moline, who farms with his father and broth- er, said it’s a sign the industry is turning the page on an outbreak in which about 48 million birds died from the virus or where eu- thanized to prevent its spread. The virus spread to the Mid- west in the spring, affecting 15 states, with Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska losing the most birds. Cleaning and disinfection at Nebraska and Minnesota farms should be completed by mid-August and at Iowa farms by the end of the month, said Jack Shere, a U.S. Department of Agriculture veterinary admin- istrator. Farms must wait 21 days af- ter they test free of virus before introducing new birds, he said. Moline hosted state and federal agriculture officials at a news conference Monday to celebrate restocking barns and offer some hope to others still awaiting the green light to move forward. The young turkeys in his barns were trucked to the farm 120 miles northwest of Des Moines from a hatchery in Wil- mar, Minnesota. Moline recalled how about 90 turkeys were found dead on May 19 in one of his barns of 7,000 birds. Within four days, only a handful of birds were still alive. “The disease is that destruc- tive and that devastating and that fast. It’s something generations of turkey farmers have never seen before and have never been seen on this farm and hope we never do again,” he said. Moline and agriculture offi- cials said the industry is much better prepared should there be a recurrence of the virus this fall. Iowa Secretary of Agricul- ture Bill Northey said poultry farmers are looking at biosecu- rity practices that include con- trolling worker access to barns and keeping vehicles from park- ing near them. Wild birds and rodents, which carry infected droppings on their feet, must be kept out of barns, he said. The outbreak cost the poul- try industry an estimated $360 million, spreading so quickly it overwhelmed resources. “There are a list of things that if it comes back again we’ll be more aggressive on,” Northey said. “We’ll be more aggressive to make sure it doesn’t move and if we get a few cases it will stay at a few cases.” The key will be quicker de- tection of the virus, Shere said. He said farmers now know that even a few dead birds should be alarming. Some may consider preventative testing. “The longer birds are infect- ed the more it spreads and the virus load climbs,’ Shere said. CapitalPress.com Matthew Weaver/Capital Press Roy Dube inspects his soft white spring wheat while harvesting south of Rosalia, Wash., the morning of Aug. 6. Dube is mindful of lower wheat prices while he works, and market analysts say they could fall farther. Farmers keep an eye on wheat prices as harvest wraps up Any rallies would be limited, market analysts say By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press ROSALIA, Wash. — As farmer Roy Dube enters the final days of his 2015 wheat harvest, he’s keeping an eye on prices. “Sometimes more than once a day,” he said with a chuckle. “Prices are way down. We’re getting really clobbered by the strong val- ue of the dollar. I don’t know if we’ve reached our bottom yet for this year.” Prices are down about a dollar a bushel from a month ago, said Dube, who farms near Rosalia, Wash. “I don’t think any of the farmers thought it would go down that much,” he said. Prices for soft white wheat at Portland are $5.47 to $5.62 per bushel, down from 6.68 to $7.13 per bush- el at the same time last year, according to the USDA Agri- cultural Marketing Service. Wheat prices have hit a five-year low, market ana- lysts say, but what happens next is anyone’s guess. “They’re either going to go up or they’re going to go down,” said Dan Steiner, se- nior grain merchandiser with Pendleton Grain Growers. “I don’t know where the bottom on this thing might be,” said Byron Behne, mar- keting manager with North- west Grain Growers in Walla Walla, Wash. “I’m thinking maybe we haven’t seen it yet.” Analyst Darin Newsom with DTN in Omaha, Neb., said it’s easy to argue that wheat prices should stay down. Any time the market tries to rally, it gets knocked down, he said. “But there’s still part of me that thinks wheat is so low that it’s going to move up,” Newsom said. “Wheat has the fewest bullish rea- sons to move higher of any of the grains, but it still could.” Any price rally would be limited, Newsom said. Matthew Weaver/Capital Press Roy Dube navigates his combine around an old cistern on his property while harvesting soft white spring wheat the morning of Aug. 6 south of Rosalia, Wash. Dube is keeping a close eye on lowered wheat prices as he works. “If we can get 30 to 40 cents back on this market, maybe at that point it starts to gain some momentum,” he said. Newsom urges farm- ers to sell a little wheat, but hold back to see if the market improves. But they should be fully aware that wheat prices could drop fur- ther, he said. “It can go up, I just don’t know why it would right now,” Behne said. “We’re not as uncompetitive as we were prior to the beginning of July. The problem is if we rally from these price levels, demand probably just drops right back down.” Steiner doesn’t think prices will fall much farther. He believes wheat prices could strengthen once har- vest is over. “As soon as the combines are parked and the bin doors are shut, I think this market is going to trend higher,” he said. “It’s going to take a ton of supply pressure to drive this thing a lot lower than it is right now. I think the worst of it is already behind us.” Dube, the farmer, is less optimistic when thinking about the end of harvest and beyond. “This could be a low- price year, and