August 10, 2018
CapitalPress.com
5
Falling number appears in wheat; not as ‘massive’ as 2016
Leaders expect
clearer picture as
harvest progresses
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
SPOKANE
VALLEY,
Wash. — Grain inspectors in
Spokane have run nearly 600
tests for falling number in
wheat so far, a state official
says.
About 300 of those tests fell
below the industry standard of
300, said Scott Steinbacher,
Eastern Washington regional
manager of the Washington
State Department of Agricul-
ture grain inspection program .
About 200 fell below 280.
Falling number is a test that
measures starch damage in
wheat that reduces the quality
of baked goods and noodles.
Grain inspectors measure the
time it takes two pins on a
falling number machine to fall
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Paul Sessions, wheat inspector in training at the Spokane office for
the Washington State Department of Agriculture grain inspection
program, grinds wheat into flour for falling number testing Aug. 1 as
program assistant Juan Rodriguez works in the background.
through a ground wheat-water
slurry, measuring its viscosity.
Grain with low falling number
is sold at a discount because
end-use quality is compro-
mised.
Farmers were caught off
guard in 2016 when roughly
44 percent of soft white wheat
samples and 42 percent of club
wheat samples tested well be-
low 300, the industry standard.
The industry estimates the
damage that year cost farmers
more than $30 million in lower
prices.
Steinbacher said the crop
looks “great,” passing visual
inspection, with good protein
levels and test weights. That
suggests to him that the low
falling number is due to the
enzyme late-maturity alpha
amylase, or LMA, caused by
temperature swings at criti-
cal points in the wheat plant’s
development. If the damage
was caused by rain, inspectors
would likely find pre-harvest
sprouting.
Glen Squires, Washington
Grain Commission CEO, said
he hasn’t heard of any falling
number discounts being ap-
plied.
“I think elevator companies,
everybody, was a little bit bet-
ter prepared this year,” Squires
said. “A lot of testing going on
(and) if there are segregation
capabilities, that’s taking place
where it’s possible.”
Even with problems in 2016,
exporters were able to meet the
specifications of overseas cus-
tomers. Squires anticipates do-
Irrigation transfer bill introduced
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
KENNEWICK, Wash. —
Legislation to transfer title of
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
irrigation assets to the Ken-
newick Irrigation District is
being introduced in the U.S.
House.
“Water providers across
our region and across the
West face numerous challeng-
es to supply water, including
growing demand, aging infra-
structure and changing pre-
cipitation patterns,” Rep. Dan
Newhouse, R-Wash., said in
announcing HR 6652 at the
KID office in Kennewick on
Aug. 6.
Title transfer will allow the
district to be more responsive,
efficient and innovative in
serving water to the commu-
nity, Newhouse said.
“The title transfer allows
the district to take owner-
ship of what our customers
have paid for. It will greatly
benefit our community by
allowing local challenges to
be addressed locally and en-
hancing operational efficien-
cies,” said Dean Dennis, KID
board president, in thanking
Newhouse for the bill.
The measure is in keeping
with a December 2017 agree-
ment between the district and
bureau. It will transfer title
of a portion of lands and irri-
gation canals from Chandler
Pump Station, 11.2 miles east
For the Capital Press
Eric Gallandt, a University
of Maine weed ecologist, has
announced several findings
in recent years that could dra-
matically improve weed man-
agement in organic vegetable
production.
As such, Gallandt has been
a featured speaker at mechani-
cal cultivation field days across
the country.
On Aug. 16, Gallandt will be
in Corvallis, speaking to partic-
ipants in an Oregon State Uni-
versity Mechanical Cultivation
Field Day at the OSU Vegeta-
ble Research Farm, 34306 NE
Electric Road, Corvallis. The
field day, which also features
equipment demonstrations, will
be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
In a phone interview, Gal-
landt said he and a University
of Maine graduate student,
Bryan Brown, have been able
to show that by stacking cul-
tivation tools, weed control
is dramatically improved in
organic vegetable production
systems.
“One of the more promising
discoveries we’ve found in the
ber , he said.
“There’s still a lot of har-
vest to go, relative to the fall-
ing number issues,” he said.
“This is why we’re spending
so many dollars and resources
to address it. ... The industry is
working on solving the chal-
lenges of falling numbers.”
