January 27, 2017
Pale cyst nematode
Courtesy of USDA APHIS
Binomial name:
Globodera pallida
Appearance: One-millimeter long
roundworm
Diet: Roots of plants in the
Solanaceae family, which includes
potatoes and tomatoes
Life cycle: Typically one
generation per year. After
fertilization, females swell up to
appear as cysts on roots of the
host plant. Each cyst may contain
more than 400 eggs which can
survive for several years.
Origin: Andes region of South
America
First observed in U.S.:
2006 in Idaho
Sources: USDA APHIS; University of Idaho
Capital Press graphic
Officials
confirm
another PCN-
infested field
By JOHN O’CONNELL
CapitalPress.com
15
What’s Upstream ramped up its
spending for 2016 legislative session
Website costs $125
an hour to develop
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
The What’s Upstream
website cost $34,187 to de-
velop and tens of thousands of
dollars to publicize during the
2016 Washington legislative
session, according to newly
available Environmental Pro-
tection Agency records.
On behalf of the Swinomish
Indian tribe, Seattle lobbying
firm Strategies 360 bought bill-
boards and radio spots to direct
motorists and listeners to the
EPA-funded website.
The site’s imagery implied
farming turns water brown and
kills fish. A “take action” link
urged visitors to send form let-
ters to legislators asking them
to consider mandatory 100-foot
buffers between farms and wa-
ter.
The records, released in
response to a Freedom of In-
formation Act request by the
Capital Press, do not provide a
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
A What’s Upstream billboard shows cows in a stream, implying that
Washington farmers were polluting public waters. The photo was
not taken in Washington.
total spent on the billboards and
radio spots. Added together, in-
voices top $60,000.
It’s unclear whether the
EPA reimbursed the tribe.
Neither the radio spots nor
billboards disclosed EPA’s
support, a requirement of
agency-funded projects. Ef-
forts to obtain comment from
the EPA were unsuccessful.
What’s Upstream lead or-
ganizer Larry Wasserman did
not respond to an email seek-
ing comment.
The EPA records, the latest
batch released in response to
FOIA requests, provide more
details about activities timed to
influence state lawmakers con-
vening last year in Olympia.
No bill related to agricultural
buffers received a hearing. The
campaign generated 51 form
letters to the 147-member Leg-
islature.
The Washington Public
Disclosure Commission is
probing whether the What’s
Upstream campaign broke
state law by failing to register
as a lobbying organization.
The PDC has yet to announce
whether it will take enforce-
ment action.
The EPA’s inspector gener-
al is looking into whether the
tribe and Northwest Indian
Fisheries Commission violat-
ed federal anti-lobbying laws.
A grant ostensibly for
Puget Sound restoration was
awarded in 2010 to the fish-
eries commission and passed
through to the tribe. The EPA
allowed What’s Upstream to
take shape over five years,
but disavowed the project last
spring when confronted by an-
gry federal lawmakers.
Records show the EPA
scrambled in early April in re-
sponse from an inquiry by U.S.
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers,
R-Wash., to find out how much
the What’s Upstream campaign
cost. The project had a six-year,
$655,000 budget, but the EPA
has not detailed how much was
actually spent. McMorris Rod-
gers’ staff did not respond to a
request for comment.
The EPA did learn from
the fisheries commission that
the original What’s Upstream
website cost $9,375.
A revised website — with
the new imagery and “take ac-
tion” link — was launched in
late 2015 to coincide with the
legislative session. The new
site cost $24,812.50, accord-
ing to the fisheries commis-
sion. Website development
costs equaled $125 an hour.
To promote the website,
Strategies 360 bought spots
on Seattle public radio station
KUOW. Five invoices, billing
for dozens of spots aired over
three months, totaled $22,303.
Strategies 360 contract-
ed with Lamar Advertising
to place billboards in King,
Whatcom, Skagit and Thur-
ston counties. Two contracts to
make, install and display nine
billboards totaled $39,135.
Billboards went up in
Olympia and Bellingham, but
came down after U.S. Sen. Pat
Roberts, R-Kan., took note and
said they were a malicious
smear on farmers.
Capital Press
IDAHO FALLS — Anoth-
er field has been added to an
Eastern Idaho pale cyst nem-
atode eradication program af-
ter soil testing confirmed the
presence of the quarantined
pest.
Tina Gresham, director of
the Pale Cyst Nematode Pro-
gram for USDA’s Animal and
Plant Health Inspection Ser-
vice, announced the addition
of the 150-acre field on Dec.
21, bringing to 27 the total
number of infested fields un-
der special regulations.
Gresham said in a press
release the field was already
being sampled and under spe-
cial regulations due to known
associations with an infested
field, such as common equip-
ment use.
