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CapitalPress.com
June 22, 2018
WSU to break ground for new plant science building
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Washington State University
will break ground next week for
a new plant science building that
will help researchers investigate
the issues farmers face in the crops
they grow.
The June 27 ceremony is invi-
tation-only. Construction of the
building is slated to be completed
in January 2020.
It’s the fifth building in
WSU’s Research and Education
Complex and will house plant
science researchers, primarily
from the Institute of Biological
Chemistry.
The institute’s researchers are
Washington State University
Washington State University officials
will break ground June 27 on a new
plant sciences building. WSU received
$52 million in state funding for the
building, which is slated to be complet-
ed in January 2020.
trying to gain a better understand-
ing of basic plant processes, which
form the basis for plant breeding
to help increase crop yields or im-
prove disease resistance, said Rich
Koenig, associate dean of WSU’s
College of Agricultural, Human
and Natural Resource Sciences.
The institute is now in an aging
facility. Koenig said the new build-
ing will have space configured for
state-of-the-art plant science re-
search.
One institute researcher is cur-
rently studying the biochemistry
of starch and starch degradation in
wheat, an important issue for the
region’s farmers. Other researchers
are studying potato and wine grape
physiology.
The building will house 15 to 18
faculty programs, including tech-
nical and support staff and gradu-
ate students. There will be 15 “wet
labs,” and three “dry labs” to study
data and statistics.
Koenig said the $52 million in
state funding is a little short of the
total cost of construction.
“The building has been long in
the planning, and it’s taken a while
to get it funded,” he said. “The
costs of the construction have gone
up in the interim.”
The university is waiting for fi-
nal numbers. Koenig said the uni-
versity can tap contingency funds.
Some labs in the building could
also be phased in over time, he
said.
The plant science building bud-
get request was linked to funding
for the second phase of a global
animal health building, to support
the Washington Animal Disease
Diagnostic Laboratory.
The university received $23
million in partial funding for it.
The remaining $15.1 million re-
quested by WSU is still pending,
Koenig said.
Both buildings have received
support from the agricultural in-
dustries, Koenig said.
Growers will have opportunities
to tour the new facility when it’s
completed, he said.
“I think farmers will be re-
ally excited to see what’s go-
ing on in this facility, and how it
ties in with some real-life prob-
lems they’re dealing with,” he
said.
Barn fire kills more than 25,000 chickens
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Brad Carlson/Capital Press
John Nalivka, left, with Sterling Marketing Inc. of Vale, Ore.,
speaks with Jerald Raymond, past president of the Idaho
Cattle Association, in Boise on June 19.
Cattle analyst expects
decent market conditions
despite volatility
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
BOISE — Cattle industry
players can expect a con-
tinuation of decent market
conditions through this year
despite volatility, market
analyst John Nalivka told
an Idaho Cattle Association
audience June 19.
Nalivka, with Sterling
Marketing Inc. in Vale,
Ore., said continued strong
demand is cutting into re-
cently higher beef supplies.
That demand is helped by
a growing economy and
the industry’s ability to in-
troduce products that keep
consumers coming back for
more, he said.
The amount of beef
coming out of packing
houses and ready for con-
sumption will be up by
about 4 percent this year,
he said. Competing pro-
teins also will be up on
continued strong demand
— pork by about 4 percent
and chicken by 2 to 3 per-
cent.
The total number of cat-
tle on feed was up by about
7 percent in the U.S. year-
to-year as of April 1, but
that pace won’t hold up
through year’s end, Naliv-
ka said in an interview.
Drought in Texas and
Oklahoma prompted many
producers in those states to
move animals from grazing
sites to feedlots earlier than
they would have under nor-
mal conditions, boosting
total on-feed populations,
he said. As these cattle
head to slaughter and are
replaced in feedlots by a
current population of graz-
ing animals that’s fewer in
number, processors should
see a reduced incoming
headcount late in the year,
which would support prices.
