June 2, 2017
CapitalPress.com
5
Sheep research station on USDA chopping block, again
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
The U.S. Sheep Experi-
ment Station at Dubois, Ida-
ho, is one of 17 Agricultural
Research Service laboratories
slated for closure under Presi-
dent Donald Trump’s Depart-
ment of Agriculture FY 2018
budget proposal.
The facility is operated
by USDA in partnership with
the University of Idaho, and
is the only one in the U.S. do-
ing research on range sheep.
It was on USDA’s chopping
block twice before, in 2014
and 2015. It was spared both
times in ag appropriations bills
through efforts by Rep. Mike
Simpson, R-Idaho.
The beleaguered facility
had been the target of law-
suits by environmental groups
claiming its grazing activities
are a source of wildlife conflict
and possible disease transmis-
sion between domestic and
wild sheep.
USDA File
Sheep graze at the U.S. Sheep Experimental Station near Dubois,
Idaho. USDA is proposing to close the facility under President
Donald Trump’s budget proposal.
It’s also faced long vacan-
cies in research positions, with
USDA saying in 2014 it didn’t
have the funding to fill the po-
sitions while it was responding
to those legal actions.
In 2015 then-USDA Sec-
retary Tom Vilsack told Con-
gress the proposed closure was
due to a lack of financial and
human resources at the loca-
tion and costs associated with
animal feed, infrastructure and
staff.
Stakeholders, including in-
dustry and state and local gov-
ernments, have tried for years
to address the issues with
USDA to secure the viability
of the station and its continued
research.
Jim Brown, the public re-
lations director for the Mon-
tana Wool Growers Associ-
ation, said the organization
has worked hard to keep the
sheep station a viable federal
research facility.
Keeping it from closure is
something the industry faces
again with the new administra-
tion. But Congress has always
rejected its closure, stating
support for the research being
done there, he said.
Congress has the sole au-
thority to set the federal bud-
get.
Brown said it’s a one-of-a-
kind facility in the U.S., doing
research on sheep breeding,
range management, reproduc-
tion and wild-domestic sheep
interaction.
“It would be irreplaceable.
It would be devastating to lose
that continuity,” he said.
On May 25, MWGA sent
letters to Sens. Jon Tester,
D-Mont., and Steve Daines,
R-Mont., opposing Trump’s
budget proposal to close the
station, stating the critical need
for it to be fully funded to fill
longstanding vacant positions.
The station covers about
48,000 acres on the Ida-
ho-Montana border and has
about 3,000 mature sheep plus
young sheep of various ages.
Its current budget is $2.1
million, with a staff of 16 full-
time federal and two Universi-
ty of Idaho employees, accord-
ing to ARS.
Peter Orwick, executive di-
rector of the American Sheep
Association, said there has to
be room in the budget for the
only ARS research facility in
the country dedicated to the
sheep industry.
News of the proposed clo-
sure caught the Idaho Wool
Growers Association by sur-
prise, said Barry Duelke, as-
sociation president and a Buhl
sheep producer.
“We had an extensive go-
around battle essentially two
or three years ago and we
thought that was over with,”
he said.
Sheep producers have al-
ways supported the sheep sta-
tion and will continue to do
so, he said.
“We will continue to fight
for the survival of the Dubois
station, I can assure you of
that,” he said.
USDA Deputy Secretary
Michael Young told reporters
May 23 that USDA’s budget
for research, education and
economics includes $2.5 bil-
lion in discretionary funding,
a decrease of $425 million
from 2017.
“Within that funding
there’s about $1 billion for the
Agricultural Research Ser-
vice, the USDA laboratories.
I would note there, there’s a
cut of about $142 million that
would result in the closure of
17 of those laboratories out of
the total of 90,” he said.
Freeze damage shows up in Washington, Oregon blackberries
By DON JENKINS
and ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
Oregon and Washington
berry farmers and crop con-
sultants say that the harm
inflicted by a hard winter on
blackberry bushes is becom-
ing clear.
Bushes are failing to
bloom, and some farmers
have cut canes to the ground,
sacrificing this year’s crop in
hopes of rebounding stronger
in 2018.
“Probably the hardest de-
cision a farmer has to make
is scrap his crop. But if you
don’t see blooms, you won’t
see fruit,” said Ridgefield,
Wash., berry farmer Jerry
Dobbins. “The damage is cat-
astrophic. It’s every place.”
Oregon dominates U.S.
blackberry production, while
berry growers across the Co-
lumbia River in southwest
Washington have been adding
blackberry acres. Growers
produced large crops in 2015
and 2016, but saw prices fall.
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Southwest Washington blackberry grower Jerry Dobbins stands alongside a blackberry field May 24
in Woodland. Dobbins and other growers say a cold winter and wet spring damaged blackberry vines
and will sharply reduce yields.
The U.S. is a net importer
of blackberries, with berries
coming from such countries
as Mexico, Chile and Serbia,
according to the USDA.
