12 CapitalPress.com
July 15, 2016
Mayor
CONTINUED from Page 1
“Because of his experi-
ence, he has that statewide
perspective,” she said. “He’s
very sensitive to the fact that
Portland does have a big infl u-
ence on the rest of the state.”
Coba knows Wheeler;
among other encounters, he
stood in for then-Gov. Ted
Kulongoski to accompany
Coba on an Oregon ag trade
mission to Asia several years
ago.
“He hasn’t consulted me
(on ag issues),” Coba said,
“but if he had a question I
think he would be very com-
fortable calling on me.”
For his part, Wheeler said
he’s fully aware of both the
urban-rural divide and ur-
ban-rural interdependence.
“You can’t talk about suc-
cess in the agricultural in-
dustry without talking about
the role urban areas play,”
he said. “Urban communities
in America are increasingly
clueless about the challenges
facing rural communities.”
But he said urban and rural
areas also have issues in com-
mon. During a visit to Rose-
burg, he heard people express
concern about the homeless,
just as they do in Portland.
In Klamath Falls, there was
worry about escalating hous-
ing costs, another Portland
concern.
“If we just assume urban
and rural communities are so
different that we have nothing
in common, then we’re losing
an opportunity to collaborate,
share ideas and fi nd common
solutions,” he said.
Wheeler said he has inter-
acted with the Oregon Farm
Bureau, Oregon Cattlemen’s
Association and nursery
groups in the past.
“The urban-rural divide
has been around a long
time,” Wheeler said. “It’s
not new, and it’s not unique
to Oregon. There’s always
been people who exploit it
for political gain. You won’t
see me do that.”
He’ll take office in a city
that decides every election
and can swamp statewide
discussions of pesticides,
labor, GMOs, wages or reg-
ulatory issues. Its land-use,
water use and traffic pat-
terns can affect what farm-
ers grow, how they grow it,
how they get it to market
and how they use and move
equipment.
“Land and transportation
are the two things he can
make a difference in,” said
Jeff Fairchild, produce di-
rector for 18 New Seasons
grocery stores in the Port-
land area. He deals with
about 50 growers who sell to
New Seasons, and must find
ways to deliver their prod-
ucts to the city.
Dan Arp, dean of Oregon
State University’s College of
Sales
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Dealers already have
large inventories of used,
high-quality tractors and
combines, so many are
reluctant to accept more
trade-ins of used machinery,
O’Brien said.
Fleets purchased new
several years are coming
up for auction at a time
when demand has dried up
for late-model, high-tech
tractors and combines, said
Steve Sparks, sales manager
of Nyssa Tractor and Imple-
ment in Nyssa, Ore.
“Some people are selling
that stuff at a serious loss,”
he said.
Meanwhile, farmers who
need additional machinery
are still looking for older,
reliable machinery that’s
less sophisticated, Sparks
said. “It may not be as fast
and it may not be as fancy,
but at the end of the day, it
still does the same job.”
Through the first half of
2016, unit sales have de-
Photos by Eric Mortenson/Capital Press
Rural producers sometimes see Portland as a distant place that doesn’t understand agriculture, but mayor-elect Ted Wheeler has rural roots.
Riders line up to board one of the twin Portland Aerial Tram cars that will carry them up to “Pill Hill,”
Oregon Health & Science University. Portland’s growth patterns are a concern to the state’s farmers.
State Treasurer Ted Wheeler will take offi ce in January as Portland
mayor. Wheeler said he brings an appreciation of Oregon agricul-
ture and rural communities to the position.
Agricultural Sciences, said
he would remind Wheeler
that agriculture is the state’s
second largest economic
driver. Oregon ag produces
$5 billion in annual farm-
gate value and is a major
source of jobs, Arp said.
The state produces more
than 200 commodities and is
equally diverse in terms of
acreage and farming meth-
ods, he said. Portland’s
celebrated “foodie” culture
is supported by an agricul-
tural sector that provides
high-quality foods and bev-
erages, with an emphasis on
U.S. ag machinery sales down since 2013
4WD
Combine
2WD (100 HP+)
60
(Thousands of units sold)
50
6.9
40
4.4
8.5
30
20
3.7
7.1
20.9
Overall sales
down 40.9%
from 2013
6.9
*Through mid-year
4.5
5.8
6
10.7
9.9
9.7
5.1
9.8
8
37.2
32.1
31.7
27
26.3
10.8
27.4
3.1
5.4
23.9
22.9
1.1
1.8
10
9.8
Source: Association of Equipment Manufacturers
Mateusz Perkowski and Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
0
2007
’09
’11
creased 23 percent for new
self-propelled combines, 31
percent for four-wheel drive
tractors, and 24 percent for
two-wheel drive tractors
over 100 horsepower, ac-
cording to AEM.
Equipment manufactur-
ers have experienced dou-
ble-digit annual declines in
Broken
CONTINUED from Page 1
process, including state law re-
quirements and an “internal com-
ponent” that is not working.
