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