August 5, 2016
CapitalPress.com
7
Surplus drives down processing
tomato prices and production
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
John O’Connell/Capital Press
Rexburg, Idaho, farmer Nathan Ashcraft looks over his 40-acre ield of spelt on July 28, deciding it’s
ready to harvest. He’s one of Idaho’s few spelt producers.
East Idaho grower
inds niche with spelt
Capital Press
SUGAR CITY, Idaho —
Nathan Ashcraft’s website
— histakes-spelt.com — is
a testament to the gamble of
experimenting with a novel
specialty crop.
In the late 1990s, the Sug-
ar City farmer stuck to the
basics, raising two years of
wheat followed by potatoes.
Nowadays, the rotation on his
900-acre farm is unique and
diversiied, including 40 acres
of spelt, which is a healthful,
ancient grain.
According to the most
current Idaho Farm Service
Agency records, only one
other grower in the state pro-
duced spelt in 2015 — an
Oneida County farmer who
raised 80 acres. USDA’s Na-
tional Agricultural Statistics
Service keeps no records on
spelt production.
Ashcraft’s spelt generates
about $42 per 50-pound sack,
which is far better than he’s
been getting paid for wheat.
But he’s had to be patient in
growing his spelt acreage,
easing toward a goal of pro-
ducing a full pivot within the
next decade.
“It only takes a few acres
more to over-plant and kill
your market,” Ashcraft said.
“We did that in 2008. Our
acres went from 40 to 80, and
we ended up sitting on the
grain for four years, and inal-
ly having to sell it to a feeder.”
His brother and former
farming partner, Blaine, start-
ed raising spelt in 2003, hop-
ing to carve a niche product
known for its low glycemic
index and healthful folic acid.
“He was looking into ways
that he could improve his
health,” Ashcraft said.
They chose a Midwestern
fall variety with good milling
quality and an ability to toler-
ate harsh winters.
Blaine moved to Alaska to
start his own farm, and Ash-
craft is in his second season
of raising spelt on his own. It
yields about 3,000 pounds per
acre, requiring about the same
inputs as soft white wheat but
John O’Connell/Capital Press
Ashcraft plans to expand his
spelt production, but not too
rapidly.
less water. Ashcraft said spelt
grows tall and is prone to tip-
ping over, or lodging. At har-
vest, he simply separates the
heads from the stalk, noting
threshing tends to crack the
seeds.
Ashcraft has been send-
ing his spelt to Havre, Mont.,
for de-hulling, but local seed
cleaner Jeremiah Clark has
ordered a special machine
to de-hull it locally, which
should present a considerable
cost savings.
Ashcraft also raises pota-
toes, seed peas, alfalfa, mill-
ing wheat, forage wheat and a
dozen steers, and his wife, Ja-
mie, and four sons oversee a
1-acre vegetable patch yield-
ing an assortment of produce.
They sell their vegetables and
supplemental fruit at farmers’
markets in Driggs and Idaho
Falls, and from a self-service
vegetable stand in their front
yard, operating as The Food
Dudes.
Jamie also markets her
husband’s spelt. It’s shipped
direct to customers, most-
ly in 2-pound bags, and sold
to a short list of bakeries,
food co-ops and health food
stores. Their largest customer
is Kitchen Kneads, based in
Utah.
Jamie said her customers
order from as far away as Be-
lize, often believing spelt’s
delicate type of gluten is eas-
ier to digest. She also enjoys
the opportunity to bring back
a grain from the past and to
“try new things.” She teaches
occasional spelt baking les-
sons.
“It’s been a lot of edu-
cation on my part. I’ve had
to educate people on what
(spelt) is and what to do with
it,” she said.
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
Freshly picked tomatoes ill a bin. The harvest of a smaller pro-
cessing tomato crop is underway in California, as acreages are
down because of a glut of tomatoes on the global market.
real as it’s been in the last three
years,” he said. “It’s more in-
surance water, not farming
water. It’s in case a pump goes
out or a well goes down. …
It’s not enough to really farm
tomatoes with.
“We’re seeing the impact
… of multiple years of well
water” on quality and yields,
he said. “Obviously we’d like
some fresh water to blend, but
we don’t have that ability now
with the allocation.”
Harvests of early tomatoes
started in mid-July and are ex-
pected to ramp up in the com-
ing weeks. Williams said he’s
about 20 percent done with his
harvest, and he’s so far seen
good yields and quality.
So far, northern parts of the
state are at or slightly above
contracted levels, Southern
California growers are at or
slightly below their contracts
and Central California is just
getting started, he said. Dis-
ease pressure has caused trou-
bles in some ields, he said.
“Everyone has a prob-
lem ield this year, whereas
last year was good across the
board,” Williams said.
With leftover inventories of
tomatoes in warehouses, pric-
es to growers fell from $80 per
ton last year to about $72.50
per ton in 2016, meaning
growers will need some high
yields to do more than break
even, the California Farm Bu-
reau Federation reported. At
the same time, lesser yields
could push prices back up,
growers say.
Fresno County leads the
state with 80,800 acres of pro-
cessing tomatoes contracted
in 2016, followed by Yolo,
Kings, San Joaquin and Mer-
ced counties, according to
NASS. The top ive counties
make up 73 percent of the
state’s total contracted acres,
the agency reported.
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By JOHN O’CONNELL
ARBUCKLE, Calif. —
Processing tomato growers are
stepping up their harvest of a
crop whose acreage is dimin-
ished, not so much because of
drought but because of global
market conditions.
Tomato processors secured
contracts for 13 million tons
of tomatoes this season, down
more than 9 percent from last
year’s contracted production,
as this year’s 262,000 acres of
processing tomatoes is nearly
12 percent below 2015, ac-
cording to the National Agri-
cultural Statistics Service.
Growers and industry rep-
resentatives say a surplus of
tomatoes on the world market
prompted processors to cut
back on planned purchases.
Global production this year is
about 7.5 percent below last
year, said Mike Montna, the
California Tomato Growers
Association’s president and
chief executive oficer.
“Planted acreage is down
mainly because of market
conditions,” said Arbuckle,
Calif., grower Darrin Wil-
liams, a CTGA board mem-
ber. “Processors were long in
inventory going into this sea-
son, and there have been quite
a few cutbacks on acreage on
acreage because of that. We
had a big world crop last year,
and this year we’re down a
couple million tons from last
year.”
Drought continues to have
an impact — particularly in the
western San Joaquin Valley,
where federal surface-water
allocations were just 5 percent
of requested supplies this year,
Montna said.
“For them, the drought is as
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