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May 12, 2017 CapitalPress.com 5 Livestock research center passes feasibility review By CAROL RYAN DUMAS Capital Press A long-awaited livestock research facility got the go- ahead in a new feasibility study commissioned by the University of Idaho. A large focus of the Cen- ter for Agriculture, Food and the Environment will be sus- tainable milk production. It would include a 2,000-cow dairy with robotic milking machines and 1,000 acres of associate cropland and em- ploy wastewater treatment and nutrient recovery sys- tems. It would also allow for a food processing facility, offer laboratory space and provide housing for faculty, staff and students. “It would be the most modern and largest research dairy in the U.S. and likely in the world,” said Universi- Don Potts, WSDA grain inspection manager, passes away By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press Don Potts, manager of the state grain inspection pro- gram in Eastern Washington, died May 6 of cancer. Potts died after “a coura- geous battle with cancer,” ac- cording to a Washington State Department of Agriculture news release. He was 60. WSDA di- rector Derek Sandison and deputy director Don Potts Kirk Robin- son said Potts “touched many lives, repre- sented WSDA with the highest degree of professionalism and served our industry partners in ways too numerous to count.” Potts also managed WSDA’s grain warehouse au- dit program and worked with foreign trade groups, the Wash- ington Grain Commission and local educational outreach pro- grams. Potts’ “superb grading skills” made him a valuable resource to other inspectors, Sandison and Robinson said in the notice. The industry remembers him as a gentleman and “in- valuable” resource for farmers. “He will be sorely, sorely missed,” said Glen Squires, CEO of the Washington Grain Commission. “He was a tre- mendous ally and asset to the wheat industry.” Squires appreciated Potts’ outreach to farmers. “He was always working for the benefit of the grower,” Squires said. “He was very pa- tient, very methodical in all his presentations.” Potts was a great resource for the wheat industry during the falling number test prob- lems that surfaced last year, Squires said. “His door was always open to meet and help the industry move forward,” Squires said. Potts was also the WSDA’s representative on the Wash- ington Pulse Crops Commis- sion for 10 to 15 years, said Todd Scholz, vice president of research and member ser- vices for the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council. “Grades are a pretty im- portant part of selling peas and lentils ... so if the indus- try had a grading problem, he was our guy we went to,” Scholz said. “(He) was a great source of technical informa- tion and then just a great sup- porter of the industry.” Scholz then added: “He was just a really fine gentle- man. The industry is really sad today.” Potts is survived by his mother, Laura Lee; sons Tay- lor, Kasey and Colby; his ex- wife, Sheri; and sisters Deb- bie, Terri, Lori and Wendy. Services for Potts will be at 11 a.m. May 20 at St. John Vianney Church, 503 N. Wal- nut Road in Spokane Valley, Wash. Carol Ryan Dumas/Capital Press File Cows at the feed bunk at Bettencourt Dairy No. 1 in Wendell, Idaho. A proposed University of Idaho livestock research facility got the go-ahead in a new feasibility study. ty of Idaho President Chuck Staben. Taking into consideration land costs, capital costs of construction, production cost, milk prices and research grants and contracts, the fea- sibility study showed the fa- cility could operate at a “net- zero-type cost” for the first five or six years, he said. The price tag to purchase land, build the facility and get it operating is $45 million. Gov. Butch Otter and the Leg- islature have committed $10 million to the project, with $5 million more in the offing. It’s up to the university to find the remaining $30 million inter- nally and externally, he said. The study also indicated that buying land and building the dairy was a better way to go than buying an existing dairy and retrofitting it for re- search, he said. Retrofitting an existing dairy would have pushed the cost $14 million to $18 mil- lion higher and would have entailed permitting and scien- tific constraints. A site has not yet been de- termined, but the goal is still to have it within about 20 miles of the College of South- ern Idaho in Twin Falls, said Michael Parrella, dean of the university’s College of Agri- cultural and Life Sciences. Agriculture is obviously important to Idaho, and dairy is a huge component of that, he