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.”

LANGLOIS — Small and Dull present a hardwood dance party at The Old Langlois Cheese Factory Saturday, Feb. 4. T-Bird and the Hot Pajamas will open for Jacob Miller and the Bridge City Crooners at 7 p.m. Admission will be…

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.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Kerry Nordstrom-Bradley, 1989 graduate of Pacific High School and now a school counselor in Wrangell, Alaska, was honored by (now former) First Lady Michelle Obama and (now former) Secretary of Education John King Jr. as School Counselor…

PORTLAND — Producers should watch for localized efforts to restrict genetically engineered crops and pesticide use at the county and city level, while in the upcoming session of the Oregon Legislature, the concern is “budget, budget, budget,” the policy director for Oregonians for Food and Shelter said.

Speaking at the annual Northwest Agricultural Show, Scott Dahlman said he expects legislation regarding GMO crops, pesticides, fertilizer, labor, water and other ag concerns.

“When the Legislature’s in town, that’s when we get worried,” Dahlman said.

He said a “wild card” in the upcoming session is the state’s new agriculture department director. Alexis Taylor replaced Katy Coba, who was “absolutely wonderful for us” and maintained good relations with legislators, he said.

Taylor has a strong ag background, “But it’s fair to say she will have a lot to learn about Oregon ag,” Dahlman said.

One bill already proposed, Senate Bill 499, would remove pesticide applications from the activities protected under Oregon’s “right to farm” law and forestry practices. Traditionally, the state has held producers can’t be sued for noise, dust and other normal practices, but the bill would remove pesticides from protected activities.

“We’re very worried about anything that would roll that back and open up farmers and foresters to nuisance lawsuits,” Dahlman said.

He said producers need to be careful.

When applying pesticides, for example, producers must follow label instructions exactly, Dahlman said.

“There is no room for error,” he said. “Activists are out there looking for mistakes.

“Agency investigations are becoming front page news,” he added. “All is takes is one bad apple out there and it’s on the front page of the Oregonian.”

He said conflicts within agriculture — a recent example would include herbicide drift from farm operations harming vineyards — should be handled among producers. “We’re seeing a disturbing trend of certain groups running to the Legislature” instead of sitting down with their neighbors to resolve problems, he said.

To make themselves heard, producers should call up their legislators, introduce themselves and be willing to tell their story. The latter involves being willing to testify before legislative committees that are considering laws.

Dahlman said legislators tire of hearing from lobbing groups such as OFS.

“They listen to constituents,” he said. “The best expert on what you do is you.”

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 25

Reedsport police seek donations for drug detection dog

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — In a scenario that could come from a horror film, normally timid mountain lions are forced by heavy snows into a remote community, where they feast on pets and chickens. It’s happening in Oregon.

Cougars prowling through La Pine have killed two pets and at least 12 chickens, stoking fear in the town in the piney woods of Oregon east of the Cascade Range.

On Saturday, Deschutes County deputies shot and killed a cougar that was hiding under a porch after attacking a dog. On Monday, state and federal wildlife officials went to investigate and killed three more of the cougars that have been leaving their paw prints in the snow on the decks of homes and in backyards.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a statement Tuesday the cougars are causing public safety issues in and around town.

It said officials from the Oregon agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services were tracking at least one cougar after it was sighted at a store.

There has never been an attack by a wild cougar on a person in Oregon, which is home to about 6,300 cougars, although attacks have occurred in other states and Canadian provinces, the Oregon agency said.

Resident Shannon Shahan said 14 of her chickens were killed or died of shock and two survived. She told Bend TV station KTVZ the cougars had jumped a fence to get at the chickens. Her surveillance cameras caught at least one cougar on her property, leaving large paw prints in the snow.

The state wildlife department said deep snow is likely a factor in the appearance of the cougars.

“The cougars are having trouble hunting their traditional prey so are coming to residential areas for an easier meal,” said Corey Heath, a wildlife biologist with the department. “Unfortunately at this point we consider them a significant human safety risk, so they need to be removed for the safety of La Pine residents.”

Some people think killing the trespassing cougars is going too far. They said people should protect their pets and appreciate the cougars as a part of living in a rural area.

A dog and a cat have been killed, in addition to the chickens.