A steer fetched about
$111 per hundredweight
during the week of June 11-
15, down 14.6 percent from
$130 a year earlier. Nalivka
said feedlot margins have
been strong most of the year
but have been narrowing
in recent weeks. Demand
is good, and processors are
earning high profits.
“We saw all these cattle
coming at us, because of the
number in the feedlots,” he
said. “But generally speak-
ing, it’s not that bad and it’s
because of demand. It has
held up pretty well.”
Cow-calf producers have
some opportunities to do
well this year depending on
their individual operations,
Nalivka said. Increased in-
put costs over the past two-
plus years challenge pro-
ducers.
A portion of recently
strong demand comes from
exports. U.S. beef exports
are up about 13 percent
year-to-date including a 16
percent rise from April 2017
to April 2018, he said.
Recent conflicts over
trade policy “are there and
should be a concern, but are
not going to affect the bot-
tom line,” at least in the near
term, Nalivka said.
“Just manage the things
that are manageable,” he
said.
Nalivka spoke as part of
ICA’s annual summer meet-
ings June 18-20.
SAGE Fact #147
Each day a cow eats 75-100 pounds of food and
drink 25-50 gallons of water. That is equivalent to
3 large bags of dog food and a bathtub of water.
More than 25,000 chickens
died as a barn burned down
Monday at Draper Valley
Farms in Tenino, Wash., com-
pany spokesman Joe Forsthof-
fer said.
The 35-day-old chickens
were being reared at the poul-
try farm 15 miles south of
Olympia, he said. Firefighters
were able to prevent the fire
from spreading to five other
barns with the same number of
chickens in each one, he said.
“Thanks to the firefighters,
there was no damage to the
other barns,” Forsthoffer said.
The company and fire of-
ficials did not have a cause
or total dollar loss for the
fire Tuesday.
Draper Valley, a subsidiary
of Perdue Farms, raises chick-
ens at farms in Washington for
processing in Mount Vernon.
The loss will not disrupt
the company’s supply chain,
Forsthoffer said. The compa-
ny likely will rebuild the barn,
he said.
The fire was reported
shortly after 5 p.m., accord-
ing to Thurston County Fire
District 12. The blaze spread
to grass in the surrounding
area, but that fire was stopped
by Department of Natural Re-
sources firefighters.
Timber Innovation Act gains backing in Senate
Bill would aid
development
of mass timber
for construction
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
The Senate Committee on
Agriculture, Nutrition and
Forestry is including provi-
sions in its latest release of
the 2018 Farm Bill to support
research and development of
mass timber products used in
building construction.
A bipartisan group of sen-
ators recently wrote to com-
mittee Chairman Pat Roberts,
R-Kan., and ranking member
Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.,
urging them to adopt the
Timber Innovation Act,
which would create a new
research and development
program under the USDA for
mass timber.
U.S. building codes cur-
rently do not recognize mass
timber as official construc-
tion materials, leaving the
products without a standard
rating system for fire and
earthquake resistance, quali-
ty and other safety standards.
The bill also calls for
studying the environmental
footprint of wood building
construction, from timber
harvest through manufactur-
ing, while analyzing poten-
tial impacts on wildlife.
Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Or-
egon Democrat, co-wrote the
letter with Sen. Mike Crapo,
R-Idaho. Merkley said he is
working to establish Oregon
as an industry hub for mass
timber products to boost the
rural economy, using locally
sourced wood.
“This bill supports inno-
vative manufacturing that
creates jobs in the rural part
of the state, and encourages
more sustainable tall wood
building construction in ur-
ban parts of the state,” Merk-
LEGAL
CHERRY AVENUE
STORAGE
2680 Cherry Ave. NE
Salem, OR 97301
(503) 399-7454
AUCTION
SAT., JULY 7, 2018 • 10 A.M.
