June 15, 2018
CapitalPress.com
Tillamook subsidiary files lawsuit
against troubled E. Oregon dairy
Complaint seeks
to terminate milk-
buying contract with
Lost Valley Farm
E.J. Harris/EO Media Group
A lawsuit filed by a subsidiary of the Tillamook dairy cooperative seeks to terminate its milk-buying
contract with Lost Valley Farm, a troubled Oregon dairy farm near Boardman.
contract is valid and threat-
ened to sue.
Columbia River Process-
ing has filed an adversary
case — a complaint related
to the bankruptcy proceed-
ings — asking a bankruptcy
judge to declare that the con-
tract was terminated before
the Chapter 11 case was filed.
The company submitted a
letter terminating its contract
with te Velde in late Febru-
ary, citing the dairy’s failure
to pay debts and the appoint-
ment of a receiver to oversee
its operations.
Reputational damage to
the Tillamook cooperative
and high bacteria levels in
Lost Valley Farm’s milk have
also been cited by the compa-
ny in ending the milk-buying
agreement.
When Columbia River
Processing offered to nego-
tiate a reinstatement of the
contract, te Velde did not re-
spond, according to the com-
plaint.
If the judge isn’t willing
to declare the contract inval-
id or allow CRP to terminate
the agreement, the complaint
seeks a judgment that would
cause the dairy to its lose
bankruptcy protections for
any further contract viola-
tions.
The issue of CRP’s con-
tinued acceptance of milk
is key to Lost Valley Farm’s
ability to restructure and re-
main operational.
Rabobank cited the im-
pending end of milk sales to
CRP as a reason to lift the
dairy’s bankruptcy protec-
tions, which would allow the
cattle auction to move for-
ward.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge
Fredrick Clement denied that
request during a hearing last
month, but may revisit the
matter.
“Frankly, I think this issue
is going to resolve itself one
way or the other,” he said. “If
Columbia River refuses to
accept milk and the debtor is
unable to force them to do so,
undoubtedly this issue will ...
rise to the top of the matters
under consideration and will
be addressed again by this
court.”
The other major factor
affecting Lost Valley Farm
is its settlement of a lawsuit
with Oregon farm regulators
over improper wastewater
disposal.
In court documents, te
Velde acknowledged he was
facing a contempt hearing
because ODA claimed the
dairy was out of compliance
with the deal.
The judge declined to lift
the dairy’s bankruptcy pro-
tections on these grounds,
though he could reconsider if
the ODA actually shuts down
its operations.
“My guess is the Oregon
Department of Agriculture
has its remedies without
seeking stay relief,” Clement
said.
Ag caught in U.S.-China trade dispute
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Don Jenkins/Capital Press File
A ship waits to be loaded at the Port of Tacoma in Washington
state. U.S. agriculture sold $20 billion worth of products to China
last year, sales put at risk in the current trade dispute between
the U.S. and China.
the tariff threat drew an in-
kind response from China
— primarily targeting ag-
ricultural goods, including
soybeans, corn, wheat, sor-
ghum, cotton and beef.
Trump raised the ante,
threatening tariffs on anoth-
er $100 billion of Chinese
goods, and China promised it
would retaliate (presumably
in kind).
The trade-war rhetoric
seemed to simmer down af-
ter both sides announced
on May 19 a consensus on
taking effective measures to
substantially reduce the U.S.
trade deficit in goods with
China, which amounted to
$375 billion last year.
The administration’s an-
nouncement that it’s moving
ahead with the tariffs and will
have a list of targeted imports
by June 15 is a “little inter-
esting,” coming just ahead
of the trade talks in Beijing,
Salmonsen said.
AFBF figured the process
was still going on, given the
public hearing and comment
period on the proposed tariffs
and Treasury Secretary Ste-
ven Mnuchin’s comment that
the trade war was “on hold”
— not halted, he said.
The organization is hope-
ful the trade talks will go well
and result in the resolution of
long-running issues, he said.
“We’d rather have talks
than tariffs,” he said.
AFBF hasn’t analyzed the
potential impact to agricul-
ture. It’ll depend on whether
the U.S. tariffs go into effect
and whether China retaliates.
Retaliatory tariffs would
make U.S. products noncom-
petitive, effecting trade and
prices to farmers, he said.
China’s retaliatory tariffs
against U.S. tariffs on steel
and aluminum are already
having an impact on U.S.
producers, he said.
Those tariffs, applied at
the start of April, include
additional duties of 25 per-
cent on pork and 15 percent
on fruit, tree nuts, wine and
ginseng.
National Pork produc-
ers Council is calling for a
swift resolution of the trade
dispute with China — the
world’s largest pork-consum-
ing nation — saying it has
cost pork producers $2.2 bil-
lion on an annualized basis.
U.S. House to take up immigration bills
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
U.S. House Speaker Paul
Ryan, R-Wis., has announced
the House will vote next
week on immigration and ag-
ricultural labor reform.
