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SPRING 2017

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The lasting effects of a long, wet winter With potential for disease and snow mold also comes increased soil moisture for region’s crop growers — Page 4A

2 | Saturday, March 25, 2017 |

Northwest Farm and Ranch

Moscow-Pullman Daily News

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 Advertising Director Angela Kay with the Tribune Publishing Company at akay@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2251.

Editorial suggestions and ideas can be sent to Lee Rozen at lrozen@dnews.com or Doug Bauer at dbauer@lmtribune.com.

Cover photo shot by Moscow-Pullman Daily News

On the cover: A field of wheat, grown by Genesee’s Eric Odberg, is pictured. (Kai Eiselein/Daily News)

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Clean Plant Center Northwest finds new director

Hay prices flatten out at $120 per ton, a $70 drop from 2010 I 12

Farming succeeds with community support WSU program rewards subscribers with whatever crops thrive that season I 14

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Little to no snow mold expected this year I 4

Alfalfa market faces challenges

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Standing water could affect wheat

New Zealand native Scott Harper takes on a new virology challenge at WSU’s Prosser location I 6

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Northwest Farm and Ranch

Moscow-Pullman Daily News

Standing water could affect wheat Little to no snow mold expected this year

Rows of wheat line Eric Odberg’s Genesee farm.

Kyle Renton, agronomy division manager for Pacific Northwest Farmers Cooperative in Genesee, said standing water from the recent heavy rain on Palouse wheat fields could kill the crop.

By Garrett Cabeza Daily News staff writer

While country music star Luke Bryan’s song “Rain is a Good Thing� rings true for farmers, too much rain can be an issue.

The Palouse has been pounded with rain lately and standing water on low-lying areas in wheat fields can kill crops, said Kyle Renton, agronomy division manager for Pacific Northwest Farmers Cooperative in Genesee. “A lot of our sub-irrigated flats have been underwater for a while now and so a lot of our low areas in the fields, we probably have lost some wheat in some spots there,�

Renton said. “If the water stands on the field for more than a week it kind of drowns the wheat out because the wheat plant can’t get any oxygen and pretty much kills it.�

Although the rain has caused issues

Kai Eiselein Daily News

See water, Page 10

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Cold plus wet equals crop disease concerns

| Saturday, March 25, 2017 | 5

Shop Local + Borrow Local = Local Money Working For Local People

In spite of concerns, moisture rich soil profile may be good

Field diseases can be serious and costly, as last year’s problem with falling numbers showed. A late Farmers are keeping an eye out spring frost cut into wheat crops just for diseases that might pop out in as the heads were filling out stunting protein development their grain crops this that reduced the spring because of the quality from milling cold, wet winter and grain to feed grade early spring. that sells for far less.

D o u g Finkelnburg, Cold soils can University of Idaho promote root rot extension agent at in some crops but Nez Perce County, Finkelnburg said said growers have most small grains had some suspicions were planted last fall that fungal and with a fungicide to other diseases might protect against that.

Ken Hart be lurking beneath “However, as the UI extension agent in Lewis County season goes on with the snow melt.

“We’ve been talkcool, wet weather ing with producers about a few issues and saturated soils we may see some as winter has gone on with the long of that,” he said. snow cover,” Finkelnburg said. “We’ve Root rot, if it occurs, is usually sent out a few announcements related to the diseases but at this point it’s a See concerns, Page 9 possibility with no evidence.”

By Kathy Hedberg

Lewiston Tribune staff writer

“

... it will be wonderful to have an actual (soil) profile full of moisture.”

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Northwest Farm and Ranch

Moscow-Pullman Daily News

Clean Plant Center Northwest finds new director New Zealand native Scott Harper takes on a new virology challenge at WSU’s Prosser location

Prosser, Wash.

A native of New Zealand, Harper has entered some new crop territory in the Washington state produced a record Pacific Northwest but that challenge is 270,000-ton harvest of wine grapes in only an incentive to Harper, who has studied plant virology for years.

2016.

