The Pacific Northwest sweet cherry industry finally had the year of its dreams in good weather, but maybe the year of its nightmares in pricing and returns.

Stellar weather this year led to record cherry volume. The crop of around 27 million, 20-pound boxes was well above the old record of 23.2 million in 2014.

But the record crop caused wholesale prices to tumble below $16 per box, making it unprofitable. Early grower returns were good, but post-Fourth of July returns, not fully known until mid-October, are not expected to be good. Some picked fruit was dumped.

So the big question growers, packers, shippers and marketers will grapple with over the next several months is whether the industry can expand market consumption enough to handle 27 million-box and larger crops.

Or are the crops too much of a good thing?

The answer seems obvious. Supply exceeds demand. Cut supply. But it might be more complicated than that.

There are lots of variables that shape any given season. Weather is one of them. Rain, hail, excessive heat or poor pollination usually hold down crop size, but that didn’t happen this year.

“The reality is every cherry season is different, and this one played out in a manner that is unacceptable to me, my growers and shippers,” said B.J. Thurlby, president of Northwest Cherry Growers in Yakima, Wash., the industry’s promotional arm.

Next year, the market might respond differently and there may be more demand than supply, he said. The key is repeat consumer purchases, and this year “our retail partners saw our core consumers did not make as many repeat purchases as we needed,” Thurlby said.

“We had two-and-a-half months of sustaining huge volume, competing with lots of other summer fruit. California had a lot of cherries before us at good pricing and good volume. Why it tanked for us was just supply and demand,” said Denny Hayden, a Pasco, Wash., grower.

It was a tale of two seasons for the Northwest. Pre-Fourth of July brought “good to moderate” prices, and post-Fourth of July brought too many cherries and prices at $16 a box and lower, Hayden said.

“The problem was not having enough sales for it. We couldn’t move out packed fruit,” he said.

PNW cherries were the No. 1 advertised item in retail produce departments for four weeks. They were in the top three for seven weeks against more than 800 other items on average, Thurlby said.

“You hope we picked up some new consumers, which is part of the necessary growing pains we go through in producing larger crops,” he said.

Consumer-friendly retail pricing and good displays were the norm in most stores as major chains focused on cherries for over two months, he said.

More than 500,000 boxes per day were shipped for 42 straight days — an “unbelievable” amount, he said.

Northwest Cherry Growers began new programs in the Philippines, Myanmar and Cambodia and the industry exported more than 8 million boxes. More than 3 million of that went to China. The previous export record was 7.5 million in 2014. Last year, 1.8 million boxes went to China.

“To me the bottom line is there are just too many cherries planted. There’s not enough infrastructure to get them packed. Until the huge supply drains away, it isn’t a good market. It’s a good market early and in the end but not in the middle until we reduce the amount of fruit being picked,” said Norm Gutzwiler, a Wenatchee, Wash., grower.

Brenda Thomas, president of Orchard View Farms in The Dalles, Oregon’s largest cherry grower, said people talk about growing markets but she’s not sure where that is because “certain retailers reached a lot people with low pricing and it still didn’t create enough demand.”

“We packed all our fruit and sold all our fruit for very poor pricing. There was little or no demand for cherries in general. It was that way all season long except right at the beginning,” Thomas said.

Small growers will get squeezed out first if supply is reduced, she said, adding she does the best she can for her growers.

Orchard View packs for a couple dozen growers. Beyond that, it grows 80 percent of what it packs.

Charles Lyall, a Mattawa, Wash., grower, said it’s tough to make a profit this year on $20 per box at a 30 percent cullage rate.

Small growers, particularly 5- and 10-acre growers, are likely to get out of business first because they can’t handle food safety compliance and other regulations as efficiently as large companies, Lyall said.

“I would like to increase markets but if you can’t increase markets fast enough to take care of the volume and can’t sell at a profit, then you have to start looking at reducing production,” he said.

A short-term solution, he said, is heavier pruning to reduce crop load and produce larger cherries. The next option is removing less productive trees and varieties, which he will start doing this winter or next, he said.

Big companies have increased a lot of cherry acreage in the Mattawa area in the past 30 years and a lot of that, with some ups and downs, has been fueled by good prices, Lyall said.

“We’ve been riding that train. We might be back to a point where we’ve overproduced and it’s going to have to go back to lowering volume,” he said. “You tear out Bing at 6 tons per acre and plant Skeena that averages 10. The day of growing small fruit that doesn’t get packed is trouble.”

