8
CapitalPress.com
January 22, 2016
Washington
Don’t make farmers
obtain a license to hire,
Washington court urged
Salmons said L&I had never
been applied the licensing law
to managers paid a single fee
to run all aspects of farming,
including hiring for their farm
only.
“You can’t be a farm labor
By DON JENKINS
contractor
for yourself, you can
Capital Press
only be a farm labor contractor
Every Washington farmer for another,” he said.
who leases land will need a
Columbia Legal Services
state license to hire workers attorney Lori Jordan argued the
if the state Supreme Court law applied to Northwest be-
DI¿UPV D IHGHUDO MXGJH¶V SR- cause it was paid to hire work-
sition, an attorney warned ers and lacked the assets to en-
the state Supreme Court on sure workers would be paid.
Thursday.
“They were a shell enti-
The result would be a sense- ty, with no resources of their
less but sharp distinction be- own,” she said.
tween farmers who own their
Justice Debra Stephens
land and those who lease it, asked whether the same could
with the renters facing an ad- be said of individual farmers
ditional regulation, said Da- who lease land.
vid Salmons, representing the
“Why do you presuppose
corporate landowners and for- they have the assets? They
mer managers
don’t own the
of three Yakima
land. They proba-
“You can’t be
County apple or-
bly don’t own the
chards.
equipment,” Ste-
a farm labor
“You could
phens said.
contractor for
have two farm-
Jordan said the
ers with orchards yourself, you can law doesn’t apply
right next to each
to farmers who use
only be a farm their own foreman
other engaged in
the exact same
to hire.
activity,” he said. labor contractor for
“So this idea
“One
would
that all of a sudden
another.”
have to be a farm
every agricultural
labor contractor David Salmons, represent- entity in the state
and the other ing the corporate landown- of Washington is
wouldn’t, even ers and former managers going to be cov-
though both only
of three Yakima County ered (by the act) is
hire workers for
apple orchards simply not true,”
their own opera-
she said.
tion.”
Salmons
at-
The court heard oral argu- tacked claims by L&I that it al-
ments in Saucedo v. John Han- ways required farmer managers
cock Life Insurance, a 2012 like Northwest to obtain a labor
class-action lawsuit that grew contractors license.
into arguments over the scope
Northwest had been in busi-
of the state’s Farm Labor Con- ness for about 30 years and
tractors Act.
L&I never brought up the sub-
The act requires companies ject, Salmons said.
that recruit and hire out farm-
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workers to have a license from operation,” he said. “It was well
the Department of Labor and known to the Department of
Industries and post a bond to Labor and Industries and never
ensure workers will be paid in did anyone suggest it needed
the event the recruiter goes out a farm labor contractor’s li-
of business and has no assets to cense.”
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He noted that L&I updat-
U.S. District Judge Thomas ed its website describing who
O. Rice ruled that the manager needs a labor contractor’s li-
of the three orchards, Northwest cense after Judge Rice issued
Management Realty Services, his ruling.
should have had a license.
By then, Northwest was out
The landowners, Hancock of business, Salmons said.
and pension fund investor Tex-
“No one had any idea there
as Municipal Plans Consor- was this requirement. Once it
tium, were required under the was brought up in this litiga-
law to make sure Northwest tion, Northwest attempted to
had a license, as was Califor- get (a license), was shut down
nia-based Farmland Manage- by the department because of
ment Services, which was an the pending litigation and was
intermediary between the land- forced out of business,” he said.
owners and farm managers, he
Farmland Management has
ruled.
posted a $1 million bond, pend-
Rice made all of the de- ing the case’s outcome.
fendants liable for paying 722
The court heard the ar-
workers a total of $1 million guments at the University of
and their attorneys $377,214.
Washington’s Bothell campus.
The defendants appealed to Justices occasionally hold ses-
the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of sions outside Olympia to give
Appeals, which asked the state the court wider public expo-
Supreme Court to interpret the sure. There is no timeline for
state’s law.
the court to rule.