The announcement averts
a procedural move called a
discharge petition in which
moderate Republicans and
Democrats were attempting
to bypass Ryan and force
votes on four immigration
bills, most of which aimed at
giving citizenship to recipi-
ents of Deferred Action of
Childhood Arrivals, known
as DACA.
DACA refers to people
whose parents brought them
into the U.S. illegally as chil-
dren and have received a re-
newable two-year deferred
action from deportation and a
work permit.
The discharge petition
Overseas marketing
arm meets in
Seattle June 22-24
Capital Press
Capital Press
Additional tariffs on
Chinese goods to the U.S.,
announced by the Trump
administration on Tuesday,
represent the latest devel-
opment in the on-again, off-
again trade duel between the
two countries.
With about $20 billion in
agricultural exports to China
last year, U.S. farmers and
ranchers are closely follow-
ing the bout.
“There’s plenty going
on,” Dave Salmonsen, senior
director of congressional re-
lations for American Farm
Bureau Federation, told Cap-
ital Press. “It’s a little unset-
tling.”
The additional tariffs will
have an impact on agricul-
ture, but the extent of the
fallout will depend on how
things play out in trade talks
between the two countries
this week in Beijing, he said.
The administration said
the 25 percent tariffs on $50
billion worth of goods im-
ported from China are in re-
sponse to China’s unfair trade
practices related to the forced
transfer of U.S. technology
and intellectual property.
First announced in March,
Miller ‘right chairman at
right time’ for U.S. Wheat
By MATTHEW WEAVER
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
A subsidiary of the Tilla-
mook County Creamery As-
sociation has filed a lawsuit
seeking to stop accepting
milk from a troubled Oregon
dairy in bankruptcy proceed-
ings.
Lost Valley Farm of
Boardman, Ore., began sup-
plying Columbia River Pro-
cessing, the subsidary, when
the dairy opened last year.
It has since run into seri-
ous regulatory and financial
problems.
The company’s owner,
Greg te Velde, owes about
$67 million to Rabobank, a
major agricultural lender that
sought to foreclose on Lost
Valley Farm’s cattle herd.
A liquidation auction
of the cattle was halted in
April by te Velde’s Chapter
11 bankruptcy filing, which
protects the company from
actions by creditors while it’s
restructuring.
However, the dairy’s abil-
ity to sell milk to Columbia
River Processing has been a
major point of contention in
the bankruptcy proceedings,
with the Tillamook coopera-
tive vowing to stop accepting
deliveries at the end of May.
Tillamook CEO Patrick
Criteser argued that his com-
pany has terminated its con-
tract with Lost Valley Farm,
but te Velde maintains the
13
was reportedly two votes shy
of the number needed for pas-
sage.
U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse,
R-Wash., was among the
Republicans being wooed to
support the discharge peti-
tion, but he announced he will
not sign it given the speaker’s
commitment to bring the
compromise bills to the floor.
However, he said he is
keeping his options open.
DACA recipients in his
district want certainty of pro-
tection from deportation. A
new compromise within the
House Republican Caucus
giving that certainty and ad-
dressing greater border secu-
rity is the best way to make
that happen, Newhouse said
in a June 12 news release.
He said he commends
Ryan and House Majority
Leader Kevin McCarthy,
R-Calif., for their commit-
ment to him to bring forward
a separate immigration bill
that addresses agriculture’s
labor needs before the August
recess.
“Agriculture is a labor-in-
tensive industry and there re-
mains a shortage of domestic
labor,” Newhouse said. “Our
farmers and ranchers much
have access to a legal and
reliable workforce in order
to provide the world with a
safe and abundant supply of
food.”
The agricultural labor bill
would be a new measure, but
House Judiciary Chairman
Bob Goodlatte’s HR 4760
would also be voted on, a
Newhouse aide said.
Michael Marsh, president
and CEO of the National
Council for Agricultural Em-
ployers, could not be reached
for comment.
HR 4760 would bolster
immigration
enforcement
including the use of E-veri-
fy (electronic verification of
employment eligibility), fix
DACA and replace the H-2A
guestworker program with
a new one called H-2C. It’s
supported by the American
Farm Bureau Association, the
Washington farm labor as-
sociation known as WAFLA
and is opposed by the West-
ern Growers Association in
Irvine, Calif.
H-2C includes dairy,
mushrooms and other sec-
tors excluded from H-2A, but
caps the number of workers at
410,000 while requiring ille-
gal residents to return to their
country of origin and apply
to re-enter the U.S. as H-2C
workers.
“Mandatory
E-verify
without any real fix for the
existing workforce and a cap
on H-2C would be devastat-
ing to agriculture,” Marsh has
previously said, adding that
NCAE is working to fix that.
RITZVILLE, Wash. —
Mike Miller predicts more
“bumpy” roads ahead for
wheat farmers in the face of
international trade uncertain-
ty.
The Ritzville, Wash.,
wheat farmer will end his one-
year term as chairman of U.S.