New varieties that produce large cherries would be good, he said, “but I’m afraid there’s more of these years ahead than in the past.”

TUESDAY, SEPT. 5

SATURDAY, SEPT. 2

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon court has ruled a couple must have their dogs surgically “debarked” after causing their neighbors several years of disruption.

The Oregon Court of Appeals determined Wednesday that the devocalization operations were necessary since the dogs’ owners, Karen Szewc and John Updegraff, had not done enough to quiet the Tibetan and Pyrenean Mastiff dogs, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. The surgery involves cutting an animal’s vocal cords and is banned in six states under certain circumstances, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Neighbors Debra and Dale Krein of Rogue River decided to file the lawsuit as a last resort after enduring more than a decade of nuisance barking by six or more dogs. The loud barking begins as early as 5 a.m. and has caused the family and their guests discomfort to the point where the children dread coming home, according the Kreins.

The dogs bark when they sense predators and are necessary to keep the livestock on her rural southern Oregon property protected, Szewc said in an interview with The Oregonian/OregonLive.

“The dogs are my employees,” she said. “We do not have the dogs to harass the neighbors. We have the dogs to protect our sheep.”

In April 2015, the Jackson County Circuit Court ordered Szewc and her husband Updegraff pay $238,000 to the Kreins as compensation, but the Kreins argued the court ruling would not do anything to stop the noise. The Appeals Court upheld the $238,000 decision and a ruling ordering the dogs be debarked to avoid a “judicial merry-go round.”

Szewc fears that the court ruling will put her small farm in danger. In 2010, the couple went through with court directive and had one of their dogs debarked. As a result, a cougar successfully made off with six lambs in a week, resulting in a $3,000 loss, Szewc said.

County hearings officer Donald Rubenstein determined that the Szewc and Updegraff’s land did not qualify for farm-use laws that permit the sound of barking dogs.

Szewc is debating whether they will follow the court order or appealing the decision.

SALEM, Ore. — Alea Minar, 14, has been keeping busy this year at the Oregon State Fair. A 4-Her for six years, Minar shows in every small animal category.

“Rabbit, poultry, cavies (guinea pigs), pigeons and dogs,” she listed off.

Along with showing animals, Minar, who is from Deschutes County, also competes in the static 4-H exhibits such as fashion, sewing, cooking, food preservation, art, photography and leadership.

This is her second year at the fair.

“It’s really awesome,” she said. “We have helpful stewards and volunteers, and great judges. It’s running smoothly.”

Minar enjoys all the opportunities that come with 4-H, and she said that it helps her grow as a person. Although she has many favorite parts, one of them is the lead up to the fair.

“Everyone is stressed out, and you’re studying with your friends, quizzing one another and cleaning the animals,” she said.

For 14-year-old Tatum Heathershaw from Washington County, the fair gives her the chance to be around people who share her love for poultry.

“There’s not a lot of places like that,” she said.

Once at the fair, Minar and Heathershaw said they like meeting new people from around Oregon. This fair year in particular has given them ample opportunity to do that.

“It’s the first year that 4-H and FFA club members have shown animals together since I’ve been alive,” Candi Bothum, 4-H program coordinator, said.

In past years, 4-H would show one week and FFA would show the other, but because many students are going back to school earlier and the groups utilize the same judges, it made sense to show all the youth competitions together, Bothum said.

“It’s been fun. A great opportunity with great organizations,” she said. “The state fair is an opportunity for kids to meet from all over the state. Young livestock raisers and ag enthusiasts — they’re the future of ag. A terrific group of young people.”

Combining the shows also helped lower the number of turnovers the clubs had to make to clean out the animal pens.

Bothum said that she thinks the two groups will continue showing together, but they have some logistical issues regarding space to fix for next year.

“It’s a big group,” she said, noting that the number of animal entries has gone up.

Elsewhere at the fair, the agriculture stage has also been a hit, Brooke Broadbent, the showcase organizer, said. She estimated 30 to 50 people attend the presentations and for the activities it “ebbed and flowed.” So far, the most popular event has been egg day, where 1,500 eggs on a stick were handed out.

Although the fair has stopped keeping daily attendance tallies, Dan Cox, the fair spokesman, said the fair had a good opening day and there have been more discount incentives this year to bring people out.

