PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service employees will again be barred from testifying about any fear they felt during last winter’s armed occupation of their workplace, the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Oregon.

U.S. District Judge Anna Brown prevented such testimony during a trial last fall in which occupation leader Ammon Bundy and six co-defendants were acquitted on felony charges of conspiring to impede workers from doing their jobs at the refuge during the six-week takeover.

Four Bundy followers are being tried on the same charge this month, and a prosecutor asked the judge Tuesday to reconsider her stance and allow workers to testify about their fears.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports Brown said no. She said the fact there was fear does not prove there was intent to impede.

Jury selection begins Feb. 14.

SALEM — Oregon farm groups are urging lawmakers to boost noxious weed control funding by $1 million, arguing the investment will prevent even costlier future battles against invasives.

House Bill 2043 would appropriate $1 million from the general fund to carry out the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s noxious weed programs in the 2017-2019 biennium.

“It’s penny-wise and pound-foolish to cut ourselves short now,” said Peter Kenagy, a Benton County farmer who testified in support of HB 2043 at a Feb. 7 hearing before the House Agriculture Committee.

Under Gov. Kate Brown’s proposed budget for the next biennium, ODA is slated to cut its biocontrol program for invasive weeds, which relies on predatory insects to suppress unwanted plants.

Eliminating the weed biocontrol position, which is currently vacant, would save the ODA $250,000 at a time when state agencies are under financial pressure due to a looming $1.8 billion state budget shortfall.

“If we don’t keep funding these things, we’re going to pay for it later,” Kenagy said. “Cutting money out of the budget for this, we’ll pay for it and our kids will pay for it.”

Representatives of the Oregon Farm Bureau, the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, Oregonians for Food and Shelter and the Oregon Association of Conservation Districts also testified in favor of the bill.

Noxious weeds are estimated to cost Oregon’s economy about $83 million per year, said Katie Fast, executive director of the Oregonians for Food and Shelter agribusiness group.

Lawmakers should not consider adding new natural resource programs until “base programs” such as noxious weed control are funded, Fast said.

Invasive species don’t recognize boundaries and the problem with noxious weeds will get worse if ignored, said Michelle Delepine on behalf of the Oregon Association of Conservation Districts.

“This isn’t something you can just put on hold,” she said.

Aside from weeds that already afflict Oregon farmers, the state is facing an incursion of new invasives, such as the flowering rush that’s been found growing along the Columbia river, said Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Athena.

The weed spreads by pieces of root breaking off and traveling downstream, with the populations in Oregon and Washington thought to have originated in Montana’s Flathead Lake, he said.

Flowering rush threatens to clog up irrigation systems and disrupt ecosystems to the detriment of native fish.

“We need all the help we can get,” said Hansell.

During the Feb. 7 hearing, the House Agriculture Committee also heard testimony on several other bills:

• House Bill 2327 would require the recipients of grants from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board to obtain liability insurance for projects aimed at improved water quality and riparian habitats. The cost would be covered by grant funds, so the added expense wouldn’t be borne by recipients.

The bill would also repeal statutory language related to a “healthy streams partnership” that’s no longer operational and add a representative of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a non-voting member of OWEB’s board, among other provisions.

• House Bill 2254 would allow individual containers of Oregon fresh produce to be unlabeled if they’re headed for export to foreign markets. Under current law, all such containers must be labeled for sale, which imposes an added burden for exporters. The change would allow foreign buyers to label Oregon farm goods when they arrive in another country.

• House Bill 2255 would update Oregon’s milk-related statutes to align with federal rules for pasteurized milk safety, because current statutes are outdated and don’t conform with the federal requirements.

• House Bill 2256 would clarify that nutritional supplements are regulated as food by the Oregon Department of Agriculture, which will ensure the agency has the authority for potential enforcement actions.

About 11,000 mink at an Oregon ranch died from feed contaminated with botulism, resulting in $2.8 million in losses to the grower, according to a lawsuit.

A complaint filed by the farm — AMC LCC of Mount Angel, Ore. — accuses the Northwest Farm Food Cooperative of gross negligence and breach of contract, among other charges, for supplying the tainted feed in 2016.

The National Food Corp., an egg producer, is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit because the tainted feed was allegedly manufactured from the company’s “spent hens” that have stopped laying eggs.

The complaint alleges that the mink became ill and began dying within days after the cooperative’s feed was delivered to the ranch in July 2016. An investigation later determined the disease was caused by botulism in the chicken meat.

Botulism is caused by a nerve toxin produced by certain strains of Clostridium bacteria that grow in improperly processed food.

An attorney for AMC LLC said he couldn’t comment on the lawsuit and Capital Press was unable to reach the farm’s owner. The Northwest Farm Food Cooperative and the National Food Corp. did not respond to requests for comment.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Three of the final seven defendants charged in the Ammon Bundy-led takeover of a national wildlife refuge last year took plea deals Monday instead of heading to trial next week.

Sean and Sandy Anderson, a couple from Riggins, Idaho, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Portland to misdemeanor trespassing in exchange for the dismissal of felony conspiracy and weapons charges. Also taking that step was Dylan Anderson of Provo, Utah, who is not related to the Idaho couple.

U.S. District Judge Anna Brown sentenced the three to one year of probation each and required each one to pay $1,000 restitution to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

They must also ask their probation officers for permission to camp on public lands. All are required to avoid the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, located in southeastern Oregon’s high desert.

“The Malheur refuge is not on my bucket list,” Sean Anderson told Brown.

Ammon Bundy, joined by his brother Ryan and a band of followers, seized the refuge on Jan. 2, 2016, to protest the federal control of Western lands and the imprisonment of two ranchers convicted of setting fires.

The Bundys were arrested in a Jan. 26 traffic stop that included the fatal shooting by police of occupation spokesman Robert “LaVoy” Finicum. Four holdouts, including Sean and Sandy Anderson, refused to leave the refuge until Feb. 11.

A federal grand jury indicted 26 people on conspiracy and weapons charges.

Eleven defendants pleaded guilty last year and charges were dropped against one man.

In a high-profile trial last fall, jurors found the Bundy brothers and five others not guilty of felony charges.

Prosecutors decided after their loss in the trial to go ahead with a February trial for the remaining seven defendants. They changed their prosecutorial strategy by adding misdemeanor charges such as trespassing to the mix.

