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CapitalPress.com
February 17, 2017
Idaho
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Severe flooding hits Southern Idaho hard
Heavy rains, warm weath-
er and melting snow have
combined to cause wide-
spread flooding across South-
ern Idaho, with Cassia County
bearing the brunt of the dam-
age.
Canals and creeks are
overflowing, roads have been
washed out or closed, base-
ments are flooding and water
is standing up to 2 feet deep in
fields or causing erosion as it
runs to lower ground.
“It’s pretty devastating for
sure. In the Malta area, there’s
100 percent devastation; it’s
incredible,” said Joel Pack-
ham, Cassia County Exten-
sion educator.
A lot of the area is under
water, many houses are threat-
ened and a lot of fields are go-
ing to be affected, he said.
“There’s going to be a lot of
erosion because of runoff; it’s
going to hurt a lot of fields,”
he said.
John O’Connell/Capital Press
A fall wheat field near American Falls, Idaho, is covered with stand-
ing water on Feb. 10. Widespread flooding is damaging crops and
fields and stressing livestock in Southern Idaho.
Any crops that were plant-
ed in the fall are going to have
a difficult time. The flooding
will rot seed in the ground
and make it difficult for young
plants to survive. Alfalfa could
see some winter kill, but it’s
pretty resilient, he said.
Dairymen are really strug-
gling. They just don’t have a
dry place for the cows. They’re
doing all the strawing they can,
but the water is just sucking it
up. It’s going to be very diffi-
cult to mitigate this much wa-
ter, he said.
“It’s very difficult to take
care of something that dras-
tic,” he said.
If it were just snow or just
Idaho Grain Producers offering
discount to build membership
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho —
Representatives of the Idaho
Grain Producers Association
are offering discounted mem-
berships to build their ranks,
seeking greater influence on
priority issues ranging from
drafting a new farm bill to
protecting trade with key part-
ners.
IGPA Executive Director
Stacey Satterlee said the orga-
nization began covering $50
of the $75 annual enrollment
fee in January and will offer
the discount throughout Feb-
ruary.
IGPA is funded through
voluntary dues and contribu-
tions, including from industry
supporters. IGPA serves as
the legislative lobbying arm
of Idaho’s grain industry and
also pays dues to the National
Association of Wheat Grow-
ers and the National Associa-
tion of Barley Growers.
Satterlee said IGPA made
its major membership push
John O’Connell/Capital Press
Teton, Idaho, farmer Dwight
Little, who serves as vice
president of Idaho Grain
Producers Association, recruits
new members during the recent
Agricultural Expo at Holt Arena
in Pocatello.
during the week ending Feb.
11, sending grower leaders to
speak at University of Idaho
Extension cereal schools. She
hopes new members will stick
with IGPA upon learning of its
efforts and accomplishments.
“IGPA undertook a stra-
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tegic planning process at the
end of last year, and part of
that was recognizing that we
as an organization are work-
ing on behalf of all of Idaho’s
grain producers,” Satterlee
said. “We represent over 600
farming families in the state
of Idaho, but essentially, we’d
like to say we represent all
(grain farming) families in
Idaho.”
IGPA Vice President
Dwight Little, a Teton farmer
who is also slated to become
the next National Association
of Barley Growers president,
recruited growers at the Feb.
9 cereal school in Idaho Falls.
“(IGPA) allows a produc-
er who has a problem to have
a place to go to express that
problem,” Little said.
Little spoke about his re-
cent trip to Washington, D.C.,
to lobby Congress on behalf
of IGPA, as did a younger
grower who made the trip
through an IGPA mentoring
program.
Nationally, Little said,
IGPA will discourage any cuts
to crop insurance in the next
farm bill, and urge the reduc-
tion of the beer excise tax.
Satterlee said IGPA also
met with federal lawmakers
to encourage the continuation
of a good trade relationship
with Mexico. President Don-
ald Trump has proposed a
20 percent tariff on Mexican
imports to fund construction
of a border wall. According
to U.S. Wheat Associates,
Mexican flour millers import-
ed 2.4 million metric tons of
U.S. wheat during the sev-
en months preceding Feb. 2
— the largest volume of any
country.
rain without frozen ground,
they could manage, but they’re
getting hit with all three, he
said.
In addition, many wastewa-
ter lagoons are full because of
all the water, he said.
“They were built for a 100-
year storm, and we’re probably
in the middle of it,” he said.
Many ranchers have hill
country they can take cattle
to, but it’s going to be soft
and muddy. One rancher just
opened the gate to BLM land
to get his cattle on ground and
out of the water, he said.
“He was willing to deal
with the consequences rath-
er than have them in water. I
hope the government would
be understanding of that,” he
said.
“I’ve never seen it be this
bad. I’m just fearful these
mountains are going to cut
loose with more water. The
old-timers I’ve spoken with
think there’s a lot of water yet
to come,” he said.
Nearby in Minidoka Coun-
ty, staff at the county exten-
sion office said it’s the worst
flooding they’ve ever seen.
