10 CapitalPress.com
September 22, 2017
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Idaho
Japan lifts ban on chipping potatoes
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
EAGLE, Idaho — The Jap-
anese government has lifted a
ban on importing fresh Idaho
chipping potatoes that was im-
plemented about 11 years ago,
officials with the Idaho Potato
Commission announced Sept.
13.
Japan’s Ministry of Agri-
culture, Forestry and Fisheries
imposed a ban on importing all
U.S. chipping potatoes in April
2006, in response to the dis-
covery of a quarantined pest,
called pale cyst nematode, in
a small area of Eastern Idaho.
Trade was restored with
other U.S. chipping potato
states about a year later, but
restrictions on Idaho remained
in place.
A chipping potato shortage
in Japan spurred the action,
according to IPC. This spring,
IPC officials said Japanese
chip makers had to stop sell-
ing some of their products fol-
lowing a poor harvest in their
major potato production area,
Hokkaido. Japan will contin-
ue to exclude any Idaho chip-
ping potatoes from Bonne-
ville and Bingham counties,
which encompass the PCN
quarantine area.
John O’Connell/Capital Press File
Fresh chipping potatoes are loaded into a truck for shipping at
R&G Potatoes in American Falls, Idaho. R&G should be the
major beneficiary of a Sept. 13 announcement that the Japanese
government will begin to allow Idaho fresh chipping potatoes into
Japan, after an 11-year prohibition due to the discovery of pale cyst
nematode.
Japan produces most of
its potato supply domestical-
ly but imported about 28,000
tons of chipping potatoes last
year, about 3.5 times more
volume than five years ago,
according to IPC. Japan still
won’t allow other types of
fresh potatoes from any states
to be imported.
“It is a step in the right di-
rection because you’ll never
get the other fresh potatoes
in there without getting this
restored,” said Idaho Potato
Commissioner Randy Hardy,
a fresh grower from Oakley.
“We’ve been really push-
ing for this and they’ve been
dragging their feet, but I’m
glad to see it get done.”
Hardy said he’s toured Ja-
pan, and it was clear to him
that “they don’t grow near
enough potatoes for their own
needs, but they’re trying to
protect their own market.”
The major shipper of Ida-
ho chipping potatoes is R&G
Potatoes in American Falls,
which was also the first U.S.
company to ship chipping
spuds to Japan prior to the
discovery of PCN, IPC Pres-
ident and CEO Frank Muir
said.
“I think R&G will greatly
benefit from this,” Muir said.
Muir said IPC has been
working on restoring the
market since access was sev-
ered. He and other IPC staff
members, as well as Sen. Jim
Risch, R-Idaho, have had
several meetings about the
restriction with Japanese of-
ficials who have visited Ida-
ho to see its PCN eradication
program, Muir said.
“We’ve
tested
over
500,000 samples of soil in
Idaho,” Muir said. “We are
one state that can definitely
say we know where PCN is
and where it is not.”
Muir said IPC will now
shift its focus toward lifting
the state’s final PCN-related
market-access problem. Mex-
ico allows the importation of
fresh U.S. potatoes within 26
kilometers of the U.S. border,
but mandates that all Idaho
fresh spuds undergo a spe-
cial PCN test. Muir, USDA
and other industry leaders
are advocating to change the
testing requirement to cover
only Bonneville and Bingham
counties.
Unique system uses tractor exhaust in lieu of fertilizer
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
SODA SPRINGS, Idaho
— Dan Lakey raised half of
this year’s crops without fer-
tilizer and seed treatments,
putting his faith in a “hard to
grasp” technology he hadn’t
previously tested that uses
tractor exhaust.
As he winds up harvest on
his 8,000-acre farm, Lakey be-
lieves he’s been rewarded for
taking such a big gamble on
Bio-Agtive — a trademarked
process that cools the exhaust
and uses chemicals in it as a
seed-treatment alternative and
a soil biology stimulant.
He explained that ammoni-
um phosphate fertilizer tends
to kill beneficial soil organ-
isms and interferes with plants
creating their own nutrients
through photosynthesis. The
new technology gives the soil
formaldehyde, formic acid,
hydrogen cyanide and sulfur
dioxide to protect plants from
pathogens.
