14 CapitalPress.com
July 14, 2017
New insecticide to remain on market despite ESA violation
Cyantraniliprole provides new weapon against spotted wing drosophila in blueberries
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
A new reduced-toxicity
pesticide may remain on the
market even though its ap-
proval violated the Endan-
gered Species Act, according
to a federal appeals court.
Cyantraniliprole, or CTP,
was registered by the U.S.
Environmental
Protection
Agency in 2014 as an active
ingredient in 14 insecticide
brands used on numerous
crops. It’s commonly known
as Cyazypyr.
The chemical provides a
new weapon against the spot-
ted wing drosophila in blue-
berries and the Asian citrus
psyllid in citrus crops.
Environmental groups —
Center for Biological Diversi-
ty, Center for Food Safety and
Defenders of Wildlife — filed
a lawsuit against EPA claim-
ing the agency never studied
CTP’s potential effects on
threatened and endangered
species.
According to the plain-
tiffs, CTP may be “fairly
persistent” in an agricultural
environment even as it de-
grades, raising the possibility
the chemical will accumulate
over time.
The plaintiffs pointed to
EPA’s own ecological risk
assessment that found the
insecticide is expected to be
sprayed in areas inhabited by
1,377 endangered species.
The U.S. Court of Ap-
peals for the D.C. Circuit
has now agreed that EPA
violated the law by not re-
viewing the chemical’s po-
tential to affect protected
species or consulting about
those effects with other fed-
eral agencies.
However, the EPA did not
have “total disregard” for
CTP’s possible adverse con-
sequences, as shown by the
ecological risk assessment,
and registered the chemical
because it’s likely to replace
other insecticides more tox-
ic to humans, birds, fish and
bees, the D.C. Circuit said.
The D.C. Circuit said it’s
convinced that leaving CTP’s
registration in place while
EPA further evaluates the
chemical will maintain “en-
hanced protection of environ-
mental values.”
The insecticide’s manu-
facturer, DuPont, intervened
in the lawsuit, arguing that
CTP’s registration fulfilled
the fundamental purpose of
the Endangered Species Act.
The D.C. Circuit reject-
ed that argument, ruling that
EPA wasn’t excused from the
legal requirement to conduct
an “effects determination” or
consult about the chemical’s
impact with other agencies.
Senior Circuit Judge Ray-
mond Randolph dissented
from the ruling because he
believes the environmental
plaintiffs weren’t injured by
the pesticide’s approval and
thus lack the legal standing to
file the lawsuit.
Coors field day draws hundreds
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
John O’Connell/Capital Press
Rob Giesbrecht discusses the growth stages of dry beans at a field
he planted near American Falls, Idaho. He is attempting to grow
dry beans outside their usual production area.
Farmer in Eastern Idaho
experiments with dry beans
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
AMERICAN
FALLS,
Idaho — To keep his small,
Eastern Idaho farm financial-
ly healthy, Rob Giesbrecht
believes pioneering new
crops for his region is a saf-
er bet than sticking with the
status quo.
For a second consecutive
year, Giesbrecht has planted
a 63-acre field of dry beans
near American Falls — well
outside the crop’s established
growing area.
And his neighbors have
been watching his experi-
ment closely.
He also plans to try car-
rots as he moves toward
more high-value specialty
vegetables, hoping to earn a
profit without having to con-
tinuously scale up his opera-
tion to spread fixed costs over
more acres.
“As a smaller grower, it
takes volume to be profitable
in potatoes,” said Giesbrecht,
who farms 1,850 acres. “If I
can change my farm, I live to
see the future.”
Dry beans are a major
rotational crop in Idaho’s
warmer Magic and Treasure
valleys. But officials with
the Idaho Bean Commission
believe dry beans may be
poised to spread into new
production areas where they
haven’t typically been con-
sidered viable, including
Northern and Eastern Idaho.
“To limit ourselves to the
Magic or Treasure Valley in
the state of Idaho, I don’t
think that’s correct,” said
Don Tolmie, an Idaho Bean
Commission member who
sells bean seed. “If that pro-
duction is proven there, you
will see that acreage expand
very rapidly in places like
American Falls.”
Tolmie said dry bean pric-
es have remained relatively
strong despite declines in
other commodities because
of challenging conditions in
other global bean production
areas.
Giesbrecht, who is re-
quired to reduce his ground-
water irrigation under terms
of a recent water call settle-
ment, likes dry beans as a
low-water option.
Furthermore, they’re typi-
cally planted later than other
crops, enabling him to bene-
fit from spring growth on his
cover crops, which are plant-
ed to improve soil health. He
had to buy a used header to
harvest the beans, and he’ll
incur greater freight costs to
ship his crop to the Magic
Valley. But Giesbrecht was
pleased with last season’s
bean crop, until heavy rains
complicated his harvest.
