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8 CapitalPress.com December 4, 2015 Idaho Subscribe to our weekly Idaho email newsletter at CapitalPress.com/newsletters Idaho gets second wine AVA, more expected By SEAN ELLIS Capital Press EAGLE, Idaho — Idaho has received a second federal- ly designated wine region and industry leaders expect more to follow. The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau on Nov. 25 accepted the establishment of an Eagle Foothills Amer- ican Viticultural Area. AVAs are specific wine grape grow- ing regions that have unique growing conditions, such as climate, soils and topography, and history. Eagle Foothills joins Ida- ho’s first AVA, the Snake River Valley AVA, which was creat- ed in 2007. Eagle Foothills was carved out of the Snake River Valley AVA and it’s normal for these so-called sub-AVAs to spin off of over-arching AVAs af- ter they’re created, said wine- maker and industry consultant Martin Fujishin. “We may see a number of additional sub-AVAs within the Snake River Valley AVA over the next 10-12 years,” he said. Eagle Foothills will remain part of the Snake River Valley AVA and vintners there can use both appellations on their wines. Fujishin said the creation of the Snake River Valley AVA was a real turning point for the industry and put Idaho on the world’s wine map “I think the creation of the Eagle Foothills AVA will be another one of those watershed moments,” he said. Eagle Foothills encompass- es almost 50,000 acres imme- diately north of Eagle and 10 miles northwest of Boise. It includes nine commercial vine- yards covering 67 total acres. According to the AVA petition, there are plans for an additional seven vineyards and 472 acres within the next few years. Martha Cunningham, co-owner of 3 Horse Ranch Vineyards, crafted the petition that was accepted by ATTTB and published in the Federal Register Nov. 25. “It’s great news for the state of Idaho and great news for us, of course,” said Gary Cunning- ham, Martha Cunningham’s husband. To be accepted as an AVA, a region must show that it is dis- tinctive from other wine grape growing regions. In this case, Eagle Foot- hills adequately demonstrat- ed to ATTTB that its region has different climatic and soil characteristics than the rest of the Snake River Valley AVA, which covers more than 8,000 square miles in Southwestern Idaho and part of Eastern Ore- gon. “There’s no doubt the Eagle Foothills AVA is geographically and climatically different than anywhere else in the Snake River Valley,” Fujishin said. The ATTTB has accepted for formal review a petition by wineries in north-central Idaho and part of Eastern Washington to create a Lewis-Clark Valley AVA. Vintners expect that AVA to be created in the next few months. The creation of an AVA is a real boost to a wine region, and the number of Idaho wineries has grown from 38 to 51 since the creation of the Snake River Valley AVA, said Idaho Wine Commission Executive Direc- tor Moya Dolsby. With two AVAs, a third on the way and several more sub- Snake River Valley AVAs ex- pected, “It’s an exciting time for Idaho wine,” Dolsby said. “It’s another way to help peo- ple recognize that Idaho is making some great wines. It helps us tell our story” Lewiston port resumes container service Barges unload at Port of Morrow, move containers by rail to Seattle and Tacoma By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press Courtesy of Russell Patterson Winter barley shows symptoms of barley yellow dwarf virus in this file photo. Barley yellow dwarf infections are widespread in early planted fall grains in Idaho fields ranging from Buhl to Blackfoot, a University of Idaho researcher said. Barley yellow dwarf widespread in fall grain By JOHN O’CONNELL Capital Press IDAHO FALLS, Idaho — Barley yellow dwarf infec- tions are widespread in early planted fall grains in Idaho fields ranging from Buhl to Blackfoot, said University of Idaho Extension cereals pa- thologist Juliet Marshall. Marshall said Idaho may be poised for another season of severe pressure from the disease, which caused only isolated damage in the state prior to the 2013 season. Marshall said this fall’s in- fections are especially heavy in the vicinity of Blackfoot and American Falls. Barley yellow dwarf is spread by aphids, and symp- toms include stunting of plants and yellow or red discolor- ation of leaf tips, and