10 CapitalPress.com
July 1, 2016
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Progress reported toward restoring Idaho chipping potato access to Japan
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
IDAHO FALLS — A
source with the Idaho Potato
Commission said progress
was made toward restoring
access for fresh Idaho chip-
ping potatoes to Japan during
a recent meeting between Jap-
anese governmental leaders
and USDA oficials.
Leaders with USDA’s An-
imal and Plant Health Inspec-
tion Service and Japan’s Min-
istry of Agriculture, Forestry
and Fisheries met in Idaho
Falls June 1-2 for their annual
bilateral plant health negotia-
tions.
In conjunction with the
meeting, leaders from both
John O’Connell/Capital Press
Potatoes are harvested in Pingree, Idaho, in 2013 in this ile photo.
Progress was reportedly made toward restoring access to ship
fresh Idaho chipping potatoes to Japan during a recent meeting
between Japanese governmental leaders and USDA oficials.
countries also visited an East-
ern Idaho seed potato farm, a
local packing shed and US-
DA’s pale cyst nematode pro-
Idaho sees 250% gain in mustard acres
Capital Press
AMERICAN FALLS, Ida-
ho — Seth Woodland saw no
reason to start out small in his
irst season of raising mustard.
The Lincoln County, Idaho,
grower planted 450 acres of
the specialty crop this spring,
and based on current pricing,
he wishes he’d planted 1,000
acres.
Mountain States Oilseeds
founder Bill Meadows said
mustard prices, at 33.1 cents
per pound delivered, are up
about 2.5 cents per pound from
last year, making it one of the
few crops to have increased in
value in 2016. Idaho growers
have seized the opportunity to
plant a proitable crop, leading
Meadows to increase his con-
tracted acreage by 250 percent
from last season, when he con-
tracted for about 3,000 acres.
“Grain is worthless. What
more needs to be said?” Wood-
land said. “We want to grow
something we can make mon-
ey at.”
Meadows said Woodland,
who farms under irrigation,
and irst-year mustard grow-
er Ryan Cranney, of Oakley,
John O’Connell/Capital Press
Martin Sanchez seals a bag of
mustard on June 9 at Mountain
States Oilseeds in American
Falls, Idaho. Owner Bill Mead-
ows says his decision to give
Sanchez, a bilingual employee,
marketing responsibilities for
Mexico and South America has
helped his company ramp up
mustard production.
have two of the best looking
mustard ields he’s ever seen
for the date.
Meadows contracts for
mustard acres throughout the
Snake River Plain, from Ash-
ton to Twin Falls. He said 15
of his 36 mustard growers are
new this season, and most of
the longstanding growers have
increased their acres. About
40 percent of his company’s
mustard is raised without irri-
gation. He’s optimistic dryland
mustard will yield more than
1,000 pounds per acre this
season, while irrigated will
yield between 2,200 and 2,500
pounds.
Though Meadows believes
growers have a good feel for
meeting nutrient needs of mus-
tard, he anticipates additional
yield gains as they get a better
handle on irrigation practices.
He said U.S. prices have
been strong due to acreage
reductions in Canada. Na-
tionwide, growers produced
55,000 mustard acres in 2015,
compared with 15,000 acres
in 2013. U.S. statistics for the
current season aren’t available.
Meadows anticipates an-
other large increase in his
own contracted mustard acres
for the 2017 season, based on
his recent successes in ind-
ing new buyers in Mexico
and South America. He said
attending trade missions orga-
nized by the Idaho State De-
partment of Agriculture and
giving bilingual employees
more marketing responsibil-
ities have helped spur his re-
cent growth.
November 2015, and during
the recent meeting they “dis-
cussed a path forward to per-
mit chipping potatoes from
approved Idaho counties.”
The sides also discussed a
U.S. proposal to expand the
current shipping window for
U.S. chipping potatoes from
February through July to year-
round, as well as the process of
seeking approval for addition-
al inland facilities in Japan to
receive U.S. chipping spuds.
“Oficial communication
between both sides in the
coming weeks is expected to
further advance the progress
made during the bilateral,”
Kole said.
The most current trade
numbers, supplied by Pota-
toes USA from Global Trade
Atlas, show Japan increased
its fresh U.S. chipping potato
shipments by 75.59 percent
from July 2015 through Jan-
uary 2016, importing nearly
7,000 metric tons.
Japan also increased U.S.
dehydrated imports by 59
percent during the irst half
of the marketing year to near-
ly 20,000 metric tons, and its
frozen U.S. potato imports
increased by 4.5 percent to
about 133,000 metric tons.
Potatoes USA Chief Mar-
keting Oficer John Toaspern
said his organization offers
Japan “a full marketing pro-
gram for food service and in-
gredients for frozen and dehy-
drated products.”
Filer youth chosen as Fuel
Up to Play 60 ambassador
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
The Idaho Dairy Council
has selected Caitlin Colver, a
17-year-old Filer High School
junior, as the Fuel Up to Play 60
state ambassador for the 2016-
2017 school year.
Fuel Up to Play 60 encour-
ages students to eat healthful
food, be active and make pos-
itive, wholesome changes in
their schools and communities.
The National Dairy Council
and National Football League
founded the initiative in 2010 in
collaboration with USDA. More
than 73,000 schools nationwide
participate.
