In this issue
Agriculture program taking off at UI/PAGE 2
Cargill buying animal feed mills in Denver, Kansas City/PAGE 3
Rodent research/PAGE 4
Harvest Hosts: RVers visit region’s orchards and ranches/PAGE 8
Do Americans know how to eat healthy?/PAGE 10
Jerome’s agribusinesses see a bright future ahead/PAGE 12
First round of the Innovative Agriculture and Marketing Partnership is complete with more to come
By Kaylee Brewster For Farm & Ranch
The first round of the Innovative Agriculture and Marketing Partnership is over but the work is only beginning.
The Innovative Agriculture and Marketing Partnership program is led by the University of Idaho and offers technical and financial assistance to farmers and ranchers who want to adopt climate-smart agricultural practices and create a market for those products, according to a news release from the UI program. Sanford Eigenbrode, a university professor of entomology, is a co-leader of the project along with Erin Brooks, professor of agricultural engineering.
The first round ended Sept. 11 and as of Sept. 6 there have been 50 applicants.
“That’s about the pace we were hoping (for) in our round one so I consider that a success,” Eigenbrode said.
Participants can work with Desert Mountain Grass Fed Beef, the Schitsu’umsh (Coeur d’Alene) Tribe, Nez Perce Tribe and the Nature Conservancy. Participants can list more than one group to work with on the project, according to a news release from the UI program.
The applications are also well distributed across the state and across the commodities, Eigenbrode said. Climate-smart practices include no- or reduced-tillage, conversation crop rotation, interseeding, prescribed grazing, nutrient management, and nutrient management with manure or compost, according to a news release from the UI program.
The program is open to producers of potatoes, sugar beets, wheat, barley, hops, chickpeas and beef. The program gives priority to underserved farmers and ranchers including veterans,
women, those with 10 or fewer years of experience, those who are socially disadvantaged who face racial or ethnic prejudices, and farmers whose annual gross sales are below $100,000, according to a news release from the UI program.
The goal is to enroll 100,000 acres of Idaho farmland, preventing 31,000 to 70,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere, according to previous reporting in the Lewiston Tribune. The Innovative Agriculture and Marketing Partnership at the UI started working on funding for six months and then in May 2023 “began putting our wheels on the tracks,” Eigenbrode said, by organizing partners and starting the paperwork procedures for the applications.
After the applications are closed, the partners will go through to make sure they are eligible and begin phase two, which is when the applicants sign up. Then it’s a matter of getting the applicants ready to go with where they want to go and what growing practices they want to do, Eigenbrode said.
“Our goal is to at the end of the month have some of these folks all the way to contract,” he said.
There are some that are close to
contract because they were selected in round zero, which was conducted to test the system.
The program is funded through a five-year, $55 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Idaho will have $31 million that will go to Idaho producers. The Nature Conservancy also contributed a $96,327 match. Incentives for producers to join the program range from $38 to $74 per acre or $1 per head for grazing cover crops on an annual basis, according to a news release from the UI program.
Funds are still available, so there will be multiple rounds of applications, Eigenbrode said. There will likely be one more round this fall and then again in the spring.
“We are still going to be pushing hard to do that,” he said. “It depends on how the first round looks and goes.” The application can be completed at iamp.uidaho.edu.
“We’re on the road and we’re going strong,” Eigenbrode said.
Brewster may be contacted at kbrewster@ lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2297.
Cargill is buying feed mills in Denver and Kansas City to expand its animal nutrition business across central and western states.
The Minnetonka-based agribusiness paid an undisclosed sum to Compana Pet Brands for the plants, which make food for animals large and small.
Mariano Berdegue, senior vice president for Cargill’s animal nutrition and health Americas business, said the plants “better position us for long-term growth of our full portfolio and serve a range of customers, from the larger farmer/rancher to the local retailer who sells horse treats and pet food.”
While the mills will continue to supply Compana, Cargill plans to invest in the Denver facility to make it a “modernized, flagship feed mill” that can support big ranching and farming operations, according to a news release. The Kansas City plant is also near an existing Cargill feed mill.
The company produces 18 million metric tons of animal feed a year at 280 locations in 40 countries.
