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April 28, 2017 CapitalPress.com 15 Farmers race to do spring work between rainstorms Growers say they’re 2-3 weeks behind, bumping into crop insurance deadlines By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press ST. JOHN, Wash. — 2017 is the wettest spring Gary Bai- ley can remember. “I’ve never had this much rainfall this time of year as long as I’ve been farming,” he said. “We’ve got well over our annual (average) already.” Bailey farms roughly 3,000 acres with his brother in the St. John, Wash., area. He is also a member of the Washington Grain Commission, represent- ing Whitman County. Bailey estimates his spring work is two to three weeks be- hind normal. “There’s always stuff to work on, I guess,” he said. “You try to have everything in top shape so that when you can go, you don’t have any prob- lems. It’s frustrating when you want to work and you can’t. Matthew Weaver/Capital Press St. John, Wash., wheat farmer Gary Bailey fills his tank with water to mix with herbicide for spring work on April 21. He estimates rain and wind have delayed his field work by two to three weeks. But it’s Mother Nature. She holds the cards.” On April 21, Bailey applied a mixture of water and her- bicide to kill leftover plants on fields he plans to plant to spring wheat, barley or chick- peas. The weather’s made it difficult to find days to apply chemicals, Bailey said. He needs a day with sunshine and no wind to spray, he said. Rain makes the ground too muddy for the heavy equipment. USDA estimates 550,000 acres of spring wheat will be planted in Washington. Glen Squires, CEO of the state Grain Commission, doesn’t expect delays to affect that number. The increased moisture is good for the soil profile, Squires said. “It’s better than being in a drought,” he said. Across the border in Idaho USDA estimates spring wheat acreage will be up 5 percent, but weather-caused delays could impact that number, said Blaine Jacobson, executive di- rector of the state Wheat Com- mission. By this time of year, Ida- ho wheat farmers are usually 55 percent done with spring planting, but have only about half that done, Jacobson said. “It’s difficult to get some consistency in your field work when every third or fourth day, you’ve got another shower,” he said. “You reach a certain point where if the seed’s not in the ground, it’s not going to be ripe in order to be harvested,” he said. “By mid-May, we lose that window of opportunity.” The delays are pushing up against final planting dates for crop insurance. Benjamin Thiel, director of the USDA Risk Management Agency of- fice in Spokane, said prevented planting is failure to plant an insured crop by the final date designated, due to an insured cause of loss that’s general to the surrounding area and prevents other farmers from planting acreage with similar characteristics. Final planting dates vary between crops and counties, Thiel said. He recommends farmers contact their crop in- surance agent. Standing in St. John, Bai- ley said it’s a unique spot. Highway 23 cuts through the Eastern Washington town. On the south side of the road, farmers need to plant their spring wheat by April 30 to qualify for crop insurance. On the north side, farmers need to plant by May 15. Barley and chickpeas need to be planted by May 20. Bailey planned to adjust his planting decisions in some fields to meet the deadlines. Despite the delays, he is optimistic about the season. “If we can get this in, there’s really good moisture,” he said. “Everybody’s anx- ious to get at it.” Jacobson is unsure about the chance of farmers catch- ing up on their work. The cur- rent weather pattern has per- sisted since October, he said. “The long-term projection is that weather will stabilize,” he said. “That’s been the fore- cast for a couple of weeks, and we’re still getting rain- storms. We’re hopeful that we’ll get into the real spring, but right now there are still some remnants of winter that are hanging on.” NW pear growers to host international group FFA students hone skills in science competition By DAN WHEAT Capital Press WENATCHEE, Wash. — The Pear Bureau Northwest will host an international pear conference in Wenatchee in June. The 2017 Interpera Con- gress, its 10th annual meeting and first in the U.S., will be held at the Wenatchee Con- fluence Technology Center on June 15 and 16. About 100 pear industry growers, marketers, research- ers and experts from eight to 10 nations are expected to at- tend. “It’s an honor and an ex- cellent opportunity to host the collaboration of world thought leaders in one of the premier pear growing areas in the world,” said Kevin Mof- fitt, Pear Bureau