Wheat Associates during the
organization’s summer board
meeting June 22-24 in Seat-
tle. The organization is the
overseas marketing arm of the
wheat industry.
“It’s hard to navigate right
now, because the rules have
changed,” he said. “We’re
dealing with the unknown.”
The Trump administra-
tion last year pulled out of
the Trans-Pacific Partner-
ship trade agreement, which
included Japan, one of the
largest consumers of North-
west wheat. Now the admin-
istration is renegotiating the
North American Free Trade
Agreement with Mexico and
Canada, two other large trade
partners.
In January, Miller also fin-
ished a two-year stint as chair-
man of the Washington Grain
Commission.
When he took office, pre-
vious U.S. Wheat officers told
Miller that chairman duties
are usually pretty much deal-
ing with the same trade issues.
But in the past years, he says,
“It’s just been upside down.
And it’s even getting worse.”
Miller has also worked
through changes at U.S.
Wheat, including the transi-
tion to new president Vince
Peterson, whose predecessor
retired. Other issues have
included overseas office clo-
sures and traveling to deal
with industry challenges in
Congress, the farm bill and
the “overwhelming issue of
trade.”
Overall, Miller believes
the wheat industry in Wash-
ington and the Pacific North-
west is “quite healthy.” Fall-
ing number test results were a
concern in previous years, but
the region has mostly settled
into a decent weather pattern,
meaning starch damage will
likely decrease.
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Mike Miller will end his year-
long term as chairman of U.S.
Wheat Associates during the
overseas marketing organiza-
tion’s summer board meeting
June 22-25 in Seattle.
He’s more concerned
about farmers in the Great
Plains who are dealing with
drought, trade issues, quality
problems, freight problems
and the loss of markets in Af-
rica to Russian competition.
Wheat acreage in the Plains
is down due to economics,
he said, with farmers electing
to plant cotton, corn and soy-
beans instead.
Miller has spearheaded
several efforts, forming a
working group to tackle do-
mestic grain transportation is-
sues and reduce railroad rates,
U.S. Wheat president Vince
Peterson said.
“Mike is a quiet but a
goal-oriented leader ... he
prefers actually getting things
done out of range of the cam-
era lens to standing in the
spotlight,” Peterson told the
Capital Press. “There wasn’t a
meeting or topic that came up
during Mike’s tenure that he
didn’t immediately default to
looking after the best interests
of all U.S. wheat producers.”
Miller “expertly” covered
all bases to get the message
out to foreign customers that
U.S. wheat farmers value
their business and are work-
ing hard to protect their inter-
ests and remain their most re-
liable supplier, Peterson said.
“Mike was the right chair-
man at the right time for U.S.
Wheat,” Peterson said.
Miller’s leadership and ad-
vocacy have made great prog-
ress for Eastern Washington
farmers and agriculture, said
U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris
Rodgers, R-Wash.
Monitoring moisture
helps onion growers
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
Agronomist Jim Klauzer
gets the best view of the onion
industry below ground level.
“We are really big on mois-
ture monitoring,” said Klau-
zer, with Clearwater Supply
in Ontario, Ore. He has been
in the job for 18 years, often
helping onion and other crop
growers tap advances in drip
irrigation.
Paying attention to on-
ion plants and the water be-
neath them can help growers
optimize quality and yield,
he said. They don’t have to
use drip irrigation to do this,
though he has seen the mode
become much more common
in onion fields during his ten-
ure.
One of Klauzer’s favor-
ite tools is a sensor made of
a hard plastic tube about a
fourth as long as a broom
handle with a porous dome on
one end and wire-connected
readers on the other. It reads
in centibars, which express
water content as a tension
force holding water in the
soil to provide a sense of how
hard the plant works to extract
moisture. If the sensor is in a
bucket of water it reads zero.
If it’s in the hot sun or an oven
it reads 200.
He also likes graphs show-
ing peaks and valleys repre-
senting water volume over
time. Ideally, the graphs show
the onion grower applied the
right amount of irrigation wa-
ter at the right time and made
adjustments a key points in
the growing season.
Onions grow best between
Brad Carlson/Capital Press
Agronomist Jim Klauzer with
Clearwater Supply in Ontario,
Ore., shows the assorted com-
ponents used in drip irrigation.
15 and 30 centibars, Klauzer
said, citing research from Or-
egon State University’s Mal-
heur Experiment Station near
Ontario. In that range, the on-
ions aren’t super-saturated so
they invite butt-rot and other
fungal diseases, and not too
dry so as to curtail yield.
As an example, he showed
a local grower’s irrigation
graph from May 15 to June
23, 2016, a typical year for
onions. Sensor data on a chart
depict irrigation applications
about seven to 10 days apart
and centibar readings from 15
to 30, which is ideal.
“The onions are in a state
of establishing roots and de-
veloping leaf mass,” Klauzer
said, referring to this data
set. “You don’t typically see
bulbs.”
Fast-forward to the mid-
May to early June of 2018.
He’s seeing good root and
leaf-mass progress as he visits
area onion fields.