Friday, January 28, 2022
CapitalPress.com 7
WSU narrowing fi eld of candidates for ag dean
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
A Washington State Uni-
versity search committee is
narrowing the list of appli-
cants to be the next dean of
the agricultural college.
The committee was to
meet Jan. 27 to review appli-
cations from candidates who
have been recruited for the
position, said Rich Koe-
nig, interim dean of WSU’s
College of Agricultural,
Human and Natural Resource
Sciences.
Former Dean Andre-Denis
Wright left in June to become
provost of the Norman cam-
pus of the University of
Oklahoma. Wright had been
CAHNRS dean since 2018.
The com-
mittee will
conduct can-
didate inter-
views online
the week of
Feb. 7, Koe-
Rich Koenig nig said.
The goal
is to have a new dean on the
job by July.
“It may be possible to even
have somebody here before
that,” Koenig said. “The
search is moving along very
quickly.”
Koenig said he did not
apply for the permanent posi-
tion “for a variety of reasons
— mainly, I want to see my
son grow up and get to col-
lege,” Koenig told the Capital
Press. “It will be time for me
some day, but not right now
for the full-time, permanent
position.”
Koenig is on the search
committee.
The process is handled
by a search fi rm, which con-
ducted initial screenings and
provided a group of qualifi ed
candidates.
“I’ve glanced at the list,”
he said. “I’m impressed.
There’s some good applicants
in there.”
The committee includes
representatives from the
Washington Grain Com-
mission, Washington Tree
Fruit Research Commission
and Washington State Dairy
Federation.
Koenig expects agricul-
tural stakeholders to have an
Biden appoints new
leader for FSA in Idaho
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
President Joe Biden has
appointed
fourth-genera-
tion farmer Matt Gellings to
direct USDA’s Farm Service
Agency in Idaho.
Gellings, of the Osgood
area just west of Idaho Falls,
was sworn in as state execu-
tive director Jan. 18. He suc-
ceeds Tom Dayley, whom
former President Donald
Trump appointed in April
2019. For the past year,
Charles Newhouse, longtime
farm programs chief, served
as acting director.
“I am just so super-ex-
cited,” said Gellings, 64.
Serving a dozen years on
FSA’s state committee likely
helped him get the appoint-
ment, he said.
“Over the last 12 years,
I’ve said agriculture is so
critical to the nation,” Gell-
ings said. “Everybody wants
to know where their food
comes from. We’re here to
unite these rural commu-
nities, and let them know
we’re here
for
them
and for the
farmer and
rancher.”
One of
his
near-
Matt
term priori-
Gellings
ties is to set
up a per-
manent FSA state commit-
tee. An acting committee has
been operating since July.
A permanent state com-
mittee’s value is “to get that
voice out there, that perspec-
tive,” Gellings said.
The three- to fi ve-mem-
ber FSA state committees,
which have producer repre-
sentation, constitute a grass-
roots voice rare for a federal
agency.
“When an appeal comes
up from dairy, I want some-
one from dairy” on the com-
mittee, Gellings said. He
aims to have members from
various ag sectors and loca-
tions selected, vetted, and
approved by Secretary of
Agriculture Tom Vilsack this
spring.
FSA also has county
committees.
Gellings, who will be
based in the state offi ce in
Boise, plans to visit all of the
agency’s 29 service centers.
Hiring in Idaho is a major
focus.
“The fi rst thing is to try to
get our offi ces fully staff ed,”
he said. “And in talking to
national in the last couple of
days, we are defi nitely in a
hiring mode … the (Biden)
administration is saying: Get
it fully staff ed.”
FSA in Idaho in recent
years lost personnel for rea-
sons including COVID-19
impacts, and people retir-
ing or moving to other
employers.
For example, six county
executive directors retired
at the end of 2021, Gellings
said. The agency is hiring for
those positions as well as a
farm loan chief. Three pro-
gram technicians at local ser-
vice centers were to start Jan.
24. The agency employed
109 people full-time in the
state as of Jan. 1.
opportunity to meet candi-
dates across the state.
The dean has a $5 mil-
lion endowment. The Cashup
Davis Family Endowed Dean
honors the spirit of “Cashup”
Davis, “an enterprising
English immigrant who
homesteaded on the Palouse,
building a now-vanished
three-story hotel atop 3,612-
foot Steptoe Butte in 1888,”
according to WSU.
“Nicknamed for his will-
ingness to off er ‘cash up’ on
the table in trade — a rar-
ity in pioneer days— Davis
was a fervent promoter of the
region, and praised the poten-
tial, fertility and beauty of the
Palouse — the future bread-
basket of the Pacifi c North-
west,” the university stated in
a press release.
His great-grandson, Gor-
don Davis, fi rst announced
the endowment in 2019 and
completed the funding in
December.
It’s unusual for a dean to be
an endowed position, Koenig
said. This is the fi rst endowed
dean at WSU.
