August 10, 2018
CapitalPress.com
11
U.S. mink pelt production declines
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
$120
Capital Press
U.S. mink production de-
creased by 4 percent in 2017,
to a little over 3.3 million
pelts, down about 149,000
from 2016.
Wisconsin, the largest
pelt-producing state, harvest-
ed 56,130 fewer pelts for a
total of about 1.091 million.
Utah, the second-leading pro-
ducer, was down 2,600 pelts
to 734,260. Idaho, at No. 3, in-
creased production by 36,000
pelts to 349,500, according to
USDA National Agricultural
Statistics Service.
But notable declines were
also seen in Minnesota, down
30,000 pelts; Oregon, down
22,500; and Washington,
down 11,080 pelts.
The decline is an adjust-
ment from overproduction,
Michael Whelan, executive
director of Fur Commission
USA in Medford, Ore., said.
Pelt prices in 2012 went
through the roof, and mink
ranchers ramped up produc-
tion to take advantage of the
market, he said.
“It’s totally understand-
able,” he said.
USDA statistics show U.S.
pelt prices in 2011 averaged
$94.30. The agency suspend-
ed the 2012 report due to
U.S. mink prices
$94.30
(Price per pelt/U.S. dollars*)
† Mink
80
report suspended due to sequestration.
*Estimate
$33.10
40
$36.30: Down 61.5% from 2011
0
’15 2017*
in the U.S. is about $30 a
pelt, and prices have crept up
enough to be a little above
production costs, he said
Production and prices are
just starting to get back to sus-
tainable levels, Whelan said.
USDA reported the price
of pelts in 2017 increased by
$1.60 to $36.30. Despite lost
production, the total value of
U.S. pelt production increased
slightly to almost $120 mil-
lion.
But it was the third year in
a row of low prices and tough
times, especially for smaller
producers. Mink production
doesn’t have any price sup-
ports or subsidies, and pric-
es can’t stay down for more
than three or four years be-
fore producers have to make
some changes on the ranch,
he said.
They’re subject to the
laws of supply and demand,
and he expects production
to decline again this year, he
said.
USDA’s numbers support
that expectation, as the num-
ber of female mink bred to
produce kits was down 5 per-
cent in 2018 to 731,430.
The agency also reported
the color breakdown on the
2017 production. Black pelts
accounted for 50 percent of
production, mahogany for
19 percent, and blue iris and
sapphire for 6 percent. The
remaining color classes ac-
counted for 12 percent.
Source: USDA NASS
1997
’00
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
’05
federal budget sequestration,
but Whelan said prices were
about $100 a pelt.
Everyone knew that price
wasn’t sustainable, he said,
but if the price triples on any
product, producers are going
to make more of it.
U.S. production did in-
crease, but it’s been pretty
steady. China, however, in-
creased production from 15
million pelts to 40 million
pelts in one year, and global
production increased from 40
million to 80 million pelts, he
said.
Price declines followed,
and U.S. production began to
decline in 2015, according to
USDA.
Low cost of production
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press File
U.S. mink production was down
last year, according to the Nation-
al Agricultural Statistics Service.
’10
2012 †
Bunchgrass boost: Seed-amendment
technology aiding rangeland perennials
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
Researchers such as Chad
Boyd aim to give bunchgrass
seed a boost.
Perennial
bunchgrasses
have big root systems that help
them survive long-term amid
the unpredictable precipita-
tion levels and widely varying
temperatures that characterize
much of southeastern Oregon
and southwestern Idaho.
But bunchgrass seeds ar-
en’t correspondingly big and
strong. Boyd, USDA Agricul-
tural Research Service range-
land ecologist in Burns, Ore.,
and other researchers are
making progress in develop-
ing ways to give these seeds a
better chance to survive tem-
perature extremes and wide
year-to-year swings in precip-
itation amid increased compe-
tition from non-native annual
grasses.
“We need to establish pe-
rennials quickly,” he said.
“Survival is their strength, but
way back, perennials had that
time to establish.”
Smallish bunchgrass seeds
and seedlings, if they survive
extreme temperatures and
hard-won moisture uptake
in starting to establish them-
selves, now often face stiff
competition from non-native
annuals like cheatgrass —
which puts a development
time crunch on seed-stage pe-
rennials by germinating seed,
emerging and producing new
seed as an adult in a single year.
