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CapitalPress.com
March 31, 2017
Idaho
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Study: Heavy manure use gets mixed results
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
Courtesy of Amber Moore
Manure is spread during the 2016 season on trial plots in Kimberly,
Idaho. The University of Idaho study of the cumulative effects of
manure application is in its fourth year.
search Service in Kimberly
will continue the research for
University of Idaho Extension
soils scientist Amber Moore,
who has taken a job with Ore-
gon State University.
“It’s been a good study
to understand how different
Lawmakers OK memorial that asks
for all food to meet same standards
crops behave with manure
in soils and also confirming
some of those expectations
where if we do have over-ap-
plication, what some of
the ramifications are,” said
Rick Naerebout, of the Ida-
ho Dairymen’s Association,
dropped from 1.0791 in spuds
raised with fertilizer alone to
1.075 at peak manure rate.
At the highest manure
rate, sugar beets grew much
bigger, but Moore said they
also had more impurities and
sugar content dropped from
about 18 percent with fertiliz-
er alone to about 15 percent.
The crop that yielded the most
total sugar per acre was raised
on 16 tons of manure applied
every other year.
Moore suspects elevated
salt levels and the late-season
release of nitrogen from ma-
nure were factors behind the
quality issues.
During the first three years
of the study, Moore said nitro-
gen mineralization — which
is the microbial breakdown
of organic nitrogen into
plant-available nitrate — oc-
curred at about the same rate
as in a greenhouse setting.
Last summer, however, cool-
er conditions slowed nitro-
Legislature approves $300 million for highway projects
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
BOISE — A House Joint
Memorial that asks Congress
to ensure that foreign food
imports are held to the same
food safety standards that
U.S. farmers and processors
must meet has passed the Ida-
ho Legislature.
House Joint Memorial 6
ended up facing more oppo-
sition from Idaho farm groups
than it did in the legislature,
where it easily passed the
Senate and House on voice
votes.
Its author, Canyon County
farmer Sid Freeman, said that
while there are regulations in
place that require foreign food
imports to meet the same stan-
dards as domestic producers,
no one actually knows to what
extent that’s happening.
“The percentage of actual
inspections of imported food
is way too low and it needs
to be 100 percent,” he said.
“That’s what the citizens of
this country are expecting.”
The memorial’s statement
of purpose says it wants “to
ensure that our domestic
farmers, ranchers and food
processors are able to com-
pete in a fair and level market
environment, and the food se-
curity measures required by
law are equally applied to all
food products allowed to be
sold in markets in Idaho and
nationally.”
While lawmakers saw no
problem with the memori-
al, some farm-related groups
were concerned that some of
its language was incorrect or
misleading.
Specifically, the Idaho Cat-
tle Association had a problem
with language about country
of origin labeling. The World
Trade Organization ruled
against the U.S. COOL law in
2015 and Congress repealed it
after that ruling.
Freeman said the language
in his memorial was not in-
tended to try to get COOL re-
instated but rather to show that
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
Sid Freeman
U.S. consumers now have no
way of knowing where food
products are coming from.
Nevertheless, after meet-
ing with members of Food
Producers of Idaho, which
represents most of the state’s
main farm groups, he re-
wrote his original HJM1
and dropped the COOL lan-
guage.
ICA
lobbyist
Wyatt
Prescott said the cattle group
was OK with the rewritten
memorial.
But some other groups
were concerned that language
in the memorial would give
consumers the perception that
their food isn’t safe.
Addressing those con-
cerns, Freeman included lan-
guage pointing out that the
Food Safety Modernization
Act requires all food prod-
ucts, foreign and domestic, to
adhere to the same food safety
standards.
But the memorial adds,
“and yet only 2 percent of all
imported food products are
actually inspected.”
Some members of the
group struggled with that
2 percent reference and the
group opted not to oppose or
support the memorial.
Freeman said while he
would have preferred to get
FPI’s support, “I get and un-
derstand their concerns.”
FPI members mostly
agreed with the concept of
the memorial but struggled
with some of its language
that they considered to be in-
accurate.
