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neonicotinoids: spokane beekeer claims nicotine-based insecticide does more harm than good — pages 4, 5

2A | Saturday, March 21, 2015 | Moscow-PullMan Daily news Northwest Farm & Ranch

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Moscow-PullMan Daily news | Saturday, March 21, 2015 | 3ANorthwest Farm and Ranch

Northwest Farm and Ranch is published quarterly by the Lewiston Tribune and Moscow-Pullman Daily News and printed at the Tribune Publishing Co. Inc.’s printing facility at 505 Capital St. in Lewiston.

To advertise in Northwest Farm and Ranch, contact the Moscow-Pullman Daily News advertising department at 208.882.5561 or Advertising Manager Craig Staszkow at [email protected], or the Lewiston Tribune advertising

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Editorial suggestions and ideas can be sent to Lee Rozen at [email protected] or Doug Bauer at [email protected].

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Farm and RanchNorthwest

On the cover: A Spokane beekeeper inspects a brood frame looking at the eggs, larva and young worker

bees during spring inspections | Photo courtesy of Will Olson

Farming with dronesUsing drones can help farmers notice anomalies

in the field | 8A

Washington state’s bird flu outbreakOfficials stress the virus is not a

threat to public health | 7A

Ag trends find their way onto the PalouseLocal area is a testament to two reports released by US

Department of Agriculture | 11A

Transportation bills key for ag industry Policy specialists discuss relevant proposals in Idaho and

Washington legislatures | 13A

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By Samantha MalottDaily News staff writer

Will Olson, a Spokane beekeeper, believes the use of a nicotine-related insecticide — neonicotinoids — in crop fields is playing a key role in the death of bees by the thousands.

Pete Nowak, a researcher for AgInfomatics, however, points to the benefits of the use of neonicotinoids, including increased yields, lower costs and improved pest management, and says the science is still out on whether the insecticide is harming bee popula-tions.

Although the use of neonicotinoids may not be the sole issue causing declines in bee populations, it is part of the problem, according to Olson, a licensed German beekeeper in Spokane and biology teacher at Summit Christian Academy.

He and others have concerns that when the insecticide is sprayed over and absorbed by plants it can be harmful to pollinators, like bees, when they come in contact with a treated seed’s flowers and nectar.

“Current research says it is a combi-nation of the factors that is playing into the problem,” he said.

One of those other factors, he said, is mite infestation.

“It is pretty hard on our bees,” he said, “but neonicotinoids don’t help.”

Olson said there are studies — con-ducted in the United States and Europe — that show the insecticide is a detri-ment to pollinators and honeybees.

“(Countries in Europe) banned neo-nicotinoids in corn production, which is a big product,” he said.

Nowak, however, argues that without the use of this tool, the agriculture sys-tem would collapse.

Spokane beekeeper says hive numbers are dropping with use of neonicotinoids

Nicotine-based insecticide possible detriment to bees

Photo courtesy of Will OlsonWill Olson, a Spokane German beekeeper, inspects a brood frame looking at the eggs, larva and young worker bees during spring inspections when beekeepers look for overall health of the hive, queen fertility, honey and pollen.

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Moscow-PullMan Daily news | Saturday, March 21, 2015 | 5ANorthwest Farm & Ranch “That’s just not the case,” Olson said.Olson pointed to France, where neo-

nicotinoids are no longer used and yet the country had nearly the same yields as when use was allowed. Honeybee populations have since rebounded, he said.

“It’s anecdotal, it’s not hard yet,” he said. “(The insecticide) can’t differentiate between a good pest and pollina-tor.”

Olson said he has beehives in differ-ent areas through-out Spokane, includ-ing Green Bluff and Springdale. Last winter, Olson said his beehives in the Green Bluff area, where there insecticide is frequently used, were not as productive. Even in sub-lethal doses the bees experience definite loss in cognitive abili-ties and flight patterns, he said referring to some of the foreign studies he has examined.

“I saw weakened hives,” he said.Olson said he was forced to move

some of the hives back to Spokane and provide feeding, “just desperately trying to keep them alive.” The hives are slowly

recovering in his backyard.The Springdale hives are about three

miles away from the nearest farm and didn’t experience any losses. The bees in Green Bluff are being exposed to some-

thing in an agricultural setting that is reducing their strength, he said.

A bee will travel an average of two to two-and-a-half miles around the hive, he said.

“How many farms can there possibly be in that radius?” he said.

Olson is worried that the government will not step in and take action against the use of the insecticide. Only the Food and Drug Administration can do it, he said, but no one wants the gov-ernment telling them what to do.

“If I lose my hives, I have no recourse,” he said. “... Why should one type of product give a short-term benefit to one group and damage another?”

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By Kathy HedbergLewiston Tribune staff writer

The unusually warm winter might spell trouble for farmers dealing with insect pests this year.

Sanford Eigenbrode, a profes-sor of plant, soil and entomologi-cal sciences at the University of Idaho College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, said it’s still too early to tell if insect pests will be more of a problem for farmers this year.

Although warmer tempera-tures favor survival, “most insects that live here year around adapt to cold weather,” Eigenbrode said.

When temperatures go up and down, however, bugs that have come out of their winter dormancy may be knocked back because they’re suddenly vul-nerable.

Insect damage to crops

causes untold losses each year, according to the Wash ington S t a t e Department of Agriculture.

W h e a t aphids, for e x a m p l e , secrete a toxin that causes leaf

rolling and plant streaking.A second concern is the warm

temperatures in the Pacific Northwest might cause migra-tion of insect pests that nor-mally reside in more southerly locations.

