10 CapitalPress.com
July 29, 2016
Beef, dairy groups question proposed organic rule
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
A new rule proposed by
the USDA Agricultural Mar-
keting Service to amend or-
ganic livestock and poultry
practices is raising concerns
among conventional animal
agriculture groups.
The rule, which adds provi-
sions for animal welfare prac-
tices and living conditions, is
based on recommendations
by the National Organic Stan-
dards Board. It is meant to
ensure consistent application
of USDA organic regulations
and maintain consumer con-
idence in organically labeled
products, according to AMS.
But the rule would do
much more than that, ac-
cording to the National Cat-
tlemen’s Beef Association.
USDA is attempting to add an
entirely new and unauthorized
category to the National Or-
ganic Program, exceeding its
statutory jurisdiction and con-
Capital Press File
Holstein cows rest at a Southwestern Idaho dairy in this ile photo.
Livestock groups question the propriety of new animal welfare
rules aimed at organic farms.
gressional intent, said Colin
Woodall, NCBA vice presi-
dent of government affairs.
The most important point
of NCBA’s opposition is that
the organic program is a mar-
keting program. It isn’t about
animal health, welfare or
even food safety, and USDA
shouldn’t be inserting animal
welfare standards into a vol-
untary marketing program, he
said.
The Organic Foods Pro-
duction Act of 1990 doesn’t
include welfare practices or
living conditions. The clear
intent of Congress in setting
organic standards was to en-
sure that feed is organic and
animals are raised without
the use of synthetic chemi-
cals, and that’s where USDA
should spend its time, he said.
The Organic Trade Associ-
ation disagrees.
“Organic is much more
than input substitution,” said
Nate Lewis, OTA farm policy
director.
It is written into the or-
ganic law that USDA has the
authority to promulgate rules
regarding the care of livestock
and poultry, he said.
The proposed rule is the
result of 12 years of public
comment and work by the or-
ganic standards board to clar-
ify the organic requirement
for access to outdoors, and the
vast majority of organic pro-
ducers and consumers support
the rule, Lewis said.
National Milk Producers
Federation also questions
USDA’s statutory authority,
especially since some of the
proposed practices lack an
explanation of the well-being
beneits, said Jamie Jonk-
er, NMPF vice president of
sustainability and scientiic
affairs, in his comments to
USDA.
“A fundamental problem
with the proposed rule is
that it appears more driven
by economics and consumer
perception rather than animal
science and welfare,” he said.
Economic considerations
are important and should be
part of the rule-making pro-
cess, but so-called “consumer
confusion” about the meaning
of organic should not drive
rule-making associated with
animal well-being, he said.
Consumer confusion was
one of the reasons USDA pro-
posed the new rule, but the
agency should have invested
in consumer education rather
than adding more categories to
the organic program, making it
even more confusing, Woodall
said.
USDA cites reports by the
board as authority to support
some of the proposed rule
changes. However, those re-
ports mostly contain basic
information and do not cite
scientiic literature or provide
scientiic bases to support the
Stripe rust pressure ‘severe’ in NW wheat, expert says
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Stripe rust pressure this
year is “severe to extremely
severe” in Paciic Northwest
wheat, but most farmers have
been able to control it by grow-
ing resistant varieties or by ap-
plying fungicides.
USDA Agricultural Re-
search Service plant geneticist
Xianming Chen blames the
mild winter, which allowed the
rust to survive and develop in
winter wheat.
“Stripe rust developed very
early and very quick,” Chen
said.
The fungus can cause more
than a 60 percent yield loss in
highly susceptible wheat vari-
eties.
Applying fungicide has paid
off for growers. Rust is gener-
ally under control in most com-
mercial ields, Chen said.
“That is big spending for
growers, but this year, it was
worth it to do that,” he said.
The fungus is occurring al-
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
USDA Agricultural Research Service plant geneticist Xianming Chen, right, looks over variety trials
during a July 14 ield day in St. John, Wash. Chen says the wheat fungus stripe rust is at a “severe to
extremely severe” level in the Paciic Northwest.
most everywhere in the Paciic
Northwest, even in dryland ar-
eas.
He hopes to see more farm-
ers plant resistant varieties in
the future. That would elimi-
nate the need to spray fungi-
cide, even in severe rust years.
Most wheat ields are now
past the point where a fungi-
cide application would help.
Rust typically dies by harvest,
Chen said, as it cannot live
long in dead leaf tissue.
Chen said later-planted
spring wheat in higher eleva-
tions may still have active rust
due to recent rain.
Some of the major fungi-
cides cannot be used after the
lowering stage, while others
can be used up to 30 days be-
fore harvest. Growers should
be sure to read the fungicide
labels, Chen said.
Temperatures are not quite
optimum for the wheat’s high
temperature, adult plant resis-
tance to stripe rust to kick in.
It’s too early to tell the
outlook for next season, he
said.
“It depends on what the
weather conditions are from
now to the fall,” Chen said.
“If the coming winter is cold,
then the rust will die more.
If the coming winter is very
mild like last winter, this rust
will survive more.”
Chen said roughly 36 per-
cent of winter wheat varieties
are resistant to stripe rust and
16 percent are moderately re-
sistant. Eight percent are mod-
erately resistant to moderately
susceptible and 24 percent are
moderately susceptible. None
are highly susceptible.
For spring wheat, rough-
ly 12 percent of the varieties
are resistant, 40 percent are
moderately resistant, 11 per-
cent are moderately resistant
to moderately susceptible, 11
percent are moderately sus-
ceptible and 11 percent are
susceptible.
