18 CapitalPress.com
December 4, 2015
Trooper puts down cows after crash
By ALISHA ROEMELING
The Register-Guard
WALTERVILLE,
Ore.
(AP) — Oregon State Police
Trooper Anthony Mathews
shot the cow dead.
And then he had to do it
again and again and again.
“It’s
heart-wrenching,”
Mathews said at the scene
along Highway 126 west of
Walterville, where a truck
pulling a trailer with 68 cattle
overturned Tuesday afternoon.
“They’re more or less like pets,
and it’s hard, but you have to
do what’s right for them and
not let them suffer.”
Mathews, a wildlife divi-
sion trooper with the state po-
lice, was assigned to kill a total
of 12 injured cows trapped in-
side the trailer.
Mathews said he’d had to
kill livestock before, mostly
wildlife.
As the shots from Mathews’
handgun rang out, bystanders
and emergency crew members
winced and plugged their ears.
Courtesy of Oregon State Police
An Oregon State Police trooper checks a truck that tipped over
while carrying 68 head of cattle. The accident occurred on Highway
126 west of Walterville, Ore.
Mathews was equipped with
ear protection to cancel out the
sharp sounds.
Mathews said there were
“many more” animals already
dead in the trailer.
Once confirmed dead, the
cows were dragged from the
trailer with a long metal cable
and placed into another trailer.
A co-owner of the truck and
trailer, Ron Langley of Mon-
roe, said the carcasses would
likely be taken to a designat-
ed dump, as they could not be
used for meat.
“A lot of them have broken
legs and bones,” Langley said
of the animals. “There’s no
way for us to get them up or
use them, so we have to shoot
them.”
Langley works for Apache
Transport, a Junction City
company that hauls livestock
and construction materials.
The owner of the cows was
also on the scene and helped
troopers decipher which ani-
mals could be salvaged.
The truck driver had minor
injuries and was not taken to a
hospital, law enforcement offi-
cials said.
The truck sheared a tree
and struck a power pole, which
downed lines and cut power
to several nearby homes and
businesses.
Following the crash, sev-
eral cows escaped to a nearby
field through a hole in the top
of trailer, according to state
police Sgt. Vonn Schleicher,
who said he was unsure how
many cows were alive, dead or
injured. The trailer likely was
ripped open on impact, Schle-
icher said.
The cows that remained
trapped inside the trailer could
be heard mooing and kicking
the metal trailer, prompting
officials to decide to shoot
the severely injured animals,
Schleicher said.
The area where the truck
Demand for farm loans surges
amid low crop and cattle prices
overturned has been the scene
of multiple crashes over the
years, according to several
neighbors.
A driver who crashed his
state-owned tanker truck on
Dec. 30, 2014, spilled a load
of 11,000 juvenile salmon in
the same spot. The driver, who
struck a power pole, was later
determined to have a blood
alcohol level of 0.29 percent,
state police said at the time.
The scene at Tuesday’s
crash was eerily familiar, ac-
cording to 38-year-old Penny
Burns, who said crashes in the
area are “a constant problem.”
“That’s the exact same spot
the fish truck crashed,” Burns
said. “There are so many
crashes here. ... I mean look
at my fence, it’s had to be re-
placed because of it.”
Burns said she was the first
to call 911.
“As soon as I heard it, I
came out and saw one (cow)
take off,” Burns said. “They
were all mooing and kicking
very loudly.”
Idaho potato industry
awaits results of litchi
tomato field trials
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
By ROXANA HEGEMAN
Associated Press
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) —
The nation’s net farm income
is the lowest since 2002, and
with another year of low com-
modity prices, demand for
agriculture loans is surging as
farmers struggle to make ends
meet.
Today’s grain prices will
bring in enough to pay for
basic operating costs like
fertilizer, seed and land rent,
said Troy Soukup, the past
president of Kansas Bankers
Association’s Ag Bankers
Division. Yet, crop prices are
not high enough for farmers to
make payments on equipment
loans — or even to get paid
for their own labor.
Agricultural lenders say
they are seeing people who
had operating loans request-
ing larger ones, and some who
had operated with cash are
borrowing money. But it’s un-
likely the current run on loans
will be anything like the farm
credit crisis of the 1980s.
Farmer Tom Giessel had to
borrow just to finish out this
season at his western Kansas
farm where he grows wheat,
corn and sorghum. Not so
long ago, commodity pric-
es were so high that Giessel
didn’t have to borrow any
money for the farm between
2012 and 2014.
“Everybody is kind of tak-
ing a step backward with these
low commodity prices,” he
said. “In fact, it might be more
than a step — it might be kind
of a tumble backward.”
U.S. farm debt is forecast
to increase 6.3 percent in
2015, a recent U.S. Agricul-
ture Department’s Econom-
ic Research Service report
showed. At the same time, net
income has plummeted by a
staggering 55 percent since
2013 and is forecast to be
AP Photo/Charlie Riedel
In this photo taken Nov. 10, a motorist passes a pile of milo at a grain storage facility near Canton,
Kan. Record crops for grains like milo contribute to low commodity prices for farmers, fueling a surge
in agriculture operating loans.
