June 3, 2016
CapitalPress.com
5
Wilco, Hazelnut Growers of Oregon propose merger
Members scheduled
to vote on
combination
on June 7
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Members will vote on June
7 whether to merge Wilco’s
farm supply business with
Hazelnut Growers of Ore-
gon’s processing facilities.
The boards of directors
of the two Oregon coopera-
tives have already approved
the combination, which they
believe would create “syner-
gies,” such as spreading ad-
ministrative costs across addi-
tional business units.
Doug Hoffman, Wilco’s
CEO, said the merger would
further diversify his coopera-
tive, insulating it from the ups
and downs experienced by
any one sector.
“It has served us well over
the years not to have all our
eggs in one basket,” he said.
“It spreads our risk.”
Apart from its seven
agronomy centers, which sell
fertilizers and pesticides, Wil-
co also provides fuel services
and owns 17 retail stores, with
total annual revenues of about
$220 million.
Wilco’s consumer-orient-
ed farm stores are currently
growing faster than its farm-
er-focused supply business,
so the merger provides an
opportunity to provide more
services to grower-members,
Hoffman said.
“It’s more of a vertical in-
tegration,” he said.
The merger would also
provide HGO with more fi-
nancial stability when the
cooperative must cope with
volatile hazelnut volumes or
prices.
HGO is considering relo-
cating from its current facility
in Cornelius, Ore., to a plant
that’s more geographically
accessible, so the combined
balance sheet will help with
that investment.
The existing processing
facility owned by HGO is
food-grade and shells nuts,
but needs a quality upgrade to
better serve the domestic mar-
ket, said Hoffman. “It needs
to be bigger and more auto-
mated.”
The two cooperatives have
scouted a location for the new
facility near Donald, Ore., and
are in negotiations with the
property owner, but plans to
build the plant in time for the
2018 harvest are contingent
on the merger’s approval, he
said.
Members of Wilco current-
ly earn equity in the coopera-
tive based on their purchases,
while those in HGO gain eq-
uity based on hazelnut deliv-
eries.
Those two modes of
earning equity — and thus
dividends — would remain
distinct under the merged co-
operative.
“Two separate pools, two
separate checks,” Hoffman
said.
Under the terms of the
proposed deal, the two would
simply merge and no money
would change hands.
The current CEO of HGO,
Jeff Fox, would head the ha-
zelnut unit and report to Hoff-
man, who would be at the
helm of the combined coop-
erative.
Roughly half of the 150
farmers who belong to HGO
are already members of Wil-
co, which has 3,000 members
in Oregon’s Willamette Valley
and was created in 1967 from
the merger of four smaller co-
operatives.
The two companies com-
bined have 900 employees,
though some administrative
positions will likely be elim-
inated if the merger is com-
pleted as planned in August
and some of HGO’s office
functions are eventually shift-
ed to Wilco’s headquarters in
Mt. Angel, Ore.
While Wilco’s current
agronomy stations wouldn’t
likely begin cleaning or pro-
cessing hazelnuts, they may
serve as transfer stations for
the crop during harvest.
Wilco and HGO current-
ly each have a nine-member
board of directors, with farm-
er Ben Coleman serving on
both boards. The combined
board would have 17 mem-
bers, which would be whittled
down to 12 as they come up
for re-election.
Boarding school will host firefighters this summer
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
Courtesy of University of Idaho
A University of Idaho doctoral student’s research shows the winter
hardiness zones could shift nationwide by the year 2050 because
of climate change, with milder low temperatures allowing new
crops to thrive in different regions.
Researcher predicts cold
hardiness zone shift
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
MOSCOW, Idaho — Re-
searcher Lauren Parker pre-
dicts a time when the almond
orchards of California could
expand northward into Or-
egon and the fruit farms and
specialty crops
common
in
Western Idaho
may also thrive
in the state’s
eastern region.
Based
on
the average of
Lauren
20 predictive
Parker
climate mod-
els, Parker, a
University of Idaho doctoral
student, has calculated how
climate change might af-
fect winter hardiness zones
throughout the U.S. by the
year 2050.
Parker emphasizes winter
hardiness is but one factor in
determining the agronomic
viability of raising a crop in a
given region, along with con-
siderations such as market de-
mand and water availability.
But when considering win-
ter hardiness alone, her map
of the U.S. a few decades into
the future shows widespread
potential for farmers to intro-
duce new crops into their ro-
tations without fear of winter
kill.
However, the warmer
zones will also benefit pests
and weeds, she said.
“Across the country, these
coldest temperatures are go-
ing to be warming in the fu-
ture, and that results in an
upward shift in the hardiness
zones,” Parker said, adding
that when she started the proj-
ect she was surprised to learn
that other researchers hadn’t
already modeled hardiness
zone changes.
Her paper, funded with
USDA’s Regional Approaches
to Climate Change grant, was
published in a recent edition
of the journal Environmental
Research Letters.
Parker’s research focused
on the potential expansion
of the growing area of three
crops — almonds, orang-
es and kiwis — predicting
a much broader footprint in
each case. She’s preparing
a more in-depth look at the
potential to raise almonds be-
yond California’s Central Val-
ley, factoring in other produc-
tion-related considerations.
Parker explained that
zones range from 1 in cold
regions to 13 in the hottest ar-
eas, with each zone’s coldest
temperature 10 degrees apart.
Zones are further subdivided
into “A” or “B” areas, repre-
senting 5-degree differences.
Her model shows the in-
land Northwest would shift
from 6A to 7A, and Twin Falls
County, Idaho, should shift
from 6B to 7B — more like
current growing conditions in
the Nampa area.
