August 28, 2015
CapitalPress.com
Farmers urged to report wildfire losses
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
SPOKANE, Wash. —
Help is available.
That’s the message for
farmers and ranchers who
have sustained losses be-
cause of wildfires, a rep-
resentative of the USDA
Farm Service Agency says.
Losses reported include
livestock, forage and fences,
said Chris Bieker, state out-
reach coordinator for the FSA
office in Spokane, Wash.
It’s too soon to estimate
the total value of losses,
Bieker said.
Bieker
recommends
growers who have sus-
tained damage collect doc-
umentation, including pho-
tos, and contact their local
FSA office.
“It really helps to speed
up the process if people
have their farm records set
up with us already,” Bieker
said. “If they don’t, it can
take a little bit longer, but
we are here to help them
with that process.”
Livestock
producers
may be eligible to receive
compensation under the
Livestock Indemnity Pro-
gram. Payment rates are
on a per-head basis. FSA
makes payments of 75 per-
cent of the fair market val-
ue of the livestock. Swine
and poultry contract grow-
ers may receive 75 percent
of the average income loss
they sustain. Livestock
must be part of a commer-
cial farming operation.
The agency provides fi-
nancial compensation for
forage and pasture losses
under the Livestock For-
age Disaster Program on
federally managed land
or the Emergency Assis-
tance for Livestock, Hon-
eybees and Farm-Raised
Fish Program on private
land.
The agency makes live-
stock forage program pay-
ments based on a portion
of feed costs used to make
up for lost grazing access.
ELAP payments are sub-
ject to a national payment
factor, because there is a
set amount of funding na-
tionwide for ELAP appli-
cations.
The Emergency Conser-
vation Program and Con-
servation Reserve Program
Emergency Haying and
Grazing program could
also become available,
according to the agency,
depending on federal ap-
proval.
CRP Emergency Hay-
15
ing and Grazing is already
available in all Eastern
Washington counties due
to drought. The FSA will
not reduce annual CRP
payments for emergency
haying and grazing under
the 2014 Farm Bill, stated
Judy Olson, state execu-
tive director for the agency
in Spokane.
Farmers should report
their losses to their local
office within 30 days of
discovering the loss, Olson
stated in a press release.
Latest hazard for firefighters: Poison oak Residents told
SANTA MARGARITA,
Calif. (AP) — Nearly 200 fire-
fighters have been treated for
allergic reactions to poison oak
while battling a stubborn blaze
that has charred more than 5
square miles of dry brush on
California’s Central Coast, a
fire official said Tuesday.
The dreaded plant is inter-
twined with chaparral and is so
ubiquitous in the steep wilder-
ness of San Luis Obispo Coun-
ty that crews can’t avoid it, said
Bennett Milloy, spokesman for
the California Department of
Forestry and Fire Protection.
“The vegetation is so thick
it’s almost a jungle-like environ-
ment, and the poison oak is all
wrapped up in it,” he said. “In
some places, it’s 12 feet high.”
Milloy, who suffered an
outbreak himself, said at least
AP Photo/Keith Ridler
Warren Heslip, 47, of Southland, New Zealand, receives a yellow
firefighting shirt on Aug. 24 at the National Interagency Fire Center
in Boise, Idaho.
190 firefighters have been
treated — but many more
likely haven’t reported their
itchy, oozing symptoms. Sev-
eral patients had reactions so
severe that they required ste-
roid injections, he said.
More than 1,300 personnel
are on the scene of the blaze
near the town of Santa Margar-
ita. The fire, sparked Aug. 16, is
85 percent contained.
None of the 16 wildfires
burning around California is
posing serious danger of de-
struction or fast spread — but
that could change this week.
A heating trend with de-
creased humidity were ex-
pected to peak Thursday and
Friday. With it could come
thunderstorms and lightning
to inland areas where some of
the main fires were burning, the
National Weather Service said.
Schools were closed for
a second day in the Southern
California mountain communi-
ty where crews battled a small
but smoky wildfire burning
through timber near a popular
ski resort. Firefighters held the
blaze in Big Bear Lake in the
San Bernardino Mountains to
100 acres. It was 30 percent
contained.
to be ready
to flee wildfire
BOISE, Idaho (AP) —
Residents along U.S. High-
way 95 in west-central Ida-
ho including those living in
the town of Riggins were
told to be ready to evacu-
ate Wednesday because of
a wildfire that was on the
move.
