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14 CapitalPress.com July 22, 2016 Growers worried by packer’s bankruptcy By DAN WHEAT Capital Press WENATCHEE, Wash. — About a dozen tree fruit growers voiced con- cerns about getting paid for the rest of their 2015 apple crops at a July 14 bankruptcy hearing for Gold Digger Apples Inc. of Oroville, Wash. One of them, Mauricio DePaz, said growers haven’t been able to get new operating loans because they are awaiting payments from the packer to pay off old loans. Growers are concerned Gold Digger may not be “on the level with us,” he said. Gold Digger said it was doing great at its annual grower meeting in December, he said. DePaz said that in January Gold Digger General Manager Greg Mos- er told him the co-op owed him $83,000 for his 2015 fruit. Later, he was told $62,000 and then $30,000, so he wonders what the amount real- ly is, he said. Brexit impact minimal on global ag, economist says By CAROL RYAN DUMAS Capital Press While Britain’s decision to exit the European Union is expected to create dificulties for farmers, agricultural trade and investments in the region, an economist predicts it won’t have a signiicant impact on the global food system. “I think there will be a rip- ple (but) it will barely make a dent in the global food sys- tem,” said Mike Dwyer, chief economist for the U.S. Feed and Grains Council and for- mer economist with USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service. “I’m not saying there won’t be some fallout in Europe. I’m saying when you diffuse that across a huge global food sys- tem, I don’t think this — in and of itself — will be a big deal, he said during a forum hosted and streamed live by the Farm Foundation on July 13. His forecast, however, comes with one major cave- at — that other EU countries don’t follow suit, he said. The main impact is the long-term effect Brexit has on currency, he said. All the chaos seen in equity, bond, commodity and foreign exchange markets following the surprising Brexit vote was a repricing of assets for an un- expected outcome, he said. Deutsche Bank changed its forecast for 2.1 percent eco- nomic growth in Britain to 0.9 percent after the vote and its forecast for economic growth in the EU to drop from 1.5 per- cent to 1.1 percent. European growth was ane- mic to start with, he said, add- ing that it’s a little more ane- mic now but not falling off the cliff. In the bigger picture, the expected 3.6 percent economic growth rate in the global GDP was only decreased slightly to 3.4 percent, he said. “This is not enough to cause anything like what happened in 2008-2009, when the global economy tanked in a very rapid fashion,” he said. The effect would get more pronounced if it isn’t isolated to Britain. If what happens in Europe starts morphing through emerging markets, af- fecting trade linkages, it could become a global problem, he said. “I just don’t see that hap- pening,” he said. “What happens in a place like China will absolutely af- fect the global food system. So that should keep you awake at night, not what happened in Europe,” he said. If Brexit accelerates the growth rate of the U.S. dollar even further than expected, that will be a problem for the U.S. in some markets. But in terms of currency realignment verses economic growth im- pact, it is the demand side that is far more important than the realignment of currency,” he said. “This event, as bad as it is and as scary as it is for the Europeans themselves, poses no real risks in my opinion for the global food system,” he said. “I get the feeling Gold Digger’s own fruit goes to better markets and the rest of our fruit not the best,” he said. Other growers raised similar con- cerns. Peg Callaway, Gold Digger’s at- torney in Omak, Wash., later called the comments “ridiculous.” She said Gold Digger didn’t even know it had a problem with the bank until the end of December, informed growers at numerous grower meetings and that growers voted for bankruptcy. Gold Digger had two days to de- cide between bankruptcy and receiv- ership and chose bankruptcy over having someone from Renton with no tree fruit experience run the coop- erative, she said. U.S. Bank iled a lawsuit against Gold Digger on May 20 seeking repayment of loans totaling $18.5 million, alleging that the co-op was in default. A week later, Gold Dig- ger iled for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in U.S. District Court in Spokane. The purpose of a Chapter 7 il- ing is to achieve a fair distribution to creditors of the debtor’s available property. The meeting was held in Wenatchee to give creditors an op- portunity to ask questions and help the bankruptcy trustee examine debt- or assets, debts and operations to determine liquidation and disburse- ment of assets, said Dan O’Rourke, Gold Digger’s bankruptcy attorney. At the meeting, Jeff Earl, a Mo- ses Lake, Wash., attorney and U.S. Justice Department-appointed bank- ruptcy trustee, said he expects to gain court authority soon to “make a large disbursement to growers.” It will be followed by other pay- ments while holding back 10 percent to cover trustee and professional selling costs, he said. Earl told growers he can’t vouch one way or another for Gold Dig- ger’s business practices. Gold Digger is named for Oro- ville’s gold mining roots and is the last grower-owned tree fruit coop- erative headquartered in Okanogan County. It has more than 44 grow- er members, 613,456 square feet of fruit storage and packing facilities in Oroville, 500 acres of orchard and leases 250 