Jackson Family Wines’ latest purchase continues a trend of big corporate players entering Oregon’s wine scene, but observers aren’t worried the newcomers will dilute the industry.

Jackson Family, based in Santa Rosa, Calif., and perhaps best known for its familiar Kendall Jackson label, is buying WillaKenzie Estate winery in Yamhill, Ore.

The company has purchased at least four Oregon properties since 2013, and earlier this year spent $4.6 million for two buildings at the bankrupt Evergreen International Aviation campus in McMinnville. Jackson Family Wines reportedly plans to develop a winery on the Evergreen property.

Jackson Family is an international wine company, with operations in Chile, France, Italy and Australia in addition to the U.S.

In Oregon, Jackson Family has snapped up the Zena Crown, Gran Moraine and Penner-Ash vineyards and wineries over the past three years.

Mike McLain, an Albany, Ore., real estate broker who specializes in vineyard properties, said Jackson Family’s Oregon investment is impressive. Depending on location, raw Willamette Valley vineyard ground sells for $10,000 to more than $40,000 per acre, he said. He emphasized Jackson Family is not his client.

“I think they’re just very smart,” he said. “They’ve come to recognize Oregon is a good place to buy property that has water, which is a big concern for California.

“I don’t see what they’re doing as being a negative at all – it’s very much a positive for the Oregon wine industry,” McLain said. “They have the power to become ambassadors for the industry that other people don’t have the size and the money to do.”

McLain owns a vineyard and winery himself. His real estate brokerage, McLain & Associates, lists half a dozen new Willamette Valley vineyard properties for sale on its website.

McLain said the Willamette Valley has ample room for expansion. He said he spent 15 years mapping slope and soil types in the valley and estimates there are 200,000 acres suitable for wine grape production. Most of that is now in timber or other crops.

The expanding presence in Oregon of Jackson Family and other big wine companies such as Louis Jadot, a noted winemaker from the Burgundy region of France that has purchased at least two Oregon properties, is a matter of keen interest to people in the business.

Jean Yates, president of Oregon Wine Marketing, near Corvallis, said larger wineries are good for ancillary businesses such as Realtors, cork and label makers, equipment dealers, shipping companies and the like. Concerns include water and a shrinking labor force. Larger businesses are able to pay more and offer better benefits and might draw workers from smaller vineyards and wineries, she said.

Yates, who publishes an on-line business newsletter at oregon-wine.com, said the challenge for Oregon’s growing wine industry is to retain the characteristics that set it apart. Among them are the quirky, talented individuals originally drawn to make wine in Oregon and the collaborative, “family farm” nature of their operations. Beginning with what’s become the state’s signature wine, Pinot noir, the early founders came at it from varied backgrounds, helped each other and created an industry known for its quality, not quantity.

“That aspect of the industry is one of the things that separates us from other areas,” Yates said. “You don’t want to lose it in the rush to grow the industry.”

Yates said the Jackson Family purchases marks a second round of outside purchases of vineyards and wineries. Beginning about 2002, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, or CalPERS, aggressively bought vineyards and wineries in Oregon. But its management company ran into trouble during the recession, triggering another round of sales.

Meanwhile, the industry appears to approve of Jackson Family’s expansion. Oregon Wine Board communications manager Michelle Kaufmannsaid the industry is “excited to welcome anyone into our community, any person or corporation, that is committed to making the highest quality wines possible and enriching our wine community, which is exactly what we’ve seen Jackson Family do with the other acquisitions they’ve made.”

Kaufmann said Jackson Family has kept Oregonians on staff at its other purchased facilities and allowed them to make their own operational decisions, so their wine brands remain distinguishable.

Mark Chien, director of the Oregon Wine Research Institute at Oregon State University, said Jackson Family’s wines are high quality, “absolutely in line” with the acclaimed wine Oregon is known for. “It’s an interesting development in the wine industry,” Chien said of the company’s WillaKenzie purchase.

CARLTON, Ore. — Farmer Scott Bernards has more than one reason to be nervous about bicyclists and joggers regularly traveling a stretch of abandoned railroad next to his field.

With the negative attention given to pesticides in recent years, converting the decommissioned railroad into a hiking and biking trail could complicate spray operations, Bernards said.

“What if I don’t even see them?” he said.

Expecting him and other farmers to shut down sections of the proposed 17-mile “Yamhelas Westsider Trail” between Gaston and McMinnville when applying pesticides is also unrealistic, Bernards said.

“I never know exactly when I’m going to spray,” he said.

As the “rail to trail” proposal gains steam among Yamhill County officials and supporters, several local farmers have been pushing back against the project.

A chief concern is the reaction that urban trail users will have upon encountering common farming practices to which they object for environmental or philosophical reasons.

“Farming is hard enough without people from Portland telling us what to do,” said Chris Mattson, whose property is bisected by roughly 1,000 feet of the railroad.

Aside from potential conflicts with farm operations, Bernards, Mattson and other growers are worried about the prospect of increased trespassing, fire danger and vandalism.

Mattson said he’s fenced off his property abutting the railroad because of problems with teenagers drinking, riding all-terrain vehicles and dumping trash on his property.

If the railroad becomes an official trail and attracts even more visitors, Mattson said he’s worried it will be inhabited by transients similarly to the Springwater Corridor Trail in Portland, which is known for homeless camps.

Supporters of the rail-to-trail proposal say these concerns are overblown given the rural nature of the area.

“This is not Springwater,” said Ken Wright, a winemaker in Carlton who supports the project.

The nearby 21-mile Banks-Vernonia State Trial — an abandoned railroad purchased by the State of Oregon more than four decades ago — hasn’t caused increased crime or attracted transients, he said.

“It’s more of a visceral reaction than a reality,” Wright said. “Those concerns are not justified by history.”

