Northwest Farm and Ranch, Winter 2019-20

Northwest

Farm and Ranch Grant

Yakima

Benton

Pend Oreille Ferry

Boundary

Stevens

Bonner

Spokane

Lincoln

Kootenai

Benewah Adams

Whitman

Shoshone

Latah Clearwater

Franklin

Garfield Columbia

Asotin

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Idaho

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WINTER 2019-20

A joint publication of the

Great garbanzos The region’s pea and lentil growers cooperative recognized for its crops and its practices / Page 2

2 | Saturday, December 28, 2019 |

MOSCOW-PULLMAN DAILY NEWS / LEWISTON TRIBUNE

Northwest Farm and Ranch | Winter 2019-20

| PULSE CROPS |

PNW Farmers Cooperative

The three legume varieties that earned the Pacific Northwest Farmers Cooperative recognition are, from left: Pardina brown lentils, Pedrosillano garbanzo beans and Madeline French green lentils.

Local legume growers lauded PNW Co-op products recognized by the Good Food Foundation

By Anthony Kuipers For Farm & Ranch

Farmers on the Palouse are receiving national recognition for the quality of their legumes and environmentally friendly growing practices.

Products from the Pacific Northwest Farmers Cooperative were named as finalists in the Good Food Foundation’s 2020 Good Food Awards in the grains category. There are 11 finalists in that category, and the winner will be announced Jan. 17.

The products are Pardina brown lentils, Pedrosillano garbanzo beans and Madeline French green lentils.

Spokeswoman Kim Davidson said the co-op has about 750 members within a 60-mile radius of Pullman and Moscow. Most work on multigeneration family

farms. Their legumes are sold at Huckleberry’s, Moscow Food Co-op and restaurants throughout the region.

Davidson said this is the first year there was a grains category in the Good Food Foundation’s 10 years of existence.

“This is our first opportunity to enter, and we were thrilled we are the finalist,” she said.

Other categories include beer, charcuterie, cheese, chocolate, cider, coffee, fish and spirits.

Davidson said the co-op submitted its products for a blind tasting that came with cooking instructions. The Good Food Foundation also required the co-op to answer an in-depth questionnaire that explored the farmers’ growing practices.

The Good Food Awards recognize products that promote soil health, sustainable practices, are free of pesticides and herbicides, and do not use genetically modified ingredients.

Davidson said Pacific Northwest Farmers Cooperative growers use sustainable practices

such as rotating crops and no-till practices. She said pesticides and herbicides are often not needed because legumes provide nitrogen for the soil and produce acid that naturally keep bugs away.

The goal behind entering this contest is to raise the profile of legumes and introduce more people to co-op products, she said.

While people are generally familiar with garbanzo beans, many people, even on the Palouse, do not know much about lentils.

“Lentils are more of a mystery to people in general,” said Davidson, who pointed out the co-op sponsors the National Lentil Festival in Pullman every year.

Legumes have many favorable qualities, she said, including that they are cheap, easy to cook and do not need to be presoaked if they are fresh. And, local legumes come from healthy soil, thanks to environmentally friendly farming practices.

“Healthy food starts with healthy soil,” Davidson said.

Kuipers can be reached at (208) 883-4640, or by email to akuipers@dnews.com.

PNW Co-op quick and easy hummus A really well-made hummus is a thing of beauty, with complex, balanced flavor. It’s likely familiar as a dip for vegetables, but try adding it to burgers, noodle salads, deviled eggs or salad dressing.

INGREDIENTS 2 cups cooked Pedrosillano or York White garbanzo beans (about 1 cup dried beans) 1 clove garlic ¼ cup tahini (sesame paste) ¼ cup fresh lemon juice (about 1 large lemon) ½ cup water ¼ teaspoon ground cumin, or to taste ¼ teaspoon cayenne, or to taste Salt Extra virgin olive oil INSTRUCTIONS n In a food processor or blender combine the garlic clove, tahini and lemon juice and process for one minute. n Add the chickpeas and process until smooth. Add water, a little at a time, to achieve desired consistency. n Add the cumin, cayenne and salt, then process. Taste and adjust seasonings. n Transfer to a serving bowl, smooth top and drizzle with olive oil.

Cooking tip: For additional flavor, reserve the garbanzo bean cooking liquid and use it as a replacement for the ½ cup water in this recipe.

— Recipe courtesy of PCC Community Markets

Northwest Farm and Ranch | WINTER 2019-20

| MOSCOW-PULLMAN DAILY NEWS / LEWISTON TRIBUNE | Saturday, December 28, 2019 | 3

UI, WSU help clone gene that resists stripe rust Recent discovery should improve development of new wheat, barley varieties that will increase yields

By Garrett Cabeza For Farm & Ranch

Researchers from the University of Idaho and Washington State University helped identify and clone a gene that can stave off a common disease found in Pacific Northwest wheat and barley.

Wheat stripe rust, or wheat yellow rust, is a serious fungal disease that poses a huge threat to wheat production in cool and wet regions, including major wheat producing countries like Australia, Canada, China, France, India and the U.S., according to the stripe rust resistance gene report.

The report was authored by 23 researchers who work at UI, WSU, University of California, Davis and Chinese universities Shandong Agricultural University and Sichuan Agricultural University.

One of the researchers,

University of Georgia

Symptoms of stripe rust are evident in this stalk of wheat.

University of Idaho College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Daolin Fu, University of Idaho wheat geneticist and assistant professor, examines some wheat grown on the Palouse. Fu has helped identify and clone a gene that can stave off a common disease found in wheat and barley.