shriveled grain. Young plants are most susceptible. Marshall said the majority of grain in Southern and Eastern Idaho was affect- ed by the disease this season, reducing yields in fall grains by 10 to 15 percent. Timely moisture in May helped plants recover from the symptoms, she said. “We won’t know if (infec- tions) are as bad as last fall until we see symptom devel- opment in the spring,” Mar- shall said. Marshall said barley yellow dwarf problems have been ex- acerbated in grains planted this fall by heavy growth of vol- unteer plants, providing hosts for the disease, and a long fall 49-4/#4x without a killing frost. “We’ve had a lot of vol- unteer wheat and barley from harvest,” Marshall said. “We’ve seen a lot of barley yellow dwarf in weeds, like wild oats.” Marshall said growers can help protect their crops by de- laying planting dates of fall grains to avoid the heaviest aphid pressure, though she ac- knowledges dryland growers must plant when there’s soil moisture available for seeds to germinate. She said many growers have started using insecticidal seed treatments on their fall grains this season for addi- tional protection. In a commercial field in Buhl, Marshall has planted wheat trial plots this fall to study how applications of foli- ar sprays two and three weeks after emergence may protect crops. She also intends to test some new insecticides, and she said a couple of growers have used foliar sprays in ad- dition to seed treatments this fall, which should provide ad- ditional insight. “We’re trying to develop recommendations tailored to our environment and growing conditions,” Marshall said. In Buhl, Marshall has also planted some resistant wheat varieties developed by Kan- sas State University to deter- mine if any grow well in Ida- ho, or if any offer promise for Idaho wheat breeders to use when making crosses for new resistant varieties. The Port of Lewiston, Ida- ho, has resumed container service after labor and shipper problems at the Port of Port- land halted it eight months ago. Container shipping lines Hapag-Lloyd of Germany and Hanjin Shipping of South Ko- rea quit calling at the Port of Portland in April, citing long loading and unloading times. The Port of Portland, Port of Morrow, Tidewater barge company, Northwest Con- tainer Services and the Port of Lewiston partnered to return container service to Lewiston. Under the agreement, con- tainers are loaded on Tidewa- ter barges in Lewiston and are unloaded at the Port of Mor- row in Boardman, Ore. They then travel by rail to the Port of Tacoma or Seattle before being loaded onto container ships bound for international markets. “We expect there to be strong demand over the next couple of months,” said David Doeringsfeld, manager of the Port of Lewiston. The initial shipment was 20 containers, all by one com- pany, he said. AP Photo/Elaine Thompson File Loaded container trucks line up at the Port of Seattle in this 2015 file photo. A new arrangement allows containers from the Port of Lewiston, Idaho, to be transported to the ports of Seattle and Tacoma by way of the Port of Morrow, where they are transferred from barges to rail cars. Full containers weigh 58,000 pounds, with 51,000 pounds, or 23.1 metric tons, devoted to product, he said. Roughly 80 containers will leave Lewiston every other week. As demand increases, the service will shift to week- ly, Doeringsfeld said. “The constraint right now is the availability of heavy- haul rail chassis,” Doerings- feld said. Northwest Contain- er Services is expanding its supply, he said. At roughly $1,400 per con- tainer, the new option is more expensive than barge service directly to Portland but less expensive than using trucks, Doeringsfeld said. Shipping by truck to the ports of Seattle or Taco- ma costs roughly $1,600 to $1,800 per container. Ship- ping directly to Portland cost about $850 per container. Of the 99 ports in the Pa- cific Northwest, only Seattle and Tacoma export contain- ers, Doeringsfeld said. “We’re hopeful once manager-labor relations are resolved in Portland that steamship lines again provide service,” he said. “Until that happens, this at least provides exporters alternative transpor- tation.” The shipment of peas and lentils was particularly im- pacted. The industry ships roughly 55,000 to 60,000 metric tons of peas and len- tils each year, said Tim Mc- Greevy, CEO of