“I’ve been around fair a long, long time and can see the ebb and flow of the crowd. We’ll get a first wave that stays for several hours and then a second wave of people at night for the concerts,” he said. “On the hot days close to 100 degrees we might see people heading inside more towards the AC, but the one thing we’ve always seen is Oregonians come out no matter what, it’s an interesting thing.”

Cox says the fair offers something for everyone.

“It’s not just for the urban center,” he said. “It’s for the entire state.”

THURSDAY, AUG. 31

Promising table grape cultivars, not to mention tasty grape samples, will be on display and up for discussion during a field day at Oregon State University’s North Willamette Research and Extension Center.

The field day is Wednesday, Sept. 13, from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at NWREC, 15210 N.E. Miley Road, Aurora.

Research Assistant Amanda Vance, who has spent the past three years evaluating cultivars, will talk abut her findings. Oregon is known for its wine grapes, of course, but Vance believes there may be a table grape niche for small-scale growers who sell at farmers’ markets or roadside stands.

The grapes Vance found most promising include Neptune, a green grape from the University of Arkansas with high yields year after year, and Canadice, a smaller red grape from Cornell University with good flavor and uniform clusters. Agricultural researchers often share cultivars among themselves for evaluation and OSU received several over the years from John Clark, a University of Arkansas plant breeder and horticulture professor. Clark will attend the field day and talk about his work.

Vance has a viticulture background and volunteered to take on the OSU table grape research project. She’ll discuss her work, and OSU berry crops professor Bernadine Strik will talk about grapevine morphology, physiology, trellising, pruning and training. Javier Fernandez-Salvador, an OSU Ph.D. candidate and an assistant professor, will talk about organic table grape production, including disease and weed control.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Wildfires in Oregon are burning an area roughly equivalent to half the state of Rhode Island, affecting air quality throughout the state and forcing the evacuations of more than 4,500 people, fire authorities said.

Two dozen fires in southern, eastern and central parts of the state had scorched a total of 571 square miles.

And although fire crews appreciated cooler weather and some fog on some fire lines, they are bracing for triple-digit temperatures and the return of windy conditions and extremely low humidity later this week and into the weekend, said Terry Krasko, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman.

The largest fire is near the coastal town of Brookings near the California border.

That 196-square-mile blaze is 5 percent contained and 4,568 people have fled their homes. Firefighters have managed to carve out a containment line along the southwestern edge of the fire to protect the 6,500-person town that will be bolstered by the arrival Wednesday of six Oregon National Guard teams.

The fire started July 12 from a lightning strike in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest but grew rapidly last week.

“That 5 percent doesn’t sound like a lot but it’s very critical to this town and we feel very good about that. There have been people asking, ‘What about the other side of the fire, what about the east?”’ Krasko said. “But we have to put our efforts first where the homes and businesses are — where people live. These are our family and friends.”

Also in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, but further east, a complex of fires forced the evacuation of six homes Tuesday in a rural community called Joe Bar near the Applegate River Valley. Several of the fires have merged and firefighters have divided the largest ones into three areas of attack, fire authorities said.

About two dozen blazes all began on Aug. 12 after a lightning storm in the area but most were put out quickly by crews.

In central Oregon, a 34-square-mile fire west of Sisters is now 44 percent contained. No mandatory evacuations are in effect.

Fires statewide continue to generate thick smoke that’s affecting air quality in southern and central Oregon.

Smoke forced the Oregon Shakespeare Festival to cancel its outdoor performance on Tuesday.

Nine cities, including Bend, Medford, Ashland and Klamath Falls, had unhealthy air conditions on Wednesday, according to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

Smoke from all the blazes has also converged on Portland, which is several hundred miles away, and has obscured the iconic view of Mount Hood.

On Tuesday, some Portland residents reported finding ash on their parked cars.

BANDON -- Aaron Barnes couldn't decide what he wanted to do when he grew up.

Oregon’s winemakers reported a 12 percent sales increase to $529 million, planted 2,400 more acres of grapes and opened 23 more wineries in 2016, according to an annual census commissioned by the Oregon Wine Board.

The growth came despite a 6 percent drop in production, slipping to 79,782 tons from the 84,782 tons harvested in 2015.

Not to worry, said Steve Thomson, CEO of Cristom Vineyards and the wine board chair. For one thing, the 2014 and 2015 vintages were unusually large, and 2016 was closer to normal — although the 2017 yield is shaping up as another big one.

