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CapitalPress.com
Friday, April 8, 2022
Organic dairies
welcome USDA
final rule on cows
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
INFORMATION
It’s been more than
two decades in the mak-
ing, but organic dairy
farmers now have a final
rule from USDA clari-
fying how conventional
livestock are transitioned
into organic production
and how they are managed
in the organic system.
The rule does away
with the practice of con-
tinually transitioning or
cycling dairy animals
in and out of organic
production.
The Origin on Live-
stock final rule specifies
that a producers can tran-
sition nonorganic cows to
organic production only
once.
It further clarifies that
once an operation is cer-
tified organic, a producer
cannot source transi-
tioned animals from other
operations and can only
add livestock that have
been organically man-
aged from the last third of
gestation.
“The Origin of Live-
stock rule has wide sup-
port across the organic
industry, from small fam-
ily farms to some of the
largest organic dair-
ies across the country,”
said Johanna Mirenda,
farm policy director
at the Organic Trade
Association.
“Over our years of
advocacy on this rule,
OTA members
and
organic industry lead-
ers have submitted over
2,700 comments across
three different comment
periods in support of this
rule,” she said. “We are
extremely pleased that
USDA has today issued
this long-awaited final
rule.”
The National Organic
Standards Board began
working to clarify origin
of livestock standards in
1994. The first of six rec-
ommendations came in
2002.
In 2006, USDA Agri-
cultural Marketing Ser-
vice stated inconsistent
allowances for replacing
organic animals was a sig-
nificant concern and addi-
tional clarification was
needed.
USDA
published
the Origin of Live-
stock Proposed Rule in
2015, reopened the com-
More information
about the Origin of
Livestock rule is avail-
able at: www.ams.
usda.gov/rules-reg-
ulations/national-or-
ganic-program-ori-
gin-livestock
ment period in 2019 and
reopened it again in 2021.
In an earlier interview,
Gwendolyn Wyard, vice
president of regulatory
and technical affairs for
the Organic Trade Asso-
ciation, told Capital Press
some organic certifiers
allow dairies to routinely
bring in nonorganic ani-
mals and transition them
for one year, rather than
raise their own replace-
ment animals under
organic management.
Farmers who do not
raise their own organic
replacement animals have
lower costs of production,
creating an economic dis-
advantage for organic
farmers who comply with
the regulations, according
to an OTA analysis.
“Additionally, some
farmers are allowed to
remove organic dairy ani-
mals from a herd, raise
them using conventional
feed and other prohibited
management
practices
and then retransition them
back to organic,” she said.
A fair and final Origin
of Livestock rule has been
the top priority for the
Organic Farmers Associ-
ation every year since the
organization was founded
in 2016, Kate Menden-
hall, the association’s
executive director, said on
Tuesday.
“We are delighted to
see it finalized today at
USDA,”
Mendenhall
said. “This is a huge win
for organic farmers and
the organic community as
a whole.”
The key will be uni-
form enforcement, she
said.
“We have already lost
too many organic dairy
family farms to unfair
competition.
Strong
enforcement of the Ori-
gin of Livestock rule is
imperative to regain eco-
nomic competition for
family farms within the
organic milk market,” she
said.
LEGAL
NOTICE OF CLOVER COMMISSION BUDGET HEARING
TO: ALL OREGON CLOVER SEED GROWERS
Notice is hereby given that a public hearing will be held pursuant to
ORS 576.416 (5), on Wednesday, May 4, 2022, at 7:00 a.m., at West
Salem Roth’s Events Center, Founder’s Room “O,” 1130 Wallace Road,
Salem, Oregon, upon a proposed budget for operation of the Clover
Commission during the fiscal year July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023.
At this hearing any producer of Oregon grown Clover seed has a right
to be heard with respect to the proposed budget, a copy of which is
available for public inspection, under reasonable circumstances, in the
office of each County Extension Agent in Oregon. For further informa-
tion, contact the Clover Commission business office, P.O. Box 3366,
Salem, Oregon 97302, telephone 503-364-2944. The meeting location
is accessible to persons with disabilities. Please make any requests for
an interpreter for the hearing impaired or for other accommodation for
persons with disabilities at least 48 hours before the meeting by con-
tacting the Commission office at 503-364-2944.
