September 23, 2016
CapitalPress.com
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Idaho
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New economic development chief resigns
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
The executive director of
the Southern Idaho Econom-
ic Development Organiza-
tion has resigned after just
six months in that position.
Jeff Hough, who signed
on as SIEDO chief in March,
is leaving due to personal
reasons and without any job
prospects, he said.
“My family has some
issues going on, and I’m
going home to
take care of my
family,” he told
Capital Press
just after the
organization
Jeff
announced his
Hough
resignation on
Monday.
Home is Pocatello, where
is wife and one son remained
until his son, who is a se-
nior this year, finished high
school. The Houghs also
have three grown children.
Hough was hired after an
extensive search for a new
director to replace long-
time director Jan Rogers,
who took a similar position
in Eastern Idaho last fall.
At the time of his hiring,
then SIEDO Chairman Mike
Schutz said Hough had the
combination of skills and
experience SIEDO was
looking for to “keep the foot
on the gas of economic de-
velopment.”
Prior to SIEDO, Hough
was the director of work-
force training at Idaho State
University in Pocatello and
had also served as a business
consultant at the university
in workforce training.
“I am grateful to the or-
ganization (SIEDO) for giv-
ing me a chance and sad it
didn’t work out. But family
comes first,” Hough said.
SIEDO will name an
interim executive director
shortly to support the re-
gion in attracting business
and talent, the organization
stated.
“We’ve just come off a
very successful annual sum-
mit addressing talent attrac-
tion, and several very prom-
ising new projects are being
considered for the region,”
said Dan Olmstead, SIEDO
chairman.
“We will be naming an in-
terim director soon to assure
that our economic develop-
ment level of activity does
not slow down,” he said.
During the last 15 years,
SIEDO’s efforts have gen-
erated $1.8 billion in cap-
ital investments, attract-
ed 37 new companies and
21 company expansions
and brought 5,000 jobs
to the region, gaining na-
tional and international
attention.
SIEDO will be work-
ing with its member cities,
counties and utilities to de-
velop a strategy for hiring a
new executive director.
UI’s annual farm estimates
close to USDA numbers
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
Courtesy photo
This corn maze in Meridian, Idaho, will allow people to get inside comedian Jimmy Fallon’s head.
Popular corn maze designs around the nation this year include “Star Trek” and “Back the Blue” themes
in support of police oficers.
Corn maze allows people
inside Jimmy Fallon’s head
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
MERIDIAN, Idaho —
An Idaho corn maze that has
attracted national attention
several times in past years
has chosen a light-hearted ap-
proach this year: The image of
comedian Jimmy Fallon.
“It’s something a little dif-
ferent than what we’ve done
before,” said Meridian farm-
er Jim Lowe, owner of the
The Farmstead Corn Maze &
Pumpkin Festival. “We want-
ed something that would be
light-hearted and playful.”
Around the nation, “Star
Trek” and “Back the Blue”
themes in support of police of-
icers are popular designs this
year.
But Lowe said that with all
the serious issues facing the
world, he wanted a design that
would allow people to escape
the seriousness for awhile and
remember to laugh.
“We just wanted to focus
on relaxing, having fun and re-
membering the value of being
light-hearted in spite of whatev-
er is going on around us in the
world,” he said. “Sometimes
you need that breath of fresh
air.”
Fallon is a former “Saturday
Night Live” star and the current
host of the “Tonight Show.”
“Maybe, if we can get inside
Jimmy’s head, we can all come
out a little more light-hearted,”
Lowe stated in a news release.
The Farmstead’s designs in
past years include likenesses
of Mitt Romney and President
Barack Obama during that elec-
tion year, a bumblebee, Abra-
ham Lincoln, a trout, and the
Statue of Liberty.
Some of the designs have
been featured in Time maga-
zine, “Good Morning America,”
USA Today, New York Maga-
zine and on the “Today Show.”
Two of the nation’s most
popular corn maze themes this
year are “Star Trek” and “Back
the Blue,” according to Maze-
play owner Shawn Stolworthy
of Idaho Falls, whose business
cut 110 mazes around the Unit-
ed States this year.
After a picture of one “Back
the Blue’ maze that Mazeplay
created in Georgia was posted
on Facebook, it generated more
than 1 million views in a few
days, Stolworthy said.
The “Star Trek” design is in
honor of the 50th anniversary
of the irst airing of the “Star
Trek” TV series. “That one
went huge,” Stolworthy said.
Eagle, Idaho, farmer Jeff
Smith said he chose the “Back
the Blue” theme for his corn
maze this year because he
wanted to bring attention to the
important and sometimes un-
der-appreciated role that police
oficers play in society.
