October 13, 2017
Dairy cow delivers pizzas to shocked customers
Did somebody order
extra cheese?
Capital Press
Capital Press
EAGLE, Idaho — Sev-
eral customers in Eagle who
ordered pizzas Oct. 6 were
stunned when they opened
their doors to see a dairy cow
staring at them.
“Really, I’m dumbfound-
ed,” Michael Marzocco said
after opening his door to find
his pizzas being delivered by
Josie, a Jersey cow, and Me-
ridian dairyman Clint Jackson.
The reaction of his wife,
Courtney, was one of astonish-
ment mixed with awe.
“I want to keep her,” was
the first thing she said. “She’s
so pretty. You don’t realize
how beautiful they are until
you are so close like this.”
As Josie, Jackson and an
entourage of Dairy West em-
ployees walked down the
sidewalk, pizza deliverymen
in tow, the scene attracted curi-
ous neighbors who filed out of
their homes to pet the heifer or
snap photos.
“Only in Idaho,” said Rich
Christensen, who just moved
here from California and who
was one of several neighbors
who received free pizzas hand-
ed out by Rocky Mountain
Pizzeria Grill deliverymen.
“I feel like I’m in Idaho
now,” he said.
The event, in its third year,
is a fun way for Idaho’s dairy
industry to help connect urban
consumers with where their
dairy comes from, said Cindy
Miller, a spokeswoman for
Dairy West, formerly known
as United Dairymen of Idaho.
“Not everybody can come
out to a dairy farm so this is
one way we can bring the farm
a little bit closer to them,” she
said. “For them to see an actual
dairy farmer who cares about
Courtesy of Greg Kreller
Meridian, Idaho, dairyman Clint Jackson with one of his Jersey cows, Josie, who helped him deliver
pizzas in the Eagle area Oct. 6. Dairy West, formerly known as United Dairymen of Idaho, uses the
event as a way to connect with consumers by bringing the farm to them.
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
Courtney Marzocco pets a cow that, with the help of its owner,
Meridian dairyman Clint Jackson, in green shirt, delivered pizzas to
the Marzocco home in Eagle, Idaho, on Oct. 6. Dairy West, former-
ly known as United Dairymen of Idaho, uses the event as a way to
connect with consumers by bringing the farm to them.
the kind of milk he produces is
pretty important.”
Miller said Dairy West
chose Rocky Mountain be-
cause the restaurant serves
only Idaho cheese at its nine
locations in Idaho and Utah
and it chose a cow as a way to
embed the moment in people’s
minds.
“It’s very shocking when
people see a cow walking
down their street with a farm-
er delivering their pizza,” she
said. “It shouldn’t be some-
thing they will forget.”
At each stop, Josie attracted
a crowd of excited and some-
what bewildered people.
“Why is there a cow here?”
one puzzled kid asked.
The answer, provided by a
Dairy West employee: “Some-
one ordered a pizza with extra
cheese.”
Jackson has helped make
the pizza deliveries for three
years and chose and trained
Josie specifically for the event.
“They couldn’t keep me
away,” he said. “It’s a fun way
for us to get out and connect
with some people and let them
know how much we appreci-
ate them supporting the dairy
industry.”
Jackson said he also uses
the occasion to remind people
that when they buy Idaho dairy
products, they support an in-
dustry that has a large impact
on the state’s economy.
Dairy is Idaho’s top farm
commodity in terms of cash
receipts and is responsible for
39,000 jobs directly and indi-
rectly, according to a Universi-
ty of Idaho study.
“When they order some-
thing as common as a pizza,
that’s supporting the dairy
industry here in Idaho and
we appreciate it,” Jackson
said.
5
Oregon initial hazelnut price
drops below $1 per pound
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
By SEAN ELLIS
CapitalPress.com
Oregon farmers will re-
ceive at least 96.5 cents per
pound of hazelnuts this year,
a decrease of 18 percent from
last year’s initial price.
The price slide comes at
a time when hazelnut grow-
ers are also expecting lower
yields, with Oregon’s to-
tal production projected to
be 36,000 tons, down from
44,000 tons last year.
“With a small crop it’s
going to be tough for ev-
eryone,” said Doug Olsen,
farmer and president of the
Hazelnut Growers Bargain-
ing Association.
Price fluctuations in Ore-
gon are influenced by the ha-
zelnut crop in Turkey, where
low yields caused by a deep
freeze drove up the domestic
price to $1.70 per pound in
2014, the highest on record.
A bumper Turkish crop in
2017 has had the opposite ef-
fect on Oregon’s initial price,
though farmers could still
end up with a higher price
if processors receive premi-
ums.
Whether farmers will
make a profit this year varies
by individual, since people
have different levels of debt
and establishment costs for
their orchards.
“It kind of depends where
you are, how mature your or-
chard is,” said Nik Wiman,
an Oregon State University
orchard specialist.
According to a conserva-
tive estimate by OSU, farm-
ers who plant the popular Jef-
ferson variety earn a profit in
the seventh year of orchard
production at prices of $1 per
pound, he said.
At roughly $1 per pound,
farmers in Oregon will prob-
ably still be motivated to
continue planting the crop,
said Olsen.
“It might slow down a
little bit but it’s still one of
the better paying crops right
now,” he said.
Negotiations
between
farmers and hazelnut proces-
sors dragged on longer than
normal in 2017, with the par-
ties winding up in mediation
to set an initial price.
There was some dis-
agreement about how high
the price could rise without
hurting demand, particular-
ly in China, a major market
for Oregon’s crop, said Terry
Ross, executive director of
the Hazelnut Growers Bar-
gaining Association.
Ultimately, data from the
Oregon Hazelnut Marketing
Board showed that China’s
demand for our hazelnuts is
“elastic,” meaning that high-
er prices would curtail pur-
chases, Ross said.