The diamondback moth, Eigenbrode said, generally has to fly here to infest the canola crops.

“So we don’t have a big prob-lem. But if it gets warm enough over a long enough period of time, then moths could become

much more serious than they are now.”

Eigenbrode said the warmer-than-usual winters have only been happening for a couple of years “and there’s certain to be variability coming. So, in terms of range expansion, that’s a slow process. The trend that we’re experiencing over the long run could lead to that, but (this winter) is a one-off and range expansion couldn’t really hap-pen” this quickly.

Even though some insects might become active earlier with a warmer winter, if their food source is not also emerging from dormancy, they would not survive.

“If there are no bugs for them to feed on yet, coming out when it’s warm is terrible for them because they’re not matched with their food source,” Eigenbrode said.

Kathy Hedberg may be contacted at [email protected] or (208) 983-2326.

Farmers worry about potential insect damage

Warmer weather could mean more bugs

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Moscow-PullMan Daily news | Saturday, March 21, 2015 | 7ANorthwest Farm & Ranch

By Dominique WaldDaily News staff writer

Local farmers remain unaffected by the recent outbreak of avian influenza in Washington state, but that doesn’t mean they’re not taking cautionary measures.

AlyssaMarie Link, of Link’d Hearts Ranch in the Palouse, said she’s been diligent in making sure her birds and eggs remain safe.

“I know locally there hasn’t been an outbreak, but I am being very cautious with my chickens,” she said. “If some-thing were to happen, it would really hurt the business. It’s a little scary and intimidating to think about what would happen.”

Link said she’s doing everything from disinfecting and constantly check-ing her flock to keeping an eye out for wild birds flying around.

“We’re also making sure we’re not finding dead chickens on the property, even dead wild birds,” Link said. “A lot of it is monitoring and common sense.”

The state experienced an outbreak of the avian influenza, commonly referred to as the bird flu, in early December, causing officials to quarantine several counties and euthanize infected birds.

The Washington State Department of Agriculture defines the avian influ-enza as a highly contagious and viral disease of chickens, turkeys, ducks, quail and many wild birds. There are two types of strains, highly pathogenic and lowly pathogenic.

The department’s communication director, Hector Castro, said the first outbreak was along the Canadian Border in British Columbia. It wasn’t long before the virus showed up in Whatcom County. There were reports of ducks and falcons being fed wild birds that carried the avian influenza, which caused the outbreak to spread.

“There was definitely an increased level of concern,” Castro said. “One of the concerns early on was the virus spreading to other parts of the state,

With the bird flu infecting flocks in several counties, officials stress the virus is not a threat to human health

Washington state’s avian influenza outbreak

Associated PressTurkeys are pictured at a turkey farm Nov. 2, 2005 near Sauk Centre, Minn. See outbreAk, Page 14A

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By Danielle WileyDaily News staff writer

Robert Blair has a vision for precision agriculture, one that includes using the technology of drones. He believes farm-ers in the Pacific Northwest can benefit from drones and reduce operating costs at the same time.

That’s why Blair helped start Empire Unmanned LLC to bring commercial drone use to Idaho.

“We’re a start-up and we’re looking to provide a service for growers to help scout their fields,” he said.

Blair said the drones

used by Empire Unmanned can help producers look for anomalies in their fields. This includes insects, weeds, dis-ease and nutrient issues.

Empire Unmanned is the first company that the Federal Aviation Administration has awarded a Unmanned Aerial Vehicle exemption, which allows the company to use drones for commercial pur-poses, Blair said. The com-pany received its exemp-tion in January but Empire Unmanned is still having issues with getting its UAVs in the air.

According to Scott Marikis, vice president and chief

financial officer of Empire Unmanned, the FAA required the LLC file for a certificate of authorization to get spe-cific airspace for the drones to

legally fly in. Blair said the company

filed for a COA last October but the FAA has yet to grant one to Empire Unmanned.

“What’s interesting is the COA basically doesn’t do

Empire Unmanned waiting to fly

Farming with drones

Geoff Crimmins/Daily NewsKendrick farmer Robert Blair (second from right) talks about the remote-control aircraft during the Precision Agriculture Technology Demonstration Day in 2014 at the University of Idaho Parker Farm east of Moscow.

See drones, Page 14A

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By Elaine WilliamsLewiston Tribune staff writer

Five large animal veter-inarians in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley were among a handful of health care professionals available to treat more than 69,000 cattle and 9,000 sheep in an area that extends north from Craigmont, Idaho, to the Canadian border.

Such shortages are common in rural areas of the country, said Gina Luke, assistant director of the division of govern-mental relations with the American Veterinary Medicine Association in Washington, D.C.

The Idaho need was one of many that went unmet in part because a program aimed at filling

that gap n e e d s m o r e funding, Luke said. “ T h e r e are live-stock all over the c o u n t r y who need access to

veterinary services. ... We all want to have safe food on our plate.”

Her group is pushing for the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program Enhancement Act, a bill that would expand an existing program.

Trained veterinar-ians receive as much as $75,000 in loan repayment in exchange for three-year commitments to practice in under-served areas in

the specialties of large animal or public health. The latter specialty helps prevent or control epi-demics in animals that are part of the food supply and improve bio-security.

As it stands, $5 million is allocated to the program annually, but 39 percent of that is paid back to the federal government in taxes, Luke said.

The act would lift that tax, making more posi-tions available in the pro-gram.

Since 2010 when the program debuted, 286 awards have been made to a pool of 860 applicants.

One of the reasons the program is so popular is most veterinarians need loans to finish a four-year bachelor’s degree required to apply for graduate

school and go on to incur more debt before they complete their profession-al training, Luke said. “It’s extremely competitive.”