Daolin Fu, a UI wheat geneticist and assistant professor for the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, said he and his fellow researchers hope the new gene improves the development of new wheat and barley varieties that will produce more dependable

yields and reduce the need for pesticides to combat stripe rust.

Fu said using fewer fungicides is more environmentally friendly and cost-effective for farmers.

He said researchers worldwide have identified more than 80 wheat stripe rust resistance

genes, but this gene is only the eighth such gene to be cloned. He said it took almost the last 10 years to clone the gene.

The gene makes wheat more resistant to 11 races of stripe rust, Fu said.

“Most likely the gene would produce the broad-

the world. It was second in global production after maize, with roughly 220 million hectares and 760 million tons in 2018.

Wheat provides about 20 percent of global calories for human consumption.

“Because the world population is projected to increase by nearly 2 billion people within the next three decades, the increasing human population worldwide will place an even greater demand for wheat production globally,” the report stated.

er spectrum resistance to many stripe rust races, but we tested only 11 in our research,” he said.

The genetic advance is significant considering the globe’s reliance on wheat.

According to the Cabeza can be reached at report, wheat is the (208) 883-4631, or by email largest acreage crop in to gcabeza@dnews.com.

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Northwest Farm and Ranch | WINTER 2019-20

| PRODUCTION RESEARCH | 0

Moscow

100 mi

0 100 km

UI plans to build dairy research operation here

IDAHO Boise

Jerome Twin Falls

Associated Press

In this photo taken March 11, 2009, a line of Holstein dairy cows feed through a fence at a dairy farm outside Jerome, Idaho.

Dairy research operation planned for Magic Valley UI ready to build industry scale facility north of Rupert

By Michael Wells For Farm & Ranch

The University of Idaho plans to build an industry scale research dairy operation in the Magic Valley to meet the needs of Idaho’s rapidly growing dairy industry.

The facility, which will be located on 540 acres north of Twin Falls, will be built and operated in conjunction with a discovery complex near Jerome at the junction of U.S. Highway 93 and

Interstate 84 and a collaborative food science effort with institutions including the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls, Michael Parrella, dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Idaho in Moscow, said. The project is known as the Idaho Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment — CAFE for short.

Idaho has grown from the 14th largest dairy producing state to third largest. There are now about 600,000 dairy cows in the Gem State, with 400,000

of those located in the Magic Valley. “(The dairy industry growth) has transformed ag in the Magic Valley,” Parrella said, adding the growth has affected water usage and crops, and has Parrella attracted food processors. “About half of Idaho’s agriculture industry is now associated with dairy.”

As Idaho has become a leading producer of dairy products in the country, the need for a research dairy opera-

Idaho Falls Pocatello

tion that was at industry scale became a growing need that the University of Idaho and the Idaho Dairymen’s Association began working on about 15 years ago. The university and the association partnered to buy the land for the research dairy earlier this year.

The university already has a research dairy in Moscow, but it is a small operation with 200 dairy cows.

The Moscow facility is still useful, especially in training students, but is not large enough to be an effective research dairy to meet the needs of the industry today, Parrella said.

“In order for us to do research that is relevant, we needed a presence in the Magic Valley,” he said.

The research dairy will have 2,000 dairy cows, 500 more dairy cows than the average dairy operation in the Magic Valley today.

The university will look at the environmental impact of an industry scale dairy operation and research ways to turn waste products such as manure into revenue-producing products such as fertilizer. Marketing milk and dairy products will be another focus of the CAFE project, Parrella said.

“We feel the research is going to be more reflective of our operations,” Rick Naerebout, CEO of the Idaho Dairymen’s Association, said. “We wanted a facility that will help tackle emerging issues in the industry.”

Research may lead to better ways for dairy producers in the state to manage manure and could also help producers See DAIRY, Page 5

Northwest Farm and Ranch | WINTER 2019-20

Dairy from Page 4

meet a national carbon neutral goal by 2050, Naerebout said.

“There are no other research dairies at this scale,” he said. “It’s going to be a real showcase for Idaho’s dairy industry.”

In addition to the dairy operation and research, the project will research crops used in dairy Naerebout operations.

The researchers will investigate crops that use less water and look at finding new sources of dairy feed, Naerebout said.

With a recent $1 million donation to the university project that brought the university’s contribution up to $10 million, another $10 million was released through a state appropriation that is allowing the university to go ahead with the design and construction phase of the project.

“We support this project, given

the overall focus to improve the sustainability of agriculture across southern Idaho through a deeper understanding of how we farm and its impacts on our soil and water,” said Scott Simplot, chairman of the J.R. Simplot Co. board of directors.

While it will be a few years before the dairy is milking cows, research is already being performed on the site.

Soil research at the site is currently underway to give the researchers a baseline of what the Schott soil makeup is now before researchers start changing things at the site with different management practices, said Linda Schott, assistant professor, nutrient and waste management Extension specialist at the University of Idaho’s Twin Falls Research and Extension Center.

In October, Schott with the help of volunteers from the Idaho Dairymen’s Association, College of Southern Idaho, UI faculty and students, Valley Agronomics, Stukenholtz Laboratory and

| MOSCOW-PULLMAN DAILY NEWS / LEWISTON TRIBUNE | Saturday, December 28, 2019 | 5 Kimberly Ag Research worked 250 hours collecting 4,000 pounds of soil from the site to be processed and analyzed, Schott said.