He said his current crop is
also progressing nicely, but a
bit slower than Magic Valley
beans.
Giesbrecht said his buy-
er isn’t yet looking for ad-
ditional Eastern Idaho bean
growers and asked to remain
anonymous, wanting to test
the potential for raising beans
in the region to be prepared
for greater market demand in
the future.
Tolmie said the commis-
sion is funding a Northern
Idaho dry bean trial this
season in Genesee. They’re
working with the Pacific
Northwest Cooperative, us-
ing short-season navy bean
varieties.
“The last report was
they’re on schedule and do-
ing great,” Tolmie said.
Andi Woolf-Weibye, the
commission’s executive di-
rector, said she’s heard more
inquiries lately from grow-
ers mulling bean production
outside traditional grow-
ing areas, including from
an Eastern Idaho grower in
Grace. She attributes the
recent interest to short-sea-
son varieties, and that “ev-
erybody is always look-
ing for something new to
add.”
BURLEY, Idaho — It
seemed a mutual-admiration
celebration at the Coors field
day and grower appreciation
lunch on July 6. Though tem-
peratures reached 100 degrees,
about 400 people showed up —
and taps were flowing with cold
Coors brews.
Pete Coors, vice chairman
of Molson Coors Brewing
Co. — the parent company of
MillerCoors, its U.S. division
— told growers, “It is so hum-
bling to be amongst you who
work so hard to make the best
barley in the world.”
Molson Coors is the
third-largest brewer in the
world, and great barley is what
this is all about, he said.
“We used to believe great
beer is made in the malt house,
but … really, great beer is made
in the barley field,” he said.
Coors’ focus is constant
improvement of its beer. Its
breeding research develops the
best lines to achieve that goal
and provide viable varieties for
growers, he said.
The company owes much
thanks to its growers who
“work hard to make sure we get
good barley, and the results are
in the can,” he said.
Wade Malchow, Coors se-
nior manager of global barley,
said Idaho growers produce
one-third of Coors’ barley —
two cans out of every six-pack,
with the average-sized Idaho
grower’s contract representing
1.5 million cases of beer annu-
ally, he said.
In 2017, Idaho growers
planted about 60,000 acres of
Coors’ Moravian barley, with
an expected production of 8
million bushels, he said.
The Burley facility has a
storage capacity of 9 million
bushels, receiving barley from
growers nearly year-round and
shipping to four malting hous-
es, including Coors’ own in
Golden, Colo., once a week.
An investment in excess of
$12 million in 2016 doubled its
Carol Ryan Dumas/Capital Press
Bob Brunick, Molson Coors manager of barley breeding, center, talks about developing breeding lines
and shows research plots at the Coors facility in Burley, Idaho, on July 6. Behind him is Pete Coors,
vice chairman of Molson Coors Brewing Co.
Coors barley growers enjoy a grower appreciation lunch at the
Coors facility in Burley, Idaho.
receiving ability from 10,000
bushels an hour to 20,000 bush-
els an hour, he said.
Handling at the storage fa-
cility is “all about making a
lot of one thing really well,” so
that the first shipment of barley
to go out is the same as the last,
he said.
If things are done right at
the storage facility, it makes
the maltster’s job easier and
provides a consistent product
to the brew house. Consistency
is important so that Coors’ beer
is the same anywhere in the
world, he said.
At the heart of that consis-
tency is seed, and the Burley
facility has storage capacity for
500,000 pounds of registered
seed for its seed growers and
12.5 million pounds of certified
seed for its malt barley grow-
ers, said Brent Wolf, Coors ele-
vator supervisor at Burley.
Coors’ seed varieties are all
developed at its research green-
houses at Burley, where breed-
ers plant about 20,000 seeds a
year, making 300 to 350 cross-
es. The process requires four
generations for the genes in
the seed to become stable, said
Mont Stuart, Coors’ manager of
malt operations.
That seed ends up in test
plots at 14 field sites in Idaho,
Colorado, Montana, Wyoming
and Alberta, Canada, where
researchers grow it out and ob-
serve it or carry the resulting
barley through to quality and
malting testing, said Bob Bru-
nick, Coors’ manager of barley
breeding.
The company screens about
23,000 breeding lines a year,
and only about one in 100,000
lines becomes commercially
viable. The whole process takes
about eight to 10 years to re-
lease a variety, he said.
The objective is to “position
ourselves to have a proprietary
supply chain,” he said.
In addition to breeding for
quality and agronomics, the
company is also focused on
sustainability. For example,
if the company can develop
a variety that ripens quicker,
the crop would use less water.