president. The Wenatchee Val- ley, which stretches from Wenatchee to Leavenworth, has long been regarded as arguably the best region and micro-climate for pears in the world. It primarily produces d’ Anjou pears. The Wenatchee District is No. 1 in Northwest pear vol- ume, followed by Hood River, Yakima and Medford. The Northwest grows 85 percent of the nation’s pears, and California grows 15 per- cent. The conference features presentations from world ex- perts on emerging pear vari- By TIM HEARDEN Capital Press Dan Wheat/Capital Press Lourdes Guzman packs third grade d’Anjou pears at Duckwall Fruit, Hood River, Ore., last October. Northwest growers and packers are hosting an international pear congress in Wenatchee, Wash., this June. eties, high-density planting, root stock, harvest and pack- ing house mechanization, integrated pest management successes, export trade flows and successful practices for building consumer demand. The conference will in- clude tours of Wenatchee Valley orchards and Crunch Pak, in Cashmere, a leading fresh-apple slice producer. Beside the Pear Bureau, the conference is organized by the Assembly of Europe- an Regions Producing Fruit, Vegetables and Ornamental Plants and the California Pear Advisory Board. The con- gress rotates among pear-pro- ducing countries. The most recent meetings were in South Africa, Italy and Portugal. FRESNO, Calif. — For Kaitlyn McFarland, the agri- science fair at the annual Cal- ifornia FFA conference didn’t really feel like a competition. “You’re more developing skills related to the scientific process and properly writing a research paper,” said Mc- Farland, an Exeter, Calif., student whose project was to test organic antiseptics on livestock bacteria. Her classmates, Mia Mc- Cormick and Kaylee Rau- baugh, studied pH measure- ment in egg wash for small farms. McCormick said her effort will be useful on her family’s farm. “We want to make sure we’re washing the eggs safe- ly,” she said. But while the students were just trying to hone their skills, they proved adept at compet- ing, too. They and their team- mates from Exeter FFA took the top cooperative award as well as several individual hon- ors. More than 100 students enter projects in the science contests each year, compet- ing at several skill levels in categories for animal science, environmental sciences, food products and processing sys- tems, plant systems, power, structural and technical sys- tems, and social systems. The students presented their work to panels of judg- es and answered questions. Entries were judged on April 23, and other attendees were allowed to browse through the rows of project displays on April 24 before several doz- en plaques and ribbons were handed out later that after- noon. FFA member Preslie Hewitt, a sophomore from East Nicolaus, Calif., looked through the displays and jotted down notes to report to her ad- viser what she’d learned. “It’s hard work I’ll bet,” Hewitt said of the projects. “It’s very cool to see what the other chapters and schools have to offer.” Topics covered in the dis- plays read like scholarly jour- nal articles. Among the entries, students tested the effect of so- lar panel cellular waste on plant growth, compared erosion con- trol methods, measured resid- ual saline from drip irrigation systems and studied the British thermal units generated from eucalyptus burning. Past projects by students have included how well differ- ent feed additives worked on hogs and genetic research on different varieties of animals, said Josiah Mayfield, the assis- tant state FFA adviser. Oregon State University displays new logo Rain delays spud planting across E. Idaho By ERIC MORTENSON By JOHN O’CONNELL Capital Press Capital Press Oregon State Universi- ty, the alma mater or sports team favorite of many Pacific Northwest producers, has a new logo and branding to go with it. The new logo is an inten- tional artistic representation of what the university stands for and the practical research and education it does in ag- riculture, forestry, natural resources, engineering and other work that benefits Ore- gonians. “The personality of this university is like the state an- imal, the beaver,” said Steve Clark, OSU’s vice president for University Relations and Marketing. “We work hard, we get things done. We don’t just talk, we do.” The old logo, dating to 2003, was orange and sim- ply said “OSU.” The new one shows a beaver, the OSU mascot, on top of an academ- ic crest shaped like a round- ed-off map of Oregon. On the crest are a tree and an open book, which represent knowl- edge, according to an OSU news release. The crest also includes three stars to represent the OSU campuses in Corvallis, Bend and