Case to define
who’s a farm labor
contractor
6WDWHKHOSVZLOG¿UHYLFWLPVEX\KD\
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
OKANOGAN, Wash. —
The state has provided $500,000
to help Okanogan County
ranchers buy extra hay because
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It’s a “godsend for some
folks,” but it’s only one-sixth
of the $3 million local ranchers
estimated in November that they
would need to get through June
or July of this year, said Craig T.
Nelson, manager of the Okano-
gan Conservation District.
“If it helps pull them back
from the edge, keeping them
viable, it’s done its purpose, but
people are worried about the
health of the livestock industry
in Okanogan because of limited
grazing. People are selling off
livestock,” Nelson said.
The Washington State
Conservation
Commission,
in Olympia, issued a news re-
lease Jan. 15 announcing the
funding and inviting ranchers
to apply for it. But Nelson said
the program was approved in
mid-December, ranchers were
well aware of it and the vast
majority of dollars are already
spoken for.
Applications may still be
PDGHDWWKHGLVWULFWRI¿FHRU$J
Technologies in Okanogan.
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
Monte Andrews, owner of Ag Technologies, a feed store in Okano-
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31. The state has now provided funding to help ranchers buy hay.
Producers were limited to 75
percent of their cost of purchas-
ing hay and up to $10,000 per
round. Some made it to a second
round, Nelson said.
A round is determined by a
local committee of the district
established to approve requests
based on loss of hay and grazing
forage, loss of grazing only, size
of herd and whether assistance
had previously been received,
he said.
A round is basically when
the committee worked its way
through all the requests and
ranchers started new purchases,
he said, acknowledging it’s a
ORRVH V\VWHP VLQFH VRPH ¿UVW
time requests came in after the
second round started.
He said his staff was gone
for the day and he did not know
many ranchers are receiving
money.
The money came from the
state Department of Ecology
through the Washington State
Conservation Commission that
oversees conservation districts,
said Ron Shultz, commission
policy director.
“To my knowledge, this
hasn’t been done before, at least
in recent times. We have built
critter paths and fencing near
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but buying replacement feed
is a new thing,” he said. “We
are trying to meet real needs of
landowners.”
The idea originated with the
Washington Department of Fish
and Wildlife’s Wolf Advisory
Group to help prevent any in-
creasing interactions between
cattle and wolves because of the
loss of grazing ground, Shultz
said.
The appropriation was ap-
proved by DOE and WSCC
without legislative action, Shul-
tz said. Funding is limited to
2015 victims but the governor’s
supplemental budget request
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covery that includes fencing, re-
seeding of grass and other costs
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The action was praised by
Reps. Joel Kretz, R-Wauconda,
who is an Okanogan rancher,
and Steve Tharinger, D-Dunge-
ness, chair of the House Capital
Budget Committee.
A couple dozen ranchers
have lost the ability to graze
thousands of acres of rangeland
in Okanogan County because of
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that burned more than 1 million
acres. Many are hard-pressed
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grazing.
Dairy industry disputes need for safety bill
House committee
holds hearing
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — Farm groups
Monday defended the safety
record of dairies, arguing that
advocates of new safety mea-
sures are exaggerating work-
place dangers.
“The claims are inconsis-
tent with the facts,” Wash-
ington State Dairy Federation
policy director Jay Gordon
said.
The House Labor and
Workplace Standards Com-
mittee held a hearing on
House Bill 2484, legisla-
tion motivated in part by the
drowning of dairy worker
Randy Vasquez last February
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Alberto Garcia of Sunnyside,
Wash., stands Jan. 18 on the
Capitol Campus to support
legislation that would require
dairies to adopt state-pre-
scribed safety measures.
in Mabton.
Vasquez, 27, was found
dead in a front-end loader
submerged in a manure la-
goon. Vasquez had metham-
phetamine in his system, ac-
cording to the Yakima County
coroner.
“This particular incident
is not a dairy problem. It’s a
drug problem,” said Gordon,
a Grays Harbor County dairy
farmer.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep.
Brady Walkinshaw, D-Seattle,
said he was more motivated
by Department of Labor and
Industries statistics. Accord-
ing to L&I, 11 dairy workers
have been killed since 2000.