Enter
seed-amendment
technology, which basical-
ly means adding something
to a bunchgrass seed to boost
its chances of survival. The
amendment could be placed on,
against or next to the seed.
Seed-amendment examples,
Boyd said, include a chemical
Courtesy of Chad Boyd
Rangeland ecologist Chad Boyd, shown in southeastern Oregon collecting data on sagebrush abun-
dance, has been working on seed-amendment technology to benefit perennial bunchgrass.
coating applied directly to help
delay germination until freeze
risk passes, a pod that protects
seeds therein from herbicide
— put down at the same time
to stop an unwanted emerging
annual in its tracks - time-delay
coating, and agglomeration.
Time-delay coating, used for
seeds planted in a tight group,
aims to cover different potential
germination and freeze periods,
he said. Agglomeration, anoth-
er approach to increasing sur-
vival percentages, amounts to
gluing together selected seeds
to provide a strength-in-num-
bers advantage as they work
through challenges such as
trying to emerge through tough
clay soil.
“We have seen some
successes with some of the
seed-amendment technologies
at what I would call field-plot
scale,” Boyd said. “The focus
now is to continue to refine
those technologies and also try
to scale up.”
To work in more vast set-
tings and on a wider scale,
seeds, seed groupings and
amendments will have to per-
form amid the varying eleva-
tions, aspects and soils found in
the sagebrush steppe landscape.
“We’ve got a variety of en-
vironmental conditions we are
trying to make seeds successful
in,” Boyd said. “They are going
to have to overcome multiple
barriers to establish.”
The region’s typically wide
year-to-year swings in precipi-
tation and its tendency toward
extreme hot and cold prompt
scientists to steer clear of devel-
oping restoration technologies
and strategies based on long-
term averages. Precipitation
totals, for example, fall within
10 percent of the long-term av-
erage roughly one year out of
three or four, he said.
Researchers select and
amend perennial seeds to in-
crease the likelihood that more
make it through tough condi-
tions and develop into the du-
rable stature that characterizes
them in mature-plant form.
Boyd said mature bunch
grasses can survive a decade or
longer. He estimated 70 percent
of a mature Bluebunch wheat-
grass plant is underground in
the form of a huge root system.
“Survival is their strength,”
he said.
George Plaven/Capital Press
Erik Augerson, a graduate research assistant at Oregon State
University, demonstrates the Steam Weeder, steaming field
bindweed along rows of blueberries at the North Willamette
Research and Extension Center.
Saturated steam an
organic weed killer
Technology
demonstrated at
OSU’s Blueberry
Field Day
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
The Steam Weeder looks
like a vacuum cleaner and
sounds like an espresso
machine, with a long hose
and nozzle attached to a
tractor-mounted boiler that
superheats water up to 250
degrees.
Erik Augerson, a grad-
uate research assistant at
Oregon State Universi-
ty, recently demonstrat-
ed how the technology
works during a Blueber-
ry Field Day at the North
Willamette Research and
Extension Center, steam-
ing along rows of organic
blueberries to control field
bindweed.
As a weed management
tool, Augerson said the
Steam Weeder has shown
promise, especially for
organic growers. The sat-
urated steam kills weeds
by bursting plant cells,
without frying woody
mulch like flame weeding
does.
Augerson, who is earn-
ing his master’s degree
from OSU in horticulture,
is part of a research team
trying to develop a sea-
son-long organic weed
management program for
small berry growers, using
steam in combination with
other mechanical treat-
ments and certified organ-
ic sprays.
“The organic berry in-
dustry in Oregon is hav-
ing a lot of trouble deter-
mining what the best and
most cost-effective form
of weed management is
for their systems,” Auger-
son told the Capital Press.
“We’re just trying to in-
crease the growers’ tool-
box.”
The project is supported
in part by a $500,000 grant
from the USDA Organ-
ic Transitions Program,
with additional funding
from the OSU Agricul-
ture Research Foundation
and Northwest Center for
Small Fruits Research.
Jeremy Winer, manag-
ing director of Weedtech-
nics, the Australian com-
pany that manufactures
the Steam Weeder, was
also on hand at field day
to meet with growers and
answer questions about
the product.