But convincing law-makers of the need has been challenging. The bill has been introduced for the third time in the Senate where it has pow-erful allies, including Sen. Mike Crapo, its lead spon-sor, as well as Idaho’s other Republican senator, James Risch, Luke said.

“This legislation will provide a lifeline to rural communities by incentiv-izing well-trained veteri-narians to serve in the areas where they are needed most,” Crapo said in an email.

It will soon be intro-duced in the House and Luke hopes it will pass in time that the addition-al money will be in the next round of awards in September.

Elaine Williams may be contacted at [email protected] or (208) 848-2261.

A new legislative act will help expand veterinary programs

Fixing the shortage

Crapo

Tribune/Barry KoughVeterinarians Donielle Wagner, left, and John Hoch take care of small animals at the Lewiston Veterinary Clinic.

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By Eric BarkerLewiston Tribune

The light winter experienced in the Pacific Northwest isn’t presenting significant challeng-es to producers of wheat and other dryland crops.

But the early spring has put the growing season weeks ahead of schedule.

“Right at this present time our (soil) moisture regime looks pretty good,” said Loren Morscheck, account manager for the McGregor Company at Waha. “It’s awful warm and things are probably a couple of weeks ahead of normal. People are getting going in the field and doing some spring wheat now.”

Even though many moun-tain basins are well below sea-sonal averages for snow depth, Morscheck said in north central

Idaho precipitation was on par with long-term averages.

Much of that moisture came in the form of rain instead of snow. But he said since the ground wasn’t frozen when it fell, the soil absorbed it well.

“With direct seeding we have held all that moisture we have gotten this winter.”

Some grow-ers at higher elevations may have suffered minor damage to winter wheat.

The crop is planted after the fall harvest and begins to grow before the onset of winter.

Farmers at higher elevations depend on snow blanketing the fresh growth to insulate it from

frost and blasts of arctic air.

“There has been some re-seeding on the Palouse and (Camas) Prairie where some wheat didn’t make it through the winter,” he said. “I haven’t seen any of that down in the (Lewiston-C l a r k s t o n ) Valley at lower elevations.”

T r a v i s Jones, executive director of Idaho Grain Producers, said some growers are scrambling to either prepare for planting or

have already started.“The spring season is upon

us earlier than people are used to. Certain growers are kind of surprised at how mild things have gotten in just the last two or three weeks in certain parts of the state,” he said. “There are growers who are already preparing the equipment to get going or have already started working in the field.”

While the mild conditions have enabled an early start to planting, Jones said there could be problems down the road.

“What we are concerned about, just because of the gen-eral mild temperatures, is if there are any plant disease issues like stripe rust. That remains to be seen.”

Eric Barker may be contacted at [email protected] or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.

Sooner-than-expected warm temperatures have farmers scrambling to prepare planting

Growing season ahead of schedule

“There are growers who are already preparing the equipment to get going or have already started working in the

field.”Travis Jones

Executive director of Idaho Grain Producers

LocaL BriefSend news items to [email protected]

The March Agricultural Survey conducted by the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service is asking producers to provide information on the number of acres they intend to plant for particular commodities and how much grain and oilseed they have stored on the farm.

The results of the survey will give detailed county-level data on acreage, production and stock levels in the Pacific Northwest and the United States for 2015.

Producers may respond online at nass.usda.gov or fill out a survey questionnaire and return in via mail or fax.

For additional information, contact NASS Northwest Regional Director Chris Mertz at (800) 435-5883.

NASS seeks agricultural producer feedback

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By Josh BabcockDaily News staff writer

The number of acres of cropland on the average farm nationwide nearly doubled from 589 to 1,105 between 1982 and 2007, according to a recent report by the United States Department of Agriculture.

The same trend is happening on the Palouse.

“Farms are always going to get big-ger — it’s been the trend ever since the 30s and 40s,” said local farmer Kevin Mader, whose family has been operating on the Palouse for five gen-erations.

Technology is a major contributor driving the larger farm sizes noted in both the report and by Mader.

The report stated farms are grow-ing in acreage due to larger and faster

capital equipment, information tech-nology, chemical herbicides, seed genetics and changing tillage tech-niques.

Mader said when his great-grand-father started farming, 40 percent of the country was involved in agricul-ture because it wasn’t so mechanized.

“Machines are only getting bigger, costs are only going up, and as the cost of land and machinery go up the risk gets bigger and bigger,” Mader said.

John Deere is a prime example of increasingly larger machinery.

While 40-foot headers were once the average for wheat harvesting combines, Mader said the standard has increased to 45 feet, and last

The Palouse is a testament to two reports released by the United States Department of Agriculture on farm size

Ag trends find way onto the Palouse

See trends, Page 16A

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By Ralph BartholdtLewiston Tribune staff writer

Aquaponics use fish to fer-tilize plants, and both become table fare.

The systems for the process are becoming more popular on the Palouse thanks to a local group’s efforts to promote the vegetable-and-protein grow-ing method that can be small enough for a kitchen counter, or large enough for the back-yard, or the garage.

Jeanelle Miller of Colfax said a lot of groups interested in aquaponics in the bistate Palouse region were swim-ming in different directions until the Palouse Aquaponics Association got them under one umbrella.

Aquaponics has caught

people’s interest, Miller said, because of its efficiency, its low cost and dual results: It uses nutrient-rich wastewa-ter produced by fish, which range from goldfish to trout raised in buckets or aquari-ums, to fertilize edible plants grown in a greenhouse envi-ronment. Water from the fish tanks is recycled and filtered through plant beds, or fish feces is collected and fed to plants, providing them with nutrients. The fish are eaten when they become big enough, and replaced with more fish. The system provides an ongo-ing food source that is cheap and efficient.

