August 10, 2018
CapitalPress.com
3
Gala pushes Red Delicious out of top volume spot
By DAN WHEAT
Washington fresh apple forecast
Capital Press
(Millions of 40-pound boxes)
WENATCHEE, Wash. —
Red Delicious, Washington’s
top apple in volume for 83
years, is predicted to fall to
second place behind Gala in
the 2018 harvest.
Honeycrisp is expected to
keep increasing and organics
make a big jump in the 2018
crop forecast compiled Aug.
1 and released Aug. 7 by the
Washington State Tree Fruit
Association.
The fresh, versus pro-
cessing, crop is estimated at
131 million, 40-pound box-
es, down 2 percent from the
2017 crop expected to finish
sales in the next two months
at 134 million. The record
was 143.6 million in 2014.
Red Delicious is forecast
at 28.3 million boxes, down
14.7 percent from the 33.2
million of 2017. Gala is ex-
pected to be 31.7 million, up
3.3 percent from 30.7 mil-
lion.
“It’s two weaker variet-
ies passing each other. The
scuttlebutt on Gala is not pos-
itive. It’s like 10 years ago
when Reds were being talked
down,” said Desmond O’Ro-
Variety
Red Delicious
Gala
Fuji
Granny
Honeycrisp
Others †
Golden Delicious
Cripps Pink
Ambrosia
Braeburn
Jonagold
Total
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
Apples in an East Wenatchee,
Wash., orchard on Aug. 6,
several weeks out from harvest.
urke, world apple market an-
alyst and retired Washington
State University agricultural
economist.
Marketers have been desir-
ing fewer Reds for years and
more proprietary varieties in
small volumes for better re-
turns. However, the down side
to a big Reds decline is that it’s
a big part of exports, O’Ro-
urke said.
“That’s almost a 5 mil-
lion-box drop in Reds. It will
drive up prices and then with
Percent
2017*
2018**
33.19
30.69
17.12
19.24
11.43
6.72
7
5.28
1.65
1.04
0.45
133.79
28.3
31.7
17.75
17
14.15
7.25
6.35
6
1.35
0.78
0.4
131.03
Source: Washington State Tree Fruit Association
the tariffs, it could be a mess,”
he said.
How badly an anticipated
20 percent tariff in Mexico and
50 percent tariff in China af-
fect those markets in the com-
ing season is a big concern, he
said.
Exports have been good,
particularly in India, where 8
million boxes of Washington
apples have sold this season
compared to 4.7 million the
year before, he said. That was
caused by India banning Chi-
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Capital Press
USDA Risk Management
Agency on Wednesday an-
nounced a new insurance plan
for dairy producers that in-
sures against unexpected de-
clines in quarterly milk sales.
Sign-ups for the new Dairy
Revenue Protection plan —
Dairy-RP — begins Oct. 9,
with the first available cover-
age starting the first quarter of
2019.
Dairy-RP was developed
by the American Farm Bureau
Federation, American Farm
Bureau Insurance Services
and other collaborators and
was approved by the Federal
Crop Insurance Corp., John
Newton, AFBF director of
market intelligence told Capi-
tal Press in a recent interview.
The insurance plan is dif-
ferent from other USDA risk
Capital Press graphic
nese apples, he said. Mexico
has been good at 12.2 million.
Total exports are 41.5 million
for the season, ending up 4
million and 31 percent of the
crop.
Reds averaged $16 per box
over the last year, very margin-
al for profits and Gala was also
marginal at $20 to $21, he said.
Honeycrisp averaged $50,
which is good but not as good
as a few years ago as it increas-
es in volume.
“The golden egg is losing
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press
Scott Gottlieb, commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Adminis-
tration, speaks with farmers about the Food Safety Modernization
Act during a Tuesday stop near Bend, Ore.
quences, Gottlieb said.
As the FDA increasing-
ly scrutinizes U.S. farmers,
there’s a danger that foreign
produce suppliers will sidestep
regulations due to lax enforce-
ment by overseas authorities,
said Kay Riley, general man-
ager of the Snake River Pro-
duce Co. in Nyssa, Ore.
That’s particularly true
since FSMA’s “foreign suppli-
er verification” requirements
fall heavily on importers who
can close their doors and face
little accountability, Riley said.
“We’re relying on them to
be the police,” he said. “We
want to make sure the playing
field is level.”
Gottlieb said he was sen-
sitive to such criticism but
would “challenge that notion”
that foreign suppliers will skirt
regulations.
The FDA works coopera-
tively with foreign regulators
and can conduct foreign in-
spections, among other tools
available to the agency, he
said.