Another one of the final defendants, Darryl Thorn, of Marysville, Wash., was scheduled to join the Andersons in changing his plea Monday, but his hearing was canceled. He was similarly on the cusp of accepting a plea agreement last June before changing his mind.

Thorn’s decision leaves him headed to trial next week with co-defendants Duane Ehmer, Jason Patrick and Jake Ryan.

The jurors will determine whether the four are guilty of felony conspiracy and weapons charges.

The misdemeanor charges will be heard in a non-jury trial after the felony trial ends.

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — A state senator is pushing to eliminate daylight saving time in Washington.

KOMO reports Republican Jim Honeyford of Sunnyside has introduced a measure that would exercise Washington’s right under the Uniform Time Act to opt out of daylight saving time and remain on Pacific Standard Time year round.

“I didn’t really realize the problems that it creates,” Honeyford said. “There’s an increased number of accidents, increased suicides, heart attacks.”

The Washington Traffic Safety Commission and Washington Department of Transportation could not provide crash comparison figures in time for the article. But, at a Senate Hearing on Wednesday, nobody testified for or against Honeyford’s bill.

A persuasive argument for daylight saving time has been made in the past by the agricultural industry, claiming the switch would be an economic benefit. Honeyford, a farmer for 20 years, isn’t buy it.

“I think that it was a myth that it was designed for agriculture,” Honeyford said. “I believe that it’s out lived its use.”

In 2015, a similar bill in both the Senate and House failed to move out of their respective committees and was never voted on by lawmakers.

Oregon has tried, too, but failed to pass a bill in 2015 and a signature campaign failed to qualify an initiative for the ballot.

Daylight Saving Time begins March 12.

SALEM — Oregon lawmakers are considering whether to strengthen the state’s defenses against invasive aquatic mussels that threaten both irrigation systems and ecosystems.

The House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee has introduced legislation creating a new penalty for people who refuse to subject their boats to inspection for quagga and zebra mussels at checkpoints, among other measures.

The mussels threaten to clog irrigation intakes and disrupt habitats for native fish species.

Currently, drivers hauling boats who don’t stop at check points can be ticketed for traffic violations. The stations are located at common entry points for watercraft along Oregon’s borders.

Under House Bill 2321, drivers who are pulled over by police within five miles of failing to stop at a checkpoint can be charged with a misdemeanor if they refuse to return for inspection.

If convicted, the crime would be punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a fine of $1,250.

The legislation would also eliminate a current exemption under which operators of non-motorized watercraft under 10 feet in length, such as kayaks, don’t have to buy Aquatic Invasive Species Permits, which cost $5 a year.

Money collected from selling such permits is used to control invasive aquatic species.

Boats would have to be drained of all water before leaving a river or lake under HB 2321, with operators facing a penalty of $30 for non-motorized watercraft and $50 for motorized watercraft in they don’t comply with this requirement.

Between 2010 and 2016, the number of boats inspected for invasive mussels has grown from fewer than 3,000 to more than 16,000 per year, said Scott Brewen, director of the Oregon Marine Board, during a Feb. 2 committee hearing.

While compliance with the check points has improved in recent years, about 18 percent of boaters still didn’t stop for inspections in 2016, spurring the idea for HB 2321, he said.

Rep. Sherrie Sprenger, R-Scio, said she sympathized with the intent of the bill but was concerned about the potential for boaters to be charged with a misdemeanor, the same class of crime as some thefts and assaults.

Rep. Brian Clem, D-Salem, said he wasn’t thrilled about eliminating the permit exemption for non-motorized watercraft under 10 feet in length, but he said these points would be further debated in the future.

During the Feb. 2 hearing, lawmakers also considered House Bill 2266, which pertains to funding for hatchery fish research.

Currently, unobligated money left over in the Oregon Hatchery Research Center Fund is transferred to the Oregon Hatchery Construction Fund at the end of each fiscal year.

Under HB 2266, that money would be allowed to remain in the fund dedicated to hatchery research.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon man has asked for a different federal judge to handle his non-jury trial on misdemeanor charges stemming from last winter’s armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

Duane Ehmer and his attorney said in a court filing late Wednesday that U.S. District Judge Anna Brown might not be impartial and should recuse herself.

Ehmer, 46, is one of seven defendants preparing for a jury trial this month on felony charges filed after the 41-day standoff in southeastern Oregon.

Judge Brown, who is overseeing the jury trial, ruled last week that misdemeanor charges faced by Ehmer and others will later be heard in a separate trial before a judge. Brown wrote that she saw no reason why she should not oversee the non-jury trial.

But Ehmer and attorney Michele Kohler cite comments Brown reportedly made in a private meeting with jurors who acquitted standoff leader Ammon Bundy and six others in a trial last fall.

Brown said at the Oct. 27 verdict that she planned to meet with the 12 jurors and thank them for their nearly two months of service. A man identified as Juror No. 4 later told The Oregonian/OregonLive that the judge answered their questions during the meeting.

Juror No. 4 said he and other jurors felt prosecutors offered insufficient evidence for a felony conspiracy conviction and asked Brown why different charges were not brought.

“(Brown) not only answered questions the jurors had, but also discussed the merits of the case with specific reference to potential misdemeanor offenses that could have been used by the government,” Ehler’s court filing says.

A total of 26 people were indicted on federal conspiracy and weapons charges after taking over the refuge from Jan. 2-Feb. 11, 2016, in a protest against federal control of Western lands and the imprisonment of two ranchers convicted of setting fires.

Eleven defendants pleaded guilty and charges were dropped against one man.

In a trial last fall, jurors found standoff leader Ammon Bundy and six others not guilty of felony charges.

Prosecutors decided despite losing to press ahead with a February trial for the seven remaining defendants. They changed their strategy by adding misdemeanor charges such as trespassing to the mix.

In her decision ordering the non-jury trial for the misdemeanors, Brown wrote in court documents that the 12 jurors and six alternates would devote a lengthy period of their time to jury service and that adding petty offenses to the charges they will consider is not justifiable.

Ehmer has been charged with felony conspiracy to impede Interior Department employees from doing their jobs through the use of force, intimidation or threats.

He faces misdemeanor charges that include trespassing, removal of property and tampering with vehicles and equipment.