More important, he said, is the price per ton is increasing and the state’s “pricing power” is intact. In other words, the state’s winemakers concentrated from the early days on quality rather than quantity, and consumers remain willing to pay more for Oregon wine.

“It all fits together really well,” Thomson said.

The Willamette Valley’s internationally acclaimed Pinot noir is still the big dog, accounting for 64 percent of the 30,435 acres of wine grapes grown in Oregon. In addition, about 73 percent of the grape “crush” happened in the North Willamette Valley. But Thomson said the state is no longer a “one trick pony.”

The warmer Southern Oregon and the Columbia Valley regions, the latter including American Viticulture Areas in sections of Eastern Oregon and Eastern Washington, produce a range of Mediterranean and Bordeaux varietals to complement the Burgundian style Pinot noir. Across the state, buyers can find Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot gris, Syrah, Zinfandel, Malbec, Merlot, Tempranillo and more.

“It’s a strong healthy sign for our industry,” Thomson said. “I marvel a little bit. Ten years ago it was Pinot noir driven, now there’s incredible variety. It helps immunize our industry for the future by having greater diversity across our industry.”

The census is the work of the Southern Oregon University Research Center. Among other statistics, the report showed Oregon now has 725 wineries, adding them at a pace of nearly two a month. Case sales at winery tasting rooms, where visitors can sample “flights” of various varietals, jumped to 484,714 in 2016 — 63,000 more 12-bottle cases than in 2015.

The Oregon Wine Board is a semi-independent state agency that does marketing, research and education for the industry.

Online: The 2016 Oregon Vineyard and Winery Census Report

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 30

HERMISTON, Ore. — The spring weather may not have been ideal, but Tony Amstad is still pleasantly surprised with the size and quality of his early season potatoes.

While an abundance of rain and snow pushed back planting by about a week in March, Amstad said the delay doesn’t seem to be affecting his fresh market crop. Harvest is now underway, and what he sees are spuds that are just the right shape, color and consistency for supermarket shelves.

“It’s going to be a decent year,” said Amstad, owner of Amstad Farms. “It started out bad and ended up good.”

Amstad Farms grows 2,250 acres of potatoes, mostly around Hermiston and Echo. On Tuesday, Amstad watched as crews sifted through a stream of Russets that were loaded up a conveyor belt into the back of a 30-ton semi-truck bound for the farm’s packing plant in Sherwood.

In another three weeks, Amstad said they will be going full bore on filling their eight, 9,000-ton storage sheds around the county. Most of what Amstad grows are fresh market potatoes — the kind you find in the produce section of the grocery store — though the farm also plants several varieties of red and yellow potatoes, which are sold to Reser’s Fine Foods to make potato salad.

Not only is quality looking good this year for Columbia Basin potatoes, but so is price, according to Amstad. Thanks in large part to a 15,000-acre reduction in neighboring Idaho, Amstad said the fresh market is looking to bring in about $12 per 100 pounds, which is the best he’s seen in three years.

“It’s called supply and demand,” he said. “And demand has been real good so far.”

Bill Brewer, CEO of the Oregon Potato Commission, said the fresh market has been dogged by overproduction the last couple of years. When Idaho, the largest supplier nationwide, reduces production, Brewer said Oregon is well positioned to reap the benefits.

Oregon’s potato export markets have also been on the rise over the last 10 years, Brewer added, thanks to the prosperous french fry and potato chip industries overseas in countries like Mexico, China and throughout the Pacific Rim.

“Our international markets are extremely important to us,” Brewer said, noting that 65 percent of Oregon potatoes are exported.

Domestically, about half of Oregon potatoes are sent to french fry factories like the massive Lamb Weston plants in Hermiston and Boardman. Another 20 percent are used for potato flakes and flour, like what’s made at Oregon Potato Company in Boardman. Roughly 8-10 percent go to potato chip processors like Shearer’s Foods in Hermiston.

The rest are fresh market, which makes up the bulk of taters at Amstad Farms.

Tony Amstad started the business in 1959, making this his 58th potato harvest. He has seen plenty of cycles in the industry, and has learned to take the good with the bad.

“Overall, when I look back on 58 years, it’s been very good to us,” he said.

Amstad’s partners include his two sons, Jeff and Skeeter, and his nephew, Todd Dimbat. Amstad Farms is now one of the region’s larger growers of fresh market potatoes.