The analysis will reveal the chemical makeup of the soil, such as how much carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are present.

The soil samples will reveal the soil’s pH and electrical connectivity for salts, as well as revealing physical properties such as the soil’s bulk density, aggregate stability and texture. The microbial community composition and activity will also be analyzed.

“These soils at the CAFE site have not received manure for at least 40 years,” Schott said. “We will be able to see the effects of manure.”

Researchers will look to apply manure at low rates that do not exceed phosphorus standards to see if the low application rates lead to a positive soil structure, Schott said.

“Manure is often treated as a waste product with unintended consequences,” she said. “We can flip the coin and treat it like a fertilizer, but we need evidence for that.”

Wells may be contacted at mwells@lmtribune. com or (208) 848-2275.

Nashua’s last working farm will be preserved NASHUA, N.H. — A preservation effort will protect the last working farm in a New Hampshire city from development, a forestry organization said recently.

The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests closed on a conservation easement to protect the 52-acre Sullivan Farm in Nashua, which dates back more than 100 years. A total of $1.4 million was raised for its purchase from many organizations and the city of Nashua. The farm was used for dairy cows and vegetable farming.

An orchard was later planted.

Today, the farm, with its familiar red barn, offers the community a farmstand, pick-your-own orchards, annual agricultural events and activities, as well as walking trails. The conservation easement will keep the land as a working farm.

“With my family having farmed this land for more than a century, I wanted to ensure its protection while I still could,” said owner Kathy Williams, whose family has farmed the land since 1911. “It’s such a big part of our family history and of the fabric of this community. As agricultural land continues to disappear, I wanted to do my part to keep our farm from becoming just a memory.”

— Associated Press

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Northwest Farm and Ranch | WINTER 2019-20

| VINEYARD VANGUARD |

Washington, the wine state As acreage for grape growing trends upward, wine eclipses apples in terms of economic impact

By Scott Jackson For Farm & Ranch

Acreage devoted to grape growing in the region has trended steadily upward from year to year as the reputation of Washington wine improves around the world, and officials say wine has likely dethroned the apple as the No. 1 agricultural product in the state by value.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, apples are a $2.2 billion industry in Washington, but Chris Stone, vice president of marketing for the Washington State Wine Commission, said a report due to be released in the next month or so will show the worth of the state’s wine industry is somewhere north of $5 billion. Stone said this is just one of numerous indications that wine is a booming industry in Washington, showing no signs of slowing.

“I’ve been with the commission for 14 years, and when I started … I know we were looking at less than 300 wineries in the whole state — I think (it) was like 250, maybe even less than that,” Stone said. “We just surpassed 1,000 wineries.”

Stone The second biggest wine-producing state, Washington’s industry may be gaining steam, but it has little hope of catching up to the first place holder, California. USDA numbers show the Golden State crushed more than 4.5 million tons of grapes in 2018.

That same year, Washington crushed a little more than 260,000 tons; however that still far outstrips its next closest competitor, Oregon, which crushed close to 80,000 tons.

Washington’s wine regions may be a fraction of the size of those in

Gordon King/Yakima Herald-Republic via AP, file

In this photo taken Sept. 16, 2014, Yolanda Gil harvests Merlot wine grapes at the Dineen Vineyards in Zillah, Wash. A report due to be released soon by the U.S. Department of Agriculture will reveal that Washington’s wine industry is a $5 billiona-year industry.

California, but growing wine grapes in the state comes with some distinct advantages, Stone said. He said the combination of a unique, rich geological history and a wide range of diverse microclimates across the state means Washington growers can find a good place to grow virtually any variety of grape they’d like. He said this means producers have the option of doing anything from a sweet, dessert-style wine to deep, dark reds with notes of spice, and doing those styles very well.

“This is both a blessing and a curse.

Ultimately, without question, it’s a

blessing because we can literally do almost anything incredibly well,” Stone said. “It’s only a curse in that, if you’re trying to build a reputation for your region, it would be easier if you can be known for something.”

Washington has 14 federally recognized wine regions, nearly all either within or adjacent to the Columbia Valley, a wine region unto itself that occupies a vast swath of central and southeast Washington.

In just the last four years, Washington producers have added 7,000 acres to the state’s grape growing

inventory, and there’s plenty of room to expand. Stone said there is close to 60,000 acres devoted to growing wine grapes in the state, but he has heard from experts in the industry that the Columbia Valley region alone has capacity for 200,000 acres.

“To be in a place we are — the kind of growth we’re seeing, the quality we’re achieving, the acclaim we’re receiving and to realize we’re 30 percent planted — that there’s still that much more room for growth is pretty See WINE, Page 7

Northwest Farm and Ranch | WINTER 2019-20

| MOSCOW-PULLMAN DAILY NEWS / LEWISTON TRIBUNE | Saturday, December 28, 2019 | 7

Wine from Page 6

darn exciting,” he said.

Stone said for almost 10 years, the publication Wine Spectator has rated wine from Washington as “outstanding” — scoring 90 or more on a 100-point scale — more than it has for any other wine-producing region in the world.

What’s more, old-world vintners, some of whom have been making wine for 10 generations or more, have begun to invest heavily in Washington wine country.

“We’re achieving a world-class quality of wine in a period of relative youth in the world of wine, so people are paying attention. I think it just took time,” Stone said, noting it can be difficult for a new wine-producing region to make a mark in an industry where some producers have been around for literally centuries. “We’re talking like, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years, where our entire industry is 50 years old — really, the modern industry is 30 years old.”