Harper said he was always It will be Scott Harper’s job interested in taking on a chalto make sure future harvests lenge. That is what motivated are just as bountiful and aren’t him to study plant virology in stunted or ruined by viruses and graduate school, as he wanted to pathogens. work on something where there Harper was hired Jan. 3 were still discoveries yet to be as director of the Clean Plant made.

Center Northwest, which is in “Throughout my career, I’ve charge of safeguarding grapes Harper spent time working on difficult and other crops. The center is crops or viruses that other people located at Washington State University’s Irrigated Agriculture don’t pay attention to,” Harper said.

After years of studying plant virology Research and Extension Center in

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| Saturday, March 25, 2017 | 7

at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, Harper finished his doctorate and began working for the country’s Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, which, he said, is similar to the United States Department of Agriculture.

From there, he made his way to the United States, starting in Florida, where he spent six years working on citrus diseases at the University of Florida’s Citrus Research and Education Center.

Now, taking on his latest position in the Pacific Northwest, Harper said he is working with an unusually diverse array of crops and plants, ranging from hops to grapevines and apples and pears.

“The scope of this position is very unique,” Harper said.

The Clean Plant Center Northwest safeguards various crops in insect-proof greenhouses.

Materials come to the center from nurseries and growers to be tested for any pathogens that might be present. The role of the center, Harper said, is to produce and propagate clean plant material — by that he means plants free of viruses and pathogens.

Harper said he hopes to make the program one of the best in the country.

How far is the program from getting to that point? Harper gave little detail to that question.

He said Washington does have some virus problems, such as Little Cherry Disease, though not as many as other states. And just because the state had a record wine grape harvest last year does not mean the center will not continue to focus on continual improvement. There are always new and emerging diseases, Harper said.

Taylor Nadauld can be reached at (208) 883-4630, by email to tnadauld@dnews.com and on Twitter @tnadauldarg.

Courtesy of Washington State University

In this photo provided by Washington State University, chardonnay grapes hang on a vine.

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Northwest Farm and Ranch

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Area farmers still not convinced on climate change Staff report

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A six-year, three-state, $20 million research project to study the potential effects of climate change on agriculture has come to an end, but it appears to have done little to persuade farmers that human-caused climate change is a reality.

Two surveys of farmers conducted by a team of more than 200 scientists from the University of Idaho, Oregon State University and Washington State University revealed a resistance to the controversial notion of climate change. “Based on our surveys, we know that the majority of producers (in the Pacific Northwest) don’t consider human-driven climate change to be an issue,� said Sanford Eigenbrode, one of the directors of the Regional Approaches to Climate Change

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(REACCH) team.

The project, which involved the largest research grant ever awarded to the University of Idaho, came to a conclusion in February with scientists from all three Eigenbrode schools and others gathered at the University of Idaho Commons to cap their work over the past six years.

While the farmers weren’t swayed, that doesn’t mean the project or the efforts of scientists to engage producers about climate change was a failure.

Their skepticism, Eigenbrode said, “has provided us interesting discussions with producers who are not necessarily on board with that. At the same time, they like what we’re doing

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Northwest Farm and Ranch

Moscow-Pullman Daily News

because what we’re doing affects the climate variability recently that’s bottom line today and influences their encouraged them to be more responsive and attentive to what we’re systems in the near future. “... No grower can really argue that doing,” he said.

Chad Kruger of WSU worked we don’t have more extremes in our climate. They want to learn and know with the extension service portion of how they can better overcome these REACCH. He said farmers’ acceptance of climate extremes.” change may not make Since starting in any difference.

2011, the team has “I’m not sure it worked with farmers really matters what in examining what someone thinks they can expect from about whether the the area’s changclimate is changing ing climate through or what the cause research in the fields is,” Kruger said. “We of entomology, soil have a highly variscience and water able climate anyway, science, among othand we have to maners. age under uncertainThe project focused ty, whether it’s cliSanford Eigenbrode on wheat production mate or markets or but also examined Regional Approaches to Climate technology or everyimplications for other Change team thing else. crops. It explored “And the person ways to limit farmwho’s going to be successful moving’s impact on climate change, develing into the future is the one who’s oped new climate change education adapted to taking what information, materials for K-12 students and ana- tools and technology are available lyzed likely pest and climatic condi- and managing that uncertainty. And tion changes.

