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CapitalPress.com
February 5, 2016
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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year repealed a 2013 law that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repealed instant horse racing,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.