August 19, 2016
CapitalPress.com
Harney County SWD
plans suit over range
management plan
By KATY NESBITT
For the Capital Press
BURNS, Ore. — A recent
decision by the federal govern-
ment kept greater sage grouse
off the endangered species list,
but Harney County ranchers,
displeased with the Bureau
of Land Management’s range
management plan amendment,
are considering taking their
complaint to court.
Louie Molt, chairman of the
Harney County Soil and Water
District, said BLM disregarded
input from rural communities.
“When they were writing
the range management plan
amendment they asked coun-
ties and soil and water districts
to come up with their own
ideas about how to protect sage
grouse and keep the rural com-
munity viable,” Molt said. “The
BLM took our rural alternative
and threw it in the trash.”
The county iled a protest,
Molt said, and is now consid-
ering legal action. Out of a list
of 10 or so complaints, Oregon
Cattlemen’s Association Presi-
dent John O’Keefe, a rancher in
neighboring Lake County, said
one of the biggest concerns is
conlicting research over stub-
ble height.
“It’s the implementation
phase that is being challenged,”
O’Keefe said. “There is re-
search that has come out that
the seven-inch minimum stub-
ble height requirement has
laws in the science.”
O’Keefe said peer-reviewed
research from the University of
Nevada-Reno raises questions
about whether sampling bias
might affect the estimates of
cover needed for ground-nest-
ing birds. Daniel Gibson, Erik
Blomberg and James Sedinger
from the Program in Ecology,
Evolution and Conservation
Biology analyzed the timing of
nest survival surveys to deter-
mine required vegetative cover.
“One of the biggest con-
cerns about the resource man-
agement plan is they placed a
lot of emphasis on habitat as-
sessment, including seven-inch
stubble height,” O’Keefe said.
“If we are going to manage
for additional vegetation with
additional wildire, we are
concerned where the BLM is
going.”
The bias, according to the
study, lies when stubble height
is measured — at nest failure
from predation or at predicted
hatch date. Based on the study,
the measurements taken at pre-
dicted hatch date more accu-
rately predicted the inluence
of grass height on nest survival.
“Gibson showed if you re-
move the bias from sampling it
shows grass height is not related
to nest success,” O’Keefe said.
“The BLM is over-emphasizing
stubble height at the expense
of wildire, and that concerns
us. We are worried they will
cut permits on a non-existing
nesting threat to the detriment
of a ire threat, and in a lot of
these areas the grass matures at
or below the seven-inch level,”
O’Keefe said.
Fearing negotiations to ad-
dress the protest would fail, the
Harney County district started
raising money for a lawsuit.
Molt said the district set a min-
imum goal of $50,000 before it
would consider going to court;
by Aug. 12 the soil and water
district had raised $51,000.
“We are certainly willing
to go back to the table with
them, but we need to have the
right people at the table, possi-
bly (Interior) Secretary (Sally)
Jewell,” he said.
“We’d like to try to collab-
orate one last time — we col-
laborated until we are blue in
the face and we have nothing to
show that works for us,” Molt
said. “We will not proceed with
iling suit until we give them
one last opportunity to come
back to the table to give us
something we can live with.”
Jerome Rosa, executive
director of the Oregon Cat-
tlemen’s Association, said his
organization supports Harney
County’s actions and donated
$5,000 to the fund.
“Oregon cattlemen are still
trying to negotiate with the
BLM on the implementation
and on this rule and if we were
to sign on to this suit we give
up our ability to negotiate on
this, but we support our lo-
cal cattlemen’s group in what
they are doing here,” Rosa
said.
Molt said now that the orig-
inal goal has been met the sec-
ond goal is to raise $100,000
and the far, outreaching goal is
$250,000.
Molt said it comes down to
protecting the livelihoods of
ranchers dependent on public
use permits.
“We will all be extremely
affected if the permits are can-
celed. Who am I going to sell
my bulls or my hay to?” Molt
said. “We have got to look out
for our own country, if we don’t
no one else will. Rural America
is getting choked out. The peo-
ple who live here, who would
like to continue to live here,
are the best stewards on the
ground. People think we are
destroying it. Are we that dumb
that we would destroy our own
livelihood?”
