November 2, 2018 95 55 84 Ontario CapitalPress.com Ore. Idaho 52 Approximate site of proposed 116-acre rezone 16 21 Caldwell 9 Board approves $4.3 million loan for North Fremont Canal System upgrade Boise Nampa By BRAD CARLSON 45 Capital Press 95 Sna 84 i ke R Area in detail ve r N 78 67 IDAHO Capital Press graphic 1-acre home lots planned for farmland near city in SW Idaho By BRAD CARLSON Capital Press A proposed 116-acre conversion of southwest Idaho farmland to 1-acre home lots would alter some irrigation infrastructure but would not impact the seg- ment of a canal that lies on part of the property. The Canyon County Planning and Zoning Com- mission on Oct. 18 endorsed Lone Star Land LLC’s pro- posal to rezone the property near Caldwell from agri- cultural to R-1 residential, characterized by an average of one lot per acre. The Can- yon County Board of Com- missioners is scheduled to consider final approval on Dec. 18. Retired farmer Rich- ard Huff owns the proper- ty, which in the past year produced wheat and field corn. His son, Sam Huff, said the property includes an area where another farm- er grows echinacea flow- ers on contract, which will continue until the contract expires. The Huff family owns about 300 acres of farm- land. The Lone Star por- tion is sloping and sandy, and not as productive as the rest, Sam Huff said. The development would not affect irrigation on neighboring properties, he said. On-site water infrastruc- ture includes a well, three gravity irrigation ditches and Deer Flat Canal. Any crossing of the canal, bor- dered by federal easements on two sides, would require a crossing agreement among the developer, the U.S. Bu- reau of Reclamation and Boise Project Board of Con- trol, a Canyon County Plan- ning and Zoning staff report said. The Boise Project stores water behind two of the three Boise River dams, op- erates a large canal system, services five irrigation dis- tricts and operates the Lake Lowell off-site reservoir. Plans call for removing ditches and replacing the gravity irrigation system with a pressurized system, said project representa- tive John Cotner of Cotner Building Co. Nothing would be done to Deer Flat Canal. The Idaho Water Resource Board on an Oct. 23 confer- ence call approved a 20-year, $4.3 million loan to North Fremont Canal System for a phase of the Marysville gravi- ty-pressurized irrigation pipe- line project northeast of Idaho Falls. The phase involves build- ing a new diversion structure and converting 17.8 miles of open canal to 16 miles of gravity-pressurized pipeline to serve participating irriga- tors across about 2,784 acres of farmland in Fremont Coun- ty, the board said in a release. It aims to conserve 2,400 acre- feet of irrigation water lost to seepage and evaporation, increase public safety by re- moving open canals, and save about 1,200 kilowatt-hours Idaho Water Resource Board Work continues on efficiency and safety improvements to the North Fremont Canal System in Fremont County, Idaho. of electricity by removing pumping facilities. North Fremont Canal Sys- tem President Sean Maupin said about 40 large pumps will be phased out. “You can spend $7,000 to $8,000 just to start up those pumps,” he said. Power savings are expect- ed to cover most of the in- creased per-acre assessment that participating farmers will pay to cover the loan cost, and the project will not cause the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer to lose water, he said. Board staff member Rick Collingwood said the pipe- line project’s efficiency will “improve delivery of water to shareholders so they can receive their full allocation of water during the peak period of the irrigation season.” The pipeline also will eliminate what has been a potential safety hazard, the open canal running through Ashton and bordering a part of an elementary school property. The board said the project also is expected to improve water quality by eliminating irrigation return flows to Henry’s Fork of the Snake River, reduce noxious weeds in open canals, and improve seasonal air quality by eliminating the need to burn vegetation along canal and ditch systems. The $11.1 million proj- ect phase also is funded by a $6.8 million grant from the Natural Resources Con- servation Service. Construc- tion is expected to start later this fall and conclude for the spring 2019 crop season. Before the state board ap- proved the new loan, North Fremont Canal System had a loan balance of $1.6 mil- lion, having accelerated loan payments at times to reduce interest, a board official said. The board earlier ap- proved loans, for project phases, of $2.5 million in 2013, $1.1 million in 2008 and $625,000 in 2007. The current phase is the most ex- tensive, and another phase is expected in three to five years. Harvest-assist machines join forces for faster apple picking By DAN WHEAT Capital Press WAPATO, Wash. — It was a tight squeeze in the 10-foot- wide rows. A few limbs lad- ened with Fuji apples were broken as the Bandit Xpress- DBR harvest assist platform navigated the Valicoff Fruit Co. orchard. Four pickers filled the first bin in 20 minutes without us- ing picking bags or ladders. That was decent, but in time the crew got faster. Dan Wheat/Capital Press The crew was learning on the job with a Burrows Trac- The Bandit Xpress-DBR apple harvest machine. The driver and two pickers in front are higher than tor representative and Robert the two pickers aft. The vacuum tubes feed apples to a bin filler in the middle. The machine picks up Valicoff, president of Valicoff empty bins in front and deposits full ones out the rear