April 14, 2017
CapitalPress.com
15
Idaho’s job growth causes farm labor crunch
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
AMERICAN FALLS, Ida-
ho — Most springs, about
30 people stop by Koompin
Farms to add their names to a
waiting list for work.
This season, however, the
Koompins — who would
pass along extra names from
the list to other area farmers
— had just a third of the usu-
al interest. Furthermore, most
of the applicants sought full-
time employment, while the
Koompins were looking to
make seasonal hires.
The tight labor supply
is a familiar story on farms
throughout Idaho, the lead-
ing state in job growth for six
consecutive months.
Tax data and employer
surveys show state wag-
John O’Connell/Capital Press
Workers sort seed potato pieces at Koompin Farms in American
Falls, Idaho, on March 27. The farm has had far fewer temporary
workers apply for jobs this season as Idaho’s economy leads the
nation in creating new jobs.
es have begun to creep up,
said Bob Uhlenkott, a re-
search officer with the Idaho
Department of Labor. The
state’s seasonally adjust-
ed unemployment rate held
steady at 3.6 percent during
February — within the range
considered full employment
by IDL. Gains in manufac-
turing and construction led
job growth, as 2,100 workers
joined the state’s labor force
in February.
“Lower skilled jobs are
going to be the jobs under the
most pressure when you have
any kind of workforce short-
age,” Uhlenkott said, adding
the workforce crunch could
inhibit additional economic
growth.
In his 2016 studies on Ida-
ho agricultural production
costs, University of Idaho
Extension economist Ben
Eborn estimated farm labor
costs rose by 3.5 percent.
“In 2017, I’m sure they’re
going to go up by at least 3
percent, and maybe more be-
cause of the shortage,” Eborn
said. “Most producers right
now have pretty tight mar-
gins as it is.”
To remain competitive,
Kamren Koompin, whose
workers recently began cut-
ting seed potatoes, said his
family offered returning em-
ployees a 5 percent raise.
They boosted wages for first-
time hires by 10 percent.
Koompin has also noticed
more advertisements for la-
bor from farmers fulfilling a
requirement to check locally
before hiring foreign tem-
porary workers through the
H-2A visa program.
Bill Lasley, a Power
County Commissioner who
works as human resources
director with Driscoll Broth-
ers Partnership, said H-2A
workers have been part of
the solution for his employer,
and represent an increasing-
ly popular option within the
community. At their fresh
potato shed, the Driscolls are
also installing a robotic sys-
tem to package potatoes in
pallets, which should elim-
inate the need for about 15
employees.
Michael Williamson, who
raises fruit and winegrapes
in Caldwell, sought to hire
a dozen workers earlier this
year, but had to settle for half
that many.
“We couldn’t hire them,”
Williamson said. “They were
wanting more money than
we were willing to pay.”
Williamson expects to
hire his first H-2A workers
this season and plans to part-
ner with another grower to
share laborers.
Bill relaxing Oregon land
use rules survives deadline
Rural development
legislation faces
short deadline for
work session
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
SALEM — A bill that
would relax restrictions on
development in Oregon’s
slow-growing rural areas has
survived a legislative deadline
that recently killed several
similar proposals.
Under Senate Bill 432, lo-
cal governments could create
land use plans without com-
plying with statewide goals
as long as they’re in counties
with fewer than 50,000 people
that haven’t grown since the
previous federal census.
A work session on the bill
before the Senate Committee
on Environment and Natural
Resources has been scheduled
for April 17, which means
lawmakers can continue de-
liberating on the proposal.
Four other bills that would
have given local governments
more flexibility under Oregon
land use rules — Senate bills
602, 608, 612 and 618 — have
died because no work session
was scheduled for them by
April 7.
Because SB 432 only ap-
plies to low-population ar-
eas with no growth, it would
effectively only affect eight
Oregon counties: Baker, Gil-
liam, Grant, Harney, Mal-
heur, Sherman, Wallowa and
Wheeler.
