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CapitalPress.com
Friday, July 2, 2021
Willamette Valley Vineyards to build new winery
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
TURNER, Ore. — Wil-
lamette Valley Vineyards is
building a new winery in the
Dundee Hills southwest of
Portland and will hire a new
director to oversee winemak-
ing and vineyards, includ-
ing 65 full- and part-time
employees, the company
announced on June 24.
Jim Bernau, founder and
CEO, said the decision comes
as production has vastly out-
paced capacity at the current
winery in the Salem Hills
near Turner, Ore.
”It got to the point where
I just couldn’t wait any lon-
ger,” Bernau said. “We have
exceeded the design capabili-
ties for this winery.”
Founded in 1983, Wil-
lamette Valley Vineyards is
a leading producer of Ore-
gon Pinot noir. The winery
was originally built for mak-
ing 12,500 cases of wine per
year, Bernau said.
Last year, the winery pro-
duced 175,357 cases —
more than 14 times its initial
Groege Plaven/Capital Press
Jim Bernau, founder and CEO of Willamette Valley
Vineyards, holds up a cluster of Pinot noir grapes
growing at his vineyard in Turner, Ore.
capacity.
”That creates a lot of pres-
sure on our cellar staff,” Ber-
nau said. “What I really
need to do is prepare for the
future.”
Four years ago, the com-
pany purchased 40 acres in
the Dundee Hills Ameri-
can Viticultural Area along
Highway 99 where it plans to
build a state-of-the-art win-
ery with the capacity to pro-
duce between 250,000 and
500,000 cases annually.
The winery will be within
a few miles of Willamette
Valley Vineyards’ new spar-
kling wine facility, called
Domaine Willamette, which
is slated to open in May 2022.
Bernau said the sparkling
winery and tasting room
is a “considerable invest-
ment,” with the building and
road improvements exceed-
ing $15 million. The site is
already home to a mature
vineyard, and will also fea-
ture a biodynamic garden.
Growth for Willamette
Valley Vineyards doesn’t
stop there. The company is
building four winery restau-
rants, with the first to open
before the end of the year in
Lake Oswego, Ore. Three
others are planned for Van-
couver, Wash., and Bend and
Happy Valley, Ore.
Along with increasing
brand awareness nationally
for Oregon Pinot noir, Ber-
nau said the restaurants will
only add further demand.
He estimates that Willamette
Valley Vineyards will need to
double production over the
next 5-7 years to keep pace.
The company has hired
Steven Martin Associates,
an engineering firm based
in Sonoma County, Calif.,
to come up with designs for
the new winery. There is no
timetable or cost estimate yet
for the project.
”We’re going to move as
quickly as we can,” Bernau
said.
The Salem Hills win-
ery will still be used to make
small lots of Pinot noir, with
more of the space to be ded-
icated to wine tastings and
hospitality, Bernau said.
In addition, Willamette
Valley Vineyards is creating
a new position, director of
winemaking and vineyards,
who will help manage the
transition into the new win-
ery while overseeing oper-
ations and assisting in the
development of brands and
products.
Willamette Valley Vine-
yards owns five vineyards in
the Willamette Valley, total-
ing about 500 mature acres,
as well as 35 acres in East-
ern Oregon and Washing-
ton in the Walla Walla Val-
ley and The Rocks District of
Milton-Freewater AVA. The
winery also has 500 acres
under contract with Oregon
growers.
Bernau credits expansion
of the winery to its business
model, as a publicly traded
company with more than
19,000 wine enthusiasts as
shareholders.
Nitrogen prices resurgent in ‘frantic’ global market
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Prices for nitrogen fertilizers
have more than recovered from
the demand shock of the coronavi-
rus pandemic, reaching highs not
seen in years due to strong grain
markets.
Urea, a common nitrogen
type that reflects global fertilizer
prices, is trading at about $450 per
short ton along the Gulf of Mex-
ico wholesale market, compared
to less than $200 per short ton
roughly a year ago.
Activity in the nitrogen market
is hectic even though it’s not tradi-
tionally the season for intense fer-
tilizer demand, said Julie Meehan,
managing editor of fertilizers at
the ICIS commodity market anal-
ysis service.
“We should be in a quiet period
when we should see prices coming
down,” she said. “That’s not the
case. It’s really frantic.”
The demand for nitrogen fer-
tilizers has risen along with the
prices of grain, which are at eight-
year highs, she said. Large Chinese
corn purchases from the U.S. are
partly responsible for the increase,
as are easing restrictions associated
with the coronavirus and improved
economic activity.
“A lot of this grain story is related
to COVID,” Meehan said. “If you’re
selling fertilizer it’s most certainly
been a positive.”
Though the grain market’s
strength is the underlying reason
for higher nitrogen prices, they’ve
also been buoyed by recent export
restrictions in China and Egypt,
which want to ensure there’s enough
fertilizer for domestic farmers, she
said.
