8
CapitalPress.com
December 30, 2016
Apple
Commission
still looks
to Asia
Ranchers seek exemption to electronic
device livestock trucking rule change
By DAN WHEAT
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Capital Press
WENATCHEE,
Wash.
— A recent survey of Wash-
ington apple shippers shows
they still view Asia as the best
target for export growth while
realizing that maintaining the
traditional top markets of Mex-
ico and Canada are critical,
says Todd Fryhover, president
of the Washington Apple Com-
mission.
China, India, Indonesia,
Vietnam, Malaysia and Thai-
land all offer opportunities for
growth as Washington con-
tinues to produce larger apple
crops, Fryhover
said the day after
a Dec. 8 com-
mission meeting
in Yakima.
The survey
also
showed
shippers
still
Todd
support
the Fryhover
commission’s
strategic plan of
targeting Asia, Fryhover said.
Results of the survey were re-
viewed at the meeting.
“The biggest concern in the
industry right now is that we’re
growing more fruit and domes-
tic per capita consumption is
growing at a pound over the
last 10 years so it doesn’t keep
up,” Fryhover said. “Everyone
agrees we have to develop ex-
ports and at the same time in-
crease domestic per capita con-
sumption.”
In 2012, Washington en-
tered a new era of producing
120 million to 150 million,
40-pound boxes of fresh ap-
ples annually. The driver is big
companies converting older,
low-density orchards into new
higher-density plantings and
increasing yields.
In May, the commission de-
cided to review its five-year-old
export promotion strategic plan
to stay competitive globally.
The effort was to include a col-
lective, anonymous sharing of
production and export volumes
of companies to examine sales
trends. It also was to include a
tree survey.
However, USDA’s National
Agricultural Statistics Service
will do a tree and acreage sur-
vey next year and the commis-
sion will wait on that, Fryhover
said.
Shipper volumes are still
being accumulated but shipper
marketing priorities were col-
lected, he said.
They show China-Hong
Kong, Mexico and India all
ranking tops with shippers.
For years, Mexico has been
the top market at about 10 mil-
lion boxes. It bought a record
16 million boxes in 2014.
Canada typically buys about
6 million boxes. India was a 5
million-box market but fell in
the last year because of port
closures. China just opened to
all varieties of U.S. apples in
the spring of 2015 and while
at the 1 million-box level is
expected to grow significantly
in coming years.
Strength of the U.S. dol-
lar reducing buying power of
foreign currencies and closure
of Russia to Western produce
have made exports more chal-
lenging.
Given that, Honeycrisp
and other high-value apples
are not seen as volume ex-
ports, but Red Delicious and
Gala will remain the export
focus, Fryhover said.
Organic apple exports
could increase to Canada and
niche markets like Singapore,
he said.
The commission’s federal
Market Access Program fund-
ing has dropped 5.6 percent to
$4.8 million for 2017, leav-
ing a $282,000 shortfall to be
made up by reserves or an in-
crease in commission revenue
from assessments on growers
if more fruit is sold, Fryhover
said.
Growers are assessed 3.5
cents per box of apples sold.
The commission contributes
$1 million annually to the
U.S. Apple Association and
$610,000 to the Northwest
Horticultural Council. While
those organizations are im-
portant, the commission may
need to look for other options
for funding them, Fryhover
said.
Cattle ranchers want an ex-
emption to a livestock hauling
rule change that they say will
hinder their ability to transport
animals long distances.
The new rule requires the
use of hours-of-service elec-
tronic logging devices by driv-
ers who are currently required
only to prepare records of duty
status.
The Federal Motor Carriers
Safety Administration’s Elec-
tronic Logging Device rule
goes into effect Dec. 18, 2017.
The final rule does not
change federal hours-of-ser-
vice requirements, said Federal
Motor Carriers Safety Admin-
istration spokesman Duane
DeBruyne. Drivers required
to maintain federal records of
duty status must convert from
paper logs to electronic logging
devices.
Current rules place an 11-
hour driving limit after a driver
has been off-duty 10 hours and
require 30-minute rest breaks
every eight hours. A driver may
not drive after 60-70 hours of
consecutive duty in seven or
eight days.
The new electronic device
rule removes “discretional wig-
Online
http://actag.us/
Courtesy of Tim O’Byrne/Working Ranch magazine
The beef cattle industry wants an exemption to a new regulation that would require the use of elec-
tronic devices to monitor the hours a truck driver hauls cattle. The change would hurt animal health,
biosecurity and increase costs, a consultant says.
gle room,” said Tim O’Byrne,
beef cattle consultant in Hen-
derson, Nev.