Newport, and the date 1868, when the universi- ty was founded. Finally, the crest includes AMERICAN FALLS, Ida- ho — Three weeks into April, Eastern Idaho crop adviser Keith Fehringer said growers normally have all of their spring wheat in, and potato planting should be well underway. But storms, saturated soil and cold weather have kept farmers out of their fields this spring, said Fehringer, who works in the fertilizer division of Bingham Cooperative at CHS. Fehringer said local grow- ers will need a turn toward hotter, drier weather soon to make up lost ground and avoid yield reductions. Grow- ers in Magic Valley, Treasure Valley and Northern Idaho also say they’ve fallen behind their spring planting sched- ules. “This wet weather is really hampering our ability to get in there and drill wheat, and I’ve got fields now we should be fertilizing but it’s been so wet we haven’t been on them,” Fehringer said on April 21. He estimates Eastern Ida- ho potato growers are at least a week behind normal, and even further behind compared to their early starts the past two seasons. He believes the odds of repeating last season’s bumper spud and grain crops are growing longer. “Most of these (potato) a reference to the state seal, with a sun setting over the ocean, plus mountain peaks under the stars. Together, the symbols speak to OSU’s status as a land, sea, sun and space grant university. In a prepared statement, Clark said the logo provides a “refreshed visual identi- ty” that “portrays the prom- ise and product of Oregon State: high-quality teaching, research and community en- gagement.” He said Oregon State and “Beaver Nation” members are “gritty, determined, confident, collaborative, visionary, con- scientious and welcoming.” The logo change is ac- companied by a motto, “Out there,” which expresses OSU’s network of statewide Extension and research sta- tions and its Willamette Val- ley, Cascades and coastal campuses. “We’re out there in the middle of everywhere,” Clark said. Clark estimated 75 to 80 percent of responses so far have been favorable, with reaction coming in social me- dia, email and phone calls. Kevin Miller, an OSU graduate who edits the Ore- gon Stater alumni magazine, said students on campus appeared to be enthusiastic about the change when the logo was unveiled at an event on campus this past week. Miller, who lives in and was a newspaper editor in Eugene, acknowledged the change might not have much impact in the home of arch-ri- val University of Oregon. “It’s not going to make some of my friends who are Duck fans burn their green and yellow Duck gear because we have a new logo,” Miller said. “If you know OSU, you say, ‘Hey, that looks like us,’ “ The athletic team logo — a beaver with bared teeth and bristling hair — remains the same. The logo and branding work cost $480,000. Of that, $395,000 went to Ologie, a Columbus, Ohio, branding agency, and $85,000 was paid to Pentagram, a design firm based in London. Money came from sales of licensed OSU merchandise. No uni- versity or public money was spent, according to OSU. John O’Connell/Capital Press Red potatoes are planted April 24 in American Falls, Idaho, as rain begins to fall. Rain has delayed the start of planting spuds in much of Eastern Idaho. guys are geared up to be going by April 14 or 15 any more, and we’ve got some guys who haven’t even dropped a piece of seed in the ground yet,” Fehringer said. Aberdeen-Springfield Ca- nal Co. General Manager Steve Howser was delivering water to just three fields totaling 300 acres as of April 21. “By now, I’m usually irri- gating most of the sugar beets on our system,” Howser said. “Some beets are planted, but for the most part they’re delayed.” American Falls grower Kamren Koompin finally start- ed planting spuds on April 22 but rain put a halt to it on April 24. He noted planting spuds in moist soil can create dirt clods, which complicate harvest and bruise tubers. Aberdeen grower Ritchey Toevs believes late planting will “take the top off” of beet and grain yields. “It would be nice to be done by April 15 on all of our spring-seeded cereals,” said Toevs, who is still planting bar- ley. He’s more optimistic about his potato crop, though he ex- pects a later harvest. Cathy Wilson, the Idaho Wheat Commission’s director of research collaboration, said some growers in Western Ida- ho may opt to replace some spring wheat with shorter-sea- son crops. Some growers who have already planted grain in wet fields may have to re- plant areas in which puddles formed due to soil compac- tion and killed seed, Wilson said. Growers have told Wil- son almost no spring wheat had been planted north of the Salmon River, where fields re- main too wet.