Along the same vein, the com-
pany is also trying to develop
varieties that are viable for dry-
land farming, Pete Coors said.
Sustainability is a “key fo-
cus of the program now,” he
said.
Open house showcases drones, precision agriculture
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Farmers will see demonstra-
tions of the latest in drone and
precision agriculture technol-
ogy during an upcoming open
house.
Washington State Univer-
sity’s Center for Precision and
Automated Agricultural Sys-
tems will host an Agricultural
Technology Day at 1 p.m. July
31 at the Ag Technology Build-
ing, 24016 N. Bunn Road,
Prosser, Wash.
The event showcases the
university’s efforts, focusing
on unmanned aerial vehicles
and precision irrigation, said
Lav Khot, assistant professor of
precision agriculture.
Displays and short demon-
strations on the agenda include
robotic weeding, precision pol-
lination, mechanical pruning,
direct root-zone deficit irriga-
tion, robotic apple harvesting
and high-throughput crop phe-
notyping technologies.
Khot welcomes feedback.
“What we do has to make
sense in terms of how growers
use it,” he said.
He is also looking for col-
laborators to help him test the
technology, he said.
The university offers the
event every other year, Khot
said.
It’s anyone’s guess how far
along the tech will be when the
event is held again in 2019.
“It is advancing at a rapid
pace,” Khot said.
Certified crop advisor con-
tinuing education units for soil
and water management, crop
management and integrated
pest management are available.
The event is free but reg-
istration is required. Contact
Khot at 509-786-9302 or lav.
knot@wsu.edu or Linda Root
at 509-786-9235 or lsflem-
ing@wsu.edu
Idaho leads nation in personal income growth because of strong farm earnings
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
BOISE — Idaho led the
nation in personal income
growth during the first three
months of 2017, economists
say, and the gain was driven
largely by strong farm earn-
ings.
The state’s seasonally ad-
justed personal income grew
by 1.6 percent during the first
quarter of 2017 compared to
the fourth quarter of 2016, ac-
cording to the U.S. Bureau of
Economic Analysis.
Personal income grew by
1 percent nationwide. Florida,
Louisiana, Michigan and Tex-
as tied for second in personal
income growth, at 1.3 percent.
Personal income in Idaho
totaled $67.6 billion in the
first quarter, up from $66.5
billion in the fourth quarter of
2016. The gain was driven by
farm earnings, which grew by
$239 million, or 17 percent, to
$1.65 billion.
According to state Depart-
ment of Labor officials, farm
earnings accounted for 36
percent of the state’s personal
income growth during the first
quarter.
Agricultural and state
economists cautioned that
the quarterly data are often
revised, sometimes signifi-
cantly, but they also said the
growth in farm earnings in
Idaho is a positive sign.
The first quarter growth in
farm earnings marked the first
time since the third quarter
of 2015 that farm income in-
creased in the state.
Idaho farm income peak-
ed at $1.8 billion in the third
quarter of 2015 and dropped
every quarter after that until
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
A wheat field near Meridian, Idaho, on June 28. Strong farm earn-
ings were the major factor in Idaho leading the nation in personal
income growth during the first quarter of 2017.
the first quarter of 2017.
“The bottom line is it’s up
and that’s a lot better than be-
ing down,” said Garth Taylor,
a University of Idaho agricul-
tural economist.
Derek Santos, chief econ-
omist for the state Division of
Financial Management, cau-
tioned against getting too ex-
cited about one quarter of per-
sonal income data, but he also
said the significant increase in
farm earnings is a good sign.
“A quarter doesn’t make
a trend but the direction is
positive and hopefully it will
hold,” he said.
The total value of Idaho
agricultural exports reached
positive territory during the
first quarter of 2017 after de-
clining for two years.
The record or near-record
yields many Idaho crops ex-
perienced last year may have
played a role in the strong
first-quarter farm earnings.
Doug Robison, Northwest
Farm Credit Service vice
president of agriculture for
Western Idaho, told Capital
Press that in addition to high-
er values for key Idaho com-
modities, such as beef and
milk, 2016 was also an excel-
lent production year for many
farm commodities.
That resulted in above-av-
erage inventories from 2016
being sold in the first quarter
of 2017, he said in an email.
“Prices were somewhat
higher, but much of the (first
quarter personal income) gain
was due to the higher yields
and total production values
realized with the sale of these
commodities,” he said.
It’s unlikely there will be
a repeat this year of those
above-average yields ”that
helped support the increases
we saw in the first quarter,”
Robison said. “Without in-
creased commodity prices, we
may even see farm income de-
cline modestly once the 2016
inventory gains work their
way through the system.”