These counties have lost
significant numbers of people,
which threatens the viability
of schools, hospitals and law
enforcement agencies, said
Sen. Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day,
the bill’s chief sponsor, during
a recent legislative hearing.
“The social infrastructure
is really what’s unraveled in
these communities,” he said.
Washington has exempted
10 rural counties from its land
use system and they’re per-
forming better economically
than comparable counties in
Oregon, which have struggled
for decades, Ferrioli said.
“It worked there, it can
probably work here. We just
need the courage to give it a
try,” he said.
Any development in Or-
egon’s most rural counties
would still be constrained by
available water, power and
soils suitable for septic tanks,
said Gary Thompson, the
Sherman County judge
“That will eliminate 90
percent of the land available
in the county,” he said.
Proponents of the bill ar-
gued that rural counties in
Eastern Oregon face a com-
pletely different situation
than those where expansion
of urban growth boundaries
can’t keep up with housing
demand.
It’s unlikely that counties
with low or negative popu-
lation growth will succumb
to urban sprawl, but existing
rules prevent the possibility
of new development, accord-
ing to supporters.
The economic stagnation
in these areas is self-reinforc-
ing, since local governments
cannot expand urban growth
boundaries unless they can
forecast population growth,
said Erin Doyle, lobbyist for
the League of Oregon Cities.
“Tell me what you’re sup-
posed to do. You can’t say
you need more housing be-
cause you’re not having more
people coming in,” she said.
Opponents of SB 432
claim that a lack of land isn’t
really what’s hindering devel-
opment, which is actually sty-
mied by a lack of transporta-
tion and other infrastructure.
It’s true that land within
urban growth boundaries is
more expensive, said Peggy
Lynch, natural resources co-
ordinator for the League of
Women Voters of Oregon.
“The reason is there are
services inside,” she said.
The five bills propose
a “false promise” of easily
spurring economic develop-
ment, but lawmakers would
be better off investing in add-
ing value to Oregon’s agricul-
ture industry, said Mary Kyle
McCurdy, deputy director of
1,000 Friends of Oregon, a
nonprofit that supports farm-
land preservation.
Oregon water measurement
bill passes initial committee
House Bill 2705
referred to House
Rules Committee
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
SALEM — Irrigators
would be required to install
devices to measure their wa-
ter usage in Oregon under
a bill that’s won approval
from an initial legislative
committee.
The House Committee on
Energy and the Environment
voted 7-1 in favor of a “do
pass” recommendation for
House Bill 2705 during an
April 11 work session.
However, the bill won’t
immediately be voted on by
the full House. It has first been
referred to the House Rules
Committee, where bills aren’t
subject to the same legislative
deadlines for action as regular
committees.
Proponents of HB 2705
argue the measuring require-
ment is necessary for the Ore-
gon Water Resources Depart-
ment to effectively manage
the state’s 89,000 water rights.
Farm and irrigator groups
are opposed to the bill, argu-
ing that water devices will be
expensive to install and will
overwhelm OWRD with data
that it lacks the resources to
analyze.
The committee delayed
taking action on two other
measures related to water:
House Bill 2706, which im-
poses a $100 annual fee on
all water rights, and HB 2707,
which appropriates an un-
specified amount of money
for additional groundwater
studies.
A work session on those
two bills was rescheduled for
April 12.
Eric Mortenson/Capital Press
Oregon State University honeybee research and professor Ramesh Sagili, suited up in this 2014 photo, was recently honored for his work
by the Pacific branch of the Entomological Society of America.
Entomological group honors Oregon State bee researcher
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
Ramesh Sagili, an Ore-
gon State University assis-
tant professor who studies
honeybee health, was hon-
ored for his work during the
annual meeting of the Pacif-
ic branch of the Entomolog-
ical Society of America.
Sagili won an award for
his work on insect phys-
iology, biochemistry and
toxicology. A dozen other
West Coast scientists also
received awards during the
ESA’s gathering in Portland
the first week of April.
Sagili is an assistant pro-
fessor and Extension spe-
cialist in the horticulture de-
partment of OSU’s College
of Agricultural Sciences.
