10 CapitalPress.com
July 28, 2017
Idaho
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Weather stations addressing
falling numbers knowledge gap
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
ABERDEEN, Idaho — Research-
ers will soon get a comprehensive look
at how environmental conditions affect
levels of an enzyme that can impair flour
quality by digesting starch.
The state Wheat Commission financed
the installation of weather stations this
season at the University of Idaho’s 16
regional variety trials, seeking to pair
minute-by-minute, site-specific weather
data with results of the low falling num-
bers test.
The test entails making a gravy from
flour and recording the time needed
for a paddle to fall through the gelati-
nized starch, measuring activity of the
starch-degrading enzyme alpha amylase.
UI Extension cereals pathologist Ju-
liet Marshall explained an unacceptably
low falling number test can often result
from pre-harvest sprouting — when rain
triggers wheat to germinate premature-
ly. But late-maturing alpha amylase can
also compromise grain in the absence of
sprouting, triggered by environmental
stresses, such as a wide spread in day and
nighttime temperatures.
“We’re hopeful that we’ll be able to
identify the varieties that are susceptible
to the late-maturing alpha amylase prob-
lem and warn growers not to put them
in areas susceptible to low falling num-
Courtesy Idaho Wheat Commission
A new weather station, funded by the Idaho
Wheat Commission, records weather data
at a University of Idaho regional variety trial
site. The stations will help UI pair data on
environmental conditions with low falling
numbers test results.
bers,” Marshall said. “It helps us pinpoint
the exact environmental conditions that
are conducive to that problem.”
The Wheat Commission contributed
$16,000 to cover the installation of the
weather stations, which record tempera-
ture, humidity and rainfall on a Zip drive,
facilitating data aggregation. Some of the
stations also have sensors to record vari-
ations in readings below the crop canopy.
Doug Finkelnburg, a UI Extension
educator based in Lewiston, submitted
the grant request following a discussion
among Idaho wheat officials who had at-
tended a falling numbers summit hosted
in February in Spokane, Wash.
Finkelnburg said the weather stations
give the industry a new variety screening
tool, and will also aid wheat breeders in
selecting parents for crosses.
“We think what causes late-maturity
alpha amylase is likely associated with
multiple genes, which means a number of
conditions can come together to trigger
susceptibility,” Finkelnburg said. “We
don’t know what those stresses are.”
Researchers say the weather stations
should also come in handy in studying
how changing environmental conditions
affect several crop diseases, such as
stripe rust.
“(Growers) want answers, and we
can’t give them the answers unless we
have the environmental data to go along
with data we have on grain,” said Cathy
Wilson, the Wheat Commission’s direc-
tor of research collaboration.
Wilson said her organization is also
funding research delving into the molec-
ular interactions influencing the outcome
of the falling numbers test.
Bean commission project seeks to develop advanced yellow bean lines
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
NAMPA, Idaho — The
Idaho Bean Commission
is working on a project de-
signed to develop improved
yellow bean varieties that
could result in the state’s
dry bean growers selling
more yellow bean seed in
Mexico.
The IBC has received
a $134,000 specialty crop
grant from the Idaho State
Department of Agriculture
for the breeding project,
which will include Universi-
ty of Idaho and Oregon State
University researchers.
The goal is to develop
advanced yellow bean lines
with more intense yellow
seed color and larger size,
with high resistance to bean
common mosaic virus and
other bean diseases.
A previous IBC-spon-
sored research project devel-
oped two yellow bean variet-
ies with BCMV resistance.
Those varieties are being
brought to the market now
and it’s the first time that a
yellow bean has had “off-
the-chart resistance to bean
common mosaic virus,” said
IBC board member Don Tol-
mie, production manager for
Treasure Valley Seed Co.
“(They) will out-produce
anything in Latin America
because it has BCMV resis-
tance,” he said. “What kills
them in Mexico is that they
don’t have the resistance.”
The project seeks to com-
bine that disease resistance in
yellow varieties that are more
culturally accepted in Mexi-
co. That means a more in-
tense yellow color and larger
size.
The BCMV-resistant yel-
low bean varieties created
through the previous proj-
ect aren’t yellow enough
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Consumers in Latin Amer-
ican nations “really want that
vivid yellow color and that’s
what we are really trying to
accomplish with this proj-
ect,” she said.
While adding virus re-
sistance to yellow varieties
immediately benefits bean
seed growers, “improvement
in the color and size of these
lines will make the product
even more desirable to the
consumer and will likely in-
crease demand for Idaho-pro-
duced seed,” the IBC’s grant
application states.
