March 25, 2016
CapitalPress.com
‘Commodity buffers’ pay farmers same as crops
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Online
Capital Press
SPOKANE — Some East-
ern Washington farmers will
receive the same income for
environmental buffers as they
would growing crops on the
land under a new program
funded by the local, state and
federal governments.
The Spokane County Con-
servation District received
$7.8 million from the USDA
Regional Conservation Part-
nership Program, which di-
rects funding for conservation
projects to improve water
quality, enhance soil health
and support wildlife habitat.
Matching local and state funds
bring the total to $15.4 million.
“This is actually a very big
deal,” said Walt Edelen, wa-
ter resource manager for the
district. “This is really what
you’re looking for to help out
and beneit the landowner.”
http://sccd.org/the-great-
er-spokane-river-water-
shed-project
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Spokane Conservation District regional conservation partnership
program coordinator Charlie Peterson and water resource manag-
er Walt Edelen stand outside the district ofice in Spokane March
14. The district recently received funding for “commodity buffers.”
The program includes a
“commodity buffer,” which
district director Vicki Carter
called “a game changer.”
Producers would be paid
annually for their land used as
buffers along streams.
“This will pay them the
same annual payment as what-
ever crop they have been in for
that same strip of land,” Carter
said.
Edelen said the district
will use the USDA Risk
Management Agency crop
insurance model to determine
payments.
“When you want buffers
put in place, it’s usually your
most productive land, and pro-
ducers aren’t very interested in
losing that ground,” he said.
“If you really want water qual-
ity, then this commodity buffer
will compensate the landown-
er at the same price they’re
getting for their upland crop.”
Buffer sizes will vary de-
pending on the type of opera-
tion.
“If you’re a direct-seeder
or no-tiller, your buffer re-
ally doesn’t have to be very
big,” Edelen said. “Whereas if
you’re conventional, your buf-
fer may need to be 75 feet.”
The project also includes
edge-of-ield monitoring of
nutrients and sediment coming
off the land. The data would be
documented, Edelen and Car-
ter said.
Edelen said he understands
some farmers could be leery,
but “we do have landowners
who want to know.”
The project will cover more
than 150,000 acres. They ex-
pect more than 300 farmers
to become involved over ive
years.
A signup will potentially be
held in the fall, Edelen said.
Farmers should ill out a
form on the conservation dis-
trict website to indicate their
interest, Edelen said.
He expects an enthusiastic
response from landowners,
based on conversations he’s
already had with several.
“They’re like, ‘Sign me up
— why wouldn’t I do that?’”
he said.
Good communication root of successful farming
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
TWIN FALLS, Idaho —
Farmers have to interact with
any given number of people
on a daily basis, be it family
members, partners, employ-
ees, customers or vendors —
all with their own personality.
That mix too often results
in breakdowns in communi-
cation that can detour the suc-
cess of the operation.
“It can suck the joy out of
the business, but it doesn’t
have to be that way,” said Mi-
chael Stolp, vice president of
customer insights and a fami-
ly business adviser for North-
west Farm Credit Services.
Stolp and associate Wen-
dy Knopp, vice president of
the Farm Credit AgVision
program, led a live webcast
on improving communica-
tion during the multi-location
Women in Agriculture Con-
ference, sponsored by Wash-
ington State University, on
March 19.
Conversation, particularly
in a family business, is im-
portant, and farmers have to
work on it, Stolp said.
Understanding one’s own
personality and innate com-
munication style as well as the
personality and communica-
tion style of others in the mix
can go a long way in improv-
ing communication, he said.
Carol Ryan Dumas/Capital Press
JaDene Palmer, left, a University of Idaho student, and Sue Switzer, a water quality analyst, work on
a communications exercise during the Women in Agriculture Conference held in Twin Falls, Idaho, on
March 19.
Stolp and Knopp use the
DiSC Behavioral Assessment
to help their clients identify
their behavioral style to im-
prove communication in their
operations.
The assessment identiies
four behavioral styles —
dominance (D), inluence (I),
steadiness (S) and conscien-
tious (C) — that affect how a
person communicates.
In a nutshell, High “D”
people tend to take over, High
“I” people are the cheerlead-
ers, High “S” people cooper-
ate, and High “C” people are
analytical. They each have
strengths and limitations that
bring both advantages and
challenges to the operation,
Stolp said.
Everyone has some of
each style, and no one style
is better than the other. But
being aware of those styles
can help people be adaptive
in their communications,
Knopp said.
“None of us work in a
vacuum,” Stolp said.
