14 CapitalPress.com
November 25, 2016
WSU announces ag dean search committee members
Provost hopes to
interview finalists in April
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Several ag industry represen-
tatives are on the search commit-
tee that will hire the next dean of
Washington State University’s ag-
riculture college.
The university recently an-
nounced the members of the com-
mittee, tasked to find the dean of
the College of Agricultural, Human
and Natural Resource Sciences.
Committee members represent-
ing agriculture include Jay Gordon,
executive director of the Washing-
ton Dairy Federation; Mike Miller,
chairman of the Washington Grain
Commission; and Mike Willett,
manager of the Washington State
Tree Fruit Commission.
“We’re going to be wanting to
see somebody who is familiar and
comfortable reaching out to agri-
culture, out on the farms, getting
out and understanding the sheer
volume of exports our state pro-
duces,” Gordon said.
Miller said the next dean will
help WSU position itself for the
next 25 years as a leading agricul-
ture college in the U.S.
“You have to rely on leadership
to take you to the next level,” he
said. “They’ve assembled a dream
team below that, with some of the
best researchers around. Now they
just have to fill that position to go
forward.”
Current dean Ron Mittelham-
mer was appointed to a two-year
term in 2014, after a year as inter-
im dean.
Provost Dan Bernardo hopes
to interview finalists in April and
have a new dean identified shortly
after. CAHNRS is one of the “most
important and largest” colleges at
WSU, he said.
“Developing a search commit-
tee for that college is complex, to
say the least,” Bernardo said. “We
have 14 academic departments,
four research and extension cen-
ters, Extension with three depart-
ments of their own as well as fac-
ulty in 39 counties, faculty on three
different campuses — that just rep-
resents the internal component of
the process. And then obviously,
we have a wide array of interested
and valuable stakeholders whose
input we would like to have as
well.”
University representatives on
the search committee include Ian
Burke, associate professor of weed
science; Scot Hulbert, chairman of
the Department of Plant Pathology;
Dorrie Main, associate professor of
bioinformatics; Chad Kruger, di-
rector of the Northwestern Wash-
ington Research and Extension
Center; and Holly Neibergs, asso-
ciate professor in the Department
of Animal Sciences.
“We understand the significance
and the importance of this position
to continue to move us forward in
our relationship with Washington’s
food and agriculture industry,”
Bernardo said. “We are certainly
looking for somebody who appre-
ciates that and will continue the
work we’ve done over the past de-
cade.”
WAFLA hires COO, opens training center
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
John O’Connell/Capital Press
A truck is loaded Nov. 8 at Scoular’s Bancroft elevator with dryland
wheat being shipped to feeders due to low protein content. Much
of the dryland crop in Southern and Eastern Idaho will be used as
feed this year.
Low protein pushes Idaho
dryland wheat to feeders
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
ARBON VALLEY, Ida-
ho — Grain merchandisers in
Southern and Eastern Idaho
say upwards of half of the re-
gional dryland wheat produc-
tion has been sold into feeder
channels, due to widespread
problems with low protein
levels.
In a typical year, buy-
ers would blend low-protein
wheat with high-quality grain
and sell it to millers.
But there’s a glut of wheat
on the market now, and pric-
es of milling wheat are so
low, growers are finding they
can get a better deal by sell-
ing their wheat for feed once
discounts for low protein are
factored in, explained Denis
Capson, an Eastern Idaho
merchandiser with Scoular.
With so much good wheat
to choose from, Capson said,
feedlots are being more se-
lective and have been turning
away wheat with a low test
weight, which they would
normally buy. In the Ameri-
can Falls and Aberdeen area,
Capson said feed wheat is
selling for $3.40 per bushel.
“We’re moving huge vol-
umes of feed wheat — a
couple of hundred thousand
bushels per month (in Eastern
Idaho),” Capson said.
According to an Oct. 9
USDA report, projected U.S.
ending wheat stocks for 2016-
2017 are 1.14 billion bushels,
compared with ending stocks
of 752 million bushels from
the 2014-2015 season.
“The mills are filling up
quickly,” Capson said, adding
a decline in exports has con-
tributed to the surplus.
For several reasons, the
region’s dryland growers had
an especially hard time meet-
ing protein benchmarks this
season. Arbon Valley dry-
land grower Hans Hayden
explained his yields were
up 25 to 50 percent, leaving
less nitrogen for each kernel.
Nitrogen is needed to boost
protein levels, and irrigated
growers have the advantage
of applying nitrogen through-
out the season in their water.
Hayden also suspects a lack of
summer rain prevented nitro-
gen from moving deeper into
the soil profile to plant root
zones.
Hayden had hard red win-
ter wheat protein levels at
8 percent — buyers start to
discount below 11.5 to 12
percent — but he had enough
good spring grain to blend up
his protein levels to just meet
milling standards.
“Most of my neighbors
found the price at the feedlot
better than the price at the
mill,” Hayden said.
Arbon Valley dryland
grower Ken Campbell sold
about 90 percent of his wheat
to feeders.