SALEM — Lawmakers with strong track records of supporting pesticide restrictions are chairing two Senate committees that are positioned to affect Oregon agricultural policies in 2017.

Senate Bill 499 — a proposal to strip pesticide protections from Oregon’s “right to farm” law — was introduced at the behest of the Senate Judiciary Committee, whose chair is Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene.

Oregon’s “Right to Farm and Forest” law prohibits local ordinances restricting common farm practices as well as nuisance and trespass lawsuits against such farm practices.

People who lose such lawsuits are required to pay the opposing party’s attorney fees, which has discouraged such cases against farm practices from being filed in Oregon.

Under SB 499, however, complaints alleging nuisance or trespass from pesticides are exempted from the “right to farm” law.

The bill’s introduction at the request of the Senate Judiciary Committee bodes well for its chances for a vote before the full Senate, particularly since Prozanski has supported a harder line against pesticide usage.

In 2015, for example, Prozanski sponsored bills that would ban neonicotinoid insecticides and increase notification and reporting requirements for spraying pesticides.

All of those bills died in the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, which was then chaired by Sen. Chris Edwards, D-Eugene.

Edwards left the Legislature last year to take a job at the University of Oregon, so Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland, will replace him as chair of that committee.

Dembrow was a chief sponsor of legislation in 2015 — Senate Bill 613 — that would have increased notification requirements for aerial pesticide spraying of forestland, which died in committee.

The Oregon League of Conservation Voters gives Dembrow a 94 percent “lifetime score” based on his support of environmental legislation.

Scott Dahlman, policy director of the Oregonians for Food and Shelter agribusiness group, said his organization hasn’t always seen “eye to eye” with Dembrow.

Even so, Dembrow is known for having an “open door” policy and will hopefully keep an open mind on issues affecting agriculture, Dahlman said.

Beyond Toxics, an environmental non-profit, believes Dembrow is the right choice to chair the Senate Committee on the Environment and Natural Resources, though it’s too early to say how he might influence legislation, said Lisa Arkin, the group’s executive director.

Arkin said Oregon’s approach to pesticides in farming and forestry is “outdated and unscientific” and the state’s pesticide laws are overdue for reform.

In the Oregon House, the elimination of the Committee on Rural Communities, Land Use and Water has created some uncertainty for legislation that affects agriculture, said Dahlman.

Bills that would have previously been steered to this committee will now likely wind up before the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee and the House Energy and Environment Committee, he said.

The House Agriculture Committee is chaired by Rep. Brian Clem, D-Salem, who is a part-owner of a farm and is familiar with agricultural issues, Dahlman said.

Rep. Ken Helm, D-Beaverton, isn’t as familiar with natural resource issues but there’s no reason to think he won’t be receptive to industry concerns, he said.

Six new members will be added to the Oregon Nurseries Hall of Fame when industry members gather for a reception and dinner Feb. 22 in Wilsonville.

Named to the Hall of Fame this year were:

• Jack Bigej, second-generation owner of Al’s Garden Center. After taking over for his father, Al, Bigej expanded the business into four growing facilities and three retail stores, with a fourth store upcoming. He served as Oregon Association of Nurseries president in 1993 and was made an OAN honorary life member in 2004. His son, Mark, is OAN president this year.

• Dick Jovee, owner of Jovee Farms, noted for his long service to the industry. He was OAN president in 1983 and was made an honorary life member in 2003.

• Ray Klupenger, owner of Klupenger Nursery. He joined the family business in 1959, served as association president in 1972 and was one of the founders of the OAN’s annual Farwest Trade Show. His father, Joe Klupenger, was part of the first Hall of Fame group inducted in 1991.

• The late Bruce Usrey, who worked with Monrovia for nearly five decades and was president and CEO. He managed the company’s expansion, which included adding a growing facility in Dayton. Usrey died in 2015.

• The late Glenn and Viola Walters. They learned the business at George Teufel’s holly farm, then established Glenn Walters Nursery in 1948. It became one of the most influential nurseries in Oregon, according to OAN. Glenn Walter died in 2010; Viola Glenn died in 2015.

The industry established its hall of fame in 1991; it now has 45 members.

The induction banquet begins at 6 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 22, at the Holiday Inn in Wilsonville. Tickets are $80 a person or $640 for a table of eight, and include appetizers, a drink ticket, dinner and wine. Tickets can be bought online at www.oan.org.

Oregon’s nursery industry, providing landscaping and ornamental plants, is annually among the state’s leading agricultural pursuits. The industry had sales in 2015 of about $895 million. About 75 percent of nursery production is exported out of state

Oregon saw a major upswing in hazelnut production in 2016, with growers harvesting 40 percent more nuts than the previous year.

At 43,300 tons, the state’s hazelnut crop also outperformed the USDA’s projection by 14 percent.

The situation is a big improvement over 2015, when the crop’s size fell 25 percent short of the USDA’s estimate.

Even so, experts say the uncertainty complicates the Oregon hazelnut industry’s sales planning.

“For the processors and the handlers, knowing what that crop is makes it much easier to market it worldwide,” said Garry Rodakowski, a hazelnut farmer near Vida, Ore.

Traditionally, major year-to-year swings in the hazelnut crop weren’t unusual, but these days, additional factors also complicate projections, he said.

Growers are planting new varieties that are resistant to Eastern filber blight but don’t have a long track record in terms of yields, Rodakowski said.

“With these new varieties, we don’t have that history. They haven’t been in the ground long enough,” he said.

With the larger 2016 crop, packers are also left with more hazelnuts to sell in the new year.

Packers sold about 27,000 tons of the 2016 crop by the end of that year, which is about 2,700 more tons than at the end of 2015.

However, because total production in 2016 was larger, 16,000 tons were left over at the beginning of 2017 — more than twice as much as a year earlier.

“We’ve still got a lot of inventory to move,” said Jeff Fox, CEO of Hazelnut Growers of Oregon, a division of the Wilco cooperative. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Growers were paid $1.38 per pound for the 2015 crop, up from the initial prices of $1.22 quoted by packers early in the harvest season.

The initial price for the 2016 crop is set at $1.18, but Fox said it’s unlikely to rise as dramatically in light of the leftover inventory.