Unit 4:
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Unit 48:
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Unit 53:
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Unit 161:
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Newman
Unit 180:
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Unit AS-68 Stephanie Steeley
25-1/101
South Thurston Fire & EMS
A fire burns June 18 at Draper Valley Farms in Tenino, Wash. More than 25,000 chickens died in the
blaze, a company spokesman said.
CherryAvenue Storage
reserves the right to
refuse any and all bids.
legal-25-2-3/999
Capital Press File
A worker guides a glulam beam into place Oct. 3, 2017, during construction of the First Tech Credit
Union headquarters building in Hillsboro, Ore. The federal Timber Innovation Act would establish a
research and development program under the USDA for mass timber products in building construction.
ley said in a statement.
Other
senators
who
signed the letter include
Ron Wyden, D-Ore.; Maria
Cantwell, D-Wash.; James
Risch, R-Idaho; Amy Klobu-
char, D-Minn.; Steve Daines,
R-Mont.;
Roger Wick-
er, R-Miss.; Gary Peters,
D-Mich.; and Angus King,
I-Maine.
Supporters of the bill say
it will not only create jobs,
but establish a new market
for small-diameter trees and
branches, encouraging more
active forest management at
a time of increasingly large
and destructive wildfires.
“There’s a lot of forests
throughout the West that are
in need of restoration,” said
Timm Locke, director of for-
est products for the Oregon
Forest Resources Institute. “If
we don’t remove the timber,
those forests are going to go
up in flames.”
Mass timber construction
LEGAL
PUBLIC LIEN SALE
U-STORE SELF STORAGE
SAT, June 23, 2018 10AM
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Socorro Bravo Bravo, 2C26; Steven
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Legal-23-3-3/999
is relatively new in the U.S.,
though it has been popular
since the mid-’90s in Europe.
In Oregon, the first com-
mercial-size building to use
cross-laminated timber came
in 2015 at the Oregon Zoo’s
Elephant Lands habitat.
Cross-laminated timber, or
CLT, is made from planks of
wood layered perpendicular
to one another in large sheets.
Mass timber also includes nail
laminated timber, glue lam-
inated beams and laminated
veneer lumber.
“It’s a new way to build
commercial buildings, which
harkens back to the old days,
when almost all buildings
were made out of wood,”
Locke said. “The bill would
put money toward product re-
search and development and
product performance work, so
we can meet the need of code
officials to show this stuff ac-
tually works.”
Locke pointed to a 2017
study by Oregon BEST, an
economic development non-
profit for clean technology
startups, measuring the eco-
nomic impacts of cross-lami-
nated timber. According to the
study, the market potential for
mass timber nationwide could
result in an additional demand
of up to 6.1 billion board-feet
of lumber.
About 15 percent of wood
consumed in the U.S. comes
from Oregon, Locke said.
With another 6.1 billion
board-feet, at 15 percent mar-
ket share, he estimated that
would result in 17,000 new
jobs, including 6,000 direct
jobs.
“It’s all very interesting
where this is headed,” he said.
“The Timber Innovation Act
is only going to help that.”
Arran Robertson, a spokes-
man for the Portland-based
environmental group Oregon
Wild, said he is encouraged
the bill will take environmen-
tal and wildlife impacts into
account, offering the chance
to source wood differently
from the forests, rather than
industrial clear-cuts.
“This is an opportunity
to create a marketplace to
reward the people who are
doing things a little bit differ-
ent,” Robertson said.
Thomas Maness, dean of
the College of Forestry at
Oregon State University,
said there are “significant
new market opportunities”
for mass timber. Product
testing, research and profes-
sional training will be key
moving forward, Maness
said, as the wood products
and construction industries
transition to using mass tim-
ber in taller and more com-
plex structures.
Rob Freres, executive vice
president of Freres Lumber in
Lyons, Ore., said his business
has already staked its future in
mass timber.
“New product develop-
ment provides the means to
compete worldwide and gives
rural communities the oppor-
tunity to prosper,” Freres said.