I think that’s probably the key factor Eigenbrode said there’s no evidence in farming success in the future.” farmers are changing management Genesee-area farmer Eric Odberg practices in any big way because of embraced the REACCH project from their positions on climate change. the beginning. He said farmers should “But the ones that we’ve interacted with, I think we’ve had some fruitSee climate, Page 12 ful discussions. And there has been

“

... the majority of producers ... don’t consider human-driven climate change to be an issue.”

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Concerns from Page 5

patchy. Finkelnburg said growers in this area have never seen whole fields affected by the disease.

But if certain varieties of grain that have not been protected show signs of root rot “there’s not much we can do. Some fields will

| Saturday, March 25, 2017 | 9

have some of the disease but at the moment there’s nothing to indicate it’s a looming problem that’s going to be a disaster for us.”

Ken Hart, UI extension agent in Lewis County, has sent out letters to growers alerting them to the possibility of field diseases due to the weather.

In spite of the problems the prolonged winter and wet spring

may cause, Hart said, “it will be wonderful to have an actual (soil) profile full of moisture.

“They don’t call us dry land farming for nothing — that’s what it is. If we have a full soil profile full of moisture that’s going to increase yields quite a bit.”

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

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Northwest Farm and Ranch

Moscow-Pullman Daily News

Water from Page 4

with flooding and damaged crops, Renton said the Northwest is expected to experience an El Nino climatic change, which would produce a dry summer. “So actually having all our winter moisture is really going to, if anything, benefit our crop production for this coming year because the soil profile is full of moisture and that’s going to help us this summer,� Renton said.

Renton said he does not expect to see much, if any, snow mold — a fungal disease that appears when the snow melts and damages or kills crops — in wheat on the Palouse this year despite the heavy snow and rain the area sustained this past fall and winter. “Everything that’s exposed now looks really good,� Renton said.

Fields that still have snow drifts have the potential for snow mold, Renton said. He added he would not be surprised to see snow mold in places like Potlatch and Deary that still have snow cover and have a higher inoculum, or higher population of a pathogen in the soil.

He said some Deary farmers are worried about having snow mold because they still have 2 feet of snow on the ground. “I’ve been here 23 years,� Renton said. “I’ve seen it one year and I just saw some patches. It wasn’t significant damage.�

Kai Eiselein/Daily News In order for snow mold to occur, Renton said there needs to Rows of wheat line Eric Odberg’s Genesee farm. Kyle Renton, agronomy division manager for Pacific be heavy rain in the fall so the ground is saturated entering Northwest Farmers Cooperative in Genesee, said standing water from the recent heavy rain on Palouse winter; at least 100 days of snow cover; and thawed soil under wheat fields could kill the crop. the snow. He said the Palouse met all three criteria, but he said he thinks what helped prevent the snow mold is a low population of the snow mold disease in the soil because snow mold is rare in the area.

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Climate from Page 9

take advantage of the project’s research.

“What if farmers — back in the 1920s, before the Dust Bowl — if they had this kind of research going on, would they have been better prepared for what came about in the Dust Bowl?” Odberg asked.

“I think that no grower can really argue that we (don’t) have more extremes in our climate now. All the applicable research that has been done makes them better prepared for what’s ahead as far as climate change.”

Odberg said he’s been direct seeding for 16 years, and has seen the benefits, in soil and crops, that come from progressive farming and he continues to implement Kruger new farming practices.

“We’ve been trying to broaden our rotation with oilseed crops, sunflowers, grasses,” he said. “I would urge all producers to do as I did, to take advantage of the programs that are out there ... to change your operations, be more adaptable to those changing conditions.”

Researchers also have released the “REACCH Impact Book,” which highlights 66 impacts of the project and provides information to farmers, other agricultural industry personnel, teachers, policymakers and the public.

For more information about the project, or to view the REACCH Impact Book, visit reacchpna.org.

The researchers are also working on a series of webinars for farmers and other stakeholders.

www.