The proiles “help us to
understand behavioral ten-
dencies and how they affect
others. In addition, they help
us identify, understand, re-
spect and appreciate individ-
ual differences,” he said.
That can help people de-
velop strategies for working
together to increase produc-
tivity as well as enhancing
their effectiveness by im-
proving their relationships
with others, he said.
The more people know
about themselves, the more
“emotionally
intelligent”
they become, as opposed to
being “unconsciously incom-
petent,” he said.
The more they under-
stand themselves and others,
the higher the probability of
working better with others,
he said.
People with very different
styles can make a farm oper-
ation work, but they still have
to be able to respect people’s
differences and make space
for all perspectives, Stolp
said.
“Mutual respect is a prod-
uct of conversation,” he said.
The assessment can also
be used to allow people to
rise to their best use by un-
derstanding their needs and
motivation, he said.
The bottom line is the be-
havioral assessment is a tool
that can be used to make de-
cisions based on a mutual vi-
sion, he said.
Idaho federal lands management bill passes House
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
BOISE — Idaho House
members by a 53-14 margin
have approved a bill that sets
basic parameters for how Ida-
ho would manage any federal
land it acquires in the future.
The bill, which was sent to
the Senate Resources and En-
vironment Committee March
18, would require Idaho to
manage those lands for mul-
tiple uses, including logging,
grazing, mining, wildlife and
recreation.
The legislation creates “a
very, very basic framework
for how we would manage
land once it’s returned to the
state of Idaho,” said the bill’s
author, Rep. Judy Boyle, a
Republican rancher from
Midvale.
Dozens of people testiied
during a lengthy public hear-
ing on the legislation March
16, and support and opposi-
tion were about equal.
Boyle supports efforts to
gain state control of most fed-
eral land in Western states.
Supporters of that proposal
believe it’s possible because
all states were granted equal
footing with the original 13
states when admitted to the
Union.
The bill says that among
the rights states possess as a
result of their admission to
the Union is the right to “the
grant of all lands held in trust
by the federal government for
the states once they are grant-
ed statehood.”
“Sister states to whom this
guarantee has been fulilled
have control of their destiny
and absolute economic free-
dom and have a distinct ad-
vantage over the state of Ida-
ho,” Boyle’s bill states.
That argument was at-
tacked by Rep. Ilana Rubel, a
Democrat attorney from Boi-
se, who pointed to a recent
opinion by the Idaho Attorney
General’s Ofice that dissents
from that claim.
“This premise has no sup-
port in the law,” a March 14
opinion by Deputy Idaho At-
torney General Steven Strack
says about the equal footing
argument.
During the public hearing,
Washington County Commis-
sioner Kirk Chandler, a ranch-
er, disagreed with arguments
by sportsmen that having Ida-
ho take control of federal land
would ruin hunting, ishing
and other recreational oppor-
tunities.
“The difference between
state management of lands
and Forest Service manage-
ment of lands is like night and
day. The state land is managed
much better,” he said. “The
turning back of (federal) lands
to the state isn’t taking away
from the public. It makes it
more available to the public.”
Lawmakers liked the idea
of Idaho managing the lands
rather than the federal gov-
ernment.
Rep. John Vander Woude,
a Republican farmer from
Nampa, used a farm analogy
to counter the argument that
Idaho can’t afford to manage
federal lands.
If a farmer plants corn in
a ield but doesn’t harvest it,
of course he won’t get a re-
turn from the land and that’s
how the federal government is
managing the land it owns in
Idaho, he said.
“They are not managing
it to yield or get any product
off of it,” Vander Woude said.
“I think this is a good bill and
should move forward.”
Following public testimo-
ny, Boyle said, “You’ve heard
a lot of fear and speculation
and a lot of myths and that’s
exactly why I brought this bill
forward; so we can discuss
them.”
Idaho would be a top candidate for Materne dairy product facility
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
NAMPA, Idaho — If
French company Materne
proceeds with preliminary
plans to build a facility in the
United States to produce its
new dairy-based product, Ida-
ho would be a top candidate, a
company oficial told Nampa
business leaders March 16.
It would make sense to
build the facility in Idaho for
the same reasons Materne
North America built its second
U.S. fruit processing facility
in Nampa two years ago, said
Boris Salome, plant manager
of the Nampa facility.
But, he told 320 people at-
tending the Nampa Chamber
of Commerce Ag Forum, “It’s
not a promise.”
The $85 million Nampa
facility produces the compa-
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
Materne North America’s fruit processing facility in Nampa, Idaho,
is shown in this March 18 photo. A company oficial said Idaho
would be a top candidate if Materne builds a facility in the United
States to produce its new dairy-based product.
ny’s squeezable, re-sealable
fruit pouches, which are sold
in more than 50,000 locations
around the country. Materne’s
irst U.S. facility opened in
2008 in Michigan.