In its statement, the state wildlife department said wildlife managers will not relocate the trespassing cougars because the animals would cause problems in new areas or return to La Pine.

Officials recommended residents feed their pets indoors, walk their dogs on a leash and be aware of their surroundings, especially at dawn and dusk.

ONTARIO, Ore. — USDA officials have defended their Jan. 17 decision to deregulate a genetically engineered creeping bentgrass that escaped field trials in 2003 and has taken root in two Oregon counties and a small part of one Idaho county.

And Scotts Miracle-Gro Co., which created the grass, defended its decision to seek a deregulated status for the grass despite agreeing not to commercialize it.

Environmental groups, on the other hand, continue to harshly criticize USDA’s decision to deregulate the creeping bentgrass, which was developed by Scotts and Monsanto Corp. to withstand applications of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer.

Rick Coker, a USDA public affairs specialist, told Capital Press in an email the department must, under the Plant Protection Act, respond to any petition that requests a determination of regulatory status for a genetically engineered organism.

USDA’s decision must be based on whether the organism is likely to pose a plant pest risk, he said. If the department determines it does not, it “has no legal basis to continue to regulate that GE organism and must deregulate (it).”

After escaping field trials, the bentgrass took root in Malheur and Jefferson counties in Oregon and part of Canyon County in Idaho.

Scotts reached a 10-year memorandum of agreement and memorandum of understanding with USDA in 2015 that lays out the company’s continued responsibilities for helping control the bentgrass.

As part of the agreement, the company has agreed not to commercialize the plant, which was being developed for use on golf courses.

Jim King, senior vice president of corporate affairs for Scotts, said the golf course industry has changed dramatically since the company started developing the plant and the marketplace for that product is no longer viable and shrinking.

“Economically, it makes no sense to commercialize it,” he said.

The company opted to continue to pursue deregulation because it felt it needed an answer from USDA on whether a product Scotts invested tens of millions of dollars in should be approved, King said.

USDA has a regulatory road map that allow companies such as Scotts that are in the business of innovation to know if a certain product should be approved, he said.

“We had a legitimate petition in front of USDA, we wanted an answer and they finally provided the answer,” he said.

Lori Ann Burd, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s environmental health program, said the decision to deregulate the bentgrass means the agreements covering the control of the escaped crop are no longer valid.

She pointed out that the word “regulated” appears before “glyphosate tolerant creeping bentgrass” each time Scotts responsibilities are laid out in the agreements.

The responsibilities “apply exclusively to regulated (bentgrass),” she said.

But even if that’s not the case, she said, the agreements only require Scotts to take minimal action.

Burd said USDA’s decision leaves her group no choice but to explore legal options to challenge it.

The agreements require the company in 2017 and 2018 to provide technical assistance to affected farmers and irrigation districts and provide incentives for the adoption of best management practices to control the grass.

Scotts will pull back a little after that but still continue to analyze the situation, educate growers and provide technical assistance.

Coker said the agreements “remain in effect regardless of the deregulated status of (the grass) because the compliance incidents predated the deregulation.”

King said Scotts will honor the agreements “and, if we have to, we’ll do more. We consider those to be documents that were negotiated in good faith .. and we have every intention of living up to everything we said we were going to do.”

Tuesdays

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 25

SALEM — Kiara Single was chosen the 2017 Oregon Dairy Princess Ambassador at the 58th annual coronation event on Jan. 21 in Salem.

The 20-year-old Warren resident, representing Columbia County, was crowned from a field of four finalists. The event was sponsored by the Oregon Dairy Women.

Kortni Ragsdale, a 2015 Banks High School graduate now attending Portland Community College and who represented Washington County in the competition, was chosen the First Alternate.

Other finalists included Faith Wilson of Linn and Benton counties and Emma Coleman of Marion County.

Ragsdale also received the Miss Congeniality award.

After the crowning ceremony, Single was presented over $3,500 in scholarships.

Outgoing 2016 Oregon Dairy Princess Ambassador Sara Pierson received a total of $17,675 for her past year’s work.

Single is a student at Concordia University studying elementary education, and hopes to become a second-grade teacher. She is the daughter of John and Suzie Single, and her father is the production planner at the Kroger Swan Island milk processing plant.

