Dairy industry representatives are unsure how long the USDA can forestall implementing antiquated dairy policies set to go into effect Jan. 1. The USDA is beginning the rules and regulations process for setting minimum milk support prices required under the 1949 legislation.
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Pacific Coast Canola, about 17 miles southeast of Moses Lake, Wash., is testing and commissioning its crushing equipment. The manager of a new canola oil production plant hopes the facility will reach full production capacity early in 2013.
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Work resumed Dec. 26 at six Northwest grain export terminals despite the longshore union's rejection of a labor contract offer.
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U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said his agency is prepared to do whatever it is "legally obliged to do" under an antiquated milk pricing law in the absence of a new farm bill. It looks increasingly possible that Congress won't pass new farm legislation before the first of the year.
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Farmers are some of the biggest supporters of a movement to compel the federal government to return control of public lands to Western states, according to the group leading the effort.
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Idaho preservation groups are trying to enlist the help of farmers and ranchers to support an effort that aims to document the history of every old barn in the state.
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There will be a lot of new faces when the 2013 Idaho Legislature convenes Jan. 7, but farm groups believe agriculture will be well represented in the state's legislative body.
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The University of Idaho has named two finalists from its own ranks for the position of interim dean for its College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
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Chobani officials say the 950,000-square-foot, $450 million facility in Twin Falls, Idaho, will produce 4.2 million cases of yogurt products each week and provide a Western presence for the growing company.
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Following a season in which bacterial ring rot resurfaced in Idaho's potato crop, a University of Idaho researcher hopes to establish the first in-state facility to test growers' samples for the disease.
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Idaho's record for total value of agricultural exports in a calendar year is on pace to be shattered again this year, and dairy sales are leading the way.
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The Idaho Grower Shippers Association is considering a partnership with the Idaho Food Bank that could entail sheds sending fresh spuds to help the needy throughout the year.
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Potato industry leaders say a recent $25 million special purchase of fresh and processed spuds by USDA should help move a large 2012 crop while providing the federal agency a good buy on a nutritious commodity.
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Idaho beekeepers could soon have another tool to use in their battle to control varroa mites, honeybee parasites that have been linked to colony collapse disorder and can devastate hives.
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The dean of University of Idaho's College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, John Hammel, plans to leave his position after this month to return to full-time teaching and research.
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Turbulent financial markets have coincided with strong agricultural returns in recent years, spurring investors to buy more farmland, according to an environmental think tank. The Oakland Institute has released a report, "Betting on World Agriculture," that examines investor interest in farming.
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Capital Press reporter Mateusz Perkowski and soon-to-be-former copy editor Will Koenig talk about fiscal cliff strategies and the increasingly complicated court battle over Clean Water Act permits on logging roads in their 78th and final podcast. Adieu!
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Fears about the "fiscal cliff" triggering higher tax rates have farmers rushing to transfer property to heirs and complete other transactions before the end of 2012, experts say.
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Labor-intensive agriculture groups across the nation have united on an ag labor reform framework and are seeking broader support for what leaders see as a narrow window of opportunity for congressional action next year.
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The recent opening of a Whole Foods store in Boise has energized producers in the region.
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The next national Census of Agriculture will seek more specific data on internet use and alternative energy production on farms, ranches and dairies. The census is the only survey producers are legally required to complete.
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The insect that vectors zebra chip can survive the Northwest's harsh winters on a weed plentiful in the Columbia Basin and Idaho, according to a Northwest scientist.
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Capital Press editors and reporters talk about the perils and promise of the native seed industry, the rough times that Diamond Foods is in, and why demand for labor is booming in the Northwest. Read more at CapitalPress.com
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The Idaho Wheat Commission is mailing its 2012-13 winter wheat survey to growers. The commission uses the survey to identify the leading wheat varieties planted in each region of the state.
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The federal government has decided to retain anti-dumping duties on honey from China, siding with domestic producers who said imports continue to threaten their industry.
