Friday, November 1, 2019
CapitalPress.com
9
Sugar beet harvest mostly on track in challenging weather
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
Hazelton, Idaho, farmer
Randy Grant on Oct. 21 had
about two-thirds of his beet
crop out of the ground, and
counting.
“We expect to conclude
around Oct. 25 barring any
major weather issues,” said
Grant, the Idaho Sugar Beet
Growers Association board
president.
Beet growers in south-
ern Idaho said the crop looks
good but probably won’t
match that of 2018, a ban-
ner year. The ’19 season
was wetter, slower-starting
and cooler. A hard freeze
occurred Oct. 9-10.
“On our farm, yield is
going to be average this
year, probably slightly less
than last year,” Grant said.
He expects his crop’s sugar
content to be about average.
Yield and sugar content last
year were above the long-
term averages.
A cool spring proba-
bly slowed growth, he said,
though “sugar beets don’t like
it extremely hot. We didn’t
have any really hot weather,
so we probably fared pretty
well through summer.
“It’s a pretty typical year,”
Grant said.
American Falls farmer
LaMar Isaak on Oct. 22
said the beet harvest at his
American Falls-area farm
Amalgamated Sugar
was around 60% completed,
close to average for the time Sugar beet harvest is in full swing in southern Idaho
and parts of eastern Oregon.
of year.
“We are pushing really
Galen Lee, who farms
hard, trying to do the best we the crop is OK. It’s not going
to grow anymore, that’s for near New Plymouth, on Oct.
can,” he said.
“It’s a good crop,” Isaak sure. It’s time to get them out 21 said his beet harvest was
about one-third completed —
said. “Maybe not the best, of the ground.”
Isaak said he expects a about average, as are yields.
but it looks good and the
crop that is good, but not to
Later planting and wet
quality seems good.”
Wet, cold conditions last the level of 2018. “Last year conditions meant sugar beets
“didn’t take off as fast,” he
spring delayed planting on was a great crop.”
Harvest can start later in said. “But once they warmed
the farm by 10 to 14 days.
The cooler summer cur- the lower-elevation west- up, they kind of made up for
tailed peak-season heat units, ern Treasure Valley, near the lost time.”
which can reduce beet size.
Oregon border, because hard
Lee said beet growth was
“We dodged a bullet on freezes typically don’t come helped by a summer that did
that cold” Oct. 9-10, he said. as early and farmers first not get extremely hot and
“It would have been nice if it harvest other crops such as lacked the wildfire smoke
never happened, but I think onions and silage corn.
seen some years, though
the growing season’s addi-
tional moisture produced a
bit more fungal pressure in
parts of the Treasure Valley.
Grower-owned cooper-
ative Amalgamated Sugar
through Oct. 21 was about
62% through harvest, a day
to a day and a half ahead of
2018 and on track with the
long-term average, said Vice
President of Agriculture Pat
Laubacher.
“This is a little surpris-
ing given that many grow-
ers were delayed start-
ing their sugar beet harvest
because they were still har-
vesting onions, potatoes and
other
temperature-sensi-
tive crops,” he said. “Grow-
ers have persevered under
difficult conditions this
October.”
Amalgamated
expects
yields to be around the four-
year average — 39.8 tons
per acre, which trails 2018
by 1.8%, Laubacher said.
Yields since 2009 have been
steadily increasing.
Sugar content “continues
to develop,” he said, “and
we expect to be near 17.75%
when harvest is completed
in early November.” That
would be the third-highest in
company history, behind the
record 2018 crop and 2016.
May’s cold, wet condi-
tions reduced growing-de-
gree days, and much of the
crop in south-central and
southeastern Idaho is feel-
ing that impact, Laubacher
said. But the cooler summer
helped crop development
in the western region that
includes southwest Idaho
and part of Oregon.
The 2019 crop is just
over 177,000 acres, a typical
size, he said.
Amalgamated process-
ing started Sept. 5 at Twin
Falls and Paul, and Sept.
26 in Nampa. Laubacher on
Oct. 22 said the company
had sliced about 20% of the
total crop, and expected the
slice (processing) campaign
to conclude in mid-February
in Nampa and around April
1 at Twin Falls and Paul.
Idaho cattle operation settles with EPA
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Carol Ryan Dumas/Capital Press File
The USDA is putting on hold its plan to require RFID
tags on cattle that is moved between states.
USDA puts animal
ID mandate on hold
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
USDA has decided not
to implement its require-
ment for radio frequency
ear tags for cattle and bison
over 18 months of age that
are shipped across state
lines.