said. The facility will focus on environmental research to keep dairy production sustain- able. Efforts to build the research center started about 10 years ago but were sidelined by the recession, he said. The need for such a facility has increased over time, and the mission has changed to address different needs. The mission now is more region- al and will involve more than just CALS and have a greater educational component, he said. It will involve several of the university’s colleges, in- cluding engineering, science, natural resources, business and economics, education, art and architecture and letters, arts and social sciences. It will accommodate researchers and students from the university as well as those from other universities and offer distance education and internships. “I think there’s a fair amount of excitement for this,” he said. The center will hit the tri- fecta of the university’s mis- sion — research, teaching and outreach, Staben said. “It’s exactly the kind of project we need to do,” he said. The university has long supported research into crop agriculture; it needs to step up and extend that support to live- stock, he said. The university is exploring partnerships and collaboration with other Idaho universities and the Idaho National Labo- ratory. Given the uniqueness of the facility, it’s likely to attract industry and academia outside Idaho as well, he said. The university is moving forward with finding internal funding and is counting on outside support to reach the needed $30 million. Staben is hoping the center will be oper- ational in about five years. Oregon’s water supply in good shape By ERIC MORTENSON Capital Press The state’s heavy snow- pack and water supply outlook held steady in April, good news especially for five Deschutes River irrigation districts that cut back water use last year after getting caught up in a lawsuit over the Oregon spotted frog. The latest report from the Portland office of USDA Nat- ural Resources Conservation Service showed that the state- wide snowpack in all river ba- sins was 155 percent of average as of May 1. For comparison, the snow- pack was 11 percent of normal at this time of year in 2015, 62 percent in 2014 and 64 per- cent in 2016. Heavy snowfall and cold wet weather through- out this past winter and spring broke the drought that gripped the Pacific Northwest the past three years. Julie Koeberle, an NRCS hydrologist and member of the agency’s snow survey team, said Oregon’s summer water Eric Mortenson/Capital Press The John Day River north of Condon, Ore., has a healthy flow this spring. River basins across the state are in good shape this year due to a heavy snowpack and cold spring rain, which is good news for irriga- tors. The amount of water held in the John Day basin snowpack was 254 percent of normal as of May 1. supply hasn’t looked this good since 2011. “Everybody’s happy this year,” she said. Koeberle said it’s unlikely that warm weather will rapidly melt the snowpack and change the water outlook for this sum- mer. “Not at this point,” she said. “The snow remaining is still above normal. With this much snow left, even if we had a rap- id snow melt that occurred, we still have a buffer.” The water outlook is wel- come news for the five irriga- tion districts that were accused in lawsuits of violating the En- dangered Species Act by harm- ing the Oregon spotted frog. The complaints were filed by the Center for Biological Di- versity and Waterwatch of Or- egon against the federal Bureau of Reclamation, which operates Deschutes River system reser- voirs, and the Arnold, Central Oregon, Lone Pine, North Unit and Tumalo irrigation districts. As a result of a 2016 set- tlement, the districts agreed to maintain minimum river flows at a level that provided better habitat for the frogs. To do that in a period of drought and di- minished water levels, the dis- tricts had to forgo some of the irrigation water they normally would have drawn from the system. Things look much better this spring. “At this point we expect us- ers should get full allotments of water,” said ShanRae Hawkins, spokeswoman for the districts. “Certainly having more water in the basin is helpful to every- one. It’s good for fish, good for wildlife and benefits irrigation users.” She said the snow-water equivalent — the amount of water in the snow — recently measured 117 percent of nor- mal in the Upper Deschutes and Crooked River basins. The Crane Prairie and Wickiup reservoirs, which store irri- gation water, are filling with runoff from melting snow. They stood at 87 percent and 83 percent full, respectively, as of May 8. 19-4/#4N