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April 6, 2018 CapitalPress.com 3 USDA orders volume controls on cranberries Ruling overturns limit on replacing Oregon farm dwellings Unsold fruit spurs order By DON JENKINS Capital Press Cranberry handlers were ordered by the USDA on Wednesday to withhold from U.S. consumers 15 percent of the 2017 crop to raise prices that farmers receive. The reduction applies to cranberries grown by approx- imately 1,100 farmers in 10 states, including Oregon and Washington. Growers and handlers petitioned the USDA for volume controls to chip away at a huge surplus. The USDA projects the or- Don Jenkins/Capital Press File der will divert as many as 110 million pounds of cranberries Workers harvest Ocean Spray cranberries on the Long Beach Peninsula in Washington. The USDA to charities, animal feed or has ordered handlers to withhold 15 percent of the 2017 crop in a bid to increase producer prices. foreign markets. Consumers are unlikely to see higher prices, but the been flat for several years, would have left a surplus of year’s harvest. The order also reduction likely will help while production has been on 90 percent and not lifted pric- exempts handlers who take in farmers, according to the an upward trend, especially in es, according to the USDA. fewer than 125,000 barrels, or USDA. The agency didn’t Wisconsin. The industry has The market committee is also 12.5 million pounds. The ex- seeking a volume reduction of emption applies to 88 percent forecast a specific bump in not self-corrected. The Cranberry Marketing 25 percent for the 2018 crop. of the handlers, but only cov- grower returns. Even with volume controls, the supply Committee, which includes The USDA has yet to rule on ers 10 percent of the volume, according to the USDA. of cranberries will exceed growers and handlers, pro- that request. Handlers can meet up to The cranberry surplus has demand. The USDA proj- jected last summer the surplus ects carryover inventory will would reach 115 percent of not stimulated consumer de- 50 percent of their obligation mand, but it has hit farmers. by disposing of juice concen- equal 83 percent of annual annual sales without action. sales. The USDA’s order follows Growers earned an average trate, rather than whole fruit. “We’re going to go through the 15 percent cut recom- of 30 cents a pound in 2011 Juice concentrate is a byprod- some tough times in the next mended last summer by the and 10 cents a pound in 2016. uct of dehydrated cranberries few years,” said Washington committee. The committee The industry puts the average and makes up a large share cranberry farmer Malcolm later changed its recommen- cost of production at 35 cents of the surplus, though not as dation to 5 percent because a pound, according to the much as frozen berries, ac- McPhail. cording to the USDA. An Ocean Spray spokes- the 2017 harvest was smaller USDA. The order doesn’t apply to woman said in an email that than forecast. Ocean Spray Organic cranberries, a the farmers’ cooperative be- supported the lower figure, small part of the market, are cranberries coming into the lieves volume reduction will but USDA stuck with the exempt from the order, as are U.S. from Canada and Chile, be good for the industry. higher percentage. handlers who dispose of all two countries with growing Consumer demand has A 5 percent reduction of their 2017 fruit before this production volumes. Controversial Eastern Oregon dairy may soon be selling its entire herd By GEORGE PLAVEN This Nov. 27, 2016, photo shows an aerial view of Lost Valley Ranch under construction. Capital Press The owner of Lost Val- ley Farm, a controversial Eastern Oregon dairy that has drawn the ire of environ- mental groups and run afoul of state regulators, may soon be forced to sell off its entire herd. Greg te Velde, of Tipton, Calif., began operating the dairy near Boardman, Ore., in 2017, which was permitted for up to 30,000 cows — mak- ing it the second-largest dairy in the state, behind neighbor- ing Threemile Canyon Farms. But according to docu- ments filed in Morrow Coun- ty Circuit Court, te Velde is in significant financial straits, owing more than $150 million in debt — more than $60 mil- lion to Rabobank, a multina- tional agricultural lender. Rabobank made three commercial loans and issued three lines of credit for Lost Valley and two other dairies te Velde owns in California. The loans were secured in part by Lost Valley’s dairy herd, other livestock, silage and equip- ment. The bank claims te Velde has since defaulted on two of the loans, and foreclosure pro- ceedings are underway in Cal- ifornia. Toppenish Livestock Commission, of Toppenish, Wash., has been secured to auction the Lost Valley herd, which includes 10,500 milk- ing and dry cows, along with 4,000 replacement heifers. John Top, owner of Toppe- nish Livestock, said they will begin preparing next week for the auction, which is sched- uled for April 27. However, according to a motion filed in Morrow County by Rabobank seeking a preliminary injunc- tion, te Velde has not given the auctioneer permission to enter the dairy and take the herd. Te Velde declined to com- Courtesy Paloma Ayala, with aerial support from LightHawk. ment when contacted last week. An attorney for Rabo- bank also declined comment. In