EMPOWERING PRODUCERS OF FOOD & FIBER
Friday, December 28, 2018
Volume 91, Number 52
CapitalPress.com
A MATTER
OF TRUST
$2.00
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Washington Grain Commission CEO Glen Squires stands outside the organization’s offi ce in downtown Spokane.
Glen Squires
Age: 61
Title: CEO, Washington Grain Commission
For Washington Grain Commission CEO
Glen Squires, it’s all about the customers
Hometown: Centerville, Utah
Resides: Spokane Valley, Wash.
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Hobbies: Spending time with family;
outdoor recreation
Family: Married wife Charlotte in 1983;
five children, seven grandchildren
Education: Associate’s degree in
transportation management; Salt Lake
Community College; bachelor’s degree
in agribusiness/business administration
with emphasis in food marketing, Utah
State University; master’s degree in
agricultural economics with focus on
international
marketing,
Washington
State
University
Capital Press
graphic
S
POKANE — Buyers from overseas sometimes stop in
tomers, said Ritzville, Wash., wheat farmer Mike Miller, a com-
to Glen Squires’ office to talk about the progress of the
mission member and former chairman of U.S. Wheat Associates.
crop that’s critical to their
Squires deserves the reputation
business: wheat.
he’s earned, nationally and interna-
Are there any issues com-
tionally, for honesty and integrity,
Millions of bushels
Millions of dollars
ing up? How is the crop developing? $1,200
Miller said.
600
1,162.2
Any new varieties?
“I can honestly tell you, Glen
Those kinds of questions often
does not make any kind of deci-
lead to others, says Squires, CEO of
sion haphazardly, especially when
$680.3 million:
the Washington Grain Commission in
it comes to how it can benefit or
Up 3.6% from 2016 400
800 762.2
Spokane.
impact Washington state farmers,”
Squires will ask in return: What
Miller said.
are consumers thinking about? Is
For Washington farmers, who
165.5
your company trying to use wheat in
this
year grew nearly 2.2 million
400
200
new products?
acres
of wheat worth $700 million,
121.6
“If you can have a sit-down con-
trade is critical. About 90 percent
versation ... and they know you’re
of the crop is sold overseas to cus-
142.5 million bu.: Down 9.4% from 2016
going to work on your end and you
tomers in Japan, the Philippines,
0
0
2008
’11
’14
2017
can expect they’ll work on their end,
South Korea, Indonesia, China,
then things get solved for the benefit Source: USDA NASS
Thailand, Taiwan and Yemen.
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
of everyone who’s involved,” he said.
Many of those trade relationships
Squires has a knack for connecting with people. He’s able
have been developed over decades.
See Squires, Page 11
to humanize complicated issues during conversations with cus-
Washington wheat production
Lost Valley Farm heading to auction
Buyer submits
$66 million off er
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
BOARDMAN, Ore. —
What once aspired to be Ore-
gon’s second-largest dairy
with up to 30,000 cows, the
failed Lost Valley Farm will
soon be up for auction.
Lost Valley owner Greg
te Velde fi led for bankruptcy
in April, and the court later
appointed a trustee to run
E.J. Harris/EO Media Group File
The Lost Valley Farm outside Boardman, Ore., will soon be up for auction.
the operation in September
after fi nding te Velde con-
tinued his longstanding pat-
tern of gambling and illegal
drug use. The trustee, Randy
Sugarman, decided to close
and sell the dairy by early
2019.
An auction is scheduled
for Jan. 31, and at least one
prospective buyer has sub-
mitted a bid to purchase Lost
Valley’s assets — including
land, water rights, equip-
ment and property — for
$66.9 million.
The company, identi-
fi ed as Canyon Farm LLC,
is incorporated in Dela-
ware but lists its address as
a post offi ce box in Pasco,
Wash. Lost Valley and Can-
yon Farm fi led an Asset Pur-
chase Agreement with the
U.S. Bankruptcy Court in
Fresno, Calif., but it could
be outbid at auction.
Liz Fuller, a spokes-
woman for Lost Valley, said
Canyon Farm is “experi-
enced and respected, and
meets stringent criteria set
forth in the document,” but
declined to provide more
information about the bid-
der. An email sent to the
company was not immedi-
ately returned, and no phone
number was listed in the
purchase agreement.
Lost Valley’s cattle herd
and Confi ned Animal Feed-
ing Operation, or CAFO,
permit are not included in
the purchase agreement.
Fuller said the dairy has
already auctioned off about
See Auction, Page 11
Oregon farm regulators won’t pursue new canola authority
Oregon Department
of Agriculture to begin
rule-making process for
controversial crop
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
SALEM, Ore. — The Oregon
Department of Agriculture will not
seek additional authority to regulate
canola during next year’s legislative
session.
Last month, the ODA submitted
a report to the Legislature outlining
several alternatives for regulating
canola in the Willamette Valley.
Two of those options would have
required lawmakers to vest ODA
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press File
Canola seed is emptied from a harvester into a truck in Oregon’s
Willamette Valley. The Oregon Department of Agriculture will not seek
additional authority to regulate the controversial crop during the
2019 legislative session.
with more authority, including lim-
iting canola acreage and developing
a public “pinning” map system to
avoid cross-pollination with related
crops.
During a Dec. 19 meeting in
Salem, Ore., however, the agency’s
leaders said they had not submitted
such proposals to the Legislature.
“We really don’t want to have this
discussion at the Capitol,” said Lisa
Hanson, ODA’s deputy director.
Instead, the agency will pursue
rules under ODA’s existing powers,
which will likely include an “exclu-
sion zone” where canola will be
more tightly regulated.
“We’re doing this to bring cer-
tainty to all growers on all sides
in the valley,” said Alexis Taylor,
ODA’s director.
The new rules would be intended
to ensure canola regulation doesn’t
“fall off a cliff” when the existing
Legislature-mandated 500-acre cap
on canola production expires in July
2019, said Taylor.
See Canola, Page 11