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.
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