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September 1, 2017 CapitalPress.com 7 Washington State looks to reduce exporters’ grain inspection fees By MATTHEW WEAVER Online Capital Press http://bit.ly/2xgkoD0 The Washington Depart- ment of Agriculture wants to reduce the grain inspection fee it charges exporters. When exporters have grain inspected, how much they pay for the service is based on how much money is in the program’s operating fund. If the program’s fund falls 10 percent below its six- month operating balance, a Tier 1 fee of 25 cents per met- ric ton is charged. If the fund is 10 percent above the operating balance, a Tier 2 fee of 20 cents per metric ton is charged. Under the proposed rule, if the balance hasn’t changed in the past six to nine months, the state would charge a new Port of Longview An aerial view of the Export Grain Terminal at the Port of Longview, Wash., on the Columbia River. The Washington Department of Agricul- ture wants to adjust the fee it charges exporters for inspecting grain. lower Tier 3 fee of 10 cents a metric ton, said Phil Gar- cia, grain inspection program manager. The lower fee gives the de- partment a more expeditious way to reduce its fund bal- ance, he said. The fund’s six-month op- erating balance must be main- tained at a certain level. It is currently $8 million, Garcia said. In Washington the state Department of Agriculture inspects grain on behalf of the Federal Grain Inspection Service. “We’re a not-for-profit, so under our delegation with USDA, we’ve committed that we will not have an ex- cess fund balance, that we will do our due diligence to make sure that we’re making enough money just to do busi- ness,” he said. A public hearing on the proposal was held Aug. 29 in Spokane, and another was planned for Aug. 30 at the Department of Agriculture in Olympia. Garcia said he expected those people attending the hearings to support the lower fee. Stakeholders reviewed the proposal through the grain advisory committee, Garcia said, and the state received positive feedback. The Federal Grain Inspec- tion Service also approved the change. After public comment, the proposal would be adopted as a rule. Garcia said there’s no con- cern that exporters could wait for lower fees to buy wheat. “We’re kind of just a grain of salt in a big bag of salt when it relates to the bill,” he said. “We’re talking about 66,000 metric tons per ship, and we do a ship in a day and a half.” The change does not affect domestic customers. “There’s not going to be an impact to the farmer,” said Joe Bippert, program direc- tor for the Washington Grain Commission. Farmers and grain eleva- tors pay a fee of $20 to $25 per truck or container for grain inspection. That fee structure is not changing, Bi- ppert said. The commission supports the change, he said. “We don’t expect any problems with this, mainly because the existing fee at the highest rate remains un- changed,” Bippert said. Wheat farmers show reporters farm-to-market chain By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press Washington State Department of Agriculture Washington State Department of Agriculture eradication coordina- tor Rian Wojahn, left, and entomologist Randy Taylor put down a tarp before removing gypsy moth egg masses found on a tree and in a bush Aug. 4 in Puyallup. WSDA nips gypsy moth outbreak in the bush Pest manager: Find saves millions By DON JENKINS Capital Press The Washington State De- partment of Agriculture found more than 90 female gypsy moths laying eggs outside a Puyallup, Wash., home this month, averting what the de- partment said could have been a long and expensive campaign to stop an infestation of the leaf-eating pest. WSDA Pest Program Man- ager Jim Marra called the find extraordinary. The department has been on-guard for gypsy moths for more than 40 years, but had never spotted females in the act of laying hard-to-de- tect egg masses. “To halt the egg-laying ac- tivity and remove this infes- tation before the caterpillars hatched likely saved our state from an extensive, multi-year eradication project that would have cost millions of dollars,” he said. WSDA routinely traps male gypsy moths, which fly into baited cardboard enclosures. European female gypsy moths, however, can’t fly and are hidden while each lays ups to 1,000 eggs. The caterpillars in the spring are highly destruc- tive and feed on more than 300 species of trees and shrubs, ac- cording to the USDA. Gypsy moths are entrenched in many counties in the East and Midwest, where the USDA enforces a quarantine to keep the pest from spreading. So far, the USDA and state agriculture departments have kept gypsy moths from being established west of Wisconsin. WSDA this summer put out nearly 