16 CapitalPress.com
May 12, 2017
WAFLA calls for suspension of state pay survey
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — The Wash-
ington State Employment Se-
curity Department should sus-
pend its annual agricultural
survey of wages and practices
until it addresses apparent in-
consistencies, the director of a
farm labor organization says.
The surveys are used to
help set minimum wages for
foreign guestworkers,
Dan Fazio, director of
the farm labor organization
WAFLA, sent a letter to ESD
Commissioner Dale Peinecke
on May 5 requesting suspen-
sion of the survey and asking
for a meeting with Peinecke
and the state Department of
Agriculture.
Fazio said WAFLA hired
Dan Wheat/Capital Press File
Dan Fazio, director of WAFLA,
on Feb. 23.
EcoNorthwest, an econom-
ic research company, to look
at the surveys. It concluded
ESD’s 2015 “survey numbers
make no sense and aren’t us-
able” for analysis.
“For example, ESD report-
ed 128,869 apple workers in
2015 which was larger than
the total average agriculture
workforce in Washington
that year,” EcoNorthwest
wrote.
In his letter, Fazio said
he’s concerned about an ESD
survey used by the U.S. De-
partment of Labor to help
set minimum piece rates for
H-2A-visa foreign guest-
workers.
WAFLA has submitted
a public records request for
data from that survey, the let-
ter states.
Gustavo Aviles, an ESD
manager, said he does not
think the 2015 survey is
flawed, that he will double
check the survey, wants to
know where Fazio got his
numbers and is working on a
response to Fazio’s letter.
Worker surveys begin in
late June and employer sur-
veys begin in late August or
early September, said Zoe Za-
dworny, an economic analyst
working with Aviles.
“I would like to hear what
they have to say. Perhaps
they will say that the figures
are different because they
changed methodologies. We
all agree we need good data.
Let’s start from there,” Fazio
told Capital Press.
In his letter, he said there
is no reason for ESD to do
a piece rate survey separate
from an hourly wage survey.
Piece rate is “extremely
difficult to survey because it
is dynamic, subject to many
changes based on (fruit) vari-
ety, picking conditions, time
of year and a host of other
variables,” he wrote.
Federal guidelines require
receipt of completed surveys
from employers of at least
15 percent of the workers
in the crop or variety being
surveyed, he said, adding
he doubts ESD surveyed
employers of 15 percent of
128,869 workers.
ESD’s 2016 report estimat-
ed 12 Braeburn apple growers
in the state, a drop from 49
the year before, Fazio wrote
in the letter.
Industry representatives
call the Braeburn grower
number “nonsensical,” he
wrote, adding that there are
far more than 12 Braeburn
growers in the state.
The estimate may be based
on numbers of growers who
responded to the survey,
which is problematic since
fewer growers responded
in 2016 after ESD gave the
names of respondents, given
in confidence in 2015, to the
state attorney general, Fazio
wrote.
The attorney general in-
vestigated ESD’s claim that
WAFLA biased the 2015 sur-
vey by warning growers that
choosing piece rate over hour-
ly wage reporting could artifi-
cially inflate prevailing wages
for the next season.
WAFLA complied with a
request for information from
the attorney general but a
judge ruled a second request
from the attorney general an
invasion of privacy and un-
constitutional.
Ag Fest sets record, honors
ag education award winners
By JAN JACKSON
For the Capital Press
Courtesy Marion County Dairy Women
Donata Doornenbal is the 2017 Marion County Dairy Princess/Am-
bassador. 2017 Oregon Dairy Princess/Ambassador Kiara Single
crowned her May 2 at the Red Lion Hotel in Salem, Ore.
Marion County’s
new Dairy Princess
Ambassador crowned
SALEM, Ore. — Donata
Doornenbal was crowned the
2017 Marion County Dairy
Princess Ambassador May 2
at the Red Lion Hotel in Sa-
lem.
She is the daughter of Joe
and Astrid Doornenbal of
Scio, Ore. She was raised on
her family’s 200-cow organic
dairy farm, where she attained
her high school diploma as a
home school student.
Currently, Donata works
as a tax preparer in Salem.
In her time off she enjoys
working on the dairy, feeding
calves and mowing pastures,
among other chores, accord-
ing to a news release.
She plans to attend
Chemeketa Community Col-
lege to further her education
in foreign language and busi-
ness accounting. Donata is
also a member of the Salem
Youth Symphony, playing
the violin, and is active in the
music group at Immanuel Re-
formed Church.
At the event, Donata gave
an entertaining speech titled
“No Farms. No Food!” She
then presented a TV com-
mercial about cheese and an-
swered an impromptu ques-
tion.
