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4 CapitalPress.com September 25, 2015 Irrigation district sued over financing plan Columbia Basin complaint: All area landowners charged the same fee Capital Press A lawsuit filed this week al- leges the East Columbia Basin Irrigation District will break state law if it finances a major project with a uniform fee, re- gardless of the actual cost of delivering water to individual landowners. The Columbia-Snake River Irrigators Association claims a flat development fee would force some farmers to subsidize service to others. The lawsuit is the latest bid by the irrigators association, a private group, to change a gov- ernment plan to bring Colum- bia River water to some 87,700 acres in the Odessa Subarea. Farmers in the Eastern Wash- ington region now rely on an aquifer that officials say is rap- idly depleting. The U.S. Bureau of Recla- mation, Washington Depart- ment of Ecology and Columbia Basin irrigation districts collab- WSDA seeks teachers for manure program Capital Press OLYMPIA — The Wash- ington State Department of Agriculture is looking for experts to train farmers to spread manure without foul- ing groundwater or surface water. The classes will be part of a two-year, $575,000 program authorized by the Legislature. The education initiative was an alternative to legislation that would have required manure applicators in some counties to be li- censed. The Washington State Dairy Federation welcomed the alternative and lobbied for funding. The group’s director of government relations, Jay Gordon, said the classes will advise farmers on how much, where and when to fertilize with manure. “We have folks who live downstream from us, and we need to do a better job,” he said. Manure figures prom- inently in ongoing Wash- ington state environmental issues. The Department of Ecology recently issued in- formal guidelines to advise ranchers with livestock graz- ing near streams. DOE also is rewriting rules for con- centrated animal feeding op- erations. The revision could require nearly all producers with manure lagoons to ob- tain a new DOE permit. WSDA has the responsi- bility to oversee dairies, but DOE retains the right to take they say. The Columbia Basin Devel- opment League’s government affairs director, Mike Schwis- ow, said irrigation districts tra- ditionally spread out expens- es among its members, even though actual pumping costs vary. Odessa Subarea farmers farther from delivery canals wouldn’t be able to afford wa- ter if the costs weren’t allocat- ed equally, he said. “Everybody within three miles (of the canal) could have really cheap water,” he said. “It’s regrettable because the district now has to defend against the lawsuit, and that’s going to be a cost borne by all district landowners,” Schwis- ow said. Olsen’s group has also filed a lawsuit against the Bureau of Reclamation in the U.S. Dis- trict Court for Eastern Wash- ington. The suit alleges the bureau violated federal procedures by failing to seriously consider the association’s proposal to lease water for a privately financed system. The bureau has moved to dismiss the suit, arguing it has no obligation to consider an un- solicited contract. A hearing on the motion is set for Oct. 28 in Richland. Growers check out robotic apple picker action against any livestock operation to enforce the fed- eral Clean Water Act, accord- ing to an agreement between the agencies. WSDA last fall began working on a manure-spread- ing bill in response to con- cerns about groundwater pollution in Yakima County and contaminated shellfish beds in Whatcom and Skagit counties. Farm lobbyists and lawmakers from agricultural districts objected. Although Gov. Jay Inslee included funding for a licensing pro- gram in his budget proposal, a bill was never actually in- troduced. Gordon said the legis- lation would have targeted dairy farmers without ad- dressing other sources of wa- tershed pollution. “It felt like we were being stigmatized,” he said. The dairy federation, however, embraced what Gordon called “classic exten- sion-service education.” More than 100 producers attended eight-hour work- shops in January in Whatcom and Yakima counties on ap- plying manure. “I think there’s a consid- erable amount of pressure on folks using manure,” said Ginny Prest, WSDA’s Dairy Nutrient Management Pro- gram manager. WSDA is looking for peo- ple with expertise in applying manure or managing irriga- tion water, she said. WSDA hopes to develop classroom and field courses throughout the state. By