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CapitalPress.com
December 1, 2017
Idaho
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Foreign trade mission fruitful for Idaho commodities
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
John O’Connell/Capital Press File
Bill Meadows, owner of Mountain States Oilseeds in American Falls, Idaho. “Every trade mission
we’ve been on, we come back and make bids and get additional business,” he says.
tional business,” said Bill
Meadows, owner of Moun-
tain States Oilseeds. “You get
to meet companies that there
would be no way you could
meet on your own.”
High school senior
proposes bill to require
ag education classes
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
NAMPA, Idaho — A
high school senior will pro-
pose a bill during the 2018
Idaho legislative session re-
quiring high school students
to complete at least two ag-
riculture education classes.
If it passes, that means
every student in the state
would have to take at least
two semesters of classes
that teach them about agri-
culture.
In other words, they
would emerge from those
classes with at least a basic
understanding of the farm-
ing and ranching industry
and where their food comes
from, said Anna Peterson,
17, an FFA member at Sky-
view High School in Nampa
who is proposing the legis-
lation.
Peterson’s proposal was
her senior project but she
told Idaho FFA Alumni
Association members last
week during their regular
meeting that she is in it for
the long haul, even if it takes
more than one try to get the
bill passed.
“I want to see this effort
all the way through,” Peter-
son told Capital Press. “I
think it’s important and I’m
passionate about it. I just
want to make sure students
know where their food is
coming from.”
Peterson said she wants
the classes to cover animal
and plant science as well as
agriculture’s importance to
Idaho’s economy and teach
students about some of the
many career
o p p o r t u n i-
ties available
in the indus-
try.
Peterson,
who
will
Anna
major in ag
Peterson
economics
and ag edu-
cation at the University of
Idaho, was born in south-
western Idaho and was not
raised on a farm.
However, she fell in love
with agriculture after work-
ing on a dairy as a milker
and learning more about the
farming industry.
“I was born with a green
heart,” said Peterson, who
has sent emails to all 105
of the state’s legislators in-
forming them of her plan.
Idaho FFA Alumni As-
sociation Past President Sid
Freeman, a farmer, said the
group was impressed with
Peterson’s proposal and is
discussing helping to cover
some of the expenses that
will be involved with her
effort.
“Agriculture education
is not just for farm kids; it
is for the majority of oth-
er kids who are not from
the farm,” he said. “It may
even draw their attention to
career opportunities in agri-
culture as well.”
Sen. Jim Rice, R-Cald-
well, chairman of the Senate
Agricultural Affairs Com-
mittee, said it might be a
tough sell to require all stu-
dents to have two ag credits
to graduate but he likes the
thinking behind Peterson’s
proposal.
Meadows believes the
trade mission could result in
50,000 to 75,000 bushels of
additional safflower sales to
Taiwan. Meadows estimates
he would need to contract with
Eastern Idaho farmers for an
additional 2,500 acres of saf-
flower to fill a 50,000-bushel
order.
“My feeling right now is
that if our bids (in Taiwan)
animal feed and markets the
resulting animal products at
a premium for the high levels
of heart-healthy Omega 3 fat-
ty acids they derive from the
oilseed.
Johnson said the mission
also bore fruit for other partic-
ipants. A Vietnamese company
that’s rapidly growing in the
dairy sector, called Vinamilk,
announced plans to import
20,000 head of dairy heifers
during the next five years and
has been “impressed with Ida-
ho,” Johnson said.
Johnson said Taiwan flour
millers expressed interest in
buying more wheat varieties in
the future that lend themselves
well to boiling and steaming.
Furthermore, she said
Mayfull Foods, a food im-
porter, hosted a week-long
Idaho foods promotion at the
Grand Mayfull Hotel in Tai-
wan, where customers lined
up to try Idaho beef served by
ISDA Director Celia Gould,
as well as Idaho potatoes, on-
ions and tortillas.
SW Idaho has shortage of housing for H-2A workers
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
CALDWELL, Idaho —
Some housing authorities in
southwestern Idaho are strug-
gling to keep up with a rising
demand for affordable hous-
ing that is the result of a large
increase in farm businesses
seeking temporary foreign
guestworkers under the H-2A
visa program.
Agricultural
producers
who use the program are re-
quired to provide housing for
the workers.
The Caldwell Housing
Authority, which operates
the Farmway Village public
housing complex for domestic
farmworkers and low-income
individuals, received its first
request to house H-2A work-
ers three years ago.
Two years ago, the village
housed 25 H-2A workers in
eight units. The following
year, that total grew to 80
people in 19 units. Next year,
Farmway Village will house
214 H-2A workers in 35 units.
“We are scrambling to get
all the units together for this
next year,” said CHA Execu-
tive Director Mike Dittenber.
Local farmer Sid Freeman,
a member of the CHA board
of directors, warned the hous-
ing authority three years ago
that the need for H-2A hous-
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
Workers sort peaches at a fruit processing facility in southwestern Idaho Sept. 6. An increase in the
number of agricultural businesses using the H-2A guestworker program has housing authorities in
southwestern Idaho scrambling to find enough housing for those workers.
ing would soon become a tidal
wave.
