December 16, 2016
CapitalPress.com
Subscribe to our weekly Idaho email
newsletter at CapitalPress.com/newsletters
9
Idaho
Idaho water outlook optimistic
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho —
A wet fall and signs pointing
to a snowy winter have water
supply experts optimistic that
the state’s irrigators will start
the 2017 season with an ade-
quate water supply.
Ron Abramovich, Idaho
water supply specialist with
USDA Natural Resources
Conservation Service, calcu-
lates the Upper Snake Basin
needs just 82 percent of av-
erage streamflow from April
through September to meet
irrigation demands.
His estimate is based on
the projection that the Upper
Snake reservoir system will
reach 1.3 million acre-feet of
storage by the winter’s end
and the assumption that 4.4
million acre-feet of storage is
needed to meet demand. The
difference must come from
snowpack.
The outlook is mostly
good in other basins through-
out the state.
Abramovich estimates av-
erage streamflows required
for an adequate supply at 39
percent in the Little Wood, 44
percent in the Teton, 47 per-
cent in the Owyhee, 51 per-
cent in the Boise, 64 percent
in the Big Wood, 71 percent in
Salmon Falls, zero in the Bear
River, 90 percent in the Oak-
ley, 93 percent in the Big Lost
and 118 percent in the Little
Lost.
Last winter, most of the
state was blanketed with an
average snowpack, but it melt-
ed at a record pace in April,
John O’Connell/Capital Press
Ron Abramovich, Idaho water supply specialist with USDA Natural
Resources Conservation Service, discusses the water outlook Dec.
7 during the Idaho Ag Outlook Seminar in Idaho Falls.
followed by a dry summer. As
a result, reservoir carryover
and streamflows were depleted
near the end of the irrigation
season, but the fall brought re-
cord moisture.
“We knew some of our
streamflows were record low
by summer’s end, so now
many of them are back at near
normal or better going into
winter,” Abramovich said.
For the water year that be-
gan Oct. 1, the Upper Snake
has received 145 percent of
average precipitation, but Oc-
tober rain melted the snow.
Snowpack in the Snake River
Basin above Palisades Reser-
voir was 73 percent of normal
as of Dec. 8.
But Abramovich expects
the state to catch up during a
December predicted to be wet.
For the winter, he said, the
state is coming out of a strong
El Nino pattern, a condition
that produces above-aver-
age streamflows in the Upper
Snake two-thirds of the time.
He said in 1998, a similar year,
the Upper Snake had 131 per-
cent of average snowfall.
Abramovich said NRCS
is in the midst of producing a
new report that will help irri-
gators prepare for the possibil-
ity of a surplus water supply.
Projections show the Upper
Snake would need 6.8 million
acre-feet to have a surplus sup-
ply, and the region has experi-
enced such a wet winter “only
a handful of times in the past.”
Brian Olmstead, general
manager of Twin Falls Canal
Co., has been encouraged by
recent base flows and reservoir
gains, but he believes a big
water year will be needed to
“jumpstart” an agreement sur-
face irrigators and groundwa-
ter users have reached to build
the aquifer. He’s hoping for the
opportunity to intentionally in-
ject flood-control releases into
the aquifer to build ground-
water levels, called managed
recharge.
“You can’t recharge a lot
unless you get into flood con-
trol,” Olmstead said, adding
the state has added infrastruc-
ture to do more recharge in the
Upper Valley.
Lyle Swank, watermaster
for the Upper Snake district,
said Palisades dipped to 6 per-
cent full at the season’s end
and is now 23 percent full.
He’s hopeful for more than
the bare minimum to make it
through the season.
Idaho farm receipts down less than U.S.
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
MOSCOW, Idaho — Cash
receipts from Idaho agricul-
tural commodities sold during
2016 will be down, but by less
than the national decline, ac-
cording to a recent University
of Idaho economic report.
UI agricultural economists
Ben Eborn and Garth Taylor
project Idaho farmers, ranch-
ers and dairymen will earn
$7.2 billion this year, down 4
percent from 2015.
The report, finalized on
Dec. 5, reflects a 19 percent
statewide decline in agricultur-
al receipts compared with their
highs in 2014, when revenue
was nearly $8.15 billion. Na-
tionwide, USDA projects agri-
cultural cash receipts, at $353
billion, will be down 6 percent
from 2015, and down 13 per-
cent from the 2014 peak.
“The good news is it’s not
down nearly as much as we
were expecting,” Eborn said.
