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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.