Conflicts between trail users and landowners also haven’t materialized, he said. “There have been no issues with farming practices up there.”

New visitors to the area would spend money on restaurants and lodgings, strengthening Yamhill County’s business community, Wright said.

Clearing brush from the overgrown railroad track would actually reduce fire hazards, and volunteers could help with the work to contain costs, he said.

There’s also a legitimate reason why grant dollars from the Oregon Department of Transportation should be invested in the project: Bicyclists who already use Oregon Route 47 are regularly killed on the narrow state highway, he said.

“They don’t want bikes on these roads. It’s just death waiting to happen,” Wright said.

Roughly $2.3 million in grants has been raised in support of the project, which is also in contention for another $1.2 million in grants from ODOT, he said.

Yamhill County officials have offered to purchase nine miles of the railroad from its current owner, Union Pacific Railroad, but those negotiations are ongoing, Wright said.

Capital Press was unable to reach a representative of Yamhill County as of press time.

The Oregon Farm Bureau has argued that Yamhill County’s commissioners should first complete the land use process and issue a conditional use permit for the trail before spending money on the land.

The bureau disagrees with the county’s view that it would be premature to begin the land use process before the county buys the railroad, said Mary Anne Nash, public policy counsel for OFB, in a letter to the commissioners.

“Constructing a bike path near agricultural lands creates a host of potential conflicts and liability concerns which the county has yet to address,” the letter said. “These concerns should be addressed before the county invests more resources in this project.”

BOARDMAN, Ore. — The public will have another month to weigh in on a controversial new mega-dairy proposed at the former Boardman Tree Farm property.

More than 2,300 comments have already poured in to the Oregon Department of Agriculture and Department of Environmental Quality on the Lost Valley Ranch, an operation that would add 30,000 cows to the area and generate roughly 187 million gallons of liquid manure each year.

ODA and DEQ are responsible for registering the dairy as a confined animal feeding operation, or CAFO. But first, the agencies must approve a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit, which outlines how Lost Valley will manage wastewater and monitor for potential groundwater contamination.

A public hearing was held July 28 at the Port of Morrow, where a majority of people favored approving Lost Valley’s permit application. Speakers included the project designer, local contractors and Marty Myers, general manager of neighboring Threemile Canyon Farms, which runs an even larger dairy with 70,000 cows.

“Sustainable agriculture is really what we’re talking about here,” Myers said during the hearing.

However, the bulk of written comments oppose Lost Valley, arguing such large dairies have a negative impact on air and water quality. Wym Matthews, CAFO program manager for ODA, said the sheer number of comments they received was unprecedented.

“The agencies are bound to look at those comments and respond to them all,” Matthews said.

The original public comment period ended Aug. 4, though it was reopened Monday at the request of the state Environmental Justice Task Force and will now run through 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4.

Lost Valley Ranch is proposed by California dairyman Greg te Velde, who purchased 7,288 acres along the southern boundary of the Boardman Tree Farm east of where Homestead Lane intersects with Poleline Road.

For 14 years, te Velde has run the Willow Creek Dairy on land leased from Threemile Canyon Farms, producing 70,000 gallons of milk per day for Tillamook Cheese at the Port of Morrow. Now, he wants to move and expand his operation, with more than triple the number of cows.

The application for Lost Valley Ranch includes an Animal Waste Management Plan, describing how waste will be managed on site. The plan calls for six main lagoons, adding up to 260 acre-feet of storage. All lagoons would have a double liner with leak detection to protect against material leaching into the groundwater.

The nitrogen-rich waste would then be recycled and applied at agronomic rates — based on soil testing — to irrigate 5,900 acres growing animal feed, such as corn silage and alfalfa. Whatever is left over would be used to make animal bedding or transferred off site, according to the application.

A methane digester might also be considered to mitigate air pollution, te Velde said, though that’s not in their immediate plans. He figures it will cost about $4,000 per milking cow just to get the dairy up and running. The state CAFO permit does not require any air pollution measures.

Most of the environmental concerns raised by the public have already been addressed in the application, te Velde said.

“I don’t think there are any new issues that came up,” he said.

After some initial trepidation, the Morrow County Court has also come out in support of Lost Valley Ranch. Local officials had expressed concern about the development of a second large dairy within three critical groundwater areas, as well as impacts to nearby irrigation canals and concern for animal mistreatment.

In comments filed Aug. 24, the court said it trusts those issues will be addressed during the permit review process.

“The positive economic impacts that the proposed dairy would have on our region, coupled with the review and oversight provided under the ODA permitting process, brings the county court to the conclusion that it is in the best interest of the Morrow County community to approve this application,” they wrote.

Other groups are pushing back against the proposal, urging the agencies to reject the Lost Valley permit over threats to the environment and public health.

Tarah Heinzen, staff attorney for Food & Water Watch based in Washington, D.C., was the lead author for 16 pages worth of comments filed on behalf of nine organizations, including Food & Water Watch, Columbia Riverkeeper, Friends of Family Farmers, the Northwest Environmental Defense Center, Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, the Sierra Club, Friends of the Columbia Gorge, the U.S. Humane Society and the Center for Biological Diversity.

If approved, Lost Valley Ranch would generate waste on par with a mid-size city, Heinzen said. Meanwhile, the area is home to the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area, where the level of nitrates in the groundwater already exceeds the federal safe drinking water standard.

The potential for further water pollution is significant, Heinzen said, and Lost Valley’s application too vague to assure the facility can handle such a large volume of waste.

“The size of this facility is just staggering,” Heinzen said. “This is essentially going to be a sewer-less city.”