“It is definitely growing in popularity for this region,” said

Aquaponics is using fish wastewater to give edible plants the nutrients they need

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See source, Page 17A

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anything different from what is listed in our exemption, it’s all spelled out what we can and can’t do,” Blair said. “It’s very disappointing because we are trying to do everything by the books and do it legally.”

D e v Shresta, a professor and agriculture r e s e a r c h -er at the University of Idaho, said drones are an excel-lent technol-ogy that can help create jobs, lower costs and produce better crops in the future.

Companies like Empire Unmanned can use UAVs to take photos of fields and gather soil and crop samples to determine if a farmer is facing

disease, pests or irregular watering.

Shresta said it’s impossible for a farmer or their labor to walk through every acre, so many times problem areas are not taken care of and the farm-er loses crops and income.

Blair said drones have received a bad reputation from

the media because some people fear that hobbyists will invade others privacy.

“ T h e r e ’ s always going to be concerns with things that are new if you don’t understand them,” he said. “I’ll pull out my iPhone and you don’t

see anybody saying anything about pictures being taken. The second you put in a UAV that’s an issue. The problem is not the UAV it’s the data.”

Danielle Wiley can be reached at [email protected].

Outbreakfrom Page 7A

Dronesfrom Page 8A

“The key seemed to be access to contact with

wild birds.”Hector Castro

Director of Communication for Washington State Department of

Agriculture

“The second you put in a UAV that’s an issue.

The problem is not the UAV it’s the data.”

Robert BlairFounder of Empire Unmanned LLC

since we were dealing with wild birds, and that’s exactly what ended up occurring.”

Just a couple weeks later, Castro received reports of sev-eral infected flocks in Benton County. The strain found was highly pathogenic and killed around 150 birds.

Because the nature of the strain was extremely conta-gious and deadly, Castro said, the department had no choice but to quarantine the county and euthanize the remain-ing infected birds. Castro said the quarantines generally last 21 days and cover the entire area, sometimes overlapping neighboring counties. For local farmers within those areas, the quarantine put a halt on their egg and poultry delivery.

During a 21-day quarantee, officials investigate and talk to local farmers to see if their birds have been in contact with any wild birds. Veterinarians also visit infected sites to ensure

the virus does not spread.“The key seemed to be access

to contact with wild birds,” Castro said. “The first loca-tion included ducks that would come and go to nearby water and s o m e t i m e s they’d bring wild ducks to come join the flock.”

Castro said the depart-ment was in the midst of wrapping things up in early to mid January when another flock started experiencing deaths near Port Angeles.

The largest of the out-breaks, however, took place in Okanogan County. One of the flocks infected consisted of 4,000-5,000 birds, most-ly ducks, primarily used for training dogs and not human consumption.

The Department of Agriculture was on high-

alert from early December to late February, and the last of the quarantines, in Okanogan County, was lifted on Feb. 25.

According to the department’s Avian Health Program, there are no appar-ent risks to human health from domestic poultry, and it is safe to con-sume properly handled poul-try products, including meat and eggs.

“We didn’t have any i n s t a n c e s where people

were getting sick from this,” Castro said. “It was strictly an animal disease concern and we haven’t had any reports of sick birds, we seem to be in a lull.”

For more information on the Avian Influenza or to report an infected flock, visit www.agr.wa.gov or call (800) 606-3056.

Dominique Wald can be reached at (208) 883-4628, or by email to [email protected].

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By Hannah ShirleyDaily News staff writer

Few good ideas come from the bore-dom of college roommates, but when Trent Meier and his friends decided to put a whiskey barrel in their basement, an interest in brewing hard cider that has spanned two decades was born.

It wasn’t until Meier, now the owner of the Cider House in Pullman, moved from his native Michigan to the West Coast that he began noticing hard cider more and more often.

“I’d started seeing some hard ciders and tasting hard ciders in the Portland area,” Meier said. “In that time, I had seen more products hitting the shelf around there than I’d ever seen before, and that spurred me to look into it.”

Meier helped found the Whiskey Barrel Cider Company in 2010. Since then, the cidery has grown to include a taphouse, a line of its own signature

ciders and distribution spanning the Pacific Northwest. The secret to its suc-cess, Meier said, is simplicity.

“Our recipes taste very much like an apple,” Meier said. “That’s the idea behind our ciders — very fresh, very clean ciders.”

The Whiskey Barrel Cider Company brews its ciders using local dessert apple varieties. According to Meier, if there’s an apple producer within several hours, he probably buys from them — one of those producers is the Washington State University cider apple orchard in Mount Vernon, Wash.

In Mount Vernon, WSU Professor of Horticulture Carol Miles has also noticed the boom in Washington’s hard cider industry. Miles has been study-ing cider apple production since 2007, about three years before the growth in popularity.

“It’s an attractive, enjoyable bever-age,” Miles said. “It’s just a fermented

fruit juice, which people find appeal-ing. It’s accessible, it’s good, apples are grown through the local region, and everybody believes this is a long-term change.”

According to Miles, hard cider first gained popularity in America during

colonial times, when most water was not safe to drink but most homesteads had an apple orchard. Apple juice was a safer alternative to the water, and when the juice was stored long enough it fermented. Popularity grew in the 1880s, when German immigrants brought beer with them into the coun-try.