The economists were
pleasantly surprised by milk
sales that far surpassed a
gloomy summer outlook. Ida-
ho milk sales, at $2.32 billion,
John O’Connell/Capital Press
Sugar beets are piled in Aberdeen, Idaho, on Oct. 27. Beets were
among the few bright spots on a recent University of Idaho agri-
cultural economics report, finding Idaho’s farm cash receipts were
down by 4 percent from the previous year.
were down just 1 percent from
the previous year, according
to the report. U.S. milk sales
dropped by 5 percent.
Rick Naerebout, direc-
tor of operations with Ida-
ho Dairymen’s Association,
initially feared milk prices
would languish for much of
the year around $14 per hun-
dredweight, but prices re-
bounded beginning in the late
summer. Naerebout said Ida-
ho’s milk predominately goes
into the cheese market, which
held relatively steady, and
other regions of the country
produced milk beyond their
processing capacity, and even
dumped some.
“On average, 2016 is going
to be a below break-even year
for Idaho dairymen,” Naere-
bout said. “We’re thankful the
record year in 2014 seems to
be carrying through enough
that guys are able to weather
the storm.”
Most Idaho commodities
experienced declines. The
economists estimate sales
of cattle and calves, at near-
ly $1.74 billion, were down
11 percent. Wheat revenue
dropped 11 percent to $412
million, allowing hay to be-
come the state’s No. 2 crop.
The $413 million in Idaho hay
sales, nonetheless, were down
6 percent. About half of Ida-
ho’s hay production is used
on farm and doesn’t count to-
ward the total.
“We’re still looking at a
big, huge glut in wheat,” Tay-
lor said. “Our grains are still
hanging over the market, and
there’s still large stocks of hay
out there.”
Sales of Idaho potatoes, at
$848 million, were down 3
percent. Bean revenue, at $74
million, was down 1 percent.
Sugar beets and barley
represented bright spots on
the report. Sugar beet reve-
nue, at $284 million, was up
2 percent, with record yields
and sugar content offsetting a
6 percent decline in the price
of sugar. Barley revenue, at
$304 million, was up 16 per-
cent from 2015. Soda Springs
dryland barley farmer Scott
Brown said malt companies
contracted heavily following a
2014 season in which the crop
sustained widespread sprout
damage. Brown said malting
companies also bought a lot
of the overages from a big,
high-quality crop this fall, but
they now have a full supply
and are cutting back on con-
tracting for next season.
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
Mint is harvested in a southwestern Idaho field in June. Idaho’s 2.8
percent growth in gross domestic product during the second quar-
ter of 2016, the third highest rate in the nation, was driven largely
by the state’s farming sector.
Idaho’s second-quarter GDP
gain driven by agriculture
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
BOISE — Agriculture in
Idaho is down from its glory
days of a few years ago but
the farming sector continues
to play a major role in the
state’s overall economy.
Idaho’s gross domes-
tic product grew at the
third-fastest rate in the na-
tion during the second quar-
ter of 2016. The increase
was driven by the state’s ag-
ricultural sector.
According to the U.S.
Bureau of Economic Analy-
sis, Idaho’s total GDP grew
at an annualized rate of 2.8
percent during April-June
when compared to the previ-
ous three months.
“Idaho (GDP) went
strongly positive in the sec-
ond quarter and leading the
way was agriculture,” said
University of Idaho Agri-
cultural Economist Garth
Taylor.
That rate, which is infla-
tion adjusted, outpaced the
national growth rate of 1.2
percent for the second quar-
ter. Idaho ranked third be-
hind Nebraska (4.3 percent)
and Utah (3.3 percent).
Agriculture
accounted
for 55 percent of Idaho’s to-
tal 2.8 percent GDP growth
during the second quarter,
according to the bureau.
“It’s pretty astounding
that over half of that was
contributed by agriculture,”
said Ethan Mansfield, a re-
gional labor economist at the
Idaho Department of Labor.
Idaho farm GDP had de-
clined 8 percent in the first
quarter of 2016 when com-
pared to the fourth quarter of
2015 but rebounded during
the second quarter.
Total farm GDP in Idaho
during the second quarter
was an inflation adjusted
$2.94 billion, a 9 percent in-
crease over the first-quarter
total of $2.7 billion.
Idaho farm earnings to-
taled $1.81 billion during the
second quarter of 2016, up
7.7 percent from $1.68 bil-
lion in the first quarter, and
farm proprietors’ income to-
taled $1.14 billion during the
second quarter, up 12.9 per-
cent from $1.01 billion.