According to their comments, the nine groups claim that CAFOs produce more than 300 million tons of waste across the country each year, which can include things like salmonella and E. coli making their way into nearby waterways. Yet the Oregon CAFO permit lacks surface water monitoring required under the federal Clean Water Act.

There are also no controls on regulating air emissions from the facility, said Lauren Goldberg, staff attorney for Columbia Riverkeeper.

“We were taken aback by the lack of critical public health, air and water pollution controls,” Goldberg said.

In 2008, the Oregon Dairy Air Quality Task Force issued a final report to ODA and DEQ finding that dairies have the potential to emit several kinds of harmful pollutants, such as ammonia and methane. It issued a list of recommendations to create a dairy air quality program by 2015 — none of which have been implemented so far, Goldberg said.

The state has also failed to consider the combined effects of having Lost Valley Ranch so close to Threemile Canyon Farms in Morrow County, Goldberg said.

DEQ and the Southwest Clean Air Agency, however, issued a Columbia River Gorge Air Study and Strategy in 2011 stating that Threemile Canyon is “continuously addressing its air emissions by applying new technologies and adaptively managing its dairies with best management practices.”

That includes using manure as fertilizer and compost for agricultural crops on the farm, and building a methane digester to generate power. In the same report, DEQ said implementation of the Dairy Task Force’s recommendations was dependent on receiving funding from the Legislature, which never came through.

“In the meantime, the Oregon dairy industry has identified voluntary (best management practices) being utilized by various dairy operations in Oregon,” the report states.

Objections to Lost Valley aren’t limited to environmental impacts. Ivan Maluski, policy director for Friends of Family Farms, is critical of how factory farming has harmed smaller farms and ranches across the state.

When Threemile Canyon arrived in Oregon in 2002, Maluski said the state lost roughly nine dairy businesses per month over a period of five years, even as the overall number of dairy cows increased. Lost Valley Ranch is easily the largest dairy proposal since Threemile Canyon, he said.

“All farms have been the backbone of Oregon’s economy for several generations,” Maluski said. “I think we need to do what we can to make sure we’re not putting those operations out of business.”

Public comments against Lost Valley Ranch also address the facility’s “unreasonable” water withdrawals, amounting to more than 3.2 million gallons per year, and a lack of outreach to environmental justice communities, including the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation which maintain treaty rights on the land.

“You see really diverse interests that are converging around a shared opposition to this project,” Goldberg said.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The leader of an armed takeover of a national wildlife refuge took the witness stand in his own defense, tearfully telling jurors he was initially reluctant to get involved in the plight of two Oregon ranchers ordered to return to prison.

Ammon Bundy, 41, of Emmett, Idaho, wore blue jail scrubs Tuesday afternoon and had a copy of the U.S. Constitution in his front pocket. He has rejected the option of civilian clothes, contending he’s a political prisoner.

When asked where he lives, he told the court: “Multnomah County Jail, maximum security.”

The testimony quickly got more serious. Bundy testified he knew nothing about ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond until his father, Cliven Bundy, asked if he was aware of their situation.

“I’m afraid what’s happening to them is the same thing that happened to us,” Bundy recalled his father saying, referring to the family’s long fight with the government over federal lands and grazing fees, highlighted by a 2014 armed standoff with federal agents at Cliven Bundy’s ranch near Bunkerville, Nevada.

“I told him, ‘Dad, I can’t fight another battle. We’re doing the best we can to keep our family from going to prison.”’ Bundy said.

Bundy said that changed in early November 2015, when he clicked on an article about the Hammonds and became consumed by their case. He told the court he had and “overwhelming feeling it was my duty to get involved and protect this family.”

Within days, he traveled to Harney County to meet the Hammonds and unsuccessfully press a local sheriff to shield them from federal authorities.

The Hammonds were convicted of an arson charge that carries a minimum prison sentence of five years. A federal judge, on his last day before retirement, decided it was too stiff and gave the men much lighter penalties.

Prosecutors won an appeal and the Hammonds returned to prison Jan. 4 to complete the mandatory minimum.

Bundy and six co-defendants, one of them is his brother Ryan, are charged with conspiring to impede Interior Department employees from doing their jobs during the 41-day occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. The occupation began shortly after a Jan. 2 rally in support of the Hammonds and it grew into a wider call for the government to relinquish control of the refuge and other Western lands.

Bundy and his followers believe the federal government does not have a right to own land within a state, except for limited purposes, and only if it gets consent from the state and purchases the property.

Though she allowed Bundy to describe his beliefs, U.S. District Judge Anna Brown limited “narrative lectures” on land policy saying it’s not relevant to the criminal case.

Bundy’s attorney, Marcum Mumford, then questioned his client about the Bunkerville standoff. He played a video clip of his client getting shot three times with a stun gun as protesters clashed with federal agents near Cliven Bundy’s ranch.

Mumford asked Bundy why he kept coming back for more after getting shocked by a Taser.

“Their actions were way out of line, way out of line,” he said.

The judge reminded jurors they were not deciding the merits of the Bunkerville standoff, only its effect on Bundy’s state of mind and if it played a role in his decision to occupy the federal land in Oregon.

Mumford asked Bundy about such a connection.

“It’s definitely a piece of it,” Bundy said.

Bundy and his father are both facing charges from the Bunkerville standoff and are scheduled to be tried in 2017.

Bundy is expected to return to the witness stand Wednesday.

PORT ORFORD -- The Rotary Club of Port Orford will hold its fourth-annual Oktoberfest from 6-10 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15, at the Community Building at 419 11th St., Port Orford. The event is family friendly and there will be live…

The Owyhee Irrigation District in Oregon’s Malheur County is accused in a lawsuit of delivering insufficient water to a farming couple, causing $200,000 in crop losses.

