Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Capital press. (Salem, OR) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 5, 2016)
8 CapitalPress.com August 5, 2016 Grower pushes premium sweet corn By DAN WHEAT Capital Press EPHRATA, Wash. — “Quincy sweet corn” is what people ask for in northcentral Washington state. But the buzz may be chang- ing to “Kallstrom sweet corn” as more people taste what Ephrata grower Mark Kall- strom calls the “Cadillac of corn.” It’s so sweet and holds its sweetness longer than most corn that Kallstrom says a cus- tomer at the Issaquah farmers’ market in Western Washington has told him he sucks the juice from the cob after eating the kernels. “It’s a premium corn and our advantage over grocery stores is that we offer it fresh every day. The quality is up there. When we run out, peo- ple cry. I’m not exaggerating,” says Kallstrom, 61, who stag- gers the planting of 100 acres so he has ripe fresh corn dai- ly from the Fourth of July to mid-October. Employees sell it from his lat bed trucks and wagons at Dan Wheat/Capital Press Mark and Uriah Kallstrom, father and son, enjoy a taste of their sweet corn fresh in the ield south of Ephrata, Wash., on July 28. They are in their seventh year of fresh market sales. roadside locations in Ephra- ta, Moses Lake, Quincy and Wenatchee. They’re hard to miss with large yellow signs that say “Corn” and have a large letter “K” for Kallstrom. It’s $8 per dozen and $20 per box of 40 ears, which is higher than the price of other sweet corn in stores. Kallstrom says he charges more for his high quality. The variety is SH2 and it’s non-GMO, which seems to be a seller, he says. In his seventh year of production, he’s hopeful of a bright future. He also sells it whole- sale to other produce stands and grocery stores in north- central Washington and sells it directly at farmers’ mar- kets in Issaquah, Ellensburg, Wenatchee, Leavenworth, Mo- ses Lake and Moscow, Idaho. “We live, eat, smell and drink corn. I love it!” Kall- strom says with a big smile. It’s a family affair. His wife, Elaine, and their son, Uriah, 22, are heavily involved. Some of their older children were in- volved until other occupations beckoned. Young people from their church, Faith Community Church in Quincy, hire on to sort corn by hand and school teachers ind sales jobs a good it. Kallstrom and his son start the day early using a specialty combine for the least damage to ears in harvesting the day’s need. Kallstrom’s father, Glenn, was a dairyman who moved from Port Orchard to Ephrata in 1969. The family sold their Ephrata dairy in 2007 and fo- cused on potatoes, wheat, al- falfa, corn silage, grain corn and earlage. In 2008, they raised 300 acres of sweet corn for frozen processing because canners were short. “The next year, the canners had more than they needed, so I decided to raise it myself,” Kallstrom said. “We planted 35 acres and hired a crew to pick it by hand.” Albany cold storage plant completes expansion By ERIC MORTENSON Capital Press tomers ranging from craft breweries to ice cream and dessert makers. The com- pany has the capability to store food at temperatures ranging from minus-20 de- grees to 70 degrees. The new warehouse in- cludes 8,500 square feet of processing space that gives customers room for value-added work such as repacking, wet packing and fresh fruit handling. In a news release, company CEO Jason Lafferty said that including processing space with the warehouse gives SnoTemp “distinct logistical and economic ef- ficiencies that are critical to sustaining success in today’s market.” The company expanded its Albany plant by 100,000 square feet just six years ago, and has doubled the combined employment at its Albany and Eugene facilities during that time. The expansion illustrates the economic vitality of Or- egon’s food processing sec- tor, which grew even during the depth of the recession. A labor trends report issued by the state Employment Department in 2014 showed that Oregon’s manufacturing sector lost nearly 16 percent of its jobs from 2007 to 2012. But food manufacturing jobs increased nearly 8 percent during that same period. SnoTemp is a third-gener- ation family business. On-line: www.SnoTemp. com ROP-30-3-1/#4X ALBANY, Ore. — Sno- Temp Cold Storage opened a new warehouse in July, mark- ing the company’s eighth ex- pansion since it began