The
McGregor
Co.,
screens about 40 wheat variet-
ies, including eight for falling
number. Of those eight, Cat
Salois, director of research,
believes two are at higher risk
for late-maturity alpha am-
ylase, two have a lower risk
and she wants to learn more
about the others.
The company will contin-
ue to screen varieties, look-
ing for regional trends, Salois
said.
“Hopefully we can get
some data out in front of our
customers in time to make
some decisions ... about
what varieties we may want
to start steering away from,”
she said.
Steiner elected new
Owyhee Cattlemen’s
Association president
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
Dan Wheat/Capital Press File
The Yakima River flows through Prosser, Wash., to the top of the Prosser Dam. The 6-megawatt dam
would be part of the second phase of the transfer of federal assets to the Kennewick Irrigation District.
The first phase is underway in Congress.
of Prosser, and running 40
miles east. Another 34 miles
is being considered for later.
The city of Kennewick
wants “linear parks,” in bu-
reau rights-of-way on top of
enclosed canals, for use as
recreational trails, Charles
Freeman, district manager
has said. It’s almost impossi-
ble for the bureau to approve
them, but the district would
allow it, he said.
The district also could
be faster in processing ease-
ments when properties are
sold and releasing easements
that have never been used, he
said.
The parties intend to com-
plete the transfer no later
than two years after the bill
is passed by Congress and
signed by the president. Free-
man said he hopes that hap-
pens before year’s end.
The district has paid the
bureau nearly $4.6 million
on a lease-loan over 65 years,
Freeman said. The district
already pays system mainte-
nance and is liable for it, he
said.
A second phase, being
considered for later, would
include the dam at Prosser,
fish screens, the 11.2-mile
diversion canal from the dam
to the Chandler Pump Station,
a pair of six-megawatt hydro-
electrical generators, associ-
ated water rights and a mile-
long 99-inch diameter siphon
that carries water under the
river and Interstate 82 from
hydropumps to the canal.
The hydro generators pro-
duce about $1 million worth
of electricity annually with
that revenue going to the bu-
reau. If KID owned the gen-
erators and had the revenue
it likely would be spent on
deferred maintenance of the
facility, Freeman has said.
The district serves 20,201
acres and 23,249 accounts in
Kennewick and surrounding
area from Chandler to Finley.
It serves residential areas in
Kennewick and Richland and
orchards, vineyards and blue-
berry and hay fields.
Mechanical weed control topic of workshop, demonstrations
By MITCH LIES
ing so again this year.
“As the Pacific Northwest
overall, at this stage it doesn’t
appear to be as severe on a
crop average,” he said. “Obvi-
ously, if you’re the farmer and
you’ve got 250 or 245 falling
numbers, it’s severe to you.”
“Any person that gets be-
low 300, obviously it’s not
great news,” Steinbacher
agreed. “I’m hopeful we’re
going to come back out of this
in the next week or two.”
Steinbacher expects a bet-
ter idea of the whole picture by
the end of the week of Aug. 6.
Some areas, such as near
Pasco, Wash., and southern
Idaho, have no falling number
problems, Squires said.
“It’s existing, but it doesn’t
seem to be as massive,”
Squires said.
Squires noted that the
wheat harvest is only about 30
percent done. He’s uncertain
whether the remaining wheat
was past the critical point of
susceptibility to falling num-
last couple of years is that by
using multiple tools in a single
pass, or using multiple tools in
sequence, is that you often get
more than additive improve-
ments in the percentage of
weeds you kill. We have evi-
dence of synergy,” he said.
“So, for example, if you
take two different tools, one
of which gives you 30 percent
weed control, the other of which
gives you 20 percent weed con-
trol, and you use them together,
you don’t just get 50 percent
weed control. You might get 75
percent weed control,” he said.
“And that holds true across
challenging conditions, so
across increasing soil moisture,
across increasing size of weeds
and other conditions,” he said.
In addition, Gallandt is re-
searching the use of longer-term
weed management strategies,
including use of cover crops, in
combination with stacking me-
chanical weed control.
“By combining some strat-
egies to reduce the weed seed
bank with improved physical
weed control, we should be able
to help farmers experience im-
proving weed management cir-
cumstances over time,” he said.
In general, weed control in
organic vegetable production
systems has shown no improve-
ment over time, he said, and in
many cases, has worsened.
The strategies take more
work than is employed in most
organic vegetable production
systems, he said, but can bring
significant dividends.