Popularity of the drink was revital-ized more recently by the growth of mainstream, non-craft products such as Angry Orchard, and Miles said once the seed was planted, craft brewers

Boom in the craft cider industry prompts growers, technology to adapt

Get the barrel rolling

See cider, Page 18A

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year John Deere released its 60-foot header.

In addition to technol-ogy, other forces resulting in increased farm acreage Mader mentioned were two dry years experienced by farmers in the Palouse area and some profit-able years that helped some farmers choose to “cash out.”

In some cases, Mader said, some farmers will sell and then work part-time for whoever owns their farm.

“It’s a trend that’s not going to stop,” Mader said.

Another report released by the USDA found an increase in the number of farms distribut-ing produce locally.

Between 2002 and 2007 the number of farms with direct-to-consumer produce, or local food distribution, increased by 17 percent and farms saw a 32 percent increase in DTC sales.

However, according to the report, between 2007 and 2012

there was no increase in such sales, despite a 5.5 percent increase in farms distributing locally.

Mader said the numbers from the report are likely a result of many farmers’ prod-ucts being distributed to the same cus-tomer base.

The report states farmers fighting over the “same dollar” or the c o n s u m e r -base reaching a “plateau” is likely the cause.

Mader has witnessed some of these trends.

Mader noted there is a major concern with healthier food and how and where food is coming from, but when every-one is selling fresh produce it’s difficult to be profitable in those markets.

Despite the farms that don’t base their business on distrib-uting local seeing an increase is sales, the report found those

farms distributing locally were more likely to stay in business.

Mader said this is likely from a strong, local consumer-base.

This dedicated consumer-base Mader speaks of could be the reason why the report found that the smaller farms — those with income below $75,000 — accounted for 85 per-cent of local food farms in

2012. However, these smaller

farms only account for 13 per-cent of all local food sold.

According to the USDA’s report, 67 percent of all local food is coming from farms bring-ing in more than $350,000, and these farms only account for 5 percent of all DTC farms.

Josh Babcock can be reached at (208) 883-4630, or by email to [email protected].

Trendsfrom Page 11A

“It’s a trend that’s not

going to stop.”Kevin MaderLocal farmer

By Terri HarberDaily News staff writer

It’s been a slow year for agricultural-related bills in the Idaho Legislature.

That could have a little something to do with the state’s controversial ag-gag law that was passed and signed into law by Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter about a year ago.

The law came about after Idaho’s dairy industry com-plained that videos showing cows being abused at a south Idaho dairy unfairly hurt business.

“That brought such media exposure on the state we thought this was a good year

for ag to be in background more,” said John Thompson, Idaho Farm Bureau’s public relations director.

While no controversial bills are advancing in Boise, the agricultural industry is certainly paying attention to transportation legislation that could affect registration and truck fees.

Legislators were continu-ing efforts to reach an accord on how to spread the increas-es and were looking at several proposals, including a 5-cent per gallon gasoline tax raise — permanent or temporary. Other proposals have sought

Policy specialists discuss relevant proposals in Idaho and Washington legislatures

Transportation bills key for ag industry

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Smith, who earned her master’s degree in aquatic fishery science from the University of Idaho. “It’s more popular than I expected. A lot of folks want to get started.”

The association has a website — www.palouseaquaponics.weebly.com — and at a recent meeting in Pullman, it provided instruction and a question and answer session for would-be fish and vegetable farmers.

“We had 24 people show up,” Miller said. They ranged from farmers to a contingent from the Palouse Science Education Center, members of local school boards, and individuals and families curious about aquaponics.

The fish and vegetable-growing systems are gaining a wider audi-ence, Miller said, in part because of the nation’s rapidly growing popula-tion, the exportation of many locally raised foods such as wheat and lentils, and the necessity to find cost-effective and scientifically efficient agricultural methods.

Since the 1970s, aquaponics tech-nology has been steadily advancing as a science, Miller said.

Research has shown it is eight times more productive than soil agri-culture, using as little as 1 percent of the water necessary for a comparable soil garden.

“They are extremely scalable,” Miller said. “You can do one in a win-dow or on a porch using a 5-gallon bucket for a tomato plant, or you can go to several acres.”

Most people prefer a backyard-size system using several fish tanks of 100 gallons apiece.

Depending on their variety and the growth cycle, fish can be harvested every three to nine months, while vegetables — cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce and herbs — are harvested regularly.

Fish species, including tilapia, rain-bow trout and barramundi, may be harvested on a ratio of 1 pound of fish per 4 pounds of vegetables.

Even though the Palouse is one of the world’s top grain and legume pro-ducers, Smith said, it doesn’t provide a lot of food to the region.

Wheat farms focus primarily on exports while the need for food in the region continues to increase. Aquaponics can be a local solution to a regional challenge, she said.

Ralph Bartholdt can be contacted at [email protected] or (208) 848-2275.

Sourcefrom Page 12A

Swiss chard and lettuce grow in the deep water culture system Pullman resident Sue Guyett built by hand. She donates the produce to the Pullman Food Pantry.

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couldn’t help but sow the idea. Now, in the Washington craft beer

market, hard cider is second in popular-ity only to India Pale Ales. Hard cider makes up 4 percent of the craft beer market in Washington, making it the No. 1 state in cider consumption — for comparison, hard cider makes up 2 per-cent of the craft beer market nationwide, Miles said.

It’s been difficult for harvesting tech-nology to keep up with the boom in popularity, Miles said. While apples are almost always hand-picked, she said, production is much more efficient when a mechanical harvester is used.

WSU Extension is collaborating with Littau Harvesters to develop a mechani-cal harvester specifically for apples, which Miles said is tentatively slated to be completed by October. In the mean-time, they’ve been using a small-fruit harvester designed for harvesting blue-berries and raspberries.