UI team rises with the sun at south central Idaho ranch as it studies the effects of a long-lasting herbicide on animals and plants
By John O’Connell University of Idaho College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
STANTON CROSSING, Idaho — Cow Camp is dark and quiet when Kirby Lau and Harrison EckardGarrett emerge from their canvas wall tents with gear in hand at 4:30 a.m. Their pickup truck rumbles along a rutted, dirt road over sagebrush-covered hills within University of Idaho’s Rinker Rock Creek Ranch, located in the Wood River Valley in the state’s south central region. They arrive at their research site just as the sun begins to rise over the Pioneer Mountains. After assembling their kits, they split up to cover more ground, knowing their success rate at trapping rodents has been steadily increasing and it’s likely to be a long morning.
Lau, of North Carolina, is a UI graduate student seeking a master’s degree in natural resources, with an emphasis
on wildlife. The thesis project she began in the fall of 2022 involves studying how applications of the long-lasting herbicide Rejuvra affect sage grouse and small mammal ecology.
Federal land managers believe Rejuvra, which contains the active ingredient indaziflam, could provide a more cost-effective and longer-lasting tool in their efforts to control invasive annual grasses. Rejuvra treatments were made at the research site in 2019 and 2020.
“We’re going to see how the herbicide affects the vegetation and how the vegetation affects use by rodents and grouse,” Lau says. “There’s quite a bit of cheatgrass and field brome here. Our hope is the herbicide will control annuals and release native perennials from competition with the annuals.”
collection
Every evening, Lau and EckardGarrett, who is the research technician she hired to aid in data collection, use peanut butter, oats and sunflower seeds to bait nearly 200 metal-box Sherman traps spaced 10 meters apart throughout the sagebrush steppe. They return at the crack of dawn the following morning to check their traps, affixing ear tags on every captured rodent and recording their size and location
— as well as the tag number of any rodent that was previously captured. Such recaptures give them insights into rodents’ distribution, survival and ability to find resources within treated areas.
Thus far, it appears to Lau that there are no obvious negative impacts on grouse habitat use in tracts treated with the herbicide, and there is potential for increased use in these areas. Prior work at the ranch analyzed plant
community responses and changes in fire risk following Rejuvra applications.
Research at Rinker Rock Creek Ranch is conducted in partnership by the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) and the College of Natural Resources (CNR). Tim Prather, a professor of plant science in CALS and associate director of the U of I Rangeland Center, and Tracey Johnson, an associate professor in CNR and director of research at Rinker Rock Creek Ranch, are advisors on Lau’s thesis.
“When you take a look at the prevalence of fire in the sage steppe right now, having a tool like Rejuvra is really important to deal with that fire return interval and the size of the fires,” Prather says. “It’s also important as a public lands manager that you can confidently say your management action is not negatively impacting the native plant communities or the wildlife species within the plant communities where you’re using this herbicide.”
On this morning, she and EckardGarrett confirm about 50 metal boxes, marked by colorful flags, harbor pocket mice, deer mice, voles and the occasion-
al chipmunk — a record for the project so far. Rodent populations are cyclical, and their numbers have exploded this summer.
Lau moves briskly from trap to trap, understanding time is of the essence to ensure the rodents are processed and released before the heat of day arrives.
Lau, who attended North Carolina State University and studied biology as an undergraduate, worked as a technician on wildlife projects for about three and a half years before seeing a job posting for her current master’s position at UI.
“We hadn’t done any small mammal work at the ranch prior to this project,” Johnson says. “She didn’t have any baseline information on what she might catch or what the densities of small mammals might be. She was a little bit without some of the information that would have been nice to have, but she moved forward anyway and has been very successful.”
Sage grouse innovation
Regarding the other prong of her study, Lau pioneered a new method for monitoring sage grouse that promises to save future researchers considerable time in the field. The accepted way of estimating grouse use of habitat is typ-
ically checking for bird scat at specific intervals along predetermined lines through the landscape, known as transects. In addition to scat monitoring, Lau set up 45 trail cameras, remotely capturing 650 images of sage grouse using the habitat in 2023 alone. She was convinced advancements in software and artificial intelligence would enable her to succeed with trail cameras where others have failed.
Lau now plans to publish a separate scientific paper detailing how trail cameras and scat monitoring produced comparable results for estimating sage grouse use of control versus treated habitat. Aside from the time savings, researchers can glean additional information from images about grouse numbers, sex and behaviors.
“Nobody had really done that in the published literature — not only for sage grouse, but also for other ground-dwelling birds,” Johnson says. “I told her, ‘This is going to be a lot of extra work. If you want to drop that aspect of the project, I’m OK with that.’ Kirby said, ‘Let’s just try it.’ It paid off in dividends.”