Unexpected outages at facilities
that produce ammonia — a crucial
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press File
A tractor spreads urea on a tall fescue field near Newberg, Ore. Prices for urea and other nitrogen prices
are resurgent after a demand shock last year.
input — in Saudi Arabia and Trin-
idad and Tobago have further cur-
tailed supplies, while potential envi-
ronmental restrictions on Turkish
manufacturers could also affect the
market, Meehan said.
“You’ve got all these factors
going on at the same time,” she said.
The market fundamentals don’t
point to an imminent reversal in the
nitrogen price, Meehan said. “My
money is that it will stay firm.”
CF Industries, a major U.S.
nitrogen producer, has a similar
outlook for fertilizer prices.
The company’s net income
more than doubled, from $68 mil-
lion to $151 million, compared to
the first quarter of 2020, according
to a report with the U.S. Securities
Historic heat sweeps over W. Wash.
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
The three-day heat wave that
busted temperature records in
Western Washington cooked ber-
ries on the vine and brought other
challenges to farmers.
Southwest Washington grower
George Thoeny said Monday the
heat melted red raspberries that
he produces for the fresh market,
interrupting what had been a good
season.
He said he likely will pick the
roasted berries, dump them on the
ground and wait for green berries
to ripen. He said he was about one-
third of the way though the sea-
son and estimated the heat ruined
about half of what was to come.
“We’ll just work through it.
That’s what you have to do when
you have adversity,” Thoeny said.
All-time high temperatures
were recorded from Whatcom
County bordering Canada to Clark
County bordering Oregon. Vege-
table crops without irrigation suf-
fered, but so did some vegetable
crops with irrigation, according to
the USDA’s weekly crop report.
Western Washington tempera-
tures matched Eastern Washing-
ton degree for degree. Vancouver
reached 112 degrees on Sunday,
surpassing by 4 degrees a record
set in July 2009. The mark was
reset Monday at 115 degrees.
Thoeny, about 20 miles north
of Vancouver, said irrigating
wouldn’t have helped. “It would
have steamed the berries,” he said.
To the north, Bellingham
reached 99 degrees Sunday, an
all-time high for the city. The red
raspberry season there is not as far
along as in southern Washington.
“It’s going to be a knock,” said
Henry Bierlink, executive director
of the Washington Red Raspberry
Commission. “Some farmers have
said they’ve never seen anything
like it.”
On the coast, Hoquiam reached
103 degrees Sunday, an all-time
high.
Long Beach Peninsula cran-
berry grower Malcolm McPhail
said he irrigated to cool the bogs,
but that interrupted pollination.
“It probably happened at the
worst stage,” he said. “I think we
got through just fine, but it’s pretty
scary. We won’t know until the
harvest whether it had an effect,
and we might not be able to tell
then.”
The heat came two weeks
after a rainstorm that broke
records in some places in Western
Washington.
With the ground still moist, the
heat was more miserable for peo-
ple than his corn and spring bar-
ley, Grays Harbor farmer Jay Gor-
don said.
Helpfully, no wind blew to dry
out fields, he said.
“I don’t know if I can ask for
a better spring,” Gordon said.
“Corn likes 90 degrees at nine at
night and 72 degrees at six in the
morning.”
and Exchange Commission. The
company’s revenues grew from
$971 million to $1.048 billion
while its costs decreased slightly.
The company’s healthy financial
performance came despite a major
freeze in February that knocked
production facilities offline, said
Tony Will, its CEO, during a con-
ference call with investors last
month.
“We expect grain prices to
remain strong through several
growing cycles and farmers are
incented to maximize yield, driving
demand for nitrogen,” he said.
Demand for nitrogen imports is
expected to be high in Brazil and
India, where new fertilizer facil-
ities have been built but haven’t
increased production in the aggre-
gate, said Will. Excess production
probably won’t materialize this
year.
“As new production comes on,
some older production is curtailed
or taken offline,” he said.
Similarly, global grain stocks
are low and probably will not be
replenished in just one season,
which is likely to sustain higher
nitrogen prices, said Bert Frost, the
company’s senior vice president of
sales, market development and sup-
ply chain.
“We’re operating in the most
favorable environment we’ve seen
in many years, and we believe this
will have a relatively long tail,” he
said.
Heat, drought spell trouble for seed crops
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
Extreme heat and drought are
expected to take a major toll on Ore-
gon’s signature seed crops, though the
extent of the damage won’t be known
until after harvest.
Combines are beginning to roll
in the Willamette Valley, home
of the “Grass Seed Capital of the
World.” Oregon grows 98% of all
U.S. orchardgrass seed, 93% of fes-
cue seed and 91% of ryegrass seed,
according to the state Department of
Agriculture.
But this year could see yields
across the region reduced by as much
as half due to low precipitation and
sizzling temperatures, said Nicole
Anderson, an associate professor and
field crops extension agent for Ore-
gon State University.
“In this case, we could have
both low seed number and low seed
weight,” Anderson explained. “It’s
kind of a double-whammy effect
here.”
Anderson estimated that 75-80%
of Willamette Valley seed crops
are grown without irrigation, rely-
ing instead on normally rainy spring
weather.