the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council. When container service stopped at the Port of Port- land, that cargo was trucked to the ports of Seattle and Tacoma, increasing road con- gestion and costs, McGreevy said. The supply of trucks is small and the cost is higher, and many steamship lines ac- cept containers only three to five days before the ship sails, Doeringsfeld said. “Clearly it’s good news that they have found at least a partial solution to this is- sue,” McGreevy said. “We are happy with this solu- tion, even though it would be nice to have full contain- er service back at the Port of Portland. But that’s maybe a way off.” The industry will contin- ue to push for the return of container service to Port- land, McGreevy said. “This is a good first step, and we are looking forward to seeing how this works out. We are supportive of at least some movement that brings container service back to the Port of Lewiston,” he said. Idaho team places fourth in national FFA contest By JOHN O’CONNELL Capital Press AMERICAN FALLS, Ida- ho — To prepare for an FFA competition, a team of Ameri- can Falls High school students devoted a full year to research — interviewing agricultural producers, a federal judge and others with a stake in their top- ic. They also enrolled in a ju- nior-level class with the sin- gular purpose of practicing for Agricultural Issues, which challenges FFA teams to pres- ent both sides of a current is- sue in agriculture, enabling au- dience members to form their own educated opinions. The planning paid off, as American Falls won the Ida- ho state competition in April and took fourth place among 44 teams during the recent na- tional FFA convention in Lou- isville, Ky. The team debated the mer- its of Idaho’s Agricultural Se- curity Act, commonly called the “ag gag law,” which was declared unconstitutional in August by Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill. The statute, signed by Idaho Gov. Butch Otter, outlawed under- cover investigations into ani- mal welfare, food safety and worker safety within agricul- tural production facilities. During a meeting with the high school team, Winmill explained the law violated the Equal Protection clause under the 14th Amendment and free speech under the First Amend- ment. 49-2/#4 John O’Connell/Capital Press From left to right, Stockton Woodworth, Mercedes Hall, Kodee Vining, Melanie Jennings, Dawson Winder, Maddie Wagoner and Katie Ward, members of the American Falls FFA team that took fourth place in the national FFA convention Agricultural Issues competition, gather in their school’s greenhouse. The students chose Idaho’s “ag gag law” as their subject. But the students also spent time with local agriculture sources who considered the law vital to protecting their businesses, including Greg Andersen, owner of Seagull Bay Dairy, and Marshall Jensen, general manager of Snake River Cattle Feeders. Students said the business owners emphasized practic- es that may appear to be in- humane out of context often serve an animal’s best inter- ests. “Marshall talked about euthanasia. When a cow can’t get up, they usually shoot it in the head with a .22 (rifle) and try to get it out of its mis- ery as soon as possible rather than torture the cow,” said Maddie Wagoner, who sup- ports the former law. Based on what she’s learned, Wagoner believes Idaho agriculture should re- introduce a more narrowly tailored version of the law to avoid constitutional chal- lenges. She also suggests that food processors open their facilities to more tours to im- prove public trust. The team presented the topic in courtroom format, with Kodee Vining filling in for Winmill as judge. Students chose to play characters from the actual court case, choosing sides based on their person- al opinions. Dawson Wind- er played a witness with the Animal Legal Defense Fund. His Facebook updates at each stage of the national competi- tion were widely followed by the community. “One thing that helped me was our whole town was prac- tically right behind us,” Wind- er said. Mercedes Hall was a Cen- ter for Food Safety witness. Katie Ward served as president of the Idaho Dairy Association, and Stockton Woodworth was an Idaho senator, supportive of agriculture. Wagoner and Melanie Jennings, a last-mo- ment substitution on the team who had to make due with just a couple of days of practice, were the attorneys.