Early hazelnut sales are sold in-shell to the Chinese market, but more of the remaining inventory is headed for the kernel market, where sales aren’t as brisk, he said.

Even so, the USDA’s estimate for 2016 was expected to be conservative and the industry negotiated the $1.18 price with the expectation that the crop could be 10 percent larger, said Terry Ross, executive director of the Hazelnut Growers Bargaining Association. “It wasn’t a tremendous shock. I expect a respectable increase” in the final price, Ross said. “I think a lot of packers moved product early into the marketplace.”

Predicting Oregon’s hazelnut production is tougher for USDA these days because farmers have increased plantings of new cultivars, said Larry George, president of the George Packing Co.

“They were pretty dang close with the old varieties but the new varieties were unpredictable,” George said, noting that yields from the Jefferson cultivar surged in 2016.

Estimating the acreage of young hazelnut trees reaching maturity is an inexact science, he said.

Growers surveyed by George Packing had wildly different estimates for the size of the 2016 crop, George said. “The variation people are seeing in their orchards is huge.”

Oregon farmers planted more than 9,000 acres of hazelnuts in 2016, up from about 6,000 acres in 2015 and 4,300 acres in 2014, according to Pacific Agricultural Survey, which tracks the industry.

The company relies on aerial photographs taken in spring or summer, but some orchards were actually planted the previous autumn, said Mike McDaniel, its principal.

For that reason, some trees are better established than estimated in the survey, he said. “There’s a decent chunk of trees reaching the bearing age.”

Dwayne Bush, a farmer near Eugene, Ore., has found that the popular Jefferson variety is generating a larger amount of hazelnuts at a young age compared to Barcelona, Oregon’s traditional cultivar.

At three to four years of age, Jefferson trees are producing as many nuts as Barcelona trees did in their seventh or eighth year, he said.

Estimating the annual harvest is also trickier due to the ongoing removal of older orchards afflicted with blight, Bush said. “It’s not an easy job, predicting.”

Oregon State University President Ed Ray said he is “angry and disappointed” by President Donald Trump’s temporary executive order on immigration, saying the changes lack detail, are being unevenly implemented and have created “anxiety, uncertainty and hardship” among “thoroughly vetted” refugees, immigrants and green card holders.

OSU counts 165 students and six visiting scholars from the seven predominantly Muslim countries included in Trump’s 90-day order. It appears none of them were in transit when the executive order was issued, and so were not stuck at airports or otherwise prevented from reaching Corvallis, according to OSU.

Ray made his remarks in a prepared statement.

University Vice President Steve Clark could not immediately say whether some of the students or scholars are involved with OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences. Clark said OSU is not allowed to give out confidential student information. If only a handful of affected students or scholars are affiliated with the ag college, they would effectively be identified, he said.

OSU, like much of Pacific Northwest agriculture, has extensive international connections. University faculty travel worldwide, Clark said, and OSU hosts researchers and students from dozens of nations. Restrictions on the opportunity to do collaborative research are a serious matter, he said. During a 2015 wheat field day in Eastern Oregon, for example, OSU breeders and soil scientists cited an Iranian study of wheat yield losses caused by root lesion nematodes and fusarium crown rot.

Ray, the OSU president, previously declared the university an immigration sanctuary, and repeated that stand in the statement issued Monday.

“OSU’s Sanctuary University status is not subject to recent presidential executive orders since the university complies with all federal laws. The United States Constitution provides for states’ rights that effectively allow state entities such as OSU to decline to participate in an enforcement role in carrying out deportation actions,” Ray said in the statement.

OSU won’t provide information to the federal government to aid in those actions unless required by court order or an emergency health or safety situation, Ray said. The university’s public safety department won’t voluntarily collect or provide information to federal immigration enforcement officials, Ray said.

Vice President Clark acknowledged the university has heard from critics, including some alumni, who disagree with that stand.

The university doesn’t appear overly worried about losing federal funding due to its sanctuary stand, an action Trump has threatened to take against cities that defy him.

Executive action by the Trump administration or federal funding changes based on OSU’s sanctuary status “would be subject to legal scrutiny” based on separation of powers and delegation of authority, the university said on its website. “OSU would oppose any effort to provide executive or statutory authority for such actions,” OSU said.

According to OSU’s website, the university had 3,937 international students as of fall 2016. Of those, 89 are from Iran, one of the nations included in Trump’s ban. More than a third of international students, 1,678, are from China. The next largest segment, 442, come from Saudi Arabia, which was not included in Trump’s immigration ban. The College of Ag Sciences has 123 international students; the College of Forestry has 42.

Online

OSU President Ed Ray’s statement:

President Donald Trump’s executive order:

ONTARIO, Ore. — The Owyhee River Basin is holding an unusually large amount of snow right now, a good sign for the 1,800 farms that depend on irrigation water from the Owyhee Reservoir.

“The Owyhee looks really, really good. It’s incredible,” said Malheur County farmer Bruce Corn, a member of the Owyhee Irrigation District’s board of directors.

Snow melt from the basin flows into the reservoir, which provides water for 118,000 acres of irrigated farmland in Eastern Oregon and part of Southwestern Idaho.

Average snowpack was 164 percent of normal as of Jan. 30, but that only tells part of the story, Corn said.

“The whole watershed has snow in it right now,” he said. “There is a lot of snow where we normally don’t get any.”

There are significant amounts of snow in parts of the 11,000-square-mile basin that usually don’t receive much, said OID Manager Jay Chamberlin.

That means lots of snow in the basin beyond the snow measuring sites.

“What’s so different about this year is that it’s spread out through the whole watershed and normally we don’t see that,” Chamberlin said. “We’re going to get water from areas we’re not used to getting water from.”

Chamberlin said it’s possible the reservoir, which can hold more than 700,000 acre-feet of water for irrigation, could fill for the first time in several years.

OID patrons last year received their full 4-acre-foot allotment of irrigation water for the first time since 2011. In 2014 and 2015, they received only a third of that amount.

Now the 53-mile-long Owyhee Reservoir, which can hold two-years’ supply of irrigation water when full, could return to maximum capacity for the first time in several years if the rest of the winter plays out right.

Forty inches of snow has been recorded at Oregon State University’s Malheur County research station near Ontario so far this winter, said OSU Extension cropping systems agent Stuart Reitz. The previous record for an entire winter was 26 inches.

