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August 4, 2017
Idaho
Canada’s ag minister: NAFTA benefits worth saving
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
SUN VALLEY, Idaho
— While visiting Idaho last
week, Canada’s agriculture
minister discussed the up-
coming North American Free
Trade Agreement renegoti-
ation and said it’s important
not to do anything to upset
the benefits the agreement has
brought to agriculture in Can-
ada, the U.S. and Mexico.
That view was well-re-
ceived by directors of 13
Western state agriculture de-
partments, with whom he met
July 27 in Sun Valley, and
Idaho farm industry leaders,
with whom he met July 28 in
Boise.
Pointing out that Cana-
da and the U.S. trade more
food products with each other
than any other nations in the
world, Lawrence MacAulay
said, “There’s no question
(NAFTA) can benefit from
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
Canadian Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay, left, speaks
with Idaho Lt. Gov. Brad Little, a rancher and farmer, July 28 in
Boise during a roundtable discussion the ag minister had with
farm industry leaders on the upcoming North American Free Trade
Agreement renegotiation.
modernization. We want to
make a good thing even bet-
ter.”
But, he added to members
of the Western Association of
State Departments of Agricul-
ture, “It works pretty well. Be
careful how you fix something
that is not broken ... because it
puts so much money in both
of our pockets.”
Karen Ross, secretary of
the California Department of
Food and Agriculture, told
Capital Press she was en-
couraged by that comment
because it’s the same mes-
sage she’s been hearing from
California producers: “Do no
harm. There are some tweaks
that need to happen but let’s
not tweak it and then lose all
the benefits that all of us have
gained.”
According to Agri-Food
Canada, the U.S. exported
$24.7 billion in food products
to Canada in 2016, making
that nation the No. 1 desti-
nation for U.S. agricultural
exports, according to U.S.
Census Bureau data. Cana-
da exported $22.5 billion in
products to the U.S. last year.
In Boise, MacAulay had an
open conversation with rep-
resentatives of several main
farm commodities, including
potatoes, dairy, beef, wheat,
onions, apples and lumber.
Dairy farmer and Darigold
board member Allan Hutte-
ma asked MacAulay to push
for Canada to rescind its new
“class 7” milk-protein class
that the U.S. dairy industry
believes is allowing that na-
tion to sell some dairy prod-
ucts on the global market at
10-15 cents per pound below
average world prices.
“It’s not right; it’s not
even above board,” Huttema
said. “I would ask you to put
whatever pressure you can to
rescind that milk class. Plans
are already underway to start
a (World Trade Organization)
challenge and I would hate to
see it go there.”
Idaho Potato Commission
President and CEO Frank
Muir brought up the U.S. po-
tato industry’s concern that
Canada is allegedly unfairly
justifying placing anti-dump-
ing tariffs on U.S. potato ex-
ports because U.S. growers
sometimes sell spuds at below
the cost of production.
“We believe (this issue)
can be addressed through
NAFTA re-negotiations or
just by working together,”
Muir said.
“We’re not going to re-
solve that today but I’m fully
aware of what you’re talking
about and we are working on
it,” MacAulay said.
Wade Small, president
of Agri Beef’s livestock di-
vision, told MacAulay that
“the Canadian cattle supply is
pretty important to the pack-
ing industry in this region”
and “making sure we keep
those channels open ... is very
important to us as a company
and the industry.”
He also said the paperwork
associated with moving those
cattle into the U.S. is cumber-
some.
MacAulay told Smart and
WASDA members that cut-
ting red tape to improve pro-
ducers’ bottom line is a goal
of the renegotiation.
Monitor wells show surge in ESPA storage
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
BOISE — Irrigators who
draw from the Eastern Snake
Plain Aquifer are well ahead
of schedule in their efforts to
reverse a longterm trend of
declining groundwater levels,
an analysis of monitor wells
confirms.
Based on March read-
ings from roughly 400 wells
throughout the ESPA, Idaho
Department of Water Resourc-
es officials estimate the aquifer
has increased by 660,000 acre-
feet of water since the spring
of 2016.
The estimates are conserva-
tive, as the state took the well
readings midway through its
managed aquifer recharge pro-
gram — which involves pay-
ing fees to irrigation companies
who run surplus surface water
through unlined canals or into
spill basins to bolster the aquifer.
“This is probably the first
significant gain we’ve seen
in the aquifer in years,” said
Brian Patton, manager of
IDWR’s Water Planning Bu-
reau, adding the aquifer made
modest gains in storage levels
from 2010 through 2012.
In 2016, irrigation districts
represented by Idaho Ground
Water Appropriators Inc. rene-
gotiated the Surface Water Co-
alition’s water call, which was
filed based on declining spring
flows into the Snake River.
The updated settlement sets
dates for meeting aquifer mile-
stones, aiming to restore spring
flows to their average from 1991
to 2001 within a decade. In ad-
dition to providing a flat amount
of annual mitigation water and
facilitating conversions from
groundwater to surface water,
groundwater users are required
to reduce their collective water
consumption by an average of
240,000 acre-feet per year.
Patton attributes the aqui-
fer gains to the combination
of an especially wet winter, a
big year for the state’s recharge
program and groundwater users
meeting their reduction goals.
The settlement also desig-
nated 20 “sentinel” wells for
monitoring compliance with
the agreement. Patton said wa-
ter levels in the sentinel wells
rose by nearly 2 feet on average
through March, though levels in
some individual wells dropped
or held constant, where the
snowpack hadn’t begun to melt
when readings were taken.
Assuming gains in the senti-
nel wells are maintained, Patton
said groundwater users have al-
ready met the first benchmark of
the agreement — to stabilize the
aquifer at 2016 levels by 2020.