Lau’s research has also entailed months of spartan living in an
encampment known as Cow Camp. The primitive camp lacks running water, electricity, cell service and refrigeration. Yet Cow Camp has unique perks — spectacular sunsets, starry nights, a panoramic of mountain views, diverse wildlife and a quiet broken only by the sounds of nature.
Most importantly for Cow Camp’s residents, life at the ranch is an opportunity to work in a unique, living laboratory for rangeland research.
“I was very uncertain about how much I was going to enjoy coming out here,” says Eckard-Garrett, who recently earned a bachelor’s degree from Simpson College in central Iowa and shares Lau’s enthusiasm for small mammals. “This is the first time I’ve ever been out West for an extended period of time, and it’s been amazing.”
Lau’s research, “Impact of Annual Grass Removal Using Indaziflam on Sagebrush Associated Wildlife,” is funded with $110,268 through the U.S. Forest Service State and Private Pesticide Impact Assessment Program. She also received funding to hire Eckard-Garrett through the David Little Foundation, which offers a Rangeland Center grant.
A combine approaches a small patch of remaining wheat recently on a field along U.S. Highway 195 south of Pullman.
By Anthony Kuipers For Farm & Ranch
The winter wheat crops performed well on the Palouse and Camas Prairie this year despite the hot summer, according to a Washington State University expert.
Spring crops were more variable because of extreme weather, however.
Mark Heitstuman, the WSU Asotin and Garfield County Extension director, said winter wheat crops had a slightly above average yield this year largely because they were less affected by the summer heat.
He said winter wheat was far enough along by the time the high temperatures came that its quality was not hurt much.
Heitstuman also credited breeding programs at the local universities and companies that ensure crops are resilient to drought and weather extremes.
“The quality of our wheat continues
to improve in the Northwest,” he said. Spring wheat was more of a mixed bag, he said, as the area saw belowzero temperatures in January and hot, dry conditions in the summer.
Fortunately, Heitstuman said, the snow on the ground provided some insulation against the cold, which prevented what would have been “kind of a major disaster.”
Wheat prices were low this summer because there was too much supply of wheat around the world, he said.
The demand is stable, but there’s “a lot of wheat out there,” he said. He said this can occur when weather conditions are right and more acres are planted.
The Lewiston Tribune reported in late August that soft white wheat in the area sold for less than $6 a bushel, which is less than what many farmers consider a break-even mark.
Kuipers can be reached at akuipers@dnews.com.
Combines work to harvest a field in August along U.S. Highway 195 north of Colfax.
By Treva Lind Spokesman-Review (Spokane)
When Dan and Carol Taylor parked their Leisure Travel van in an empty Green Bluff overflow parking area, it was late afternoon on Aug. 28.
The Olympia-area retired couple made their first stop into the store at Walters’ Fruit Ranch, where they bought cider, wine, jam, fudge and pickled garlic ahead of a one-night stay there, facing a view of Mount Spokane.
The orchard is among thousands of sites on the U.S. roadmap for Harvest Hosts, an RV membership company that coordinates brief stops at a network of farms, wineries, breweries or small businesses with activities.
RVers pay $99 a year for use of the company’s mobile app, maps and site information. Electric, water and sewer hookups typically aren’t available at host sites, but it’s a free night’s stay. It’s also implied that the RVers will buy products from those hosts or donate for a cause.
“We like to be able to see different places and products,” said Carol Taylor, 72. “This place, for example. Who knew there were that many different ciders, vinegars, jams, pickles, mustards? Unfortunately, we’re headed to Canada, so we couldn’t do the fresh fruit.”
Businesses aren’t charged by Harvest Hosts to be in the network. Each site typically takes one or two RVs, but it might be up to four if there’s space. Tents aren’t allowed.
Dan Taylor, 69, said he appreciates that host sites tend to be quiet and away from freeway noise. Often, it’s just their RV or one other. The couple usually switches off to stay some nights at an RV park for the amenities, but their van has all the essentials to be “off the grid.”
He selected the pickled garlic at Walters’.
“We’ve never been told how much you have to buy, but it’s kind of implied that they appreciate your business,” he said.
There have been times perhaps at all-fresh produce sites when owners understood they couldn’t buy items,
he added, but they usually pay for something.
His wife said they have used Harvest Hosts to do a wine tour that took place in western Washington and western Oregon.
“So it was wineries, breweries and such over on that side,” Carol said.
“Another trip we did was we stopped at a vineyard and winery over by Yakima and then we went to the Goldendale Observatory that evening.”
Morghan Morrell, Walters’ co-owner with her husband Jason, said the business started with Harvest Hosts about 10 years ago. People typically book ahead but some do same-day, if space is available. They’re open to host June 1 through Sept. 15, paired with Walters’ season.
