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CapitalPress.com
July 15, 2016
IDWR order requires well monitors in Snake Plain
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
BOISE — The Idaho De-
partment of Water Resourc-
es has issued an order re-
quiring Eastern Snake Plain
Aquifer well users to install
closed-conduit measurement
devices by 2018 to better mon-
itor their water use.
Idaho Ground Water Ap-
propriators Inc., has obtained
a $1.6 million Bureau of Rec-
lamation Smart Water grant to
help growers cover up to 45
percent of their costs. IGWA
Executive Director Lynn Tom-
inaga estimates the equipment
and installation cost at roughly
$5,400 per well.
“Everybody we have talked
with has said flow meters are
good because you have better
control over how you manage
your water for your crops,”
Tominaga said.
John O’Connell/Capital Press
A pivot pump in American Falls, Idaho, is fitted with a closed-con-
duit measuring device to better monitor water usage. The Idaho
Department of Water Resources has issued an order requiring well
users on the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer to install the devices.
The
requirement
for
groundwater users to install
flow meters by 2018 was in-
cluded in last summer’s water
call settlement agreement be-
tween IGWA and the Surface
Water Coalition. IDWR Dep-
uty Director Mat Weaver said
the department opted to make
it a general requirement to
avoid deterring growers from
participating in the settlement.
Small wells irrigating less
than 5 acres, or drawing less
than 0.24 cubic feet per sec-
ond, and domestic or stock
water wells are exempt from
the order.
Weaver explained the or-
der, issued on June 15, re-
places previous measurement
orders imposed by individu-
al ESPA water districts from
2001 through 2013. Weaver
said the previous orders had
inconsistent language, allow-
ing many users to “fall through
the cracks,” and were overly
lenient in granting exemptions
allowing growers to use a less
accurate estimation based on
power use.
The department had grant-
ed exemptions on 3,500 of
5,500 wells. Under the new
order, Weaver said, power cal-
culations will be allowed only
under the simplest scenario —
involving a single well and
irrigation discharge point with
no pivot end gun where the
aquifer level doesn’t fluctuate.
Weaver said closed-conduit
measurement devices must be
accurate within 2 percent. Utah
State University has tested de-
vices for IDWR’s approved
list of manufacturers. By con-
trast, IDWR audits have found
most power-based calculations
are off by at least 10 percent.
The water call settlement
also requires groundwater us-
ers to reduce their combined
average annual consumption
by 240,000 acre-feet, and
Blackfoot grower Brian Searle
said accurate measuring will
be critical toward its success.
Searle, who already has four
measurement devices in place
and will have to install five
more, noted the order comes
at a time when growers are
coping with low commodity
prices. American Falls grower
Klaren Koompin has devices
in place on three wells and
will have to install 22 more,
which he estimates will cost
$80,000.
Surface Water Coalition
attorney John Simpson said
his client has filed a petition
for IDWR to reconsider the
order, believing it should be
expanded by 250,000 ground-
water-irrigated acres to en-
compass the entire territory
of the most current ESPA
groundwater model. IDWR’s
order covers only an area
known as the Rule 50 bound-
ary, which offered the best
understanding of the “area
of common groundwater” in
1994, but remains in effect for
legal purposes.
“That (updated) model
boundary has been identified
as the best science available
by the court system, and we
should be using it to require
measuring devices and report-
ing of data,” Simpson said.
Idaho researchers creating ‘IdaBot,’ an autonomous utility robot
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
NAMPA, Idaho — Re-
searchers in Southwestern
Idaho are developing a robot-
ic platform they believe could
help specialty crop growers
manage their crops and re-
duce labor costs.
The platform, which they
have dubbed “IdaBot,” will
be a low-cost way of helping
farmers control input costs
through the use of robotic
automation, said Northwest
Nazarene University engi-
neering professor Joshua
Griffin.
“The end goal is to try
and save some money for the
grower,” he said. “We’re try-
ing to build a low-cost robot
... that comes in at a cost point
where people can use it with-
out having to take out a loan.”
The IdaBot project is fund-
ed partly through an $81,000
specialty crop grant provided
last year by the Idaho State
Department of Agriculture.
Farmers spend a lot of
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
Northwest Nazarene University researchers and students test drive “IdaBot,” a low-cost utility robot
they are developing to assist specialty crop growers, in Nampa on July 6.
money on labor when it
comes to spraying, monitor-
ing and harvesting their crops,
Griffin said.
“Our thought was anything
we can do to automate any of
those processes would benefit
the grower,” he said.
The scope of the two-year
project is to create a simple
robot that can navigate an
orchard or vineyard autono-
mously and be used to apply
chemicals.