“The device will log in
whenever the truck starts, and
that kicks off the hours of ser-
vice clock, even if the driver
just drives 20 minutes out of
town to the sale barn to get
in line early and climbs in the
sleeper for a five-hour nap un-
til the sale is over and he has a
load ready for him,” O’Byrne
said.
“Our concern is that the
(electronic device) does not
recognize the discretionary ac-
tions of the livestock driver as
he performs his regular duty,”
he said.
Trucks would either need
two drivers or a single driver
would need to unload cattle
during breaks, said Jess Peter-
son, spokesman for the U.S.
Cattlemen’s Association.
“It’ll be a greater cost to
get your cattle shipped,” Pe-
terson said. “It makes dis-
tance an issue.”
“It doesn’t matter if you’re
hauling a load of potato chips
and you run into the end of
your hours of service and
you just park in the rest stop
or Wal-Mart parking lot,”
O’Byrne said. “With live-
stock, it’s completely dif-
ferent. They didn’t give any
thought whatsoever to live
animals.”
The infrastructure doesn’t
exist that allows truckers to
stop and unload cattle af-
ter reaching driving limits.
Even if it did, O’Byrne said,
it would increase biosecurity
risks.
“The whole idea is to get
the cattle on the truck and get
them expeditiously delivered
to the final destination, all in
one go,” he said. “If it takes
18 to 20 hours to do that, it’s
far better for the cattle to have
that happen.”
The American Cattle
Transporters Advisory Group
and American Trucking Asso-
ciation’s agricultural division
will speak with the motor car-
rier administration to express
concerns and seek possible
solutions.
The oil industry has ex-
emptions for off-the-clock
waiting time that could be put
to use for livestock, O’Byrne
said.
The change in presidential
administration could also pro-
vide an opportunity, Peterson
said.
“(President-elect Donald
Trump) has an opportuni-
ty to get this done right, and
we look forward to working
with him to do the right thing
here,” Peterson said.
Mechanization company interested in helping with robotic picker
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
WENATCHEE, Wash. —
One of the largest manufac-
turers of labor-saving mobile
agricultural machines in the
Pacific Northwest says he may
want to work with the develop-
er of a robotic apple picker.
“I’d like to talk to them
about potentially teaming up
with them, being part of it in-
stead of competing,” said J.J.
Dagorret, owner of Automated
Ag Systems of Moses Lake.
High-density plantings pro-
ducing 80 to 90 bins per acre is
a lot of fruit and bin movement
is a challenge, Dagorret said.
One of his 23-mph forward
and reverse, air-suspension,
$74,500 to $88,000 Bin Ban-
dits can move 500 to 600 bins
per day, what normally takes
three to five tractors, he said.
Dagorret was at the Wash-
ington State Tree Fruit As-
sociation annual meeting in
Wenatchee, where Dan Steere,
CEO of Abundant Robotics,
Hayward, Calif., spoke about
his goal of having a robotic ap-
ple picker commercially avail-
able by the fall of 2018.
Automated Ag produces
two models of Bin Bandits.
It also produces the self-pro-
pelled $60,000 Bandit Xpress
platforms to replace ladders
for workers picking apples and
pruning, blossom thinning and
tying tree limbs.
Automated Ag has sold 500
to 600 machines worldwide
since 2013, with 80 percent
being the Bandit Xpress, Da-
gorret said. He also produces
a machine to assist solely with
ground-level apple harvest, a
hedger for automated pruning
and a hand-held mechanical
blossom thinner.
“The key is simplicity and
build quality. Everything is
powder-coated,” he said.
Bandit Xpress was chosen
as one of the Top 10 innovative
new machines at the World Ag
Expo in Tulare, Calif., in 2014.
Dagorret’s new Melon Wran-
gler, which is used for har-
vesting melons, pumpkins, to-
matoes, cucumbers, egg plant,
bell peppers and squash, is in
the Top 10 for 2017.
Automated Ag is mov-
ing from a 35,000- to a
60,000-square-foot facility in
Moses Lake. The larger fa-
cility will allow a 24-person
assembly crew to finish six
machines per day, Dagorret
said.
Bandit Xpress has sold
mostly in Washington, Ore-
gon and California but also in
New Zealand, Australia, South
America and South Africa, he
said.
53-1/#04N