“I anticipate that Washington will be the No. 1 cider apple producer, and mechanization will be a key part of that,” Miles said.

Miles said that while mechanization improves efficiency, her research shows producers may still face a cost issue.

“Machinery is expensive,” Miles said. “You have to have enough acres to justify it.”

The cider apple industry is volume-based, Miles said. One cider apple grow-er she knows of has 70 acres of apples. Several more growers have tens of acres, and a dozen to two dozen have an acre to five acres.

“That’s happening right now,” Miles said. “It’ll take three to five years for the apples to come online to be harvested, and we have maybe a dozen or two dozen people with maybe an acre to five acres right now. We’re in that transition period where half a dozen growers will soon have hundreds of acres.”

Littau Harvesters Production Manager Frank Brown said as they con-tinue to develop the two apple harvest-ers, a number of both apple and cherry growers have already expressed interest in the technology.

“Many folks are facing the same chal-lenge of the rising cost or hand labor, and trying to offset that to where they can make some money,” Brown said. “There’s a lot of interest in the cider apple market in particular, and so we work pretty closely with customers as we get involved in these things.”

Brown said apple harvesters are essentially similar to small-berry har-vesters but bigger. Unlike tree shakers, which do damage to the root systems of trees, the harvesters pass over the plants to individually knock off each fruit, which

is much less obtrusive for the plant. While Brown said he believes mecha-

nization will be more widespread in the future, at this point, he said the technol-ogy is growing with the customer’s inter-est and trust in the product — slowly but surely.

“It’s awesome working directly with customers to refine equipment, because it’s always the person running the machine that probably has your best ideas,” Brown said. “The owner’s got one idea, but the guy out in the field — he’s the one who’s going to make it work.”

Down the line, in the Cider House in Pullman on any given Thursday evening, where regulars are enjoying a drink of Dam Hard Cider or Triple Play Summer Cider, Meier’s vision is certainly making it work.

“It was seeing the interaction with people, and seeing people who for the first time would go to a location strictly for cider, or seeing people who were beer drinkers who then become avid cider drinkers and added that to their drink-ing repertoire,” Meier said. “It was just seeing those kinds of things in a larger market, certainly larger than Pullman, that the interest in cider became really clear to me.”

Hannah Shirley can be reached at (208) 883-4632, or by email to [email protected].


Ciderfrom Page 15A

Dean Hare/Daily NewsTrent Maier pulls a drink at The Cider House on Thursday, July 25, 2013, in Pullman. Maier is the part-owner and manager of The Cider House.

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higher costs for vehicle registration and a wholesale fuel transfer fee.

Education funding also is important because legislators might look at some-thing related to the ag industry as a potential funding source.

“We’re watching for any tax increases that would affect farmers and ranchers,” Thompson said.

Thompson, however, noted that research is important to the ag indus-try and any bill that helps with such endeavors would gain the bureau’s sup-port.

A proposal that would urge Congress to enact labeling language instead of having individual state laws is also being closely watched.

“A blanket, nationwide labeling law would be the better way to go,” Thompson said.

Over in Washington state, an ag-gag bill similar to Idaho’s was introduced to the Legislature, but it never advanced out of committee.

The Washington Farm Bureau is against the proposed higher statewide

minimum wage that would raise hourly pay to $12 an hour starting in 2019, and it also opposed a bill that would require businesses with more than four full-time employees to provide paid sick leave to their workers.

Another piece of legislation the bureau opposes is a bill that would amend the current employee anti-retali-ation act and open employers to poten-tial litigation and administrative penal-ties, according to the bureau.

“These bills will add costs, risks and regulations on farmers,” said Tom Davis, the bureau’s government relations direc-tor. “We strongly oppose them.”

Davis said the bureau is in favor of overhauling funding for road mainte-nance.

“Substantive reforms to transporta-tion budgeting and project delivery need to be enacted if legislators are going to ask rural residents to pay higher gas taxes,” Davis said.

The bureau also is endorsing a bill that requires government agencies to get permission from the Legislature to buy drones and closes government drone footage from public view.

Terri Harber can be reached at (208) 883-4631, or by email to [email protected].

Industryfrom Page 16A

By Dean FosdickAssociated Press

Organic and synthetic fertilizers are the most common way to add nutrients to the soil, but animal manure is good too, if you can find and transport it.

Unless applied prop-erly, however, it can kill edible crops and cause serious gastrointestinal disorders.

“Manures are being looked at differently and the timing of their appli-cation is different now from what we’ve advised in the past,” said Mark Hutchinson, a horticul-turist with University of Maine Cooperative Extension and a faculty member at the Maine Compost School.

“You’re no longer going

to apply fresh manure and two days later do your planting. Rather, you should apply it in the fall, let a cover crop grow and allow the manures to mature,” Hutchinson said. “It’s a food safety issue rather than a nutri-ent issue. We’ve all seen the outbreaks of E. coli over the past couple of years.”

Not all animal manures hold the same combina-tions or levels of nutri-ents. Chicken manure, for example, is especially high in ammonia, phospho-rous and nitrogen. Even decomposed, it can dam-age tender plant roots.

Goat and sheep manure is drier and easier to apply. It gives off fewer odors, too. Horse and cattle manure contains a wide range of nutrients

but lacks strength. Worm castings are extreme-ly rich in nutrients but costly when used in large volumes.

Most animal waste con-tains bedding — generally straw, sawdust or wood shavings. These bulk up the nutrient mix and help condition the soil but often introduce weed seeds into your plant beds.