Delos and Barbara Lee have filed a complaint alleging the irrigation district delivered fewer than 80 acre-feet of water to their 95-acre farm in 2014 even though they were allocated to receive 142.5 acre-feet that year.

The complaint, filed in Malheur County Circuit Court, claims that the Lees received their allocated 153 acre-feet in 2016, but miscalculations by the district resulted in “no water delivery of water during certain months in which Lee otherwise would have received water.”

The lawsuit accuses the district of negligence and breach of contract and seeks $200,000 in damages.

Jay Chamberlin, manager of the Owyhee Irrigation District, said he’s away from the office at a conference and hasn’t yet read the complaint.

Delivering water has been a challenge during recent droughts, he said. “The drought has caused a tremendous hardship on our ag producers.”

In the 2014 and 2015 growing seasons, about 27 percent of the acres served by the district were idled due to a lack of irrigation water, Chamberlin said.

The situation improved in 2016 but farmers have faced lower prices for hay, cattle, grains and corn, he said. “It’s almost like a two-edged sword.”

WOODBURN, Ore. (AP) — The U.S. Geological Survey says a minor earthquake has hit about 16 miles northeast of Salem.

The agency says a magnitude-3.1 temblor struck at about 9:29 p.m. Monday with an epicenter about three miles northwest of Woodburn.

The agency reported the earthquake was about 14 miles deep.

No damage was immediately reported.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A witness testifying for the defense Monday in the trial of Ammon Bundy, Ryan Bundy and others charged in the armed takeover of an Oregon bird sanctuary said the place was peaceful during the occupation, a sharp contrast to what he saw as an over-the-top police response.

Pat Horlacher, of Burns, Oregon, said he drove to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge shortly after the occupation because he wanted to see for himself if reports of a dangerous situation were true.

The silversmith said he drove right in and met the Bundy brothers and Robert “LaVoy” Finicum. “It was as laid-back an environment as you could ever ask for,” he said.

Horlacher said he tried to meet Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward, but he had no luck getting through heavy security. He said key government buildings were protected by armed police and federal agents.

“The only thing I could compare it to was a scene out of “Red Dawn,” said Horlacher, referencing the 1984 movie in which Cuban soldiers invade a small Colorado town.

“You felt like you were invaded?” asked Ryan Bundy, who’s acting his own attorney.

“Absolutely,” Horlacher said.

He was among several witnesses Monday afternoon who provided a different view than the government of what took place during last winter’s standoff. While prosecutors have highlighted the amount of guns and ammunition seized at the refuge, defense witnesses were more likely to describe children playing in the snow than men pointing or firing weapons.

Seven defendants are charged with conspiring to impede U.S. Interior Department employees from doing their work at the refuge through intimidation, threats or force.

Five were also charged with possessing a firearm in a federal facility. That number was reduced to four Monday morning when U.S. District Court Judge Anna Brown dismissed the charge against Shawna Cox, citing a lack of evidence.

Also Monday, Sheriff Ward returned to the stand about three weeks after he appeared as a witness for the prosecution.

Bundy went to Burns two months before the occupation in an attempt to get the sheriff to shield two Oregon ranchers from returning to federal prison to complete a mandatory-minimum sentence for arson.

The sheriff testified Monday that he initially thought Bundy didn’t have all the facts on the case. But a statement Bundy released on social media after the two met led him to conclude Bundy was dishonest, not misinformed.

Ammon Bundy’s lawyer, Marcus Mumford, reminded Ward he previously testified that he always felt comfortable speaking with Bundy. “Being comfortable talking to someone doesn’t make them honest,” Ward said.

Mumford tried to poke holes in Ward’s previous testimony that a show of hands revealed that about 85 percent of people at a Jan. 6 community meeting wanted the occupiers to go home. He contended that some people raised their hands to the question of “How many want to work this out peacefully?” and then put them down when asked if they want the occupiers to leave.

A defense witness who was at the meeting, Kim Rollins, described a slight hesitation between the two questions. The video shown to jurors appeared to support his contention.

“I would describe it as a straw vote, to get a certain reaction,” he said.

BANDON — “The Ventriloquist” is a new approach for New Artists Productions, a rare dramatic presentation being staged at the Sprague Community Theater.

BANDON -- “The Ventriloquist” is a new approach for New Artists Productions, a rare dramatic presentation being staged at the Sprague Community Theater.

A calf found dead Sept. 28 in Wallowa County was killed by one or more wolves, according to Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife.

A livestock owner found the calf and alerted ODFW. The carcass was intact but had bite wounds on the left front leg, left flank and left hind leg, which investigators described as common attack points for wolves. The size, spacing and number of bite marks also were consistent with wolf attacks, and wolf tracks were found at the site, according to an ODFW depredation report. The calf probably died three days before it was found, according to the report.

The attack happened in the Harl Butte area on private land. Another calf was attacked in July about 8 miles southwest of the most recent incident.

Investigators did not attribute the attack to a specific wolf pack.

PENDLETON, Ore. — Like a lot of farmland surrounding Pendleton, Duff Ranches is dominated by dryland wheat fields that stretch over the vast, rolling countryside.

About 10 years ago, Jim Duff decided to try something different at the family farm off Highway 11. His son’s father-in-law is the founder and general manager of Eola Hills Winery near Salem, and Duff figured he could grow a few acres of wine grapes to sell to Eola Hills and, perhaps, establish a new blend.

Duff planted four different varieties of grapes, including Syrah, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. He spent two years completing viticulture classes at Walla Walla Community College to learn about different plants and how to control diseases.

Despite his preparation, the experiment didn’t end well.

“We knew it was going to be a gamble,” Duff said. “The vines grew really well, but never any fruit.”

After five years and $60,000 spent, Duff decided to give up on grapevines. The biggest problem, he said, was untimely spring frost — whenever the vines started to grow buds, a hard frost would come along and wipe out the grapes before he could harvest.