Her speech at the banquet held in the Salem Convention Center was titled, “For the Love of Milk,” and centered on the health benefits of dairy products and “the journey of milk from farm to table.”

She now begins her year traveling statewide to make presentations at fairs, town meetings and public events representing Oregon’s dairy industry. A particular focus is on classroom presentations depicting life on a dairy farm and the nutritional benefits of dairy products.

The Oregon Dairy Women’s Dairy Princess Ambassador Program has served since 1959 as a prime advocate for the state’s dairy industry in collaboration with the Oregon Dairy Farmers Association and the Oregon Dairy Nutrition Council.

“We have expanded our program to include K-12 and civic presentations,” said Jessica Kliewer, Oregon Dairy Princess Ambassador program state director. “Since Kiara is planning on becoming an educator, we believe she will be a great asset in spreading the good news about dairy.”

The Oregon Dairy Women award scholarships, and provide financial support to 4-H and FFA programs, Agriculture in the Classroom, Ag Fest, Summer Ag Institute, Adopt-a-Farmer and judging teams.

SALEM — Agribusiness groups have cheered the Trump administration’s vow to roll back federal regulations but they continue to fear overreach by the state government in Oregon.

With Democrats controlling the Oregon Legislature and the governor’s office, farm lobbyists said they expect new threats to emerge during the 2017 legislative session.

Despite optimism at the national level, the political climate in Oregon “sucks some of the air out of the room,” said Katie Fast, executive director of the Oregonians for Food and Shelter agribusiness group.

Though Republicans picked up one seat in the state Senate during last year’s election, they’re still a minority in both legislative chambers and several moderate-leaning Democrats have left their positions, Fast said during the 2017 Ag Summit, organized by the Dunn Carney law firm.

One proposal to be considered during the upcoming legislative session, Senate Bill 499, would remove protections for pesticide usage from the state’s “Right to Farm and Forest Law,” which prohibits lawsuits and local ordinances against common farming practices, she said.

“It’s a big attack on the whole program,” said Fast.

Another piece of legislation — House Bill 2469 — would effectively allow Josephine County to ban genetically engineered crops, she said. State law pre-empts local governments from regulating such crops, but includes an exception for Jackson County.

Lawmakers will also be asked to consider Senate Bill 500, which removes the requirement people to notify the Oregon Department of Agriculture before filing lawsuits that allege damage from pesticides, Fast said.

Though bills have yet to be introduced, Oregonians for Food and Shelter also expects legislation that would impose new notification requirements for pesticide spraying as well as restrictions on neonicotinoid insecticides, she said.

Labor advocates succeeded in getting paid sick leave and minimum wage increases passed during recent legislative sessions, and will turn their aim to new policy proposals in 2017, said Jenny Dresler, state public policy director for the Oregon Farm Bureau.

Under House Bill 2193, for example, large employers would have to provide “predictable scheduling” under which workers would be paid “penalty wages” if their shifts change with less than two weeks’ notice.

While smaller-scale employers wouldn’t be subject to the requirement, their workers would have the right to offer input on their work schedules under the bill.

It’s also likely that labor advocates will propose a 1 percent payroll tax to pay for a statewide family and medical leave policy for workers, Dresler said.

Farms and other businesses will be pushing for transportation funding that would alleviate congestion and reduce the time their products get to market, said Jeff Stone, executive director of the Oregon Association of Nurseries.

However, there may not be “enough oxygen” for such a proposal given the need to fill the state’s $1.7 billion budget hole, Stone said. “You may not be able to get both.”

YAKIMA, Wash. — Bob Bailey, who grew his family farm into the largest cherry operation in Oregon, is the 73rd king of the Pacific Northwest cherry industry.

Bailey was chosen by past cherry kings for his industry service and was crowned at the annual Cherry Institute of Northwest Cherry Growers at the Yakima Convention Center on Jan. 20.

Bailey, 75, is chairman of the board of Orchard View Farms Inc. in The Dalles, Ore. His daughter, Brenda Thomas, is president, and his brother, Ken, is vice president.

His brother, Tom, was also involved in the family business and was cherry king in 2003. Their father, Don, was king in 1974. Don and Tom worked to patent View Fresh, modified atmosphere cherry packing in the 1990s.