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A farmer and rancher will battle for the House speaker position during the 2013 Idaho Legislature. Farm groups aren't taking sides on the upcoming battle between the current speaker of the House, Rep. Lawerence Denney, a farmer from Midvale, and the Assistant Majority Leader, Rep. Scott Bedke, a rancher from Oakley.
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A recent USDA report suggests Pacific Northwest farms and ranches employed more workers who put in longer hours this fall than during the prior harvest season. Despite the substantial labor increases, growers in some agricultural sectors, especially apple orchards, still came up short for workers.
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Women and Hispanic farmers have filed legal challenges to the claims process the U.S. Department of Agriculture is using to resolve allegations of discrimination.
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In this podcast, editors and reporters talk about why Idaho farmers are confident about the battle for the state House leadership, the strong market for Northwest pears, and what a USDA study on the profitability of off-farm businesses means for growers.
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The Association of California Egg Farmers has filed a lawsuit in Fresno County Superior Court to overturn Proposition 2, the 2008 initiative backed by HSUS that sought to free chickens from the cramped, bare-wire cages used by many producers. The egg organization contends the law is unconstitutionally vague.
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According to the American Farm Bureau Federation's annual survey of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, prices were slightly higher than 2011, but the overall average cost of the meal as a whole still came out to $49.48 for 10 people, or less than $5 per person.
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Growers who seek profits from off-farm businesses bring in more money than those who diversify their operations with agritourism and similar ventures, according to an economic study. "Off-farm businesses generate much higher returns," said Stephen Vogel, an economist with USDA.
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2013 should be a much better year for milk prices and their bottom lines, says Peter Vitaliano, vice president of economic policy and market research for the National Milk Producers Federation. All the signs point to domestic production being flat at best next year and demand growing slightly.
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More than 30 national farm organizations have sent a letter asking Congress to extend estate tax relief originally passed under then-President George W. Bush.
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Purdue University professor emeritus Don Huber and Washington State University molecular plant science professor Michael Neff disagree on whether genetic engineering represents a peril or an opportunity for agriculture.
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An international group of scientists has released the most advanced sequencing of the barley genome to date, a development that researchers say could lead to big benefits for the barley industry.
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Increasing global nitrogen production is expected to stifle price surges for the fertilizer, potentially reversing an upward cost trend that has undermined farmer profits in recent years.
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Japan will soon be buying more U.S. beef and there are opportunities to sell live heifers to Kazakhstan, Northwest cattlemen have been told.
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A U.S Geological Survey study found no consistently detectable reductions in nutrient pollution in streams as a result of conservation practices. The study analyzed 133 large agricultural watersheds around the country and found no significant improvements in water quality resulting from common conservation practices designed to reduce soil runoff and nutrient loss. Read more at http://www.capitalpress.com/SE-stream-nutrients-110912
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The Idaho State Department of Agriculture has added all of Fremont County to a Designated Surveillance Area in eastern Idaho where livestock producers face special testing requirements to limit the spread of brucellosis.
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Don Huber, the retired Purdue University professor who sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack warning about a new harmful organism linked to Roundup Ready technology, will be one of the speakers at the 2012 Tri-State Grain Growers Convention.
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The U.S. cattle supply is shrinking as a result of high feed costs and serious financial losses in the feedlot sector, the latest USDA cattle on feed report confirms.
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As the potato demand ramps up in advance of the holidays, spud growers in Washington and Idaho are coping with logistical problems on the East Coast caused by Hurricane Sandy.
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The Idaho Barley Commission has made a sizable funding commitment toward an eight-year study that should provide the first long-term analysis of how manure affects crops commonly used in southern Idaho rotations.
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In this podcast, reporters and editors discuss the loss of Williamson Act funding on California's ranches, why farmers who used the H-2A guestworker program may be on the hook for $400 million in back wages, and an editorial on congressional inaction and the importance of the farm bill.