“Its very humbling,” Duff said. “You work so hard trying to get something to grow. In one night, it’s over.”

A successful vineyard requires the right combination of climate and environmental factors, collectively referred to as “terroir.” Walla Walla has it. Milton-Freewater has it. Echo has it. Pendleton, it seems, is right on the edge.

Kevin Pogue, professor of geology at Whitman College in Walla Walla and an expert on wine grape production, said he has done site evaluations for two or three groups of people around Pendleton to determine the potential for growing vineyards.

With just 12-17 inches of annual rainfall, Pogue said, anyone growing wine grapes in the area would first need access to irrigation water. He also advises farmers to plant vineyards on top of hills, as opposed to valleys where cold air can become trapped.

“On either end of the growing season, you have a frost risk,” Pogue said. “It would kill your fruit for that year.”

Every vineyard in the Columbia Basin is subject to frost and freezes, Pogue said. But the challenge of accumulating enough warm days for the grapes to ripen is even steeper in Pendleton.

“In an average year, you would always be holding your breath,” Pogue said.

One thing Pendleton does have, Pogue said, is the right soils. He is particularly excited about the rocky soil found near McKay Creek — similar to the soil that now distinguishes The Rocks District of Milton-Freewater.

“I think the soil would be fabulous for growing wine grapes,” he said.

Pogue, who owns his own vineyard consulting company called VinTerra, said he would like to see someone grow wine grapes in Pendleton, but admits it wouldn’t be easy.

“In some years, you could do it no problem. In some years, it would be a disaster, and in most years, you would be anxious all the time,” he said.

Apart from shaky weather, starting a vineyard is also a considerable investment. Pogue said it takes as much as $20,000 to $30,000 per acre just to get started, including the cost of planting and installing irrigation systems.

From there, the first grapes won’t be harvested for three years. It could take up to a decade before a farmer sees any profit, Pogue said.

“You look into the economics of it, and it’s a daunting challenge,” he said. “You aren’t going to be making money for a long time.”

Steve Robertson, who owns SJR Vineyard in The Rocks District of Milton-Freewater, said time and labor add another layer of challenge.

“There’s no getting away from human beings tending the rows in the middle of wine season,” Robertson said. “Most of that is handwork.”

It takes a long-range vision and dedication to make it in the wine business, Robertson said. For him, growing grapes is a lifestyle.

“There’s a lot of opportunity for creativity and variance,” he said. “That excites a lot of people.”

Robertson said he believes there are excellent spots to grow grapevines around Pendleton, but it will take those first pioneering steps to establish the region.

“If the quality is there, the market is there,” he said.

Clive Kaiser, extension horticulturist with Oregon State University in Milton-Freewater, said he can only think of two vineyards attempted in Pendleton over the last decade, including Duff’s. The other was located near Blue Mountain Community College, and ran into issues with a type of weed killer that drifted over from a neighboring wheat field.

The chemical, known as 2,4-D, can’t be used in the Walla Walla AVA between April 1 and Oct. 31. However, Kaiser said, there is no such moratorium in Pendleton.

“The wheat farmers use it extensively,” he said. “It’s those challenges that are really going to make Pendleton a barrier.”

Kaiser said he believes the lack of early success might deter other growers from giving it a try, but additional technology has increased the potential for progress.

As for Duff, his stepson Bob Rosselle now operates Duff Ranches, where the wheat fields take up most of his time. Duff did transplant some of the grapevines to his home in Pendleton, where he said they grow much better than they did on the farm.

Duff said he was able to recoup some of the money he put into his vineyard by selling equipment, but overall the venture was a loss. If he been able to keep it going, he said Eola Hills would have paid $1,500 per ton of grapes at 2-3 tons per acre. Given the recent sagging wheat prices, he said wine grapes could be a tempting alternative.

Duff said there’s no question vines will grow in Pendleton — in fact, they’ll grow on a farmer’s worst ground, he said. But whether it can be profitable is yet to be seen.

“You’re not in control as much as you think you are,” he said.

McMINNVILLE, Ore. — The fact that many were expecting twins didn’t keep nearly 100 top meat goats from congregating at the American Boer Goat Association’s Fall Show and Sale Oct. 1-2 at the Yamhill County Fairgrounds.

South African Boer goats, with their white bodies and red heads, are docile, fertile animals with rapid growth and density of frame.

“About 60 to 70 percent of the world eats goat meat,” Ruth Kilgore, president of the Oregon Meat Goat Producers, said. “With our growing ethnic population, the demand for goat meat in the U.S. exceeds our ability to keep up.” In 2014 the U.S. imported more than 43 million pounds of goat meat, primarily from Australia, for a total value of $94.7 million, according to North Carolina State University.

Before the Boers arrived in the U.S. in 1993 people ate milk goats.

“When people think of goats they think of skinny, bony dairy goats; not the breeds being grown just for the meat and that within five months can provide a 100-pound goat that’s ready to butcher,” Dana Childers of Medford, Ore., said. Her 2-year-old doe ‘Made you Look’ weighs 225 pounds; her males reach about 300 pounds.

With a 4-H beginning, 15-year-old Megan Walton and her older sister Riley started Little Star Farm at their home in Aurora, Ore.

“Goats are popular around the world because they can go in groups; they’re easy to eat because the bone-to-meat ratio is better than cows and they’re easier to keep cool in the heat because of their ears,” Megan Walton said. The care they put into their animals can yield some healthy returns, to which Childers can attest.

“The more that you show and the more that you promote your herd, the more money there is,” said Childers who, with husband Bruce, owns Childers Show Goats. “Artificial insemination can be pretty expensive; you’re looking at about $100 for a single straw, but with the right buck the babies will sell like mad.”

