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8 CapitalPress.com July 22, 2016 WSU shows off barley lines to farmers, maltsters Growers seek quality, herbicide resistance By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press REARDAN, Wash. — Washington barley farmers got their irst glimpse at new varieties better suited to their production needs. Washington State Univer- sity barley and alternate crop breeder Kevin Murphy host- ed the “Know Barley, Know Beer” event July 15, with stops at Spokane Valley craft malting operation Palouse Pint; ield trials near Reardan, Wash., and Orlison Brewing Co. in Airway Heights, Wash. Murphy showcased six Matthew Weaver/Capital Press Walla Walla, Wash., farmer Joel Huesby holds a cup of beer made from feed barley Baronesse during Washington State University’s “Know Barley, Know Beer” event at the Orlison Brewing Co. in Airway Heights, Wash. malting barley breeding lines, which require more data be- fore they become available to growers, among other barley varieties. “Really (farmers are) just looking for quality,” Murphy said. “They’ve been burned in the past — when malting bar- leys don’t make quality, they have to sell them for feed.” Establishing a relationship with maltsters early will help more farmers be willing to grow malting barley, as quality is not as hard to achieve as it was in the past, Murphy said. Barley growers are also in- terested in disease resistance and resistance to imidazoli- none, a herbicide. Farmers who plant Clearield wheat va- rieties have residual herbicide in the soil, so most non-re- sistant barley varieties don’t grow afterward. An imidazoli- none-resistant variety would allow farmers to put barley back into their rotation. For many growers, “their number-one thing by far is im- idazolinone resistance, more than malting or anything, they Farmers, oficials celebrate siphon gate milestone just want any barley that can grow,” Murphy said. Colfax, Wash., farmer Bill Myers said barley is about a third of his operation, at rough- ly 1,000 acres. He’d like to see demand increase among malt- sters and brewers so he can grow even more. “We’re coming into a time now where this region is be- coming known for beer, like it has previously become known for wine,” Myers said. “You go to France now, say you’re from Walla Walla, and every- body’s eyes light up. That’s going to happen here for beer. We found we’ve been sitting on something that is actually very good.” Walla Walla farmer Joel Huesby grows malting barley organically, and is interested in malting a ton per week. He’s interested in possible premi- ums for locally raised malting barley. Huesby estimates rough- ly 800 craft breweries are in Washington and Oregon, many of which purchase malt from the same source, but very few micro-malting companies,. “I don’t want subsidies from the government, I want a marketplace that wants what I can produce and sell to,” Huesby said. Phil Neumann is founder and maltster with Mainstem Malt, a start-up malt house in Milton-Freewater, Ore. He was excited to see new variet- ies planted around the region. “We want to have at least a few varieties to choose from,” Neumann said. “We’re all looking to do things a little differently.” By MATTHEW WEAVER Western Growers seeks start-up companies for innovation center Capital Press By TIM HEARDEN Capital Press Matthew Weaver/Capital Press Mark Booker, president of the East Low Columbia Basin Irrigation District, holds up a letter from 1973, signed by board members of the Eastern Big Bend Resources Inc., during the ceremony at the new Lind Coulee Siphon complex July 13 near Warden, Wash. The letter announced the “coming crisis” of the declining Odessa Subarea aquifer. “Their solution: Find water from anywhere, especially the Columbia Basin Project.” ect, authorized by Congress in 1945, was intended to provide irrigation water to 1,029,000 acres. Currently, roughly 680,000 acres are served. The current expansion will provide Columbia River wa- ter to 87,700 acres. Of that, the irrigation dis- trict is negotiating with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to write master water service contracts for 70,000 acres. Water for 17,700 acres is al- ready under contract. The new siphon doubles the water capacity from the complex southward, said Mike Schwisow, director of government relations for the Columbia Basin Develop- ment League. “It’s a process of widen- ing and removing bottlenecks until delivery capacity is suf- icient to serve all the 87,000 acres,” Schwisow said. Seven pump stations will be built, Schwisow said. Con- struction will begin this fall on the EL 47.5 pump station, which will serve 8,204 acres. Roughly 3,560 acres are un- der contract. The irrigation district board recently passed a reso- lution authorizing the sale of municipal bonds to fund con- struction of the EL 47.5 pump station, which is estimated to cost about $15 million, and funding for East Low Canal improvements. “Our underwriter has told us the market is really good for municipal bonds right now,” Simpson said. “They said they’re ‘insane- ly good rates.’ Hopefully they can maintain that long enough that we can have our sale.” Simpson hopes to make deliveries soon. The district has been meeting with land- owners regarding the antici- pated pumping plants. The district board is cap- ping capital improvement costs at $190 per acre per year for farmers. The cur- rent design calls for $144 per acre per year for the EL 47.5 pumping plant, Simp- son said. SALINAS, Calif. — West- ern Growers is looking for innovators who can help Cali- fornia agriculture solve its most pressing problems. The organization that as- sists and advocates for produce growers received a $30,000 grant from the Wells Fargo Foundation to support start-up companies working with the newly launched Western Grow- ers Center for Innovation and Technology. The grant will help more aspiring entrepreneurs gain ac- cess to the center’s amenities so they can develop products or services that will help growers save water or labor, compile and use crop data or meet other needs, explained Cory Lunde, Western Growers’ director of strategic initiatives and com- munications. “We’re trying to encourage start-up companies that may not have the funds to rent ongo- ing space at the center,” Lunde said. “We have 20 companies in Courtesy of Western Growers Tom Nassif, far left, president and chief executive oficer of Western Growers, accepts a $30,000 check from Wells Fargo oficials for the organization’s new-product development center in Salinas, Calif. The center opened last winter and provides companies with a space for coming up with innovative products and services for agriculture. Ag group asks newspaper for more local farm news coverage Capital Press BOISE — A member of the Nampa-Caldwell Agribusiness Committee has asked Idaho’s largest daily newspaper to cov- er more local agricultural news. In a letter sent to the Idaho ROP-27-5-2/#24 Statesman July 8, former state Rep. Darrell Bolz thanked the Boise-based newspa- per for running a story about crop-identifying signs in Lewis and Idaho counties in its July 5 Local section. But Bolz, an agricultural consultant and former Univer- sity of Idaho Extension agent, also said Lewis and Idaho counties, which are in Northern Idaho, don’t qualify as local. Boise is located in Ada County in Southwestern Idaho. “I thanked them for doing something about agriculture, but why don’t they do more lo- cal stories about agriculture?” Bolz told Capital Press. The agribusiness committee is a joint creation of the Nampa and Caldwell chambers, which are in Canyon County and adja- cent to Ada County. Bolz said that during the group’s July 6 meeting, a num- ber of members were frustrated that the paper covered a story about crop signs in counties so far away when the committee has been putting out crop signs for three decades. “The committee certainly appreciates any news in your paper that pertains to agricul- ture but wonders why more ‘local’ agricultural news is not printed,” Bolz states in his let- ter. “It needs to be noted that the Caldwell and Nampa chambers of commerce have been putting up crop signs for many years in Canyon County.” 30-1/#7 By SEAN ELLIS 30-4#14 WARDEN, Wash. — Farmers and state oficials last week celebrated another milestone in the effort to bring more Columbia River water to Central Washington farms. Farms there have seen the aquifers sink after decades of depending on wells for irriga- tion. The wells were initially anticipated to serve as tempo- rary measures until Columbia River water could be brought to the region through the 1 million-acre Columbia Basin Project. The East Columbia Basin Irrigation District last winter constructed two additional siphons at the Lind Coulee Si- phon complex. According to the Washington State Depart- ment of Ecology, the new si- phons run parallel to siphons built in the 1950s. The new 14-foot 8-inch di- ameter siphons, with 17-inch walls of steel-reinforced con- crete, run underground south of Interstate 90 for 4,500 feet. Craig Simpson, irrigation district manager, said the new siphons help his agency pre- pare to deliver water to farms. “We’ve written contracts in the last year to lands south of this,” he said. “It’s part of the infrastructure necessary to move water down.” The new siphons provide the capacity needed to offer farmers access to Columbia River water along 31 miles of the canal, according to Ecol- ogy. The Columbia Basin Proj- the center, and when we started we had ive or six. … We’ve seen a lot of interest in this. It really seems to have taken off.” Opened in December, the center in Salinas offers basic ofice amenities such as a desk, phone and internet access as well as the ability to network with other companies and col- laborate on projects, Lunde said. A committee screens ap- plicants for dedicated desks and will award “scholarships” based on inancial need, utility to industry and other criteria. Wells Fargo, the largest bank- ing and lending organization in the U.S. commercial agriculture sector, will lend its expertise to help speed up commercialization for ag-technology startups, ac- cording to a news release. Western Growers opened the center because inding tech- nological solutions has never been more critical for agricul- ture as food production will have to increase to feed a rapid- ly growing population, asserted Hank Giclas, a Western Grow- ers senior vice president. Bolz encouraged the States- man to cover more local agri- cultural issues and pointed out the committee also selects a farm family of the year, puts an agricultural position statement together annually for legislators and coordinates agricultural tours for legislators and local oficials. “Again, we want to thank you for putting an article in your paper regarding agricul- ture but would hope that in the future more ‘local’ articles could be featured,” he said. “The above activities along with the many other agricul- tural activities certainly merit consideration in a state that is highly agricultural in both di- versity and in its contribution to the state economy.” Statesman business report- er Zach Kyle, who also covers agriculture for the newspaper, said Bolz has a fair point about the paper not covering the local crop sign program and he plans to do that. He also noted that the Statesman does have several front-page articles a year about agriculture and he wishes there were more. “I enjoy covering agricul- ture,” he said. “I think it’s a big deal.” In his letter, Bolz listed sev- eral of the major farming-based companies that employ thou- sands of people in the area and are vital to the region’s econo- my, including J.R. Simplot Co, Materne, Lactalis American Group, Crookham Co., Land O’Lakes, Bayer, Seminis Veg- etable Seeds, Syngenta, Mead- ow Gold, Forage Genetics and Rain For Rent.