Harvest Hosts visitors tend to buy from the store, because they don’t always have time to pick produce, she said.
“For the most part, we get to chat with them,” Morrell said. “It tends to be older folks or people with young kids doing summer vacation.”
She said the RVers don’t bring in a huge amount of additional income, but it’s good for business.
“It’s more about getting our name out than anything.”
Some Harvest Hosts local sites include the microbrewery Precious Things Fermentation Project, Up North Distillery in Post Falls and B-T-B Horse Boarding & Hotel. Others are a blueberry farm, alpaca ranch and lavender operation.
Of course, near Kennewick, Yakima and Walla Walla, dozens of wineries are listed within Harvest Hosts.
In Green Bluff, Hidden Acres Orchards co-owner Nick Simchuk said that being a host for about four years has stretched his season a bit.
“It’s been a really good tool for us to draw customers in before I have things ripe and ready for the season, to get that revenue stream in a month or two before the season begins,” Simchuk said.
“We have our little gift shop and we sell jams, cider, take-and-bake pies, a little clothing.”
He gets Harvest Hosts RVers by early spring, but also those bookings through the summer and into the fall.
“Most of the time, people are headed someplace fun,” he said. “I don’t make it off the farm much in the summertime, but I feel like I’m traveling around with them. Most of them are retirees jumping in the RV and seeing the country for the first time.”
Joel Holland purchased Harvest Hosts with wife, Mary Ashley, in 2018 from Don and Kim Greene. It has about 250,000 members today.
Holland said they’ve grown the
company from 600 host sites to 5,500, now in every state.
“Washington is one of our biggest states; it has over 200 locations and has popular destinations — wineries, breweries, farms, golf courses,” Holland said.
“I feel like you have some of the best diversity. There are even a few churches that host. A lot of times, they are in nice locations and have an empty parking lot during the week.”
People in RVs who stay at churches often leave a donation. There are even a few museums as host sites.
The company’s members range from young owners with families to the more typical retiree, Holland said.
People who stay at the Otis Orchards B-T-B Horse Boarding & Hotel get to interact with animals and can sometimes book riding lessons, said Emily Sandoval, a co-owner.
The initials stand for Beyond the Badge, because the facility is owned and operated by first responders.
They care for five horses that are always on site, five long-term boarded horses and three goats.
“We are strictly donation only (for Harvest Hosts), and most people just donate to benefit the animals,” Sandoval said. “There are no expectations. If people want to donate, it goes
back into the horses.”
At another site here, Lauri Williams is co-owner with her husband Steve of blueberry U-pick Pleasant Prairie Farms near Argonne and Bigelow Gulch Road. One perk of being a host is they get to visit Harvest Hosts locations with their RV for free, she said.
With the growing season, they can’t always go, Williams added, but they’re looking forward to some trips for the variety and experiences.
Because of their farm’s short season, she said it’s fine if people don’t buy fruit. She enjoys meeting Harvest Hosts visitors, including Germany residents who had flown their camper van into Canada to travel crosscountry.
“They came during harvest and picked a whole bunch of blueberries before they left,” Williams said.
“We had people here from Maui. They kept their van at a son’s house in the Midwest and were touring the Pacific Northwest.
“We’ve also had people here a couple of times who have a blog. They’re from Wisconsin and basically live in their van full time and travel the U.S.”
Harvest Hosts sites near Pleasant Prairie Farms include the Precious Things microbrewery and an alpaca farm.
By Michael Dinich Wealth of Geeks
Thirty percent of Americans admit to buying healthy foods just because they’re trendy, according to new research.
A survey of 2,000 adults looked at their food purchasing practices and found that 65% rate their grocery shopping habits as at least somewhat healthy.
When stacked up against other priorities, however, healthiness (18%) came fourth, surpassed by cost (64%), quality (36%), and personal and household preferences (19%).
Conducted by Talker Research for Zeal Creamery, the survey found that still, 82% opt for products that use “healthwashing” terms — labels intended to convey a product’s health benefits — like “multigrain” (33%), “sugar-free” (30%) and “organic” (27%).
Among those terms, others that respondents view positively are “high-in” (31%) and “free-range” (30%).
Above all, the top grocery category Americans would be willing to splurge on is organic produce (25%).
While Americans are most confident in their understanding of “organic” (65%), “sugar-free” (65%) and “multigrain” (64%) products, they’re admittedly less sure when it comes to “reduced” (23%), “fortified with” (22%) and “light” products (21%).
