April 29, 2016
CapitalPress.com
Washington, Oregon pass halfway
mark in their war on gypsy moths
Diminishing supply fails
to lift Idaho spud prices
Fine mist falls in
Seattle, Portland
ABERDEEN, Idaho —
Idaho potato farmers say fa-
vorable weather conditions
have helped them get an early
start to planting their 2016
crop.
They’re becoming con-
cerned, however, that prices
of their 2015 spuds remain
stagnant, despite what ap-
pears to be a favorable supply
situation.
Growers throughout the
state and Idaho Potato Com-
mission President and CEO
Frank Muir estimate planting
started about a week ahead of
the usual schedule this spring.
According to the USDA’s
April 1 stocks report, shippers
have been steadily moving
through their supply of 2015
spuds, which industry offi-
cials say should translate to
stronger spud prices through-
out the summer, until the new
crop is harvested. That hasn’t
happened, yet.
“Every indication would
say prices should be slowly
moving up,” Muir said. “All
conditions favor it.”
According to the report,
the 13 major potato states
started the month with 2.3
million hundredweight fewer
spuds on hand than through
the same period of the prior
year.
In Idaho, 35 percent of
production remained on April
1. That’s down 2 percent, or 3
million hundredweight, from
the previous year. USDA re-
ported the average price for a
hundredweight of all package
types of fresh Russet Bur-
banks sold in the Twin Falls
and Burley district was $7.74
on April 16, just 3 cents high-
er than on Jan. 2.
“I think it’s confusing with
the stocks on hand that we’re
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
The Washington State
Department of Agriculture’s
spring offensive against gypsy
moths passed the halfway point
Tuesday, with a second pesti-
cide application over a densely
populated Seattle neighbor-
hood.
Meanwhile, the Oregon De-
partment of Agriculture made
the second of three passes over
Portland.
An airplane spent 15 min-
utes in the early morning spray-
ing Bacillus thuringiensis var.
kurstaki, commonly known as
Btk, over 130 acres on Capitol
Hill in Seattle.
Runners, dog walkers and
WSDA observers were out
as a fine mist fell, department
spokesman Hector Castro said,
but there were no street protest-
ers, unlike in 2000 and 2006,
the last years the department
sprayed in Seattle for gypsy
moths.
“We’re definitely hearing
from people not happy about
the spraying, but it’s not in
the numbers as in the past, not
even close,” Castro said.
WSDA began spraying
more than 10,500 acres in
seven cities on April 16.
It’s the state’s second-larg-
est spraying campaign ever
against
forest-defoliating
gypsy moths. Each site will
sprayed three times to catch
caterpillars as they emerge
over several weeks. The oper-
ation probably will be over by
May 9, Castro said.
ODA on Tuesday sprayed
8,800 acres over North Port-
Courtesy of Hector Castro, Wash. State Dept. of Agriculture
An airplane sprays pesticide April 18 over Gig Harbor, Wash., to eradicate gypsy moths. The Wash-
ington and Oregon agriculture departments are spraying thousands of acres this spring, including in
Seattle and Portland.
land neighborhoods and the
Port of Portland. ODA also
sprayed over the Port of Van-
couver on behalf of WSDA.
The final application is
scheduled for Sunday or
Monday, ODA spokesman
Bruce Pokarney said. The de-
partment has heard a handful
of complaints, he said.
European gypsy moths
are established in many East-
ern and Midwestern states.
Western states, which also
must guard against Asian gyp-
sy moths, have aggressively
sprayed areas where the moths
have been found.
Washington and Oregon
both trapped gypsy moths in
urban areas last summer.
To prepare residents,
WSDA mailed four rounds of
postcards to 38,000 address-
es with information about the
department’s plans. The de-
partment also updates spraying
schedules online.
WSDA has stressed that
Btk is approved for organic
agriculture.
“On the whole, social media
has been a real benefit,” Castro
said. “It allows us to share a lot
of information and get infor-
mation out quickly.”
A streak of warm weather
motivated WSDA to compress
the spaying scheduled to catch
early emerging caterpillars.
WSDA also is spraying
over Tacoma, Gig Harbor, Lac-
ey, Nisqually and Kent. Most
sites have now been sprayed
twice.