“Trace work is ongoing to
identify and regulate any ad-
ditional fields that may have
been exposed to soil from
this recently detected infest-
ed field,” Gresham said in the
press release.
PCN, a microscopic par-
asite that can reduce potato
yields by up to 80 percent,
was first discovered in East-
ern Idaho in 2006. Infested
fields have been found within
a roughly 5-square-mile area
of Bonneville and Bingham
counties.
Officials have been work-
ing to contain infestations
and eradicate the pest since
then, as its presence, if left
unchecked, could create trade
problems.
The program now includes
9,540 regulated acres, 3,047
of which are considered in-
fested.
The program scheduled an
information session last week
in Idaho Falls.
The agenda included a
program update, a PCN per-
spective from Scotland, ef-
forts to use “trap” crops to
stimulate hatching of cysts in
the absence of a viable host,
biological-control options, the
potential to plant quinoa as a
cash crop that may reduce cyst
viability, resistant potato vari-
eties and other topics.
Winter rains could boost Red Bluff Bull Sale receipts
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
RED BLUFF, Calif. —
The wet winter’s positive im-
pact on the cattle market has
ranchers upbeat at this week’s
76th annual Red Bluff Bull
and Gelding Sale.
In all, 400 bulls are entered
in the Jan. 28 sale, which caps
five days of livestock auctions
and other activities at the Teha-
ma District Fairgrounds.
Consigners will try to top
last year’s $1.49 million in
total bull auction receipts, and
their chances are improving.
The winter’s rain and snow has
prompted cattlemen to begin
to rebuild their herds, which
could push up prices, sale
manager Adam Owens said.
“It was weaker this fall,
but it’s been getting stronger
with all the rains in Califor-
nia,” Owens said of the mar-
ket. “There’ll be bulls in every
price range. There always is.”
At the Shasta Livestock
Auction Yard in Cottonwood,
Calif., feeder heifers sold for
as much as $142 per hundred-
weight on Jan. 13, up from a
high of $117 per hundred-
weight at a sale three months
earlier. Bulls have consistently
topped out at roughly $75 per
hundredweight through the fall
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
Brian Birt and Tony Welch load fencing onto a forklift Jan. 17 in preparation for the Red Bluff Bull and
Gelding Sale at the Tehama District Fairgrounds. The 76th annual event ends Jan. 28.
and early winter.
Last year’s $1.49 million
in receipts for 305 bulls fell
short of the record $1.56 mil-
lion paid for 238 bulls that
passed through the Don Smith
Pavilion in 2015, but was the
sixth straight year the bull sale
topped the $1 million mark.
Owens said he isn’t sure
whether this year’s sale will
exceed those numbers.
“It’s pretty hard to predict,”
he said. “I would think it would
be pretty similar, maybe.”
The bull sale is the last of
four auctions to be held this
week in Red Bluff. The bid-
ding was to begin with the
eighth annual online feeder
and replacement heifer sale on
Jan. 26.
Last year about 80 lots were
sold, bringing as much as $234
per hundredweight for weaned
heifers and $252 per hundred-
weight for weaned steers.
In all, 92 horses and 20
stock dogs were entered in
their respective sales on Jan.
27.
In 2016, 104 geldings sold
for a combined $755,250,
while 17 working cattle dogs
brought $107,400 in total sales
— an average of $6,318 per
dog.
The auctions highlight a
packed week that will also
include trade and art shows, a
kickoff breakfast, beef forums
and seminars and a bull riding
competition.
The festivities began Jan.
24 with a 7 p.m. “Roots and
Boots” concert featuring Sam-
my Kershaw, Pam Tillis and
Collin Raye at the State The-
atre downtown.
Activities also included a
Jan. 26 clinic and demonstra-
Red Bluff Bull and Gelding Sale
manager Adam Owens carries
a section of fencing Jan. 17
during preparations for the sale
at the Tehama District Fair-
grounds.
tion by Oakdale, Calif., cow
horse expert Clayton Edsell
and a California Cattlemen’s
Association-sponsored forum
on farm management practices
in drought on. Jan. 27.
The Red Bluff’s Buckin’
Best Bull Riding event begins
at 7 p.m. Jan. 28, followed by
a party and dance.
Pre-sale tickets range from
$20 for general admission to
$75 for premium seating, park-
ing and a reception.
For information, visit
http://www.redbluffbullsale.
com .
Grower forum will tackle falling number problems
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Storing wheat as a way to improve
its falling number test score is one tac-
tic that will be discussed during a Jan.
31 forum in Colfax, Wash.
Two studies say the enzyme al-
pha amylase, which damages starch,
degrades over time in storage, said
Camille Steber, molecular geneticist
with USDA Agricultural Research
Service.