“I think we are at the (be-
ginning) of that tidal wave,”
Dittenber said.
Freeman said CHA has
been contacted by farm busi-
nesses that have asked what it
would take to rent every room
in the Farmway Village com-
plex, which has 225 units.
“Right now, we’re just
managing the situation,” he
said. “We’re trying to raise
awareness among our sur-
rounding communities of
what the situation is because
it’s going to be explosive.”
Meanwhile, CHA is con-
sidering building more hous-
ing units to help deal with
the expected influx of H-2A
workers, and it hired Jennifer
Uranga, who owns a consult-
ing business that specializes
in H-2A issues, earlier this
year to keep it apprised of the
H-2A housing situation.
“We’re trying to stay well
abreast of the issue,” Ditten-
ber said. “I think there are
going to be more and more
H-2A workers in the valley.
We want to pride ourselves on
our ability to meet the needs
of farmers.”
Under the H-2A program,
foreign guestworkers stay in
the United States for up to 10
months and then return home.
But the housing shortage
is so critical that many farm-
ers who use H-2A workers
are renting units at Farmway
Village for the entire year be-
cause “they just can’t take the
risk of not having the hous-
ing,” Dittenber said.
Thresher upgrades Blackfoot, Idaho Falls seed treatment lines
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
BLACKFOOT, Idaho —
Thresher Artisan Wheat is
upgrading the seed treatment
facilities at its Blackfoot and
Idaho Falls plants, which
should boost their perfor-
mance and capacity while
enabling farmers to customize
their pesticides.
Brett Wilken, Idaho
production manager with
Thresher, said new seed
treatment systems were in-
stalled in both plants in
2010. But Wilken said both
lines have reached their ca-
pacity, and equipment with
better capabilities is now
available.
Wilken said Thresh-
er has already installed the
seed treatment lines and will
finish work on the mixing
equipment in late December.
Wilken said he discovered the
NOVO Seed Care Prescrip-
tion Management System,
manufactured by Agrilead,
Inc., of Russell, Kan., a cou-
ple of years ago at the Ida-
ho-East Oregon Seed Associ-
ation’s seed show.
The new system should
evenly treat more than 99 per-
cent of the seed that passes
through it — an improvement
of about 5 to 10 percent from
the previous system. Wilken
said the new systems have the
capacity to treat up to 3,000
pounds of seed per minute,
enabling Thresher to boost
production from a maximum
of 1,300 pounds per minute in
Blackfoot and 2,000 pounds
per minute in Idaho Falls.
Tony Severa, with Syn-
genta, said his company is
partnering with Thresher on
the upgrades, supplying the
chemicals and testing how
well the machinery works.
“It ensures a more con-
sistent delivery on seed, and
we’re testing that to make
sure it makes the specs,” Se-
vera said.
The previous lines required
operators to manually mix
water with the appropriate
quantities of chemicals. The
new system is fully automat-
ed, reducing the potential for
human error, and its applica-
tion rates are based on weight
rather than seed volume.
“The computer knows how
much weight is going through
the system and it applies the
right amount of chemical,”
Wilken said.
Wilken believes farmers
haven’t paid much attention
to their seed treatments in the
past, reasoning “if it looks
pink, it’s treated.” The new
systems will generate reports
precisely documenting each
treatment for farmers.
48-1/102
AMERICAN FALLS, Ida-
ho — The staff at Mountain
States Oilseeds has been busy
working on bids to supply
safflower and flax to Taiwan
since two company repre-
sentatives returned from a
state-sponsored trade mission
on Nov. 18.
The Idaho governor’s of-
fice, the Idaho State Depart-
ment of Agriculture and the
Idaho Department of Com-
merce have for decades col-
laborated on foreign trade
missions to boost demand for
Idaho goods.
ISDA’s market develop-
ment coordinator, Laura John-
son, said several Idaho agri-
cultural businesses returned
from a recent eight-day mis-
sion to Taiwan and Vietnam
with promising new leads for
marketing their goods.
“Every trade mission
we’ve been on, we come back
and make bids and get addi-
develop, we will be able to go
out and contract the (safflow-
er) acres people want to grow,”
Meadows said, explaining the
domestic market for safflow-
er birdseed has been slowing
down. “If they don’t, we may
need to cut back.”
Meadows said a Taiwanese
company has expressed inter-
est in buying multi-colored
safflower for the birdseed
market. Another customer in
Taiwan wanted safflower for
crushing into cooking oil, and
one major buyer was interest-
ed in acquiring finished oil,
which would represent a new
market for Mountain States
Oilseeds. Meadows said he
would likely work with mills
in California or Montana to
produce the oil from his saf-
flower, but demand for fin-
ished oil could eventually
justify opening a small, local
crushing facility.
Meadows said he’s also
submitting bids to supply up
to 4 million pounds of flax
to a company that uses it for
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