Bruce Childers would like to see goat meat take its rightful place in American refrigerators.

“I think if people tried it and it was prepared properly, it would become a highly consumed meat,” he said. “Goat meat is so much better for you than other red meats and really tastes good if prepared properly. Goat meat would really appeal to people who are health conscious and want meat, if they really knew what it was.”

The word’s getting out, thanks to word-of-mouth Facebook-style.

“Facebook is amazing,” Dana Childers said. “I’ve put goats on there and had them sell within 10 minutes. Websites are great, but the volume of people you can reach in a minute on Facebook is amazing.”

The family goat may also be coming back into vogue.

“A lot of people are getting 5-acre plots now and goats could work very well there because you put five goats where you can put one cow,” Kilgore said. “A family can handle them easily and still have other jobs.”

CLACKAMAS, Ore. — Clackamas High School southeast of Portland has an ag program other schools envy, with a 10-acre farm, livestock, apple trees, greenhouses, a wonderful old barn and other outbuildings.

Teacher Kathy Mayfield has had to fight for it, and savors the prospect of voters approving Measure 98, which would provide at least $800 annually per student for high school career and technical education (CTE) programs, college-level courses and dropout prevention programs.

The measure, on the statewide November ballot, would establish the High School Graduation and College and Career Readiness Fund as part of the state’s general fund budget. Money for the program would come from anticipated increases in state revenue.

Ag teachers and many others involved in vocational training strongly support the measure, citing workforce needs in the technical trades and a segment of students who reach a dead end in high school.

Mayfield said she has conversations with parents who tell her the Clackamas ag program “saved my child.”

“I think that goes across the board with CTE,” Mayfield said. “It provides a relevancy to education that they just aren’t getting. All of sudden, math makes sense and science makes sense.”

At Sutherlin High School in Southern Oregon, ag teacher Wes Crawford said the real-world application of technical ed “flips the tables” for students who struggle with traditional academic courses or tune out at school.

“Everyone is a lot more equal,” Crawford said. “Sometimes this is what gets them through their day.”

His program in Sutherlin has four paths: Animal science, which includes veterinary science; plant science, which includes forestry; agri-business; and a sector dealing with power structures and technology, which includes welding classes. In a school of 410 students, about 135 are enrolled in Crawford’s classes.

At Clackamas, Mayfield and her husband, Wynn, the school’s other ag teacher, offer three years of animal science classes and advanced ag in the final year. Mayfield said animals draw students in, but they’re also exposed to a well-rounded program that includes soil science, marketing, tractor driving and other aspects of ag. Students raise and market beef, while beginners press the farm’s apples into cider, which is sold as well.

But Mayfield said she and her husband handle classes of 35 students. Passage of the measure might provide money to repair rotting greenhouse walls and add more staff; an instructor-to-student ratio of 1-to-20 or so would be desirable, she said.

The measure has broad support, including endorsements from construction trade unions, newspaper editorial boards, the Latino Network, Coalition of Communities of Color and Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, among others.

An analysis from the League of Women Voters said Oregon’s 72 percent graduation rate in 2014 was the fourth worse in the U.S., and Oregon’s per-student spending has dropped 5 percent since 2010. The League said auto shop, wood and metal shop, culinary arts and robotics classes have been “significantly reduced” over the past 20 years.

Data from the Oregon Department of Education showed that students who earned at least one CTE credit in high school have a graduation rate more than 15 percent higher than the state average, according to the League’s analysis. The difference “tends to be more dramatic for low income and minority students who have taken CTE,” the League said.

Opposition has been low key. A committee studying Measure 98 for the influential Portland City Club split 5-5 on an endorsement vote, with some members saying the measure was too narrowly focused but all agreeing the current state of education in Oregon “threatens the state’s future and economy.”

The City Club’s full membership, however, overrode the committee’s concern and voted to endorse the measure. Elsewhere, the Crook County School Board in Central Oregon declined to endorse the measure. Both candidates for governor, incumbent Kate Brown and Bud Pierce, support it.

Vocational education can be a “real life-changer” for young people, said Bridget Quinn, workforce development coordinator for a Portland training center jointly operated by the National Electrical Contractors Association and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Quinn became a licensed journeyman electrician in 2008 after completing an apprenticeship program. “I had never heard anything in high school about this as a possible career,” she said. “I’m trying to deliver the information that, quite frankly, I missed out on.”

The contractor-union coalition operating the training center supports Measure 98, she said.

Many high school graduates haven’t held a tool in their hands and aren’t prepared to enter the trades, which in some cases have been stigmatized as “only for losers couldn’t make into college,” Quinn said. The stereotype of the “cat-calling construction worker” hasn’t helped, she said.

But the construction trades need workers, because up to a third of the workforce will be retiring in he coming years as Baby Boomers reach the end of their careers, she said.

She welcomes the swing back to career and technical education in high school.

“For a very long time it received cuts,” Quinn said. “The first thing cut from the budget was auto shop, wood shop and metal shop.”

SPOKANE — The USDA Risk Management Agency has denied Northwest wheat farmers’ request for an easing of procedures related to falling number.

Grain elevators use the Hagberg-Perten falling number test to measure starch damage due to sprouting. A low falling number indicates a high level of alpha amylase, an enzyme that degrades starch and diminishes the quality of wheat.

Wheat with a falling number below 300 typically receives a discount. Rain and temperature fluctuations are the primary cause of the damage.

A low falling number will lower a farmer’s actual production history when signing up for crop insurance, even if no insurance claim has been filed for falling number, according to the Washington Association of Wheat Growers. A farmer’s production history is averaged over 10 years and used to determine future crop insurance guarantees.

