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8 CapitalPress.com July 29, 2016 Camelina, quinoa studied as alternative crops in E. Oregon By SEAN ELLIS Capital Press ONTARIO, Ore. — East- ern Oregon researchers are looking at camelina and qui- noa as possible alternative crops that might not neces- sarily make farmers a lot of money but could prove help- ful during drought years or as a second crop. Field trials for both crops have been conducted the past three seasons at Oregon State University’s Malheur County research station. The quinoa crop was har- vested for the irst time this year after three tries, said OSU Cropping Systems Ex- tension Agent Bill Buhrig. Buhrig said if tempera- tures are above 90 degrees when quinoa, a gluten-free Sean Ellis/Capital Press Oregon State University researcher Bill Buhrig talks about cameli- na ield trials at OSU’s Malheur County research station. OSU trials are trying to determine whether camelina and quinoa can beneit area farmers as alternative crops. grain alternative, is lower- ing, the pollen will be steril- ized. That’s a problem in the Treasure Valley area of East- ern Oregon and Southwestern Idaho, where temperatures are routinely higher during the summer. However, OSU research- ers are looking at quinoa in this area as a “double crop,” planted in the same year after crops such as wheat or peas are harvested, when tempera- tures are lower. “The interest I’m hearing from growers for quinoa is as an alternative crop to help ill the cash low in behind wheat ... and have it lower during the latter part of the summer when we don’t have those heat units,” Burhig said. The results of this year’s camelina trial, which was planted in November and har- vested in June, are not yet in. But the past two seasons, the oilseed crop has yielded about 1,500 pounds an acre without irrigation. The crop received 5.79 and 4.17 inches of natural pre- cipitation in 2015 and 2014, respectively. Camelina could provide an option during drought years, Buhrig said. At about 25 cents a pound, the camelina crop would have fetched about $375 an acre the past two seasons, Buhrig said, but fallowing ground is not cheap. Area farmers fallowed signiicant portions of farm- land due to a lack of water in 2014 and 2015. “You still have to main- tain weeds, pay water and taxes and you’re still making payments on equipment, but you’re not getting anything back,” Buhrig said. “For (camelina) to be a good idea, it doesn’t have to be incredi- bly proitable; it just has to be a little bit proitable.” By comparison, onions, the area’s main cash crop, will bring a grower about $4,000 per acre on average, said Nys- sa farmer Bruce Corn. While camelina can’t match that, “When you’re in a drought, leaving a ield fallow is a real struggle,” said Corn, who’s glad OSU is research- ing camelina and quinoa. “As you do research, sometimes things will pan out in unexpected ways,” he said. As an example, he pointed to the ield trials that Malheur County research station direc- tor Clint Shock did on drip ir- rigation in the 1990s. “Commercially, it didn’t seem feasible at that time but now we’re headed toward 100 percent drip irrigation of on- ions in the valley,” he said. “If you don’t explore it, you won’t know what ... the po- tential might be.” WAFLA says 2016 wage survey better than last year’s Farm labor group says key issues unresolved By DAN WHEAT Capital Press Courtesy of Washington State Mint Commission OLYMPIA — The Wash- ington State Employment Se- curity Department has done a good job engaging the indus- try in drafting an agricultural wage and prevailing practices survey but key issues about survey questions remain un- resolved, says the farm labor association WAFLA. ESD will send the volun- tary survey to about half the state’s approximate 6,000 agri- cultural employers in Septem- ber. It asks about wages, bo- nuses and housing and is used by the U.S. Department of Labor to set minimum piece- rate wages and employment standards for employers using H-2A-visa foreign agricultural guestworkers that affect pay for domestic workers. DOL uses a separate man- datory USDA National Agri- cultural Statistics Service sur- vey to set a minimum hourly wage for H-2A workers known as the Adverse Effect Wage Rate. “The 2016 survey is a clear improvement from the 2015 survey and comes much clos- er to the standards required by the Department of Labor,” said Dan Fazio, WAFLA executive director. ESD was “extremely re- sponsive” in working with WAFLA and other stakehold- ers and adopted “nearly all our recommendations,” Fazio said. The Ferguson Mint Still in Harrah, Wash., processes mint into oil. Legislative auditors have recommended that lawmakers end a sales tax exemption for processors that fuel their stills with propane. Tax breaks for mint processors, tractor buyers under scrutiny Auditors present report on tax laws By DON JENKINS Capital Press Dan Wheat/Capital Press Francisco Trinidad, an H-2A-visa foreign guestworker, thins Gala apples at the Zirkle Fruit Co. CRO Orchard near Rock Island, Wash., on July 14. His minimum wage of $12.69 per hour is set by govern- ment wage surveys. WAFLA remains the sub- ject of a state attorney gener- al’s investigation into whether it violated state or federal laws by advising growers to report hourly wages instead of piece- rate wages in ESD’s 2015 wage and prevailing practices survey. ESD concluded WAFLA’s advice skewed how much workers earn picking Granny Smith, Golden Delicious and Fuji apples. Fazio has said he’s coni- dent the guidance was legal, that the survey made