The 2017 Oregon Dairy
Princess Ambassador, Kiara
Single, presented her with
the tiara that she will wear as
she represents Marion Coun-
ty dairy farm families and
promotes dairy products. In
addition, she will compete
to become the 2018 Oregon
dairy princess ambassador in
January.
Donata will receive schol-
arships from Marion County
Dairy Women, Woodburn
Livestock Exchange, Cascade
Dairy Service, VandeBurgt &
Co., Ernst Irrigation, Buchan-
an Cellars-Valley Feed, Ag
West Supply, All West-Select
Sires, CHS Nutrition, Purina
Nutrition and Oak Lea Mix-
ers.
Emma Coleman, of St.
Paul, the 2016 Marion County
Dairy Princess Ambassador,
received the $2,500 college
scholarship given by Marion
County Dairy Women. She is
a freshman at Cal Poly.
To schedule an activity
with Donata, contact her ad-
visor, Jessie DeJager, at 503-
588-9092.
SALEM, Ore. — A re-
cord–breaking crowd attend-
ed the 30th annual Ag Fest
April 29-30 at the Oregon
State Fairgrounds.
Tami Kerr, executive di-
rector of Oregon Dairy Farm-
ers Association and 2017 Ag
Fest chair, was enthusiastic
about the record-breaking re-
sults of this year’s event.
“It was a record-breaking
year in every way,” Kerr said.
“The trade show filled faster
this year than ever before, we
had more local food producers
selling cheese, salsa, pies and
meat ... new cooking demon-
strations from Bob’s Red Mill
and there were more hands-
on experiences than ever in
both Ag Country and the ani-
mal barns.”
When she first joined the
board 17 years ago, the event
drew 7,000 to 8,000 attend-
ees.
“This year,” Kerr said,
“we nearly hit 22,000 —
21,964 to be exact. No oth-
er state that I know of has a
premier agriculture education
event that matches this one,
and it is a thrill to see entire
families learning together
about where their food comes
from.”
Part of the event was the
presentation of the Oregon
Ag Fest Agricultural Edu-
cation Awards. Top award
winners were members of the
Echo, Ore., FFA, the Henley
FFA near Klamath Falls and
the Oregon Dairy Women.
Jan Jackson/For the Capital Press
Petting an eight-week-old Nigerian Dwarf goat was among the many popular attractions at the 30th
Annual Ag Fest held at the Salem Fairgrounds April 29-30. A record-breaking 21,964 adults and
children attended this year’s event.
To extend their mission
beyond the annual two-day
event, Ag Fest organizers de-
cided to award student organi-
zations, nonprofit groups and
others who promote agricul-
ture and educate Oregonians
about it.
Echo FFA members —
Echo is a small town 8 miles
south of Hermiston in East-
ern Oregon — took home the
first-place prize of $1,000 for
their 2,333 “agricultural learn-
ing moments” they advocated
between January 2016 and
March 2017.
Those projects included
presenting Ag in the Class-
room lessons to elementary
classrooms in the Echo School
District, hosting a petting zoo
for elementary- through high
school-age students, teaching
a lesson at Rocky Heights El-
ementary School in Hermis-
ton and taking part in work
stations at the Eastern Oregon
Agriculture Field Day at the
Sustainable Agriculture and
Energy Center in Boardman.
The 10 Echo FFA members
who attended Ag Fest to ac-
cept their award also spent the
morning assisting with pedal
tractor races, parking cars and
the Ag Challenge scavenger
hunt.
Henley FFA took home the
second-place prize of $600 for
working with the local Klam-
ath Falls Farm Expo, hosting
an Ag Field Day for students
at a local elementary school,
participating in the Oregon
Ag in the Classroom Spring
Literacy Project, as well as
other community service ef-
forts that included working
with PLAY — Promoting
Lifelong Activities for Youth
— and the Klamath County
Forestry Tour.
Accepting the $400 prize
for third place was 2017 State
Dairy Princess Ambassa-
dor Kiara Single and Jessica
Kliewer, state director of the
Dairy Princess Ambassador
Program for the Oregon Dairy
Women. Since 1959, the vol-
unteer organization has been
telling dairy’s story to the
public through the princess
ambassador program and oth-
er efforts.
H-2A progress, appointment raise hopes for ag, reps say
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
The Trump administration
is processing H-2A-visa appli-
cations faster than the Obama
administration did last year,
and recent comments and ap-
pointments are giving agricul-
tural labor organizations hope
for more gains.
President Donald Trump is
firmly committed to helping
agriculture thrive, Ray Starling,
a member of the president’s
Council of Economic Advis-
ers, told a group of agricultur-
al journalists in Washington,
D.C., on April 24. He also
spoke recently at the National
Press Club.
