Friday, April 2, 2021
CapitalPress.com 9
Demonstration farm to employ sustainable principles
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
KIMBERLY, Idaho —
The Nature Conservancy
in Idaho is teaming up with
Twin Falls-area farmer Todd
Ballard on a new 30-acre
regenerative
agriculture
demonstration farm that will
test cropping techniques in
the Magic Valley.
The project also aims to
expand public awareness of
soil health and inspire wider
adoption of regenerative
agriculture practices across
the state.
The demonstration farm
builds on TNC’s relation-
ships with Idaho’s agricul-
ture community as part of
its regenerative agriculture
initiative. It brings together
the ingenuity of local farm-
ers and TNC’s conserva-
tion experience to transform
agriculture for the benefi t of
people and nature.
“It’s the fi rst demonstra-
tion farm that we’ve done
in Idaho,” Neil Crescenti,
TNC’s agriculture program
manager, said.
The farm has several
goals, he said.
One is to help producers
overcome obstacles to build-
ing soil health. It’s a learn-
ing experience, and risks
come with it, he said. The
project is aimed at lower-
ing the fi nancial and practi-
cal barriers.
The project will also use
some broader regenera-
tive practices, such as cover
cropping and no-till, test
them on the farm and tailor
them to the unique condi-
tions in diff erent regions of
Idaho, he said.
Producers will be able
to see the lessons learned
Drew Nash/TownNews.com Content Exchange
Brad Johnson, with The Nature Conservancy, will man-
age a new demonstration farm.
on the farm. It’ll be a living
classroom with fi eld tours
and workshops where pro-
ducers can see the eff ects
and start a dialogue, he said.
It will also include
resources — including the
University of Idaho, the Nat-
ural Resources Conserva-
tion Service and Simplot —
to look at a suite of practices
and make them more acces-
sible to farmers, he said.
“We’re really excited,
and we think this is a really
good program to commu-
nicate and demonstrate soil
health practices,” he said.
Regenerative agriculture
is gaining attention as a strat-
egy to improve water quality
and soil health, protect the
environment and reduce cli-
mate change impacts.
Ballard, who will farm
the demonstration farm,
began experimenting with
soil health practices on his
fi elds about eight years ago
after conventional meth-
ods and gravity irrigation
systems became increas-
ingly expensive to maintain.
He started planting cover
crops and using minimum-
or no-till practices that pro-
duced yields relatively even
with conventional methods.
The demonstration farm
will be managed by Brad
Johnson, agriculture strategy
manager at TNC.
“Regenerative agricul-
ture practices are not one-
size-fi ts-all,” he said.
“That’s
why
we’re
excited for this demon-
stration farm to be a living
classroom where innova-
tive regenerative agriculture
practices can be honed and
shared with the farming
community, expanding what
is possible for Idaho agricul-
ture,” he said.
The farm will employ
key principles of soil health
to avoid soil disturbance,
maximize water absorp-
tion, enrich biodiversity and
enhance the soil’s ability to
store carbon.
The fi rst crop, malt barley,
will be planted soon. A sec-
ond crop, dry edible beans,
will be planted in late May.
TNC is planning tours of
the farm in June and in the
fall, as well as a workshop
next winter.
Washington asks public
to report Japanese beetles
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
The Washington State
Department of Agriculture is
urging the public to be on the
lookout for Japanese beetles,
a highly destructive pest that
showed up in alarming num-
bers last year in farm-rich
Yakima County.
Japanese beetles multiply
and spread rapidly. Unlike
Asian giant hornets, the bee-
tles directly attack crops such
as grapes, apples and hops.
“The Japanese beetle,
I think, is a more immedi-
ate and serious threat,” agri-
culture department spokes-
woman Karla Salp said
Wednesday.
The Oregon Department
of Agriculture has been bat-
tling Japanese beetles for
several years, particularly
in a Portland suburb, Cedar
Mill. In Washington, the
insect hadn’t been much of a
concern until recently.
In response to a depart-
ment social media post about
invasive species, a woman
in Grandview, Wash., sent
a photo of Japanese beetles
eating her roses last July.
The department had
trapped two Japanese beetles
in another Grandview rose
garden about two miles away.
Plus, the department caught
one near a retail store in the
nearby city of Sunnyside.
The department, however,
did not fi nd anything like the
number of beetles devour-
ing the woman’s roses. She
reported picking off as many
as 75 Japanese beetles in one
day.
“That set off alarm bells,”
Salp said.
Grandview and Sunnyside
are less than 10 miles apart in
a county that, according to
the 2017 census of agricul-
ture, produces about one-fi fth
of agricultural sales in Wash-
ington state.
The agriculture depart-
ment found out about the
dozens of beetles in Grand-
view too late to investigate
and possibly plan an eradica-
tion this spring.
The department does plan
to put out more traps this
summer. It’s also asking for
the public’s help, as it has
asked for aid in documenting
Asian giant hornets in north-
west Washington.
“The goal right now is to
get the public to step up and
report sightings,” Salp said.