Jackson can be reached at (208) 883-4636, or by email to sjackson@dnews.com.

A photo of the Red Willow Vineyard, located in the Washington wine region of the Yakima Valley.

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Northwest Farm and Ranch | WINTER 2019-20

| ANIMAL IDENTIFICATION |

Washington State Department of Agriculture

A herd of cows grazes on land near Coulee Dam, near Moses Lake, Wash.

State ag official: Electronic ID will make out-of-state cattle sales and reporting easier

By Kathy Hedberg For Farm & Ranch

Washington ranchers now have a quicker and more cost-effective way to report cattle sales and out-of-state movement of their cattle through the Washington State Department of Agriculture electronic cattle transaction reporting.

And consumers will have a better way of knowing where cattle have been raised, and to whom they have belonged, in case of any disease out-

break related to beef.

Chris McGann, a spokesman for the Washington agriculture department, said that in the past, beef producers had to pay fees and travel expenses for state inspectors to make in-person visits when cattle were sold or moved out-of-state.

“When people think about running cattle, branding and identifying who owns the cattle, our livestock (identification) program has a long history in the state and in the country,” McGann said.

As the industry has modernized, there have been many changes, and the

identification program ran into some financial trouble. As costs for cattle sales went up, the fees for branding and identifying were not keeping up, he said.

This past year, cattle producers decided to revamp the entire process and look for more efficient and cost-effective ways to transfer cattle ownership.

“One of those areas was to expand the electronic transfer system, which was used for dairy cattle, without the scheduling burden of having to have an inspector come look at a cow,” McGann said.

“If (producers) had the official identification, they could go on a laptop and report the sale. Reporting (cattle) sales is important so that people know who owns the cow. And this system also allows us a quality disease traceability.

So if there’s ever a cattle disease, it’s a lot more efficient to find it through cattle that have been reported through this system. It helps us limit quaran-

tine areas and lets us know who owns the cow. If you don’t have that kind of recording, (the cow) could have been anywhere.”

The electronic system is also a significant savings for cattle producers, who can avoid having to call a professional inspector before selling their stock. The agriculture department estimates savings of up to 39 percent in sales fees when using the electronic recording system.

Derek Sandison, director of the agriculture department, said the electronic system “is a major step toward simplifying and streamlining reporting requirements that increases efficiency and reduces costs for our producers, as well as our agency. It demonstrates important progress toward synchronizing the industry and government with today’s technology.”

Hedberg may be contacted at kathyhedberg@ gmail.com or (208) 983-2326.

Northwest Farm and Ranch | WINTER 2019-20

| MOSCOW-PULLMAN DAILY NEWS / LEWISTON TRIBUNE | Saturday, December 28, 2019 | 9

| FARMING TECHNIQUES |

Getting paid for restoring the soil Alabama farmer looks to cash in on carbon storage by growing beneficial cover crops

By Dennis Pillion (Mobile, Ala.) Press-Register

ALICEVILLE, Ala. — Deep in west Alabama, in a part of the state where most economic activity grows up from the ground, one woman is hoping to get paid for what she’s putting back into the soil.

Aliceville farmer Annie Dee, who runs the Dee River Ranch in Pickens County, is one of a growing number of farmers who are signed up to get paid to sequester carbon in the soil using what are being called regenerative farm techniques.

Dee uses a mixture of plants such as radishes, turnips, clover, winter peas and oats as cover crops for her 4,000 acres of row crops. The cover crops grow to different depths in the soil, providing a variety of benefits. She still tinkers with the mixture based on seed prices.

In the past she’s used sunflowers, but she said those were too expensive this year.

Dee is one of the early participants in an incentive program run by startup Indigo Agriculture called the Terraton Initiative, which will pay farmers like her $15 per ton of carbon sequestered in the soil where she grows crops like corn, soybeans and timber and grazes cattle.

Dee isn’t a climate change activist, but she has been an advocate of no-till farming, using cover crops and crop rotations for decades. Now she’s making a little extra bank for the added benefits of keeping carbon out of the atmosphere.

“What I hope is to get paid

Dennis Pillion/Press-Register via AP

Annie Dee holds a turnip she uses as a cover crop at the Dee River Ranch in Aliceville, Ala., on Nov. 25. Dee, who runs the Dee River Ranch in Pickens County, is one of a growing number of farmers who are signed up to get paid to sequester carbon in the soil using what are being called regenerative farm techniques. for things that I’m already doing,” Dee said.

Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are higher now than at any point in at least the past 800,000 years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Agriculture is estimated to be responsible for 20 to 25 percent of global carbon emissions, but some believe it may also be the easiest and cheapest way to put carbon back in the ground.

Plants naturally absorb carbon dioxide from the air, and using cover crops in between growing seasons can keep soil healthy, richer and full of carbon. The plants also break up tough soil with their roots, adding nutrients back to the soil as they break down.

Indigo Ag believes farmers like Dee can sequester enough carbon in their soil to make a

real impact in the battle to limit the impacts of climate change.

The project name Terraton is a play on words from “terra,” meaning earth, and “tera,” meaning one trillion, as the stated goal of the project is to keep one trillion tons of carbon in the soil and not the atmosphere.

The company says it expects farmers who use “the full suite of regenerative growing practices” could capture 2 to 3 tons of carbon per acre per year.

