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.