The period from March 1 to June
1 is especially critical, Anderson said.
That’s when the crops start coming
out of winter dormancy, soaking up
moisture and nutrients to sprout repro-
ductive tillers and fill seed heads.
This year, Anderson said precip-
itation was down 5.5 inches in most
places during that timeframe, ham-
pering the plants’ development. With-
out enough water, she guessed yields
might drop 25-50% based on the
conditions.
Looking at OSU records dating
back to the 1970s, Anderson said no
other year comes close to the pre-
cipitation deficit seen this growing
season, throwing out any historical
comparison.
“This really is something that’s
fairly unique,” she said.
Along with the drought, a pun-
ishing heat wave with temperatures
reaching as high as 117 degrees on
June 28 is also putting grass seed
growers to the test.
Normally, the first step to harvest
is swathing the grass into neatly piled
rows. Growers then return to the field
in a combine that separates the seed
from the straw. If it gets too hot, how-
ever, the physical impact of mechan-
ical swathing can cause the seeds to
break off the stem — known as “shat-
tering” — resulting in yield losses.
Farmers often swath at night when
there’s dew on the ground to avoid
shattering, Anderson said. Even that
has proven challenging during the
scorching weather.
“With these super hot conditions,
we aren’t seeing dew at night,” she
said. “We expect to see more shatter
than normal.”
Bryan Ostlund, administrator of
the state Fine Fescue, Tall Fescue,
Clover and Ryegrass Growers Seed
commissions, said some growers in
the northern Willamette Valley have
indicated they won’t even attempt
to swath for fear of shatter.
Oregon
farmworker
dies during
heat wave
By SIERRA DAWN MCCLAIN
Capital Press
ST. PAUL, Ore. — A farm-
worker died in St. Paul on Sat-
urday as a record heat wave
gripped the Northwest, push-
ing the local temperature to
104 degrees Fahrenheit.
The death happened at
Ernst Nursery and Farms
LLC, Oregon OSHA spokes-
man Aaron Corvin said Tues-
day. Corvin said OSHA is
investigating the nursery and
the Brother Farm Labor Con-
tractor in connection with the
death.
Neither the nursery nor
labor contractor immedi-
ately responded to requests
for comment. The worker’s
name, age and hometown
were not available.
St. Paul Fire District Chief
Bryan Lee said his agency was
notified of the medical emer-
gency at 3:37 p.m. Saturday.
According to Lee, the first
responders arrived in the field
to find a man who appeared
to be in his 40s. He was unre-
sponsive, not breathing and
had no discernible pulse.
“I don’t know for sure if it
was heat-related or a medical
thing or the heat exacerbated
an underlying medical issue,
but obviously heat causes a
lot of stress on the body,” said
Lee.
Corvin, of OSHA, said that
based on a report the agency
received, the employee was
moving irrigation lines. At the
end of his shift, he was found
lying in the field.
First responders performed
cardiopulmonary resuscita-
tion and advanced life sup-
port measures on-site, then
transported the man to Provi-
dence Newberg Medical Cen-
ter, said Lee of the fire district.
The patient was declared dead
at the hospital.
Oregon OSHA reported
the death on its website, list-
ing the preliminary incident
description as “heat.”
Andres Pablo Lucas,
owner of Brother Farm Labor
Contractor that provided
workers for the nursery, told
the Associated Press the man
who died was from Guate-
mala. The laborers, Lucas
said, usually have the option
to start work around sunrise
and stop midday, but some
continue working.
A review of federal and
state OSHA databases indi-
cates this was the first reported
work-related heat death of a
farmworker in Oregon in at
least two decades.
A report from the Centers
for Disease Control and Pre-
vention shows that, nation-
wide, farmworkers are 20
times more likely to die from
heatstroke than workers in
other occupations.
Reyna Lopez Osuna, exec-
utive director of PCUN, the
state’s largest union for farm-
workers, said news of the
farmworker’s death “devas-
tated” her and her team.
“I think this tragedy illus-
trates the need for emergency
action,” she said.
State OSHA rules require
employers to protect workers
from excessive heat, and farm
groups such as the Oregon
Farm Bureau regularly issue
best practices for prevent-
ing heat-related illness and
death. But Oregon currently
has few specific rules regu-
lating outdoor work in high
temperatures.
Farmworker
advocacy
groups and unions want to
change that.
Prior to Saturday’s inci-
dent, Oregon OSHA was
already working with stake-
holders, workers’ groups and
environmental organizations
to develop specific, enforce-
able rules.
Those discussions are
expected to wrap up in Sep-
tember, but Lopez of PCUN
believes that’s not soon
enough.
On June 30, one of her
teammates, Ira Cuello-Mar-
tinez, climate policy associ-
ate at PCUN, will meet with
Renee Stapleton, policy man-
ager at Oregon OSHA, to dis-
cuss implementing an emer-
gency rule to regulate farm
labor in temperatures 90
degrees Fahrenheit and higher.