“Once all the factors
about market conditions
were presented and dis-
cussed, there was no other
solution than the price that
was set,” he said.
Jeff Fox, executive direc-
tor of the Hazelnut Growers
of Oregon cooperative, said
he was disappointed by the
price decline, since the in-
dustry has seen large Turkish
crops before.
Oregon producers have
the opportunity to earn a
premium based on growing
higher quality hazelnuts than
Turkish farmers, he said.
“Hopefully this doesn’t
impact their behavior as far
as planting but I suspect it
will,” Fox said of domestic
growers.
While the price has fallen
since 2016, this year’s initial
price is nonetheless the sixth
highest on record, said Lar-
ry George, president of the
George Packing Co.
Industry seeks to reassure consumers as wine country burns
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
SAN FRANCISCO —
Amid reports of burned-out
wineries and smoke-shrouded
vineyards, California wine in-
dustry groups are seeking to
ease consumer fears as flames
consume the iconic Napa and
Sonoma county hillsides.
Growers’ associations note
that the harvest that was un-
derway when wildfires kicked
up late Oct. 8 was 90 percent
complete. Smoke from nearby
fires would have to cover vine-
yards for a long time to taint the
grapes that are still there, and
wineries can take measures to
prevent smoke from damaging
fermenting grapes, said Glad-
ys Horiuchi, spokeswoman for
the San Francisco-based Wine
Institute.
“It seems to be a pretty fluid
situation because a lot of peo-
ple can’t get back into their
properties (to assess damage)
because of the evacuations,”
Horiuchi said on Oct. 10. “The
good news is that the humidity
is starting to get higher than it
was and the winds have died
down. Obviously everyone is
Eric Risberg/Associated Press
Smoke from wildfires in the Sonoma Valley makes its way toward
the Napa Valley, in this view from the Carneros wine region Tues-
day in Napa, Calif. Worried California vintners surveyed the dam-
age to their vineyards and wineries Tuesday after wildfires swept
through several counties whose famous names have become
synonymous with fine food and drink.
very concerned.”
As for whether extensive
fire damage in the northern San
Francisco Bay area could create
a shortage of grapes or wines,
Horiuchi noted that 70 percent
of California’s wine grape har-
vest by volume occurs in the
inland valleys. Only 10 percent
of the grapes by volume are in
the Napa and Sonoma regions,
she said.
Still, the region’s grapes are
the state’s most lucrative, and
the premium wines from Napa
and Sonoma are a big reason
the value of U.S. wine exports
reached a record $1.62 billion
in 2016, according to the Wine
Institute. Ninety percent of the
exports were from California.
Wine production in 2016
was valued at $729.5 million in
Napa County and $586.5 mil-
lion in Sonoma County, accord-
ing to the two counties’ most
recent crop production reports.
In all, the wildfires that
have whipped through the wine
country killed at least 10 peo-
ple, destroyed 1,500 homes and
businesses and sent thousands
fleeing for shelters, The Associ-
ated Press reported. Gov. Jerry
Brown declared a state of emer-
gency in Napa, Sonoma, Butte,
Lake, Mendocino, Nevada and
Yuba counties.
The largest fires are the
Tubbs Fire, which started near
Calistoga and was at 28,000
acres as of Oct. 11, and the At-
las Fire in Napa County, which
had grown to 42,349 acres, ac-
cording to the state Department
of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The fires prompted closures of
dozens of major roads.
Among the wineries report-
ed destroyed was Signorella
Estate in Napa, Paradise Ridge
in Santa Rosa and White Rock
Vineyards in Napa, the winer-
ies reported on social media.
At Signorella Estate, wine-
maker Pierre Birebent and oth-
ers were on the property trying
to fight back the flames but
retreated and made it out safe-
ly when the fire overcame the
building, owner Ray Signorella
Jr. said in a Facebook post.
“It has been a devastating
fire,” said Karissa Kruse, pres-
ident of Sonoma County Wine-
growers. “At this time, we are
still assessing the specific dam-
age to Sonoma County vine-
yards as well as to our commu-
nities and neighbors. Reports of
fire damage to wineries, busi-
nesses and vineyards continues
to grow.”
The organization’s top prior-
ity now is to ensure the well-be-
ing of families, employees, vol-
unteers and others, Kruse said
in a statement emailed to the
Capital Press.
“We are continuing to close-
ly monitor the situation, but
we are very proud of how our
community is already coming
together to support each other
in this time of crisis.”
In the coming weeks as
damage assessments become
clearer, the California Associ-
ation of Winegrape Growers
will work with the state’s con-
gressional delegation, federal
officials and other wine indus-
try organizations to make sure
affected growers have adequate
disaster response and recovery
resources, the organization stat-
ed in a news release.
It had already been a chal-
lenging year for wine pro-
ducers. Triple-digit afternoon
temperatures in California’s
prime wine-producing regions
early last month left vintners
scrambling to take protective
measures to keep grapes from
shriveling on the vines before
crews could pick them.
But the heat also accelerated
harvests, Horiuchi said.
“We had heat spikes in
August and September that
moved everything up by about
a week,” she said. “More of
it came in than usual. … It’s
mostly the later-maturing reds
that may not have gotten in.”
If vineyards are burned and
have to be replaced, it could be
four years before they produce
a crop that can be turned into
wine, she said.
But fire crews are working
to save vineyards if they can,
said Shawn Boyd, a state Office
of Emergency Services spokes-
man.
“We do know that this is
a huge part of the California
economy, and that is something
we always take into consider-
ation whenever we’re being
strategic with how we mobilize
staff, equipment and firefight-
ers,” Boyd said. “It is definitely
a priority.”
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