Northwest Farm and Ranch

Moscow-Pullman Daily News

.com/palousenews

Alfalfa market faces challenges Hay prices flatten out at $120 per ton, a $70 drop from 2010

By Mychel Matthews Associated Press

BURLEY — “As goes oil so goes milk, and as goes milk so goes hay” has been a pretty good rule of thumb when forecasting commodity prices for many years.

But the strength of some of those relationships may be weakening as the U.S. moves towards energy efficiency.

While the outlook for oil and dairy producers is looking brighter for 2017, hay producers

Meet Your Friends at our Breakfast Club!

are looking at another anemic year.

Hay prices in Idaho have been dropping steadily since the beginning of 2015, hitting the $120 per ton mark. That’s down significantly from the 2010 to 2015 average of $170 to $190 per ton, explained Herman Tejeda, an Extension economist with the University of Idaho in Twin Falls.

Before the Great Recession of 2009, hay and milk prices moved together. Both were high in 2012 before dropping sharply.

Although milk prices have started to improve, alfalfa prices have flattened at about $120 per ton.

That’s about $8 a ton below the U.S. average price.

Feeder cattle and alfalfa also

used to track closely until 2014 when feeder cattle prices shot higher while alfalfa prices were beginning to fall. Now that feeder cattle prices have tumbled by nearly half since those record highs, alfalfa and cattle prices are beginning to move together again. The March 2017 feeder cattle futures contract was $126.150 on March 9 compared to $221.450 in January 2015.

Although the relationships between livestock prices and hay prices have weakened, hay prices do continue to track with corn prices. Dairies in particular can substitute corn for hay when hay prices are high, and vice versa.

See alfalfa, Page 18

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Moscow-Pullman Daily News

| Saturday, March 25, 2017 | 13

Former UO sprinter becomes 5th-generation Junction City farmer the group — in some cases, decades younger.�

Also last year, Harper started servEUGENE, Ore. — Bryan Harper ing a four-year term on the 10-memis a man of varied talents: a pilot, a ber Oregon Agriculture Board, which former University of Oregon track ath- advises and recommends policy to the lete, and a fifth-generation Junction state Department of Agriculture.

He’s the youngest City farmer. person on the board Harper’s greatand its only Africangreat grandfather American.

M.J. Harper moved Harper’s dad, to Oregon from Warren, is a longtime Wisconsin and in Junction City farmer.

1891 began growing His mom, Rose, is fruits and vegetables from Kenya. on a 120-acre farm “I’m the new genoff River Road in eration,� Harper said.

Junction City.

He said when he Now 125 years walks into a room of later, Bryan Harper, Bryan Harper old-line Oregon farm28, still farms about Junction City farmer ers, “most people ask, 80 acres of that plot, ‘Who do you work along with nearly 400 for?� more acres in the River Road area. “I say, myself.� Harper said, smilLast year Harper became vice president and director of operations of his ing. “People ask, ‘Who’s your dad?’ family’s business, Harper Farms Inc. He manages about 470 acres of hazel- Harper said. “I guess (I) don’t fit the expectation of what you’d see in nuts. “The challenge of it is exciting — feeding the world,� he said. “It’s pretty cool to be one of the young guys in See sprinter, Page 19

By Sherri Buri McDonald The Register-Guard

“

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Northwest Farm and Ranch

Moscow-Pullman Daily News

Farming succeeds with community support

A woman and children collect fresh produce as part of Washington State University’s community supported agriculture program.

WSU program rewards subscribers with whatever crops thrive that season

By Mary Stone Lewiston Tribune staff writer

Fans of fresh produce can lock in a summer supply while supporting Washington State University’s Eggert Family Organic Farm through the school’s community supported agriculture program.

Participants purchase shares of the harvest at the beginning of the season, then collect the results through the last week of October.

The community-supported model gives the farm the boost it needs to get crops in the ground, then rewards subscribers with

Courtesy of Washington State University

whatever thrives that season.

“Farming is tricky,” said assistant farm Manager Alison Detjens.

“You make all your money at the end of the season and you need it at the beginning.”