This year brought excellent growing weather during the months of April, May and June, Amstad said. He admits he was concerned as temperatures have climbed in recent weeks to triple digits, as such stifling heat can essentially halt the development of tubers. But with harvest beginning Aug. 5, he said yields are so far looking promising.

Brewer cautions it is still early, and said he wouldn’t be surprised if the intense heat does result in a slight dip in yields. Most growers are prepared for that, he said, and he doesn’t anticipate any quality issues related to the heat.

Meanwhile, Amstad’s crews will remain busy with harvest well into October. Barring anything unexpected, the crop should fetch a reasonable profit.

LEBANON, Ore. (AP) — A handyman in Lebanon, Ore., has died after being fatally electrocuted in a freak farming accident.

Linn County authorities said Tuesday that 58-year-old Robert Leeland Prock was standing a 40-foot irrigation pipe on its end to move it when the pipe touched an overhead electrical wire.

The 12,000-volt wire was suspended 22 feet above the ground.

Prock was knocked unconscious by the shock and was pronounced dead at the hospital a short time later.

His 11-year-old son, who was helping him, was also shocked but survived with no serious injuries.

The investigation is continuing.

EUGENE, Ore. — Margarito Palacios belongs to one of the two families that runs the Small Farmers’ Project, a cooperative for Latino families that sells organic blackcap raspberries, fruit jam and U-pick strawberries at their farmstand.

The effort started in 2008 through Heifer International and Huerto de la Familia, which is Spanish for the Family Garden. For three years they supported the program by securing a $6,000 grant, renting the farmland, helping put in electricity and hiring veteran berry grower Carl Berg to train the farmers over six months.

The SFP has since become a separate enterprise, but Palacios said the organizations still support them.

Sarah Cantril, former executive director of Huerto de la Familia, said she is happy that the SPF continues, even though the operation has scaled back over the past several years, with several families leaving the co-op and fewer acres being farmed.

“The thing about the project, if you look at it from a capitalistic point of view, it’s hard to see the benefit,” she said. “They had to have jobs off the farm. It hasn’t been as lucrative as it could be, but I know for a fact people have paid off debt and sent money home to their children. Three people out of two families were able to have their higher education paid for in their home countries.”

The project also helped the Latino image in the community, Cantril said.

Palacios was eager to join because he said Latinos don’t make enough money to have their own farm. He was working minimum wage at SPF’s creation, but still works as a supervisor at a cleaning company.

“When we heard (about SFP) we say ‘yes’ quickly because it’s an opportunity for our family,” he said. “My daughter is four and my son is two, and I want a good life for them.”

Palacios is proud that SFP is organic. He said it is everyone’s responsibility to take care of the world for future generations — such as his children, who often go through the fields eating berries straight off the plant.

The initial struggle the business had was reaching customers. For that reason, SPF contracted with Organically Grown Co., the University of Oregon and others, according to Cantril.

From 2011 to 2014, SPF worked with Organically Grown Co. to produce blackcap raspberries. Approached by Cantril and Berg about the berries’ marketability, Organically Grown decided to help the group package and market the product for them, said Mike Neubeck, director of sourcing.

In four years, SPF sold 1,500 units of 12 half-pint blackcap raspberries.

Neubeck said that SPF began to “test different waters,” adding the U-pick strawberry field and jam products. Eventually the co-op told him that they were wanting to sell direct to retail.

“They’re great people and it was a neat experiment,” he said.

Cantril credits SFP as the “project that instigated the Cambio businesses,” a micro-development program through Huerto de la Familia that will assist Latinos set up or expand farm and food business ideas. The program offers both training and business counseling, as well as a food booth program.

“Shifting the dynamic of Latinos to being leaders of micro-businesses will help them to integrate into the larger Eugene (and) Springfield community, access new financial opportunities and help lead our disadvantaged communities to a more equitable and prosperous future,” Huerto de la Familia said on its website.

For Palacios, SFP is more than a way to support his family. It’s a chance to show Americans why he came to the U.S.

“Sometimes a couple gringo think that we come to do bad things, but with my job I show them what I come to do,” he said. “It’s not only for me. I do this for many, many Latinos.”

Tracks indicated the 500-pound calf churned 150 feet up a slope, leaving blood splattered on four logs, before going down in a pile of Meacham Pack wolves.