“The endowment provides
signifi cant resources directly
to the dean’s position to do a
number of things in the col-
lege,” Koenig said. “They’re
guided discretionary dollars.
It’s a large pool of funds, it
will generate about $200,000
a year for the dean to be able
to invest in a number of prior-
ities guided by Mr. Davis, the
donor.”
Those are “fairly broad”
priorities, Koenig said.
“They’re perfect, they’re
just what we strive to do
within this college — things
like recognizing students,” he
said.
“He wants to instill that
spirit of philanthropy — time,
talent and treasure — and rec-
ognize students who live that,
but also to talk more about the
importance of philanthropy in
general with our students here
at the college,” he said.
The funds will also be used
to recognize farmer-cooper-
ators and sponsor a sympo-
sium, during which CAHNRS
would invite in a distin-
guished speaker well-known
in the fi eld, noted for excel-
lence in research, teaching
or entrepreneurship.
Idaho irrigators eye impact of
urbanization on water supply, delivery
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
Irrigators in the Boise
area remain concerned
about urbanization and how
it will impact agriculture.
About 29% of the irri-
gated agricultural land in
the Boise River watershed
was converted to urban
uses from 2001 to 2016,
according to a study’s fi nd-
ings presented at the Idaho
Water Users Association’s
convention.
And from 2016 to 2020,
12-16% of the irrigated ag
lands along three major
creeks in the area between
Boise and Caldwell were
converted to non-agricul-
tural uses.
Attorney Dan Steen-
son spoke to the association
about the impact urbaniza-
tion is having on agricul-
tural irrigators.
He said one study of
the three-creek system esti-
mated 60-70% of the water
fl owing from the creeks
into the Boise River could
be lost if all fl ood irrigation
Capital Press File
Recent studies have tallied some of the impacts of ur-
banization on the Boise River and the irrigators who
depend on it.
is converted to pressurized
delivery.
Steenson
represents
the Treasure Valley Water
Users Association and is a
member of the Lower Boise
Watershed Council board.
The Treasure Valley
Water Users say the area has
about 1,500 miles of canals
and laterals. Flood irriga-
tion — still substantial for
reasons including an abun-
dance of small fi elds and a
large seed industry — helps
to replenish the aquifer, he
said.
Steenson said convert-
ing from fl ood irrigation
to pressurized delivery can
reduce total water usage, as
well as nutrient loading in
streams. “But the reduction
of (water) volume can nega-
tively impact all uses of the
river and creeks,” he said.
For example, irrigation
drain fl ows — an import-
ant source of Boise River
water below Middleton,
near the middle of the sys-
tem — decline as more
irrigation is piped and
pressurized.
Farm bankruptcies down
This year is off to a good
start for agriculture, with
growth in many sectors and
improved farm fi nancials that
have allowed many farmers
to recapitalize their opera-
tions, an economist says, but
they and lenders will be keep-
ing an eye on interest rates.
There have also been far
fewer bankruptcies in the last
12 months than in 2018 and
2019, said Jackson Takach,
Farmer Mac chief economist
and senior director of strat-
egy, research and analytics.
Farmer Mac is a secondary
market for agricultural credit.
In 2016, 2017 and 2018,
there was a lot more profi t
compression and a lot more
stress in working capital and
balance sheets, he said during
the latest “Dairy Download”
podcast.
“That was starting to build
in farm fi nancial stress. You
can’t have fi ve bad years of
income,” he said.
Most agriculture sec-
tors went through kind of a
grind during that period, and
it started to work its way
through the court system in
bankruptcies.
“And then 2020 hit. And
I think a lot of lenders at fi rst
were fearing the worst,” he
said.
A lot of lenders thought
the down cycle in agricul-
ture combined with the pan-
demic’s demand disruptions
were going to be devastating.
But government support pay-
ments started and a “pretty
incredible” run in commodity
prices in 2021 turned things
around, he said.
The number of farm bank-
ruptcies in the last 12 months
is about half what it was in
2019, he said.
It was a “very positive
story about recapitalizing
U.S. agriculture, getting cash,
getting working capital and
getting profi ts in a much bet-
ter spot for many producers,”
he said.
Delinquencies tend to be
a leading indicator of fi nan-
cial stress on farms, and those
are at about a six-year low, he
said.
Interest rates are the
unknown, but any increase in
rates won’t have an immedi-
ate impact on farm operating
loans, he said.
“A lot of times, farmers are
fi xing those at the front of the
year, kind of like getting their
fi nances lined up. They’re
getting their lines set up, and
maybe that’s good for a year,”
he said.
If the government raises
interest rates this year, they’ll
fl ow in at the renewal point.
Producers should get through
2022 with very low inter-
est rates because the Federal
Reserve hasn’t raised them
yet. Farm operating loans are
still at 3% to 3.5%, which is a
historic low, he said.
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By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press