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2 CapitalPress.com November 27, 2015 People & Places Quest for the best apple By DAN WHEAT Capital Press WENATCHEE, Wash. — When Kate Evans was a little girl in Sheffield, England, she enjoyed pulling apart plants in her parents’ garden. She was seeing how they were made. She was looking for flower and leaf buds. “My parents were fine with it. We had lots of flowers. There were enough to spare,” she says with a smile. Forty years later, she’s devel- oped and manages what is argu- ably the most advanced apple breeding program in the world. It’s the first to use DNA testing for fruit quality, in other words aimed at the best firmness, crisp- ness, juiciness, flavor, sweetness and storability of apples. Some European apple breeding programs were first in applying DNA testing to dis- ease resistance, she said. Evans came to the Washing- ton State University Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center in Wenatchee seven years ago as an associate professor of hor- ticulture and pome fruit (fruit produced by flowering plants) breeder and head of the center’s apple breeding program. She succeeded Bruce Barritt who retired and had started the pro- gram 14 years earlier. Evans had her doctorate in plant molecular biology and had spent 16 years leading apple and pear breeding programs for East Malling Research, in En- gland. When she arrived in Wenatchee, the center’s ap- ple breeding program was just heading toward DNA testing. “It was in its absolute in- fancy, so a lot of the work I’ve focused on is how to use that technology to develop the logistics of the application be- cause it has to be 100 percent accurate regarding the trace- ability of the data to the indi- vidual seedlings,” she said. “When you use the data, you remove or throw away the seedling. So it’s terminal se- lection. If you make a mistake and throw away the wrong one, you’ve wasted everything,” she said. DNA testing is done at seed- ling selection stage and prior to that in selecting the most ef- ficient parent combinations to produce desired characteristics. Previously, parents were chosen for their general fruit and tree characteristics, but with DNA genetic markers parents Capital Press Managers Mike O’Brien .............................Publisher Joe Beach ..................................... Editor Elizabeth Yutzie Sell .... Advertising Director Carl Sampson ................Managing Editor Barbara Nipp ......... Production Manager Samantha McLaren .... Circulation Manager Entire contents copyright © 2015 EO Media Group dba Capital Press An independent newspaper published every Friday. Capital Press (ISSN 0740-3704) is published weekly by EO Media Group, 1400 Broadway St. NE, Salem OR 97301. Periodicals postage paid at Portland, OR, and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: send address changes to Capital Press, P.O. Box 2048 Salem, OR 97308-2048. To Reach Us Dan Wheat/Capital Press Kate Evans, Washington State University apple breeder, looks at fruit from breeding selections at the WSU Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center, Wenatchee, Wash., Nov. 17. The apples came out of cold storage and were brought to room temperature for a week before being measured for firmness, crispness, flavor and juiciness. can be better selected to reduce the number of poor progeny. A genetic marker is a gene or short sequence of DNA that’s a good indicator of a specific trait or characteristic. “You can have markers for single traits, markers for multi- ple traits and several markers for the same trait. Not often is a trait controlled by a single gene,” she said. “We know acidity is pre- dominately controlled by two major genes, but for other more complicated characteristics the DNA tests only explain a por- tion of the overall characteris- tic,” Evans said. A lot of research is going into identifying more DNA markers. But it is slow work. The US- DA-funded RosBREED project led by geneticists Amy Lezzoni, professor of plant breeding at Michigan State University and Cameron Peace, associate pro- fessor of horticulture at WSU in Pullman, is making progress. Quality and storability are the overriding targets of the WSU apple breeding program. Producers want fruit that pleases consumers and stores well for year-long sales. More specifically, Evans uses DNA testing to aim for desired levels of flavor or sweet- ness versus tartness (sugar ver- sus acidity), firmness, texture Western Innovator Kate Evans Age: 49 Born and raised: Sheffield, England Family: Husband, Peter Smytheman, entomologist and research intern WSUTFREC. Children: Thomas, 16; Chloe, 15; Luke, 12; and Mathew , 10. Education: Bachelor’s in genetics