The bill would require
all dairy workers to undergo
safety training and for dairies
to adopt state-prescribed safe-
ty measures, such as marking,
lighting and fencing lagoons.
Workers who alleged safety
violations would have whis-
tle-blower protection, and
dairies would be subject to
spot inspections and substan-
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L&I has not taken a posi-
tion on the bill.
The measure has little
chance of passing this year,
especially in the Republi-
can-controlled Senate. Walk-
inshaw, who said he grew up
in a part of Whatcom County
with many dairies, said he will
continue to pursue the issue.
“I hope it’s the beginning
of an important conversation.
We aren’t going to solve this
in 2016,” he said.
In 2014, out of every 100
dairy workers, 2.7 suffered an
injury serious enough to miss
at least three days of work,
an injury rate nearly double
compared to all occupations,
but 20 percent lower than con-
struction workers, according
to L&I.
3DFL¿F1RUWKZHVWVWULSHUXVWRXWORRNµPRGHUDWH¶
yield loss. That’s considered
a “moderate” level of stripe
rust.
Wheat farmers will face a
Most commercial wheat
moderate threat from stripe cultivars grown by farmers
UXVWWKLV\HDUD3DFL¿F1RUWK- typically experience up to half
west expert says, meaning an the loss of highly susceptible
early application of fungicide varieties, Chen said.
to ward off the disease may
Last year’s forecast was
not be necessary.
for roughly 35 percent yield
USDA Agricultural Re- loss in highly susceptible va-
search Service research genet- rieties.
icist Xianming Chen’s early
Increased winter moisture
forecast indicates that highly doesn’t have a bearing on rust
susceptible winter wheat vari- survival, Chen said. “Because
HWLHVLQWKH3DFL¿F1RUWKZHVW the temperature is very low,
could have about 30 percent rust does not grow,” he said.
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Rust infections need a
temperature above 23 degrees
Fahrenheit during the winter
to survive. Colder weather
kills rust in the leaf tissue,
Chen said.
An early application of
fungicide at the time of her-
bicide application for winter
wheat will generally not be
necessary for growers, he
said.
Last year, Chen used only
one application of fungicide
RQKLVWHVW¿HOGQHDU3XOOPDQ
Wash., but may require two
this year. Chen said a second
application would have helped
control the rust completely. A
second application depends on
weather conditions, and would
FRPHGXULQJWKHZKHDWÀRZHU-
ing stage, Chen said.
If weather conditions fa-
vorable to stripe rust occur,
yield loss could be higher,
Chen said.
Chen will make another
forecast in early March based
on the winter weather condi-
tions. He said it will be more
accurate than his early fore-
cast.
According to his report, no
rust was observed in Wash-
ington’s Whitman, Adams,
Lincoln, Grant and Benton
counties in November. But
Chen received stripe rust sam-
ples from volunteer wheat and
grasses from southern Idaho
in late October and early No-
vember.
Chen recommends farmers
select wheat varieties that are
highly resistant to stripe rust.
Farmers should compare a va-
riety’s rust resistance against
its yield capabilities and ad-
aptation to the area, he said.
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Northwest cherry king
YAKIMA, Wash. — Den-
nis Jones, a Zillah grower,
was crowned 72nd king of
WKH 3DFL¿F 1RUWKZHVW FKHUU\
industry at the annual Cherry
Institute of Northwest Cherry
Growers in Yakima on Jan.
15.
Jones and his brother, Will,
raise 11 varieties of cherries
along with apples, pears and
row crops.
4-4/#4N
Jones is a member of the
Cherry Institute board of di-
rectors and the Washington
Cherry Marketing Commit-
tee. He has served on the
Washington Tree Fruit Re-
search Commission’s Cherry
Research Review Committee.
Jones and his wife, Linda,
have four children and seven
grandchildren.
— Dan Wheat
Reports reviewed by: Ronald A. Sorensen CA Geophysicist PGP #957
& Suzanne Dudziak Geologist OR.G1273/WA.747
4-4/#24