How Oregon nursery growers are
handing rising costs, supply woes
By SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN
Capital Press
Facing increasing costs
and supply shortages, Ore-
gon nursery growers say
they are forced to make dif-
ficult decisions.
According to Oregon
Department of Agriculture,
nursery and greenhouse
products remain the state’s
top agricultural commod-
ity. The industry made $1.18
billion in sales in 2020, and
demand remains strong.
But high demand doesn’t
always mean more profit-
ability. Instead, many grow-
ers see profit margins tight-
ening amid rising prices
on freight, labor and other
inputs.
“Our (profit) margins
are definitely going to get
squeezed here going for-
ward,” said Noah Fessler, in
sales at Woodburn Nursery
and Azaleas.
Noah and his brother,
Kyle Fessler, said that in
2019, if the cost to send a
truck of nursery stock from
Oregon to the East Coast
hit $6,000, “we thought that
was crazy high.” This spring,
according to their broker,
that trip costs $10,000 to
$12,000.
Amanda Staehely, a
grower at Columbia Nursery
LLC in Canby, said her aver-
age freight price to the East
Coast increased 45% to 55%
between 2019 and 2021, and
her Northwest freight rates
— within Oregon, Idaho and
Washington — increased
60% to 80%.
Robinson Nursery Inc.
Courtesy of Amanda Staehely
Chris Robinson, left, and Josh Robinson, right, of Robin-
son Nursery Inc. in McMinnville, Ore.
Amanda and Wayne Staehe-
ly, co-owners of Columbia
Nursery LLC in Canby, Ore.
Like most nursery grow-
ers, Staehely ships the
majority of her product east
of the Rockies, and she is
concerned customers won’t
want to pay the high ship-
ping costs.
This January, at a trade
show in Baltimore, Stae-
hely said many people said
they liked her product but
wouldn’t buy from Oregon
because other states, includ-
ing Tennessee, have lower
shipping rates.
“It’s not an even play-
ing field,” she said. “Ore-
gon is at a competitive
disadvantage.”
International
shipping
costs are also up.
The Fesslers said that
a few years ago, they paid
$10,000 to $11,000 to ship
one container of coconut
coir — a potting fiber —
from Southeast Asia. This
spring, it cost $25,000.
Josh and Chris Robin-
son, brothers and grow-
ers at Robinson Nursery in
McMinnville, Ore., said that
a few years ago, their nurs-
ery paid $3,000 to $5,000
to ship a 40-foot container
from China. This year, it
cost $16,000 to $25,000.
Input costs are up, too.
Staehely, of Columbia
Nursery, said pricing on
her baskets, containers and
burlap has increased 7% to
15%, fertilizer costs have
tripled and some chemical
prices have quadrupled in
one year.
The cost of off-road die-
sel has also been volatile,
forcing growers to buy in
bulk every time they see a
dip in fuel prices.
Supply shortages have
also rocked the industry.
Todd Nelson, grower at
Bountiful Farms Nursery
in Woodburn, Ore., said he
ordered fertilizer six months
ago. It finally arrived March
14.
“In-time buying is a thing
of the past,” he said. Nurs-
ery owners are now order-
ing supplies months in
advance and carrying higher
inventories.
Most growers say they’re
also concerned about the
availability and cost of
labor. In response, many are
investing in automation.
Nelson, of Bountiful
Farms, and the Fesslers,
of Woodburn Nursery and
Azaleas, have both invested
in pruning robots that they’ll
use for the first time this
year.
But not everyone can
afford automation. Because
Staehely runs a small nurs-
ery, she said she can’t
afford machinery that costs
hundreds of thousands of
dollars.
“That’s not within the
reach of some of us,” she
said.
Growers say that to keep
up with demand and main-
tain healthy profit mar-
gins, they’ll need to keep
innovating.