“I feel really good about it because a lot of people I’ve worked with over the last 30 to 40 years in the industry are the people who honored me with this honor,” Bob Bailey said.

Having enough workers is the biggest challenge the industry faces today, he said.

Orchard View Farms employees 100 people year-round and 1,000 during cherry harvest, which is done without hiring H-2A visa foreign guestworkers. Most of their seasonal help comes from California, he said.

The company has 2,500 acres of cherry orchards and packs about 1 million, 20-pound boxes of cherries annually, making it the largest sweet cherry grower in Oregon and one of the largest in the nation.

The cherries are sold through The Oppenheimer Group in Vancouver, B.C.

Bailey was born in The Dalles on July 30, 1941, one of seven children of Don and Edwina Bailey. His grandparents, Walter and Mabel Bailey, started the farm in 1923.

With his siblings, Bob Bailey was picking up peach tree prunings when he was 6 years old. His grandfather and father ran Columbia Fruit Growers, a cooperative in The Dalles that through several mergers is now part of Oregon Cherry Growers.

Bailey enjoyed growing cherries, ran harvest crews each summer and graduated from The Dalles High School in 1959. He graduated from Oregon State University in Corvallis in 1963 with a major in business and a minor in horticulture.

Bailey met his wife, Barbara Strickland, on a blind date at Seattle Seafair in 1961 and in 1965 they decided to become the first full-time farmers in the family, transitioning his family farm from apples to cherries in the 1990s. He worked to extend his cherry season with new varieties and expanding his orchards from The Dalles to Dufur Valley and Klickitat County in Washington. In the early 1980s, he built apple cold storage and packing facilities and added a cherry packing line in 1984 which was replaced with a high-tech Unitec line in 2016.

MONDAY, JAN. 23

A Wallowa County ranch figures to save 1 billion gallons of water annually through a series of conservation projects, such as adding sprinklers and forgoing irrigation during peak summer months.

The Freshwater Trust, an environmental nonprofit with offices in Portland, announced it is working with Wolfe Ranch to upgrade irrigation infrastructure, transfer points of diversion and lease water rights on the farm to benefit endangered salmon in the Lostine River.

Funding comes from a $1.4 million grant awarded by the Oregon Water Resources Department. Irrigation upgrades are also expected to boost crop yields by 5 to 20 percent on the ranch.

“We’ve formed lasting relationships with dozens of farmers and ranchers who understand conservation isn’t just about protecting fish,” said Aaron Maxwell, flow restoration project manager for The Freshwater Trust, who works out of Enterprise. “It’s about the longevity of their farms, economies and entire communities.”

Nearly 1,100 acres of forage and grain crops will be converted to pivot sprinklers as opposed to flood irrigation at the ranch — which Maxwell compared to the difference between letting your hose run into the yard, or watering just the section that needs it most.

“In the face of present and future water scarcity, modernizations like this will only become more imperative,” he said.

Ditching flood irrigation may also have a positive effect on water quality, Maxwell said, reducing the amount of standing water in fields that can become contaminated with sediment, bacteria and toxins before draining back into streams.

Water saved through the irrigation upgrades will be transferred back into the Lostine River, which harbors summer chinook and steelhead populations. Wolfe Ranch will also voluntarily abstain from irrigating in August and September, when the river reaches critically low water levels.

The changes may allow Wolfe Ranch, a sixth-generation family operation, to begin growing more high-value food crops, which could have a ripple effect down the entire Wallowa County agricultural industry. Local businesses are already slated to provide approximately $2 million in construction materials and labor.

“Production and economics must always be taken into consideration with projects like these,” Maxwell said. “This will have positive implications for the landowner and the local economy.”

The Freshwater Trust has been working with farms and ranches on the Lostine River for more than a decade, Maxwell said, after chinook runs were nearly wiped out in the 1990s. The organization was also awarded $114,265 from the Water Resources Department last year to study whether irrigation efficiencies could help protect salmon on upper Catherine Creek in Union County.

Woody Wolfe, owner of Wolfe Ranch, said water scarcity and quality issues aren’t going to simply go away.

“Projects like this help further the responsible use of our natural resources while benefiting the environment,” Wolfe said.

Nov. 29, 1938 – Jan. 12, 2017