there are some indications it could be a lower price again next year, too,” he said. “We’ll do OK this year, but we don’t want too many of these in a row.” TWIN FALLS, Idaho — Grain farmers are generally reporting average to slightly above-average yields but dis- appointing test weights as they enter the home stretch of the 2015 harvest. Idaho crop experts say a string of record-hot days in early July came at the criti- cal flowering stage for spring wheat, likely contributing to lower test weights — which measures the density of grain relative to volume. Growers receive price dis- counts for test weights below 60 pounds per bushel, and Idaho Wheat Commission of- ficials say many of the state’s test weights have been around 55 pounds a bushel. “Real high temperature spikes can stress the crop,” said Bradford Warner, vice president of marketing with Agspring, the parent company of Thresher Artisan Wheat. Warner said Idaho wheat yields have been decent, none- theless. The good news, explained Mike Erickson, a seed treat- ment specialist with McGre- gor Co. in Twin Falls, is that cool and moist May weather apparently mitigated damage throughout Southern Idaho re- sulting from a rampant barley yellow dwarf virus outbreak that impacted both wheat and barley. “We were predicting early on we could see some 50 per- cent yield reductions (to barley yellow dwarf),” Erickson said. “We might have been off 5 to 10 percent.” Erickson said growers hav- en’t seen the record yields they enjoyed last season, but there also haven’t been reports of sprout-damaged grain, which was a major problem during the 2014 harvest. Though crops mostly re- covered from barley yellow dwarf infections this season, Erickson suspects the disease may have contributed to low- er test weights in heat-stressed crops. He warns growers there’s an abundance of virus in the eco- system, and recent rains have promoted growth of volunteers to support barley yellow dwarf until fall grain emerges. Erick- son advises farmers to delay planting fall grain until Oct. 15 to avoid flights of aphids — in- sect vectors of the virus — as they move off corn. Erickson said growers who don’t delay planting should consider us- ing an insecticidal seed treat- ment. He said field scouting is also crucial, and growers who see aphids should consider a post-emergence insecticide this fall. “I think we are set up again for another nasty (season),” Erickson said. Cathy Wilson, director of research collaboration with the Idaho Wheat Commis- sion, said yields were down in Northern Idaho, where growers seeded fall crops in dry conditions and were hurt by lack of winter moisture, though some growers were saved by scattered May show- ers. Soda Springs, a dryland growing area in Eastern Ida- ho, was a bright spot, Wilson said. “It’s probably an above-av- erage crop but not as good as we hoped,” said Soda Springs grower Randy Hubbard, add- ing hot weather reduced test weights, even at Caribou County’s high elevation. Mountain Home grow- er Jeff Harper said his test weights were also light, but he was pleasantly surprised by strong winter wheat yields, considering “we grew all of our wheat in an area that was short of water.” In Pocatello, Wilson said grain inspectors have report- ed few problems, other than somewhat low test weight. Sawtooth Wilderness becomes law WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Barack Obama signed legislation Aug. 7 introduced by Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Ida- ho, creating new wilderness in Central Idaho’s Boulder-White Cloud Mountains. Simpson’s Sawtooth National Recreation Area and Jerry Peak Wilderness Additions Act, H.R. 1138, was developed over the course of several years with input from a diverse group of stake- holders, including ranchers. The wilderness bill was broadly sup- ported by area cattlemen, who re- garded it as a far more palatable option to a national monument designation that was also under consideration. The bill creates three new Idaho wilderness areas encom- passing about 276,000 acres — the Hemingway-Boulders Wilderness, the White Clouds Wilderness and the Jim Mc- Clure-Jerry Peak Wilderness. The bill also removes special restrictions on four study areas under consideration for wilder- ness, totaling more than 155,000 acres. By contrast, proponents of a monument sought to include 591,000 acres. According to Simpson’s staff, the wilder- ness bill had ample input from the cattle industry, and policies governing a monument could change at the whim of an ad- ministration. The wilderness bill closes no roads to motorized use that are currently open to vehicles. Graz- ing permittees within and adja- cent to the wilderness area will be allowed to voluntarily retire grazing permits for compensa- tion form a third-party conser- vation group. The bill also awards $5 mil- lion in grants toward a Custer County community center, a county health clinic, emergency medical support and Trail Creek Highway improvements. More than $1.5 million in grants have been awarded for trail mainte- nance and improvements within the Sawtooth National Recre- ation Area. The bill passed the House on July 27 and the Senate on Aug. 4. “The passage of this bill is a huge victory for Idahoans who’ve worked for over 15 years to create a land manage- ment plan for the Boulder-White Clouds,” Simpson said in a press release following Senate approval. According to a White House press release, Obama signed the bill with Simpson and seven others standing behind him and said Simpson “was able to re- ceive not a single no vote, which does not happen that often.” ROP-33-2-2/#4x