“Nobody around here has really ever seen these kind of conditions before,” he said.

OSU Extension cropping systems agent Bill Buhrig said the abundant snow is great news for the region’s farmers from a water supply standpoint — but it could cause other problems.

While area farmers have been able to plant some crops early in recent years, that’s unlikely in 2017, he said.

“We may be looking at a spring where we have to have a little more patience before we can get into the fields,” Buhrig said.

He also received a question from a farmer asking if he should be concerned about snow mold in winter wheat. Buhrig, a farmers who grew up in this area, said he will have to do his homework on that.

“That’s a good question. We’ve never had that issue before around here,” he said.

BOARDMAN, Ore. — The story of agriculture and energy production in Eastern Oregon is an increasingly high-tech narrative, replete with GPS-driven tractors, wind and solar power and irrigation pivots powered by the touch of a smartphone.

So when the Port of Morrow set out to highlight these industries, it devised a modern museum with interactive features to show visitors where their food and electricity comes from.

Three years later, the Sustainable Agriculture and Energy — or SAGE — Center continues to find its footing as a tourist destination along Interstate 84, advertising as far as Portland and the Tri-Cities while also hosting local job fairs and community events.

Kalie Davis, SAGE Center manager, said they are seeing signs of progress: last year’s Morrow County Harvest Festival drew more than 1,000 people in a single day, and new television commercials boosted general admission by about 14 visitors per day during the month of June.

Annual visitation, however, has been mostly flat, averaging 19,507 people with no year-to-year increase. By comparison, the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center in The Dalles had 27,795 visitors (not including tour groups from Columbia River cruise lines), and the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center in Baker City had 41,221 visitors.

Looking ahead, Davis said the SAGE Center will continue marketing to the Portland metro area and Tri-Cities, with another round of ads to begin in March. Davis also plans to attend this year’s Oregon Ag Fest at the State Fairgrounds in April.

It is important, Davis said, for people to understand how their food is made, processed and shipped. That’s what the SAGE Center offers, through exhibits such as a video tractor game, mock french fry processing line and video board that displays where products are exported around the world.

“People who come in are typically very confused about what they’re going to see,” Davis said. “As they go through, they’re just wowed by all these industries located in such a small region.”

Visitors normally would not be able to tour these facilities, Davis said, due to food safety and security regulations. The SAGE Center is a way for them to better understand how farm and energy technology works.

“I think it’s fascinating for people to learn how far things have come over the last hundred years,” Davis said.

The SAGE Center operates with the backing and support of the Port of Morrow, Oregon’s second-largest port, with approximately 50 businesses generating more than $100 million in tax revenue for the state.

Gary Neal, general manager at the port, initially wanted to create a museum in 2001 after Tillamook Cheese opened a new cheese-making plant in Boardman but did not include a visitor center like the one it has in Tillamook.

Instead, Neal thought the port could shine a spotlight on all the natural resource-based industries it serves, from making cheese and potato chips to electricity and ethanol.

“These are some of the most sophisticated operations in the world here,” Neal said. “We need to tell that story.”

Early designs for the SAGE Center called for a 10,000-square-foot box-shaped building, though the final building would be three times as large with a silo-themed exterior, movie theater and additional conference space.

The SAGE Center opened June 1, 2013, and cost $8.2 million to build. Roughly $3.7 million in funding came from the state grant $4.5 million from by the port.

“We think it’s a first-class facility,” Neal said. “We’re pretty proud of it.”

Over the last three fiscal years, Neal said the port has continued to cover between $400,000 and $600,000 per year in operating costs at the center. However, with a $40 million capital budget, he said the port is happy to continue supporting the center.

“We didn’t get into this lightly,” Neal said. “It’s not a routine thing that we do, but it’s something important that we felt we needed to do.”

Neal said the SAGE Center was never intended to be a self-supporting facility. Education, not money, is the goal, and he feels they are doing a good job at the center.

Others at the port and around the region agree.

Debbie Radie, vice president of operations for Boardman Foods — an onion processor that employs 175 people — said many of their customers have a specific interest in sustainable farming and energy efficiency.

The SAGE Center is a place where Radie said she can bring customers to learn about how those farming practices work.

“Sometimes people are misinformed and not understanding how sustainable the water use is here,” Radie said. “I think the SAGE Center showcases that well.”

Radie said employees at Boardman Foods also appreciate being able to bring their kids and families to the SAGE Center for movie nights or activities.

“That just helps support a way of life that people enjoy,” she said.

James Bradshaw, director of the energy systems technology program at Walla Walla Community College, said he brings 30-40 students every year to the Agriculture and Energy Job Fair, where they can network with about 30 different potential employers.

“The Boardman area has a lot of opportunities for our students to get jobs,” Bradshaw said. “There’s just a lot of synergy going on in Boardman with agriculture and energy, and with what we’re trying to train our students here in Walla Walla.”

Neal said the SAGE Center may also help local high schoolers stay in the region after school, knowing they have family-wage jobs in their own back yard. That will only improve, he said, with the completion of the Blue Mountain Community College Workforce Training Center next winter, just across from the SAGE Center.

“We look at this as long-term messaging,” Neal said.

Gaining visitors will require constant effort, but after organizing 168 events at the SAGE Center a year ago, Davis said there is plenty of potential to bring people into the region.

“I think the SAGE Center is a great starting point for that,” Davis said.

The Tillamook County Creamery Association has pledged $1.5 million to help build a new dairy science center at Oregon State University.

The facility is part of a planned food and beverage center that will include wine and beer making and other food made through fermentation. The dairy section will include an automated, small-scale manufacturing plant to produce cheese, ice cream, cultured products and powders. Oregon State’s small dairy herd, housed a quarter-mile away, will provide milk for the facility.

OSU already has a “beautiful little pilot plant” to make artisan cheese but the new facility will expand the opportunities for students, said Lisbeth Goddik, dairy processing Extension specialist and a food science professor.

“This is taking the training to a new level,” Goddik said.

She said the dairy industry, particularly on the West Coast, is doing well. Exports to Mexico, China, Japan and elsewhere have fueled the industry’s rise, she said.

The industry’s strong position has paid off in jobs for program graduates. Goddik said national dairy companies now send recruiters to OSU.