The system also converts
carbon dioxide into a soluble
“nano carbon” form that the
company claims stimulates
photosynthesis and feeds soil
organisms that convert di-ni-
trogen from the atmosphere
into proteins, he said.
Farmers who use it say
they see improvements over
time in plant and soil health,
reducing their reliance on
pesticides, because they take
better advantage of the sun’s
energy.
In his trial year, Lakey test-
John O’Connell/Capital Press
From left to right, Dan Lakey, Tim Dusenberry, Gary Lewis and Zachary Lewis stand by Lakey’s tractor,
which is fitted with a device that cools tractor exhaust for use as a soil biology stimulant and seed
treatment.
ed his Bio-Agtive machine —
which routes cooled exhaust
into his planter’s bin — on
wheat, barley, mustard, qui-
noa, peas and cover crops.
His Bio-Agtive dryland
wheat yielded 45 bushels per
acre, besting his convention-
al wheat by 10 bushels. Ex-
haust-treated wheat also beat
conventional test weights
by 3 pounds per bushel and
produced comparable protein
levels.
Results were even more
encouraging on his oilseeds
and pulse crops. Yields were
extremely poor in a test strip
he planted without fertilizer
or the exhaust.
“Necessity drives change,
and that’s what it was for us,”
Lakey said. “We were tired
of seeing the same (disease)
symptoms year after year and
feeling hopeless about how to
treat them.”
Lakey said he has a mar-
keting advantage because he
doesn’t have to sell his grain
“at the worst time of the year”
to repay roughly $400,000
in annual loans on fertilizer.
Based on his initial success,
Lakey said he’s planting all
2,000 acres of his winter
wheat using Bio-Agtive this
fall.
The product’s inventor,
Gary Lewis of Alberta, Cana-
da, has developed an updated
tractor system that also turns
exhaust into a nitrate fertilizer
solution, as well as a unit that
works from the exhaust on a
diesel irrigation engine.
“Soil with fertilizer gets
out of balance,” Lewis said.
“Our land is getting organic
matter, and if you build or-
ganic matter, you grow more
nutritious food.”
Lewis, who developed the
technology for his 600-acre
farm in 2002, now works
with more than 150 farmers
in Canada, the U.S., Austra-
lia and Africa. Montana State
University researchers have
corroborated the technology’s
efficacy.
“We don’t need artificial
energy to support the land-
scape,” Lewis said. “We have
the sun and the sky, and we
have to use them.”
38-3/106
Ag committee chairs push
farm commission leaders
to talk about challenges
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
BOISE — The chairs of
the Idaho Legislature’s House
and Senate ag committees are
encouraging the directors of
the state’s commodity com-
missions to do a better job
talking about the issues and
challenges their industries
face when speaking to law-
makers.
During every legislative
session, farm commodity di-
rectors and administrators are
invited to speak to the agricul-
tural affairs committees.
Some of the presentations
are more on the “here’s what
we did last year” side and not
enough on the “here are the
issues our industry is strug-
gling with” side, said Sen. Jim
Rice, R-Caldwell, chairman
of the Senate Agricultural Af-
fairs Committee.
Rice said he is trying to
push those commission lead-
ers to share their challenges
so legislators can figure out
how to help them or at least
not get in their way.
“Some of the presentations
seem too much of cheerlead-
ing presentations and we
don’t talk enough about the
challenges that they’re facing,
the things that are causing
their industry problems,” he
said.
“I’m trying to ... make sure
that we improve those presen-
tations by addressing prob-
lems, challenges, areas where
we may be falling behind or
where we are headed down a
road that’s going to be a prob-
lem,” Rice said.
Rice said he will expand
that effort during the 2018
legislative session, which be-
gins in January.
“This isn’t a criticism,” he
said. “I want to know where
there’s a challenge or if we’re
doing something that’s cre-
ating a problem. It’s actual-
ly about finding solutions,
about making sure that we’re
doing the things that allow
agriculture and business to
prosper.”