grow- ers choose between reporting hourly wages or piece rates at peak of harvest. WAFLA warned farmers reporting piece rates when la- bor demand is highest could artiicially inlate prevailing wages for the next season. WAFLA and ESD will meet in late August to discuss the investigation, Fazio said. WAFLA will host webinars for its members with ESD staff to explain the 2016 survey to growers. The biggest change is ESD plans to separately survey workers to test the veracity of employer responses as re- quired by DOL, Fazio said. The survey will be con- ducted by the University of Washington. The most important unre- solved issue is determination of piece-rate wages, Fazio said. Survey guidance was writ- ten over 30 years ago when employers were allowed in many places to pay solely by piece rate without any min- imum hourly guarantee, he said. Federal survey guidance documents require ESD to in- dicate when a piece rate carries ROP-27-5-2/#24 an hourly guarantee, he said. He said the ESD survey must quantify the hourly guar- antee employers offer to accu- rately determine the true wage. “Piece rates are a dynamic, market-driven pay scale that are not amenable to govern- ment surveys, mandates and wage setting,” he said. “How do you capture the difference between my hourly guarantee and yours if we’re not required to report it?” Gustavo Aviles, an ESD program manager, said DOL does not require reporting of both piece rate and the hour- ly guarantee. He said ESD is only trying to establish the prevailing wages actually paid, whether hourly or piece-rate. Surveys will be sent to about 3,000 employers and 6,500 workers. There is a great- er chance of employers with more workers getting a survey, said Zoe Zadworny, an ESD economic analyst. Responses are due in mid-November, she said. The H-2A program requires free housing for workers and could also require free housing to non-employee family mem- bers if it is a prevailing prac- tice among employers who do not use the H-2A program, Fazio said. Washington state lawmak- ers should end a tax break for mint oil processors and re- view a longstanding law that reduces the sales tax on some farm equipment purchases, according legislative auditors. The recommendations are in an annual report on tax preferences presented Wednesday to a joint House and Senate committee. Auditors said a sales tax exemption for propane used to power spearmint and pep- permint oil distilleries was not justiied because the savings were not enough to encour- age processors to replace die- sel-powered stills. Meanwhile, a trade-in de- duction, used mostly by car buyers but applicable to virtu- ally all goods, including trac- tors, has failed to increase tax revenue by stimulating sales, as promised by its proponents three decades ago, according to auditors. The Legislature began re- quiring yearly studies a de- cade ago to scrutinize the pub- lic beneit of tax exemptions. Over the 10 years, auditors have analyzed 235 tax exemp- tions. Lawmakers have termi- nated two. This year’s report includ- ed a look at a tax break law- makers passed in 2013 to help mint processors meet clean- air standards. Since then, six more of the state’s 28 mint oil distilleries NOW SCHEDULING FOR WATER WELL DRILLING & EXPLORATION Specializing in 10” diameter and above water wells. • Deepening • Reaming • Commercial • Irrigation WE S P E CIA LIZE IN B U LK B AG S! 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Converting to cleaner-burning fuels can cost up to $250,000, Johnson said. “I would say (the tax in- centive) has been successful,” he said. “Any bit helps. It isn’t a cheap conversion.” The tax exemption will expire July 1, 2017, unless re- newed by the Legislature. Auditors estimate that the exemption saves 12 proces- sors who use propane a total of about $100,000 a year. Processors that use natural gas don’t see any savings be- cause they pay a public utility tax, not a sales tax. Diesel used on farms is also exempt from the sales tax and costs less than propane, according to auditors. Auditors suggested that lawmakers consider inding another way to encourage processors to convert the six remaining diesel-powered stills. Johnson said he welcomed discussing other incentives, but said he hoped growers and processors who have convert- ed to cleaner-burning fuels won’t lose the tax exemption. “It would be great to en- courage the stills that have not converted to do so, but my concern is how it would af- fect the growers who already have made the conversion,” he said. Washington is the leading producer of spearmint oil and second in peppermint oil pro- duction behind Oregon. Washington mint oil had a farm gate value of about $68 million in 2014, according to the U.S. Department of Agri- culture. In 1984, voters approved an initiative that allows con- sumers to deduct the value of trade-ins when calculating the sales tax on new purchas- es. Car buyers received more than 80 percent of the savings in iscal year 2015, while buy- ers of farm equipment pock- eted about 2 percent, or nearly $5 million, auditors found. Supporters in the 1984 vot- ers guide stated that the trade- in deduction would stimulate sales of consumer goods and increase tax revenues. Auditors concluded that hasn’t happened. They es- timate the deduction costs state and local governments $182 million a year and rec- ommended lawmakers review the law. Rep. Drew Macewen, R-Union, rejected the idea that the state was being de- prived of money. “A tax structure that has been on the books for 32 years — kind of hard to say that we are losing revenue,” he said.