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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.