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About Capital press. (Salem, OR) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 3, 2017)
WATER SPECIAL SECTION INSIDE THIS WEEK’S EDITION wa t er INSID E Grow tank er turn irrigat technolo s to gy fo ion r Page 2 Dairy tack farmer chal le water s leng es quality Page FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2017 VOLUME 90, NUMBER 5 WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM E ARLY W ARNING SYSTEM Capital Press P ARMA, Idaho — Change is in the air for farmers who battle wind- borne diseases that attack their crops, costing them millions of dol- lars each year in lost production and added expenses. Plant pathologist James Woodhall, work- ing with other researchers, has acquired four cutting-edge instruments that sniff out air- borne spores in farm fi elds. Woodhall, who works for the University of Idaho Extension, believes the data he collects will provide growers with the information they need to treat for crop diseases even be- fore symptoms surface, saving them a fortune in chemical applications and improving disease control. “We’re currently spray- ing with little or no knowl- edge of if spores are in the air,” Woodhall said. “They’ll spray based on historical occurrence, but things vary James year to year.” Woodhall With industry support, he hopes to grow the network of spore samplers in the coming years to give farmers in each re- gion a more comprehensive look at the threats that are blowing in the wind. Each sampler costs about $4,500. Woodhall, a native of England who has been at UI about a year, believes the variety of diseases he plans to target will set his work $2.00 New ODA director tackles issues from farm bill to GMOs By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press Spore samplers give farmers an upper hand By JOHN O’CONNELL Anim oper al feed keep ations ge ing ing cr eeks t help clean 4 apart from other research projects using spore samplers. Plans are already in the works to use spore samplers for early detection of dis- eases that attack potatoes, barley, wheat, sug- ar beets, beans, onions, oilseeds, grapes and hops. How it works A spore sampler is similar to a vacuum cleaner, sucking in air and capturing spores in a vial. Airborne spores can spread many dis- eases from infected plants, which are often far away. The spore DNA is then extracted and iden- tifi ed using an advanced diagnostic technique called real-time polymerase chain reaction, Turn to SPORES, Page 12 Courtesy of Oregon State University Walt Mahaffee, a USDA Agricultural Research Service plant pathologist who is also on the Oregon State University faculty, and graduate student Lindsey Thiessen pick a vineyard location to set up a spore trap. SALEM — With the 2014 Farm Bill expiring next year, agriculture leaders are already preparing for the struggle over its successor. Alexis Taylor, the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s new director, is no stranger to farm bill nego- tiations. She helped work on the 2008 and 2014 Alexis versions of the Taylor legislation as a congressional staffer before being hired by USDA, where she most recently served as Deputy Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services. Barely a week into her new role as ODA’s chief, Taylor headed back to Washington, D.C. to meet with her counter- parts at a policy meeting of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture. Taylor said the 2018 Farm Bill is expected to be a prime subject of conversation at the meeting, which took place Jan. 30 to Feb. 1. It’s too early to tell what changes are in store for the monumental piece of farm legislation, particularly in light of uncertainties about federal budget priorities, she said. In the 2014 Farm Bill, Congress moved away from traditional farm subsidies and toward greater reliance on the federal crop insurance pro- gram. Taylor said she expects this trend to continue, with crop in- surance serving as the “corner- stone” of farm programs for commodity crops and playing a larger role in support for spe- cialty crops. “It’s not a one-size-fi ts-all,” Taylor said during a meeting with Capital Press. Farm bill negotiations have grown increasingly conten- tious in the past decade. The 2008 Farm Bill took a year longer to enact than expected, and the 2014 Farm Bill went into effect two years after its predecessor expired. Now that Republicans control the Senate, the House of Representatives and the White House, though, some expect the process to be less turbulent. Trade relations was to be another hot topic at the NAS- DA meeting, particularly with the questions that loom over the Trump administration pol- icies, Taylor said. Turn to TAYLOR, Page 12 Oregon hazelnut crop soars 2016 crop is 40 percent larger than previous year Capital Press Oregon saw a major upswing in hazelnut production in 2016, with growers harvesting 40 per- cent more nuts than the previous year. At 43,300 tons, the state’s hazelnut crop also outperformed the USDA’s projection by 14 percent. The situation is a big improve- ment over 2015, when the crop’s size fell 25 percent short of the USDA’s estimate. Even so, experts say the uncer- tainty complicates the Oregon ha- zelnut industry’s sales planning. “For the processors and the handlers, knowing what that crop is makes it much easier to market it worldwide,” said Garry Roda- kowski, a hazelnut farmer near Vida, Ore. Turn to CROP, Page 12 Matuesz Perkowski/Capital Press Hazelnuts are processed at the Willamette Hazelnut Growers facility in Newberg, Ore., in this Capital Press fi le photo. Oregon’s 2016 hazelnut crop increase rough- ly 40 percent from the previous year. 4-1/#14 By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
