January 27, 2017
CapitalPress.com
5
Ag industry welcomes Oregon’s hazelnut boom gains momentum
USDA nomination
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
By ERIC MORTENSON
and MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Farm and natural resource
groups quickly announced
their support Thursday for
President-elect Trump’s nom-
ination of former Georgia
Gov. Sonny Perdue to be sec-
retary of Agriculture.
Trump’s
pick to head the
USDA was the
last of his Cab-
inet nomina-
tions, a fact that
irritated some
in agriculture
Perdue
because it ap-
peared to indi-
cate Trump had little interest
in the nation’s farms, forests
and rangeland. At the recent
American Farm Bureau Fed-
eration convention in Phoe-
nix, AFBF President Zippy
Duvall acknowledged that
worry but urged producers to
trust the incoming president.
On Thursday, Duvall
called the nomination of Per-
due, a fellow Georgian and
friend, “welcome news.”
“I’ve seen fi rsthand his
commitment to the business of
agriculture as we worked to-
gether on issues facing farm-
ers and ranchers in our home
state of Georgia,” Duvall said
in a prepared statement.
“He understands the chal-
lenges facing rural America
because that’s where he was
born and raised. He is a busi-
nessman who recognizes the
impact immigration reform,
trade agreements and regula-
tion have on a farmer’s bottom
line and ability to stay in busi-
ness from one season to the
next.”
Other organizations voiced
variations of that endorse-
ment.
Western Growers Presi-
dent and CEO Tom Nassif said
Perdue “has proven to be a
consummate champion for ag-
riculture and will undoubtedly
serve our industry well in this
capacity.”
Nassif said vegetable, fruit
and nut growers are counting
on Perdue to press the adminis-
tration and Congress for immi-
gration reform and assure agri-
culture a stable workforce. In a
prepared statement, he said ag
is “unique among industries”
because its labor needs can’t
be met by domestic workers.
“Foreign hands will har-
vest our crops, either here or
abroad,” he warned.
Chandler Goule, CEO of
the National Association of
Wheat Growers, said he hopes
Perdue supports a compre-
hensive, “robust” farm bill,
including comprehensive crop
insurance and good conser-
vation and rural development
programs.
Perdue will hopefully help
Trump realize the importance
of trade for agriculture, Goule
said.
“Pulling out of the
(Trans-Pacifi c
Partnership)
and renegotiating (the North
America Free Trade Agree-
ment) is not in the best interest
of agriculture, family farmers
and wheat growers, especially
in the United States,” Goule
said. “I’m hoping he can use
his infl uence and ability to talk
to (President) Trump and the
rest of the administration as a
more economical or reason-
able way to move forward with
trade, so we not only don’t dis-
rupt our markets, but we make
sure they are still there for
years to come.”
Perdue supports trade, but
shares the Trump administra-
tion’s position on TPP, “which
is concerning,” said Matt Har-
ris, director of government af-
fairs at the Washington State
Potato Commission.
“Hopefully what we can
see is the administration mov-
ing toward unique trade agree-
ments with specifi c countries,”
Harris said.
The American Wood Coun-
cil called on Perdue to continue
USDA’s and Forest Service’s
support for basic research of
innovative wood products and
tall wood building construc-
tion. Doing so would intro-
duce carbon-neutral building
materials to urban areas and
provide jobs in rural areas, the
council said.
The Theodore Roosevelt
Conservation
Partnership
praised Perdue as a quail
hunter and “true sportsman”
who created a “culture of con-
servation” during his time as
Georgia governor.
CORVALLIS, Ore. —
The expansion of Oregon’s
hazelnut orchards is gaining
momentum, with acreage
surging by nearly 64 per-
cent in the past five years,
according to an industry an-
alyst.
Farmers planted about
9,200 acres of hazelnuts last
year, up from 6,200 acres
in 2015 and 4,300 acres in
2014, said Mike McDaniel,
principal of Pacific Agricul-
tural Survey, which tracks
the industry’s growth.
“It’s
an
accelerated
growth of new plantings,”
McDaniel said.
Enthusiasm for hazelnuts
is high due to healthy prices
and the availability of new
cultivars resistant to eastern
filbert blight, a fungal patho-
gen that once threatened the
industry.
Total hazelnut acreage
in Oregon now tops 60,600
acres, according to McDan-
iel’s analysis. That’s an in-
crease of more than 23,500
acres since the USDA’s 2012
Census of Agriculture.
To compare, Oregon’s
hazelnut acreage increased
by fewer than 4,000 acres
in the entire decade between
2002 and 2012, according to
USDA.
Pacific Agricultural Sur-
vey relies on aerial geo-
graphic data to monitor
hazelnut acreage, McDan-
iel said on Jan. 18 at the
2017 Nut Growers Soci-
ety meeting in Corvallis,
Ore.
The company’s estimate
of hazelnut acreage growth
is conservative, since many
growers think the expan-
sion is even larger based on
sales of nursery seedlings,
he said.
It’s likely that some new
trees are “intercropped”
within existing hazelnut
orchards, obscuring the
new plantings, McDan-
iel said. “That’s not visi-
ble through a dense canopy
cover.”