7
Hair sheep gaining popularity
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
BANCROFT, Idaho —
Brett Crump is a neophyte
sheep rancher with a small
lock, but he believes he’s
found the ideal breed to keep
his operation aloat as he
seeks to grow it.
Crump raises 40 hair sheep
on his 80-acre ranch, also
turning them lose at the near-
by Chesterield ghost town
each spring to supplement his
forage while providing weed
control for the historic site.
Crump said hair sheep re-
main little known in Eastern
Idaho, but they’re rapidly
gaining popularity among
ranchers elsewhere in the
U.S. due to the ease of raising
them.
Crump, who sells directly
to consumers, shares freezer
space and the Stanger Ranch
label with his neighbors to cut
costs. But his greatest efi-
ciency has come from choos-
ing two breeds of hair sheep
— Dorpers and Texas Dalls.
Hair sheep, like the wild
ancestors of modern wool
sheep, have course hair that
they shed — an attractive
feature nowadays, with wool
prices so low leece sales of-
ten generate less than the la-
bor costs of shearing.
Crump said hair sheep are
well adapted to the heat of his
high-desert environment, one
of the reasons they’re gaining
traction in hot regions such as
the Southwest and Midwest.
They’re also hardy, require
little attention while lambing
John O’Connell/Capital Press
Bancroft, Idaho, rancher Brett Crump walks through the pasture with his hair sheep, which are gaining
popularity because they don’t require shearing.
and can reproduce twice with-
in 14 months.
Best of all, Crump insists
their meat has a milder la-
vor that his customers love,
though they don’t grow as big
as most wool sheep.
“People are hesitant until
they try it, and once they try
it, they’re sold,” said Crump,
who bought his irst hair
sheep from a Rexburg ranch-
er ive years ago. “It’s new
to this area, and as with all
things new, it just takes time.”
In 2013 and 2014 the hair
sheep breeds Katahdin and
Dorper both ranked among
the top three breeds for num-
bers of registered animals.
According to a 2011 USDA
survey, 20 percent of sheep
operations in the 22 top sheep
producing states had some
hair sheep, which averaged 11
percent of their herds.
Katahdin Hair Sheep In-
ternational, which has 1,100
paid members, had its an-
nual meeting in Cookeville,
Tenn., Aug. 4-5. Jim Morgan,
the organization’s operations
manager from Fayetteville,
Ark., said hair sheep have ex-
perienced rapid growth in the
Southwest, especially among
ranches with fewer than 30
acres, where raising cattle
wouldn’t be eficient.
“Almost all hair sheep
would be considered an easy-
care animal,” Morgan said.
Hair sheep growth has
been especially pronounced in
Texas, where producers have
begun re-entering the industry
after exiting a few years ago,
when shearing costs began to
exceed wool revenue.
“Everybody going back
into the sheep industry is go-
ing to hair sheep,” said Ran-
dy McCrea, a Sterling City,
Texas, hair sheep rancher and
president of the North Amer-
ican Hair Sheep Association.
“I’d never go back to wool
sheep.”
Kathy Lewis, a Bonanza,
Ore., Dorper rancher with a
lock that often reaches 1,000
sheep, has noticed a signii-
cant increase recently in the
sales of ewes for breeding,
selling animals to ranchers
both within her home state
and as far away as the Philip-
pines. She’s sold some breed-
ing ewes to wheat farmers in
Western Oregon and Wash-
ington, who plan to graze
their stubble. The growth in
the Dorper category reminds
Lewis of the rise of Angus
beef several years ago.
Idaho-Oregon onion growers seek cause of new plant disease
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
ONTARIO, Ore. — Onion
growers in Eastern Oregon and
southwestern Idaho are dealing
with a new plant disease that
can damage the inside of on-
ions, but so far they don’t know
what’s causing it or how to pre-
vent it.
Oregon State University re-
searchers are conducting ield
trials to try to answer those
questions.