Farm managers aim to grow a variety of foods, almost always including some sort of leafy green, such as kale, in the weekly share Detjens said.

“If it’s a bumper year for tomatoes you get a lot of tomatoes,” she said. “If the eggplant all die you don’t get any.”

Seasonally, the offerings are likely to include radishes, spinach, turnips, beets, carrots, potatoes, summer squash, tomatoes, peppers, winter squash, raspberries, blueberries and you-pick flowers. Farm managers also hope to offer peaches this year and are considering offering a

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Northwest Farm and Ranch you-pick bean patch.

The farm, located near the intersection of Animal Science Road and Terre View Drive, also offers a public market from 3 to 6 p.m. on Wednesdays and Fridays once harvest begins.

This is the farm’s third year at this location and the second year pick up is offered at the farm.

“Things are starting to settle in and we’re feeling good there,” Detjens said. “We want people to come out. I think that’s important for that connection.”

New member signup will be during April, Detjens said.

Participants can choose a regular share, most often for a single family, or a large share, for large families or more than one family.

Those interested in participating can contact Manager Brad Jaeckel at (509) 335-5893 or jaeckel@wsu.edu for registration information and pricing.

The community supported agriculture website can be found at http://css.wsu.edu/organicfarm/community-supportedagriculture/.

Marry Stone can be contacted at mstone@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2244. Follow her on Twitter @ MarysSchoolNews.

Moscow-Pullman Daily News

| Saturday, March 25, 2017 | 15

WSU introduces next step in wheat evolution Salish Blue is a perennial grain species that combine wheat with wheatgrass

By Ralph Bartholdt Lewiston Tribune Staff Writer

A new species of wheat that combines the toughness of a common grass with the nutrient-rich qualities of a grain crop was developed by Washington State University scientists and named after one of its pioneer researchers.

It’s the first new species to be named by wheat breeders at WSU in 122 years of breeding, according to the university.

The new hybrid combines wheat with wheatgrass in a new species that could help Pacific Northwest farmers meet production goals and have the added benefit of implementing ecologically sound farming.

One of the many varieties of the newly developed perennial grain species, Tritipyrum aaseae, is called Salish Blue, which was developed as a potential food and dairy forage crop.

“We have a bunch of different lines or varieties,” said Colin Curwen-McAdams, a graduate research assistant at the WSU Bread Lab at Mount Vernon, Wash. “They are no longer wheat or

Courtesy of Washington State University

Chromosomes and characteristics of the perennial hybrid, Salish Blue. wheatgrass.”

The new species is named after professor Hannah Aase, an early WSU researcher, botanist and cell biologist who spent years exploring wheat genetics from 1914 to 1949. She died in 1980.

“The work Dr. Aase did was important but largely overlooked,” said CurwenMcAdams. “She was trying to answer the question of where wheat comes from. We wanted to honor her and bring her back to the forefront.”

The latest line is a stable hybrid that can be crossed with other plants of the same species. Unlike wheat, which must be replanted every year, the new crop is a perennial that will continue to grow year after year under the right conditions.

An added benefit of varieties like Salish Blue, is their ability to stabilize soils, which would otherwise — if planted See evolution, Page 19

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Northwest Farm and Ranch

Moscow-Pullman Daily News

General Mills boosts eco-friendly grain Kernza

By Steve Karnowski Associated Press

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MINNEAPOLIS — A sweet, nuttytasting new grain called Kernza is getting a big boost from food giant General Mills, which is intrigued by the potentially big environmental benefits of the drought-resistant crop with long roots that doesn’t need to be replanted every year.

General Mills announced partnerships with The Land Institute and the University of Minnesota to help commercialize Kernza, a wild relative of wheat, and to incorporate the grain into cereals and snacks under its Cascadian Farm organic brand. The company hopes to put those products on grocery store shelves early next year. It’s also urging other food companies to help create a market for Kernza.

“It’s rare that you find something like this that, if you work at it, has so many environmental benefits associated with it. So that’s one of the reasons we’re excited about this,” Jerry Lynch, chief sustainability officer for Golden Valley-based General Mills, told The Associated Press ahead of the

announcement.