Fire managers say the
size of the fire grew to 29
square miles — a 5-square-
mile increase from Tuesday
— with extreme fire behav-
ior that included sustained
runs through tree crowns
and long-range spotting.
Officials say winds up to
20 mph and hot conditions
made firefighting difficult
Wednesday.
A group of fires in north-
ern Idaho near Kamiah re-
mained at 74 square miles as
crews worked to strength-
en lines against the blaz-
es that have destroyed 42
homes.
Sixteen large fires were
burning in Idaho, the Na-
tional Interagency Fire
Center says.
‘Plasticulture’ system strawberries
generate higher costs and higher profits
Expensive, complex system offers multiple benefits, experts say
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Lacey Jarrell/For the Capital Press
Scott Scholer, field manager of Lassen Canyon Nursery in Mac-
doel, Calif., points out runners that will be cut off mother plants and
sold to strawberry growers across the United States.
Nursery specializes in
growing strawberry plants
By LACEY JARRELL
For the Capital Press
MACDOEL, Calif. —
Scott Scholer has been in the
strawberry business for 23
years.
He has stayed in it so
long, he says, because no
two days are the same.
“Agriculture is an adven-
ture,” Scholer laughed.
This year, Scholer, the
general manager of field
production at Lassen Can-
yon Nursery in Macdoel,
Calif., oversees 838 acres of
strawberries. He said each
year strawberry acreage on
the 5,000-acre Klamath Ba-
sin farm varies based on the
number of orders made by
large-scale commercial fruit
growers, mainly in Califor-
nia.
“They plant them to make
berries. Our high elevation
nursery is the last step to the
fruit grower,” Scholer said.
Strawberry plants are not
grown for fruit at Lassen
— they are grown for run-
ners that are separated from
mother plants, developed by
specialty breeders, such as at
the University of California
or the University of Florida.
Growing the mother plants
into suitable, salable off-
spring is a process that takes
several years and spans sev-
eral locations.
“By the time these plants
get here to Macdoel, they are
fourth generation,” Scholer
said.
Once in the ground at
Lassen, the plants multiply
“like crazy.” He said rows
spaced 3 feet apart are plant-
ed in March or April, and by
harvest time in September,
the plants are so dense they
look like a “green carpet.”
“We plant 12,000 plants
per acre. We’ll harvest
300,000,” Scholer said. “Last
year we did over 200 million
plants out of Macdoel.”
According to Scholer,
Lassen is based in Northern
California’s Butte Valley be-
cause the weather cools con-
siderably in early fall. He
explained that hardy nursery
plants perform best in the
fruiting field if they have a
lot of chill prior to harvest.
“We hope for somewhere
about 250 hours of cold,
which is below 45 degrees
from Sept. 1 to harvest
time,” he said.
This year’s mild winter
has helped his crop get a
head start, but each season
brings its own surprises,
Scholer said.
“Mother Nature can turn
around and tease you. One
of our big concerns is hail.
If we were to get a big hail
storm, at any time during the
season, it can be very detri-
mental because it cuts off the
runners.”
In 2007, a major hail storm
hit in early July. He said the
hail took the nursery’s crop
“clear down to dirt.”
“There’s no cut-and-dry
way of doing this. You have
weather — you’ve got heat,
cold. Year-to-year differenc-
es are huge,” he said. “Most
people will tell you, just wait
10 minutes and the weather
in the Klamath Basin will
change.”
At peak harvest in a good
year, workers process be-
tween 6 million and 8 mil-
lion plants per day.
Scholer said there are nine
strawberry producers in Butte
Valley, but when he started
nearly two decades ago, there
were only two.
“Most of the industry is
friendly competition, and the
goal is to grow the best plant
possible. There’s plenty of
room for all of us — no one
nursery could ever supply
enough plants for the entire
industry.”
CORNELIUS, Ore. —
Growing fresh market straw-
berries in a “plasticulture” sys-
tem isn’t cheap or easy.
But farmers who are willing
to invest the additional money
and effort can be rewarded with
bountiful yields, quality fruit —
and higher profits, experts say.
That’s particularly true at a
time when grocery stores in Or-
egon are seeking local sources
of fresh strawberries, said Lora
Liegel, projects coordinator at
Peerbolt Crop Management,
which helps growers manage
berry crops.
“They want more fresh mar-
ket strawberries. The demand is
there if they can get the volume
and the quality,” she said.