In April, USDA’s Animal
and Plant Health Inspection
Service posted a fact sheet
stating RFID ear tags were
critical for modernizing
animal disease traceabil-
ity and would be required
beginning Jan. 1, 2023.
Last week, the agency
stated it would reconsider
whether or when to put
the new requirements in
place.
The decision is the result
of feedback from the live-
stock industry and two
recent executive orders
from President Trump high-
lighting the need for trans-
parency and communica-
tion before placing any new
requirements on farmers
and ranchers, the agency
stated.
“While the need to
advance a robust feder-
al-state-industry
animal
disease traceability capa-
bility remains an important
USDA-APHIS objective,
we will take time to recon-
sider the path forward and
then make a new proposal,
with ample opportunity for
all stakeholders to com-
ment,” the agency stated.
USDA’s goals to enhance
disease traceability have
not changed and APHIS
will continue to encourage
the use of electronic identi-
fication for animals moving
between states, the agency
stated.
Current regulations per-
mit brands and tattoos as
acceptable
identification
for interstate movement if
the receiving and shipping
states agree, APHIS stated.
In
early
October,
R-CALF USA and four of
its member ranchers filed
a lawsuit against USDA
alleging the requirement
violated current traceabil-
ity regulations and was
adopted without a formal
rulemaking process.
Traceability
regula-
tions finalized in 2013 were
designed for “maximum
flexibility” and “low-cost
technology” and allowed
the use of metal ear tags,
brands, tattoos, group/lot
identification and back tags,
the lawsuit states.
USDA’s plan to prohibit
the use of anything other
than RFID “substantially
impacts the management
and operation of every sin-
gle cattle producer who cur-
rently uses those identifica-
tion methods approved by
the 2013 final plan,” the
lawsuit states.
“When we filed our law-
suit, we said we were draw-
ing a line in the sand tell-
ing USDA that our industry
will no longer stand for the
USDA’s blatant overreach,”
Bill Bullard, R-CALF
CEO, said in a statement.
“We are pleased that
the president of the United
States recognizes this as
a serious violation of the
rights and privileges of
U.S. citizens, particularly
American cattle ranchers,”
he said.
East Valley Cattle of
Declo, Idaho, and owner Bill
Millenkamp have agreed to
pay a $17,500 fine and per-
form restoration work in a
settlement agreement with
EPA.
EPA alleges East Val-
ley Cattle filled an approxi-
mately 425-foot-long mean-
der and erected a 114-foot
earthen dam in the Raft
River, a tributary of the
Snake River, without a per-
mit. The activity requires a
Section 404 permit under the
Clean Water Act, according
to EPA.
In conjunction with a
local groundwater recharge
district, Millenkamp was
building a large groundwater
recharge pit adjacent to the
Raft River, Mark Ryan, Mil-
lemkamp’s attorney said.
“He just didn’t under-
stand he needed a permit,”
he said.
The Raft River flows
through Millenkamp’s farm-
land at Declo where he also
has a feedlot operation. The
river is only about 10 feet
wide at the site and looks
like a ditch, he said.
“It’s pretty common for
farmers to reroute rivers and
creeks running across their
land, and they don’t think
they need a permit,” he said.
Millenkamp erected an
The Environmental
Protection Agency has
reached a settlement with
an Idaho ranch.
earthen dam in the river to
divert water for a short time
to the recharge pit, with the
overflow reentering the river.
He built the diversion dam
and filled an oxbow in the
river with fill material from
the project, he said.
Millenkamp did the
work himself and got a lit-
tle aggressive with the bull-
dozer, he said.
He stopped work imme-
diately when EPA and the
Army Corps of Engineers
showed up and told him he
needed a permit, he said.
“He’s a pretty law-abid-
ing guy; he just didn’t
know,” he said.
Millenkamp plans to
put in a new diversion dam
under a permit. The Raft
River is high in sediment,
and the project will be able
to trap a lot of silt — which
will be good for everyone
downstream, he said.
Under the terms of the set-
tlement, East Valley Cattle
will implement an EPA-ap-
proved technical restoration
plan to repair the damaged
river bed and banks.
The case was referred to
EPA by the Idaho Depart-
ment of Water Resources
and the Army Corps of Engi-
neers, said Mark MacIntyre,
senior public information
officer with EPA Region 10.
The takeaway is that
farmers need to double
check if they need a permit
when doing projects involv-
ing water, Ryan said.
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