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10 CapitalPress.com March 30, 2018 Apple Commission to promote proprietary varieties overseas along with Washington’s new Cosmic Crisp to debut in 2019 and 2020, he said. YAKIMA, Wash. — The Cosmic Crisp is intended Washington Apple Com- to begin in domestic markets mission has learned it can only. But Frank Davis, com- promote proprietary apple missioner and vice president varieties overseas, at least to of sales at Washington Fruit some extent, and sees it as & Produce Co., Yakima, said a helpful tool in an increas- it will need to be exported as ingly challenging marketing soon as possible because of climate. the large volumes planned. Davis said he would look At a commission meet- ing March 22 in Yakima, into why Proprietary Variet- Commission President Todd ies Management, the man- Fryhover said while at the ager of Cosmic Crisp, may USDA Foreign Agricultural be seeking federal Market Service the previous week Access Program funding for in Washington, D.C., he was export promotions when that told the commission can should occur through the offer consumer samples of Apple Commission. Washington is produc- proprietary varieties over- seas at retailers’ requests. ing large apple crops and “It could be a while it was helped by lower production Lady Alice, a Swee- Tango, whatever. in Europe, Cana- da, Mexico and the That’s a huge deal East Coast in the to us. It’s difficult fall 2017 crop, that to get retailers over- seas to do demos probably won’t be with Reds (Red De- the case this fall, Todd licious) and Gala, Fryhover said. Fryhover but they ask about Varietal diversifi- cation is “immense” the proprietaries,” and “certain grades won’t Fryhover said. Proprietary varieties — make it in the future,” Fry- there are many — are va- hover said. rieties grown, packed and “Low grade Reds and sold under the control of one Fuji are done. Fancy (lower company or group of com- grade) will be hard to sell panies versus being avail- and certain sizes also. All able to all growers, packers these things add up and trade and marketers. They’re lim- is another thing,” he said. ited in volume, sell for high The meeting was one day prices and along with Hon- before China announced eycrisp provide the most higher tariffs on agricultural profits. goods, including apples. “I don’t want proprietar- Challenges facing the ies to overtake Reds and industry, Fryhover said, in- Gala overseas, so we need clude a lack of progress in a process for what we do. bilateral trade agreements There’s a lot of things we and renegotiation of the need to work through be- North American Free Trade cause we have to move Reds Agreement, more protec- and Gala,” Fryhover said. tionism in general and a pre- Proprietaries can sell in vailing wage of $14.12 per higher-end retail markets hour for general labor with and generate excitement little to help labor shortages. By DAN WHEAT Capital Press Dan Wheat/Capital Press The 140-by-10-foot mural on Ward Rugh’s plant in Ellensburg, Wash., is a harvest photo taken by company vice president Andy Schmidt at Broadmoor Farms about 10 years ago. Schmidt says Timothy export prices need to soften in 2018 to gain market share. PNW hay exporters hope for better season By DAN WHEAT Capital Press ELLENSBURG, Wash. — Exporters say inventories of 2017 alfalfa and Timothy hay should sell out this spring but that export pricing still ap- pears to be tricky. “Right now we have a lot of competition for market share coming out of Australia and Canada where they have weaker currencies and are offering product at cheaper prices than we can for Tim- othy and Sudan grass,” said Jeff Calaway, president of Calaway Trading Inc. in El- lensburg. Exporters, many of whom are in Ellensburg, have never fully recovered the markets that were reduced or lost from the 2014 and 2015 work slow- down at West Coast container ports, he said. Exporting alfalfa is tough because rain and smoke dam- aged a lot of alfalfa last sea- son, knocking it out of export quality and creating a Pacific Northwest shortage, Calaway said. Domestic dairies are will- ing to pay more than export markets for the high-test alfal- fa, he said. And there’s the challenge of Saudi Arabia buying a lot of premium new season alfalfa in the Pacific Southwest at prices higher than Japanese, Korean and Chinese buyers are will- ing to pay, Calaway said. Saudi