In other cases, McDan-
iel said he’s observed new
orchards failing to become
established, with the trees
removed soon after planting.
Nik Wiman, an Oregon
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press
A hazelnut orchard in Oregon’s Willamette Valley during winter. Hazelnut plantings have surged
recently in the area.
New hazelnut
acres planted
in Oregon
9,224: Up 49.3%
from 2015
10,000 acres
8
6,180
Mike McDaniel, principal of
Pacifi c Agricultural Survey.
State University Extension
orchard crops specialist, said
he isn’t surprised.
“I think a lot of poor qual-
ity trees have been sold,”
Wiman said.
Weak hazelnut seedlings
don’t necessarily end up dy-
ing, though.
Farmers who buy weak
trees may plant them in
high-density sawdust nurs-
ery rows until they grow
stronger and are ready
for the orchard, Wiman
said.
In his aerial reconnais-
sance, McDaniel has noticed
that farmers haven’t been re-
moving mature orchards all
at once — which is not sur-
prising, given the high pric-
es hazelnuts have fetched in
recent years.
Instead, growers divide
orchards into several blocks
and replace old trees with
Nik Wiman, Oregon State
University Extension orchard
specialist.
new ones “a few bites at a
time,” he said.
Aside from the ongoing
battle against eastern filbert
blight, recent droughts in
Oregon have stressed hazel-
nut trees, making new plant-
ings vulnerable to flatheaded
borers, which are tree pests.
“It advertises the tree to
the borer. They’re less able
to resist,” Wiman said of
drought effects.
In 2017, OSU plans to
conduct trials to determine
the effectiveness of differ-
ent pesticides in fighting the
borers, he said.
Another pest, the brown
marmorated stinkbug, is be-
coming a significant prob-
lem for hazelnut produc-
ers, but help is on the way,
Wiman said.
The samurai wasp — a
natural predator of the exotic
6
4
Source: Pacific
Agricultural
Survey
2
208
0
2007
’10
’13
2016
Capital Press graphic
stinkbug — was discovered
at 11 sites in Multnomah
County, Ore., last year.
Specimens of the wasp
have been redistributed to
fruit and nut orchards across
the state to speed up their
predation of stinkbugs, he
said.
It will take a while for
wasp populations to catch
up with those of stinkbugs,
but they are an effective
predator in China, the home-
land of both species, Wiman
said,
“Over there, they hammer
80-90 percent of the eggs,”
he said.
Oregon’s new dairy princess-ambassador from Columbia County
By GEOFF PARKS
For the Capital Press
Geoff Parks/For the Capital Press
Kiara Single of Warren is crowned as the 2017 Oregon Dairy
Princess-Ambassador by the 2016 princess-ambassador, Sara
Pierson, as Faith Wilson, the dairy princess-ambassador for Linn
and Benton counties, watches.
of $17,675 for her past year’s
work.
Single is a student at Con-
cordia University studying el-
ementary education, and hopes
to become a second-grade
teacher. She is the daughter of
John and Suzie Single, and her
father is the production plan-
ner at the Kroger Swan Island
milk processing plant.
Her speech at the banquet
held in the Salem Convention
Center was titled, “For the
Love of Milk,” and centered
on the health benefi ts of dairy
products and “the journey of
milk from farm to table.”
She now begins her year
traveling statewide to make
presentations at fairs, town
meetings and public events
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SALEM — Kiara Single
was chosen the 2017 Oregon
Dairy Princess-Ambassador
at the 58th annual coronation
event on Jan. 21 in Salem.
The 20-year-old Warren
resident, representing Co-
lumbia County, was crowned
from a fi eld of four fi nalists.
The event was sponsored by
the Oregon Dairy Women.
Kortni Ragsdale, a 2015
Banks High School graduate
now attending Portland Com-
munity College and who rep-
resented Washington County
in the competition, was chosen
the fi rst alternate.
Other fi nalists included
Faith Wilson of Linn and Ben-
ton counties and Emma Cole-
man of Marion County.
Ragsdale also received the
Miss Congeniality award.
After the crowning ceremo-
ny, Single was presented over
$3,500 in scholarships.
Outgoing 2016 Oregon
Dairy Princess-Ambassador
Sara Pierson received a total
representing Oregon’s dairy
industry. A particular focus is
on classroom presentations de-
picting life on a dairy farm and
the benefi ts of dairy products.
The Oregon Dairy Wom-
en’s Dairy Princess-Ambassa-
dor Program has served since
1959 as a prime advocate for
the state’s dairy industry in
collaboration with the Oregon
Dairy Farmers Association and
the Oregon Dairy Nutrition
Council.
“We have expanded our
program to include K-12 and
civic presentations,” said Jes-
sica Kliewer, Oregon Dairy
Princess-Ambassador
pro-
gram state director. “Since
Kiara is planning on becom-
ing an educator, we believe
she will be a great asset in
spreading the good news
about dairy.”
The Oregon Dairy Wom-
en award scholarships, and
provide fi nancial support to
4-H and FFA programs, Agri-
culture in the Classroom, Ag
Fest, Summer Ag Institute,
Adopt-a-Farmer and dairy
judging teams.
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