The company’s new dairy
based product, GoGo squeeZ
yogurtZ, hit U.S. shelves ear-
lier this month. That product
is produced in France.
If it sells well in the U.S.,
the company plans to build
a facility here to produce it,
Salome told Capital Press
later.
“We need to wait a bit to
see how well it’s going to
(sell),” he said. But, he add-
ed, “We have been testing
this product and it has been
received very well.”
Salome said one of the
main reasons the company
chose to locate its second U.S.
facility in Idaho is because
the state has a highly skilled
workforce when it comes to
food processing.
When it comes to food
processing know-how, “this
is deinitely the place to be,”
he said.
Idaho was also ideal be-
cause it is strategically locat-
ed in the nation’s top fruit pro-
ducing region, Salome said.
If Materne does build a
dairy product facility in the
U.S., “We would want it to
be close to dairy (production)
and Idaho is well positioned
for dairy activity,” he said.
Idaho plays leap frog with
New York as the No. 3 milk
producing state.
News that the company
considers Idaho a top candi-
date for a yogurt production
facility was well received
among leaders of Idaho’s
dairy industry.
“It would be great if that
happened,” said Milk Pro-
ducers of Idaho Executive Di-
rector Brent Olmstead. “We
would certainly do whatever
we could do to help them re-
alize that.”
Idaho Department of Com-
merce Director Megan Ronk
said the state would “do what-
ever we can on our end to
make that a reality.”
15
Dairy
council sees
opportunity
for U.S.
cheese, whey
exports
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Despite
a
sustained
downturn in global dairy
trade, world demand will
grow as the populations
and incomes of developing
countries grow, according to
a new report by U.S. Dairy
Export Council.
Global trade volume in
2020 is forecast at 11.7 mil-
lion metric tons, up from 9.4
million metric tons in 2014,
with a forecasted annual in-
crease of 3.7 percent.
While that represents
slower growth than the 6.7
percent annual increase be-
tween 2007 and 2014, the
U.S. is in a good position to
compete for that additional
demand and global market
share, particularly where it
pertains to cheese, USDEC
reported.
Other areas of strong op-
portunity include skim milk
powder and whey, but the
U.S will face strong compe-
tition from the EU in all three
of those product sectors.
Growing cheese con-
sumption in developing
countries is driving gains in
global cheese imports, which
grew 6.2 percent per year
from 2007 to 2014 and are
expected to grow at least 3.2
percent annually by 2020.
That expected growth,
conservatively an additional
463,000 metric tons, opens
up major opportunities for
the U.S. and EU — dominant
cheese producers — as those
developing countries typical-
ly lack the milk, capacity and
investment to manufacture
cheese, USDEC reported.
Both the U.S. and EU
could increase export vol-
umes of cheese without any
major disruption, unlike
New Zealand, Australia and
Argentina, which would
need to completely reconfig-
ure their industries, USDEC
said.
With their large cheese
industries providing huge
volumes of whey for pro-
cessing, the U.S. and EU
are also well positioned to
continue their dominance
as whey suppliers. Global
imports of whey grew at an
annual rate of 7 percent from
2007 to 2013 and are fore-
cast to grow 4.6 percent an-
nually through 2020 to reach
2.3 million metric tons, US-
DEC reported.
The U.S. and EU are also
set to compete for the ma-
jority of growth expected in
skim milk powder demand,
typically dominating skim
milk powder exports along
with New Zealand — which
favors whole milk powder
exports.
Global exports of SMP
increased 8.6 percent annu-
ally between 2007 and 2014
and have the potential to in-
crease nearly 3.6 percent an-
nually to 2020 to reach 2.6
million metric tons.
The U.S. capitalized on
the growth in SMP demand,
becoming a major player.
But U.S. suppliers typically
have less price competitive-
ness then other suppliers in
the global market and tend to
lose share when those com-
petitors have surplus product,
USDEC reported.
Continual improvement in
SMP quality, customer ser-
vice and logistics, however,
will allow the U.S. industry
to compete in a broader num-
ber of markets, USDEC said.
Global demand growth is
also expected in butter and
whole milk powder, but milk-
fat is a more marginal U.S.
export product and WMP
has been a minor U.S. export
product, USDEC reported.
The growth of U.S. ex-
ports in recent years has
been led by cheese, whey
and SMP, and the U.S. is
well positioned to compete
for growth in those sectors.
But it will compete head on
with the EU for incremental
volumes of those products,
USDEC concluded.