and plant biology, Leeds Uni- versity, Leeds, England, 1988; doctorate in plant molecular biology from Durham University, Durham, England, 1991. Occupation: associate professor horticulture and pome (fruit pro- duced by flowering plants) fruit breeder, WSU Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center, Wenatchee, Wash. Work History: Senior research leader responsible for commercial and strategic apple and pear breeding at East Malling Research, East Malling, Kent, England, 1992-2008. and ripening. It takes about 18 years from crossing parents for hybrid seed to reach commercial release of a new variety. “The DNA technology is more focused on efficiency than speed, but in five years we may be at a point of having sufficient DNA markers for important characteristics that we will be able to take out one of the se- lection phases and save three to four years,” Evans said. Three new varieties were released from the program in recent years, all from Barritt’s breeding. WA 2 didn’t gain traction in the industry because By JOHN O’CONNELL Capital Press there was no commercial name and companies were leery of marketing a variety that could end up with multiple names. WA 5 had some long-term storabili- ty issues. WA 38, released over the past several years, was giv- en the name Cosmic CrispTM by WSU in 2014. Proprietary Variety Management, a Yakima company that specializes in va- riety management, is assisting WSU with the apple. Nurseries budded trees this past fall and there may- be 500,000 trees, instead of 300,000, divvied out to grow- ers by lottery for planting in the spring of 2017, Evans said. “I’ve heard more than 1 mil- lion are on order for 2018, so that’s high industry interest,” Evans said. Any apple released by WSU has to be available to all grow- ers. That’s in contrast with the trend of recent years of apple companies gaining exclusive North American rights to Euro- pean and other foreign varieties and managing them with their own growers. There’s value in the pro- gram producing varieties for all Washington growers and vari- eties suitable for Washington’s climate, Evans said. WA 38 was bred from Enter- prise and Honeycrisp in 1997 by Barritt. It has great sweet, tangy flavor and great texture and beauty, Evans said. It has many qualities of the popular Honey- crisp but with fewer horticultur- al challenges, she said. Evans said she doesn’t know when the next variety will be re- leased. Four selections are in the final phase but they may or may not reach release, she said. Beside the apple program, Evans is starting a pear root- stock breeding program. “One of the major challenges is the lack of a dwarfing, preco- cious, cold-hardy rootstock that would enable the pear industry to move into modern orchard production systems,” she said. John O’Connell/Capital Press Jim and Carol Guthrie feed cattle together at their Inkom, Idaho, ranch. The couple will receive the prestigious President’s Cup award on Dec. 2 during the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation’s annual banquet. dent’s Cup award during Ida- ho Farm Bureau Federation’s annual banquet. Idaho Farm Bureau spokes- man John Thompson said the state board makes nomina- tions for the President’s Cup, a lifetime achievement award recognizing extraordinary ser- vice to state agriculture. “Their leadership has been up there with the very best people we’ve ever had,” Thompson said. Jim became active in Farm Bureau shortly before his wife, when he ran for the Bannock County board at the encouragement of his son, Doug, a Farm Bureau agent. Jim has served on the coun- ty board ever since, and has worked especially hard in supporting the organization’s efforts to protect private prop- erty rights. Jim encouraged his son, Sen. Jim Guthrie, R-McCam- mon, to introduce a bill in the state Legislature barring greenbelt trail organizations from condemning private property to complete trails. The bill passed last year. More recently, Guthrie lob- bied in support of land own- ers who successfully stopped a county proposal to forcibly validate easements to access public land through their pri- vate property. “This year has probably been the busiest year we’ve had on account of private property rights,” Jim said. Carol went on to be elect- ed to the district and then state Farm Bureau boards. When she joined the state organization, she said 19 counties had active women’s committees. All but three counties had active women’s committees when she left the state board last year, having been elected to serve with American Farm Bureau Fed- eration. Carol said Farm Bu- reau President Bob Stallman likes to utilize women in lob- bying, convinced lawmakers are more swayed by their ar- guments. “Where men are all busi- ness, women have a personal story about how a bill is go- ing to affect their families,” Carol said. Carol and Jim recent- ly attended the American Agri-Women Conference in Maine, where groundwork was laid for a coalition of women from various farm groups to work toward com- mon goals. On their ranch, the Guth- ries carved a unique niche, specializing in roping cattle, which they leased for roping competitions in four states. They also built an expansive, indoor arena to host roping competitions. In recent years, they’ve scaled back the rop- ing business, shifting toward beef cattle, but still host an occasional event. Toll free ............................. 