As state ambassador, Colv-
er will lead Idaho’s FUTP 60
program, which engages youth
directly as grassroots leaders to
increase access to nutrient-rich
foods and 60 minutes of phys-
ical activity at school.
Active in many extracurric-
ular activities, Colver has been
involved in FUTP 60 since her
freshman year.
“What I love about the pro-
gram is that it makes our school
a more fun environment and
it causes everyone to see how
eating and being active will
help us stay healthy and happy
throughout our lives,” Colv-
er said in a press release from
United Dairymen of Idaho.
Courtesy of Caitlin Colver
Caitlin Colver, a 17-year-old Filer High School junior, bottom row
fourth from left, poses with the Filer High School Fuel Up to Play
60 chapter.
“As an aspiring doctor, I
think that’s really important,”
she said.
Colver plans to pursue a
career as a neurosurgeon and
hopes to attend Yale School of
Medicine or Stanford Universi-
ty School of Medicine.
Selected after a statewide
search and extensive applica-
tion process, Colver will attend
the national FUTP 60 Student
Ambassador Summit at Pur-
due University this summer.
The event provides state am-
bassadors with an opportunity
to meet their fellow leaders and
help sculpt the program, which
relies on input and participation
from students to evolve.
The ambassadors will also
meet NFL players, participate
in unique physical activities
and visit the agritourism attrac-
tion Fair Oaks Farms.
“Caitlin has already demon-
strated such impressive leader-
ship skills, and we can’t wait
for her to play a more import-
ant role on our team,” Crystal
Wilson, UDI vice president of
health and wellness and a reg-
istered dietitian, said in the re-
lease.
“She’s an incredible student
who’s shown a great passion
for Fuel Up to Play 60, and
we’re delighted she continues
to inspire her peers and com-
munity to eat healthy and get
active,” she said.
In addition to national sup-
port for FUTP 60, the Idaho
Dairy Council provides dozens
of grants each semester to par-
ticipating schools in Idaho to
help them jumpstart and sustain
healthy nutrition and physical
activity improvements — a total
of $730,000 since the initiative
launched six years ago, accord-
ing to UDI.
Boise Project Board of Control
irrigators will have good water year
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
BOISE — Farmers who
get their irrigation water
from the Boise Project Board
of Control will have a plenti-
ful supply this year.
The project uses 1,500
miles of canals and drains to
supply water to four irriga-
tion districts in Southwest-
ern Idaho and one in Eastern
Oregon. Together, those ive
districts provide water for
167,000 irrigated acres.
The project has set its
annual allotment for water
users at 2.6 acre-feet. That’s
how much water irrigators
will receive from the sys-
tem’s reservoirs.
The BPBC has already
provided 1.06 acre-feet of
water to irrigators through
natural low from the Boise
River. That means project pa-
trons will receive 3.66 acre-
feet this year.
“That is a pretty good wa-
ter year,” said BPBC Manag-
er Tim Page.
He said snowpack was
good this winter and snow-
melt occurred at an ideal
pace.
River in-low levels going
into the system’s reservoirs
exceeded 5,000 cubic feet
per second two days last year,
Page said. This year, lows
were above that level almost
the entire spring and they ex-
ceeded 7,000 cfs some days.
The project starts the year
providing irrigators with all
of their water from the Boi-
se River. Once the amount of
ROP-32-52-2/#17
By JOHN O’CONNELL
gram facility in Idaho Falls.
Japan imports no fresh U.S. ta-
ble potatoes and has restricted
access to Idaho chipping pota-
toes due to the 2006 discovery
of pale cyst nematode in East-
ern Idaho.
PCN is known to exist in
the U.S. only within a 7.5-mile
radius in Idaho’s Bonneville
and Bingham counties. USDA
is treating 2,897 infested acres
and has placed special sanita-
tion requirements on another
7,032 acres with known asso-
ciations with infested ields,
with the goal of eradicating the
pest.
Pat Kole, IPC’s vice presi-
dent of legal and governmental
affairs, said Japanese oficials
visited the PCN program in
27-4/#4n
water leaving the reservoirs
exceeds the amount going in,
the project starts using water
stored in its reservoirs.
That happened on June
15 this year. The allotment is
then set based on how much
water is left in the reservoirs.
Last year, BPBC patrons
received a total of 2.95 acre-
feet of water during the entire
year.
“It’s been a couple of
years since we had this kind
of water year,” Lauren Boel-
hke, secretary-treasurer of
the Boise-Kuna Irrigation
District, said. “It is a really
good water year.”
Diane Paulsen, secre-
tary-treasurer of the Wilder
Irrigation District, said it’s
been three years since the
district’s patrons had this
much water.
“When you have an ample
water supply, you don’t need
to hunt for excess water to
purchase,” she said. “It’s go-
ing to be a good water year.”
The board also supplies
water to the Big Bend Irriga-
tion District, a small district
that provides water to 1,800
acres near Adrian in Eastern
Oregon.
Ben Witty, a farmer who
gets his water from Big
Bend, said soils in that area
are lighter than in other ar-
eas in the region and water
goes down faster and the soil
dries out quicker there. That
means he and other farmers
who furrow irrigate usually
need to purchase extra water
from somewhere else, even
in good years.
“It’s a good year, but a
good year is adequate at best
for this area,” he said.