According to Winer, the
Steam Weeder superheats
water and flashes it into
saturated steam within the
nozzle system. It sprays
2.5 gallons per minute,
penetrating 1 inch into the
soil.
“It’s not actually boil-
ing, but it’s superheated,”
Winer explained. “It ex-
plodes the (weed) cells.”
OSU purchased the
Steam Weeder over the
winter, and field trials be-
gan about a month and a
half ago. While they are
still collecting data, Au-
gerson said the technology
could be another option
for organic growers.
“We know that it can
kill weeds, and that it
works from a management
standpoint,”
Augerson
said. “I think it has a lot of
promise.
Depending on the size
and model, Steam Weed-
ers cost between $16,000
and $30,000. Augerson
said the value for small
farmers is in decreased
need for manual labor con-
trolling weeds, allowing
them to put their workers
to better use.
“There is a lack of farm
labor, and it is decreas-
ing,” Augerson said. “We
want to make it so farmers
can utilize their labor in
different ways.”
Augerson said they will
need at least two years of
data before they can start
writing a comprehensive,
full-season weed manage-
ment program for organic
berries.
Mint production increases in parts of the West
By DESIREE BERGSTROM
Capital Press
Most of the mint oil in the
U.S. is produced in the West,
and some parts of the region are
still increasing production.
“I think Idaho is going to in-
crease its production in the next
three to 5 years,” Roger Batt,
executive director of the Idaho
Mint Commission, said.
From 2007 to 2012, Idaho
increased mint harvest by a lit-
tle over 4,000 acres. During the
same time, Oregon saw a nearly
6,000-acre increase in mint har-
vests for oil.
Washington state, however,
has seen a decrease in acreage,
and Ken Christensen, a mint
grower and chairman of the Far
West Mint Marketing Order,
said he doesn’t see it increasing.
Christensen said production
will most likely begin moving to
other states because of the aging
demographic of farmers and less
demand for spearmint, a popular
crop in Washington, versus pep-
permint.
In 2012, the USDA Cen-
sus of Agriculture reported
that 96,129 acres of mint were
harvested for oil. Of that total,
Washington, Oregon, Idaho and
California produced approxi-
mately 77.5 percent.
Producing mint oil takes
special know-how, Christensen
said.
“It’s not like everyone knows
how to grow it,” Christensen
said. “You have either been in
it for generations or you have a
neighbor that helps you.”
Idaho ranks number three in
the nation for peppermint pro-
Capital Press File
Mint grows near Greenleaf, Idaho. Mint acreage in Idaho and
Oregon has been increasing.
duction, with 16,000 acres. The
state also grows a much smaller
percentage of spearmint, only
about 1,000 acres, according to
Batt.
“Ninety percent of all mint
oil goes into gum, toothpaste
and candy,” Batt said. The other
10 percent is used for medicinal
purposes.
Mint can also be used for tea
leaves.
The demand for oil depends
on the type of mint.
Peppermint oil is in higher
demand than spearmint, Batt
said, because peppermint has
menthol in it. Also, spearmint
has a marketing order attached
to it, he said. Basically, there is
a limit to how much spearmint
can be produced to prevent
flooding the market. The system
works based on a lottery to de-
cide who is able to grow spear-
mint, he said.
“Mint is a product that can
be stored for a for a long time,”
Christensen said, but that can be
a problem as well. If there isn’t
enough demand the stocks get
really high and drive the price
down, which is part of the rea-
son spearmint oil production is
regulated.
Mint oil, no matter the kind,
requires expensive equipment to
produce.
Farmers cut the mint and
leave it in windrows for sever-
al days to dry, Batt explained.
Then, the mint is chopped into
small pieces with a silage chop-
per before it is placed into large
sealable mint tubs.
The tubs are then hauled to a
mint still, where they are hooked
to a steam hose, Batt said. Steam
is pumped into the bottom of the
bin to release the oil in the mint
and turn it into vapor. The vapor
is then taken and allowed to cool
and turn into liquid. The oil sep-
arates to the top of the water and
is separated.
Mint stills alone cost
around $1 million, according
Christensen, who mentioned
that propane costs to run the
still can also be high.