Sightings can be reported
online at agr.wa.gov/beetles,
by emailing PestProgram@
agr.wa.gov, or by calling
1-800-443-6684.
Japanese beetles were
found in New Jersey in 1916
and now infest the eastern
half of the U.S. Partial infes-
tations reach as far west
as Colorado. The beetles
likely spread by fl ying into
westbound cargo airplanes,
according to the USDA.
The beetles turned up
in Oregon in 2016. Ever
since, the Oregon agriculture
department has been spread-
ing a granular insecticide on
lawns and ornamental beds
in the spring. The department
reported trapping 4,490 Jap-
anese beetles last summer,
including 4,218 in the Cedar
Mill area.
Savage
The Savage Railport site at Union Pacifi c’s railyard in Pocatello, Idaho.
Export-focused rail terminal planned in SE Idaho
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
POCATELLO, Idaho —
An intermodal rail termi-
nal planned in Pocatello is
expected to help agricul-
tural products reach export
markets faster and more
economically, sponsors say.
Savage Railport-South-
ern Idaho workers will place
loaded containers onto rail-
cars that Union Pacifi c Rail-
road will then transport to
ports in Tacoma and Seattle.
Salt Lake City-based
Savage, a global sup-
ply-chain
company,
announced it had entered
an agreement with Union
Pacifi c to build and operate
the terminal at UP’s railyard
in Pocatello. The terminal is
expected to be in operation
by mid-year.
“We’re excited to serve
Idaho producers and ship-
pers with intermodal export
service,” Savage Presi-
dent and CEO Kirk Aubry
said in a release. “The abil-
ity to ship containers out of
Idaho directly to the Pacifi c
Northwest by rail will open
up supply chains and allow
more Idaho businesses to
access global markets.”
Savage said using a
direct rail connection will
be more effi cient, cost-ef-
fective and environmentally
friendly than trucking prod-
ucts across several states.
UP’s
Kari
Kirch-
hoefer, vice president of
premium marketing and
sales, said the facility will
be “uniquely focused on
Idaho shippers’ needs and
the global economic impact
Pacifi c Northwest exports
have around the world.”
The partnership “makes
the most of the contain-
er’s round trip and saves
truck drayage costs for the
Idaho shippers by providing
a direct rail option,” Kirch-
hoefer said.
The
potato-focused
Idaho Grower Shippers
Association in Idaho Falls
has been a strong advo-
cate of the project. Presi-
dent and General Counsel
Shawn Boyle told Capital
Press that IGSA and Savage
have met with potato grow-
ers, shippers and proces-
sors to explore the project’s
benefi ts.
“We are convinced that
this terminal will provide
immediate benefi t to Ida-
ho’s potato industry and
to other commodities such
as hay, grain and oilseed
as they seek to compete in
global markets,” he said.
“The possibilities for future
growth and transportation
effi ciencies, both interna-
tionally and domestically,
are similarly very exciting.”
Now, a commodity like
compacted hay may travel
in parts of multiple railcars,
or by truck — adding cost
and time.
“Moving commodities
like hay can be done more
effi ciently in containers via
intermodal transport,” Sav-
age spokesman Jeff Hymas
said.
Plans call for employ-
ing four people initially, and
moving about 150 contain-
ers per week to start and
250 by year’s end, he said.
Details about the facility’s
size, confi guration and cost
weren’t released.
Idaho county commission tables proposed ag-to-residential rezone
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
The Canyon County
commissioners on March
22 tabled an application to
develop large home lots on
agricultural ground north-
west of Caldwell, Idaho.
The Planning and Zon-
ing Commission in Janu-
ary endorsed Eagle-based
Ridgeline Vistas LLC’s
proposal to rezone about
190 acres from agricul-
tural to rural residen-
tial, with conditions and
a requirement that Ridge-
line follow a development
agreement.
Plans call for 20 lots
averaging 8.5 acres, each
with structures on no more
than 2 acres.
Dan Lister, a county
planner, said commission-
ers want more information
about irrigation on the devel-
opment site as well as details
on water rights, which the
state Department of Water
Resources administers.
Commissioners also want
to fi nd out how the devel-
opment would impact Mid-
dleton School District —
including transportation to
and from the remote site
— and fi re protection. Mid-
dleton Rural Fire District
is requesting a secondary
access road since the site
is near an existing large-lot
development.
Lister said the county
commissioners are consider-
ing adding a condition bar-
ring secondary dwellings
on lots — a right under the
county code in certain zones
— and development of a
golf course.
The rationale “is to main-
tain it as ag land” where
practical “and develop lots
in a way that preserves ag
uses,” he said. Some neigh-
bors expressed concern
about further development
of agricultural ground and
traffi c impacts.
Lister said county com-
missioners are consider-
ing requiring the developer
to use pressurized irrigation
and create a drainage plan.
Earlier, Ridgeline repre-
sentative Todd Lakey wrote
to county planners that the
proposal would not take
prime farm ground out of
production and is not near
other active crop-production
operations. It would extend
the existing large-lot resi-
dential development, where
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