NAMPA, Idahos — The
Idaho Legislature passed a
bill March 28 supported by
many farmers and food pro-
cessors authorizing the state
to issue $300 million in bonds
to upgrade major transporta-
tion arteries.
Advocates for Senate Bill
1206 — which the Senate ap-
proved 19-16 and the House
of Representatives ratified by
a 51-19 vote — say a top pri-
ority for the funding will be a
$150 million project adding
two lanes to a 3-mile bottle-
neck on Interstate 84 through
Nampa, from the Franklin to
the Karcher exit. The stretch
is critical for moving agricul-
tural commodities, especially
for Amalgamated Sugar and
the J.R. Simplot Co.
“(The bill) is very, very
good for agriculture, in my
opinion,” said Senate Trans-
portation Committee Chair-
man Bert Brackett, a Repub-
lican rancher from Rogerson.
Opponents of the funding,
including the Idaho Farm Bu-
reau Federation, succeeded
in defeating a previous bill
authorizing the bonding, ar-
guing against the state taking
on so much debt. The fund-
ing would come from Grant
Anticipation Revenue Vehi-
cle bonds — also known as
Courtesy of Idaho Transportation Department
Potholes have formed on Interstate 84 between Nampa and
Caldwell, Idaho. The state has approved $14 million to resurface
the stretch, which is critical for moving agricultural goods, and law-
makers have approved $300 million in bonds that could be used to
widen the stretch.
GARVEE. The debt would
be repaid with federal fuel
tax revenue returned to Ida-
ho. The state took out $900
million in GARVEE bonds
for highway projects in 2005
and still has more than $500
million in debt remaining,
Brackett said.
In a letter to senators, Idaho
Farm Bureau argued new con-
struction with GARVEE bonds
could exacerbate a $165 mil-
lion annual road maintenance
shortfall, as estimated by a
state task force. Farm Bureau
also noted fuel tax revenue has
been steadily declining in re-
cent years, and it would like to
see a more detailed accounting
of how GARVEE funds would
be spent.
“The $300 million in new
GARVEE bonding increases
GARVEE debt by 60 percent
and will extend payoff dates
well beyond 2032,” the Farm
Bureau letter reads. “We ask
if any of us would increase our
personal debt by 60 percent.”
However, members of
Food Producers of Idaho,
which represents more than 40
state commodity groups, wrote
a letter to legislators encour-
aging them to adequately fund
highway projects to help them
“move product from farm to
market.”
Rep. Scott Syme, R-Wild-
er, said accidents are a daily
occurrence on that stretch of
I-84.
“I bet if I went in my dis-
trict and said, ‘What’s the No.
1 issue?’ they’d say fix the
freeway and fix our roads,”
Syme said.
Rep. Christy Perry, R-Nam-
pa, advocated for spending
some of the GARVEE funding
to study continuing the I-84
widening by 5 miles, from
Nampa to Caldwell.
Mark Duffin, with the Ida-
ho Sugar Beet Growers Asso-
ciation, said his organization
supports legislative efforts to
improve roadways but takes
no position on the funding
mechanism.
However, Simplot wrote a
letter to Brackett supporting
GARVEE bonding to widen
the entire 8-mile stretch from
Nampa to Caldwell.
Five inducted into Eastern Idaho Ag Hall of Fame
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
AMERICAN FALLS, Ida-
ho — If not for Garn Theo-
bald, Idaho likely wouldn’t
have a chipping potato indus-
try today.
He was among five in-
dustry leaders chosen to be
inducted into the 45th class
of the Eastern Idaho Agricul-
tural Hall of Fame during a
March 24 recognition dinner
in Idaho Falls. Albert Wada,
with a fresh potato packing
operation in Pingree; Ban-
croft rancher Wilder Hatch;
Rexburg rancher Bob Hus-
kinson; and Carmen rancher
David McFarland were also
honored.
Theobald did the book-
keeping for Clover Club
Farms, which raised chip-
ping potatoes on 2,500 acres
in American Falls for a large
chip manufacturer based in
Kaysville, Utah. When Clover
Club sold the farm during the
1970s, he and the farm’s gen-
eral manager, Ray DeRoche,
seized on an opportunity to fill
the niche. In 1977, they incor-
porated R&G Potato.