800-882-6789 Main line ........................... 503-364-4431 Fax ................................... 503-370-4383 Advertising Fax ................ 503-364-2692 News Staff N. 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Box 2048 Salem, OR 97308-2048 News: Contact the main office or news staff member closest to you, send the in- formation to newsroom@capitalpress.com or mail it to “Newsroom,” c/o Capital Press. Include a contact telephone number. Letters to the Editor: Send your comments on agriculture-related public issues to opinions@capitalpress.com, or mail your letter to “Opinion,” c/o Capital Press. Letters should be limited to 300 words. Deadline: Noon Monday. Capital Press ag media www.capitalpress.com www.FarmSeller.com www.AgDirectoryWest.com www.OnlyAg.com www.facebook.com/capitalpress www.facebook.com/farmseller www.facebook.com/onlyAGdotcom twitter.com/capitalpress www.youtube.com/capitalpressvideo www.blogriculture.com Index California .............................. 10 Dairy .................................... 15 Idaho ...................................... 9 Livestock ............................. 14 Markets ............................... 16 Opinion .................................. 6 Oregon .................................. 8 Washington ..........................11 Correction policy Calendar To submit an event go to the Community Events calendar on the home page of our website at www. capitalpress.com and click on “Sub- mit an Event.” Calendar items can also be mailed to Capital Press, 1400 Broadway St. NE, Salem, OR 97301. Convention Center, Portland, 503- 595-9121. Friday, Nov. 20 Tuesday-Thursday Dec. 1-3 Agri-Business Council of Ore- gon Denim & Diamonds Auction, Dinner & Awards, 5 p.m. Oregon Established 1928 Board of directors Mike Forrester ..........................President Steve Forrester Kathryn Brown Sid Freeman .................. Outside director Mike Omeg .................... Outside director Corporate officer John Perry Chief operating officer Idaho couple to be honored for years of Farm Bureau service INKOM, Idaho — Throughout the past two decades, Carol Guthrie has served in all levels of Farm Bureau Federation, working to get women more involved in the organization’s activi- ties. When she was first ap- pointed as Bannock County Farm Bureau’s women’s lead- ership chair, Carol and the county president’s wife were the lone women organizing essay and speech contests and other efforts to promote ag- ricultural awareness in their community. Nowadays, however, Ban- nock County has arguably the state’s most active women’s committee, thanks to a poli- cy Guthrie helped implement requiring couples to join the county Farm Bureau board together. Fittingly, Carol and her husband, Jim, will be honored as a couple on Dec. 2 in Fort Hall when they’re presented with the prestigious Presi- Capital Press Friday-Saturday Nov. 27-28 Open Alpaca Barn, Alpacas of Oregon, Sherwood, 503-628-2023. Idaho Farm Bureau 2015 An- nual Meeting, Shoshone Bannock Hotel, Fort Hall, Idaho. Saturday-Wednesday Dec. 5-9 California Farm Bureau Federa- tion 97th Annual Meeting, Pepper- mill Resort and Spa Casino, Reno, Nev. Monday-Tuesday Dec. 7-8 Oregon Seed Growers League Annual Meeting, Salem Conference Center, Salem, 503-364-1673. Tuesday-Thursday Dec. 8-10 Oregon Farm Bureau Annual Meeting, Sun River, Ore., http:// www.oregonfb.org/events/ Sunday-Wednesday Jan. 10-13 American Farm Bureau Annual Convention, Orlando, Fla. Tuesday-Thursday Jan. 12-14 Potato Expo 2016, Mirage Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas. Thursday-Friday Jan. 14-15 Oregon Mint Growers 67th An- nual Meeting, Salishan Lodge & Golf Resort, Gleneden Beach. Accuracy is important to Capital Press staff and to our readers. If you see a misstatement, omission or factual error in a headline, story or photo caption, please call the Capital Press news department at 503-364-4431, or send email to newsroom@capitalpress.com. We want to publish corrections to set the record straight.