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8 CapitalPress.com February 5, 2016 Subscribe to our weekly Idaho email newsletter at CapitalPress.com/newsletters Idaho Bill would allow live horse racing to continue By SEAN ELLIS Capital Press BOISE — Idaho’s equine industry will propose legisla- tion this year that horse owners hope will allow live racing in Idaho to continue. Horse owners say the state’s repeal of so-called in- stant horse racing last year threatens Idaho’s equine in- dustry and will have a major impact on the state’s economy, as well as agriculture. “I don’t think people real- ize the impact of what horse racing does for the state and the agricultural industry,” said Clayton Russell of Emmett, who breeds and races quarter horses. “It’s going to be missed if we’re not successful.” The Idaho Legislature last year repealed a 2013 law that permitted instant horse racing because of concerns that the terminals used to conduct bets too closely resembled slot ma- chines. Instant horse racing is a form of pari-mutuel bet- ting that allows people to bet against each other on previous- ly run races. Horse tracks in Idaho, in- cluding Le Bois Park, the state’s largest, have said that without instant horse racing, they can’t afford to run live horse races. Without live horse racing, many horse operations will leave Idaho and that would devastate the state’s equine industry and trickle down to affect farmer and ranchers, said Jeralyn Messenger, who breeds race horses in Idaho Falls. According to the most recent Idaho horse census, owners of the state’s esti- mated 210,000 equine spend $39 million on hay each year, $7 million on grain, $8.6 million on veterinary services and $7 million on training and breeding. Messenger said her opera- tion buys 20 tons of hay a year. “If there wasn’t horse rac- ing, we wouldn’t have to buy any,” she said. “And that’s just us. The impact on the agricul- tural end will be huge.” Gov. Butch Otter, a ranch- er, vetoed the legislation that repealed instant horse racing, but the Coeur d’Alene Tribe iled a lawsuit arguing he signed the veto too late. The Idaho Supreme Court agreed and struck down Ot- ter’s veto in September. In an October news re- lease, Otter pledged to work collaboratively to craft new laws that would allow the re- sumption of pari-mutuel bet- ting. His plan would include forming a state gaming com- mission that would oversee and regulate electronic gam- ing. “I’m not willing to turn my back on an industry with businesses, ranches and farms ... contributing hundreds of millions of dollars to our com- munities and economy,” Otter stated in the news release. Debate on the issue last year focused on the machines used to make bets, said Ken Burgess of Veritas Advisors, which is representing the horse industry on this issue. Lost in that debate was the economic impact of horse racing on the agricultural sec- tor and the state economy, he said. “We would like for the broader agricultural industry to understand that and we’d like some legislators to under- stand that.” Burgess said the horse industry doesn’t care about the details of the betting ma- chines or what they look like. “As far as the horsemen are concerned, they just want to have live horse racing op- portunities,” he said. Idaho wine grape Idaho amends its trich testing requirements for imported cattle harvest off by half By SEAN ELLIS Capital Press By SEAN ELLIS Capital Press BOISE — Idaho lawmak- ers have approved a proposed rule that amends Idaho’s trichomoniasis testing require- ments for imported cattle. The disease, also known as Trich, is a venereal disease that causes infertility and abortions in cattle. The Western States Live- stock Health Association last year recommended states adopt consistent standards and Idaho’s deputy state vet- erinarian told lawmakers he is conident the modiied re- quirements will not threaten the state’s cattle industry. Different states have had different rules for trich testing and the WSLHA-recommend- ed changes will provide con- sistency from state to state so producers don’t get confused about the requirements, Dr. Scott Leibsle, the deputy state veterinarian, told legislators. States have often disagreed on what age a bull is consid- ered a virgin, which tests they will accept, whether the tests of several animals can be pooled and how long the tests are valid. The changes bring Ida- ho and most other states into alignment on trich testing, said Leibsle, who is also deputy ad- ministrator of the Idaho State Department of Agriculture’s animal industries division. The modiications to Ida- ho’s trich import requirements Sean Ellis/Capital Press Cattle graze in a ield near Meridian, Idaho, last March. Amendments to the state’s trichomoniasis testing rules for imported cattle won’t increase the risk of Idaho cattle contracting the venereal disease, which causes abortions and infertility in cattle, according to state and industry oficials. unanimously approved by the House and Senate agricultural affairs committees move the age that Idaho considers im- ported bulls to be virgins from 12 months to 18 months, and increase the validity of test re- sults from 30 days to 60 days. The type of tests Idaho accepts and its regulations re- garding the pooling of test re- sults — it allows pooling, with individual testing required if a pooled test result reveals a po- tential problem — will remain unchanged because they are in harmony with the WSLHA recommendations. The changes do not alter the state’s current in-state trich testing requirements. During testimony before the Senate ag committee Jan. 21, Leibsle was asked several times whether the modiica- tions to Idaho’s trich testing rules for imported cattle would pose a risk to the state’s cattle industry. Sen. Grant Burgoyne, D-Boise, asked Leibsle mul- tiple times, in different ways, whether the slightly increased risk that could be assumed to come with the new require- ments was an acceptable one. Leibsle pointed out that the Idaho Trich Task Force, which includes the industry, approved the changes and they were also accepted by the state’s main