EXPANDING QUINOA PRODUCTION IN EASTERN IDAHO Page 7
FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 2016
VOLUME 89, NUMBER 24
WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM
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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.