DAN WHEAT Capital Press PROSSER, Wash. — A ro- botic apple picker successfully picked two apples from an ar- tificial tree but the third apple fell to the floor during a Wash- ington State University demon- stration. The picker was a star item at a Sept. 17 field day and open house at the new $4.5 million facilities of the Center for Pre- cision and Automated Agricul- tural Systems at the WSU Irri- gated Agriculture Research and Extension Center at Prosser. A robotic picker would be a big development in the apple industry in labor savings and meeting labor shortages, but Joe Davidson, a mechanical engineering doctoral student demonstrating the picker, said it is still five to six years from commercialization. The apple that fell on the floor was sup- posed to go into a tube and into a container. Trying to mimic the human eye and hand to pick fruit with speed while not bruising it is difficult to do, Davidson said. So far, the WSU robotic ap- ple picker averages 6.8 seconds to pick an apple in a lab setting compared with 1 to 2 seconds for a human to pick an apple in an orchard, he said. The best recorded time of previous at- tempts at robotic apple pickers is 8 to 9 seconds, he said. Big challenges are speed and getting the robot’s vision Dan Wheat/Capital Press Joe Davidson, Washington State University mechanical engineering doctoral student, demonstrates use of a robotic apple picker at a WSU field day in Prosser, Wash., on Sept. 17. Such a device could be a big labor saver for the apple industry. system to see apples hidden behind leaves and branches, he said Cameras, sensors and algo- rithms are used in identifying fruit, shape, color and texture. The vision system has been field tested but orchard testing of the robotic arm and picking hand will begin at Prosser in the next two weeks, Davidson said. The project is headed by Manoj Karkee, WSU assistant professor of biological systems engineering. Among more than 100 growers and agriculture in- dustry members watching the demonstration was David Al- lan, co-owner of Allan Bros. Inc., an apple grower, packer and shipper in Naches, north- west of Yakima. “The concept is very ap- pealing, but development has a ways to go,” Allan said. Labor is tight and the indus- try is becoming more and more dependent on H-2A visa for- eign workers for picking fruit, he said. There will be less incentive for people to come as H-2A workers as the economies of their countries improve, he said. The program also could be disrupted by political problems between governments, he said. Robotic pickers will ride on mobile platforms, feed- ing apples into vacuum tubes leading to bins. Platforms will need to be all-wheel drive and all-wheel steering to negotiate slopes, Allan said. With machines likely cost- ing $500,000 to $1 million apiece, they will have to oper- ate quickly to be cost effective, he said. That means developing planar or fruiting wall trees so the robot finds fruit on a single plane and doesn’t have to reach deeper into foliage, he said. UI ‘bakery’ plays key role in wheat breeding By JOHN O’CONNELL Capital Press ROP-32-52-2/#17 By DON JENKINS nals pay more. The irrigation association’s representative, Darryll Olsen, said in an interview that the dis- trict’s approach won’t fairly al- locate expenses and will make the project too costly for some farmers. Even irrigators who pay to build their own connec- tions to canals would have to pay to the district a minimum development fee of $120 per acre, he said. Government officials say Olsen’s plan favors landowners close to a main water source, the East Low Canal. It also would undermine the plan’s goals to bring relief to a large swath of Eastern Washington, ABERDEEN, Idaho — Now is the busy season for a University of Idaho research laboratory that typically smells of fresh-baked bread or sugar snap cookies. Cereals chemist Katherine O’Brien manages the Wheat Quality Lab at the University of Idaho’s Aberdeen Research & Extension Center. It’s a small bakery, where UI’s experimen- tal wheat lines are assessed for end-use quality. O’Brien and her three tech- nicians are testing dough and producing bread, cookies and LEGAL 39-2/#4X WHATCOM COUNTY REQUEST FOR QUALIFIED CONSULTANTS FOR FARM PLANNING Whatcom County Planning and Development Services is seeking qualified professionals in the area of agriculture nutrient management and farm planning to include in a qualified consultant list. Qualified consultants should be able to assess critical areas and develop best management practices for farm