Idaho has 30 bean dealers
and more than 500 dry bean
growers, and the state leads
the nation in dry bean seed
production. About 70 percent
of the dry beans grown here
are for seed.
Previous IBC field tri-
als in Mexico and other
Latin American nations
have shown that Idaho-pro-
duced bean seed yields sig-
nificantly more than bean
seed produced in those
countries.
If this project is success-
ful, Idaho bean growers and
dealers would be able to of-
fer Latin American growers a
higher-yielding yellow bean
variety that meets cultural
standards and is also resistant
to several major dry bean vi-
ruses.
“It’s a fairly significant
opportunity if we can get
them into Latin American
countries and gain accep-
tance there,” Tolmie said.
Courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has formally proposed to
allow sportsmen to use bait when hunting wolves, and a commit-
tee formed to oversee wolf depredation control for the state has
discussed implementing a bounty on problem wolves with IDFG
sportsmen dollars.
Idaho proposes wolf baiting,
mulls bounty on problem wolves
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
BOISE, Idaho — The state
Department of Fish and Game
has proposed allowing sports-
men to lure wolves with bait,
hoping to better utilize hunting
as a tool to thin the predator’s
numbers where livestock and
big game depredation is most
rampant.
Fish and Game Director
Virgil Morris said members
of the department’s Wolf Dep-
redation Control Board have
also had preliminary discus-
sions about offering a bounty
on problem wolves. The board
— established by the Legisla-
ture in 2014 to manage funds
directed at wolf depredation
control — includes represen-
tatives from IDFG, the state
Department of Agriculture,
the ranching industry and the
public.
Morris explained wolf-re-
lated livestock depredations
are at an all-time low, but in
recent years, the state, ranch-
ers and sportsmen have had
to offer financial assistance
to offset federal funding cuts
to USDA Wildlife Services,
which is authorized to kill
problem wolves.
“The use of sportsmen who
pay for the opportunity to hunt
or trap is traditionally our best
method of managing wildlife
populations,” Morris said.
According to a report,
Wildlife Services killed 75
wolves in 2015, from a state-
wide population of at least
786.
The report confirmed there
were 35 cattle and 125 sheep
depredations that year.
In 2016, Morris said his
department issued 35,000
wolf tags. Hunters — most
of whom were pursuing oth-
er game — harvested 139
wolves. Trappers claimed 131
wolves.
Morris said bear hunters
who use bait are allowed to
shoot any wolves they may
attract incidentally, provid-
ed that they also hold a wolf
tag. He hopes the proposed
wolf bait rule, which must be
approved by the Legislature
and the Idaho Fish and Game
Commission, will encourage
“more wolf hunters to go out
in the field and just pursue a
wolf, like bears.”
The public comment pe-
riod on the wolf bait rule
change was scheduled from
July 5-26. Morris said IDFG
has received thousands of
comments — mostly out-
of-state form letters in op-
position. Opponents of wolf
baiting, including the Idaho
Conservation League, fear the
practice wouldn’t constitute
“fair chase” and would lead
wolves to become “nuisance”
animals by encouraging un-
natural habits.
The Idaho Cattle Associa-
tion hasn’t submitted formal
comments, but ranchers sup-
port any tool to help officials
address wolf overpopulation,
said Executive Vice President
Cameron Mulroney.
“If this is a method to help
hunters, this may be a good
way,” Mulroney said.
Morris said wolf baiting
would be allowed only in
certain hunting units. There
would be no limit on bait
permits, which could be used
throughout the 10-month wolf
hunting season.
Hamer rancher Richard
Savage, chairman of ICA’s
wildlife committee and a
member of the control board,
is an advocate of the bounty
concept.
“The thing we like as live-
stock people is we get the
wolves that are committing
the depredation,” Savage
said. “If there’s such a thing
as good ones and bad ones,
you get the bad ones.”
Morris said IDFG sports-
men dollars would fund a
bounty, which would also
have to undergo a thorough
public-input process.
He said a state organiza-
tion called the Foundation For
Wildlife Management already
offers payments to help trap-
pers defray costs of harvest-
ing wolves in remote areas.
The department currently
pays sportsmen a bounty for
every lake trout they remove
from Lake Pend Oreille in
Northern Idaho, to benefit
native fish populations, but
IDFG hasn’t yet offered boun-
ties on game animals.
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