“I have pulled my hair out try-
’13
’15
2016*
these categories since 2013,
prompting lay-offs, shift
reductions and factory clo-
sures, said O’Brien.
The upside is that manu-
facturers are now better pre-
pared financially than they
were a couple years ago,
when sales were expected to
stay strong, he said.
ing to get this to move forward for
two years,” she said of Dashiell’s
case. “All it’s done is destroy rela-
tionships. ... It’s paperwork after
paperwork. The process is broken,
at least for the direct-loss side of
it. It needs a lot of work in all of
those aspects.”
sustainability, Arp said.
Coba, the state ag direc-
tor, said development of the
proposed James Beard Pub-
lic Market, named for a re-
nowned chef from the city,
could showcase Oregon ag-
riculture in downtown Port-
land.
“Clearly there’s a passion
around food in Portland, we
all know that,” she said.
Others in agriculture
note Portland’s influence
on issues ranging from gas
taxes to the minimum wage.
Another said Portland ought
to take greater advantage of
nearby agricultural produc-
tion to eliminate the city’s
food “deserts,” the areas
where poor people don’t
have ready access to fresh,
healthy food.
Many in ag hope the new
mayor realizes the Port of
Portland and Portland In-
ternational Airport are ag-
riculture’s pipeline to world
markets, whether it’s hazel-
nuts to China, wheat to Ja-
pan or blueberries to South
Korea. Port delays, labor
strife and an inadequate
transportation infrastruc-
ture cost producers time and
money, and they believe fix-
ing those problems should
be a priority.
Wheeler agrees, and said
it is a statewide issue.
“A lot of the future suc-
cess of the agricultural in-
dustry hinges on partnering
with the urban area and the
Port of Portland,” he said.
“I think there’s a general
lack of understanding about
what it takes to make agri-
cultural enterprises success-
ful from an economic stand-
point,” he said. “That’s an
area where I have a lot to
learn and to share with my
constituents, and I look for-
ward to those opportuni-
ties.”
“A lot of these very dif-
ficult adjustments have
now been made,” O’Brien
said.
Farmers were spending
an average of 22 to 23 per-
cent of their crop revenue
on farm machinery during
the boom years leading up
to 2013, after which sales
began to drop, said Michael
Swanson, chief agricultural
economist for Wells Fargo
Bank.
They’re now spending
about 13 to 14 percent of
crop revenues at a time
when total U.S. crop reve-
nues have fallen to roughly
$180 billion from $220 bil-
lion in 2013, he said.
Machinery sales still ar-
en’t as depressed as during
the farm downturn of the
1980s, when growers de-
voted as little as 8 percent
of crop revenues to equip-
ment purchases, Swanson
said.
The decline should have
been predictable after sev-
eral years of surging sales,
Swanson said.
“It’s amazing how peo-
ple hit all-time records
and don’t expect retrench-
ment,” he said.
Among row crop farm-
ers, there’s a “huge gap”
between strong financial
performers and weak ones,
so some farmers are still in
a position to take advan-
tage of good deals for ma-
chinery, Swanson said.
Meanwhile, financially
troubled growers may be
compelled to sell off ma-
chinery purchased during
the boom years to meet
cash flow needs, said Mi-
chael Langemeier, an ag-
ricultural economist at
Purdue University who has
studied machinery.
However,
commodity
prices are expected to re-
main low for several years,
likely suppressing large in-
vestments, he said. “Many
farmers are very leery of
using that working capital
to buy machinery.”
Farmers in the North-
west who grow small
grains, hay and potatoes
haven’t escaped the finan-
cial downturn experienced
by those in the Midwest,
where incomes are often
tied to corn prices, said
Bob Boyle, regional vice
president for Northwest
Farm Credit Services.
Cattle and dairy produc-
ers are also under stress, he
said. “We’re seeing com-
pressed profits in ag across
the board.”
Some sectors, like nurs-
ery and grass seed, are
nonetheless performing ad-
equately, Boyle said.
Machinery manufactur-
ers also have a bright spot
in their business: Sales of
small tractors under 40
horsepower are up near-
ly 13 percent in 2016 and
demand has grown steadily
after plummeting during
the recession, according to
AEM.
These smaller machines
are often bought by spe-
cialty crop producers, and
while they don’t generate
as much revenue per unit,
their impact shouldn’t be
discounted, said O’Brien.
“It’s still an important sec-
tor overall.”
WDFW wolf policy manager
Donny Martorello said the com-
pensation process ignores other
costs to the rancher beyond mar-
ket value, including gas, trucks
and extra hay to move the sheep
out of a wolf-affected area.
“I don’t know that we’ve met
the timeframe we’ve hoped for
on any claims we’ve paid,” he
said.
Martorello made plans to meet
with Field and Tom Davis, direc-
tor of governmental affairs for the
Washington State Farm Bureau, to
go over existing language to begin
speeding things up. The meeting is
slated to happen within a week to
10 days.
“This cannot take three
months,” Field said. “We just
need to go in with a red marker,
line out a few things and make it
quicker.”