“Most home gardeners probably won’t be using fresh manure unless they have some chickens in their backyard,” said Carl Rosen, a professor and head of the Department of Soil, Water and Climate at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul. For those who do, “you can run into problems using it because it will be too hot for your plants. You’ve got to compost it.”

The misuse of certain fertilizers can kill edible crops

Managing animal manure


By Kourtney LiepeltAssociated Press

MADRID, Iowa — Buying two goats in August 2008 was little more than an experiment for farmer Paula Olson and some entertainment for her daughters.

Six and a half years, 14 milking goats and roughly $300,000 later, she’s in the midst of constructing a small-scale creamery in Madrid, Iowa, that’s set to feature goat milk, cheese, ice cream and more. And though her creamery isn’t yet open, Olson said local businesses have begun inquiring about her prod-ucts, prompting her to already consider expanding.

Americans’ growing taste for more unusual fare has contributed to a steady increase in demand for goat products in recent years, and producers across the country are trying to determine how to secure enough milk to give consumers what they want while continuing to develop their merchandise.

The nation’s dairy goat herd climbed

2 percent in the past year to 365,000 animals, but producers said their annu-al sales are rising even faster — up by 15 percent or more. In Iowa, the number of goat farms has climbed from less than 20 a decade ago to about 200, behind only Wisconsin and California.

Sheep and goat milk accrued $92.2 million in sales in 2012, according to the most recent figures available from the U.S. Agriculture Department’s census, with combined sales about a third high-er than in the previous 2007 census.

Goat dairies remain a relatively new market, however, so those in the industry are trying out new techniques largely by trial and error.

“It’s not like the cow world,” said Larry Hedrich, owner of LaClare Family Farm in Chilton, Wis. “There aren’t reams and reams of research available.”

Shelby Cornelius, president of the Iowa Dairy Goat Association, said mem-bership has doubled since he took over in 2013 as farmers search for guidance

in how to get the most from their goats. The association has provided informa-tion on topics ranging from cheese-mak-ing to artificial insemination, he said.

Much of the new demand appears to be due to increased interest in arti-san cheeses and populations that are more accustomed to goat milk, such as Hispanic and Jewish communities, Cornelius said. In much of the world, goat milk is more common than cow milk.

“As time goes on, goats won’t surpass dairy cattle, but I think they’re going to become more competitive,” Cornelius said.

Some believe goat milk has signifi-cantly greater health benefits than cow milk, but Leo Timms, a professor in Iowa State University’s Department of Animal Science, said the two are quite similar.

The most notable difference, he said, is that goat milk is naturally homog-enized, meaning the fat globules in the liquid have already been broken

up so they’re digestible, whereas cow milk homogenization must be simu-lated. Proteins in the milks also differ, so someone who is allergic to cow milk might be able to drink goat milk, though lactose is still present in goat’s milk.

Another distinguishing factor is in milk production — dairy cows pro-duce about 20,000 more pounds of milk annually than goats.

Cow milk accounted for nearly 95 percent of milk consumption in 2014, compared to 0.02 percent for goat milk, according to a statement from Dairy Management, Inc., which collects money from the nation’s approximately 47,000 cattle dairy farmers for product promotion.

Still, goat products serve a niche in the dairy market. Jennifer Bice, founder of Redwood Farms in Sebastopol, Calif., has been in the dairy goat business for 45 years and witnessed the changing industry.

As goat farmers continue to grapple with best methods and test new prod-ucts, Bice said she expects interest to only grow. “I don’t see any reason for it to stop,” she said.

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BROHEAD, Wis. — They call it “ag tourism.”

Local farmers call it “doing business.”On March 30-31, the Wisconsin

Agricultural Tourism Association is hold-ing a “LUV-R-AG” summit in Wisconsin Dells. The two-day event will feature experts in ag, marketing, ag-tourism business owners and others who will showcase “opportunities for and partner-ships in the ag-tourism industry.”

But what exactly is ag tourism? Around here, agriculture is synonymous with work.

Based on the description the ag tour-ism’s website, visitdairyland.com, ag tourism can be anything from eating lunch at a CSA (community-supported agriculture) to touring a pheasant farm to a trip to a pick-your-own pumpkin patch.

It also includes corn mazes, oppor-tunities to meet dairy goats or llamas, strawberry patches, apple orchards and

a variety of other activities many south-central Wisconsin residents don’t think are that unusual.

“We take it for granted because we have easy access to it,” said Christine Rebout, executive director of the Janesville Convention and Visitors Bureau. “Around here, we’re probably only one or two generations away from the farm.”

In the suburbs of Chicago, people are more likely to be between two and four generations away from the farm.

“People in northern Illinois love the idea of a farm experi-ence,” Rebout said. “It’s really exciting to them.”

Joylene Reavis, owner of Sugar Maple Emu Farm in Brodhead, said she has repeat customers from Illinois who make

the trip each summer simply because they enjoy the drive.

Along with the usual line-up of school groups, Reavis has given tours to Christian motor-cycle groups, antique car clubs and Red Hat ladies.

Reavis agreed that people are further away from the land than they used to be.

“There used to be a time on the weekends when people packed up and went back to the farm,” she said.

Reavis and her hus-band, Michael, started the farm in 1995. The

couple saw tours as a way to promote the farm’s products.

That’s also the case for Dela and Tony Ends. The Ends family has been running Scotch Hill Farm in Brodhead since 1994.

Dela Ends said farm tours and other “ag tourism” events have gotten more popular since 2000.

Ends thinks consumers are more interested in buying local goods, and that they crave a connection to the producer.