acres. It packs about 1 million boxes of apples and pears annually and 300,000 boxes of cherries. The fruit is sold through Chelan Fresh Mar- keting. Gold Digger also has a vine- yard and a 10,000-case winery. The co-op has laid off virtually all of its 800 seasonal and year-round employees, Earl sold its 2016 fruit to Gebbers Farms, which is operat- ing the co-op’s cherry packing line, Callaway said. Earl said that, as trustee, he is trying to sell Gold Digger’s property and facilities and that this fall’s op- eration of its apple and pear lines are not determined. The 2014 crop year was a poor one throughout the apple industry, and Gold Digger’s costs are increased because it is the farthest-north op- eration in the region, Callaway said. U.S. Bank followed the law but was not fair, Callaway said. “There were alternatives to bank- ruptcy. Instead they narrowed it to bankruptcy or putting their person in charge. It wasn’t fair to growers. I think the bank got tired of deal- ing with them and intended to shut them down,” she said. It was “plain wrong,” she said. Cheryl Leamon, vice president of corporate communications for U.S. Bank in Chicago, declined comment, saying the bankruptcy proceedings are ongoing. Gold Digger tried “every possi- ble means” to get reinanced with any bank and in the end U.S. Bank refused to respond to an offer from another lender to buy the loan, Cal- laway said. “People in the Midwest make de- cisions for the bank and they don’t care about Oroville, the community or Gold Digger,” she said. OSU suggests later application to control thrips By SEAN ELLIS Capital Press ONTARIO, Ore. — If on- ion growers could push ap- plications of Movento back a little later in the season, they might have more success con- trolling thrips, Oregon State University research is show- ing. Onion thrips are the biggest pest problem for bulb onion growers in Idaho and Eastern Oregon. Besides causing feed- ing damage, which results in smaller onions, the insects can transmit the iris yellow spot vi- rus, which can devastate onion ields. According to OSU re- searchers in Ontario, an ag- gressive spraying program to keep thrips populations down is the only effective way for onion growers to control the insect. OSU Cropping Systems Extension Agent Stuart Reitz Sean Ellis/Capital Press Oregon State University researcher Stuart Reitz discusses the Malheur County onion ield trials July 13 during a ield day. Reitz said the research is showing that using Movento a little later in the season may help growers better control onion thrips. said Movento is one of the most effective pesticides in controlling immature popula- tions of onion thrips and rec- ommendations have been for growers to start their spray program with Movento and apply it early in the season be- cause it takes awhile for it to absorb into the plant and be- come effective. But if growers in this area apply the pesticide too early, its residual effect is gone by late June or early July, right as thrips populations in the area are starting to soar, he added. Pushing use of Movento back a little later in the sea- son can result in better control when thrips numbers are ex- ploding, Reitz said. “If you can push using that to a little later in the season, I think you can get a bigger bang for your investment,” he said. “If you use another ma- terial early in the season to hold those low populations in check and put the Movento out a little bit later, I think it will ultimately pay off.” OSU researchers in Mal- heur County have been con- ducting ield trials supported by the Idaho-Eastern Oregon Onion Committee to try to ind the best way for onion growers to manage thrips. Nyssa farmer Bruce Corn said the various onion-related Farm groups urge Calif. to delay cap-and-trade extension, changes By TIM HEARDEN Capital Press SACRAMENTO — Farm groups want state leaders to hold off on a proposed expan- sion of California’s cap-and- trade program, which they say already has placed burdens on producers. Representatives from groups including the Califor- nia Farm Bureau Federation and Western United Dairy- men say Gov. Jerry Brown and lawmakers should wait until closer to the program’s 2020 sunset before consider- ing whether to extend it. Cynthia Cory, the CFBF’s director of environmental af- fairs, noted that California is still the only place in the world where such a program exists even though state lead- ers were conident that others would follow. “We’re saying let the pro- gram get closer to 2020 and let other people in the world start doing this,” Cory said. “This is a global issue, not a local issue. “We just keep saying, ‘Why are you ratcheting down on the cleanest place in the world and putting them at a competitive disadvantage instead of working with oth- er entities and getting them to step up to the plate?’” she said. Brown and other lead- ers are pushing to extend the 4-year-old cap-and-trade program, in which manufac- turers and other companies must meet certain emissions limits or buy “credits” to ex- ceed them, even as the pro- gram faces a legal challenge from the California Chamber of Commerce and credit sales have fallen well below expec- tations. The California Air Re- sources Board may vote next year on a proposal to extend the program until 2030, and companion bills in the Leg- islature would require further cuts in emissions to meet trials there have greatly bene- ited the area’s onion industry over the years and growers have high hopes the thrips trial will help them manage thrips with as little spraying as pos- sible. “It