His maze features a police
oficer holding a German shep-
herd next to a squad car, with an
“Idaho” silhouette in the back-
ground.
Smith said he wanted to
show police oficers in a pos-
itive light to the multitude
of kids that go through the
maze.
BOISE — Annual January
estimates by University of
Idaho agricultural economists
on how the state’s farming
industry fared have close-
ly matched USDA’s oficial
numbers, which are released
10 months later.
Each January, UI econ-
omists provide members of
the Idaho Legislature’s Joint
Legislative Economic Out-
look and Revenue Assess-
ment Committee with an esti-
mate of how Idaho agriculture
fared the previous year.
Legislators use that esti-
mate to help them forecast
how much revenue the state
will take in that iscal year,
and that revenue estimate in
turn is used during the legis-
lative session to set state bud-
gets.
UI’s 2016 forecast for the
2015 season turned out to be
pretty accurate for most com-
modities, except for cattle and
calves.
In the university’s annual
“Financial Condition of Ida-
ho Agriculture” report this
January, UI ag economists
Garth Taylor and Ben Eborn
estimated that the cattle and
calves sector in Idaho brought
in $2.2 billion in cash receipts
in 2015.
Data released Aug. 31 by
USDA’s Economic Research
Service shows that number at
$1.95 billion.
But UI’s forecasts for other
commodities were close to the
USDA numbers, in some cas-
es extremely close.
UI forecast Idaho potato
cash receipts at $871 million
for 2015 while USDA shows
that number at $873 million,
and UI forecast dairy receipts
at $2.3 billion while USDA
shows them at $2.35 billion.
Overall, UI estimated total
Idaho farm cash receipts for
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
Wine grapes are harvested in southwestern Idaho Aug. 19. Annual
estimates by University of Idaho ag economists on how the state’s
farm industry fared are matching up closely with oficial USDA
numbers that are released 10 months later.
2015 at $7.87 billion while
USDA has them at $7.46 bil-
lion.
In their January 2015 re-
port, UI economists estimated
Idaho farm cash receipts for
2014 at $8.77 billion, while
USDA’s data has them at
$8.66 billion.
“It’s not that far off,” Eb-
orn said of UI’s overall fore-
cast for Idaho cash receipts in
2015. “The only one we really
missed was cattle and calves.”
Republican Sen. Steve
Bair, a retired farmer from
Blackfoot and a member of
the Legislature’s economic
outlook committee, said he
puts put a lot of stock in the
UI forecasts.
A separate forecast by
economists from the state’s
three major universities that
includes the overall economy
“are not nearly as accurate,”
he said. “Garth does a great
job. He seems to have a good
handle on what’s happened
in the agricultural sector and
what’s going to happen.”
Other UI farm commod-
ity forecasts for 2015, with
USDA numbers in paren-
thesis: Wheat, $506 million
($463 million); hay, $485
million ($440 million); sug-
ar beets, $300 million ($280
million); barley, $286 million
($261 million).
UI forecast $3 billion
in total Idaho crop cash re-
ceipts for 2015 while US-
DA’s total was $2.9 billion.
On the animal production
side, UI forecast $4.8 billion
while USDA had that total at
$4.55 billion.
Because UI’s estimates
are released 10 months before
the USDA numbers and agri-
culture is so important to the
state’s economy, “We just try
to give (legislators) a feel for
how the year went 10 months
before they actually get the
numbers from ERS,” Eborn
said.
PEACH LUGS &
1 1 ⁄ 2 QT. CORRUGATED
PEACH BASKETS
ISDA to collect unwanted pesticides
Capital Press
Farmers, dealers, profes-
sional applicators and home-
owners who have unusable
pesticides will have a safe, legal
and free opportunity to dispose
of them when the Idaho State
Department of Agriculture con-
ducts its unusable pesticide col-
lections this month.
Pesticides include herbi-
cides, insecticides, fungicides,
rodenticides or anything with
a “cide” at the end. Unusable
pesticides should be taken to
the closest collection site be-
tween 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. on the
date and location listed below.
No fertilizer, micronutrients,
paint, solvents, or motor oil will
be accepted at the collections.
Pesticide collections will be
held at:
• Twin Falls: Sept. 26, Twin
Falls Canal Co., 357 Sixth Ave.
• West Gooding: Sept. 27,
Gooding Airport, 1945 Airport
Road.
• Nampa: Sept. 28, Pickles
Butte Landill, 15500 Missouri
Ave.
For updates and addition-
al information, contact your
nearest ISDA ield ofice or
the main office in Boise at
(208) 332-8500 or the ISDA
website at www.agri.idaho.
gov.
503-588-8313
2561 Pringle Rd. SE
Salem, OR
Call for Pricing.
Subject to stock on hand.
Delivery Available
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