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Biotech critics have asked a federal appeals court to resurrect a lawsuit challenging USDA permits that allowed cultivation of transgenic sugar beet seedlings.
The agency issued the permits allowing limited cultivation in 2010 after a federal judge overturned the crop's full deregulation.
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Farm industry representatives from across Idaho gathered in Julia Davis Park Oct. 30 to dedicate the first sandstone blocks laid in a $400,000 ag pavilion designed to tell the story of Idaho agriculture.
For more on agriculture's contributions to the West, read "Western Innovators."
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The giant Idaho potato is wrapping up its seven-month journey around the country by basking in a Los Angeles area media blitz, and industry officials are already planning next year's tour.
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Pesticide manufacturers recently tried to persuade a federal appeals court to overturn restrictions against spraying several common pesticides near waterways. The controversy relates to a 2008 finding by the National Marine Fisheries Service that chlorpyrifos, diazinon and malathion jeopardize West Coast salmon species that are protected under the Endangered Species Act. Read more at CapitalPress.com
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The size of Idaho's 2012 winegrape crop is below normal, but winemakers say the quality of the grapes produced this year is exceptional.
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In this podcast, editors and reporters look out why and how struggling dairy farms are abandoning the business, how researchers are using genetic engineering to create crop cultivars that still avoid biotech regulations, and the outcome of this year’s apple harvest.
Still want more? Check out some of Capital Press's Kindle publications.
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Idaho's sugar beet industry is enjoying a good harvest, with good tonnage and high sugar levels over most of the crop.
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U.S. potato industry leaders estimate a free trade agreement with Panama that takes effect Oct. 31 should boost frozen fry exports to the Central American nation by at least $10 million, once fully implemented.
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The expiration of the 2008 Farm Bill and the inability of Congress to pass a new one has put at risk U.S. Wheat Associates' foreign trade programs and, conceivably, the future of the international marketing organization.
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The Idaho Barley Commission has funded an expert who will develop barley-specific training to help growers use crop insurance and advanced marketing methods to maximize their returns. Art Barnaby, a Kansas State University professor who helped the industry transition crop insurance to a public and private partnership program in 1980, will offer two workshops early next year.
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Idaho Dairymen's Association is exploring every option for improving the economic position of producers after four of the most volatile years in recent history.
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In this podcast, editors and reporters talk about how a shortage of drivers in the trucking industry is affecting agriculture, an expected rise in the number of sexual harassment cases targeting farms, and why mushroom sales are booming despite higher prices.
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One of Idaho's worst-ever fire seasons has resulted in the state's governor and timber industry reminding people that forest thinning and grazing can be valuable tools to help control fires. More than 1.73 million acres of land have burned in Idaho this year.
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The U.S. Department of Labor missed a deadline in processing 37 percent of the H-2A foreign guestworker applications it received in 2011, according to a government report. That included 7 percent that were approved less than 15 days before workers were needed.
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Harvested canola acreage jumped dramatically this fall throughout the Pacific Northwest, doubling in Idaho, according to USDA. Canola is used as a high-protein feed that bolsters milk production of dairy cows, a biofuel and a culinary oil.
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Idaho's dry bean harvest is projected to be the largest since 1990, despite initial worries that yields would be stymied by drought. The USDA projects the 2012 Idaho bean crop will total 3.02 million hundredweight, up 61 percent from last year.
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While Idaho dairymen have suffered high feed costs and some of the lowest milk prices in the country, they have remained competitive relative to other regions over the past few years.
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We’ll talk about the dairy industry’s response to video of animal abuse on an Idaho dairy farm, how the Supreme Court may shake up the patent system in a case involving Monsanto, a firm that sells West Coast hay around the world, and how a creamery is mixing bitter politics and sweet ice cream.
Western Innovators — a Capital Press ebook with 42 profiles of leaders in research, business and community — is available from Amazon.
