Friday, March 26, 2021
CapitalPress.com 7
New ‘cutting-edge’ system predicts potato pest risk
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
A free cutting-edge sys-
tem from Washington State
University gives Northwest
potato growers site-specifi c
information about insect
activity in their fi elds.
The new potato decision
aid system parallels WSU’s
existing system for tree fruit,
said David Crowder, associ-
ate professor of entomol-
ogy and interim director of
WSU’s Decision Aid Sys-
tem program.
“Think about the kind
of data you can get on your
phone, only way more pow-
erful than that,” Crowder
said. “You can go out in your
backyard and get your tem-
perature; we have the profes-
sional version of that, that’s
been tested and checked by
lots of meteorologists.”
Farmers must register to
use the free site.
Agriculture is weath-
er-dependent,
including
crop growth and the devel-
opment of insect popula-
tions and diseases.
Those risks “change
quite rapidly,” Crowder
said. “You could be facing
risk from a disease today but
not two days from now.”
The system takes weather
data and forecasts what will
happen on the farm.
The potato system is
operating for the fi rst time
this year in Washington,
Oregon and Idaho.
It includes risk assess-
ments of major insect pest
outbreaks, using WSU
Extension vegetable crops
specialist Carrie Wohleb’s
weekly pest alerts. She col-
lects data on about 10 diff er-
ent insect species on 40 to
DECISION AID
SYSTEM
https://potatoes.deci-
sionaid.systems/
their insecticide program
accordingly.
“Just like people in the
weather industry are fore-
casting what the next week
is going to look like tem-
perature-wise, we’re fore-
casting what the next week
Washington State University is going to look like in terms
Washington State University entomology professor Da- of Colorado potato beetle
vid Crowder.
(or) potato psyllid.”
Insect abundance models
60 farms.
at that scale,” Crowder said. the university uses capture
“If you’re a grower and
It won’t necessarily give about 50-80% of the vari-
you come into our site, you growers an exact number of ability in the insect popula-
can actually zoom down to aphids, Crowder said, but tions in the Columbia Basin,
the level of your individual it will tell them how pop- Crowder said.
fi eld and see our prediction ulations are developing in
“This is actually quite
of what the insects are doing the region. They can plan high because there are a lot
of other factors that aff ect
insects — insecticides, man-
agement, et cetera,” he said.
Models that capture the
timing of life stages are able
to predict what will occur
with over 90% accuracy, he
said.
Growers say the sys-
tem has allowed them to
save an average of $62 per
acre through improved pes-
ticide application timing
and increased crop yields,
Crowder said.
“All hubris aside, WSU
has the best system in the
entire world,” he said.
“There are very few institu-
tions that have systems like
this in the United States.
They’re not as advanced as
ours. Not only is this new
for potatoes, this is really
innovative in the world
of pest management in
general.”
UI Parma ag center reaches funding
goal for its renovation, expansion
Meyer receives
Spokane Excellence
in Agriculture award
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
The University of Idaho has the $7
million it needs to renovate and expand its
agricultural research station near Parma.
Gov. Brad Little on March 17 signed
House Bill 225, which directs nearly $90
million to the state’s Permanent Build-
ing Fund to pay for repairs and projects at
public buildings.
The legislation includes $3 million for
the Parma Research and Extension Center.
The Parma project already has $1 million
from UI and recently met its $3 million
fundraising target from private industry.
Carly Schoepfl in, UI College of Agri-
cultural and Life Sciences communica-
tions director, said next steps include bid-
ding and other processes with the state
Division of Public Works, and state Board
of Education approval of fi nal design and
a construction schedule. Groundbreaking
is expected in the late summer or early fall
of 2022.
“We are really grateful to the gover-
nor and Legislature for supporting this
research,” CALS Dean Michael Parrella
said.
He said Parma Research and Exten-
sion exemplifi es a project possible only
because of a public-private partnership.
Industry stakeholders in southwest Idaho
contributed to the design and helped deter-
mine programs to add or expand.
Six researchers are based at Parma. UI
plans to hire four — in fruit and viticul-
ture, weed, irrigation and soil, and pol-
lination specialties, Parrella said. They
will support needs in southwest Idaho
Spokane Conserva-
tion District production
ag manager Ty Meyer
has received the Excel-
lence in Agriculture
Award for his work sup-
porting growers in their
conservation efforts.
“It’s quite an honor to
be included in even the
thought of receiving an
award like that,” Meyer
told the Capital Press.
“There’s so many peo-
ple around this region
that do some pretty tre-
mendous things in agri-
culture, so it means a
lot. It was just a great
honor to be considered
for it.”
Meyer received the
award during the Spo-
kane Ag Show, held vir-
tually Feb. 23-24.
“(Meyer and this
team) are doing every-
thing they can do in
order to further soil
conservation, quality of
water and agriculture,
and to continue to have
production
practices
that will be sustainable
into the future,” said
Tim Cobb, chairman of
the award committee, in
a video presentation.