$55.9 billion this year — the
lowest since 2002. The report
cites depressed crop and cattle
prices as the main reasons for
the decline.
It’s the latest in a boom-
and-bust cycle as old as farm-
ing. A widespread drought
that began in 2010 in the
south and spread across the
Midwest before peaking in
2012 diminished stockpiles
of grain, but was followed
by a renaissance fueled by a
rare combination of high crop
yields and prices. As more
grain crops were grown, the
resulting glut caused a sharp
fall in prices these past two
years, aggravated by weak
exports.
“Most of what we are
hearing out there is that farm-
ers and the banks are in good
shape to be able to weather
any potential downturn,” said
Steve Apodaca, vice presi-
dent of the Washington, D.C.-
based American Bankers
Association’s Center for Ag-
ricultural and Rural Banking.
The USDA’s Farm Ser-
vice Agency saw demand for
loans across the nation soar
over two from nearly $4 bil-
lion in 2013 to more than $5.6
billion in 2015. Delinquency
rates nationwide were around
1 percent, according to FSA .
USDA provides farmers
“a strong safety net to sup-
port them during challenging
times,” FSA administrator Val
Dolcini said in an email.
Lenders credit the low
delinquency rates in part to
Scoular acquires Legumex Walker pulse business
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Scoular has acquired the
Legumex Walker Inc. special
crop division, which is devot-
ed to pulse crops.
Scoular entered into an
agreement with Canadian
company Legumex Walker in
September to acquire all the
assets of LWI’s special crops
division for $70.4 million
plus the amount of working
capital at closing. The trans-
action was finalized in No-
vember, according to Scou-
lar.
Based in Urbandale, Iowa,
Scoular now owns the Le-
gumex Walker name and the
affiliated special crops busi-
ness. The seller has changed
its name to LWP Capital Inc.
The special crops division
includes the processing of len-
tils, whole and split peas, ed-
ible beans, chickpeas, canary-
seed, flaxseed and sunflower
seed, according to Scoular.
Pulses are referred to as spe-
cial crops in the industry.
Pacific Northwest farm-
ers likely won’t immediately
see changes as a result of the
acquisition, but the division
will allow Scoular to advance
marketing in the future, said
Bob Ludington, chief operat-
ing officer for the company.
Scoular will buy pulses
from PNW farmers after tak-
ing time to get adjusted to
the market and creating some
new infrastructure, Ludington
said.
The special crops group
has also established relation-
ships with universities in the
U.S. and Canada to develop
new varieties, he said.
“They’re all being derived
by our customers, mostly
on the food side, where they
want a different color, a lon-
ger shelf life and different
protein or processing pro-
files,” he said.
Scoular became aware of
Legumex Walker through the
Pacific Coast Canola plant
in Warden, Wash. Legumex
Walker was an owner of the
plant.
“We had been looking for
a business in the special crops
area for 15 to 20 years,” Lud-
ington said. “Once (Legumex
Walker) announced they were
going to be selling, we began
working in earnest to acquire
that group.”
The Warden plant is not
involved in the special crops
division acquisition, Luding-
ton said.
The first 30 to 90 days will
be devoted to transitioning
customers and the more than
300 new employees moving
to Scoular from Legumex
Walker, Ludington said.
Through the acquisition,
Scoular is adding 14 process-
ing facilities strategically lo-
cated in key growing regions
in the Canadian prairie prov-
inces, the northern U.S. and
China, according to a Scoular
press release.
banks, government lend-
ers and some agricultural
programs that help stretch
out repayment periods until
prices come up again. Some
lenders also are restructur-
ing payments on some older
loans for equipment or land to
give farmers more flexibility,
according to Soukup, who is
also a banker.
But the longer commod-
ity prices stay at this level,
the more difficult it will be to
do that long-term. Giessel is
now trying to decide whether
he should plant much, if any,
corn next year due to the cost
of seed: “I guess what you
will end up choosing is what
you will lose the least amount
of money on, if you are going
to put a crop out.”
Burns said the driver got
out of the truck quickly.
“The guy was hurt a little,
he was bleeding from the head
and looked like he may have
broken his nose, but he was
walking and talking just fine,”
Burns said.
Marlin Lay, 56, said he
was arriving home just up
the street when the crash hap-
pened.
“Speeding is what got
him,” Lay said. “He hit that
tree so hard, he bounced back
into the highway.”
Lay, who has lived off Ce-
dar Flat Road for more than 20
years, said the area is prone to
crashes because of its curves.
“You’re going 55 (mph),
then all of the sudden it’s 45
and the road is curving,” Lay
said. “There’s a sign right
there that says 45 and they
don’t pay attention.”
Police said Wednesday that
speed was a reason the truck
failed to negotiate the turn.
