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January 26, 2018
CapitalPress.com
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Idaho ag department seeks eight new positions in its budget
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
BOISE — The Idaho State De-
partment of Agriculture is asking
lawmakers for permission to add
eight new positions that will help it
keep pace with increasing demand
for services from the state’s agricul-
tural industry.
“We’re just trying to keep pace
with demand, going the direction the
markets are leading,” ISDA Direc-
tor Celia Gould told Capital Press.
“These new positions reflect the
growth in our industry.”
Gov. Butch Otter’s proposed fis-
cal year 2019 budget requests $45.4
million for the department, which is
$300,000 less than ISDA’s current
fiscal 2018 budget.
Gould said ISDA employees are
working full bore to keep up with
increasing demand for inspections,
certifications and other services.
“Over the last several years,
it’s grown to the point that inspec-
tion-wise, we’re bursting at the
seams,” she said. “We try to run a
Research,
trade top list
for Idaho Bean
Commission
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
TWIN FALLS, Idaho —
2017 was a busy year for the
Idaho Bean Commission, and
there’s more ahead in 2018,
the executive director says.
IBC completed some
projects and has more in the
works when it comes to bean
research and gaining ground
in international markets.
Andi Woolf-Weibye filled
growers in on those happen-
ings during the University of
Idaho bean schools last week.
IBC is hoping to gain mo-
mentum in its efforts to create
a multi-state bean consortium
for research, teaming up with
other states to share the cost
of research that will benefit
each.
Colorado and Wyoming
bean commissions and their
state’s land-grant universities
have already signed a memo-
randum of understanding for
the consortium, but the ini-
tiative has been stuck at the
University of Idaho, she said.
The next step is figuring
out how to move forward if
the university isn’t on board,
she said.
IBC has also completed
two projects partnering with
students in the university’s
agribusiness department. One
was to develop a blueprint for
a low-cost storage container
that would help growers in
other countries protect their
purchases of Idaho’s bean
seed from insects.
The other was to analyze
data on Mexico and Latin
American countries to over-
come some barriers in the for-
mer and gain market inroads
in the latter.
Current Specialty Crop
Block Grants secured by IBC
are focusing on increasing
market share for Idaho beans
in Latin America and increas-
ing the diversity and choice
in the yellow dry bean trade.
With the new yellow bean
Patron variety, resistant to
viruses common to Mexico,
that effort will be to develop
a bean with the deeper yellow
color that Mexican consumers
desire, she said.
Idaho’s bean seed inroads
in Costa Rica and Puerto Rico
hit some obstacles in 2017.
Trials set for both countries
were waylaid by hurricanes,
she said.
Hurricane Otto delayed
planting in Costa Rica. Grow-
ers there were able to physi-
cally see the difference be-
tween crops of Idaho seed
and other seed and see how
promising Idaho seed looks.
But there was no time for the
plants to set pods, so the trials
were unable to obtain produc-
tion data, she said.
Costa Rico had a double
whammy with Hurricanes
Irma and Maria, and the Ida-
ho seed didn’t even get in the
ground, she said.
Looking ahead, IBC is
hoping to gain traction in
overcoming political barriers
in Mexico and will continue
to focus more effort on garden
bean research, she said.
Capital Press File
Idaho Director of Agriculture Celia Gould is seeking eight new positions to keep
up with the demand for services.
lean, mean machine here and try to
run with as few positions as we pos-
sibly can ... but at some point in time,
you would be doing a detriment to
your industry and we don’t want to
be in that position.”
Gould said ISDA is “excited
that our industries are continuing to
grow. It’s a good problem to have.”
As an example of the increased
demand for services, the ISDA’s
animal laboratory over the last year
has experienced a six-fold increase
in lab work related to the new cat-
tle processing facility in Kuna, said
Chanel Tewalt, ISDA’s chief of op-
erations.
Despite the request for eight new
positions, ISDA’s proposed fiscal
2019 budget is actually slightly
smaller than its 2018 budget.
That’s because the department
was able to reduce excess spending
authority in some divisions that off-
set the money needed for the new
positions, said Kelly Nielsen, IS-
DA’s chief fiscal officer.