“We know what the prob-
lem is real well but we don’t
know what’s causing it or
how to manage it,” said Clint
Shock, director of OSU’s Mal-
heur County experiment sta-
tion.
The disease is caused by a
plant pathogen known as fu-
sarium proliferatum and can
damage the inside of the on-
ion. An affected onion looks
ine on the outside but is not
desirable to consumers when
they cut it open.
That particular type of
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
Clint Shock, director of Oregon State University’s Malheur County
research station, discusses a ield trial that is trying to determine
the cause of a new onion disease causing problems for growers in
Eastern Oregon and southwestern Idaho, during a recent ield day.
fusarium fungi has caused a
few cases of so-called onion
bulb rot over the years but it
became a major issue in 2014
and 2015, said OSU Cropping
Systems Extension Agent Stu-
art Reitz.
“Over the past couple of
years we’ve seen it become a
real serious problem,” he said.
“We’re trying to igure out, is
there some trigger that makes
onions susceptible to getting
the disease.”
One theory being explored
in the Malheur County ield
trial is that high temperatures
cause a condition known
as dry scale, which is when
the top of the onion doesn’t
completely close, leaving
a small opening where the
fungal pathogen can enter.
The 2014 and 2015 sum-
mers in this region had unusu-
ally high temperatures. The
OSU ield trial includes heat
strips that make the soil around
the onion bulbs hotter.
“By sampling onions every
week, we’re trying to under-
stand when the defects start to
show up ... and see if tempera-
ture is a factor,” Shock said. “If
temperature is a factor, there are
various approaches we can take
to try to reduce the bulb tem-
perature.”
A separate trial is exploring
the effectiveness of different
fungicides that have proven
beneicial in treating related
fusarium pathogens that impact
other crops.
Reitz is also collecting sam-
ples from farms around the re-
gion “and looking at different
varieties and growing condi-
tions, trying to track when we
see the problem coming on so
growers can use fungicides at
the right time instead of hav-
ing to spray all year long.”
Washington State University licenses technology to ight cattle disease
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Washington State Univer-
sity has licensed gene-edit-
ing technology used to breed
cattle more resistant to bovine
respiratory disease.
Bovine respiratory disease
is the primary cause of cat-
tle mortality in the U.S. It is
caused by a combination of
stress and viral and bacterial
infections. Infected animals
develop pneumonia that is
often fatal. The disease partic-
ularly impacts calves, accord-
ing to WSU.
BRD causes roughly $1
billion in market losses each
year to the industry, said Bry-
an Slinker, dean of the Col-
lege of Veterinary Medicine.
“If we can generate cattle
both on the dairy and beef
side that are resistant to that
disease, it would be a huge
impact on the industry in lim-
iting those market losses,”
Slinker said.
Resistant cattle would also
reduce the use of antibiot-
ics and the associated costs,
Slinker said.
“It would be a huge deal
to generate animals that resist
disease and are socially ac-
ceptable,” he said.
Researcher Subramaniam
Srikumaran studied how the
BRD complex develops and
methods of prevention, ac-
cording to a WSU press re-
lease. He learned about a spe-
ciic gene’s role in developing
the disease.
By making a single edit
in the CD18 gene, which is
responsible for an adhesive
protein on the surface of white
blood cells, he is able to block
the bacterial toxin that trig-
gers lung inlammation and
pneumonia characteristic of
BRD.
Srikumaran patented the
technology through WSU’s
Ofice of Commercialization,
which negotiated a licensing
agreement with Genus PLC,
a global animal genetics com-
pany.
What researchers learn
about bovine pneumonia is
also applicable to humans,
said Kris Johnson, an ani-
mal sciences professor. Such
breakthroughs could lead to
improvements in how people
are treated for disease.
WSU will examine the
animals produced to see how
resistant they are and pursue
further gene-editing to reine
the process.
“There’s probably more
work to be done,” Slinker
said. “The irst animals look
like they’re partially resistant,
but not fully resistant.”
Slinker said WSU used
a technology different from
new CRISPR/Cas9 gene-edit-
ing system.
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