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CapitalPress.com
Idaho
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Rental rates for Idaho farmland down
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
BOISE — The average
rents paid for Idaho farmland
are down this year.
USDA’s National Agri-
cultural Statistics Service es-
timates that cash rent for all
cropland in Idaho will average
$160 an acre in 2017, which
is down $8, or 5 percent, from
2016.
That didn’t come as a sur-
prise to state Sen. Jim Patrick,
a Twin Falls farmer.
“It should be down be-
cause commodity prices are all
down,” he said.
The average cash rent for
all Idaho cropland increased
6 percent to $168 last year,
which at the time surprised
Patrick, other farmers, ag
economists and ag land ap-
praisers.
This year’s average rent
“is a little closer to what you
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
A wheat field is harvested Aug. 3 in Nampa, Idaho. Cash rent for all cropland in Idaho is estimated to
be $160 in 2017, down $8 an acre from 2016. Irrigated cropland is estimated at $215 an acre, down
$10 from last year.
would expect it to be,” Patrick
said.
According to NASS, cash
rent for irrigated cropland in
Idaho is estimated at $215 an
acre this year, down $10 from
last year, and rent for non-irri-
gated cropland is $58 an acre,
$3 an acre less than 2016.
Before falling this year,
cash rents for cropland in Ida-
ho had risen steadily, from
$139 an acre in 2013 to $151
in 2014, $158 in 2015 and
$168 in 2016.
Doug Robison, Northwest
Farm Credit Service senior
vice president of agriculture
for Western Idaho, told Cap-
ital Press that his company
has “seen some very limited
decreases in multi-year land
rents for row crop ground this
past year, typically in the $25 to
$50 per acre range, as contracts
have come up for renewal.”
“Despite the difficult envi-
ronment for commodities, de-
mand for farm acreage remains
strong with multiple bids avail-
able for high-quality ground,”
Robison said in an email.
Bob Morrison, an indepen-
dent ag land appraiser in Idaho
Falls, said the rents for irrigated
farmland he has looked at this
year are down by about $25 an
acre.
He believes rents for crop-
land in his region will stabi-
lize heading into 2018 because
there is little land for lease or
sale.
“Many farmers are needing
that land because of economies
of scale,” he said. “They don’t
want to lose those acres; they
don’t want to lose those leases.”
Robison said the outlook for
cropland rents is mixed.
“With the recent uptick in
commodity prices, there may
be some increased appetite for
new acreage with a few pro-
ducers this fall, while other
farmers may choose to remain
on the sidelines as profitability
concerns persist,” he said.
Hay export facility opens at Pocatello airport
Dairies in China
create growing
demand for forage
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
POCATELLO, Idaho —
A new facility at the Pocatel-
lo Regional Airport’s business
park has opened opportunities
for southeast Idaho hay farmers
to export their crops overseas.
Driscoll TopHay LLC — a
partnership of American Falls-
based Driscoll Brothers Farms
and TopHay, a British Colum-
bia-based company owned by
three Chinese businessmen —
plans to export 100,000 tons
of locally grown hay this year,
eventually ramping up to ex-
porting 150,000 tons.
The new operation moved
into a vacant warehouse owned
John O’Connell/Capital Press
Jason Hawkins, general manager of Driscoll TopHay LLC, stands
by a press used to reshape and compact hay bales for export. The
facility is at the Pocatello Regional Airport business park.
by the City of Pocatello that
was ideally configured for hay
storage, said Jason Hawkins,
the operation’s general manag-
er.
Hawkins said the partners
invested $2 million in a hay
August 18, 2017
press, which will allow the
space in containers to be max-
imized.
The press should enable
Hawkins and his staff to fill
each container with 25 to 27
tons of hay, rather than 15 to 17
tons without compaction.
The alfalfa will be shipped
to China, Japan and South Ko-
rea. He said exporting to the
Middle East is also a possibil-
ity.
