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LIVESTOCK & HORSE SPECIAL SECTION | INSIDE EMPOWERING PRODUCERS OF FOOD & FIBER Friday, December 6, 2019 CapitalPress.com Volume 92, Number 49 $2.00 Dan Wheat/Capital Press The FFRobotics robotic apple picker mounted on an Automated Ag Bandit Xpress picking platform. PROGRESS REPORT Companies race to improve performance of their robotic picking machines By DAN WHEAT Capital Press he first season of limited commer- a lot of custom automation from the start. We’ve cial robotic picking of U.S. apples fell seen too many things break too often to say we’re short of its goal, but a key fig- ready to manufacture a lot of machines,” ure in the effort believes it will Steere said. “We’re focusing on reinforc- ing the durability of what we’ve built and soon reach the mark. I don’t think we are too far away from “The results of have been encour- aging and challenging. Up and down. reaching that durability.” The encouraging part is when systems Robotic harvest has been a dream of have worked the way they are designed, the U.S. apple industry for years, par- ticularly in Washington, where 65% of they are doing the job. We’re getting the results we want,” Dan Steere, CEO of Dan Steere the nation’s fresh apple crop is grown. Apples are the state’s top agricultural Abundant Robotics of Hayward, Calif., said of his machine’s work in Central Washing- commodity with an annual farmgate value of ton’s apple harvest this fall. $2.5 billion. “However, we’ve been limited by too many See Robotics, Page 12 mechanical hardware failures. We had to invent T Abundant Robotics An Abundant Robotics apple picker at a T&G Global orchard in New Zealand in February. Christmas tree growers grapple with tight supplies Oregon industry recovering from past oversupply By GEORGE PLAVEN Capital Press SALEM — A large semi- trailer backed into the outdoor shipping yard Monday after- noon at BTN of Oregon, where workers loaded tightly wrapped Christmas trees for delivery to stores and tree lots from Califor- nia to Texas and across the bor- der into Mexico. BTN of Oregon grows approximately 2,500 acres of Christmas trees east of Salem, including popular Noble and Douglas firs. Business is moving practically nonstop as the calen- dar flips to December. “A lot of praying goes on this time of year,” said Ben Stone, president of the family-owned company. “A lot of sleepless nights.” Tight supplies are again chal- lenging Christmas tree ven- dors as the industry continues to recover from a massive glut of cheap trees in the mid-2000s that caused wholesale prices to crash, forcing hundreds of Northwest farms to go out of business or switch to less labor-intensive crops. Stone, who runs BTN of Ore- gon with his brothers, Tyler and Nathan, said they are receiving calls daily from people they’ve never talked to before looking for trees. “We just can’t help,” Stone said. “It’s unfortunate.” Oregon is the leading pro- ducer of Christmas trees nation- wide, with 383 licensed growers selling about 4.6 million trees in 2018, according to estimates from Oregon State University. That is down significantly over the last decade, when there See Trees, Page 12 George Plaven/Capital Press Workers load Christmas trees into a truck on Dec. 2 at BTN of Oregon near Salem. ‘Faces of Snake River’ campaign targets dam breaching misinformation By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press Pacific Northwest Waterways Association Fairfield, Wash., wheat grower Marci Green and her family are featured in the “Faces of the Snake River” campaign to target misinforma- tion about breaching dams on the river system. Northwest agricultural transportation advo- cates are backing a new advertising campaign to combat environmentalists’ “simplistic mes- sages” about removing four dams on the Snake River. “Snake River Faces,” sponsored by the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association, tells the story of several people who have personal connections to the river, including a wheat farmer, a family winery and a port director who welcomes commercial tour boats and kayaks on the river in her free time. Environmental groups have for years called for the removal of the Ice Harbor, Lower Mon- umental, Little Goose and Lower Granite dams, See Campaign, Page 12 EMPOWERING PRODUCERS OF FOOD & FIBER LET’S CONNECT ! S158267-1