The driver was cited for fail-
ing to drive within his lane.
BOISE — The first Idaho
field tests of a so-called trap
crop that researchers hope
can significantly reduce pale
cyst nematode numbers in in-
fested potato fields went well,
at least from an agronomic
standpoint.
Now the state’s potato in-
dustry is awaiting the release
of research results that will
show how well litchi toma-
to fared in actually reducing
PCN numbers.
Those results are expected
to be released in December or
January, said Lloyd Knight,
the Idaho State Department of
Agriculture’s plant industries
division administrator.
“If it does work like they
think it will, it would be a
really good solution to this
problem,” said Oakley potato
grower Randy Hardy.
PCN, a tiny worm that can
reduce potato yields if it’s
present in high numbers, was
first detected in Idaho in 2006
and 26 fields encompassing
2,897 acres are infested with
PCN. Those fields in East Ida-
ho, along with another nearby
7,734 acres which have been
associated with the infested
fields, are regulated under a
federal quarantine.
Litchi tomato, which is in
the same plant family as po-
tatoes, stimulates nematode
eggs to hatch in the soil but
it does not support nematode
feeding or reproduction.
In greenhouse trials, litchi
tomato greatly reduced the
amount of PCN cysts on suc-
ceeding potato crops, accord-
ing to information sent to the
Capital Press by USDA Ani-
mal and Plant Health Inspec-
tion Service officials.
“Non-field trial research
led by the University of Idaho
resulted in litchi tomato al-
most entirely eliminating re-
production of pale cyst nem-
atode,” Rhonda Santos, an
APHIS public affairs official,
said in an email.
In greenhouse experi-
ments, the use of litchi to-
mato reduced nematode cyst
numbers by 70-95 percent in
a succeeding potato crop. By
contrast, according to APHIS,
cyst numbers increased by
340 percent when potatoes
were planted following pota-
toes.
Santos said research-
ers would learn more in the
weeks to come about how this
year’s field trials fared but she
said, “If we get the results we
expect, we may support ex-
panded use of litchi tomato as
another effective tool to elim-
inate (PCN).”
Because Idaho considers
litchi tomato an invasive spe-
cies, the state’s PCN program
has to obtain a detailed permit
from ISDA to grow the plant
to ensure it doesn’t spread.
“Everything in the permit
having to do with the proj-
ect went according to plan,”
Knight said. “It worked ex-
actly as we hoped it would. I
look forward to hearing what
they got out of that research.”
The field trials included
three infested fields covering
a total of almost 120 acres.
Santos said researchers
learned a lot agronomically
about how to grow the plant
in Idaho, including “how to
prepare and plant the litchi to-
mato seed for rapid and con-
sistent germination and that
it can be drilled or planted
like grain seed, using equip-
ment that the growers already
have.”
She said the plant grew
better than expected in South-
east Idaho’s cooler, drier cli-
mate “but early season weed
control is important as some
weeds initially grow more
quickly than the litchi toma-
to.”
Western governors offer water solutions
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Following up on a Senate
Energy and Natural Resourc-
es Committee hearing on leg-
islation to mitigate drought
in the West and Alaska, the
Western Governors’ Associa-
tion has sent a letter offering
policy solutions to committee
members.
They emphasized that
Western states are “impacted
by water shortages because of
extended drought conditions
and insufficient infrastructure
to assure adequate water sup-
plies.”
“The biggest challenge is
how to affordably and effec-
tively create flexibility in our
water system,” said Laura
Chartrand, WGA policy ad-
viser for Western water issues.
The letter was sent to the
Senate committee members
to encourage them to review
some tools Western states
have identified that can help
build resiliency and flexibility
in the structure, she said.
Water management is dif-
ferent in the West than it is in
the East, and policy to miti-
gate drought would benefit
from the expertise and view-
point of the 19 Western states,
she said.
The Western Governors
Drought Forum was launched
last year by Nevada Gov. Bri-
an Sandoval to enable states
to share best practices in wa-
ter resource management fo-
cused on improving drought
preparedness and response.
The solutions shared with
the Senate committee reflect
information from the forum,
said Joe Rassenfoss, WGA
communications director.
The solutions are aimed
at promoting greater invest-
ment in water infrastructure
and providing incentives for
innovative water management
policies among states that pre-
serve states’ primacy in water
management.
They also focus on
strengthening federal efforts
to maintain adequate collec-
tion of drought and water data
and coordinating information
programs across multiple
agencies, enhancing data net-
works and facilitating better
use of existing information.
Among other things, the
governors propose the creation
of a federal loan program that
will make it possible for states
and other public and private
entities to secure financing on
reasonable terms to complete
important
water-resources
management projects.
The governors also en-
courage Congress to authorize
federal agencies to provide re-
sources and technical support
to help states implement state
plans designed to provide wa-
ter for municipal, rural, agri-
cultural, industrial, and habi-
tat needs.