U.N. designates 2026 international
year of rangelands, ‘pastoralists’
The United Nations has
declared 2026 the Interna-
tional Year of Rangelands
and Pastoralists.
“For a lot of ranchers, they
will say, ‘What the hell is a
pastoralist?’” said Jim O’Ro-
urke, global chairman for the
international year. “Yeah,
you are one. A rancher, a
cowboy, a cowgirl, whatever,
you are a pastoralist. Our
hope is that everybody will
realize they are a part of this
celebration, get involved in
their local communities and
showcase the good job that
they’re doing.”
The opportunity is “tre-
mendous” for the industry to
tout the importance of range-
land and grazing benefits to
the public, O’Rourke said.
Half of the planet is range-
land, he said.
“It’s the dominant ecosys-
tem in the world,” he said.
“Far more carbon sequestra-
tion happens on rangeland
than any other ecosystem.”
O’Rourke is emeritus pro-
fessor and founder of the
range management program
at Chadron State College in
Chadron, Neb. He and his
wife manage a ranch south of
Chadron.
A well-managed and
grazed ecosystem continu-
ally stores carbon, O’Rourke
said.
“The segment of soci-
ety that wants to do away
with livestock, you’re giving
away an active carbon sink
by doing that,” he said.
A carbon sink absorbs
more carbon from the atmo-
sphere than it releases.
LEGAL NOTICE
OF PUBLIC MEETING
The USDA Natural Resources
Conservation Service (NRCS)
announces a meeting of the
Washington State Technical
Advisory Committee (STAC) on
Thursday, April 21, 2022 from
9:30am to 2:30pm. This meeting
will be held remotely. For more
information, contact Nick Vira at
360-704-7758.
LEGAL
PURSUANT TO ORS
CHAPTER 87
Notice is hereby given that the
following vehicle will be sold,
for cash to the highest bidder, on
04/11/2022. The sale will be held
at 10:00am by
COPART OF WASHINGTON INC
2885 NATIONAL WAY WOODBURN, OR
2007 TOYT FJ LL
VIN = JTEBU11F870079591
Amount due on lien $1515.00
Reputed owner(s)
KEVIN JOSEPH ERDMANN
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
“People look at the drive
between, let’s say, Lin-
coln, Neb., and Reno, Nev.,
as drive-through country,”
O’Rourke said. “They don’t
realize how important that
country is for off-setting the
carbon dioxide produced by
their cars, buses, airplanes
and industrial pollution.”
“A lot of people think of
rangelands as the ‘leftovers’
of culture — in fact, in range-
land textbooks, that used to
be how they were defined,”
said Tip Hudson, rangelands
and livestock specialist for
Washington State Univer-
sity Extension in Ellensburg.
“Everything else that didn’t fit
some perceived higher value
of land use could be called
rangeland. ... That’s no lon-
ger the definition.”
Within the last 50 years,
a more modern definition
emerged, calling range-
lands landscapes and plant
and vegetation communi-
ties dominated by grasses,
forbs and shrubs that are not
forests.
The people who use the
rangelands tend to be simi-
larly marginalized or forgot-
ten around the world, Hud-
son said.
The international year
designation could raise the
visibility of rangeland in use-
ful ways, he said.
“Rangelands-based live-
stock production is probably
by definition the most sus-
tainable form of agriculture,”
he said. “It relies on produc-
ing food and fiber from nat-
urally occurring plant com-
munities. If we do it right, we
can produce food and fiber in
a landscape without dimin-
ishing the other ecosystem
goods and services that we
expect from that landscape,
like habitat values, clean air
and aesthetic values (and)
recreational opportunities.”
The international year is
a good way to highlight the
“fundamental shift” from
how things were done 100
years ago to how they’re done
today, Hudson said.
The designation process
for the International Year of
Rangelands and Pastoral-
ists began in 2008, O’Rourke
said. The IYRP resolution
passed March 15.
The government of Mon-
golia submitted the resolution.
“It’s a rangeland country,
it’s dominantly rangeland,”
O’Rourke said. “Mongo-
lia has been very progressive
in developing ecological site
descriptions, mapping and
grazing management.”