busi- ness in Albany in 1974. The company, found- ed in Eugene, Ore., in 1957 and with its headquarters still there, now has a total of 725,000 square feet of food storage space between its two facilities. SnoTemp freezes and stores bulk vegetables and ingredients for repackers such as NORPAC Foods Inc., the farmers’ cooper- ative, and for other cus- Cattle on feed, placements, marketing and other disappearances, June (Feedlots with 1,000-head capacity or more) Item (1,000 head) 2015 2016 Placed on feed, June Fed cattle marketed, June Other disappearance, June* 1,481 1,747 69 Item (1,000 head) 2015 2016 On feed July 1 10,236 Percent change 1,525 1,912 61 3 9 -12 Percent change 10,356 1 *Includes death loss, movement from feedlots to pasture, and shipments to other feedlots for further feeding. Source: USDA NASS Capital Press graphic June cattle placements lower than expected By CAROL RYAN DUMAS Capital Press The number of cattle going into feedlots in June, up 3 per- cent year over year, surprised industry analysts, who fore- cast an average increase of 6 percent based on an increased supply of feeder cattle and rel- atively lower prices for those cattle. Nonetheless, the 1.53 mil- lion cattle placed is a good number for June, and the number on feed is going to continue to grow, said John Nalivka, owner of Sterling Marketing in Vale, Ore. “There’s going to be a rela- tively large supply of cattle in the second half of the year and into next year,” he said. Nalivka was not one of the analysts looking for higher placements, forecasting only a 1 percent increase year over year in June. May placements were up 10 percent year over year, and good pasture and range conditions have produc- ers hanging on to cattle a little longer, he said. Producers are also likely not excited over prices, which are half what they were two years ago, he said. On the lip side, while feed- er cattle prices have declined, they’re still not low enough to give feedlots a healthy margin despite low feed costs. The feedlot industry lost about $3.2 billion last year, basical- ly 12 straight months of red ink, he said. “Some feedlots never real- ly have gotten back into black ink,” he said. Relative to the market out front, they’re still paying too much for feeder cattle. At about $143 per hundred- weight, feeder prices are about $10 per hundredweight too high. Those prices have to continue to come down to get things in balance, he said. “I’m not totally negative; I’m just saying we need to raise the caution lag,” he said. Last year’s increased calf crop, up 4 percent, is going to end up in feedlots at some point. And total meat supply is increasing in the face of somewhat questionable beef demand, he said. Beef production is ex- pected to be up 4 percent to 5 percent this year on top of a 1 percent to 2 percent increase on last year’s record pork pro- duction and a 3 percent to 4 percent increase in poultry production, he said. USDA’s cattle on feed re- port showed marketing of fed cattle was up 9 percent in June to 1.91 million and total cattle on feed numbers stood at 10.4 million on July 1, an increase of 1 percent year over year. The report also showed signs that herd rebuilding could be slowing. The number of heifers in the feedlot mix was up 5 per- cent year over year at 3.49 million head. The increase follows a 4 percent year-over- year jump in the number of heifers in feedlots on April 1, according to National Agri- cultural Statistics Service. “It’s a total turnaround from where we’ve been with heifers. We’ve gone from re- building and breeding to put- ting them on feed,” Nalivka said. Heifer slaughter was up 4.8 percent in June year over year. Beef cow slaughter was up 20.5 percent in June and is up nearly 8 percent year to date, NASS reported. “I think we’re putting the brakes on this growth,” Naliv- ka said. ROP-32-2-4/#24 Large Transmission Power Lines on Your Property? Lease Us Your Land! Long Term Land Leases Needed! 20-40 Years - Up to $1,250 per Acre per Year • We require large tracts of land (over 150 acres), currently clear and clean with 3-phase transmission type power lines for our solar farms. • Land cannot be in flood zone or have wetlands issues. Owner must retain mineral rights both above and below surface, or have executive rights. • No underground utilities, including oil and gas lines, within the proposed solar site. 32-4/#4X