cattle and dairy organizations. Idaho in 1989 became the irst state in the nation to adopt a trich testing program and conducts about 25,000 tests a year, Leibsle said. There have been fewer than ive positives in each of the past three years, he added. “Is that slight risk deemed by you and the department, as opposed to industry, to be an acceptable risk?” Burgoyne persisted. Given the success and lev- el of enforcement of the state’s current trich program, “I’m conident we can adequately maintain the success of the trich program with these new regulations,” Leibsle said. Sen. Mark Harris, a Re- publican rancher from Soda Springs, told fellow Senate ag committee members that trich testing is an issue the industry takes seriously. “As a cattle producer, I’m comfortable with this change,” he said. CALDWELL, Idaho — Idaho wine grape production was down sharply in 2015 and that will have an impact on the availability of certain varietals. Total wine grape tonnage in Idaho was off 40-50 percent from normal, according to Ida- ho Wine Commission oficials. However, growers said the quality of the grapes that were picked was excellent. Instead of quantity, nature gave Idaho winemakers quali- ty in 2015, said Huston Vine- yards owner Gregg Alger. “The fruit was quality. We were just very limited in how much we had,” he said. “We were down volume-wise ... but we have some varietals that did really, really well.” The reduced grape tonnage was due to a combination of weather-related factors but the biggest impact came from a bitter cold snap in November 2014 that saw temperatures drop from about 60 to 0 degrees in a few days, Alger said. “That was certainly the ini- tial crux of the problem,” he said. According to an IWC news release, “even established grapes were affected and struggled to come back in the 2015 growing season.” The 2015 winter in south- western Idaho, where most of Idaho’s wine grapes are grown, was incredibly warm and bud break was the earliest in memory, Alger said. Sean Ellis/Capital Press Total wine grape tonnage in Idaho was off 40-50 percent from normal in 2015, according to Idaho Wine Commission oficials. However, growers said the quality of the grapes that were picked was excellent. But the season’s irst frost was also extremely early “and whatever healthy grapes we had got pounded by that,” he said. Mildew from rapid cooling and summer rain was also a factor, according to IWC of- icials. “It was just a train wreck from a weather standpoint,” Alger said. Harvest was completed much earlier than normal last year, Alger said. He attributed the good grape quality to the unusually warm 2015 tem- peratures, which resulted in a high number of growing de- gree days. According to the IWC re- lease, the decreased tonnage will result in a limited pro- duction of Merlot, Viognier and Chardonnay varietals this year. Bills would repeal state aquaculture, pesticide management commissions Capital Press BOISE — Idaho lawmak- ers have been asked to ap- prove bills that would repeal the state’s aquaculture and pesticide management com- missions, two groups that don’t have the funds to ac- complish their original goals. Fewer and fewer ish pro- ducers have opted to pay the checkoff fee that supports the Idaho Aquaculture Com- mission, Rep. Donna Pence, D-Gooding, told fellow mem- bers of the House Agricultural Affairs Committee. Pence, whose district in- cludes a large number of Idaho’s ish producers, intro- duced legislation that would repeal the aquaculture com- mission. The legislation that cre- ated the commission in 2004 included an opt-out clause for the checkoff fee that funds it. “Over the years, there have been fewer and fewer mem- bers who have” opted to pay the fee, Pence said. “What’s left now are very small pro- ducers.” The ag committee unani- mously voted to print the bill, guaranteeing it a public hear- ing. The commission was cre- ated with the intent of enhanc- ing the marketing efforts of the Idaho Aquaculture Asso- ciation, a voluntary industry group that relies on member dues, and it was hoped the IAC could market Idaho ish products nationwide, said IAC Commissioner Linda Lemmon. She said most large ish producers, which do their own marketing, have opted out of the fee and consolidations and closures have further reduced participation. “We would have liked to get more people involved so that we could have (done some) bigger nationwide ge- neric marketing of Idaho ish products, but we just don’t have the participation any more,” Lemmon said. She said the commission was successful in helping educate Idahoans about the large number of ish products produced in their state. Idaho produces about 70 percent of the nation’s food trout. “Five years ago, we had a lot of questions from people ROP-32-52-2/#17 By SEAN ELLIS 6-4/#5 who didn’t know we raised trout in Idaho,” Lemmon said. “Now they know we do and that’s been a positive for us.” IAC commissioners vot- ed in favor of dissolving the commission, Pence said. Most of the $12,000 that remains in the IAC account will be used to support the aquaculture as- sociation’s marketing efforts and some will go the Univer- sity of Idaho ag seminars and publications fund. A bill introduced in the Senate Agricultural Affairs Committee would repeal Ida- ho’s Pesticide Management Commission, which was cre- ated in 2002. Many chemical compa- nies don’t see an economic advantage to justify register- ing pesticides for use on mi- nor crops and the goal of that commission was to help fund the research needed to get more pesticides registered for minor crops, Darrell Bolz told Senate Agricultural Affairs Committee members. But the commission, which received no state funds and only has $4,983 of private money in its account, never received enough funds to ac- complish that goal, said Bolz, a former University of Idaho Extension agent. Bolz carried the legislation that created the commission when he served in the Idaho House of Representatives. “Now I’m coming full circle and taking it off the books,” he said. The remaining commis- sion funds will be used to support UI’s pesticide man- agement efforts.