He directs the honeybee lab
and master beekeeper pro-
gram at OSU, and is among
Eric Mortenson/Capital Press
Honeybees buzz about an Oregon State University research hive.
OSU Professor Ramesh Sagili was recently honored for his work
by the Pacific branch of the Entomological Society of America.
a cadre of researchers who
are attempting to solve the
mystery of Colony Collapse
Disorder, which has wiped
out many hives nationwide.
Originally from India,
Sagili earned a doctorate
in entomology from Texas
A&M University in 2007
and was hired at OSU in
2009 after beekeepers and
farmers pressed the Legis-
lature to fund honeybee re-
search.
While some blame col-
ony collapse on causes
ranging from pesticides
to cell phones, Sagili has
maintained that a variety
of factors are more likely,
including the presence of
parasites.
He believes nutrition is
key to bee health.
Pollination is critical to
West Coast crops, and bee-
keepers truck thousands of
hives to California begin-
ning each January. They
move hives north as crops
blossom in rotation, be-
ginning with almond or-
chards and on into ber-
ries, tree fruit and seed
crops.
Wheat industry seeks federal funding for falling number research
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
The Pacific Northwest
wheat industry is asking Con-
gress to fund research into the
reliability and accuracy of the
falling number test and the
quality of soft white wheat.
The industry wants the
U.S. House appropriations
committee to provide $1 mil-
lion to the USDA Agricultur-
al Research Service to study
the accuracy of the test and
$2 million in National Insti-
tute of Food and Agriculture
and Agriculture and Food
Research Initiative grants to
study quality loss in soft white
wheat.
Farmers were caught off
guard last year when roughly
44 percent of the soft white
wheat crop and 42 percent of
the club wheat crop received
ratings below 300 in the fall-
ing number test at grain ele-
vators. The test gauges starch
quality in wheat. Rain or rapid
changes in weather at certain
times before harvest causes an
enzyme to damage starch in
wheat. The lower the falling
number, the more the starch
has been damaged.
The industry estimates the
damage last year cost between
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Nine Mile Falls, Wash., farmer Jim Ryan watches as Aaron Porter
of the Washington State Department of Agriculture grain inspec-
tion program demonstrates the falling number test Feb. 9 at the
Spokane Ag Expo and Pacific Northwest Farm Forum. The wheat
industry is seeking federal funding for falling number research.
$30 million and $140 million.
The funding would be used
in 2018, said Michelle Hen-
nings, executive director of
the Washington Association
of Wheat Growers.
The region’s wheat indus-
try has come together on the
issue, Hennings said.
“We realize the impact this
has had, and we’re working
our hardest to come up with
solutions so this doesn’t hap-
pen again,” she said.
The effort includes Alex
McGregor, CEO of the Mc-
Gregor Co. in Colfax, Wash.
“It’s going to be really im-
portant to work together so
people aren’t stuck in a vul-
nerable position,” McGregor
said. “Those are significant
deductions.”
He said the magnitude of
the falling number problem
coupled with already low
grain prices have been “par-
ticularly painful for many
farm families.”
Farmington, Wash., wheat
farmer Bruce Nelson esti-
mates his falling number dis-
counts ranged from 25 cents
to $1 per bushel on 25 percent
of his crop. His lowest sample
tested at 224, well below the
300 industry standard.
But the reliability of the
test has been called into ques-
tion. He said that when he had
his wheat samples re-tested,
80 percent came back with
higher falling numbers.
“Some (were) much high-
er, as much as 50 to 80 points
higher,” he said.
Test results can also vary
by location, Nelson said.
One option is breeding
wheat for resistance to starch
damage, which takes years,
he said.
Nelson said the federal re-
search funding is important to
get more information.
“If we don’t get that done,
we’re going to have the same
situation happen to us again
and again and again, and I
don’t think it’ll get any bet-
ter,” he said.
Even with funding, it will
take seven to eight years to
find answers, Nelson said.
“In the meantime, we’re
kind of at the whim of what-
ever goes on out there,” he
said. “The only thing we can
do is (get) more information
right now to help solve our
own problems.”