As state regulators take
over more FSMA inspec-
tions, the agency will devote
more resources to ensuring
that foreign suppliers com-
ply with rules — particular-
ly those companies that are
flagged as unreliable, Gott-
lieb said.
programs for dairy, which fo-
cus on income over the cost of
feed and don’t directly man-
age revenue risk. It provides
insurance for the difference
between the final revenue
guarantee selected by produc-
ers and actual milk revenue if
prices fall.
It will function similar
to crop revenue protection
policies in that the revenue
guarantee would be based on
futures prices, expected pro-
duction and market-implied
risks, Newton said.
A dairy producer can de-
cide the value of milk protect-
ed either based on a combi-
nation of Class III and Class
IV milk prices or component
milk prices for butterfat, pro-
tein and other solids.
He would choose the
amount of milk production
to cover, the level of reve-
nue coverage to insure (from
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Alan Greenway,
A researcher’s close en-
counter last month with a
wolf in north-central Wash-
ington was a rare event, but
ranchers say they occasion-
ally see and more often hear
barking wolves, an experi-
ence one rancher described
as “eerie.”
Cattle Producers of Wash-
ington President Scott Niel-
sen said he suspects wolf
encounters have gone unre-
ported because people don’t
want to face public scrutiny.
“I think they would be
doing their community a ser-
vice if they were to face it,”
Nielsen said Friday. “Wolves
are a public safety issue. It’s
an animal that is opportunis-
tic and eats meat.”
Wildlife biologists have
described the July 12 incident
in the Okanogan-Wenatchee
National Forest as unusu-
al, yet also expected from a
pack protecting pups. The
U.S. Forest Service research-
er said she tried to leave
when she came face-to-face
with a wolf, but the howl-
ing animal cut her off. She
climbed a tree and called for
help using a satellite phone.
She was swiftly rescued
by a state Department of
Natural Resources helicopter
crew, though state wildlife
biologists initially opposed
disturbing the pack with a
chopper, preferring to coor-
dinate a ground rescue that
could have taken two to three
hours.
The head of Conservation
Northwest’s wolf program,
Jay Shepherd, said wolf
sightings are rare, but the in-
cident highlights the need to
be on-guard when venturing
into wolf territory. Knowl-
edge about wolf behavior
can help, he said.
“If you haven’t been
around wolves, they can
scare the hell out of you,
and if you’ve been around
wolves, they can scare the
hell out of you,” he said.
“Don’t act like their
natural prey,” he advised.
“I would not try to outrun
a wolf. I would stand my
ground.”
The day after the rescue,
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser-
vice biologist Gregg Kurz
and state biologist Ben
Maletzke found evidence the
Forest Service employee had
unknowingly walked into
the pack’s rendezvous site,
where adult wolves stash
pups for the summer. Kurz
said they found rabbit en-
trails, small paw prints and
little teeth marks on a tin can.
They picked up strong
signals from radio collars
worn by two wolves and
tried to flush the wolves into
the open.
“We purposely tried to
elicit a reaction because this
behavior seemed really odd
to us. So we walked toward
them and pressured them to
see if we could get them to
respond in a similar manner
to us, and that did not hap-
pen,” Kurz told Okanogan
County commissioners in a
meeting to review the inci-
dent.
“We know we were well
within 100 yards of where
they were and just kept push-
ing and pushing and push-
ing. They paralleled us and
then headed up over the hill
silently. We never heard a
peep, never saw them.
“Based on that, we felt it
was defensive behavior and
not aggressive behavior,”
Kurz said. “We determined
it was a rendezvous site, and
they were just trying to warn
that person away from the
area and escort her into the
distance.”
No human has been at-
tacked by wolves in Wash-
ington, Oregon, Idaho, Wy-
oming or Montana since the
animals were reintroduced
into Yellowstone National
Park and central Idaho in
1995, according to the Ore-
gon Department of Fish and
Wildlife website. Wolves
mauled a woman to death in
Alaska in 2010, according
to the Alaska Department of
Fish and Game. A 22-year-
old man was found partially
consumed by predators in
2005 in Saskatchewan, Can-
ada. A University of Calgary
biology professor said he
had no doubt wolves killed
the man.
Stevens County rancher
Arron Scotten said the first
time he heard wolves near
him was in 2016 when he
came upon a rendezvous site.
“Apparently, I just got too
close and next thing I know I
was getting barked at some-
thing fierce,” he said. “It was
eerie.”
Stevens County rancher
Rocky Mullen said he re-
cently saw three wolves on
a Sunday morning circling
about a dozen cows near his
home. The wolves left as he
approached.
“They’re thick,” he said.
“We used to not think any-
thing of going down to the
creek to fish without taking a
pistol, but now we do.”
