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EXPANDING QUINOA PRODUCTION IN EASTERN IDAHO Page 7 FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 2016 VOLUME 89, NUMBER 24 WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM $2.00 Demand for government loans outpaces funds Lower commodity crop prices cause fi nancial stress Farm fi elds are planted for the com- ing growing season. The funding for federal farm loans is running low because of low crop prices this year. By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press Demand for operating loans from US- DA’s Farm Service Agency is outpacing available funds, partly due to lower farm incomes, experts say. Funds for the agency’s direct operat- ing loans and guaranteed operating loans are likely to run out in June, well ahead of the beginning of the next federal fi s- Don Jenkins Capital Press File cal year in October. That’s when the loan fund will be replenished. The looming shortfall has prompted several agriculture and banking groups to ask Congress for more money for FSA loans to avoid an even greater shortfall later. “Everybody is projecting another tough year in agriculture,” said Todd Van Hoose, president and CEO of the Farm Credit Council. “The need for the pro- gram is going to increase.” As commodity crop prices have dropped, the fi nancial outlook for some farmers has deteriorated enough that they can’t get regular operating loans from commercial banks, said Ferd Hoefner, policy director for the National Sustain- able Agriculture Coalition. Turn to LOANS, Page 12 A LEGACY OF SWEETNESS As Oregon’s berry season unfolds, George Waldo’s work is worth savoring By ERIC MORTENSON Capital Press F OREST GROVE, Ore. — Jim Love can’t help but admire the Marion blackberries now gaining color at Love Farms, which he owns with his brother, John. They plant- ed this particular block in 1965 with their father, and it’s the oldest remaining block among the 75 acres of Marions they tend and harvest. Their dad, Melvin “Peck” Love, actually started the farm’s transition to Marions in 1961 after visit- ing a neighbor who was growing a relatively new variety released by the USDA berry breeder stationed in Corvallis. “That thing is a really good berry,” Peck Love announced when he returned. “I think we’re going to plant some.” All these years later and Mar- ion blackberries — also known as Marionberries — keep coming on: Good-sized, juicy, deep purple to intense black and better tasting than any other blackberry, before or since. A marketing cam- paign once described them as the “Cabernet of blackberries.” New varieties, thornless and more cold-hardy, may eventually surpass Marions, Jim Love said, but he suspects they will always retain a market niche among growers and consumers. “George Waldo did a good job when he developed these originally,” Love said. “Hoods were the same way. Golly, that was our main berry for a long time.” It is those two iconic varieties — Marion black- berries and Hood strawberries — that established Oregon as a premier berry state, today ranking fi rst nationally in blackberry production, third in rasp- berries and strawberries and fourth in blueberries and cranberries. And as the state harvests its array of berries this summer — crops with an annual farmgate value ap- proaching $200 million — it can give a tip of the fi eld cap to that berry breeder, George Fordyce Wal- do, a quiet man who worked with the straight-laced fervor of a berry evangelist. Turn to WALDO, Page 12 Eric Mortenson/Capital Press Jim Love, co-owner with his brother, John, of Love Farms near Forest Grove, Ore., shows Marion blackberries he planted in 1965 with his father, Melvin “Peck” Love. TOP PHOTO: Breeder George F. Waldo transformed Oregon’s berry industry. Among other work, he developed the Hood strawberry and the Marion blackberry. Photo courtesy of USDA. Oregon Marionberry production 35 32.3 $18.9 million: Up 29.7% from 2007 30 25 20 14.6 15 10 17.2 million lbs.: Down 46.9% from 2007 Production 5 Millions of pounds Millions of dollars 0 2007 ’08 ’09 Source: USDA NASS ’10 ’11 ’12 ’13 2014 Alan Kenaga/Capital Press Courtesy of Oregon State University George F. Waldo and his wife, Thelma Waldo, in a photograph dated 1938. Waldo was fi ve years into his berry breeding work in Corvallis at the time. Outlook good for Oregon nurseries, food processing By ERIC MORTENSON Capital Press Oregon’s food processing and beverage manufacturing industries are expected to per- form well over the next decade, and the state’s crop production and nurseries will gain as well, according to a new report from the Offi ce of Economic Analysis. While lacking details, the quarterly eco- nomic and revenue forecast by Senior Econo- mist Josh Lehner predicts strong performance by Oregon’s agricultural segments and associ- ated industries, bucking the trend in one case. Lehner said most Oregon manufacturing will have “very minimal gains” in the coming years. He noted the recent downsizing of In- tel, the computer chip manufacturing company and the state’s largest employer, and said the manufacturing’s “cyclical rebound” from the recession has run its course. “What manufacturing gains are expected Turn to OUTLOOK, Page 12 Courtesy of Bob’s Red Mill A view of a5-pound fl our line at Bob’s Red Mill in Mil- waukie, Ore. A report by the state econo- mist says Oregon’s food processing and beverage manufac- turing industries are expected to perform well over the next decade.