“It’s putting a face on it,” Ends said. “When you buy anything, if you know who made it and where it comes from, it means more.”

The Soil Sisters event this year is supported by a tourism grant, which is helping to get the word out.

Steve Peterson, executive director of the Wisconsin Agricultural Tourism Association, said there has been an “explosion” of ag tourism in the state.

Wisconsin Act 269, which provides liability protection for ag tourism-related activities, has helped tremendously, he said.

At the summit in Wisconsin Dells, the ag tourism association will announce its “Field Trips” initiative to promote tour-ing coach visits to ag-tourism destina-tions in Wisconsin.

“The idea is based on those field trips adults fondly remember from grade school,” Peterson wrote in a news release.

Rebout, who grew up on a farm near Edgerton and now farms with her hus-band Doug’s family, said the landscape and people we take for granted are part the attraction.

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where it comes from, it means more.”

Dela EndsCo-owner of Scotch Hill Farm

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GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Calving season is nothing new to Don Eakman.

For more than 40 years he’s lived in a farmhouse overlooking the Sun River, splitting his time between teaching elementary school and car-ing for a small herd of registered Red Angus cattle.

So when it comes to helping baby calves enter the world, not a lot sur-prises him.

This year it did.During the last three weeks of

February, five of the first eight cows to give birth on the Eakman ranch deliv-ered twins — all of which survived and are now happily romping across Eakman’s pastures on the western edge of Great Falls.

While twin births in cattle is not unheard of, it is unusual.

According to a report in the Journal of Animal Science, dairy cattle are far more likely to deliver twin calves than are beef cattle.

Holsteins, for example, typically deliver twins about once in every 29 live births.

Brown Swiss are even more pro-lific, birthing twin calves once in about every 11 deliveries.

However Angus cows, like Eakman raises, only deliver twins once in every 91 live births. The arrival of five sets of twins at the Eakman ranch is even more improbable considering that Don’s entire herd consists of 34 cows.

“I ended up with three sets of twins before I had one cow with a single calf,” Eakman said, a hint of disbelief in his voice. “I’ve never had twins like this before.”

To put it all in some perspective, with a herd of 34 Red Angus cows Don Eakman could reasonably expect to receive a single set of twins about once every three years.

The likelihood that same herd would deliver five sets in a single spring is less than one in 137 — meaning that if Eakman’s great-great-grandfather had founded that herd around the time of the Battle of the Little Big Horn, this probably would have only happened once since then.

“It’s quite the feat indeed,” com-mented Rachel Endecott, extension beef cattle specialist with Montana State University. “Five sets already in under 40 cows is amazing.”

Those unfamiliar with livestock production might naturally assume that twin calves would be a great blessing.

If one live calf is good, two is even

better. But twin calves often come with their own set of complications.

It’s common for the mother of twin calves to reject one of her babies and refuse to nurse him.

That leaves the rancher with the option of finding another cow willing to accept the calf — not always an easy thing to do — or bottle feeding the “bum calf” three or four times a day.

“That’s one reason why I don’t like twins,” Eakman told the Great Falls Tribune, “because you have to do all that extra malarkey with them. It’s a lot of extra work.”

Multiple births are also physically demanding on both the mother and her calves.

The additional strain of multiple deliveries can tear up the cow’s uter-us, and crowding during fetal develop-ment sometimes results in deformed or weakened newborns.

Even if the births come off without complications, it’s not uncommon for a single cow to be unable to produce enough milk to adequately feed both her calves.

“For one cow to raise two calves is really hard on the cow,” Eakman said. “It really drains her down.”

Yet in the current case, all of Eakman’s twins were born healthy, and all their mothers immediately

Farmer’s cow was expected to deliver twins once in every 91 live births

5 pairs of twin calves born on small Montana ranch

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accepted the extra babies. Eakman didn’t even have to assist with the births by “pulling” any of the twins.

“We’ve really been blessed that all of these have been up and eating within 20 minutes, and that the mother has taken them,” he said.

In the case of one cow, Eakman didn’t even know she’d delivered two calves until he came back to check on the mother several hours later.

Suspecting the cow was about to deliver, he’d kept a close watch on her and stood by that morning as one calf was born without any difficulty.

After the newborn was up and nurs-ing, Eakman went out into the pasture and carried the calf back to the safety of the barn, with the mother cow following placidly behind him.

About five hours later, he went back out into the pasture to check on the rest of his herd, only to find an unattended newborn that none of the other cows seem to care about.

“I had a calf standing there all by itself bawling, and nobody was pay-ing attention to her,” Eakman said. “Normally you get next to a newborn calf

and mom comes on the run. They can be real aggressive, so I was totally frus-trated. Finally I picked it up and brought it in to the little corral next to the barn. I went in the barn and got the new mother

from that morning and she came running out. She immediately went to that calf and it started nursing.”

Of the five sets of twins born on Eakman’s ranch, four are bull/heif-er pairs and one is a set of two heifers.

According to Endecott, the combination of a bull

and a heifer in twin calves almost always results in the heifer being sterile.

“A heifer born with a twin bull is called a ‘freemartin’ and about 95 percent of the time she is infertile,” she said. “While in the uterus the twins are sharing a blood supply as their reproductive organs are developing. The testosterone from the bull tends to develop first, and that’s going to cause sterility in the heifer.”

For all of the unusual and unlikely coincidences that came together in the birth of so many twins on Don Eakman’s ranch, it is the miracle of life itself that most amazes him.

“I love seeing life like this,” he said.


Associated PressDon Eakman checks on a pair of twin calves at his Great Falls, Mont., ranch.

“I love seeing life like

this.”Don Eakman

Montana farmer

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