Those practices include using cover crops, no-till, reducing fertilizer and chemical inputs, crop rotation, and integrating livestock and crop areas to allow “carefully managed grazing” for the animals and provide a bit of free fertilizer for the plants.

Indigo gets its funds from large companies, individuals and governments looking to purchase carbon offsets.

Indigo will earn its profits by charging for the measurement, monitoring and verification of carbon sequestration.

At $15 per ton, reaching its one trillion ton goal will be very expensive, but the company says that figure is actually cheaper than the other methods being tested to remove excess CO2 from the air.

So far, Indigo says farmers have committed more than 12 million acres to the program, including 77,000 acres in Alabama. The company is still recruiting participants through its website.

Dee is among the largest participants in Alabama at roughly 10,000 acres and she’s also in the minority because she is already using many of the recommended techniques.

Indigo cites an analysis from the U.S. Department of

Agriculture that estimates only one in five farmers use any of those techniques consistently and less than 1 percent use all five. The company hopes this financial incentive will kick-start the more widespread adoption of more sustainable farming.

“With a financial incentive — $15 per ton of carbon dioxide — growers are able to reduce the risk associated with transitioning to regenerative growing practices,” the company said in a statement. “This new revenue stream is critical as growers are faced by an increasing number of challenges, including extreme weather events, low commodity prices and high input costs that make it difficult to remain profitable each year.”

Dee said she is still sending the company soil information to determine how much carbon she is keeping in the dirt.

“I think they’re still in the figuring it out stage,” she said.

Dee said the benefits of some of these techniques can be measured in laboratory testing that many farmers perform now to get an idea of their soil health.

Dee said that when she began farming row crops in Pickens County some 30 years ago, her soil had very low organic matter. Now, it’s a different story.

“The organic matter, when we got here, some of our fields were less than 2 percent, maybe 1.5 percent,” Dee said.

“Now some of them are as high as 7 percent.”

Dee said the difference is visible to the eye as well as instruments. The soil is darker, richer and more fertile. It very rarely cracks during drought and erosion is less of a problem. That leads to larger yields at harvest time of corn or soybeans. “(The soil) holds more water, it’ll hold more nutrients, and it’ll be a healthier soil,” she said. “That’s a huge thing to build the organic matter.”

10 | Saturday, December 28, 2019 |

MOSCOW-PULLMAN DAILY NEWS / LEWISTON TRIBUNE

Northwest Farm and Ranch | WINTER 2019-20

| SOIL SCIENCE |

Earthworms answer questions UI professor Jodi Johnson-Maynard tackles farmers’ questions about soil health

FACT OR FICTION?

By Leigh Cooper University of Idaho CALS

Jodi Johnson-Maynard became a soil scientist so she didn’t have to decide between chemistry, biology and physics.

“In an odd way, it was my lack of focus within the sciences that drew me to the subject,” said Johnson-Maynard, who is department head of Soil and Water Systems at the University of Idaho. “When I took my first soil class, I realized I needed to integrate all these different fields of science to understand how the system works.”

Johnson-Maynard didn’t start her career in agricultural fields, instead focusing on forest systems for her master’s at Idaho. In a portion of the Clearwater National Forest, she found ferns growing in the sunny openings created by fallen trees were chemically altering the volcanic ash soils to such an extent that local conifers couldn’t grow back.

“This study set the tone for the rest of my career,” she said. “I’ve tried to focus on the impact plants and soil organisms have on soil process.”

After finishing her doctorate at University of California, Riverside, Johnson-Maynard returned to the Palouse in 2000 to join Idaho’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.

“I saw the need to work in agriculture, because of the rather complex challenges that growers face in managing their soils,” she said. “They want to know how their conservation efforts affect the earthworms and other beneficial organisms and the overall health of the soil.”

University of Idaho College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Jodi Johnson-Maynard looks through garlic for planting at University of Idaho’s Soil Stewards Farm.

Right now, growers are asking questions about the resiliency of their soils and climate variability.

From my experience, farmers have become more proactive in the area of soil conservation. They are now pushing researchers to answer tough questions regarding conservation efforts such as the use of cover crops,” JohnsonMaynard said. “It’s a really challenging and exciting time.

The farmers want to know how everything will affect not just

their bottom line this year, but also their soil health and fertility 20 years from now.

To answer their questions, Johnson-Maynard has turned to earthworms. Previous research elsewhere shows an increase in earthworm density can provide a roughly 25 percent bump in crop yields through their influence on soil structure and chemical processes. In addition, Johnson-Maynard has found different types of tilling influence the species and number of earthworms in the soil.

To study the intersection of climate and earthworms, Johnson-Maynard joined the Regional Approaches to Climate Change in Pacific Northwest Agriculture (REACCH) project, a $20 million endeavor led by UI researchers to ensure the sustainable production of regional cereal crops. The region’s growers produce more than 130 million bushels of wheat each year, and climate models See EARTHWORMS, Page 11

When Jodi JohnsonMaynard started studying earthworms, the giant Palouse earthworm was a legend. Scientific papers from the 1800s described the 3-foot, spitting, lily-scented native worm, and a few people claimed to find some in the 1970s, but the creature then disappeared.

“Most people thought it was long gone and extinct, or it never existed in the first place — the Loch Ness monster of earthworms,” said JohnsonMaynard, department head of Soil and Water Systems at the University of Idaho.

While looking for earthworms in native Palouse grasslands near Albion, Wash., Johnson-Maynard’s graduate student found one of the legendary creatures.

Once people learned of the discovery, the worm’s popularity sky-rocketed, making the news and even the “Colbert Report.”