While the upturn in Ida-
ho ag GDP is good news, the
sector can experience some
wild swings, both up and
down, from quarter to quar-
ter because of fluctuations in
farm commodity prices, Tay-
lor said.
“We know that agricul-
ture is volatile,” he said.
“Even during the boom
years for agriculture, we see
some quarters where GDP in
agriculture declines.”
According to a study by
UI ag economists, the state’s
agricultural sector is direct-
ly and indirectly responsible
for 14 percent of Idaho’s
total GDP, 1 in every 7 jobs
and 20 percent of sales.
Though total cash re-
ceipts and net farm income
in Idaho are off significantly
from their records of a few
years ago, farming continues
to play a major role in the
state’s economy, Taylor said.
He said a good sign for
Idaho agriculture is that state
and federal data show Idaho
net farm income growing
faster than the national av-
erage.
Since 1997, he said, Ida-
ho net farm income has in-
creased 200 percent in infla-
tion-adjusted dollars while
U.S. net farm income has
remained essentially steady.
“Idaho’s growth pattern
(in net farm income) is well
above the national average,”
Taylor said. “It’s come back
down (recently) but it’s
still growing over the long
term.”
Republican rancher will chair Idaho House ag committee
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
BOISE — Rep. Judy
Boyle, a Republican rancher
from Midvale, has been se-
lected to chair the House Ag-
ricultural Affairs Committee.
She is one of 11 current
or retired farmers or ranch-
ers who will chair House and
Senate committees in the Ida-
ho Legislature when the 2017
session starts in January.
Boyle, who is in her fifth
term in the legislature and has
been named one of the 100
most influential people in Ida-
ho, said her predecessor, Ken
Andrus, set a high bar.
Andrus, a Republican
rancher from Lava Hot
Springs who chaired the
House ag committee for six
years before retiring in 2016,
was praised by members of
the state’s farming communi-
ty for his fairness.
“I have some pretty big
shoes to fill to replace our last
chairman but I’m going to do
my best,” said Boyle, who
served as the natural resourc-
es director for former U.S. Re.
Helen Chenoweth.
Andrus, who will continue
ranching, has known Boyle
since his first year in the leg-
islature in 2004 when she was
a lobbyist for Idaho Farm Bu-
reau Federation.
“She gained a lot of good
experience when she worked
on (Chenoweth’s) staff,” An-
drus said. “She’s certainly
qualified and knows the is-
sues. She’s very capable and
I think she’s a great choice.”
Rep. Steven Miller, a Re-
publican farmer from Fair-
field who serves on the House
ag committee, said Boyle has
a solid background in agri-
culture and natural resource
issues.
“When she looks at an is-
sue, she does a lot of research
on it,” Miller said. “I think
Judy will do a good job.”
Besides Boyle, 10 other
ranchers or farmers, all Re-
publicans, will chair commit-
tees.
In the House, that list in-
cludes Reps. Maxine Bell
(Appropriations Committee),
Julie VanOrden (Education),
Dell Raybould (Environment,
Energy and Technology),
Marc Gibbs (Resources and
Conservation) and Thomas
Loertscher (State Affairs).
In the Senate, it includes
Sens. Jim Patrick (Commerce
and Human Resources), Patti
Anne Lodge (Judiciary and
Rules), Steve Bair (Resources
and Environment), Jeff Siddo-
way (State Affairs) and Bert
Brackett (Transportation).
Sen. Jim Rice, an attorney,
remains as chairman of the Sen-
ate Agricultural Affairs Com-
mittee.
Rep. Scott Bedke, a Re-
publican rancher from Oakley
and former president of the
Idaho Cattle Association, re-
tained his position as speaker
of the House and Rep. Mike
Moyle, a Republican rancher
and farmer from Star, will re-
main as House majority lead-
er.
For December 30 th issue:
News Display and Legal Ads - Friday, Dec. 23rd @ Noon
CLASSIFIED REMAINS THE SAME
Class Display - Wednesday, Dec. 28th @ 10 am
Class Liners - Wednesday, Dec. 28th @ Noon
For January 6 th issue:
CLASSIFIED REMAINS THE SAME
Class Display - Wednesday, Jan. 4th @ 10 am
Class Liners - Wednesday, Jan. 4th @ Noon
www.capitalpress.com
51-7/#13
51-1/#7