“The industry realizes we have some pretty good students come out of here,” she said.

The dairy part of the food building will cost about $6 million, of which $3 million is projected to come from donations such as the one from Tillamook. The rest is proposed to come from state bonds, pending legislative approval this year.

Patrick Criteser, president of the Tillamook Creamery group, said in a prepared statement that the donation demonstrates the co-op’s confidence in OSU to train the next generation of dairy scientists. The group is a farmer-owned cooperative that produces the familiar Tillamook brand cheese and other products.

“I can tell you, it’s pretty fabulous for Tillamook Creamery to be making this investment,” said Goddik, of OSU. “It’s real money, obviously money the dairy farmers could use themselves.”

SALEM — With the 2014 Farm Bill expiring next year, agriculture leaders are already preparing for the struggle over its successor.

Alexis Taylor, the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s new director, is no stranger to farm bill negotiations.

She helped work on the 2008 and 2014 versions of the legislation as a congressional staffer before getting hired by USDA, where she most recently served as Deputy Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services.

Barely a week into her new role as ODA’s chief, Taylor headed back to Washington, D.C. to meet with her counterparts at a policy meeting of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture.

Taylor said the 2018 Farm Bill is expected to be a prime subject of conversation at the meeting, scheduled for Jan. 30 to Feb. 1.

It’s too early to tell what changes are in store for the monumental piece of farm legislation, particularly in light of uncertainties about federal budget priorities, she said.

In the 2014 Farm Bill, Congress moved away from traditional farm subsidies and toward greater reliance on the federal crop insurance program.

Taylor said she expects this trend to continue, with crop insurance serving as the “cornerstone” of farm programs for commodity crops and playing a larger role in support for specialty crops.

“It’s not a one-size-fits-all,” Taylor said during a meeting with Capital Press.

Farm bill negotiations have grown increasingly contentious in the past decade. The 2008 Farm Bill took a year longer to enact than expected, and the 2014 Farm Bill went into effect two years after its predecessor expired.

Now that Republicans control the Senate, the House of Representatives and the White House, though, some expect the process to be less turbulent.

Trade relations will also be another hot topic at the NASDA meeting, particularly with the questions that loom over the Trump administration policies, Taylor said.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture has strived to strengthen the state’s trade connections, particularly in Asia, and these ties will be vital for the state’s farm industry, she said.

In the next 20 years, about two-thirds of the world’s middle class will be in Asia, Taylor said.

Climate change is another concern for Oregon agriculture due to longer fire seasons and changes in the life cycles of pests and diseases, she said.

“It’s not just Oregon or the United States. It takes the whole world to figure that out,” Taylor said.

As for Oregon-specific issues, Taylor said she’s been directed by Gov. Kate Brown to find ways to involve farmers in the “Regional Solutions” economic development effort that focuses on local projects.

Taylor also said she’s learning about the history of genetically modified “Roundup Ready” creeping bentgrass, a variety that’s resistant to glyphosate herbicides and escaped field trials more than a decade ago.

The ODA’s previous director, Katy Coba, argued that the biotech cultivar should continue to be regulated by USDA, but the federal agency nonetheless recently deregulated it.

Taylor said she’s still “trying to wrap my arms around” the situation and how ODA will respond to the decision.

As for the controversy over genetic engineering in general, Taylor said she subscribes to her predecessor’s philosophy of encouraging coexistence among different types of agriculture.

Fewer people now have a direct connection to farming as the industry’s grown more efficient, so it’s important to educate consumers about modern agriculture, she said.

“That’s part of the job for me, being an advocate for farmers and rural communities,” Taylor said.

NYSSA, Ore. — As much as $100 million in damages were caused when dozens of onion storage sheds and packing facilities collapsed under the weight of deep snows that have buried Idaho and Eastern Oregon.

About 50 onion buildings collapsed under the weight of up to 40 inches of snow that has fallen during the harshest winter in memory.

“It’s an absolute catastrophe,” said Shay Myers, general manager of Owyhee Produce in Nyssa. Three of the company’s storage sheds and the building housing one of its packing lines collapsed.

Myers estimated the total damage to the onion industry in southwestern Idaho and Malheur County, Ore., could be near $100 million.

The region’s 300 onion farmers and 30 shippers produce about 25 percent of the nation’s big bulb storage onions.

The damage is devastating. In many cases, it looks like a tornado tore through the buildings, said Partners Produce co-owner Eddie Rodriguez.

“They’re still going down as we speak,” he said. “Now, it’s just happening everywhere. The snow is heavy and there’s too much of it.”

Partners has lost four buildings, including its main packing line in Payette, Idaho, which will be out of commission at least seven months.

The lost production has pushed the prices shippers receive for their onions up dramatically. For example, the price for a 50-pound bag of yellow jumbo onions was around $3.50 before the collapses but is nearly $10 now.

“There have been a lot of sheds that haven’t been able to pack onions. That’s why the market’s gone up,” said Paul Skeen, president of the Malheur County Onion Growers Association.

This region produces more than 1 billion pounds of Spanish big bulb onions annually, but the building collapses have claimed a good chunk of last year’s production. That’s because once the onions are exposed to the cold and freeze, they are no good.

Owyhee Produce alone lost 20 million pounds of onions when its buildings collapsed.

Snake River Produce in Nyssa lost the equivalent of 35, 40,000-pound truckloads of onions when four of its buildings collapsed.

“That’s peanuts compared to what some have lost,” said manager Kay Riley. “Everywhere you go ... there’s a building on the ground. It’s pretty dramatic.”

Onion industry leaders have contacted state and federal representatives to ask for help in finding assistance for the region. An estimated 150 farm- and non-farm-related buildings have been destroyed.

“I’ve personally seen at least 40 collapsed buildings, probably more,” said state Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario. “It really looks like they were hit by a bomb. It’s really shocking.”

U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, both D-Ore., have asked the federal government to begin the process that would result in a federal disaster declaration for Malheur County and other Eastern Oregon counties impacted by the severe winter.

A federal disaster declaration would make farmers and other businesses eligible for low-interest loans, insurance relief and other disaster aid, according to a joint news release by the senators.

Rodriguez and others said it would probably take two to three years for the industry to totally recover and rebuild.

“It’s affecting all of us in the onion industry and beyond,” he said. “It’s a sad deal.”