Authorities declined to
prosecute a man in southeast
Washington in 2015 who
said he shot a wolf from the
front porch of his cabin to
protect his wife and dogs. A
man in northeast Washington
attested in 2014 that he was
surrounded by a wolfpack.
Weekly fieldwork report
Item/description (Source: USDA, NASS; NOAA)
• Days suitable for fieldwork (As of Aug. 5)
• Topsoil moisture, surplus
• Topsoil moisture, percent short
• Subsoil moisture, surplus
• Subsoil moisture, percent short
• Precipitation probability
(6-10 day outlook as of Aug. 7)
GREENWAY SEEDS
Caldwell, Idaho • Alan Greenway, Seedsman
Cell: 298-259-9159 • MSG: 298-454-8342
70 percent to 95 percent) and
which quarterly contracts he
wants to cover.
The expected revenue is
based on futures prices for
milk and dairy commodities
and the amount of covered
milk production elected by
the dairy producer. The cov-
ered milk production is in-
dexed to the state or region
where the dairy producer is
located.
or 18.9 million boxes. That’s
a “substantial increase and we
struggle with huge increases”
if it can’t all be sold in the re-
tail market, he said.
Zeutenhorst said he thinks
the crop is larger than 131
million boxes and would be
even 3 to 5 percent larger yet
without rampant fireblight this
spring.
The tree-killing disease is
acerbated by extreme heat fol-
lowed quickly by rain during
bloom.
“It’s been a horrible, hor-
rible year for fireblight. Or-
chards have been massively
cut back and down,” Zeuten-
horst said. Limbs and whole
trees are cut to stop its spread.
After three years of fruit
sizes too large or small creat-
ing marketing challenges, this
year’s crop looks to be of nor-
mal fruit size, he said.
Large New York, Michigan
and Pennsylvania crops will
compete domestically in Oc-
tober, but prices should hold
better because of better quality
this year, Zeutenhorst said.
“Cherries are a bit of an
indicator and we had a solid
cherry year with sustained
good quality,” he said. “We
think apples will follow suit.”
Wolf encounters rare, but
not unknown in Washington
Biologists try to
flush out wolves
USDA rolls out new dairy insurance plan
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
-14.7
3.3
3.7
-11.6
23.8
7.9
-9.3
13.7
-18.1
- 25
-10.7
-2.1
*Close to final as of Aug. 1, 2018 **Forecast as of Aug. 1, 2018
† Mostly club or managed varieties proprietary to certain companies.
NOTE: Totals may not equal 100 due to rounding.
FDA chief reassures Oregon
growers over FSMA concerns
BEND, Ore. — Oregon
fresh produce growers got
some reassuring words from
U.S. Food and Drug Admin-
istration Commissioner Scott
Gottlieb during a stop Tuesday
near Bend, Ore.
Implementation of the
Food Safety Modernization
Act has loomed over the fresh
produce industry since the law
was signed by former Presi-
dent Barack Obama more than
seven years ago.
The possibility of increased
water testing and treatment,
new federal on-farm inspec-
tions and the uncertain over-
sight of foreign competitors
are just a few of the concerns
raised by farmers.
During a visit at the Bar-
ley Beef feedlot outside Bend,
Gottlieb acknowledged the
agency is now venturing into
some of the statute’s thornier
regulatory territory.
“The easy parts of the im-
plementation of FSMA are
done,” he said. “The issues
we’re grappling with now are
hard.”
The law represents a criti-
cal rethinking of how the U.S.
deals with food safety, but the
government doesn’t want to
saddle the food industry with
outsized unintended conse-
change
some of its gold,” O’Rourke
said.
Honeycrisp was forecast at
10.5 million boxes at this time
last year. It will finish the year
at 11.5 million and is forecast
at 14.15 million for the new
harvest.
The average of all variet-
ies was $20.71 per box in the
first week of May and now is
$22.71, a nice increase as vol-
ume declines, he said.
About 12.4 million boxes
of the 2017 crop remained to
be sold in the next two months.
That’s easily doable at 2 mil-
lion boxes per week, he said.
But there probably won’t be
much uptick in prices at the
start of new crop sales, he said.
Heavy volumes of Honeycrisp
and Gala, the first varieties
harvested, will “keep a lid on
prices,” he said.
Harvest began July 25 with
early strains of Gala in Wallu-
la, north of Walla Walla, and
Gala harvest will increase in
earnest next week, said Charles
Zeutenhorst, general manager
of First Fruits Marketing of
Washington in Yakima.
Harvest usually finishes in
early November.
Organics are expected to
be 14 percent of the total crop
Ore.
Wash.
Idaho
Calif.
6.8
0
87%
0
85%
6.9
0
62%
0
51%
6.9
3%
68%
3%
59%
7
0
70%
0
70%
Normal
Normal
Normal
Normal