for tractors to haul away. Fruit, shouting instructions tested the Bandit Xpress-DBR such as not putting too many along with smaller companies apples at once into the small, like Valicoff Fruit. padded buckets strapped to the “Everybody wants to try it workers’ chests that fed vacu- um tubes leading to the apple and the feedback is good. Peo- ple are surprised that it doesn’t bin. bruise the apples, which is H-2A visa foreign guest- workers from Mexico, they what everyone is focused on,” spoke little English but said Dagorret said. they liked the new system. Honeycrisp apples are As J.J. Dagorret, inven- sensitive to bruising, but the tor of the Bandit Xpress, bruising rate with the machine says, pickers take to the Ban- is just 6.4 percent, which is a dit-DBR “like ducks to water” Fuji apples softly enter bins via the rubberized bin filler of the good low number, he said. because they don’t have the Bandit Xpress-DBR harvest assist machine at Valicoff Fruit Co., The vacuum tubes are weight of conventional pick- Wapato, Wash. 9 feet long and suck apples ing bags and the added work through at a rate of 15 feet per “he built it just like we drew vacuum tube and bin filler second. A decelerator slows of dumping them into bins. The goal is to have the it.” Dagorret said he presented could be placed on the Bandit them down for the bin filler. Bandit Xpress-DBR commer- the design they talked about. Xpress. Dagorret was game. The main issue, Dagorret cially available through Bur- Valicoff bought one of the Brown had designed and built said, is training pickers to al- rows next year. It’s likely the first platforms in 2013 but a much larger machine that low a split second between ap- last picking innovation short hasn’t been able to use it as never caught on because of its ples they place in their padded buckets that feed the tubes so of robots. All of it is important much as he would like because size. because the supply of orchard he doesn’t have enough newer This harvest season the apples don’t collide with each labor has been growing tighter plantings and it doesn’t work Bandit Xpress-DBR has been other as they decelerate. Pick- for years. as well in older plantings of field tested in Washington and ers in front have to remem- Five years ago, Dag- larger trees. California. It improves pick- ber to concentrate on picking orret, owner of Automated Dagorret says the Bandit ing efficiency by about 85 higher fruit and leave lower Ag Systems of Moses Lake, Xpress is 35 percent more ef- percent over ladders and by 40 fruit for the pickers standing a Wash., began selling his Ban- ficient and safer than pickers percent over the standard Ban- foot or so lower in the rear. dit Xpress work platform for using ladders. He built and dit Xpress without the DBR, The only other issues are pruning and picking in or- sold 725 of them from 2013 Dagorret says. machine noise and the bin fill- chards. It eliminated ladders as through 2017 and is building It can fill bins in 4 to 5 min- er filling two corners of a bin pickers riding on the platform 65 this year, plus 65 Bandit utes versus 10 to 12 minutes faster than the other two cor- picked into bags and dumped Cubs, which are 17 inches for pickers on a platform with ners. But those are both easy fixes, Dagorret said. bags into bins that the machine narrower. The Xpress sells for bags, he said. His goal this summer Large companies includ- picked up for filling and then $64,000, the Cub for $68,000. lowered for tractors to haul Last winter, Phil Brown, ing Stemilt Growers LLC of and fall was to get as many away. owner of DBR Conveyor Wenatchee, Zirkle Fruit of Se- growers trying it as possible Valicoff said he helped Da- Concepts in Conklin, Mich., lah and Washington Fruit and to get feedback to work out gorret draw the design and that asked Dagorret if the DBR Produce Co. of Yakima have any quirks before commercial sales through Burrows next year. “I wasn’t sure how pickers would accept it because they never like anything new. But they love it because they no longer have the weight of a picking bag,” he said. The DBR vacuum sys- tem will sell for $35,000 to $40,000 each and mount right on the Xpress or Cub, Dag- orret and Brown said. The idea is a functional, dependable product that is af- fordable, they said. Valicoff said he’s im- pressed and would like to see someone offer contracted use to smaller growers like him- self who may not want to buy their own. He’s also interested in contract robotic spraying and mowing. Valicoff said he sees the machine as a bridge to robotic picking that’s coming in two to three years. Brown said commercial ro- botic harvesters are probably five to six years away and are slowed, as much as anything, by needing trees designed for robotic pruning and picking. Several years ago, Dan Steere, CEO of Abundant Robotics, of Hayward, Calif., said he would have a robotic apple picker in commercial production in the fall of 2018. That hasn’t happened. He de- clined comment this month on his continued field testing. Avi Kahani, CEO of FFRobotics, of Emeq-Heffer, Israel, said his goal is to have his robotic apple picker ready for commercial use in the fall of 2019. He was to field test it this fall in Washington with the Bandit Xpress-DBR and said he still hopes to. Dagorret said he’s hopeful but doubtful since the season is winding down. “If Avi gets his machine here,” Dagorret said, “I think we would blow right by Abun- dant Robotics. Avi’s is elec- trical hands grabbing the fruit instead of a vacuum sucking the fruit off the tree so it takes a lot less horsepower and less space.” 44-1/103