Storage seems to work better when
temperatures are higher, and doesn’t
work in the cold, Steber said.
“Storing it over the winter isn’t as
useful as storing it over the fall,” she
said.
The falling number won’t get
worse in storage unless the wheat gets
wet and sprouts, Steber said.
Steber is one of several speakers on
the agenda for the forum, which will
be hosted by the Washington Associa-
tion of Wheat Growers at noon Jan. 31
at the McGregor Co. training facility
in Colfax.
“Falling number has been on the
forefront of everybody’s mind,” said
Lori Williams, WAWG outreach coor-
dinator.
About 42 percent of the samples
tested by the Washington Depart-
ment of Agriculture last fall had low
falling numbers. Low test numbers
were also found in about 25 percent of
the Northern Idaho wheat crop and a
small percentage of the Oregon crop.
Elevators dock the price for scores be-
low 300.
The forum will cover causes and
industry efforts to help farmers who
have been docked, Williams said.
Steber wants growers to under-
stand that the falling number test is a
way to measure the enzyme.
The biggest need is for varieties
bred with genetic resistance to late-ma-
turity alpha amylase and pre-harvest
sprouting. The falling number test
used by grain elevators and customers
overseas doesn’t distinguish which is
the cause, she said.
Steber also heard from farmers
that club wheat variety Bruehl is sus-
ceptible to falling number problems.
Though Pritchett is an improvement,
it is also susceptible.
Both varieties resist snow mold,
Steber said. Crescent is better than
Bruehl and Pritchett for falling num-
ber, but doesn’t have snow mold resis-
tance.
Toxic plants cost ranchers $300M a year; management key to prevention
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
TWIN FALLS, Idaho —
Livestock deaths and oth-
er expenses related to toxic
plants cost Western ranchers
more than $300 million annu-
ally, researchers say, and the
best way to reduce the impact
is through better management.
Those direct losses result
from death, abortion, birth
defects and reduced animal
productivity. But there are
also indirect losses, such as
costs related to veterinary
services, fencing and altered
grazing plans, Jim Pfister,
USDA-ARS research range-
land management specialist,
told livestock producers at
the University of Idaho Range
Livestock Symposium on Jan.
11.
Carol Ryan Dumas/Capital Press
Jim Pfister, a research rangeland management specialist with the
USDA-ARS Poisonous Plant Research Laboratory in Logan, Utah,
talks about managing for toxic plants on the range during the Univer-
sity of Idaho Range Livestock Symposium in Twin Falls on Jan. 11.
Pfister is part of a team at
USDA’s Poisonous Plant Re-
search Laboratory in Logan,
Utah, that takes an interdis-
ciplinary approach to solving
poisonous plant issues.
“It’s important to remem-
ber that the dose makes the
poison. All substances are a
poison,” he said.
Some plants are only toxic
under certain conditions, such
as certain stages in their life
cycle or how they are ingested,
he said.
Many toxic plants flour-
ish on rangelands across the
Intermountain West. Some of
the most problematic include
larkspur, locoweed and lupine.
“Larkspur probably kills
more cattle on Western ranges
than any other plant,” he said.
Losses are typically 3 to 5
percent annually but can be as
high as 10 to 20 percent in an
individual herd. Cattle gener-
ally like larkspur, and at some
point in the season they’ve
probably all been eating it, he
said.
Toxicity is problematic
because it varies greatly from
plant to plant and year to year.
Toxicity decreases as the sea-
son progresses and drops sig-
nificantly after the first frost.
Clinical signs of toxicity in
livestock include staggering
gate, muscle tremors and lying
down.
Whether it causes cattle to
drop or die depends on how
much they eat, how fast they
eat it, the amount of toxic al-
kaloid in the plant, how many
consecutive days they’ve eat-
en it, how much they move
around after ingesting it — ex-
ercise exacerbates the effects
— and individual susceptibil-
ity.
The toxin in the plant can
paralyze the diaphragm and
cattle can die from bloat or re-
spiratory failure, he said.
Adequate moisture this
year indicates a good year
for larkspur, which could re-
duce grazing options to the
early and late seasons. Cattle
typically eat the plant after it
flowers — a window of high
risk when it is palatable and
toxin levels are moderate — so
ranchers could graze the area
before that window and later,
when the plant is in the late
pod stage, he said.
The plant is not toxic to
sheep, so they could also graze
sheep ahead of cattle to reduce
how much is available to cat-
tle.
Herbicide control can be
used if it’s allowed, and drug
therapy is available but cat-
tle can relapse and need more
than one treatment.
Grazing management plays
an important role in reducing
livestock losses, but research-
ers are doing genetic testing in
cattle for resistance and sus-
ceptibility to larkspur.