“I still have people ask about the giant Palouse earthworm,” Johnson-Maynard said. “In the long run, I think we were able to get a lot of people engaged in our work and that was huge, because it is hard to do earthworm surveys. It’s very tedious and expensive and additional eyes on the ground helps.”

In addition, they were able to correct a few myths about the legendary worm. The giant Palouse earthworm turned out to span around 14 to 15 inches at most, was more inclined to slowly vomit than spit, and Johnson-Maynard is still waiting for the worm to make her lab smell like flowers.

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| MOSCOW-PULLMAN DAILY NEWS / LEWISTON TRIBUNE | Saturday, December 28, 2019 | 11

University of Idaho CALS

Johnson-Maynard peels apart garlic for planting at U of I’s Soil Stewards Farm.

Earthworms from Page 10

predict the region will likely experience an increase of 3.3 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.

“We have to be prepared for the future,” she said. “Already, our farmers are having issues such as planting on time and water availability.”

A Worm’s View of Climate Change As part of REACCH, JohnsonMaynard surveyed Palouse earthworms and only found species that were exotic — not native to the region.

Individual earthworm species were not distributed evenly across the REACCH study area, instead living in soil types that favored their needs.

“The REACCH earthworm survey was important to show that under certain climatic conditions, you won’t have earthworms, and, in others, you are going to have only certain types,” Johnson-Maynard said.

Now that the team knows where the earthworms are located, JohnsonMaynard plans to investigate how the worms interact with plant roots and nutrient cycling. She is now working on how the earthworms are affecting the availability of soil nitrogen.

The survey results can also be used to determine how climate change is likely to affect where the various species of earthworms will live in the future. Johnson-Maynard suspects drier climates will result in a loss of certain earthworm species.

Overall, REACCH found local conditions for wheat production will likely remain similar, and average yields may even improve slightly through the middle of the century, said Sanford Eigenbrode, a distinguished professor in the Department of Entomology, Plant Pathology and Nematology and director of REACCH. “We don’t have a four-alarm fire in

the near-term in terms of viable wheat production regionally,” Eigenbrode said. “But challenges for long-term sustainability are expected and may be exacerbated if we allow our soils to become more depleted.”

The outputs for REACCH include “Advances in Dryland Farming” — a 600-page manual for growing wheat sustainably in the region, published through Washington State University Extension. In addition, JohnsonMaynard worked with colleagues in the Department of Agricultural and Extension Education at Idaho to develop curricula based on the science and practice of wheat and cereal production as climates change.

“We wanted place-based curricula for fourth graders and high schoolers in Oregon, Washington and Idaho,” Johnson-Maynard said. “Even students with no direct connection to agriculture, but who are surrounded by crops, should understand what is happening in the fields and how food is produced.”

Beyond the REACCH One of the results from the REACCH findings concern Johnson-Maynard.

The study suggested changing climate may lead to an increase in fallow fields, and fallow fields experience high erosion rates — a change that could lead to declines in soil health.

Johnson-Maynard is leading a new $3.4 million project, known as Landscapes in Transition, to study alternative crops farmers could plant to protect their fields instead of letting them sit fallow. Because many standard cover crops don’t fit well into the growing season on the Palouse, her team is studying a few different options — including cover crop mixes for grazing and winter pea species.

“We want to provide all the information growers will need to use these alternative crops, and the crops’ impacts on factors like pests, weeds and soil health,” she said.

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MOSCOW-PULLMAN DAILY NEWS / LEWISTON TRIBUNE

| STAVING OFF EXTINCTION |

Spare the plow, save the farm?

The practice of regenerative farming could help keep small farms alive

By London Gibson The Indianapolis Star

LaGRANGE, Ind. — Farmland is expanding across Indiana, worldwide food demand is increasing and Americans are eating more meat than ever before — still, Greg Gunthorp says, farming is dying.

By that, the LaGrange farmer means the small, independent farmer is increasingly losing out to big-brand agribusiness.

“The agriculture markets have been very clear for decades to get big or get out,” Gunthorp said. “We’ve lost 90 percent of the hog farmers in the last generation. ... Conventional agriculture is extremely productive and extremely efficient, but in lots of ways I think it hit the bull’s eye on the wrong target.”

But regenerative farming, a style of farming that abandons the plow for natural practices that promote soil health, is growing in the Hoosier state, and some think it could be part of the solution.

Regenerative farming encompasses a variety of practices, including cover cropping, not tilling the fields, and managed grazing of livestock.

These practices have been shown to boost soil health, prevent erosion and sequester carbon in the soil. At some locations, studies have even shown regenerative farms absorbing more carbon from the atmosphere than they emit.

The concept of regenerative farming isn’t new, but it is growing in popularity.

Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and former candidate Kamala Harris have promoted

Grace Hollars/The Indianapolis Star via AP

In this photo taken Dec. 3, Gunthorp Farms owner Greg Gunthorp poses for a photo in LaGrange, Ind. Gunthorp said the use of managed grazing on his property helps sequester carbon by building organic matter in the soil. it in their sustainability plans, and environmentalists laud it as a practice that can reduce chemical runoff and improve carbon emissions.

And, unsurprisingly as a top agricultural state, Indiana has joined the race.

The number of acres used for cover-cropping, a major regenerative farming practice, have more than quadrupled in the Hoosier state since 2011. No-till practices have been steadily growing since the 1990s.