Arabia’s Almarai Co., the largest dairy in the Gulf region, has bought hay fields in California and Arizo- na in recent years through its subsidiary Fondomonte Cali- fornia, to source its own hay. Water scarcity has caused the Saudi government to restrict domestic crops. Almarai took 400,000 tons of hay out of the Southwest last year, continues to go after top quality and is willing to pay top price to get it, Cala- way said. More U.S. exporters should be able to compete in Saudi Arabia as it continues to restrict water for production, said Mark T. Anderson, presi- dent of Anderson Hay & Grain Co. Inc., another large Ellens- burg exporter. “China and the Middle East continue to be good emerging markets for U.S. hay products but competition from other countries is heavy, especially in the Middle East,” Anderson said, adding that his company has good quality, consistent supply and good brand recog- nition in both regions. Pricing in China has im- proved a little each month but is below new crop starting prices in the Southwest, he said. It should balance out as old crop inventories sell out and exporters are less inclined “to dump product into China to keep hay presses busy,” he said. Chinese demand has been growing at discounted prices but dramatic improvement is unlikely because of competi- tion from other export coun- tries and Chinese dairies not doing well, Calaway said. Andy Schmidt, vice pres- ident and co-owner of Ward Rugh Inc. in Ellensburg, said it’s hard to find the right price at the farm for what China wants to pay. Timothy prices will have to soften to gain overseas mar- ket share this season, Schmidt said. Last season, exporters got aggressive buying premium and supreme horse Timothy at up to $340 to $350 per ton, which was too high to com- pete with Australian oat hay and Southwest Sudan grass on the dairy side, he said. Ward Rugh’s primary mar- ket is Timothy going to Japan and South Korea. “We expect old crop in- ventories of alfalfa to clean up well up and down the West Coast,” Anderson said. “We also see lower acreage planted so we expect supply and de- mand to match up better.” Stripe rust losses expected to be ‘normal’ in wheat E. Idaho potato growers By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press Pacific Northwest wheat farmers have less stripe rust to contend with than they did at this time last year, and re- searchers say any yield losses for susceptible varieties in the region should be about nor- mal. Farmers raising highly susceptible wheat varieties should probably spray fun- gicide at the time of herbi- cide application, while farm- ers growing other varieties should wait to spray until they see stripe rust, said Xianming Chen, USDA Agricultural Re- search Service plant patholo- gist in Pullman, Wash. Last year, Chen found stripe rust in Lincoln and Ad- ams counties, but this year has found the disease only at a Walla Walla experimental field. That indicates less stripe rust pressure, he said. In his latest stripe rust re- port, Chen increased his pre- diction of yield loss in highly susceptible varieties from 6 percent to nearly 18 percent. He considers it a “light” stripe rust epidemic, which he de- scribed as “close to normal.” Normal yield loss is about 20 percent, Chen said. Crop damage is expected to be less than the last two years, Chen said. Susceptible varieties in- clude Eltan, Xerpha and ORCF-102. A grower’s level of wor- ry depends on the variety he planted, and the variety his neighbor planted, Chen said. “If you grow Eltan and your neighbors grow Xerpha, these two are pretty much susceptible, and (if) they find stripe rust in their field, you should spray your Eltan field, even if you do not see stripe rust,” he said. “If you grow varieties like Bruehl, and neighbors grow Xerpha, you do not need to worry, you do SAGE Fact #147 The John Day Dam powerhouse is nearly 2,000 feet long and contains 16 generators with a total generating capacity of 2.2 million kilowatts, enough to power two cities the size of Seattle, WA. University of Idaho Stripe rust in wheat is a concern among farmers in the Pacific Northwest because it reduces yields in varieties that are not resistant to it. Re- searchers say the level of the disease is about normal so far this year. not need to spray.” Bruehl is a club wheat that’s resistant to stripe rust. In Oregon, Jay Noller, head of Oregon State Univer- sity’s Department