“We came up with the idea
that Idaho is a potato state,
and there is no reason why we
can’t provide quality potatoes
into chip companies all over
the U.S.,” Theobald said.
In 1991, Theobald bought
out DeRoche and brought in
his brother, Steve, to be his
new partner.
Today, R&G is one of the
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gen mineralization during the
early season, resulting in an
initial nitrogen deficiency fol-
lowed by a late-season flush of
the nutrient. Moore cautioned
that weather-related variabil-
ity in nitrogen mineralization
could complicate efforts to
apply the proper amount of
manure to meet crop needs.
Moore said crops were
able to effectively utilize nu-
trients in soil treated with 16
tons of manure per acre every
other year, but she recorded
significant leaching of nitrates
and phosphorus in the 48-ton
annual treatment. At the high
manure rate, she found 69
parts per million of nitrate at a
soil depth of 1 to 2 feet, com-
pared to less than 8 parts per
million with fertilizer alone.
She also noticed significant
phosphorus leaching at the
highest application rate last
season, which surprised her,
given that phosphorus tends
to bind in soil.
John O’Connell/Capital Press
Garn Theobald, a founder of
R&G Potato in American Falls,
was inducted into the Eastern
Idaho Agricultural Hall of Fame.
top three suppliers of round
white potatoes in North
America, and remains the
only player in Idaho’s chip-
ping industry. The company
now supplies 3.5 million hun-
dredweight of chipping spuds
annually from its locations
in American Falls and New
Mexico to buyers including
Frito Lay, Inventure Foods,
UTZ and other chip buyers.
In-N-Out Burger also buys
about 300,000 hundredweight
of R&G chipping spuds per
year for making fresh-cut
fries.
The story of Wada Farms
began with the forced relo-
cation of Albert Wada’s par-
ents from California to Idaho
in 1943. An East Idaho seed
grower provided the Japa-
nese-Americans with work
during World War II, enabling
them to avoid being moved to
an internment camp.
“They basically had to start
over as 100-acre share crop-
pers down in Pingree,” said
Bryan Wada, Albert’s son and
current Wada Farms CEO.
Albert Wada was born in
Idaho and bought the 400-
acre family farm when his fa-
ther, Frank, retired.
Under Albert Wada’s lead-
ership, the farm opened a
packing facility in 1992 and
established Wada Farms Mar-
keting Group. Wada Farms
currently employs 300 work-
ers and farms 28,000 acres.
Hatch was recognized for
his commitment to natural
resource education programs
and conservation projects.
Huskinson was described
as a pioneer in well irriga-
tion, and McFarland was rec-
ognized for his work in sage
grouse management and his
innovative grazing practices.
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KIMBERLY, Idaho — Re-
sults of a multi-year rotational
study suggest growers who
apply repeated, heavy rates
of dairy manure to their fields
stand to significantly boost
their soil organic matter, and
may even control populations
of a harmful nematode.
However, recently publi-
cized data from the study’s
fourth year also confirmed
the highest manure applica-
tion rate — 48 tons per acre
annually — compromised
quality in potatoes and sugar
beets while leaching nitrates
and phosphorus into the water
table.
The study analyzing cu-
mulative effects of varying
rates of manure application
on wheat, barley, potatoes
and sugar beets has four more
years of funding remaining.
USDA’s Agricultural Re-
which helped fund the study.
Plots with the heaviest
manure application rates ex-
perienced a doubling of soil
organic matter, as well as re-
duced spiral nematode popu-
lations following wheat.
“What we’re seeing in the
test plots is organic matter is
increasing at a rate greater
than planting cover crops or
other practices used to in-
crease organic matter in the
soil,” Naerebout said.
But Moore explained
growers of all four crops in-
volved in the study have had
reservations about planting in
fields with a long history of
manure use do to the potential
quality impacts. Moore said
spuds raised last season in
plots with annual applications
of 48 tons per acre had a larg-
er size profile but more inter-
nal defects. Specific gravity,
which measures the dry matter
in potatoes and is considered
desirable within the industry,