Meyer said his goal
is to help make farm-
ers more successful and
implement conservation
practices at the same
time.
“I think the two can
exist together,” he said.
“We have to be comfort-
able on the other side
knowing there’s a con-
servation benefit com-
ing out of it, but it’s got
to be profitable first, on
the farm. I’m not going
to ask somebody to do
something on the farm
University of Idaho
The University of Idaho plans to expand and update its Parma Research
and Extension Center.
and statewide while restoring some past
capabilities.
“That didn’t come from the univer-
sity,” he said. “We are following through
on stakeholders telling us what they
want.”
Schoepfl in said industry investment
includes $1.9 million from corporate and
foundation partners, $685,000 from agri-
cultural commodity groups and $415,000
from individual donors and ag producers.
Contributing commodity groups include
Amalgamated Sugar and state commis-
sions for alfalfa and clover seed, apples,
barley, beans, hops, mint, onions and
wine.
Plans call for developing the Idaho
Center for Plant and Soil Health at the
facility, which is more than 50 years old.
Parrella said the renovation and expan-
sion will position it to attract faculty and
additional grant funding while taking on
research important locally and statewide.
Food Producers of Idaho Executive
Director Rick Waitley said a 2018 meet-
ing that focused on the value and future of
the Parma Research and Extension Center
included various commodity and farm-or-
ganization leaders who support its mis-
sion. Several faculty “provide research
in hard sciences that impact all com-
modities,” he said. Research in agron-
omy, entomology and nematology “have
helped to make Idaho commodities to be
some of the best quality in the U.S.”
He said the Treasure Valley is home
to many specialty crops, especially in
seed production, “and supplies quality
seed around the world. The Parma R and
E Center and research conducted there is
important to sustaining the future of the
Idaho seed industry.”
State seeks to expand its shared stewardship program
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
The Idaho Department
of Lands wants to expand
its shared stewardship pro-
gram, which pursues thin-
ning and other management
treatments to improve forest
health across jurisdictional
and ownership boundaries.
The department now
gets $500,000 for the work
from the general fund, most
of which comes from state
income and sales taxes.
The department is asking
for an additional $450,000
for the next fi scal year. Of
that, $250,000 would go
toward projects on federal
land while $200,000 would
go toward shared-steward-
ship restoration project plan-
ning and implementation on
private land.
The private-land por-
tion includes
$100,000
that would
leverage fed-
eral
funds
to contract
private for-
Ara Andrea estry consul-
tants to com-
plete assessments and to plan
treatments, the state Legisla-
tive Services Offi ce said.
The other half of the
money for private lands
would be used to carry out
projects such as targeted res-
toration in the area of the
2020 Woodhead Fire and
in forests defoliated by the
2019 Douglas fi r Tussock
Moth outbreak.
Department Shared Stew-
ardship Coordinator Ara
Andrea said some of the
planned additional spending
will be on outreach and proj-
ect-related work with private
landowners. More such work
is required in recent years as
an abundance of smaller par-
cels under varied ownerships
or homeowners associations
replaces what once were
large tree farms or ranches.
“When it comes to out-
reach, it’s multiplied over
and over again,” she said.
“It’s the type of work we
have to do.”
IDL State Forester Craig
Foss said working with
smaller-scale
landown-
ers can help them under-
stand forest fi re and disease
risk. Other potential benefi ts
include fi nding opportuni-
ties for funding or for work-
ing on private land in a key
location.
“You might have 300,000
or 400,000 acres that need
some kind of treatment,” he
said. “Is there a (smaller)
strategic component that
ends up protecting the rest
of the resource?”
On federal land, Good
Neighbor Authority enables
the state department to part-
ner with the U.S. Forest Ser-
vice on restoration work.
Idaho and the Forest Ser-
vice signed an agreement in
December 2018. The state
in 2019 identifi ed two prior-
ity areas, one in the northern
Panhandle and the other in
the west-central mountains.
that jeop-
ardizes
their eco-
n o m i c
viability.”
Meyer
also pre-
viously
Ty Meyer
served
as executive director
of the Pacific North-
west Direct Seed Asso-
ciation. He is now an
ex-officio member.
He grew up on a farm
in Colton, Wash., that
raised wheat, canola
and chickpeas. He grad-
uated from Washington
State University with
an agriculture business
degree.
Meyer joined the
conservation district 17
years ago.
“We’re continuing to
work on I think some
pretty
forward-think-
ing practices in produc-
tion ag, in terms of soil
health, cover cropping
and maybe transitioning
into more regenerative
ag practices,” he said.
Rebuilding
soil
health is the biggest
need, Meyer said. He
expects no-till systems
to be at the forefront
of carbon sequestration
efforts.
“The focus is not just
nationwide but world-
wide,” he said.
The award is given to
a company or an indi-
vidual who has made
a significant contri-
bution to agriculture
in the Inland North-
west. The award com-
mittee considers inno-
vation, economic and
environmental
stew-
ardship contributions,
positive impact and
industry awareness and
outreach.
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