If actual production is discounted to reflect a low falling number, the 10-year average will drop and the amount of a crop eligible for insurance coverage will decline.

The industry sent a letter seeking relief from the procedure to RMA Administrator Brandon Willis, signed by 36 organizations throughout the PNW, with follow-up letters from the Washington State Department of Agriculture, Idaho State Department of Agriculture and a Congressional support letter signed by six senators and six House representatives, both Republicans and Democrats.

Roughly 25 to 30 percent of the wheat crop in Washington and Idaho is impacted, said Stacey Satterlee, executive director of the Idaho Grain Producers Association. As of Sept. 13, 42 percent of soft white wheat samples of 300 or lower, as did 43 percent of club wheat, 20 percent of hard red winter wheat and 10 percent of hard red wheat, according to WAWG.

In Idaho, the impact is primarily felt in Idaho, Nez Perce and Lewis counties, Satterlee said. A few Oregon farmers have been affected, but not to the extent of the other two states, said Oregon Wheat CEO Blake Rowe.

“It’s very disappointing, obviously, that we couldn’t help our farmers in this situation that they’re in with record low prices,” said Michelle Hennings, executive director of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers. “There’s a part of this procedure that’s inconsistent throughout the states.”

RMA told the farmers that the falling number problems is similar to quality problems in commodities such as cotton and corn.

“One of the reasonings was, ‘If I do this for you, I’ll have to do it for everyone else,’” Hennings said.

“I’m not very optimistic that we’re going to get any short-term relief,” said Fairfield, Wash., farmer Marci Green, secretary-treasurer of WAWG.

Green said a portion of her wheat will be discounted at the time of sale. Her farm hasn’t had falling numbers as low as some, she said, but she still doesn’t know the extent of the cost to her operation.

“We don’t know how much wheat we have that has falling number issue, because it’s in home storage,” Green said.

Hennings said WAWG will review the policy with RMA regional director Ben Thiel and consider what is and isn’t working.

It would take a year and a half to two years to change the policy, Hennings said.

“This is the time (farmers) need the assistance,” she said.

The break-even price for farmers is $6.80 per bushel, Hennings said. If prices are around $4 per bushel now, she said, some farmers with falling numbers could have $2 per bushel wheat. Some new or beginning farmers are poised to go out of business as a result, Hennings said.

Green said the industry needs to look at how crop insurance handles falling number quality issues in the long-term.

“What would maybe be more accurate would be having the adjustment to price, because when we’re having crop insurance, we’re guaranteeing a yield of this many bushels at this much of a price,” she said. “When we deliver our crop to the elevator ... they don’t say, ‘We’re going to take half of your bushels away.’ They say, ‘You still have the same number of bushels and we’re going to lower the price we’re going to pay you.’”

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon enjoyed one of the least damaging forest fire seasons of the past decade, despite dry and warm conditions.

The Statesman Journal reports wildfires torched 186,317 acres in Oregon this year, the lowest total since 2010 and well below the 10-year average, according to data from the National Interagency Fire Center.

Forest fires are down nationwide as well, with 4.9 million acres burned, compared to last year’s record-setting 10 million acres blackened.

People caused 910 fires and burned 126,409 acres this season, down from 1,397 fires and 139,483 acres burned in 2015.

Officials said a major reason for the overall improvement was the lack of dry lightning strikes this summer, officials said.

The Rev. Franklin Graham offered powerful testimony in federal court Thursday morning about the intense final moments of the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge earlier this year.

Testifying for the defense, the North Carolina evangelist described the final days of the 41-day takeover, including his conversations with the FBI and the last four occupiers to leave the refuge.

Graham, the son of evangelist Billy Graham, was brought in by the FBI as a third-party negotiator near the end of the occupation. He described the first phone conversation he had with the final four occupiers — David Fry, Jeff Banta and Sean and Sandy Anderson — which occurred on Feb. 2.

 “I wanted to help calm the situation,” he testified. “But I also wanted the FBI to take a deep breath.”

After that, Graham said he spoke to the occupiers every day until the takeover ended except for one day when he was traveling because he wanted to “save lives.” His powerful testimony offered a glimpse into the mindset of the four occupiers in the final days.

He said the occupiers were afraid to give themselves up to the FBI, especially after the shooting of Robert “LaVoy” Finicum.

Graham described the nature of his calls and how it worked: He would always call the FBI before he would call the occupiers directly. Then he would check back in with the FBI after each call.

“I wanted to know them,” he said of why he kept speaking with the occupiers. “I wanted to know their state of mind.

“I always prayed with them,” said Graham.

He testified that memories of what happened at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and Waco, Texas, were part of why he wanted to be involved in helping bring the occupation to a peaceful end.

The intensity of his conversations with the occupiers kicked into high gear on Feb. 10 when he said the FBI gave him a call that night explaining that they were ready to go in and get the final occupiers. FBI agents asked him if he would come out to Oregon, and he said he would, but that it would take him until the next morning.

When his plane arrived in Burns from North Carolina the morning of Feb. 11, the FBI met him at the plane and escorted him to the edge of the refuge before transferring him into an FBI BearCat to get closer to the occupiers. Perched up about 100 feet from the group, Graham spoke to them from a loudspeaker provided to him by FBI agents.

Graham said Jeff Banta was the first person to come out, but Banta later testified that he was the third person to emerge, following Sean and Sandy Anderson. Graham said the Andersons came out with their hands up holding an American flag. After those three came out, the FBI drove the BearCat back a bit, where he said he was able to meet those three, embrace them and tell them, “You did the right thing.”

Then he described the dramatic final moments where David Fry refused to come out. Speaking with Graham, Fry described violent thoughts he was having and was contemplating suicide. Graham said he offered the phone up to Sandy Anderson to try to calm Fry down. She told him that the agents were treating them all with respect and that they were safe.