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
5
not seeing more strength
in the fresh market,” said
Ritchey Toevs, an Aberdeen
IPC commissioner.
Randy Hardy, an IPC
commissioner from Oakley
and chairman of Sun Val-
ley Potatoes, is hopeful that
prices will start rising when
warmer weather arrives and
consumers start grilling, but
he’s heard from Eastern col-
leagues that potatoes from
Canada may be displacing
some Idaho shipments.
“The stock numbers are
down. We need to see that de-
mand increase,” Hardy said.
Both Hardy and Toevs
estimate they planted about a
week early. Toevs planted his
spud rows about an inch wid-
er than normal, hoping cooler
weather and wetter soil due
to early planting could boost
the number of tubers that set
beneath each plant.
But, Toevs acknowledged,
“the best potatoes are often
not the first planted.”
James Hoff an IPC com-
missioner from Idaho Falls,
said growers in his area have
also planted at least a week
early, but he’ll start on May
1, as usual, concerned plant-
ing when it’s too cool and wet
could result in seed decay in
fields.
United Potato Growers of
America President and CEO
Jerry Wright said Washing-
ton growers have planted the
farthest ahead of schedule.
He fears U.S. potato farmers
will increase their acreage this
season.
“The models still say what
they said months ago, and
that is given the current status
of profitability of alternative
crops, there is a high likeli-
hood there will be a 2 percent
increase in (potato) acreage
nationwide,” Wright said.
March storms prompt SWP to
boost allocations to 60 percent
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
SACRAMENTO — With
runoff from the March storms
filling Northern California res-
ervoirs, the state Department
of Water Resources has upped
its anticipated deliveries to
State Water Project customers
to 60 percent of requested sup-
plies.
In all, the 29 agencies that
receive SWP water will get a
little more than 2.5 million
acre-feet of the nearly 4.2 mil-
lion acre-feet they sought in
2016, marking the state proj-
ect’s largest allocation since
65 percent of normal supplies
were sent to districts in 2012.
The upgrade announced
April 21 was the season’s third
since the DWR set its initial al-
location at 15 percent in Janu-
ary, later raising it to 30 percent
and 45 percent. It’s also likely
to be the last upgrade for the
year, department spokesman
Ted Thomas said in an email.
“(We) never know what na-
ture will do,” he said, “but in
the absence of significant rain
and snow, (it’s) doubtful if the
allocation will increase.”
The new allocation comes
as the U.S. Drought Moni-
tor issued new maps showing
improved conditions in much
of California, as part of the
Central Sierra and San Joa-
quin Valley emerged from the
exceptional drought category
— the most severe category of
drought.
Much of the Sacramento
Valley improved from extreme
to severe or moderate drought.
However, a large swath of the
San Joaquin Valley and Cen-
tral Coast remain in exception-
al drought, according to the
monitor.
Even with the wet winter in
many places, state and federal
officials caution anew that the
drought is far from over. Cindy
Matthews, a National Weath-
er Service senior hydrologist,
said in an email the D3, or
extreme drought, classifica-
tion still means an area is still
within the worst 3 percent to 5
percent of droughts on record.
State officials said that
while key reservoirs are ris-
ing from winter storms, some
remain below average for this
time of year. The San Luis
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
Water is released from Shasta Dam into the Sacramento River
in early April. March storms raised reservoir levels throughout
Northern California, prompting the State Water Project to increase
allocations to 60 percent of normal supplies.
Reservoir, a key storage body
south of the Sacramento-San
Joaquin River Delta for both
the SWP and federal Central
Valley Project, is only at half
its 2 million acre-foot capacity
and 55 percent of its histori-
cal average, largely because
of Delta pumping restrictions
to protect imperiled fish, the
DWR explained.
With an expected transition
to La Nina oceanic conditions
by next fall, the 2017 water
year is too uncertain to aban-
don preparations for another
dry year, officials said.
“Conservation is the sur-
est and easiest way to stretch
supplies,” DWR director Mark
Cowin said in a statement.
“We all need to make the spar-
ing, wise use of water a daily
habit.”
SAGE Fact #130
Oregon grows more than 10 percent
of the nation’s peas, and Umatilla
and Morrow counties are the leading
producers in the state.
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