30,000 scented gypsy moth traps statewide. As of Tuesday, 91 gypsy moths had been trapped, including more than 80 in Puyallup and Gra- ham. WSDA put out a large number of traps in the neigh- boring Pierce County commu- nities because two moths were caught there last summer. The mass capture this year caused WSDA to begin search- ing for egg masses Aug. 1. Environmental education spe- cialist Karla Salp checked an ornamental plum tree where a male moth had been trapped and uncovered the female moths laying eggs in a bush growing against the tree. “That was a pretty as- tounding thing to find,” she said. WSDA checked the neigh- borhood but found no other female moths, Salp said. WSDA removed the bush and egg masses. The residence is owned by a rental company and was vacant, Salp said. The department probably will spray the area with a pesti- cide in the spring to kill emerg- ing caterpillars, Salp said. Usually, WSDA sprays from the air to cover a large area, but that may not be necessary in this case, she said. “That’s definitely a possibility. It could be a ground treatment, rather than an aerial treatment.” The Washington wheat in- dustry showed members of the media wheat’s path from the farm to markets overseas. The state’s wheat organi- zations hosted a tour Aug. 24, showing reporters a farm and malting barley harvest in Fair- field and the McCoy Grain Terminal outside Rosalia. Representatives from the state department of agriculture and Washington State University also talked about grain inspec- tion and research. The tour was designed to ex- plain the process and give me- dia an idea of who to contact if a problem arises, said Michelle Hennings, executive director of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers. Other agen- cies representing the industry are the Washington Grain Com- mission and Washington Wheat Foundation, she said. Hennings wanted to show- case the diversity of wheat production across the state and clear up misperceptions. Several upcoming topics Matthew Weaver/Capital Press Hector Castro, communications director for the Washington Department of Agriculture, and sev- enth-generation wheat farmer Jordan Green are all smiles listening to presentations while on a media tour hosted by the state’s grain industry Aug. 24 in Fairfield, Wash. of concern include funding re- search on low falling number test results, a starch problem that affects end-use quality, and the 2018 Farm Bill and the im- portance of maintaining federal crop insurance. “One of the misconceptions on crop insurance is (farmers are) making money off of it,” Hennings said. “That’s not true — we are putting money into it to hopefully break even if we have a devastating crop. It’s one of our only risk man- agement tools. Farmers cannot control the weather and what’s beyond their control.” Marci Green, vice president of WAWG, and her husband, Lonnie, opened up their farm for the tour. Questions asked on the tour included the cost of their equipment, how the timing of this year’s harvest compares to other harvests and ways to remain profitable when wheat prices are down. The tour provided an op- portunity “for them to have an understanding of what we do,” Green said. “We are making an effort to take care of the land and provide a quality product. We are at the mercy of Mother Nature and government regula- tions. So when (reporters) are doing a story that’s related to agriculture, they have a better understanding of whatever the issue is, how it’s affecting agri- culture.” 35-1/#18 RICHLAND, Wash. — The Wine Spectator Scholar- ship Foundation will donate $1 million to the Washington State University Viticulture and Enology Program. Wine Spectator is a print and online publication with approximately 3 million read- ers worldwide. It examines the world of wine from the vineyard to the table. Half of the $1 million will support build-out of the Life Science Teaching Laborato- ry at the Ste. Michelle Wine Estates WSU Wine Science Center. The facility, at the WSU Tri-Cities campus in Richland, is one of the most technologically advanced wine science centers in the world. The other half of the dona- tion will fund viticulture and enology student scholarships at $100,000 per year for five years. In recognition of the dona- tion, the atrium at the center will be named “Wine Specta- tor Atrium.” “We are elated to have the support of such a pre-eminent authority on wine,” said Kirk Schulz, WSU president. “WSU has demonstrated a leadership position in wine education in the U.S. and we are therefore proud to rec- ognize the university’s high achievement with our com- mitment,” said Marvin R. Shanken, editor and publisher, Wine Spectator. — Dan Wheat 35-2/#4 Foundation pledges $1M to WSU wine science