Driscoll’s trucking business
will haul full containers to Salt
Lake City, where they’ll be
loaded onto trains bound for
ports in Long Beach and Oak-
land, Calif. Hawkins said his
staff started testing the press
on Friday. The facility has 15
workers, and the trucking busi-
ness added a dozen new em-
ployees to haul hay.
University of Idaho Exten-
sion forage specialist Glenn
Shewmaker said southeast Ida-
ho growers have historically
had a freight disadvantage in
exporting hay.
Shewmaker said Larsen
Farms has a hay press in North-
east Idaho, and Standlee Hay
runs one in the Magic Valley,
but the new operation in Po-
catello should “fill in a gap for
the counties a little closer.”
Blackfoot hay grower Jerry
Elliott exports through Standlee
Hay but believes he’ll still ben-
efit from the increased competi-
tion for forage.
“You take 100,000 tons
of hay out of the area and it’s
bound to help,” Elliott said.
Hawkins said the partners
have relationships with about
300 dairies, mostly in China,
where he anticipates growing
demand for forage should con-
tinue well into the future.
“We’re excited to bring that
money from China into Idaho’s
economy,” Hawkins said.
He said the Driscolls now
farm 26,000 acres, including
4,000 acres of alfalfa to support
a cattle ranch.
They were looking for a bet-
ter alternative to raising wheat
and plan to significantly in-
crease their alfalfa produc-
tion to support their export
business. But they’ve also
been in contact with about
100 area alfalfa growers
and will have to buy a lot of
supplemental hay, Hawkins
said.
BLM expects large
rangeland seed buy
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
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• SAN 30-6 gets nitrogen to the plant when it needs it. Use
for early, mid and late season applications.
• SAN 30-6 is less volatile than other dry forms of Nitrogen.
No need to add a nitrogen stabilizer.
• Grass crops prefer a mixture of both Nitrate and
Ammonium forms of nitrogen.
• Grass seed set is determined in the Fall, so proper
nitrogen and phosphorous nutrition are essential for
maximum yield.
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For Questions and More Information, Contact
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866-947-7776
info@tworiversterminal.com
www.tworiversterminal.com
33-3/#6
AMERICAN
FALLS,
Idaho — Ken Koompin has
found raising grass seed for
dryland range is risky and
challenging, and the market
for the niche crop is exceed-
ingly volatile.
But officials with the Bu-
reau of Land Management —
a major buyer that uses large
quantities of locally adapted
seed varieties for its reclama-
tion efforts — say their seed
inventories are running low
amid a bad wildfire season.
That’s good news for
Koompin and a small group
of regional farmers who go
through the hassle of raising
rangeland grass seed. BLM
officials were tohu
solicit
bids from seed suppliers on
Aug. 14 to replenish inven-
tories at their two major seed
warehouses, located in Boise
and Ely, Nev.
Vendors will have 10 days
to respond.
“It’s supply driven proba-
bly more than any ag market
we deal with,” Koompin said.
“If you’ve got 20 acres more
than you need, the price can
drop in half.”
BLM National Seed Co-
ordinator Patricia Roller said
she’s already fielded 160
seed requests and delivered
1.5 million pounds of seed,
though her busy season spans
from August through Decem-
ber.
She expects to exceed the
2 million to 3 million pounds
she delivers in a normal year.
Roller said BLM stocks 213
seed varieties and has a 2.6
million-pound storage capac-
ity.
“We’re sitting at 600,000
pounds now,” Roller said.
“Basically, we’re empty.”
In late July, Koompin fin-
ished harvesting about 10
native and dryland grass seed
species, raised under irriga-
tion on about 180 acres in
the Rockland Valley. He first
experimented in grass seed
about 25 years ago and de-
cided to resume grass-seed
production four years ago.
He plants perennial grasses,
harvesting a single planting
of some of the bromes for just
two seasons and other vari-
eties for up to four seasons
before weed pressure — es-
pecially from cheat grass —
forces him to replant.