Regenerative farming might be environmentally healthy,

but it could mean big benefits for the financial health of a farm as well — which is why some believe it may help save the small, independent farmer.

For fourth-generation hog farmer Gunthorp, it was a direct impact.

Gunthorp said he should barely be able to support his family on his 270-acre farm, according to some experts.

But at his farm, he’s able to employ 30 workers full time and produce about 1 million pounds of pastured pork and poultry each year.

Gunthorp sells pigs, chicken, ducks and turkeys, primarily to upscale restaurants in Chicago, Indiana and Kentucky. His Indianapolis customers include restaurants like Union 50, Smoking Goose and Cafe Patachou.

“Regenerative agriculture and sustainable agriculture, I think, gives people the opportunity … to do something different without having to get huge,”he said.

The simplest way to explain regenerative agriculture, Gunthorp said, might be as a

step beyond sustainable agriculture.

While sustainable agriculture is oriented toward not harming the land, regenerative agriculture is all about healing it.

“I think the handful of farmers have come to the realization that just to sustain rural America is not good enough, that we actually have to regenerate it,” Gunthorp said. “Regenerative agriculture relies on farmers’ ability to creSee PLOW-FREE, Page 13

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Plow-free from Page 12

ate a system with the ability to cooperate with nature.”

Mostly, this means promoting soil health, said Lisa Holscher, director of Indiana’s Conservation Cropping Systems Initiative. This can be done a multitude of ways, all oriented toward keeping nutrients in the soil and keeping disturbances out.

Not tilling helps, as does planting cover crops, which are planted during the off season and not sold.

Cover crops keep a growing root in the ground year-round, promoting natural organisms and working against erosion. No-till farming keeps those organisms together, where tilling would disturb the soil and break them up.

“Soils are really alive,” Holscher said. “They’re filled with a variety of organisms ... those growing, living roots actually feed the soil.”

As a livestock farmer, Gunthorp also integrates managed grazing. By allowing his pigs to graze on the grass in his pastures, he said, the roots die back and regrow, which sequesters carbon and builds organic matter.

For every 1 percent of organic

Grace Hollars/The Indianapolis Star via AP

Pigs stand at the fence line at Gunthorp Farms, in LaGrange County, Ind., on Dec. 3. Owner Greg Gunthorp said the use of managed grazing on his property helps sequester carbon by building organic matter in the soil. matter produced, he said, the soil’s water-holding capacity goes up about one inch per acre.

During droughts, that means the soil keeps its moisture. During floods —

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as seen in the Midwest this spring — it can protect farmers from heavy erosion that causes production losses.

Michael O’Donnell, a Purdue Extension educator who teaches organic

and diversified agriculture techniques, said regenerative farming helps reduce runoff and improve water quality across regions, even across the country.

“If we see (regenerative) practices across regions, across watersheds, we can see improvement in water quality from less runoff,” O’Donnell said.

“That could potentially reduce flooding impacts.”

Farmers describe a variety of motivations for switching to regenerative farming. Some want to save the land for future generations. Some are motivated by religion, and want to be good stewards of the Earth. And, for some, it’s purely economical.

Whatever the reason, no-till acres have almost quadruped in popularity since the 1990s, and use of cover crops has similarly boomed in the last decade.

Since 2011, the number of acres used for cover cropping in the state has grown by 438 percent. A major drought beginning in 2012 may have accelerated the rise, Holscher said.

Today, Indiana farmers plant almost 1 million acres of cover crops, about 9 percent of the total farmland — a higher percentage than other major farming states, Holscher said.

“Indiana is home to leaders of this

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14 | Saturday, December 28, 2019 |

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Northwest Farm and Ranch | WINTER 2019-20

tor for the Indiana State Department of Agriculture.

“I think you see a mix of returns and from Page 13A economic reasons why farms utilize cover crops,” Seger said. “In some cases, regenerative agriculture movement,” farmers are seeing some yield increasHolscher said. es, especially after three or four years.”

One of these leaders is Williamsport Clark said organic and regenerative farmer Rick Clark, who was recent- practices improved his crop yield — ly named 2019’s Farmer of the Year which brought in more money —but

by Field to Market: The Alliance for mostly, he said it saved him money on Sustainable Agriculture. chemicals and fertilizers.

Clark remembers a time more than “The savings are huge, huge,” Clark 15 years ago when he just finished till- said. “This is an extremely profitable sysing a field to prepare it for corn plant- tem. ... But you have to be in the system, ing. Then, it rained. and you have to be working the system.”

“We got a 1-inch rain event, and Gunthorp also found financial prosI couldn’t believe how much erosion perity in regenerative practices. And had occurred,” said Clark, he discovered that many a fifth-generation farmer. customers are looking to buy “That’s when I said enough is from farmers who raise anienough, it’s time for a change.” mals the way he does.

Clark started by no-till “There’s more and more farming his soybean and corn customers all the time that crops, but eventually built up are wanting to know how to farming “green” — meantheir food’s raised, how it’s ing no chemicals or fertilizers processed and how it’s hanwhatsoever. dled,” Gunthorp said.

“We are about as naked None of this means regenand low-cost as you can poserative farming will sudsibly get,” said Clark, who denly make it easy for the now travels around the world small, independent farmer to speak on regenerative and in Indiana, he said. There’s organic farming practices. still the challenge of getting Gunthorp recalls his it started. neighbors’ impressions when The agricultural system is his family began incorporathighly concentrated, Gunthorp ing more regenerative pracsaid, and isn’t set up to encourtices about two decades ago: age these practices.