PORTLAND — Oregon farmers aren’t legally required to secure pesticide containers during transport but doing so anyway can prevent financial calamity, according to a safety expert.

Currently, Oregon traffic rules prohibit dealers from traveling with unsecured pesticides, but the regulation doesn’t apply to farmers, said Garnet Cooke, pesticide coordinator with the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Even so, growers in the state would be wise not to exploit that loophole.

Farmers can be held liable for clean-up costs if they’re shown to have caused a pesticide spill, which isn’t unthinkable given the abundance of smartphone cameras, Cooke said.

“It’s very expensive,” she said during a recent pesticide safety seminar at the Northwest Ag Show in Portland, Ore.

Regulators from Oregon OSHA can penalize farmers if their employees attempt to clean up a pesticide spill without sufficient training or equipment, but not for improper transport, Cooke said.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture faces a similar regulatory gap, since it can only cite growers for improper pesticide usage — and chemicals aren’t actually being used during travel, she said.

In the event of a spill, though, costs can quickly spiral out of control.

Cooke gave the example of an exhausted driver who wrecked a truck after falling asleep near The Dalles, Ore., spilling a pesticide that’s toxic to fish next to a creek.

Nearly 30 state and federal agencies responded to the accident, which required the removal of 6,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment, she said.

The creek was also dammed to allow for about 5 million gallons of water to be pumped out, Cooke said. The total cost of clean-up came to $7 million, for which the driver’s company and its insurers were responsible.

A spill resulting from unsecured pesticide containers at a nursery near Independence, Ore., was less extensive, but the clean-up still cost $250,000, she said.

Just having a “hazardous material” or “hazmat” response team show up at a spill site costs at least $500, plus $1,125 per hour of work, Cooke said.

“The cheapest way is prevention,” she said.

While properly securing pesticides is more time-consuming, employers shouldn’t allow their drivers to skip the task, Cooke said. “Allow them the time it’s going to take to do it.”

Unsecured pesticide containers are a safety hazard even if they don’t immediately spill.

In one case, a pesticide container fell off a truck into grass along the road but remained closed, Cooke said. It was eventually mowed over by the landowner, causing him to get sick and killing a cat that wandered into the spill.

“It’s very common and it doesn’t need to happen,” she said.

Hazardous exposure to pesticides also tends to occur from poor coordination of tasks on a farm, Cooke said.

For example, a commercial pesticide applicator was scheduled to spray a grass seed field at the same time a crew of five workers was roguing the crop, she said. The sprayer came within 200 feet of the workers, which was enough for four of them to experience symptoms of illness.

In light of the multitude of duties on a farm, it’s easy to see how such incidents can occur, which is why all workers and visitors should check in at the farm office to avoid mishaps, Cooke said.

Complacency is another common cause of accidents.

The simplicity of applying aluminum phosphide, a common fumigant and rodenticide, can cause people to overlook its dangerousness, she said.

Dropping pellets or tablets into a rodent burrow is enough to activate the chemical, which reacts with atmospheric moisture to form a deadly gas.

However, when improperly disposed, aluminum phosphide poses a hazard — for example, a man opened a drum containing aluminum phosphide that had become gaseous, which then ignited and left him with a skull fracture.

Aluminum phosphide applied to rodent burrows too close to residential homes has also caused multiple poisoning deaths in Texas and Utah in recent years, since the gas infiltrated the houses, Cooke said.

“Nobody reads the label because it’s too easy to use,” she said.

A federal judge has prohibited cattle grazing on 68,000 acres in Oregon’s Fremont-Winema National Forest until federal officials reconsider its impacts on Oregon spotted frogs.

Annual grazing authorizations for the Chemult Pasture issued by the U.S. Forest Service “did not account for evidence in the record showing cattle trespass, unauthorized use, and harm to habitat under the current management,” according to U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken.

Further grazing authorizations should be enjoined until the agency can determine the actual effects of grazing on the viability of spotted frogs and other sensitive species, according to Aiken’s ruling, which upholds conclusions reached by U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Clarke.

Multiple environmental groups — Concerned Friends of the Winema, Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, Western Watersheds Project, Oregon Wild and the Center for Biological Diversity — have long opposed grazing within the pasture, which has been ranched by the Iverson family for more than a century.

A lawsuit filed in 2008 was dismissed as moot because the U.S. Forest Service had built a riparian fence within the pasture to protect the frogs, which are now a threatened species.

In another case, filed in 2010, the Forest Service was found to have violated environmental laws but the judge didn’t impose an injunction against grazing because it would have been impractical and likely hurt frog populations on private land elsewhere.

The most recent complaint accuses the agency of underestimating the damage that cattle inflict on wetland habitats inhabited by spotted frogs in violation of several environmental laws.

The plaintiffs argued that during dry periods, the frogs gather in shallow pools and are trampled by cattle that regularly venture beyond areas they’re authorized to graze.

Because such unauthorized grazing wasn’t fully analyzed by the Forest Service, the agency’s conclusion that cattle had only a minimal impact on the species “lacks rational support” contrary to the National Forest Management Act, according to the court.

The court characterized as “scientifically baseless” the Forest Service’s estimate that only 3 percent of spotted frogs were trampled by cattle, which is unlawfully “arbitrary and capricious” under the Endangered Species Act.

The extent of non-lethal harassment and harm to the species — which is also prohibited by ESA — was also left out of the agency’s analysis, the court held.

“Federal defendants offer little reasoning why they do not to include these measures of take of individual (Oregon spotted frogs), beyond alluding to practical difficulties in finding and measuring bodies of dead or injured (Oregon spotted frogs),” the ruling said.

PORTLAND — Kaci Buhl cut through the technical jargon while talking to producers about pesticides and the EPA’s new worker protection standards.

“I can sum it up in a few words,” Buhl said. “Don’t spray people.”

Buhl is a senior faculty research assistant at Oregon State University’s environmental and molecular toxicology department and deputy director of the National Pesticide Information Center on campus. She said the EPA’s new rules give workers and regulators a “right to know” what, when and how much pesticides farms are using.

Some of the EPA rules are practices already followed by Oregon farmers, but the changes tighten requirements for record keeping regarding training, safety procedures and application history.

