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CapitalPress.com
June 9, 2017
Idaho dairymen to benefit from new beef plants
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
Capital Press
SALEM — The Oregon
Water Resources Depart-
ment is facing two new
lawsuits related to water
rights, one from Klam-
ath-area irrigators and the
other from environmental
groups opposed to a new
dairy in the eastern part of
the state.
Several irrigators are
challenging the agency’s
order shutting down irriga-
tion from Wood River and
its tributaries in the Upper
Klamath Basin due to a wa-
ter call from the Klamath
Tribes in April.
The tribes have “time
immemorial” water rights
under an OWRD determi-
nation, giving them priority
over the irrigators, whose
oldest water rights date
back to 1864.
OWRD determined that
flows in the Wood Riv-
er have fallen below the
tribes’ in-stream water right
of 323 cubic feet per sec-
ond, which is intended to
preserve fish and riparian
health.
However, the irriga-
tors’ lawsuit claims that
OWRD’s water flow gauge
is inaccurate or incapable of
measuring the full amount
of water in the Wood River.
Other measurements of
the river have gauged flows
of 427 to 502 cubic feet per
second, but OWRD’s local
watermaster has refused to
recognize these reports, ac-
cording to the petition for
judicial review.
The irrigators have
asked Marion County Cir-
cuit Judge Courtland Geyer
to overturn OWRD’s final
order prohibiting water
diversion and to issue an
injunction against enforce-
ment of future water calls
until proper measurements
are taken.
Aside from the Wood
River, other water calls
in the Upper Klamath Ba-
sin were also validated by
OWRD for the Williamson
and Sprague rivers. Irriga-
tors in the region estimate
the orders have affected
roughly 300,000 acres.
The other case filed
against OWRD concerns
the agency’s decision to
allow a planned dairy near
Boardman, Ore., to with-
draw more than 400 gallons
per minute from a ground-
water aquifer.
In April, the agency is-
sued the Lost Valley Dairy
a “limited license,” which
allows water withdrawal
for up to five years while
owner Greg te Velde se-
cures a more permanent
source of drinking water
for his cattle.
Columbia
Riverkeep-
er, Center for Food Safety,
Humane Oregon and Water-
watch of Oregon argue the
limited license is unlawful-
ly detrimental to the public
interest due to alleged wa-
ter and air pollution from
the dairy.
They
also
claimed
OWRD’s conclusion that
groundwater is available
and withdrawals won’t af-
fect senior water rights ar-
en’t supported by substan-
tial evidence.
The environmentalists’
petition for judicial review
asks Marion County Circuit
Judge Sean Armstrong to
reverse or modify the agen-
cy’s order.
A spokeswoman for
OWRD said the agency is
reviewing the lawsuits with
its attorneys at the state De-
partment of Justice.
John O’Connell/Capital Press
Kerry Ward of American Falls, Idaho, wearing the red hat and holding a calf, delivers livestock to his
brother Allan’s feedlot in Burley. Seven Ward brothers and two of their friends plan to open a meat
packing plant in Burley.
accepted by an on-site USDA
inspector. The bulk of the
meat will be sold for ham-
burger.
The Burley plant has
40,000 square feet and rep-
resents a $13 million invest-
ment by seven brothers from
Idaho’s Ward ranching fam-
ily, plus two friends. They
first broke ground on the plant
three years ago.
Rick Naerebout, direc-
tor of operations with Idaho
Dairymen’s Association, said
the Ward family’s plant will
give dairymen the opportunity
to turn profits from some cull
cows that they’d otherwise
have to pay to send to render-
ing. Naerebout noted Idaho is
the fourth largest dairy state,
and the absence of kill plants
was “noticeable.”
In addition to the stress,
Naerebout said cows tend to
lose weight when they are
shipped to out-of-state plants.
“On both accounts, it’s great
to have a local option for cull
cows,” Naerebout said. “That
will add to the bottom line of
Idaho’s rural economies.”
Farmers, ranchers have ‘unprecedented’ meeting with Ag, Interior secretaries
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
BOISE — Farmers and
ranchers described a private
meeting with two of Presi-
dent Donald Trump’s cabinet
members June 2 as unprece-
dented and historic.
Instead of addressing the
group, U.S. Agriculture Sec-
retary Sonny Perdue and In-
terior Secretary Ryan Zinke
listened and took notes, ac-
cording to those who were
there.
“They just didn’t have an
agenda. They truly wanted to
listen to us,” said Aberdeen
potato farmer Ritchey Toevs.
“It was a pro-producer meet-
ing. It was a completely dif-
ferent experience than I’ve
ever had.”
“They didn’t really say
much. They let us do the
talking,” said Jerome dairy-
man Mike Roth. “I feel like I
witnessed a little bit of history
today.”
Idaho Farm Bureau Feder-
ation President Bryan Searle,
a farmer from Shelley, said he
was floored by the nature of
the meeting.
“I’m still in shock that they
didn’t talk. They just flat-out
sat there and listened,” he
said.
During the hour-long
meeting, the producers were
given 5 minutes each to pres-
ent.
They covered a wide
range of topics, from immi-
gration and the importance
of labor to aquifer recharge,
Food Safety Modernization
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, left, and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue speak about farm and
natural resource issues June 2 at Boise State University. Earlier that day, the secretaries met privately
with farmers and ranchers.