Rep. Judy Boyle, R-Mid-
vale, chairwoman of the
House Agricultural Affairs
Committee, said that’s some-
Sean Ellis/Capital Press File
Idaho’s Capitol reflects off a
nearby building. The chairs of
Idaho’s House and Senate ag
committees are pushing farm
commission directors to share
with legislators the challenges
their industries face.
thing she’s also trying to do.
“We want to know what
the issues they are facing are,”
said Boyle, a rancher. “That’s
really the value of commis-
sions to the legislature.”
Boyle said she has told
commission leaders to share
their challenges and encour-
aged them to bring their
growers and commissioners
and let them speak as well.
“Come and tell us if there
are regulations that are harm-
ful or obsolete,” she said.
“Tell us about the issues
you’re facing or the regula-
tions that don’t make sense or
get in the way.”
Boyle said she’s also told
commission heads not to just
hand the committee a finan-
cial statement and then read
straight from it.
“Those (types of) things
put you to sleep and make
you want to cry,” she said.
“We want to know what your
issues are and how we can
help you.”
Idaho Potato Commission
President and CEO Frank
Muir said the potato commis-
sion always seeks to commu-
nicate with legislators about
the major issues the industry
faces, and he’s glad Boyle
and Rice are pushing for even
more relevant details so they
can help agriculture if possi-
ble.
“I don’t have a problem
at all with what (they’re) try-
ing to do,” he said. “I would
welcome that. We’re not shy
about talking about what our
issues are.”
Improvements to Cold
Connect train annnounced
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
KETCHUM, Idaho — Of-
ficials with Union Pacific and
collaborating railroads say
they’re making major invest-
ments in a refrigerated train
that expedites food shipments
from the West Coast and Idaho
to the East Coast.
They say the improvements
should make regional rail ser-
vice far more competitive with
trucking, and should be espe-
cially beneficial to the Idaho
potato industry.
The service originates in
Wallula, Wash., passes through
Oregon and makes its first stop
in Pocatello, Idaho, where it
picks up additional refrigerated
cars filled mostly with Idaho
potato products, delivered by
Eastern Idaho Railroad and UP
short-line rail routes. The next
stop is in Chicago, where Mid-
west shipments are unloaded.
There, the train merges with
another UP refrigerated train
out of Delano, Calif., and CSX
Transportation rail crews take
over operations. Potatoes are
unloaded in Syracuse, N.Y.,
where they’re picked up by
other rail routes, before the
train reaches its final destina-
tion in Rotterdam, N.Y.
Originally called the Food
Train when it was launched
more than a year ago, UP
re-branded the service as Cold
Connect after purchasing the
facilities in Delano and Wallula
where the trains are loaded, as
well as the Rotterdam facility,
where UP rail cars supply indi-
vidual trucks with a wide vari-
ety of food pallets, rather than a
single commodity, for retailers’
convenience.
In addition to deliver-
ing spuds to Syracuse, Sam
Hughes, UP’s assistant vice
president of food and refriger-
ated products, said UP plans to
start hauling Idaho potatoes to
Rotterdam. The move should
add more variety to inventories
on the trucks and create new
markets for Idaho potato ship-
pers.
“One of the first things we
wanted to do was incorporate
Idaho production,” Hughes
said.
Hughes said Cold Connect
runs three trains per week, and
the partners are investigating
ways to increase the frequency
to four or five trains.
Hughes explained the full
trek takes eight to nine days
— about four days faster than
conventional rail service, in
which trains are broken apart
and reconfigured in rail yards
along the way. The service has
also proven to be more consis-
tent, and the trains have grown
in length throughout 2017.
Hughes said the service has
had 18 percent growth in Idaho
potato shipments this year.
A Cold Connect partner,
Watco Companies, which
runs Eastern Idaho Railroad,
believes it has revolutionized
the design of refrigerated rail
cars. Stefan Loeb, with Wat-
co, explained the car is 72 feet
long — 22 feet longer than
conventional refrigerated spud
cars — and was designed by
the company that innovated
technology used by Federal
Express for loading freight on
airplanes. Throughout the past
year, Watco has tested a single
car with rollers on the floor to
easily move produce and racks
that allow shippers to lock po-
tato pallets in place without the
use of packaging material.