The greatest changes are
predicted in the Upper Mid-
west, which could move up a
zone and a half.
Cathy Wilson, the Idaho
Wheat Commission’s re-
search collaboration director,
believes market opportunities
play a greater role in crop
choices, and drive breeding
efforts that can also expand
growing zones for crops. She
said water availability will
also limit crop choices.
“While we’ve been in a
warmer cycle over the last 10
years, whether or not that will
continue is based on models
that may or may not actually
happen,” Wilson said.
Parker’s adviser, UI clima-
tology professor John Abatzo-
glou, has conducted research
showing the coldest nights of
winter have warmed 3 to 4 de-
grees during the past 45 years
across the Northwest.
He said a student’s pre-
vious research finds climate
change should also reduce the
prevalence of false springs,
which result in premature
blossoms that are killed by
frost, in most of the U.S.
Grass
Expertise.
BURNS, Ore. — If wild-
fires erupt in the dry range
and timber of southeast Ore-
gon or southwest Idaho again
this summer, firefighters will
have a ready-made place to
rest, shower, eat and stage for
suppression work.
Crane Union High School,
one of a handful of public
boarding schools in the U.S.,
has signed a contract to allow
Bureau of Land Management
and U.S. Forest Service fire-
fighters to use its facilities.
Firefighters will be able to
sleep in the school’s dorms,
shower, eat in the cafeteria
and even shoot hoops in the
school gym, Crane Union
Superintendent Matt Hawley
said. Firefighters will be able
to park trucks, tanker and doz-
ers on the school grounds, as
well. Usually, crews live in
tents while staging to fight
fires.
The contract pays for use
of the facilities for a minimum
of 14 days, even if crews don’t
stage there, Hawley said. The
district will be compensated
for any additional days of use
beyond the initial two weeks,
he said.
Courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
A “Hotshot” firefighter gestures during the Soda Fire rangeland blaze southwest of Boise in August
2015. Crane Union High School east of Burns, Ore., has signed a contract that allows federal fire
crews to bunk, shower, eat and stage at the school during fire season this summer.
Like most small school
districts, Crane Union could
use the money, Hawley said.
“We’ve lost population out
here so this is a partnership
that benefits both entities,” he
said. “It generates some rev-
enue.”
The school will be avail-
able to firefighters from June
10 to Aug. 6, after which the
district needs to get ready for
the 2016-17 school year.
In a news release, the BLM
said the staging area will put
teams and equipment in a stra-
tegic location to fight fires in
Southeast Oregon, Southwest
Idaho and Northern Nevada.
Public safety remains the top
priority, but crews also will be
pre-positioned to protect sage
grouse habitat in the Burns
and Vale BLM districts and
nearby communities, BLM
Fire Operations Specialist
Sam DeLong said in a pre-
pared statement.
Crane Union is 30 miles
east of Burns. The district
has 54 students in kinder-
garten through eighth grade,
and 52 students in grades
nine through 12. Boarding is
available for the high school-
aged students, and 28 students
lived in the dorm this past
year. The high school draws
from elementary schools in
a 10,000 square mile area,
Superintendent Hawley said.
Of the 28 boarders, 10 come
from families in which the
parents also were boarding
school students, he said.
Farmers to own Puget Sound food-distribution network
Growers can buy
in for $250
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
A grower cooperative has
been formed to assume own-
ership of the Puget Sound
Food Hub, a distribution net-
work that allows farmers to
sell directly to wholesale cus-
tomers.
The hub was started in
2012 by the Northwest Ag-
riculture Business Center,
in partnership with 21 Acres
Center for Local Food and
Sustainable Living.
The hub’s manager, Terri
Hanson, said rapidly growing
sales led the hub’s advisory
board to opt for a change in
ownership, transferring con-
trol from the business center
to member farmers.
“We’re not a distribution
company,” she said. “From a
business standpoint, to con-
tinue to expand, it needed to
be on its own, and the most
Courtesy of Northwest Agriculture Business Center
Skagit County, Wash., blueberry farmer Harley Soltes maneuvers a
forklift as workers load farm goods onto a delivery truck at a Puget
Sound Food Hub center. A farmer co-op has taken ownership of
the hub, which allows about 60 farmers to sell directly to wholesale
customers.
logical thing is to put it in the
hands of the farmers.”
About 60 small to mid-
sized farms in Whatcom,
Skagit, Snohomish, King
and Pierce counties sell their
products through the hub to
about 220 customers.
Sales quadrupled in 2015
to nearly $1 million from the
year before. The hub hopes
sales will reach $1.4 million
this year, said Hanson, who
works for the business center
and will continue to manage
the hub for the co-op.
So far, about a dozen farm-
ers have paid the one-time
$250 fee to buy into the co-
op, Hanson said. But the co-
op was formed only recently,
she said.
“My guess is 90 percent
of those (60) farmers will be-
come members,” she said.
Farmers have until Nov.
30 to join. Until then, a sev-
en-member board will direct
the co-op, and farmers can
continue selling through the
hub without joining the co-
op.
A new board will be elect-
ed in December, Hanson said.
The hub’s customers in-
clude restaurants, grocery
stores, hospitals, daycares,
food banks, food co-ops and
the food service company that
supplies Amazon’s worker
cafeterias, she said.
Farmers post their prices
and unit sizes online. Farm-
ers package and deliver the
orders to distribution centers
in Everson, Mount Vernon,
Woodinville and Tacoma.
The customer receives one
weekly delivery and a single
invoice.
The Northwest Agriculture
Business Center was formed
in 2006 to serve farms in
Northwestern Washington.
It receives funding from the
U.S. Department of Agri-
culture, the state and several
foundations.
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