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March 18, 2016 CapitalPress.com Ag economists tell dairy producers to seize opportunities By SEAN ELLIS Capital Press Matthew Weaver/Capital Press Limagrain Cereal Seeds vice president for research Jim Peterson and chief operating oficer Frank Curtis talk last Nov. 12 during a presentation in Spokane. Limagrain is working with Colorado State University and the Colorado Wheat Research Foundation to release a new non-GMO trait that will make wheat resistant to a herbicide. Researchers developing herbicide-tolerant trait for wheat New varieties available to farmers in 2017 By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press Researchers are working on a new non-GMO herbi- cide-tolerant trait for wheat. The trait, which will be bred into several wheat va- rieties, is not a genetically modiied organism, according to Limagrain Cereal Seeds, which made the announce- ment. Limagrain is working with the Colorado Wheat Research Foundation and Albaugh LLC to develop tolerance to a her- bicide not previously used on wheat. The herbicide has for several years been on the market for other crops, said chief operating oficer Frank Curtis. He declined to name the herbicide, citing patent ap- plications that have been submitted. The herbicide has previously been used to con- trol grass weeds in broadleaf crops. Colorado State University researchers successfully cre- ated a mutation that makes wheat resistant to the herbi- cide. The new trait will irst ap- pear in hard red winter wheat from the CSU breeding pro- gram and will be owned by the Colorado Wheat Research Foundation. Limagrain is working to introduce the trait into other wheat classes. “It’s particularly good against jointed goatgrass, feral rye, cheatgrass, wild oats, numerous other grass weed species, all the most important ones,” Curtis said. “There’s no residual effect of the chemical, so there’s noth- ing restricting the grower on future rotations.” Wheat farmers spend $140 Brown signs Oregon wolf delisting bill Environmentalists had hoped for a veto By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press A bill that averts an envi- ronmentalist lawsuit by rati- fying the removal of wolves from Oregon’s list of endan- gered species has been signed by Gov. Kate Brown. Oregon wildlife regulators found that wolf populations have recovered enough to del- ist the species last year, which prompted three environmen- tal groups — Cascadia Wild- lands, Oregon Wild and the Center for Biological Diver- sity — to petition the Oregon Court of Appeals to overturn the decision. House Bill 4040, which holds that the delisting pro- cess complied with the law, was approved by Oregon law- makers during the 2016 legis- lative session and effectively voided the environmentalists’ argument that the decision was illegal. Brown signed HB 4040 on March 15 over the objec- tions of environmentalists, who urged her to veto the bill, arguing the Legislature shouldn’t have interfered with a judicial review of the wolf delisting that they had sought. 5 million each year ighting post-emergent grass weeds. Limagrain believes 20 to 50 percent of farmers in the mar- ket would beneit from the new trait. Limagrain plans to collab- orate with public and private breeding programs to include the trait. The company is con- tacting “a lot of universities,” Curtis said. Growers in Colorado will be able to buy resistant wheat varieties in 2018, and it will take several more years to reach other regions, Curtis said. BOISE — The lifting of European Union milk quotas last April has resulted in riv- ers of milk looding the glob- al market and is a major rea- son for depressed milk prices, two ag economists told Idaho producers last week. But the low prices won’t last forever and the dairy industry will have a lot of good opportuni- Bozic ties in the fu- ture, dairy econ- omist Marin Bozic told United Dairymen of Idaho members. As the global population in- creases and incomes in devel- oping nations rise, “there will be more people that can afford to buy dairy products,” he said. “There will be huge opportuni- ties for us.” Bozic, associated director of the Midwest Dairy Foods Research Center and a Univer- sity of Minnesota dairy econo- mist, said volatility in the dairy industry can beneit low-cost producers. “There is a massive oppor- tunity for low-cost produc- ers around the world, Idaho among them,” he said. “There will be increased demand for dairy foods not just for next year but for decades to come.” He said dairy producers have to be willing to re-invent themselves quickly to take advantage of opportunities as they arise. “You have to be able to pivot and pivot radically,” he said. “You have to look for new business models, new partnerships, new supply chain models, etc., that allow you to maintain your competitive edge.” Bozic said “rivers of milk are coming out of Germany” and other European Union na- tions since the EU lifted milk production quotas and sever- al EU nations comparable in milk production terms to the leading U.S. states are growing at double digits. “Really what’s driving the milk situation in the world right now is the removal of quotas in the EU,” he said. In a separate presentation to Food Producers of Idaho mem- bers, Doug Robison, North- west Farm Credit Service’s vice president of agriculture Carol Ryan Dumas/Capital Press Cows feed in the sunshine at this dairy in Wendell, Idaho, earlier this fall. Dairy economists say that although prices are low now, there are plenty of opportunities for low-cost producers. for Western Idaho, said that situation has been exacerbat- ed by Russian’s ban on dairy products from EU nations. “All the export volume out of the EU had to ind a new ... place in the world market,” he said. “It’s a major issue on the supply side ... and something that’s certainly affecting Idaho dairymen.” Bozic said the current milk price slump may last longer than previous slumps but “I think in the end markets will come around and we will see higher milk prices by the irst quarter of 2017.” Nampa dairyman Mike Siegersma said Bozic’s pre- sentation “was pretty much, ‘hang in there, watch your costs and wait for it to rise.’ He said the long-term looks good; we’re in the right industry. But short-term, we have this (chal- lenge) to work through.” Gooding producer Steve Ballard said he agreed with Bozic that the current dairy slump won’t be a repeat of 2009, when Idaho dairymen lost an estimated $690 million in equity.