“They’re giving me a bet-
ter price, and you don’t have
to make grade,” Campbell
said.
Soda Springs dryland
grower Sid Cellan sold 30
percent of his crop as feed.
“It was protein levels that
caused me to sell for feed,”
Cellan said, adding his spring
crop had much lower protein
than his fall crop. “I had great
yields, and that is probably
why protein was so low.”
For feedlot owners such as
Dwayne Skaar, of Lewisville,
an ample supply of feed wheat
cuts costs significantly. His
ration is typically half wheat
and half corn.
“We can get wheat in there
cheaper than corn because of
the freight,” said Skaar, who
buys corn mostly from the
Midwest and is now feeding
his cattle locally sourced soft
white wheat.
KENNEWICK,
Wash.
— The state’s largest farm
labor association, WAFLA,
has hired a new chief operat-
ing officer and opened a new
office and training center in
Kennewick.
Both moves are intended
to help the former Washington
Farm Labor Association with
its exponential growth as the
largest H-2A visa guestwork-
er provider on the West Coast.
George Zanatta left his
position as CEO of Atkinson
Staffing, an agricultural and
industrial labor contractor in
Washington and Oregon, to
become COO of WAFLA on
Nov. 1. He continues to live in
Kennewick and operates WA-
FLA’s new office and training
center at 3180 W. Clearwater
Ave.
“George has previous
COO experience as well as
he is a very experienced bi-
lingual trainer, among many
other traits that are important
to WAFLA in our mission
for growth and serving mem-
bers’ needs,” said Kimberly
Bresler, a WAFLA spokes-
woman.
“We are excited to have
him on board with us,” she
said.
WAFLA will host an
open house at the new cen-
ter from 3 to 6 p.m. Dec. 1.
The 2,200-square-foot fa-
cility includes audio-visual
equipment, a video studio and
space to train groups of 50 or
more workers and growers.
The facility is closer to the
majority of WAFLA’s more
than 800 members and 160
client contracts, Zanatta said.
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
George Zanatta, right, talks with a conference attendee at last Feburary’s WAFLA labor conference
He’s now WAFLA’s new COO.
It can also be used by mem-
bers for their training.
WAFLA hired about
10,000 H-2A workers in 2016
for growers, most of whom
are in Washington but are also
in Oregon and Idaho.
“We plan to bring in
12,000 in 2017 and our goal
is 25,000 — maybe 50,000
as we grow into other states,”
Zanatta said.
“My job is to lay the foun-
dation for a system strong
enough to accommodate
that,” he said.
A new pilot program next
year is complete worker man-
agement for a couple of small
growers, he said. WAFLA will
handle applications, recruit-
ment, transportation, housing,
payroll and in-field supervi-
sion, he said.
Zanatta, 58, was born and
raised in Mexico, obtained a
degree in business adminis-
tration from the University of
Mexico in 1978 and said he
came to the U.S. illegally for
business opportunities in the
1980s.
He gained legal status
through the Simpson-Mazzoli
Act of 1986 and spent years in
manufacturing, import-export
and advertising, he said. He
has done business consult-
ing and coaching through his
firm, Results Oriented Strat-
egies, in Las Vegas and later
Kennewick.
Zanatta was a motivational
speaker at WAFLA’s annual
labor conference in Ellens-
burg, Wash., last February.
Any consulting or coaching
he does now will be through
his position with WAFLA, he
said.
Dan Fazio will continue as
WAFLA CEO from the asso-
ciation’s headquarters near
Olympia. Zanatta will help
Fazio with the processing
and tracking of H-2A appli-
cations with state and federal
agencies and coordinating re-
cruitment, transportation and
orientation of workers, most
of whom come from Mexi-
co. He will help with train-
ing and mock compliance
audits.
Heri Chapula, WAFLA
field services director, also
will work in the new Kenne-
wick center. He previously
managed WAFLA’s 96-bed
Ringold Seasonal Farmwork-
er Housing southwest of
Basin City. Greg Vazquez,
member relations manager, is
in WAFLA’s Yakima, Wash.,
office.
Researcher makes first finding of disease strain in Idaho spuds
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
PARMA, Idaho — A re-
searcher has confirmed the
Idaho potato industry’s first
known infection of a strain
of the fungal pathogen Rhi-
zoctonia solani that thrives
in rotations with crops in the
brassica family.
University of Idaho plant
pathologist James Woodhall
found the infected tuber while
digging spud samples in Ada
County, scouting for a bacte-
rial disease affecting potatoes
called zebra chip.
Woodhall said the potato
showed symptoms of Rhizoc-
tonia, but he was surprised
when it tested positive for
the AG2-1 strain, which he
researched while working in
England. Though AG2-1 had
never previously been identi-
fied in an Idaho potato field,
Woodhall suspects it’s been
present in the state for a long
time but had gone unnoticed.
It’s also present in potatoes in
other states.