There wasn’t much left when a ranch hand found the carcass Aug. 19, perhaps two or three days after the attack. Most of the calf had been devoured, except the vertebrae with ribs, pelvis and tail still attached. The calf’s lower jaw and contents of its rumen were nearby.

It was the pack’s fourth confirmed attack within a week, all on livestock grazing on a 4,000 acre private, forested pasture in the Sheep Creek area of Umatilla County. The producer asked ODFW to take “lethal control” against the Meacham Pack as allowed under Phase 3 of Oregon’s wolf management program.

The rancher wanted them all dead. The wildlife agency authorized killing two of them, an incremental approach it had taken earlier in August with Wallowa County’s Harl Butte Pack, which attacked livestock eight times since July 2016.

In that case, ODFW quickly shot two adult Harl Butte wolves, then a third and fourth in the days that followed as it appeared the pack was still going after calves.

The Oregon Cattlemen’s Association argued that ODFW’s approach was a waste of time. Even with four dead, the Harl Butte Pack consisted of six adults and three growing pups – a 33-pound pup was unintentionally trapped, then released unharmed, as ODFW pursued the adults.

The Meacham Pack, meanwhile, had seven members at the end of 2016 and added at least four pups this past spring.

As Wallowa County rancher Todd Nash put it, “big dogs” eat a lot of meat.

The apparent spike in livestock attacks in August raised questions. ODFW said Oregon’s unusually warm and dry summer — even Portland went 57 days without rain — caused deer and elk to move to higher ground. With their natural prey more scarce, wolves then turned to attacking cattle, went the explanation.

But as Northeast Oregon research scientist Jim Akenson pointed out, deer and elk go to higher ground every summer. That’s not new, although conditions were more severe this year.

Instead, Akenson believes the packs may be “habituated” to eating cattle. For that reason, he said, ODFW’s incremental response — killing two adults at a time and monitoring the effect on pack behavior — probably won’t work.

Once the pack members “flip that switch” in terms of prey selection, it is tough to deter them, he said.

“They’re habituated to easy pickings,” Akenson said. “Plucking out a couple individuals is probably not going to change that behavior.”

Akenson is conservation director for the Oregon Hunters Association. His wife, Holly Akenson, is a wildlife biologist and member of the ODFW Commission, which is expected to revise and adopt the state’s wolf management plan this year. The Akensons live in Enterprise, in Wallowa County, and have extensive wildlife and wilderness experience in the Pacific Northwest.

John Stephenson, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist based in Southwest Oregon, said larger packs tend to go after livestock.

“There’s a relationship between pack size and increased incidents of depredation,” he said.

Location is another factor, he said. The Harl Butte Pack operates where several herds graze on a mix of public and private land. All of its attacks over the past year were within 9 miles of each other, according to ODFW. The Imnaha Pack formerly prowled the territory and was known for attacking livestock. ODFW shot four Imnaha Pack wolves in April 2016 after repeated attacks on calves and sheep.

Meanwhile, all of the Meacham Pack’s attacks in August took place on the same private pasture.

Conservation groups oppose killing wolves and have asked, without success, for Gov. Kate Brown to intervene in ODFW’s decisions. The groups, including Oregon Wild, believe ODFW should not be taking lethal action until Oregon’s outdated wolf management plan is reviewed and revised. The ODFW Commission is expected to take action on the plan this year.

Local lakes: Several local lakes are still good choices for rainbow trout anglers. Anglers are reporting good trout fishing out on Garrison Lake in Port Orford and Floras Lake in Langlois. Bank fishing has been decent in the early mornings…

YAKIMA, Wash. — Smaller apple crops elsewhere in the U.S. and in Mexico, Canada and Europe may help Washington marketers maintain sales and prices for the state’s huge crop this season.

The total 2017 U.S. apple crop is estimated at 248 million, 42-pound boxes, down 8 percent from last season.

The national forecast was released Aug. 25 by the U.S. Apple Association at its annual outlook conference in Chicago.

“All in all, people were optimistic the U.S. crop should allow for solid prices,” said Mike Preacher, director of marketing at Domex Superfresh Growers in Yakima, Wash. He attended the conference.

The global picture looks good for Washington apples but it’s too early to know how good, he said. Early Gala prices are solid, he said.

Desmond O’Rourke, apple market analyst and retired Washington State University ag economist, said it’s doubtful this season will be as good as 2012, but that it should be better than the 2016 season now ending.