“Healthwashing” and misinformation
With all of the different healthwashing terms out there, nearly a third of those surveyed feel overwhelmed by the labels on their foods while shopping (31%).
For many, this leads to misinformation, like the belief that fresh produce is always healthier than
canned, frozen or dried options (38%) and that all processed foods are bad (25%).
Similarly, a fifth of respondents mistakenly believe that dairy milk alternatives such as soy milk or almond milk are always healthier (21%), while one in eight are under the impression that dairy products are unsustainably farmed.
“The survey results reflect the reality that Americans can be exposed to exaggerated claims about the impact of dairy on the environment versus the positive impacts that pastoral, regenerative farming has on the environment,” says Jason Henshaw, president of Zeal Creamery. “The upside is that there’s a huge opportunity for people to learn about dairy sustainability, regenerative grass-fed farming and how to incorporate that into their choices.”
Sustainability is an important factor for one in six respondents
when grocery shopping.
Yet, few survey-takers were aware that products like rice (7%), soybeans (8%), mineral water (8%), and almond milk (10%) are harmful to the environment.
And nearly a fifth view the dairy industry’s impact on greenhouse gas emissions as negative (18%), while most weren’t sure or didn’t believe it had much effect (52%).
The average American thought that the global dairy industry contributed to about 12% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions — three times more than the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations reports. Similarly, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found that dairy cows contributed to just 1.3% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
Henshaw points out that a quarter of respondents felt surprised (25%) and a fifth interested (21%) at this revelation, saying, “A lot of
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Americans enjoy dairy and want to feel good about their food choices.”
Grocery items Americans would spend more money on
Many Americans admit they are willing to pay more for certain grocery items, especially when they view them as healthier choices. For example, 15% of those surveyed say they’re willing to spend more on organic produce, while 24% say pay more for those items that are “high in” vitamins or nutrients.
When an item is labeled sugar-free, consumers are 21% more likely to spend more money, and 20% are equally willing to shell out more for products that are either reduced in fat or sugar, or labeled as free-range, such as eggs and chicken.
Multigrain products also have a following, with 20% of consumers choosing to pay a bit more. Another 19% lean toward items fortified with extra vitamins and minerals. Organic dairy and “light” products, like low-calorie salad dressings, each attract 16% of shoppers, while pasture-raised items are favored by 12% of those looking for ethical or healthier alternatives.
Do Americans pick a salad like this because it’s healthy — or because it’s trendy?
By Eric Goodell
The Times-News (Twin Falls)
JEROME — From increased livestock feed options to upcoming ice cream production, there is a whole lot of agribusiness expansion going on in Jerome.
Agribusiness company Scoular will soon be churning out steam-flaked and calf grains, thanks to its $20 million expansion.
Idaho Milk Products, just around the corner from the Scoular facility, announced last month it will begin a $200 million expansion as it sets sights on an ice cream and powder blending facility.
The project is expected to be in full commercial production by May 2026.
“It’s an exciting time to be here,” Scoular regional manager Andy Hohwieler said at a recent ribbon-cutting ceremony. He said the company’s expansion represents an investment in its customers. That isn’t the only investment going on, as producers are investing in their operations as well, whether for animal health, resource management or other reasons, he said.
The activity shows that agriculture remains the lifeblood in southern Idaho, Hohwieler said.
Scoular’s steam-flaking process involves steaming and heating barley or corn and pressing it into a flake.
“It’s like corn flakes for cows,” Hohwieler said. The process allows cattle to more easily absorb the nutrients from the grain, and the demand for it has grown as producers see its advantages.
A second portion of Scoular’s expansion is a mill to produce feed pellets. Pellets, typically used for feeding calves and beef cattle, are easy to handle and proportion for optimal nutrition, the company says.
The expansion, which included a 120-foot-tall concrete structure, boosts production capacity by 35% and storage capacity by 40%.
The new facility, expected to be in full production at the end of October, will churn out up to 60 tons of steamflaked feed per hour and 20 tons per hour of pelleted feed.
“This new investment is a perfect example of meeting our customer’s demands and bringing forward the ideal solutions,” said Scoular CEO Paul Maass.
Jeff Ackerman, chief operating officer for Bettencourt Dairies, which operates dairies in Jerome and Wendell, said the added feed options will help the dairy maintain its mission of providing high-quality milk and dairy products to customers.
“Scoular is helping us provide the right nutritional profile to the animal at the right time,” Ackerman said.