“Dealing with the flood is
a big problem right now. A lot
of people are trying to pump
or sandbag trying to curb the
flooding,” said Carlo Moreno,
extension educator.
Water on roadways and in
fields is 1-1/2 to 2 feet deep,
he said.
It’s definitely going to de-
lay field work. It’s not uncom-
mon for farmers in the area to
be working the ground in Feb-
ruary and March. But even
after the water drains, the
ground is going to be saturat-
ed for a while and they won’t
be able to cultivate or plant,
he said.
The flooding is widespread
and everyone in the Magic
Valley is in the same boat,
said Steve Hines, extension
educator for Jerome County.
The major concern is for
winter wheat, winter bar-
ley and alfalfa in low-lying
fields with large areas under
water, he said.
“It’ll wipe out anything
that’s under water. Some have
been under water and ice since
the last warm weather about a
month ago,” he said.
Any areas with a huge
amount of runoff, such as
Malta in Cassia County, are
going to have significant ero-
sion, which will require me-
chanical fixes, he said.
In recent years, farmers
have planted sugar beets and
spring wheat in late February
and early March. This year,
it’ll be a rush to get them in
the ground, he said.
The wet weather isn’t
helping livestock, either. No
doubt those in the hardest-hit
areas have had to move to
higher ground. Ranchers
are in the middle of calving,
and the wet, sloppy weather
is hard on newborn calves.
Dairy dry lots are flooded,
cows are dirty despite addi-
tional straw and the sloppy
conditions are hard on equip-
ment, he said.
Cattle grant helps Mackay school start ranch
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
MACKAY, Idaho —
When sixth period begins,
five Mackay Junior-Senior
High School students become
ranchers, responsible for a
small herd of calves.
High schools commonly
teach animal husbandry from
textbooks and use oranges to
simulate livestock when stu-
dents practice administering
injections.
But in Custer County,
where more than 90 percent
of the land base is federally
owned and public lands graz-
ing reigns supreme, agricul-
ture teacher Trent Van Leuven
decided there could be no sub-
stitute for the real thing.
“Instead of talking about
a subcutaneous injection, we
actually do it subcutaneous-
ly,” Van Leuven said.
Van Leuven recently start-
ed his school’s “ranch” with a
$3,900 grant from the Idaho
Cattle Foundation, which ad-
ministers a fund to benefit the
industry and livestock educa-
tion.
The fund is supported by
$28,000 to $35,000 per year
in donations and proceeds
from the state brand depart-
ment’s sales of livestock with
no clear ownership records,
said DuWayne Skaar, the
foundation’s vice president
and Lewisville feed lot owner.
“Our goal is to try to get
the money back to the indus-
try, and the youth in this in-
dustry so we can keep people
interested in the industry it-
self,” Skaar said. “The youth
are the key to it.”
Van Leuven constructed
calf housing and bought sup-
plies with the grant. He had to
approach all of the surround-
Courtesy of Trent Van Leuven
From left to right, Macey Warner, Emma Patterson, Daisy Bernal and
Courtney Michaelson, and Ally Freeman, front, who are students in
the Agri 109 class at Mackay Junior-Senior High School, pose with
the calves they’re raising to learn about animal husbandry.
ing residents to obtain per-
mission to raise cattle within
city limits before the Mackay
City Council would grant him
a zoning exemption, allow-
ing his students to raise up to
10 calves and four sheep. He
also plans to plant sainfoin for
grazing forage throughout the
school’s 5-acre “land lab.”
Those who pass his se-
nior-level Agri 109 class will
get four credits at the Col-
lege of Southern Idaho. He
also uses the herd to teach
eighth-graders about record
keeping, in preparation for
their own FFA projects.
He took Agri 109 students
on a Jan. 11 field trip to the
livestock auction in Idaho
Falls, hoping to bid on calves,
but ultimately purchased Hol-
steins from a local dairy.
Running a school ranch
has required extra commit-
ment from his students, who
show up before school to bot-
tle-feed and otherwise tend to
the calves. The class would
have been bigger, but Van
Leuven said some students
withdrew when they learned
they’d be expected to conduct
artificial insemination. What
some students viewed as un-
pleasant, others considered an
opportunity.
“I want to be a veterinar-
ian, so this class will real-
ly help when I get into that
field,” said Emma Patterson,
adding she’s benefited from
a hands-on approach to con-
cepts such as tube feeding and
castrating livestock.
A few of the calves have
already been sold to local
ranchers to bond with mother
cows that lost their calves —
called grafting in the industry.
Mackay rancher Dan Mu-
lick, who bought two calves,
said they’ve grafted well, and
he was pleased to support the
school’s program.
“It’s fantastic really,” Mu-
lick said. “These kids have
to be responsible for calves
and show up before school
and take care of them and
make sure they’re strawed
down, and watered and
fed.”
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Capital Press
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By CAROL RYAN DUMAS