“So we didn’t need to ask for
additional spending authority, we
just needed to ask for positions,” he
said.
Two of the new requested po-
sitions are to keep up with the
growth of the department’s organics
program and two will work in the
department’s dairy inspection pro-
gram.
The dairy inspection program “is
going gang busters, particularly on
the processing side,” Gould said.
The department also seeks three
new employees who will be trained
to conduct voluntary on-farm readi-
ness reviews and other outreach and
education efforts for producers who
will be impacted by FDA’s Food
Safety Modernization Act require-
ments.
ISDA also seeks to add a lab
quality assurance manager who will
perform duties that currently occupy
the time of employees who work in
the department’s seven laboratories.
That will free up those employees
to focus solely on the increased de-
mand for lab services, Nielsen said.
ISDA’s 2019 budget requests
$11.9 million from the state’s gen-
eral fund, which is equal to its 2018
budget, and it seeks $6.3 million in
spending authority for federal funds,
which is $1 million less than the cur-
rent budget.
ISDA also asks for $26.6 million
in dedicated funds, which is $1 mil-
lion more than in 2018. Those are
fees that industry pays directly for
certain services.
Legislature approves Idaho Wheat Commission rule change
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
BOISE — State lawmak-
ers have approved an Ida-
ho Wheat Commission rule
change that would require
grain elevators to submit the
names and addresses of all
growers from whom they pur-
chase wheat.
Members of the House
and Senate agricultural affairs
committees voted by a com-
bined 22-2 Jan. 18 to support
the rule after IWC officials as-
sured them the list of grower
names and addresses would
remain confidential and only
be used to communicate with
and educate wheat farmers.
Legislators
showered
Hamilton and IWC Executive
Director Blaine Jacobson with
questions related to the confi-
dentiality and security of the
grower list.
The “list is safe and sacred
with the commission,” IWC
board member and Ririe farm-
er Clark Hamilton told mem-
bers of the House ag commit-
tee. “It’s not to be shared and
we’re taking that seriously.”
IWC has the authority to
have such a grower list but
currently lacks the mechanism
to collect the information.
Since not all elevators provide
grower names and addresses
to the IWC, the current list is
incomplete.
IWC officials said a com-
plete list of wheat growers in
the state is needed to ensure
producers have a say in how
the commission operates and
spends their wheat checkoff
dollars and also to educate and
communicate with growers.
“As a commissioner and as
a grower who pays the wheat
tax, I feel strongly that the
wheat commission must be
accountable to Idaho’s wheat
growers as to how we spend
their hard-earned dollars,”
Hamilton said. “Currently, we
have no way of reporting how
we have invested their dollars
or of asking them for their ad-
vice on future investments.”
When asked how growers
would benefit from the rule
change, Hamilton used a 2014
stripe rust outbreak as an ex-
ample. The University of Ida-
ho issued an early warning of
a stripe rust outbreak that year
and the wheat commission
quickly relayed that informa-
tion to growers, he said.
Like other farmers who got
the early warning, Hamilton
sprayed his crop in time to
protect it. “Those that didn’t,
lost (up to) 30 percent of their
crop,” he said.
“Those growers who were
part of the communications
tree got an early warning
and were able to protect their
crop,” Jacobson told Capital
Press.
Rep. Randy Armstrong,
R-Inkom, said he has spoken
to numerous wheat growers in
his district about the issue and
“every single person I’ve spo-
ken to was strongly in favor
of this. It’s nothing sinister,
which some people may think
it may be. It’s really a great
idea.”
Hamilton said the infor-
mation would only be used
to conduct the periodic ref-
erendums the commission is
required by Idaho statute to
do to gauge whether wheat
farmers approve of the way
the commission is spending
their checkoff dollars, and to
mail growers the Idaho Grain
Magazine.
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Name
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Address
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Phone
Corey F. Brock, Attorney
Norman D. Brock, Attorney
Offices in Kennewick & Spokane
(509) 622-4707 • corey@brocklf.com
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