In a plasticulture system,
strawberries are grown in
raised beds that are covered
in plastic sheets and irrigated
with drip lines that also dis-
pense fertilizer.
The advantages of this
technique are multiple. The
plastic prevents weeds from
emerging and heat from es-
caping the soil while keeping
dirt off the fruit.
“We know it keeps the ber-
ries clean, and that’s huge for
fresh market,” said Will Ung-
er, whose family grows ber-
ries near Cornelius, Ore.
The drip lines bring wa-
ter and nutrients right to the
plant’s root zone, and the inci-
dence of fungal disease is re-
duced compared to overhead
irrigation.
Irrigation efficiency is also
improved due to decreased
evaporation, said Matt Ung-
er, Will Unger’s father. “You
probably save 20 to 30 per-
cent.”
The Ungers recently
Strawberries grow in plastic
sheeting at Unger Farms near
Cornelius, Ore. The farm was
the site of a recent workshop
on “plasticulture,” a system in
which strawberries are raised
in plastic-covered beds and
irrigated with drip lines.
Photos by Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press
Matt Unger demonstrates how strawberries are planted in plas-
tic-covered beds during a recent workshop on this “plasticulture”
technique that was held at Unger Farms near Cornelius, Ore. The
method is more expensive but can yield greater profits.
demonstrated the process
of installing the system at a
workshop held at their farm
near Cornelius.
After irrigating a field to
attain the proper soil mois-
ture and then tilling it, they
used a specially designed
tractor-driven implement that
mechanically forms the beds
while covering them with
sheeting and laying irrigation
tubes beneath the plastic.
The implement also pokes
holes in the sheeting into
which strawberry plants are
inserted with hand tools.
The Ungers plant “day-neu-
tral” varieties that flower re-
gardless of day length, so their
plasticulture strawberries are
produced continuously for the
fresh market from spring un-
til autumn, instead of a single
summer crop.
The costs of equipment,
materials and labor involved in
plasticulture add up quick.
According to a study by
Oregon State University, the
total per-acre cost of growing
strawberries in a plasticulture
system is roughly 40 to 100
percent greater than for a con-
ventional “matted row” field.
The payoffs are also bigger
due to higher overall yields
and prices: a fully-productive
plasticulture field generated up
to $14,000 in profits per acre,
compared to roughly $4,000 for
a matted row field also devoted
to the fresh market, according
to the OSU study.
However, the study notes
that the higher establishment
costs render plasticulture more
risky in the case of crop loss or
market downturns.
Aside from expense, plas-
ticulture can present farmers
with some other challenges.
For any fresh market straw-
berry, it’s critical that growers
have effective cold storage to
preserve freshness and prolong
shelf life.
Removing a field of plas-
ticulture strawberries, which
usually occurs every two
years, is more complicated
and expensive because plastic
remnants must be picked up by
hand.
While the plants are still
growing, plastic sheeting can
conceal leaks and clogs in ir-
rigation lines that only become
visible to the farmer once they
encounter pools of water or
dying plants.
Water with large amounts
of silt can block the irrigation
tubes, said Will Unger. “It de-
pends on the water source.”
Monsanto abandons takeover bid for Swiss rival Syngenta
WASHINGTON (AP) —
Agricultural business giant
Monsanto is abandoning its
takeover bid for competitor
Syngenta AG after the Swiss
chemical producer rejected its
latest offer of roughly $47 bil-
lion.
A combination with Ba-
sel-based Syngenta would have
made Monsanto the world’s
largest producer of farming
chemicals, on top of its mar-
ket-leading seed business. But
the Swiss company rejected a
series of unsolicited offers from
the American company.
Monsanto
confirmed
Wednesday that it had raised
its offer last week to 470 francs
per share, or roughly $47 bil-
lion, from a previous offer of
about $45 billion. Additional-
ly, the company confirmed it
had raised its proposed break-
up fee to $3 billion from $2
billion.
But Monsanto says the
enhanced offer “did not meet
Syngenta’s financial expecta-
tions.”
Monsanto Co. shares rose
more than 6 percent in morn-
ing trading.
AP Photo/Keystone, Georgios Kefalas, file
In this file photo is the headquarters and logo of the Swiss chem-
ical maker Syngenta in Basel, Switzerland. St. Louis, Mo.-based
Monsanto Co.has abandoned an attempt to buy the company.