Trump is fully aware agri-
culture needs trade agreements
and labor and will be looking
carefully at how to improve or
expand the H-2A-visa program
for foreign guestworkers, Star-
ling said.
“We are very heartened by
that. Ray is former chief coun-
sel to Sen. Thom Tillis of North
Carolina and has a good grasp
of labor intensive ag issues,”
Frank Gasparini Jr., executive
vice president of the National
Council for Agricultural Em-
ployers, told Capital Press.
The appointment of Kristi
Boswell, director of congres-
sional relations at the American
Farm Bureau Federation, as se-
nior adviser to Secretary of Ag-
riculture Sonny Perdue, is also
“very positive” for labor-inten-
sive agriculture, Gasparini said.
“She knows the issue back-
ward and forward,” Dan Fazio,
director of WAFLA, formerly
the Washington Farm Labor
Association, said of Boswell.
He called her appointment and
Starling’s comments “very pos-
itive.”
“Everything we see out of
the Trump administration on
labor-intensive agriculture is
very positive. The only thing
we’ve been hampered by is
getting Trump’s policy hires
ramped up because of the tox-
ic environment (in Congress),”
Fazio said.
He said he’s hopeful small
policy gains on H-2A can oc-
cur in the next three to six
months, including allowing
USDA-funded housing to be
used for H-2A workers. A 70-
bed facility in Granger, Wash.,
can’t be used for H-2A now
because of the policy regarding
USDA funding, he said.
Changes to policy and in-
terpretation of regulations can
be done relatively quickly, but
changes to regulations take lon-
ger, Gasparini said.
Regulatory changes to
H-2A could occur later, he said.
Nothing will happen in time
to help H-2A this year except
faster processing of applica-
tions by the State and Labor de-
partments, and that seems to be
happening, Gasparini said.
U.S. Customs and Immi-
gration Services, which caused
the most delays last year by
“sitting on contracts,” seems to
be better this year but is strug-
gling to keep up with demand,
Fazio said. USCIS still needs
to streamline the process but
it works as long as WAFLA
allows 75 days for processing,
he said.
Idaho dryland farm raises, grazes cover crops
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
POCATELLO, Idaho —
Mike McNabb and his family
are experimenting to see if a
system to improve soil health
by mimicking nature can
work in their arid region.
As in nature, their farm
avoids soil disturbance, there-
by maintaining proper soil
structure to support beneficial
organisms. They were among
the first in the region to try no-
till farming in the late 1970s.
Since the fall of 2014,
they’ve also sought to keep
living roots in their fields,
using a diverse mixture of
water-efficient plants raised
for soil-health benefits, called
cover crops. Cattle “mob
graze” their cover crops, con-
fined by electric fencing in
small paddocks and moved
frequently to mimic move-
ments of historic bison herds.
Cover crops are in vogue
on Idaho’s irrigated farms,
where they’re often tilled into
soil to decompose as “green
manure.” Most Southern Ida-
ho dryland farmers, however,
have shied away from cover
crops, worried raising plants
they don’t intend to harvest
would unnecessarily deplete
soil moisture.
“We’re not as concerned
about that because there’s
enough other benefits that out-
weigh that,” McNabb said, not-
ing he’s “still in the trial phase”
with grazing cover crops, but
believes healthier soils should
ultimately retain more water.
McNabb said cattle provide
a fertilizer benefit without the
need to incorporate cover crops
into soil with tillage, as they
evenly recirculate nutrients in
their manure. He also benefits
from the forage value of cover
crops. On one 30-acre dryland
plot, McNabb produced about
120 animal unit months of for-
age. Each AUM — the forage
needed to sustain a cow-calf
pair for a month — is worth
roughly $25.
His cover crops also keep
pests and diseases that thrive
in monocultures at bay in his
wheat and alfalfa rotation.
This spring, the McNabbs
will plant 350 acres to cover
crops, which they’ll graze in a
couple of months, before ter-
minating the cover crops with
glyphosate herbicide and di-
rect-seeding fall wheat. They
also have 80 acres of fall cover
crops, which they’ll graze in
June. They’ll replant 50 acres
in a warm-season cover crop
blend, using irrigation, to graze
again in the fall.
McNabb said he’s likely
reached the ceiling for his cov-
er crop acreage and was moti-
vated by low wheat prices to try
the experiment.
“If wheat comes back up,
there’s a good chance we’ll put
more wheat in again, but I’d
love it if we find a niche and it
works out because it lowers our
fertilizer and chemical usage
and feeds the soil better,” Mc-
Nabb said.
The McNabbs obtained fi-
nancial assistance for their ex-
periments from USDA’s Nat-
ural Resources Conservation
Service.