a declaration filed in state superior court Feb. 15 in Fresno, Calif., Nico- la Merrifield-Olivia, senior vice president and manager of commercial special assets for Rabobank, wrote that the bank had attempted to work with te Velde for more than a year to restructure his debts. Yet despite these efforts, te Velde failed to put together a realistic plan. “Two of the three loans extended to te Velde by Ra- bobank have matured, and te Velde’s precarious financial condition is beginning to en- danger the well-being of the three herds,” Merrifield-Oliv- ia wrote. Lost Valley is on a portion of the former Boardman Tree Farm. It has been a lightning rod for controversy since before it was permitted as a confined animal feeding oper- ation, or CAFO. More than 4,200 public comments opposed the oper- ation, urging the Oregon De- partment of Agriculture and Department of Environmental Quality to deny a key waste- water permit for roughly 187 million gallons of liquid ma- nure. Opponents railed against the potential for air and water Grass Expertise. LET’S TALK! Over 40 Years Experience Beware of “EARLY ORCHARD GRASS” on a seed label. It’s probably Paiute - not good for irrigated pastures! Don’t plant pre-mixed blends! Caldwell, Idaho • Alan Greenway, Seedsman Cell: 298-259-9159 • MSG: 298-454-8342 Alan Greenway, Seedsman By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press Dwellings can be rebuilt on Oregon farmland regard- less of when the original structures were destroyed or removed, according to the Oregon Court of Appeals. The ruling overturns an earlier interpretation of state law by Oregon’s Land Use Board of Appeals, which held that dwellings can only be rebuilt if they were sub- ject to property taxes within the past five years. Landwatch Lane Coun- ty, a farmland preservation group, argues that the Or- egon Court of Appeals has misconstrued the pertinent land use statute, creating an “end run” around the state planning goal of preserving farmland. “I would call it devastat- ing for Oregon farmland,” said Lauri Segel-Vaccher, the group’s legal analyst. Long-lost homes could be rebuilt on farmland re- gardless of soil quality and with uncertain proof they existed in the first place, she said. Counties are often “lack- adaisical” in protecting farm and forest land, so they may require only scant evidence of a dwelling’s location, Se- gel-Vaccher said. “Anybody could come up with a photograph or a diary entry from the 1800s,” she said. Landwatch Lane County hasn’t yet decided whether to challenge the decision before the Oregon Supreme Court, Segel-Vaccher said. Oregonians In Action, a property rights group, be- lieves state lawmakers were “fully informed” of the ef- fect their revisions would have on the applicable land use statute in 2013. “The whole purpose of the bill was to allow proper- ty owners to replace dwell- ings that had been removed, in some cases decades ear- lier,” said Dave Hunnicutt, the group’s executive direc- tor. The notion that a signif- icant number of homes will be built as a result is “silly” because landowners must still demonstrate the exis- tence of a dwelling, he said. “Most rural land is on parcels that have never had farm dwellings,” said Hun- nicutt. The legal dispute over re- placement farmland dwell- ings stems from the case of landowner who sought to rebuild three houses on 100 acres of farmland near Florence, Ore., that were torn down more than two decades ago. Lane County officials permitted the construction based on a 2013 bill that eased the replacement pro- cess for dilapidated or de- molished farm dwellings. However, the coun- ty’s decision was reversed last year by the Land Use Board of Appeals, which found the dwelling replace- ment provision is “some- what ambiguous” but only applies to a five-year “look back” period during which property taxes were im- posed. 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CUSTOMER SERVICE IS OUR TOP PRIORITY! w w w. w e s t e r n p a c k a g i n g. c o m 14-3/100 Weekly fieldwork report Item/description (Source: USDA, NASS; NOAA) • Days suitable for fieldwork (As of April 1) • Topsoil moisture, surplus • Topsoil moisture, percent short • Subsoil moisture, surplus • Subsoil moisture, percent short • Precipitation probability (6-10 day outlook as of April. 3) 14-2/108 GREENWAY SEEDS contamination, though ODA and DEQ did award the per- mit based on what the agen- cies described as the most protective permit conditions for a CAFO to date. Within the first year of op- eration, Lost Valley failed numerous inspections and was cited four times for per- mit violations. ODA sued to shut down the dairy, though ultimately the sides reached a settlement, with Lost Val- ley agreeing to limit its wastewater to 65,000 gallons a day and ensuring manure lagoons had enough capacity to handle water from storms. It also agreed to weekly in- spections. According to court doc- uments, te Velde was in dis- cussions to sell the dairy, but those negotiations fell through as of March 15. A motions hearing is scheduled in Mor- row County for April 12. Previous legal interpretation required taxation within five years Ore. Wash. Idaho Calif. 4.9 15% 28% 11% 33% 5.5 7% 17% 5% 16% 3.7 24% 3% 15% 7% 7 40% 5% 40% 5% 40-70% above 50-70% above 40-50% above 33-70% above/ Normal (South)