Although this year’s do-
mestic crop apparently will
be smaller, Woodland, Wash.,
berry grower George Thoeny
said he fears that imported
berries will hold down prices
that farmers receive.
“We hope the price will rise
some, but we won’t know un-
til the season is over,” Thoeny
said. “I think the industry is
looking at a disaster.”
The Willamette Valley and
southwest Washington weath-
ered a cold winter, followed
by a wet spring. This March
was the second-wettest on
record in southwest Washing-
ton, according to the National
Centers for Environmental In-
formation, which has records
dating back to 1885.
John Davis of Crop Pro-
duction Services said he has
never seen a blackberry crop
like this in his 38 years as an
agricultural consultant in both
states. “If you look, there’s
damage in every field,” he
said.
Although the extent of the
damage only recently became
evident, he said he believes
the cold snaps caused the
harm, more than the rain.
“Week by week, I noticed
there was more and more
damage showing up,” Davis
said. “The blackberry crop
went from what I thought
would be a good crop to mar-
ginal.”
Crop consultant Tom Peer-
bolt said that in parts of Wash-
ington County, a prime berry
growing area west of Port-
land, the temperature dropped
to 5 degrees. With blackber-
ries coming into full bloom
before the July harvest, grow-
ers are assessing the damage,
he said.
“The blackberry crop is
not going to be a full crop this
year,” he said. “If we don’t
get any additional weather
extremes, we can maximize
what we’ve got out there.”
Peerbolt said that raspber-
ries, blueberries and strawber-
ries are fine, an observation
confirmed by others.
Chad Finn, a berry breeder
with the USDA’s Agricultural
Research Service at Oregon
State University, said freeze
damage was spotty.
Berry test plots in Corval-
lis and at OSU’s North Willa-
mette Research and Extension
Center in Aurora survived
the cold. Fields in the Forest
Grove area west of Portland
and nearer the Columbia
River Gorge, where cold air
pools, sustained damage, Finn
said.
Peerbolt said freeze dam-
age was heaviest at farms
growing the Marion blackber-
ry variety.
On a tour of farms in Clark
and Cowlitz counties Tues-
day, Dobbins pointed to fields
of Black Diamond and Co-
lumbia Star blackberries that
were damaged, too.
He estimated that yields in
slightly damaged fields will
be down 10 percent.
Dobbins cut 5 acres to the
ground. As he watches his re-
maining 55 acres struggle to
bloom, he said he wishes he
had cut more acres.
Wheat growers deal with
additional stripe rust pressure
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
Oregon wheat farmers, like
their counterparts in Washing-
ton and Idaho, are using addi-
tional fungicide treatments to
stave off stripe rust this year.
Christina Hagerty, a plant
pathologist with Oregon State
University’s Columbia Basin
Agricultural Research Center
near Pendleton, said a heavi-
er than normal snowfall and
extended periods of cold and
Courtesy of Chris Mundt/OSU
rain from fall to spring re- Stripe rust is a growing concern
sulted in conditions ideal for for Oregon wheat farmers.
diseases.
She said the season is sign. “That means they’ve got
shaping up to have higher enough water to have a good
than average stripe rust in- crop,” he said.
fections, and the weather
He said growers were able
conditions also were condu- to see stripe rust developing
cive to development of snow last fall.
mold and wheat mosaic virus,
“Rust got established re-
which Oregon growers usual- ally early,” he said. “It’s a
ly don’t see.
pathogen that has a very high
The situation is part of a reproductive rate, it goes
conundrum faced by North through multiple generations
Central and Eastern Oregon’s of reproduction. Anytime
dryland wheat producers in it starts early, there’s more
particular. In Pendleton, 9.14 chance for buildup.”
inches of rain has fallen since
Disease-resistant varieties
January — 3 inches more than developed by wheat breed-
normal, according to the Na- ers kept stripe rust at bay for
tional Weather Service.
years, but new strains have
Additional precipitation spread, Mundt said.
in a region that gets by on 8
Snow mold is more of a
to 20 inches of rain per year problem in colder areas such
is always welcome, but can as Eastern Washington, he
come with a cost.
said. It can form when snow
“The conditions that lead falls on wet ground and keeps
to good, strong, healthy plants it at 32 degrees for extended
often overlap with conditions periods. In Oregon it’s rare,
that lead to good, strong, and plants often can shake
healthy pathogens,” Hagerty it off and grow out of initial
said. A lack of moisture limits damage.
plant growth, but it also keeps
Dry, hot weather can shut
pathogens in check, she said. down stripe rust, especially in
“I have heard folks with wheat varieties bred to have
far more experience than me high temperature, adult plant
say that big rust years often resistance. Otherwise, fungi-
have the highest yields,” she cide applications are effec-
said.
tive, but costly, the research-
Christopher Mundt, a ers said.
plant pathology professor
“Growers are out there
who supervised Hagerty’s looking for it,” Mundt said.
Ph.D. work at OSU, said he “They’ve picked up the les-
sometimes jokes that stripe son that you can’t let rust get
rust emergence is a good away from them.”
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