Woodhall acknowledged
AG3 — the strain that causes
more than 70 percent of Ida-
ho’s Rhizoctonia infections
— is far more aggressive than
AG2-1 in potatoes. Nonethe-
less, he worries AG2-1 may
be cutting into yields of ro-
tations that include brassicas
such as mustard and canola
before potatoes.
AG2-1 tends to cause more
stem canker lesions on pota-
to plants than AG3, but less
black scurf, which is a black
fungus that can’t be washed
from skin.
Rough skin, resembling an
elephant hide, is also a gener-
al symptom of Rhizoctonia,
which attacks roots and can
cause potatoes to drop setting
tubers.
“Brassicas in the rotation
may increase soil levels of
it, leading to higher levels of
stem canker and elephant hide
in potato crops,” Woodhall
said. “It could explain why
sometimes we get higher lev-
els of stem canker but do not
see much black scurf, since
AG2-1 sometimes causes
very aggressive stem canker,
more so than AG3.”
Idaho potato growers are
increasingly planting mustard
in potato rotations — both as
a cover crop and a commer-
cial crop — to take advantage
of the brassica’s ability to cre-
ate a natural fumigant.
Woodhall advises growers
who suspect they may have
AG2-1 to avoid brassicas in
those fields. Woodhall be-
lieves Idaho should consider
an extensive survey of Rhi-
zoctonia strains to assess the
situation.
“We don’t know how prev-
alent it is in Idaho where it’s a
one-off find,” Woodhall said.
UI Extension potato pa-
thologist Phil Wharton said
extreme Rhizoctonia infec-
tion levels in his research tri-
als have reduced yields by up
to 30 percent, but even light
infections can skew the tuber
size profile to make crops less
marketable.
Wharton said the disease is
most prevalent when growers
plant early to increase yields,
when soil temperatures are
below 55 degrees.
“The longer it takes for
plants to emerge, the more
chance there is for Rhizocto-
nia to infect the stem,” Whar-
ton said.
U.S. Wheat Associates names Peterson as new president
New leader hopes
to build bridge to
next generation
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press FIle
Vince Peterson, vice president
of overseas operations for U.S.
Wheat Associates, talks with
members of the Idaho, Oregon
and Washington wheat and
grain commissions on Nov. 11,
2015, in Spokane. Peterson will
assume the presidency of U.S.
Wheat in July.
A 31-year veteran of U.S.
Wheat Associates will as-
sume the marketing organi-
zation’s top executive posi-
tion next summer.
Vince Peterson will be-
come president of U.S.
Wheat in July. He succeeds
current president Alan Tra-
cy, who will retire.
Peterson is currently vice
president of overseas opera-
tions.
“Wheat has been my ca-
reer since I got out of col-
lege,” he told the Capital
Press. “It’s in my blood and
it’s more than a job, it’s re-
ally part of my life.”
Peterson said he believes
the organization is cur-
rently in a good position,
as well-placed as it’s ever
been.
“What I’d like to do when
I leave U.S. Wheat is have
it in the strong hands of a
bunch of bright, young, en-
ergetic people who can car-
ry the torch out into the next
generation,” he said. “I’m
looking at myself as that
bridge into the next younger
group that’s going to carry it
forward into the next decade
or two.”
In his current position,
Peterson directs 50 overseas
offices and 60 people em-
ployed outside the U.S.
The primary markets for
U.S. wheat have moved out
of the Middle East as com-
petition from Black Sea na-
tions has grown.
Sales are now grow-
ing in Latin America and
around the Pacific Rim of
Asia.
“Our money focus is
changing, our personnel
allocation and resources
are changing, and that will
continue because that’s the
direction the marketplace is
taking us,” Peterson said.
The U.S. Wheat board of
directors unanimously se-
lected Peterson.
Past chairman Brian
O’Toole, a farmer in Crys-
tal, N.D., said in a press re-
lease that Peterson was the
most qualified person for
the position.
Ritzville, Wash., wheat
farmer Mike Miller, who
will become chairman in
July, said Peterson’s selec-
tion “solidifies” the organi-
zation’s future.
“Vince is known around
the world for his understand-
ing of world economies and
grain markets,” Miller said.
“He has enormous respect,
from governments to bak-
ers and millers and wheat
buyers, the whole grain
chain.”
U.S. Wheat promotes
overseas consumption and
demand for the wheat grown
by U.S. farmers.
Miller said some farm-
ers don’t necessarily un-
derstand how important it
is to have representatives
overseas.
“In order for us to pro-
tect, maintain and grow
new markets, the work
Vince will provide through
his leadership and over-
seas staff — we as farmers
actually see those benefits
in our bottom line,” Miller
said.
Peterson said he will
continue to foster a dialogue
between growers, the board
and staff.
Since he spends so much
time considering the mar-
kets, what’s his outlook on
price?
“If I wanted to be a little
facetious, I’d say I might be
coming in as president at the
lowest price point of the last
four years,” Peterson said.
“Maybe I could be bold
enough to say, I think
the price is going to
be better by the time I
finish.”