practices that are protective of those critical areas. Consultants should have training in agronomy or a related field, has at least five years of professional experience in farm planning, and is familiar with Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) conservation practices and the Whatcom County Critical Areas Ordinance. Send contact information & qualifications to: Whatcom County Planning & Development Services Attn: Ryan Ericson, PDS Supervisor - Natural Resource 5280 Northwest Drive Bellingham, WA 98226 360-778-5900 39-1/#4 noodle squares in bulk to help the university’s Moscow and Aberdeen breeding programs determine which experimental lines to retain when this fall’s wheat trial plots are planted. They operate from wheat har- vest through May and experi- ence a second rush in Decem- ber and January, when planting decisions must be made for spring wheat trial plots. This is no ordinary kitchen. Along with an oven and flour mill, they operate a machine called a mixograph, which es- sentially records the “finger- print” of dough. Each wheat variety produces a unique pat- tern of markings on a mixog- raph printout, telling O’Brien and her cohorts details such as dough strength, water retention, peak mixing time and ability to withstand over-mixing. “A lot of people call it a kitchen, but we’re doing actu- al scientific experiments every day,” O’Brien said. The Idaho Wheat Com- mission built the lab in 1959 and shares the operational costs, ranging from $105,000 to $120,000 per year, with the LEGAL OREGON TECHNICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING (OTAC) WHAT: OTAC Meeting WHEN: October 1, 2015 @12:30pm-4:00pm WHERE: Clackamas Community College, Wilsonville Campus, 29353 Town Center Loop E, Room 108-B Wilsonville, OR 97070 For more information, or to arrange special accommoda- tions for meeting attendees, please contact Tracy Robillard, Oregon NRCS State Office, 503-414-3220. 39-2/#4 John O’Connell/Capital Press Mary Corbridge, a technician at University of Idaho’s Wheat Quality Lab in Aberdeen, takes measurements of bread loaves, baked with experimental grain varieties. The data helps UI assess end-use qualities of experimental lines in its breeding program. university. The facility evalu- ates 12,000 to 14,000 individ- ual lines per year, starting with the fourth field generation. “Unfortunately, there’s some stuff that looks beautiful in the field that you end up toss- ing because the end-use quality doesn’t come up to par,” said Justin Wheeler, a support scien- tist under wheat breeder Jianli Chen. They conduct a battery of flour tests, assessing factors such as protein levels and clas- sification as hard or soft. But O’Brien explained baking is LEGAL PURSUANT TO ORS CHAPTER 98 Notice is hereby given that the following vehicle will be sold, for cash to the highest bidder, on 10/12/2015. The sale will be held at 10:00am by RANDY’S TOWING 925 WILCO RD, STAYTON, OR 2007 SUZUKI S 50 MC VIN = JS1VS52A772101239 Amount due on lien $3,844.00 Reputed owner(s) CLAYTON K. BAUMAN HSBC RETAIL CREDIT USA, INC. 39-2/#4 By DON JENKINS orated on the plan. The plan’s outline is set, but details, such as financing and exactly how many acres will receive water, are still being worked out. The agencies have resisted a push by the irrigators associa- tion to allow 14 landowners to go ahead and privately finance their own system to serve 14,500 acres north of Interstate 90 and east of Moses Lake. The lawsuit, filed in Adams County Superior Court, takes aim at a key feature of the gov- ernment plan. The plan calls for spread- ing out the cost equally among irrigators, rather than making farmers farther from main ca- often the best way to evaluate a line. Her staff adheres strictly to baking methods developed by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, so their data is consistent with other private and public wheat quality labs, including the USDA facility in Pullman, Wash., where Oregon State University and Washing- ton State University lines are also evaluated. Each bread loaf includes flour from a single wheat vari- ety. The association mandates that loaves weigh precisely 100 grams, be baked for 21 minutes at 375 degrees and include a prescribed amount of sugar, yeast and shortening. Each year, the universi- ty submits a few lines poised for release to the Northwest Wheat Quality Council, which includes representatives from the industry, for further end-use quality evaluation. “(A line) is usually not a dog once it gets to that point,” O’Brien said.