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Farmers in the nation's main onion-growing region planted about 10 percent fewer onion acres this year, as low prices last year tempted many growers to turn more to other higher-priced crops. But industry leaders hope higher prices this year will result in onion acres in Idaho and Washington's Malheur County.
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Idaho's rapid increase in corn acres continued this year as Gem State farmers planted a record amount. According to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, 380,000 acres of corn were planted in Idaho in 2012, which, if realized, would be 30,000 more than the previous record set last year.
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Sugar beet growers should reap a slight benefit from high cattle feed prices, according to officials with Amalgamated Sugar. Amalgamated sells the byproduct of sugar production for feed — either as a pressed, wet pulp for local use or a dried product that's shipped as far away as the Pacific Rim.
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The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a dispute between a soybean farmer Vernon Hugh Bowman and Monsanto Co. over the company's efforts to limit farmers' use of its patented, genetically engineered Roundup Ready seeds.
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A new private aquifer recharge program could lead to the first new irrigation development within the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer since the state issued a moratorium on expanding water rights in 1992.
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In this podcast, editors and reporters take a look at how agriculture figures into the presidential election, Monsanto’s latest foray into genetically engineered wheat, and lawsuits taking aim at the pork and beef checkoffs.
Read Tim Hearden's blog at timhearden.blogspot.com
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A few weeks ago, I sent questionnaires to both of the major presidential campaigns and their responses were featured in this week's Capital Press Page One centerpiece. For the paper's purposes, the answers needed to be edited for clarity and space. We don't have space limitations online, so here's how the campaigns responded to us in their own words.
U.S. potato industry officials say recent progress toward opening more of the Mexican market to their fresh shipments stands to improve an already promising long-term export picture. U.S. fresh spuds are now imported only within about 16 miles of the Mexican border.
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Idaho dry bean growers are mulling the possibility of helping fund a bean breeder position at the University of Idaho with the goal of developing a commercial pinto cultivar that would perform better in Idaho's climate and soil conditions.
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Americans recently chose Five Guys Burgers and Fries as their favorite fast-food burger chain and Idaho spud farmers can be counted among the company's biggest fans.
With 1,078 stores around the nation, Five Guys is now the largest purchaser of fresh potatoes from Idaho.
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The number of Pacific Northwest acres planted to club wheat will remain steady despite the disappearance of a price premium farmers received in past years, a trade organization's representatives say.
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A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging the partial deregulation of genetically engineered sugar beets, declaring the case moot.
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In this podcast, editors and reporters explain why wheat growers are worried about talks between West Coast grain terminals and the International Longshoremen and Warehouse Union, how a Willamette Valley nursery is emerging from bankruptcy and why Washington state officials have shot six wolves from the Wedge Wolf Pack.
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As longtime Idaho Bean Commission Administrator Diana Caldwell prepares to retire, she is passing on her knowledge of Idaho's dry bean industry to Lacey Menasco.
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An extended period of high heat resulted in lower yields for early-season dry bean varieties planted in Idaho this year, but growers say mid- and later-season varieties are looking extremely good.
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Several Idaho cattle producers were on the giving end at the Gooding County mobile food pantry, handing out beef roasts to about 200 families. The event was part of the outreach the beef industry committed to when it partnered with the Idaho Foodbank two years ago.
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The value of Idaho's 2011 potato crop set a record at $1.04 billion, according to a recent report by the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service. The crop value was up $128 million from 2010.
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U.S. potato exports topped $1.5 billion in fiscal year 2012, increasing 17 percent in value and 10 percent in volume from the previous fiscal year, according to a recent U.S. Potato Board report.
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In this podcast, editors and reporters look at a park in Orange County that is reviving the area’s agricultural legacy, allegations that the Environmental Protection Agency is withholding emails from the public, and Beef Products Incorporated’s case that they were defamed by ABC News’ “pink slime” coverage.
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An exotic fruit fly that can damage a wide range of fruit crops was recently detected in Latah County in north Idaho. Since then, University of Idaho officials have confirmed the presence of the spotted wing drosophila in adjacent Nez Perce County and further south in Canyon County.