sounds very reason- able,” he said of Reitz’s Movento recommendation. “We really depend on them and look to them to igure out the best way to do things.” Because of the roller-coast- er weather in the valley this year — it’s gone from hot ear- ly to cooler, then hot again and cooler — populations of thrips, which like hot, dry weather, have been spotty, Reitz said. “Thrips pressure has come up and gone down and come up and gone down,” he said. Growers have had decent success this year in con- trolling thrips but they’ve had to spend money to do that, said Nyssa grower Paul Skeen. Onion growers conirm success of applying herbicide through drip system By SEAN ELLIS Capital Press Tim Hearden/Capital Press A log is loaded onto a truck at a logging site near Viola, Calif., in 2015. Some large timberland owners are participating in the carbon offsets program under California’s cap-and-trade law, but many others have found that the requirements for participating are too stringent, going beyond common forestry practices. targets set for 2030, 2040 and 2050, according to legislative bill analyses. Among the Cynthia Cory hardest-hit by the proposed changes would be the dairy industry, insiders say. The in- dustry has been subject only to voluntary emissions targets so far while the state has provid- ed $11 million for ive dairy digesters, which cost a total of $30.2 million, according to the state Department of Food and Agriculture. However, the air board has discussed mandating a 75 percent reduction of methane emissions from dairies — a burden that could require the construction of as many as 500 digesters at the state’s largest dairies to meet, said Paul Sousa, WUD’s director of environmental services. “Our goal has been to keep it in the arena of being vol- untary and incentive-based,” said Sousa, noting that dair- ies that install digesters can receive income for carbon credits. “I think there are some things we can do to achieve emissions reductions … but the goals need to be reasonable.” A 75 percent cut in ma- nure methane by 2030 is “just a very lofty goal that would be very, very dificult to hit even with funding because of other obstacles to putting in digesters,” he said. The program’s direct im- pact on farms has been hard to calculate because it has been built in to such costs as electricity and fuel, Cory said. The biggest impact now is being felt by agricultural processors, which are already subject to mandatory report- ing and emissions reductions, she said. Further, plants are grap- pling with a recent Public Utilities Commission decision stemming from the 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion that will increase natural gas trans- portation costs by 90 percent over the next three years, said John Larrea, director of gov- ernment affairs for the Cali- fornia League of Food Proces- sors. As a result of the panel’s allowing rate increases to pay for improved gas lines, pro- cessing plants are “looking at anything from a $400,000 to $1.2 million increase in their natural gas costs,” Larrea said. “We’ve got water issues,” he said. “Water is going to be- come more costly as well. All of these factors start coming in and they’re not being considered. … It’s piling up on us here.” One industry that expected to beneit from cap-and-trade was timber. Large timberland owners, including Sierra Pa- ciic Industries, have partic- ipated in the carbon offset program, said Mark Pawlic- ki, the company’s director of corporate affairs and sustain- ability. But to sell credits to those affected by the cap, a land- owner “must abide by a set of stringent requirements such as committing to a 100-year program of maintaining or increasing forest carbon lev- els each year, going above the level of carbon seques- tered under common forest- ry practices, and avoiding other land uses in the project areas,” Pawlicki said in an email. ONTARIO, Ore. — Ore- gon State University ield trials have shown that applying the herbicide Outlook through drip irrigation works much better than surface application in controlling the yellow nutsedge weed. Now grower experience is conirming that research. Farmers who produce yel- low bulb onions in Idaho and Oregon received special per- mission for the irst time this year from their state agriculture departments to apply Outlook through drip irrigation. Previ- ously, they were limited to sur- face application of the herbicide. “We were very successful with” applying it through a drip system, Nyssa farmer Bruce Corn said. “It worked very, very good.” About 95 percent of the 20,000 acres of bulb onions grown in Southwestern Idaho and Eastern Oregon are yellows and about 60 percent of them are on drip irrigation systems. According to OSU research- ers, Outlook is one of the most effective tools in controlling yel- low nutsedge, which is the main weed challenge for growers in this region. OSU Weed Scientist Joel Fe- lix said growers who have used Outlook in drip systems this year are reporting good results. “The growers that I’ve spo- ken to so far that are using it in a drip system are quite happy,” he said. “If you have a drip system, I think you’ll be wasting your money applying it over the top ... because we’re seeing much better nutsedge control from ap- plying it through a drip system.” The ield trials Felix has led at OSU’s Malheur County Re- search Station the past three sea- sons are occurring in silt loam soil, and he said farmers with lighter soils would likely be bet- ter off applying Outlook at low- er rates than those being applied at the station.