of Crop and Soil Science, said in an update stripe rust was found Feb. 21 in a single plot in an early planted hard wheat nursery outside Corvallis. Hard wheats are general- ly more susceptible to stripe rust than soft white winter wheats. Nearly all Willamette Valley wheat is soft white winter wheat. The finding was deemed to be of no signifi- cant relevance to commercial wheat production, Noller stat- ed. No stripe rust was found on a plot of the soft white wheat variety Foote. Stripe rust often appears earlier on Foote than other soft white winter varieties, Noller stated. “Overall, it appears that there has been little overwin- tering of wheat stripe rust in Oregon this year,” Noller stated in the report. “As early epidemics cause the greatest yield loss, this is good news for the coming season.” Growers and fieldmen should scout fields for rust as temperatures increase in the next few weeks, Noller stated. Susceptible fields are vulnera- ble to inoculum blown in from other regions during the entire growing season. Noller advised farmers to report any observation of stripe rust to their local ex- tension agent, OSU cereal pathology assistant professor Christina Hagerty or OSU botany and plant patholo- gy professor Chris Mundt to share the information with other producers, fieldmen and extension personnel. Chen will continue to pe- riodically check for devel- opment of the disease. Snow in late February added soil moisture, good for crop de- velopment, but also creating favorable conditions for stripe rust, which could last through mid-May, he said. prevail in PCN case said Bill Myers, attorney for the plaintiffs. APHIS quarantined crops A U.S. District Court and put significant restric- judge last week ruled the tions on growers. In theory, federal government did not if the process was not done follow its own rules and correctly those rules might regulations in formulating or might not be appropriate, he said. its pale cyst nem- atode eradication The lawsuit program, which has focuses on the regulated thousands rulemaking require- ments with regard of acres of farmland to the deregulation in eastern Idaho protocols in the in- since the devastating terim and final rules, pest was discovered which plaintiffs in 2006. Stephanie claim were never While he did not Mickelsen subject to public no- vacate the program, he gave it temporary status tice or comment. In ruling in favor of the until the agency can amend its errors in providing the potato growers, Lodge said, required public notice and “Defendants have not assert- ed nor shown that they have obtaining public comment. The summary judgment satisfied the notice and com- by U.S. District Judge Ed- ment process.” ward Lodge closes a law- “It was a huge ruling suit — unless it is appealed on our behalf. We’ve been — filed in April 2015 by a fighting with the federal group of potato growers af- government for three years,” fected by the PCN program, said Stephanie Mickelsen, a which is centered on the plaintiff and a potato grower Shelly area south of Idaho in Firth, Idaho. Growers’ concerns were Falls. The lawsuit alleges the brushed under the table, she USDA Animal and Plant said. The federal govern- Health Inspection Service ment declared what could violated administrative law happen to growers’ land in issuing and implementing and which crops they could the interim rule and final rule. grow, and about 20 growers Those rules quarantine in- in the area have been crip- fested and associated fields, pled and run out of business, restrict interstate movement she said. The plaintiffs had asked of regulated articles and pro- vide deregulation protocols the court to enjoin APHIS for quarantined fields. and the Idaho State Depart- The judge did not stop ment of Agriculture from en- the program but ordered the forcing the rules and proto- agency to redo the process cols and end the quarantine so its regulations are lawful, and regulation of their fields. By CAROL RYAN DUMAS Capital Press ROP-13-40-3/102 15-5/16 x 10 x 2 18-3/4 x 14-3/8 x 3 .COM MFG OF BRUSH MULCHERS | STUMP GRINDERS | DRAINAGE PLOWS BOOM MOWERS | PTO GENERATORS | AUGER BITS & DRIVES TRENCHERS | TREE SPADES | TREE SAWS | LIMB SHEARS AND MORE 13-1/101 ELLIS EQUIPMENT 800-949-2336 CALL FOR PRICING AND AVAILABILITY. Delivery Available 503-588-8313 2561 Pringle Rd. SE Salem, OR 13-3/106 Chen: Spray fungicide for susceptible varieties