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Idaho's population shift away from rural, farm-dependent communities to metropolitan areas intensified last year at the fastest pace since the 1980s. This has some farmers and ag leaders concerned about farming's clout in the Idaho Legislature.
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Idaho's record for total barley revenue in a calendar year will likely be shattered in 2012, despite challenging growing condition in many parts of the state this year.
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The federal Farm Service Agency has enacted new policies making its loans quicker and easier to obtain and terms more lenient for agricultural producers coping with severe drought.
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture has slightly lowered its forecast for the nation's drought-damaged corn crop to the lowest yield since 1995.
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In this podcast, editors and reporters discuss the wildfires threatening fields and timber around the apple capital of the world, how the expiration of the farm bill could set U.S. farm policy back more than sixty years, why Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. is facing the largest fine ever assessed for violating federal pesticide law, and why orchards in Idaho are turning to refugees to pick their crops.
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Slade Beck, 18, of Burley, is headed to Indianapolis to compete in the FFA National Finals in specialty crop production after winning district and state competitions. The Burley High School graduate is the only national finalist from Idaho and one of only four finalists in the specialty crop production competition in the country.
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U.S. farm policy could revert to decades-old legislation next month if the current farm bill is not extended or replaced, but experts say the complexity and expense of this outcome make its implementation unlikely.
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Idaho's farming sector is leading the state's recent gains in personal income and gross state product, and agriculture's strong performance the past few years hasn't gone unnoticed.
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The legal battle over genetically engineered alfalfa has again wound up before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The federal appeals court expects to hear oral arguments in San Francisco on Oct. 24 about the legality of USDA's decision to re-commercialize the transgenic crop.
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Idaho's 2012 potato harvest has begun with digging a couple weeks ahead of last year, shipping volumes up considerably and fresh spud prices in the cellar.
"It's shaping up to be one of those years when overall prices to fresh market growers are not going to be very good," said University of Idaho Extension economist Paul Patterson.
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In this podcast, editors and reporters talk about alleged flaws in the Department of Labor’s “hot goods” cases against Northwest berry growers, an audit that found problems in USDA smuggling investigations, and the return of the Idaho Potato Commission’s giant spud promotion.
Want more ag news via iTunes, Soundcloud, Stitcher or online? Visit Washington AgMinute.
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Idaho apple production in 2012 is expected to be up from last year, as better weather resulted in more ideal growing conditions for fruit crops.
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A string of recent deaths in Idaho canals, including the fatal electrocution of three people on Aug. 30, has Idaho irrigation district officials reminding the public that canals are not safe places for anyone other than employees.
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The number of live animals being exported from Idaho is rising rapidly, as some dairy and beef cattle producers are finding higher offers from foreign buyers hard to turn down.
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Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack says the federal Renewable Fuel Standard, which faces growing opposition among livestock groups, has several upsides. Critics say it has driven up the cost of livestock feed.
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Idaho's dry bean industry is getting closer to its goal of developing a virus-resistant yellow bean seed that it could export to Mexico. Yellow beans are particularly popular in the Mexican state of Sinaloa and there is a lot of potential there for Idaho bean growers.
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In this podcast, editors and reporters talk about how the suicide of a California dairyman has galvanized the dairy industry, look back on the gains from 150 years of the land-grant university system, and discuss the particulars of a Willamette Valley farm that has managed to emerge from bankruptcy.
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The world's largest Idaho Russet on wheels will roll throughout the country for a second tour. Officials with the Idaho Potato Commission intend to send their Great Big Idaho Potato Truck on a second national tour next summer.
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A Washington state horse was euthanized this week after it contracted West Nile virus, and four other horses in Idaho and Oregon were diagnosed with milder cases of the disease.
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In the midst of the largest ever outbreak of West Nile virus in this country, Idaho officials are urging horse owners to take steps to protect their equines against the disease.
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