Once they figure that part
out, Griffin and project part-
ner Duke Bulanon, another
NNU professor, hope to pro-
gram the robot to do other
things, such as count fruit
on the tree or vine and assist
pickers.
“This is just a platform
that we can put other tech-
nologies on top of,” Bulanon
said. “Once we teach it to
walk, then we can teach it ...
to do other stuff.”
“Our first goal is to have
this thing drive down a vine-
yard, turn around and come
back and on its way apply
chemicals,” Griffin said.
“Once we’ve done that, then
we want to start trying to
demonstrate other specific
applications.”
The robot will be tested
in commercial operations,
including at Williamson
Orchards and Vineyards in
Caldwell, where manager
Michael Williamson said
he’s excited about the possi-
bilities.
He said that besides keep-
ing people away from spray-
ing, which is always a good
thing, a box could be placed
on top of the robot to assist
people who are picking fruit.
When the box is full, the au-
tonomous robot would take
the fruit to a central point and
return for the next load.
“You could have a couple
of them be runners for you,”
he said.
Griffin believes the spe-
cialty crop industry is an area
ripe for automation.
“There is so much agri-
culture in Idaho that it just
seems like a natural fit to
pursue some of this,” he said.
“We feel like (that) is a good
niche for us.”
The key to the project is to
design a platform that the av-
erage farmer can afford, said
Richie Grindstaff, an under-
graduate engineering student
who is helping create IdaBot.
“We’re trying to keep this
low-cost so farmers can use
it,” he said.
Water efficiency credited for
big almond crop during drought
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
29-2/#24
SACRAMENTO — An al-
mond industry group is cred-
iting growers for their water
efficiency while cultivating
what is expected to be a big
crop this year.
California’s 2016 almond
production is expected to be
2.05 billion meat pounds, up
from the 2 billion pounds pro-
jected in May and up nearly 8
percent from last year’s yields,
reports the National Agricul-
tural Statistics Service.
The agency cites several
factors for the improved crop,
including more precipitation
and chill hours than last year
and a quick and uniform al-
mond blossom.
But Almond Board of Cal-
ifornia President and CEO
Richard Waycott also credits
growers’ efficiency in their use
of water during a fifth straight
year of drought.
“This year’s almond crop
growth … reflects growers’
commitment to innovation and
sustainable new technologies
that reap the most from every
drop of water while simulta-
neously safeguarding precious
natural resources,” Waycott
said in an email. “Since 1994,
almond growers have reduced
the amount of water it takes to
grow a pound of almonds by
33 percent.”
Almonds are expected to
be harvested from 900,000
bearing acres, up from
890,000 in 2015, according to
NASS. The agency reported
this spring that the 1.1 mil-
lion-plus overall acres planted
in 2015 was 6 percent more
than the previous year, even
as about 45,000 acres of trees
were removed from orchards.
The Nonpareil variety, which
accounts for 38 percent of Cali-
fornia almonds, is forecast at
780 million meat pounds, up 7.4
percent from last year’s deliver-
ies, NASS reports.
For
the
almond
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
Bulk-purchased organic almonds from Northern California have
been loaded into a bag to be weighed. California almond growers
are expecting a big crop this year, as yields are expected to signifi-
cantly exceed last year’s.
board-funded measurement
survey, NASS scientists use
a formula in counting nuts
on randomly selected trees.
In all, surveyors sampled
1,746 trees in 873 orchards
between May 23 and June 23
and found an average nut set
per tree of 6,159, up nearly 5
percent from 2015.
Nonpareil
almonds
showed an even bigger im-
provement in yields as their
average of 5,583 nuts per tree
was up 6.6 percent from last
year’s set of 5,239, according
to the agency.
The average kernel weight
for all varieties sampled was
1.48 grams, up 3.5 percent
from the 2015 average weight
of 1.43 grams, NASS report-
ed. Nonpareils’ average ker-
nel weight was 1.65, up 2.5
percent from last year.
The almond board has
fought diligently in the past
couple of years to rebut critics
who charge the industry plac-
es too much of a burden on the
environment. Last summer,
the board set aside $2.5 mil-
lion for research into water ef-
ficiency, honeybee health and
best practices.
Most nut growers have
switched to drip irrigation or
micro-sprinklers to save wa-
ter, and many use technology
such as pressure bombs to
determine their trees’ need be-
fore irrigating.
“While growers have made
significant advances, as an in-
dustry we collectively recog-
nize the need to take a lead-
ership position on pressing
issues facing both California’s
residents and agricultural in-
dustry,” Waycott said.