Buhl summarized the major changes:

• Annual mandatory farmworker training, the previously requirement was every five years.

• More training regarding “take home” exposure, such to pesticide residue on work clothing.

• Children under 18 for the first time are prohibited from handling pesticides. The farmer’s immediate family is excluded from the regulation.

• Additional clarity regarding “no entry” exclusion zones of zero, 25 and 100 feet from where pesticides were applied. Buhl reminded producers that exclusion zones travel with the equipment.

• Mandatory “no entry” signs and mandatory record keeping.

• Changes in protective equipment requirements to make them consistent with Department of Labor Standards. Workers wearing respirators must first be medically certified and must undergo a “fit” test to make sure the gear is working properly.

• Specific amounts of water per worker must be available at the work site for routine hand-washing and emergency eye flushing. Eye wash stations are required at pesticide mixing and loading sites.

Buhl said worker training is critical. Labor contractors who can supply crews that have been properly trained in handling pesticides will have an advantage. However, farmers are ultimately responsible for making sure workers follow safety rules.

“The buck stops with the ag employer,” Buhl said.

Buhl spoke during the Jan. 24-26 Northwest Agricultural Show at the Portland Expo Center. The annual event typically includes a trade show and equipment displays combined with workshops on regulatory or production issues.

Pesticide use on farms is a flash point for some consumers and environmental activists. Buhl said the general public is afraid of or unfamiliar with pesticides. “We have a job to do, to tell the story that they are not as toxic as people think,” she said.

One producer in the audience complained that the safety gear required by pesticide guidelines makes workers look like “astronauts” and gives the impression to passersby that the material is far more hazardous than it is.

A nursery owner in the audience asked about exclusion zones. Many operations, he said, have hedges around their property in part to contain pesticide drift. There might be unseen walkers or bicyclists on the other side who are within the exclusion zone. Buhl part of a producer’s “due diligence” would involve stopping spraying to take a look, posting flaggers on the other side of the hedge and similar methods.

“Suspend, evaluate, ensure,” she said.

Some of the EPA changes went into effect this year; the rest take effect in January 2018.

HEMRISTON, Ore. — Dressed in wool overalls and carrying a pitchfork, Umatilla County Sheriff Terry Rowan looked more like a rancher than a lawman Wednesday morning while pacing the snow-covered pastures at Cedar Creek Cattle Company in Hermiston.

Two weeks earlier, Rowan and deputies arrived at this property on Columbia Lane and South Edwards Road to discover more than a dozen dead cattle and another 15 so malnourished they couldn’t be safely moved. Charges of animal neglect will likely be filed against the herd’s owner, 55-year-old Michael Hockensmith, but in the meantime daily care of the animals has fallen to the sheriff’s office.

On Wednesday, officers recruited about 15 students from Blue Mountain Community College to help round up the cows for tagging and immunizations. A local veterinarian was also on hand to assess each animal’s body condition.

By day’s end, Rowan said they processed 185 cattle with another eight still to go. The death toll, which had been 14 animals, is now 17, including a two-year-old heifer found dead early Wednesday morning. A necropsy determined the heifer, which was seven and a half months pregnant, had suffered from a bacterial disease and congestive heart failure.

“She had a rough life,” said Brent Barton, veterinarian with the Oregon Trail Veterinary Clinic in Hermiston.

Upon investigation, Rowan said it appears the cattle were neglected over an extended period of time. There was no hay when officers first showed up weeks earlier, and water troughs had frozen over with 6-8 inches of ice.

“We have some really malnourished animals we’ve been contending with,” Rowan said.

Rowan said they expect to file multiple charges of first- and second-degree animal neglect against Hockensmith in the coming days. Jake Kamins, Oregon’s deputy district attorney dedicated solely to animal cases, has been brought on as a special prosecutor.

Hockensmith has not returned multiple calls by the East Oregonian for comment.

The sheriff’s office has already spent several thousand dollars caring for the cattle, Rowan said. It also takes time and manpower to make sure the animals are properly fed, and to break through ice in the water troughs.

“It always stretches your resources,” Rowan said. “At the same time, it’s worthwhile. You hate to see the animals neglected.”

Their goal Wednesday was to tag each of the cattle and give them much-needed vaccines, such as de-wormer and multi-mineral injection to boost their immune system. To do that, students from Matt Liscom’s beef production class at BMCC joined the team to round up reluctant cattle and run them through the loading chutes.

From there, the animals were ushered one by one into a metal squeeze chute designed to hold them still, where Barton could perform his assessment. Some cattle thrashed, struggled and even fell down inside the contraption, getting themselves stuck in the process.

“They’re not used to people handling them,” Barton said. “Essentially, they’re pretty tender creatures right now. They’ve already been through quite a cold spell.”

Liscom, who works as an agriculture science instructor at BMCC, said they were contacted by the sheriff’s office last week to lend a hand, and he decided it would be a valuable educational opportunity for his beef production students.

“We had a lab day anyway, so it worked out well that we could help out the county as well as learn,” Liscom said.

Liscom said the class was not there to pass any judgment, or to determine who is right and who is wrong in the case.

“We’re just here to help care for these animals as best we can,” he said.

When it comes to cattle care, providing enough food and water is critical to the animals’ survival. Chris Schachtschneider, a professor of livestock and rangeland with Oregon State University Extension Service, said cows need to eat at least 2.5 percent of its body weight in dry feed every day.

Otherwise, Schachtschneider said the animals lose their fat reserves and the body essentially begins to eat away at muscles and other internal organs. Once that happens, it can be hard to reverse.

“If they’re too far down that road, successful recovery is very unlikely,” he said.

This year’s unusually intense winter has caused some issues for local ranchers, Schachtschneider said, especially for those cows that have already begun calving. Schachtschneider said he’s seen instances where ranchers are bringing calves inside and using hairdryers to keep them warm.

But as long as the animals have good feed and good water, Schachtschneider said they tend to withstand cold fairly well.

“The animals are really resilient to (the weather) if they have proper nutrition,” he said.

Dave Grimes, lab technician for BMCC’s agriculture department, worked on a ranch in Athena for 32 years and said inclement weather definitely makes things more challenging in the fields. However, ranchers should have an obligation to their animals.

“No matter what, they’ve got to be worked,” Grimes said. “They’ve got to be taken care of.”