IDWR is conducting additional
analysis to determine the per-
centage of gains resulting from
the state’s recharge program and
irrigation reductions.
John O’Connell/Capital Press
Keith Berns, a Bladen, Neb., farmer who heads the cover crop seed supplier Green Cover, speaks about
soil health July 20 at multi-species cover crop trial plots in Soda Springs, Idaho. His talk was sponsored
by USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service in Caribou County.
Soil health expert preaches plant
diversity to Caribou County growers
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
SODA SPRINGS, Ida-
ho — While leading a tour of
multi-species, dryland cover
crop trials in a local farm field,
soil health expert Keith Berns
uprooted a stunted turnip from
a strip in which other plant
species were killed by a late-
spring cold snap.
Then Berns moved to an
adjacent trial plot — covered
by a thick and diverse stand of
green and flowering vegetation
— and plucked a turnip with a
softball’s circumference.
Berns, the keynote speak-
er at a July 20 soil health
workshop attended by about
70 farmers and sponsored by
USDA’s Natural Resources
Conservation Service in Car-
ibou County, said the demon-
stration highlights how diver-
sity leads to healthier plants
and more productive soil.
Farmers plant cover crops
for soil health benefits such
as improved water infiltration,
nutrient scavenging, weed
control, pollinator support,
yield gains in subsequent cash
crops, organic matter gains
and less soil compaction.
Berns says it “heart breaking”
when a farmer plants a sin-
gle-species cover crop.
“It’s so difficult to get di-
versity with our cash crop, but
it’s easy to get it with our cov-
er crop,” said Berns, a Bladen,
Neb., farmer who sells seed for
Green Cover Seed.
Farmers often worry about
competition resulting from a
variety of species in the same
cover crop mix. But Berns
finds when growers strike the
right balance, each species
benefits the others by scaveng-
ing for different nutrients and
supporting a broader variety
of soil microbes and beneficial
organisms.
In fact, he’s noticed a trend
of growers pursuing diver-
sity within their cash crops.
On his farm, Berns’ irrigated,
commercial sunflower fields
resemble a wild prairie, with
a multi-species cover crop
planted simultaneously. He
said wheat growers often
boost yields by mixing radish-
es within their grain, and Mill-
er-Coors has had good results
in small trials with “compan-
ion crops” of crimson clover,
vetch and spring lentils seed-
ed with malt barley.
Chance Lyman, a grow-
er from Delta, Utah, said he
stopped controlling a weed in
his alfalfa, tansy mustard, to
let it provide a natural fumi-
gant for harmful nematodes.
He also plants a multi-species
cover crop within his alfalfa
after his second cutting, graz-
ing the field rather than taking
a third cutting. Lyman said
he’s eliminated his bug pres-
sure and boosted yields with-
out adding more fertilizer.
Berns cited test results
from May 2008 at a North
Dakota farm as evidence that
cover crops can fill a role on
dryland.
The top 4 feet of soil in a
field that had been planted to
cover crops contained 3.07
inches of moisture. A near-
by field farmed under similar
methods, but without cov-
er crops, had 3.11 inches of
moisture — about the same.
Incubator aims to boost local food products
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
31-2/#4N
DRIGGS, Idaho — Teton
County Commissioner Cin-
dy Riegel may soon turn a
yogurt-making hobby into a
small business, and without
the usual startup costs, thanks
to a new city service.
In February, the City of
Driggs launched a “food busi-
ness incubator,” called Teton
Valley Kitchen, in a former
downtown restaurant in a con-
verted home.
Producers of local food
products can book space in
the incubator for $15 per
hour at night or $17 per hour
during the day to prepare their
products in the licensed com-
mercial kitchen. New busi-
nesses are offered a $10 per
hour promotional rate for the
first month.
“The commercial kitchen
was a community effort to
try to inspire more local food
entrepreneurs by providing an
inexpensive place for them to
make their products,” Riegel
said. The facility also includes
space where vendors may
eventually sell their products.
The incubator has a
600-square-foot kitchen in
what was once a garage and
has a walk-in freezer, a roll-
in refrigerator, mixers, proof-
ers, convection ovens, a gas
range, a hood, a fryer, a grill
and kitchenware.
Assuming Riegel’s plans
come to fruition, she’ll buy
milk from a local dairy and
sell her yogurt at the local
farmers’ market. Proponents
of the facility say a prima-
ry goal is promoting food
products made with locally
sourced ingredients.
The incubator also offers
business-development ser-
vices such as aid in drafting
a business plan, conducting
market research, product
testing, distribution, nutri-
tional analysis and meeting
safety regulations. Univer-
sity of Idaho Extension has
obtained an $1,800 grant to
offer four food-safety work-
shops through the incubator
on the last Monday of each
month starting in July. UI’s
Teton County Extension ed-
ucator, Jennifer Werlin, said
officials from USDA’s Small
Business Development Ad-
ministration and the Eastern
Idaho Small Business Devel-
opment Center will lead the
first workshop on July 31.
Werlin said incubators often
take years to reach their po-
tential, but she envisions the
local incubator will become a
food hub and distribution cen-
ter, increasing access to local-
ly produced foods.
Doug Self, Driggs com-
munity development director,
explained that a countywide
economic development plan
finished in 2013 concluded
the county had growth op-
portunities in local food and
value-added agriculture. A
subsequent regional agricul-
tural assessment funded by a
federal Department of Hous-
ing and Urban Development
grant identified the need for a
kitchen incubator.
The City of Driggs fund-
ed a feasibility study for the
facility, conducted in 2014
by the E-Center, affiliated
with Brigham Young Univer-
sity-Idaho in Rexburg. The
study found about two dozen
people were interested in us-
ing the incubator in the first
year.