Washington had a huge crop in 2012, when many other apple producers were down. It enabled Washington to sell record volumes at high prices.

O’Rourke said he sees the year-long average wholesale price of all varieties bouncing back up to $25 after being $22 this past season.

Red Delicious should climb back up to $20 from $15 and Gala should go from $21.50 to $22, he said. Generally, $17 to $18 is breakeven.

Michigan’s apple crop is forecast 27 percent down at 20.3 million boxes because of a late spring freeze.

“It’s an easier market for our guys to tap into because it’s closer than New York,” O’Rourke said.

New York is advancing strongly in fresh market with growing volumes of its new SnapDragon and RubyFrost varieties, developed by Cornell University and marketed by Crunch Time Marketing Group, he said.

Mexico’s crop is down 30 percent and is Washington’s largest export market. It should be an excellent opportunity this season, O’Rourke said.

“That all helps, but big crops are always tough,” said Andy Handley, a small grower in East Wenatchee, Wash.

There’s a lot of new production in Quincy and it’s hard to know how big it really is, Handley said, adding he suspects the crop maybe bigger than forecast.

Washington’s fresh crop is forecast at 130.9 million, 40-pound boxes. Its total fresh and processing crop is estimated at 159.5 million, 42-pound boxes, down 8 percent from 2016.

Other major state fresh and processing forecasts at the outlook conference: New York, 28 million, even with 2016; Michigan, 20.3 million, down 27 percent; and Pennsylvania, 11.2 million, up 6 percent.

The next tier in millions of boxes: Virginia, 5.2 million, up 22 percent; Oregon 4.1 million, down 10 percent; California, 5 million, down 16 percent; North Carolina, 2.3 million, down 7 percent; West Virginia, 2.3 million, up 21 percent; Idaho, 1.2 million, down 8 percent; and Ohio, 1.1 million, up 40 percent.

U.S. Apple Association’s national forecast of 248 million boxes is even with its five-year average. It’s 400,000 boxes less than a USDA estimate.

Mark Seetin, U.S. Apple’s director of regulatory and industry affairs, there’s real reason to be optimistic about the 2017 season given industry advancements of recent years. He listed the ability to effectively market larger crops, increased productivity, improved quality in storage, new varieties aimed at consumer preferences, innovative marketing and export prospects.

Apple production was 6 percent higher in 2016 than in 1995 but on 31 percent fewer acres, Seetin said. Yield per acre has increase 50 percent in the past 13 years, he said.

In 2016, 67 percent of the U.S. crop was fresh market and 33 percent processed versus 51 percent fresh and 49 percent processed in 1994, Seetin said. Fresh market growth is driving grower income, he said.

Total U.S. USDA apple farmgate value was $3.46 billion in 2016, up 3 percent from the previous year for a record. Even after adjusting the 1994 crop for inflation growers received 33 more from the similar sized 2016 crop, Seetin said.

Mark Boyer, a principal in Ridgetop Orchards, Fishertown, Pa., was elected chairman of the board at the U.S. Apple meeting. Kaari Stannard, president and owner of New York Apple Sales, Glenmont, N.Y., was elected vice chairman. Jeff Colombini, president of Lodi Farming, Stockton, Calif., was elected secretary; and John Graden, of Crunch Pak, Cashmere, Wash., was elected treasurer. Mike Wade, general manager of Columbia Fruit Packers, Wenatchee, is past chairman.

Silverton, Ore. — Karl Dettwyler puts his farm first.

The manager of Blue Line Farms, member of the Oregon Blueberry Commission and father of two daughters, Dettwyler admits that he doesn’t know how he’s been able to balance his responsibilities.

“I think you have to have (attention deficit disorder) in order to handle it. It’s like putting fires out, you leave one smoldering until you have time to put it out,” he said.

Dettwyler has been on the blueberry commission for 2 1/2 years, and finds the organization valuable.

“On the farm anymore, if you want to be relevant, you need to be involved. My Uncle Bob taught me that it’s important to be involved in the industry,” he said. “You can’t complain if you’re not involved, and I see a lot of growers grumble about this or that but never take the step to be involved.”

The commission was established in 1986 and consists of nine members. The terms are three years with a limit of two consecutive terms. There are 353 growers, and this year the commission is estimating a harvest of 118 million pounds of blueberries.

Blue Line Farms hand-picks around 6,000 pounds of blueberries a year.