Kernza is the trademark for the grain, which comes from the perennial intermediate wheatgrass plant. Its dense roots extend over 10 feet — twice as deep as conventional annual wheat.

Unlike conventional wheat, farmers who grow it don’t need to till the soil and replant it every year.

The long roots benefit the soil by helping store nutrients and water, while preventing erosion and reducing the leaching of nitrogen into ground and surface waters. Kernza’s developers also think it could reduce greenhouse gases from food production by trapping significant amounts of carbon in the soil. It even provides good habitat for pollinators.

General Mills said it plans to buy a significant amount of Kernza via The Land Institute, though it doesn’t want to specify how much for competitive reasons. It will also donate $500,000 to the University of Minnesota’s Forever Green Initiative to support advanced research into breeding to increase yields and into how best to grow, mill and market the grain so that it succeeds in the long term, Lynch said.

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“All grain production in the world is produced by annual plants that are only on the landscape for a short time,” Wyse said. “Intermediate wheatgrass — Kernza — represents a big breakthrough in the design of new agricultural systems for the future.”

Researchers have been experimenting with intermediate wheatgrass since the 1980s. It has taken time to domesticate it into a crop and breed varieties that are productive enough for commercial use. Because it has been grown only on test plots until recently, there still isn’t much of it to go around.

And there are challenges that the researchers and General Mills are

| Saturday, March 25, 2017 | 17

still addressing. Yields are still much lower than conventional wheat, though improving. The grains are tiny, more like grass seeds than conventional wheat, which makes milling more complicated.

But it has some advantages in addition to its environmental benefits, including higher protein levels. The nutty flavor comes from its high bran content.

DeHaan and Wyse agreed that General Mills is making a huge contribution to their work by creating a market for the new grain so farmers will grow it, and by supporting the development of crops that provide ecological benefits while feeding people on a large scale.

Associated Press

In this undated photo provided by The Land Institute of Salina, Kan., technician John Mai checks wheat crosses in the institute’s greenhouse. On March 7 General Mills announced partnerships with The Land Institute and the University of Minnesota to help commercialize Kernza, a wild relative of wheat, and to incorporate the grain into cereals and snacks under its Cascadian Farm organic brand.

Kernza was domesticated at the Land Institute, based in Salina, Kansas, which has been working for decades to develop a more natural, sustainable agricultural system. Intermediate wheatgrass, which had been used as cattle feed, was one of the first perennials to show promise for feed-

ing humans, said Lee DeHaan, a lead scientist there.

The institute has been collaborating for several years with the University of Minnesota, where agronomy professor Donald Wyse also tackles the challenges of developing perennials into food crops.

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18 | Saturday, March 25, 2017 |

Northwest Farm and Ranch

Moscow-Pullman Daily News

Alfalfa from Page 12

Looking at the corn futures market, Tejeda sees signs that corn prices may be stabilizing after three years of record high corn production in the Midwest has erased record highs. There’s only about a dime’s difference in futures contract prices when looking forward three years: $3.98 per bushel for the December 2017 contract, $4.07 for December 2018 and $4.09 for December 2019.

“If corn stabilizes, hay should also because people won’t be switching between corn and hay,” Tejeda told forage producers during the annual Hay and Forage Association Conference.

Doug Robinson, an analyst with Northwest Farm Credit, concurs. He believes the biofuels expansion that helped drive up grain prices in the past is over. He doesn’t expect biofuel usage will decrease, but it’s not going to continue to grow and without that demand driver, grain prices will flatline.

“Volatility will come from weather and currency changes,” Robinson said.

Dean Hare/Daily News file photo

Brian Largent, left, maneuvers a 3-by-4-by-8-foot alfalfa bale onto a trailer bed as his brother Gary provides line-up guidance north of Pullman. The Largents raise beef on their farm outside Colfax. Each bale weighs approximately 1,300 pounds.

Slower population growth will also limit commodity price increases. Globally, population growth is around 2 percent, with the U.S. slightly below that at 1.7 percent. Without

strong population growth, the demand for grains will stagnate, he predicts.