It was still another hour before Fry eventually came out. But he did, peacefully, and Graham said when he did, two FBI negotiators walked over and joined them.

“They were just weeping uncontrollably, just thanking God that no one was hurt,” Graham said.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Ammon Bundy’s federal conspiracy trial resumed Thursday despite a motion from his lawyers seeking a postponement until a court rules on their appeals.

Among other things, attorneys Marcus Mumford and J. Morgan Philpot have taken issue with U.S. District Court Judge Anna Brown’s order that the ownership of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is not on trial, and her notice to jurors that the federal government owns the refuge that Bundy and his followers occupied for 41 days last winter.

Philpot, in a separate court document, reiterated a longstanding argument that Bundy’s pretrial detention has hindered his defense.

He also lodged complaints about the government’s treatment of his client during the trial, saying U.S. marshals have not allowed Bundy to confer with attorneys during breaks and that Bundy has been denied the use of “normal” pens, paper and amounts of paper.

Philpot said his client is also not getting enough food.

“Since the beginning of trial Mr. Bundy has regularly been deprived of meals and adequate sustenance, resulting in physical and mental fatigue beyond what is normal or allowable under basic principles of fairness and decency,” he wrote.

Bundy and six co-defendants have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to impede federal employees from doing their jobs at the refuge during the standoff. The occupation followed a rally protesting the imprisonment of Dwight and Steven Hammond, two Oregon ranchers convicted of arson. It grew into a wider call for the government to relinquish control of the refuge and other Western lands.

As the appeals await rulings by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the trial continued with testimony from The Rev. Franklin Graham, who helped negotiate the surrender of the final four occupiers on Feb. 11, two of whom are on trial.

The FBI initially called Graham at the suggestion of Jeff Banta, who is on trial. Graham had daily phone calls with the holdouts before flying his own plane to Oregon from North Carolina.

Graham testified he relied upon God as he tried to encourage a peaceful resolution. He said memories of what happened at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and Waco, Texas, were a reason he wanted to help.

When the occupation was finally over, two FBI negotiators cried uncontrollably, “just so thankful to God no one was hurt,” Graham testified.

Banta, 47, followed Graham to the witness stand, testifying for two hours. Banta said his initial reason for traveling from Nevada to Oregon was to help out at Hammond’s ranch because it was short-staffed.

He testified that he did nothing wrong, and it didn’t appear law enforcement was overly concerned with an occupation that had been underway for three weeks when he arrived.

“I figured if it was illegal, they would have nipped it in the bud,” Banta said.

Banta said he asked that Graham serve as a negotiator because he had seen him on Facebook, traveling to different states and praying. “I thought that’s what our country needs,” Banta testified.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The lone woman on trial in Oregon’s refuge-standoff case could have a weapons charge dismissed unless more evidence emerges.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports U.S. District Judge Anna Brown gave prosecutors until 5 p.m. Monday to provide more evidence to support the charge of firearm possession in a federal facility against defendant Shawna Cox of Kanab, Utah.

She’s one of seven defendants on trial in the 41-day occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

All are charged with conspiring to impede federal employees from carrying out their work at the refuge. Five of them, including Cox, face the gun charge.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ethan Knight told the judge after the jury left Thursday he regards Cox as someone who aided and abetted the possession of firearms.

The judge said the government must point to specific proof.

The trial that began Sept. 13 continues Monday.

BAKER CITY, Ore. (AP) — Reaching the shore of Phillips Reservoir requires a long and dusty downhill walk these days.

Almost as long as it’s ever been, in fact.

But nothing like as long as it will take to refill this largest reservoir that’s wholly within Baker County, said Jeff Colton, manager of the Baker Valley Irrigation District.

After four years of drought, it probably will take two winters with deeper than average mountain snowpacks to replenish Phillips, which collects the waters of the Powder River and several minor tributaries.

Water from the reservoir irrigates more than 30,000 acres of crops, mainly in Baker Valley.

“I’m hoping we’ll start pulling out of this cycle,” Colton said. “I’m ready for it.”

That cycle has depleted the reservoir, which is about 17 miles southwest of Baker City, to its lowest level since 2001, and to its third-lowest volume since Mason Dam was built in the late 1960s.

As of Wednesday morning the reservoir was holding about 2,780 acre-feet of water.

That’s about 4 percent of its capacity of 73,500 acre-feet.

The reservoir has been lower in the last week of September just twice — in 2001, when the volume was 2,665 acre-feet on this date, and in 1988, when it was 1,318 acre-feet.

Mark Ward, who with his brother, Craig, raises potatoes, wheat, alfalfa and peppermint on their family’s farm in Baker Valley, said the current drought is the worst he’s seen since he graduated from college in 1979.

“Maybe a single year was worse, but this is prolonged,” Ward said.

With the reservoir failing to reach even half full this spring, the irrigation district was able to dole out much less water than is available during a year when Phillips refills — 1.25 acre-feet of water per acre, as compared with 3.5 acre-feet.

Ward said the water shortage forced his family to leave about 15 percent of its acreage fallow.

Nor was the scarcity of water from Phillips Reservoir the only challenge this year.

Rainfall, too, was scanty during the growing season.

Rain totals have been below average every month this year except July.

Even if precipitation during October, November and December is average, 2016 will be the second-driest year on record at the airport, where statistics date to 1943.

Only 2002, when precipitation totaled 5.63 inches, would be drier.

The annual average at the airport is 10.15 inches.

Barring an abnormally soggy autumn, 2016 will be the fourth year in the past five that’s drier than usual.

And although the amount of water in Phillips Reservoir is influenced more by the snowpack in the Elkhorn Mountains than by rainfall in Baker Valley, there is a correlation.