Rain, temperatures increase falling number concerns
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Rain and temperature luc-
tuations are worrying some
in the Paciic Northwest
wheat industry about sprout
damage that could reduce
the price farmers receive for
their crop.
If the weather clears up
without additional storms,
“then maybe it’s not going to
be that big a disaster,” said
Camille Steber, USDA ARS
research plant molecular ge-
neticist in Pullman, Wash.
The concern is greater for
winter wheat than the spring
crop.
Grain elevators use the
Hagberg-Perten falling num-
Capital Press File
USDA Agricultural Research Service plant molecular geneticist
Camille Steber stands in the laboratory where she tests for falling
numbers in this 2014 photo. Steber said rains and luctuating
temperatures this year have put wheat farmers at risk of receiving
less money because of sprout damage in their crop.
ber test to measure starch
damage because of sprout-
ing, according to Washington
State University. A low fall-
ing number indicates a high
level of alpha amylase, an
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enzyme that degrades starch
and diminishes the quality of
wheat products. Grain with
a falling number below 300
typically receives a discount
in the Paciic Northwest.
“If the wheat is green,
the rain won’t cause a low
falling number problem,”
Steber said. “If it’s turned
completely yellow, then you
have to start worrying about
it. The longer it’s been since
it turned from green to yel-
low, the more likely it is that
you’re going to have a prob-
lem.”
Susceptible wheat variet-
ies include Bruehl, Jasper, AP
Legacy and Xerpha. Resis-
tant varieties include Puma,
Skiles, Coda and Bobtail.
Rain when temperatures
are in the 80s won’t likely
cause sprouting. But rain
during cooler periods are a
concern, Steber said.
Other areas have had wide
temperature luctuations that
can induce late-maturity al-
pha amylase.
“There may be some
farmers whose wheat didn’t
even get rained on who will
be coming to us and telling
us they had falling numbers
below 300,” Steber said.
Blaine Jacobson, exec-
utive director of the Idaho
Wheat Commission, said low
falling numbers are a con-
cern in the Lewiston, Idaho,
region. Stripe rust is also im-
pacting lower elevations of
Nezperce County, according
to the commission.
As harvest moved into
higher elevations, falling
number scores improved, Ja-
cobson said.
“We’re optimistic that
as the harvest progresses
and the footprint expands,
that problem will take care
of itself,” he said. “But it is
something we’re watching
carefully.”
Steber isn’t certain how
widespread the problem
could be.
“I’m hoping it’s a limited
problem this year,” she said.
Steber recommends farm-
ers harvest as quickly as they
can to avoid any rains com-
ing through their area.
Growers are likely to
make more money if they
avoid mixing wheat likely to
have a falling number prob-
lem with wheat that probably
won’t, she said.
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provisions, Jonker said.
Instead, the reports are
largely based on public meet-
ings. In some cases, the pro-
posed standards are based
on public perception of what
is good animal welfare and
relect no consensus among
experts in animal welfare and
handling, he said.
“Although public meetings
serve a useful purpose … they
do not absolve the USDA-
AMS-NOP from developing
regulatory requirements, par-
ticularly on topics such as ani-
mal welfare, based on the sci-
entiic literature,” he said.
The proposed rule contains
a lot of unjustiied and unsub-
stantiated provisions that go
beyond standard, approved,
safe procedures, Woodall said.
The rule is based on agen-
da and perception more than
anything else and viliies con-
ventional livestock, giving the
false perception that only or-
ganic livestock is being treat-
ed well, he said.
Delta growers
closely follow
WaterFix
hearings
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
SACRAMENTO — Car-
olyn McCormack and her
neighbors will be following
the upcoming series of hear-
ings on Gov. Jerry Brown’s
signature water project and
how it will impact their farms.
She and her husband,
fourth-generation farmer Jeff
McCormack, grow pears in
the Sacramento-San Joaquin
River Delta region.
Their orchard is in the path
of Brown’s proposed $15.7
billion twin tunnels that would
send Sacramento River water
directly to Southern California
farms and cities, bypassing the
Delta.
“It’s just going to uproot so
many families that have been
there so long,” McCormack
said as she helped customers
at a farmers’ market in Elk
Grove, Calif., on July 23. “It’s
not going to beneit Northern
California. It’s just going to
hurt everybody.”
In the coming weeks the
state Water Resources Con-
trol Board will have hearings
on the tunnel project, dubbed
California WaterFix.
The board was set to begin
July 26 with discussion of the
state Department of Water Re-
sources request to add three
new points of diversion for the
project, which includes two,
40-foot-diameter pipes buried
underground for 35 miles.
The opening three days
of the hearing in the Cali-
fornia Environmental Pro-
jection Agency Sacramento
headquarters were expected
to begin with policy state-
ments from the state Natural
Resources Agency and U.S.
Department of the Interior
followed by public comment,
according to a news release.
Experts are expected to
present hundreds of pages of
evidence over the next sev-
eral months as the board de-
termines if the project would
change water quality and low
in a way that harms other wa-
ter users. The board will also
consider whether the project
would effectively initiate a
new water right.
Another round of hear-
ings, expected to begin in
early 2017, will examine the
project’s impacts on ish and
wildlife, recreation and other
public trust issues, state ofi-
cials said.
The proposed tunnels are
a key agenda item for Brown,
who has made a solution to
many of the Delta’s water
quality woes a focus of his ad-
ministration. The governor’s
fourth term runs through 2018.
Proponents,
including
farm groups in the parched
San Joaquin Valley, say the
project would ensure a more
reliable water supply by al-
lowing more water to be sent
south during wet periods
without harming ish.
Opponents,
including
many Delta farmers, say the
project would worsen the
Delta’s already dire environ-
mental condition.