“We’ve got some pretty de-
cent evidence that this is the
case,” he said. “For example, we
did a nice experiment in onions
that showed that longer-term
seedbank management strat-
egies that require more work
can actually pay off, even in the
short term, because of improved
yields and improved quality.
“So, certainly if you look
at it over the longer term, it is
something that has the promise
to increase profitability, and, in
the case of using cover crops,
for example, could be used for
multiple benefits,” he said.
OSU Small Farms Exten-
sion agent Clare Sullivan, who
along with fellow agent Nick
Andrews, is putting together the
field day, said the idea for the
event came about because of in-
terest among Oregon growers in
a similar event held last year at
Michigan State University, and
because growers have struggled
to use cultivation tools.
“There is a lot of interest in
mechanical cultivation imple-
ments, especially from mid-
sized organic growers, but we
hear from a lot of them that
they struggle to use the tools
effectively,” Sullivan said. “We
wanted to put on an educational
event that shared the best prac-
tices to prepare your fields to
use cultivation implements, and
also have the equipment dealers
show in-person how to adjust
the tools to work effectively.
“The neat thing about this
is it is targeted toward vege-
table growers of all different
sizes and, while it is primarily
geared toward organic produc-
tion, conventional growers can
benefit from this as well,” Sul-
livan said.
The Owyhee Cattlemen’s
Association Board of Direc-
tors on July 28 elected Lor-
na Steiner of Oreana, Idaho,
as the organization’s new
president.
She succeeds Bruneau
rancher Lynn Bachman,
who remains on the board as
past president, succeeding
Chad Nettleton of Murphy.
The board also elected Paul
Nettleton of Murphy to suc-
ceed Steiner as vice presi-
dent.
Association leaders for
years have been working to
preserve grazing rights in
Owyhee County in south-
west Idaho. Steiner said
she and Bachman will con-
tinue efforts to work with
the U.S. Bureau of Land
Management on the issue.
BLM, aiming to reduce
potential damage to lands,
in the mid-1990s began
limiting the number of
cattle that ranchers could
graze, expressed as an ani-
mal unit month measure, on
68 allotments in the nearly
4.9 million-acre county that
occupies the southwest cor-
ner of the state.
The total affected graz-
ing area is more than
100,000 acres. Ranchers ar-
gued this reduces their eco-
nomic viability while in-
creasing wildfire fuels, and
pointed to their interest in
keeping land resources sus-
tainable in the long term.
Steiner said resolution
is still needed by about
half of the affected permit
holders. Bachman has been
instrumental in initiating
and continuing discussions
with BLM — work they
plan to continue, she said.
“I will be involved with
that and Lynn will be in-
volved with that,” Steiner
said.
They are setting an Au-
gust meeting with BLM
field, district and state
leaders, she said. A date
and location aren’t yet de-
termined.
As the new Owyhee
Cattlemen’s Association
president, “I also want to
work with BLM in gen-
eral,” Steiner said. “As
ranchers, we are going to
Lorna Steiner
have to find some way to
broaden our minds and
work through different
types of grazing programs
and look at the land a little
differently. We’re all hop-
ing we can do more.”
Nearly all member
ranchers lack sufficient
water at some point, she
said. She aims to work with
BLM to help improve the
situation. Solutions are yet
to be determined but may
include approaches like
adding pipelines, develop-
ing more springs or placing
troughs where springs are
available, she said.
Steiner, 57, grew up in
Meridian, where her father
farmed. She co-owns Tri-
angle Ranch with her hus-
band, John Steiner, whose
parents previously operat-
ed the Triangle property.
With help from their
two grown sons, the Stein-
ers grow hay and other feed
crops on about 280 acres
near Oreana, and operate
the ranch 29 miles south
and west in the Owyhee
Mountains. The ranch in-
cludes about 5,000 deed-
ed acres plus leased state
and federal grazing land
that brings the Triangle
footprint to nearly 20,000
acres.
“We run, depending on
the grass year, 400 to 450
head,” Lorna Steiner said.
Triangle Ranch “has a
couple of pretty good-sized
reservoirs and we can irri-
gate some meadows. It goes
from sagebrush hills up to a
lot of juniper-infested coun-
try at higher elevation.”
The ranch produces hor-
mone-free cattle — mostly
Angus, with some Brangus,
which are known for brows-
ing and overall grazing effi-
ciency.
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