Act requirements, NAFTA,
the U.S. Sheep Experiment
station in Dubois, invasive
water species, farm bill fund-
ing, the Endangered Species
Act, Equal Access to Justice
Act and grazing and other
federal
land-management
issues.
A lot more could have
been covered “but those that
spoke hit on many of the is-
sues important to most of the
commodities in our state...,”
said meeting participant Rick
Waitley, executive director of
Food Producers of Idaho.
He said “Perdue was
writing like crazy as people
talked about their various
LEGAL
LEGAL
PURSUANT TO ORS
CHAPTER 87
Notice is hereby given that the
following vehicle will be sold, for cash
to the highest bidder, on 6/13/2017.
The sale will be held at 10:00am by
STAYTON TIRE & AUTOMOTIVE
1794 W. IDA, STAYTON, OR
2008 Malibu 21 ft. boat
VIN=MB2K8737A808
Amount due on lien $55,900.00
Reputed owner(s) GAVIN CHAMBERS
KEY BANK USA NA
CORY & SUSIE DENT
HEALTH & POSTAL EMP C.U.
PURSUANT TO ORS
CHAPTER 819
Notice is hereby given that the
following vehicle will be sold, for cash
to the highest bidder, on 6/16/2017.
The sale will be held at 10:00am by
RANDY’S TOWING
925 WILCO RD., STAYTON, OR
1998 DODGE 2500 4C
VIN=1B7KC2363WJ252274
Amount due on lien $3,296.00
Reputed owner(s) AUSTIN NATHANIEL
CRAWFORD
MARK R. & LYNN JOHNSON
AUSTIN NATHANIEL CRAWFORD
AUSTIN NATHANIEL CRAWFORD
concerns” and Zinke asked
for specific names when it
came to certain public lands
issues, a development that
impressed other meeting par-
ticipants as well.
Searle told the secretaries
that 10 years after the Idaho
Supreme Court agreed with
Idaho ranchers that the U.S.
Bureau of Land Management
can’t own stock watering
rights on federally adminis-
tered land, “they’re still try-
ing to take those rights.”
“When that was said, Sec-
retary Zinke said, ‘Give me
names,’” Searle said. “That
was a bright spot.”
“The fact that they actual-
ly sat there and listened to 10
of us producers talk about the
issues that are affecting us is
completely unprecedented,”
Jerome rancher Laurie Lick-
ley said. “I think that we will
have the opportunity with this
administration to continue to
address and actually solve the
problems that we talked about
today.”
The meeting was set up
by Idaho State Department
of Agriculture Director Celia
Gould and kept on track by
Gov. Butch Otter, a Republi-
can rancher.
“They sat there for a solid
hour and listened to 10 differ-
ent producers,” Otter told the
Capital Press. “In every case,
both the secretaries ended up
with one question — ‘What
can we do to help you?’ That’s
refreshing.”
Gould’s intent was to have
producers from Idaho’s ma-
jor farm industries “talk di-
rectly to the secretaries rather
than being represented by
somebody else or having that
information filtered,” said
ISDA spokeswoman Chanel
Tewalt.
LEGAL
OREGON TECHNICAL
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
MEETING (OTAC)
WHAT: OTAC Meeting
WHEN: June 15, 2017
@12:30pm-4:00pm
WHERE: Oregon Department
of Fish and Wildlife
4034 Fairview Industrial Drive, SE
Salem, OR 97302
Room: Conference Room
For more information, or to
arrange special accommoda-
tions for meeting attendees,
please contact Cory Owens
at
503-414-3261
or
cory.owens@or.usda.gov.
legal-22-2-4/#4
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Legal-22-2-2/#4
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
legal-22-2-2/#4
Lawsuits
challenge
water rights
decisions
in Klamath,
Boardman
BURLEY, Idaho — Dairy-
men should get significantly
higher returns from the sale
of their cull cows starting this
summer, thanks to the addi-
tion of two new meat packing
facilities in Idaho.
CS Beef Packers opened
in Kuna on May 30 with
the capacity to process up
to 1,700 cows per day. The
370,000-square-foot plant is a
joint venture of J.R. Simplot
Co. and Caviness Beef Pack-
ers.
The plant will harvest cull
cows and bulls from dairy
farms and ranches through-
out the Intermountain West,
according to a company press
release.
The other plant, Ida Beef,
is scheduled to open July 20
in Burley and will specialize
in cull dairy cows that might
be too near the end of life to
ship to an out-of-state kill
plant. The cows will still be
required to have the strength
to walk into the plant on their
own and must meet the same
beef quality standards to be
Allan Ward, who operates
a 5,500-head Burley feedlot,
has been leasing an older lo-
cal kill plant for the past year
to train a staff of 52 work-
ers, who have been handling
more than 60 cull cows per
day.
Ward said the new plant
will open with the capacity
to kill 200 cows per day. He
intends to start by processing
about 85 cows per day and to
quickly ramp up to about 150
cows. The plant has space to
accommodate up to 500 cows
per day, and Ward intends to
gradually add new equipment
to boost capacity. Lagoon wa-
ter will be land applied to an
adjacent farm.
“With our plant and the
Simplot plant coming on,
the dairymen who have been
spending $80 to $100 per
cow to get their cows to mar-
ket, now they’ll spend $10 to
$30 per cow,” Ward said.
Ward estimates dairy-
men have shipped 4,500 cull
cows out of Idaho a week.
The CS Beef Packers fa-
cility brings 700 new jobs to
Kuna and includes hide pro-
cessing and rendering.
SAGE Fact #143
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