However, Robinson agrees with other analysts who see continued growth for milk and

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“I see more demand in terms of market access and real growth opportunity for

U.S. agriculture,” he said. He expects 2017 to be a better year for the dairy industry than the past two have been.

But that still probably won’t help boost hay prices.

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Northwest Farm and Ranch Hay production continues to be steady or up slightly. The last time hay prices increased at the same time as production did was in 2010, Tejeda said.

Exports continue to be a key factor in determining commodity prices. U.S. agriculture exports peaked in 2014. Last year, exports were down 16 percent compared to 2014 levels largely thanks to a 40 percent rise in the value of the U.S. dollar.

Robinson expects to see the U.S. dollar remain strong for another two to three years.

“The dollar will peak and then start to cycle down ahead of the next recession,” Robinson said. “I don’t think we have the gains left (that we have seen the last two years) but we will still have some up.”

With the dollar strong and demand relatively flat, he expects the agricultural economy will face a headwind for the next few years. Even though interest rates are rising, levels are still far below the high rates experienced in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Robinson classifies the downturn Idaho farmers are experiencing as cyclical.

“It will be difficult, but manageable.”

Moscow-Pullman Daily News

Sprinter from Page 13

Oregon.

“To me it’s just part of life,” he said.

“When they see me, hear me talk, hear my story, people are usually pleased.”

A 21st century millennial, Harper said he appreciates the latest research and technologies that can help his family’s farm be more efficient and productive, but he also respects the wisdom and experience passed down by his long line of farming ancestors.

The Junction City High School graduate attended flight school in Florida, thinking he wanted a career in aviation, then he returned home and attended Lane Community College where he ran track as

Evolution from Page 15

with wheat — require annual tilling and other erosion-causing work. Although types like Salish Blue are stable and selfreliant, they are not meant to replace wheat, but may one day be used as rotation crops, allowing farmers to supplement their incomes with a wheat-like product when a field is not planted with tradi-

a sprinter. He transferred to the University of Oregon on a partial track scholarship and graduated from the university with a psychology degree in 2012.

Nearing college graduation, with the world wide open with career possibilities, Harper attended a family meeting with his dad, his grandma, Janet Harper — the family matriarch — and his aunts Eileen McLellan and Marilyn Rear. That set in motion the plan for him to be the next generation of Harpers to continue the family’s farming legacy.

“It was a motivator when my family said, here you go, if you want to,” Harper said.

He said he realized, “I really like flying, but I’d hate to have the farm dissolve, and there was nobody to take it over.”

Janet Harper died last November at age 97.

tional wheat.

Work continues on the development of the latest species in an effort to increase production and wheat-like qualities that could make Tritipyrum aaseae a viable grain crop.

“Still the challenge is to continue breeding for heartiness,” Aase Curwen-McAdams said. “It’s not hearty enough and lacks characteristics (of)

| Saturday, March 25, 2017 | 19

Harper said his grandma took a lot of pride in having seen four generations of family farmers.

“She wanted to see the farm continue,” Harper said. “She planted that seed early on — that there’s opportunity here if you want it.

“She was the biggest advocate for that.”

Harper said his grandma was his first boss.

“You’d grab your hoe, gloves and boots, and at 5 or 6 years old, you were on weedpulling duty with grandma,” he said.

In recent years Harper’s sister Tiffany, and cousin, Katherine Rear, also have shown interest in the family farm.

Harper said he’s happy to take the baton for the next generation.

“Being a fifth-generation farmer there’s some legacy, some history and being that next generation is appealing,” he said.

wheat” used to make a goodtasting bread.

The high rainfall zones and cooler climates of the Cascade areas are usually reserved for growing vegetables and potatoes, and grain is used as a rotation crop. The new species could fill a niche in those environments.

“It can serve the needs of growers in those areas,” he said.

Because all grain crops up to now, including corn, rice and wheat, are annuals, the development of a perennial grain crop opens the door to new potential, he said.

“These perennials are new and interesting to our agriculture,” he said. “Working in rotation with other crops they provide financial and commercial diversity.”

Ralph Bartholdt can be contacted at rbartholdt@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2275.

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