Grasses require little wa-
ter and fertilizer, but they’re
labor-intensive to grow, in-
volving cultivation between
rows and frequent hand weed-
ing. Koompin can’t insure his
grasses and there’s a narrow
harvest window to avoid poor
germination or seed shatter-
ing. Koompin produces cer-
tified seed, requiring field
inspections and testing for pu-
rity and germination by Idaho
Crop Improvement Associa-
tion.
USDA’s Aberdeen Plant
Materials Center provides
seed to companies for com-
mercial production on behalf
of the University of Idaho
and Utah Crop Improvement
Association foundation seed
programs.
Idaho Grimm Growers
Warehouse Corp., based in
Blackfoot, buys Koompin’s
seed. They planned to bid on
BLM’s seed buy, and they
also supply livestock produc-
ers and participants in habitat
programs, such as the Conser-
vation Reserve Program.
Seed prices range from $4
to $15 per pound, said Chelsy
Harten, president of the cor-
poration.
“It is a specialized market
— definitely not for the weak
of heart,” Harten said. “I do
see a trend that more (farm-
ers) want to grow (rangeland
grass seed) with grain prices
down, but it really is a special-
ized crop to grow.”
Planting
dates
delayed
for fall
Grain growers in
three counties seek
to limit exposure
to some diseases
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
POCATELLO, Idaho —
USDA’s Risk Management
Agency has moved back the
final planting dates for farm-
ers raising fall grain in three
Eastern Idaho counties, pro-
tecting insurance eligibility
for growers who delay plant-
ing to avoid exposure to some
diseases.
Final planting dates for
RMA’s winter coverage en-
dorsement for the 2018 crop
year have been moved back to
Oct. 31 in Bannock, Bingham
and Bonneville counties.
The final planting dates
had been Oct. 15 in Bannock
and Bingham counties and
Sept. 30 in Bonneville Coun-
ty.
Ben Thiel, director of
RMA’s Spokane Regional Of-
fice, said his office reviewed
the request and determined
that the growing season is
continuing later into the fall,
and the change is actuarially
sound to help avoid losses to
certain crop diseases.
“The Risk Management
Agency continuously works
with and listens to stakehold-
ers to ensure its policies are
meeting the needs of produc-
ers,” Thiel said in a press re-
lease.
University of Idaho Exten-
sion cereals pathologist Juliet
Marshall explained delaying
planting by a week or two
helps growers avoid exposing
fall grain to aphids that pass
through in the early fall and
transmit barley yellow dwarf
virus.
The disease can reduce
grain yields by 15 to 30 per-
cent, and greater than 50 per-
cent in extreme cases, Mar-
shall said.
Marshall said Idaho grain
farmers who delayed plant-
ing last fall had few problems
with barley yellow dwarf this
season.
However, she said a few
growers south of Burley
planted in their normal win-
dow and had upward of 95
percent of their grain infected
with barley yellow dwarf.
Marshall said delaying fall
planting can also help growers
reduce foot rot, stripe rust and
wheat streak mosaic virus.
Stacey Satterlee, execu-
tive director with Idaho Grain
Producers Association, said
the insurance endorsement
covers growers for winter kill
and crop problems associated
with heavy snow and winter
weather.
Satterlee said she’s heard
several inquiries from grow-
ers about the revised planting
dates. Satterlee said growers
in Bonneville County have
been especially concerned
about the Risk Management
Agency’s early final plant-
ing dates, and many of them
avoided planting winter wheat
last fall rather than follow the
RMA dates.
“I’m wondering if we
won’t see a little more winter
wheat,” Satterlee said.
Brett Wilken, with Thresh-
er Artisan Wheat, who recom-
mended the change to industry
leaders, said the timing of the
fall’s first freeze is occurring
later than before, with the first
freeze of last fall occurring in
November.
Wilken believes the change
in planting dates is especial-
ly timely given the roughly
70-cent-per-bushel premium
hard red winter wheat brings
over soft white wheat.
Wilken explained growers
often like to follow potatoes
with fall wheat to take advan-
tage of the residual nitrogen
to boost protein levels, and
the revised planting dates
should “give growers more
opportunities to plant behind
potatoes.”