“We were the granola-crunch“That whole expression, ing hippie farmers.”

‘What you support prosNow, quite a few farmpers,’ probably applies here,” ers in the area employ the Gunthorp said. “Because as practices, he said, including a nation, we chose to prop up Seven Sons Farms, and sea- Ray McCormick agribusiness.” sonal grass dairies that sell Midwestern farmer Regenerative farming through Horizon Organic and might be growing, but it’s Organic Valley. still relatively new. Most farmland in “The soil health, regenerative farm- Indiana is still undergoing more coning movement is picking up steam ventional agriculture operations. and is probably the fastest moving But while the trend progresses, big conservationist movement in the coun- businesses are taking note: In May, try,” said farmer Ray McCormick, who General Mills promised 1 million acres farms 2,400 acres in southwest Indiana of regenerative farmland by 2030. and southeast Illinois.

Other foundations such as Farm Aid Joining the trend in the 1980s, dole out grants to bolster regenerative McCormick was also part of the early practices.

The ISDA also hopes to increase wave of regenerative farming adopters.

For decades since, he’s promoted the cover cropping acreage in the state to 5 million acres by 2025, Seger said. practice.

With state and national support, “I do it for lots of reasons, and the No. 1 reason is to save the planet. Without Gunthorp said, regenerative farming healthy soil we can’t grow our food,” could make substantial change.

“Farmers control a large percentage McCormick said. “Farmers have a chance of the real estate in this state and in to make a dramatic impact in a hurry.”

The return on investment varies this country,” Gunthorp said. “And I depending on the farm, but there are think that farmers have to be at the definite financial benefits to cover crop- table when we’re talking about climate ping, said Jordan Seger, deputy direc- change.”

Plow-free

“

I do it for lots of reasons, and the No. 1 reason is to save the planet.

Without healthy soil we can’t grow our food.”

Northwest Farm and Ranch | WINTER 2019-20

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| PLANT DISEASES |

Washington State University

Andrea Garfinkel inspects peony plants on a Northwest farm. Her identification of nearly a dozen unreported diseases helps growers more effectively protect their valuable ornamental crop.

WSU scientists find a slate of unexpected diseases in peony

By Seth Truscott Washington State University

A symbol of good fortune and a happy marriage, the bright, showy peony flower is a favorite in gardens, bouquets, and wedding floral arrangements everywhere.

Farmers in Washington, Alaska, Oregon, and other states grow the

peony for a thriving domestic market, but these growers are often stymied when diseases strike their crops.

Instead of stunning blooms, they’re left with wilted, sick plants and fewer flowers to sell. Often, they’re not sure exactly what is attacking their plants.

Andrea Garfinkel and Gary See PEONY, Page 16

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MOSCOW-PULLMAN DAILY NEWS / LEWISTON TRIBUNE

350 peony samples for the survey.

Peony

Same symptoms, big differences

from Page 15

Chastagner, scientists at Washington State University, have been studying the diseases that hurt peonies. As a doctoral student and then postdoctoral researcher, Garfinkel made the hunt for mystery pathogens her specialty.

In a recent issue of Plant Health Progress, Garfinkel and Chastagner related their latest discoveries: a slate of new diseases previously unknown in peony.

Surveying diseased peonies from 12 states, the team identified 10 fungal or fungus-like pathogens, including five groups of related species never previously reported in the U.S. The project reveals a wider range of disease culprits for the crop than scientists expected.

“Once you know what you’re up against, you can make better decisions about how to protect your crops,” Garfinkel said.

Looking for mystery pathogens Healthy peonies are big and showy, with lots of white, pink, or red petals.

“Their foliage is quite beautiful, too,” said Garfinkel. “Dark green and full of stems and leaves, emerging in the spring

Let

Washington State University

A symbol of good fortune and a happy marriage, the bright, showy peony flower is a favorite in gardens, bouquets and wedding floral arrangements everywhere. and surviving all through the fall.”

In contrast, sick peonies sport splotches of brown and purple, with few stems and decayed flowers.

Garfinkel’s project had its genesis in a federally funded study of a fungal disease called Botrytis. However, she frequently encountered other diseases that growers and other scientists hadn’t seen before.

Funded by the Western Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program and the

Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers, Garfinkel surveyed fields for disease in Washington, Alaska and Oregon. Growers and Extension agents around the country also sent samples of suspected pathogens.

The WSU team cultured the fungus from diseased plants, extracted DNA, examined it closely and identified it.

Often, they would test it on healthy plants to confirm that what they found was actually an agent of disease. In a single year, they diagnosed more than

It takes some training to be able to distinguish the little differences between peony diseases by sight alone, Garfinkel said. Symptoms may look the same, but different pathogens may overwinter in different ways, produce spores at different times, and those spores may need specific conditions to germinate.

“All of these differences mean treatment strategies can be quite different from one pathogen to the next,” she said.

The 10 pathogens they identified represent a “tremendous increase in the number of diseases that we know are on peonies in the U.S.,” Garfinkel said. “Most if not all of these diseases have likely been in peonies for a long time. It’s just that nobody’s looked hard to figure out what they are.”

Her survey helps establish a baseline inventory of disease, and a starting point for future scientists to measure new or emerging outbreaks.

“Outside the Pacific Northwest, I suspect we are just scraping the surface of what we can learn about peony diseases,” Garfinkel said. “If we continue to look more deeply in other parts of the country, we’ll gain a clearer picture of how important these diseases are for production.”

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