The farm employs five people full-time, including himself, his brother and his cousin. His uncle and father also work part-time.

Dettwyler enjoys getting to know people through the commission and helping address problems that other growers are having.

“All of a sudden you hear a commissioner talk about the problems and challenges he’s having, and even though we’re both blueberry farmers, because of soil tops and their access to labor versus my access to labor, we’re always learning,” he said. “I’m learning from him, and he’s learning from me, too, hopefully, and together we can help the whole industry.”

Beyond blueberries, Blue Line Farms also grows turf type grasses such as perennial rye grass and tall fescue, green beans and hazelnuts.

However, 7.5 percent of the farm is blueberries. The varieties he grows include Elliot, Liberty, Legacy and Aurora. Legacy is his favorite.

Dettwyler said the most reward part of farming is “seeing a crop come to fruition.”

“There’s challenges, but seeing the different challenges and rewards, and being able to eat the fruit when it’s blue. There’s one variety out there that’s so sweet and I love it,” he said about the Legacy variety.

Although the blueberry industry has been booming in recent years because of recent health studies revealing the benefits of eating blueberries, Dettwyler has noticed the market leveling off.

“There are ways of mitigating risk, but it depends on how innovative you are,” he said. “If you sit back and say ‘that’s the market’ and don’t do anything innovative, you’re going to have to ride out the highs and the lows, if you can.”

His innovative examples included a roadside blueberry stand or talking to a different packer or to the commission about new ways to promote blueberries.

Dettwyler encourages farmers to get involved and share their story.

“There’s a rural versus city divide,” he said.

“There’s a lot of things people don’t understand about agriculture, and we want to get people to understand why we do what we do.”

Capital Press

EUGENE, Ore. — Ten years ago, Linda Perrine left the tech world after spending the first half of her life working for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

She bought a neglected 32-acre farm, which she named Honor Earth Farm, and began her production of organic Casina and Willamette hazelnuts.

She is one of only a handful of organic hazelnut growers. Although 99 percent of U.S. hazelnuts are grown in Oregon, less than 1 percent are organic. In 2015 — the most recent year for which numbers are available — nine organic farms harvested 108 tons of hazelnuts, bringing in $859,810.

That’s a stark contrast to the 31,000 tons that conventional hazelnut producers harvested in 2016 worth $118.8 million.

To bring awareness to organic hazelnuts and the concerns of the smaller organic growers, Perrine helped start the Organic Hazelnut Growers Association this year.

The biggest challenge organic hazelnut producers such as Perrine have encountered has been processing. She said there are only a few organic nut processors in the area and it costs more because the nuts are not uniform in size so they take more time to sort and shell.

In general, certified organic growers have a higher profit opportunity than conventional growers, Nathan Kroeker, another founding member and spokesman for the association, said. However, it depends on the method of selling a farmer chooses.

In-shell organic nuts sell wholesale for about $3.40 a pound, he said. But custom processing returns the kernels to the farmer who can sell them directly to consumers for about $8 a pound or for up to $20 a pound at retail stores such as Market of Choice or Whole Foods.

For that reason, one of the goals of the association is to establish a processing facility, he said.

According to Kroeker, there are three reasons to be organic: ecological benefits, food safety and profit opportunity. He said that he’s a mix of all three.

“(Organic growers) care about the lands and sustainability,” he said.

“Some will say organic hazelnut production is near impossible given the obstacles of the actual farming management,” Kroeker said.

Obstacles he has heard from conventional farmers include weed control, eastern filbert blight, filbert worm and organic nitrogen limitations.

The environment is important to Perrine, who harvests 90 percent of her nuts, but leaves 10 percent on the ground as her way to “give back to the wildlife.” She is proud of the environment she has created on her farm, and tries to be welcoming to the insects, birds of prey and coyotes.

“I’m creating habitat for wildlife to live with me,” she said.

Perrine joked that she spends most of her time mowing the orchard to keep the ground harvestable. She said the ground cover keeps the nuts cleaner when she brings them in. One of her other harvesting strategies is using a leaf blower to gather the nuts.

To combat pests and diseases, she sets out traps and prunes her trees often. She believes that the she shouldn’t let the branches get to the point of growing lichen, and to stop the spread of eastern filbert blight she cuts and burns infected branches.

Another organic hazelnut farm in the area is My Brothers’ Farm in Creswell, Ore, run by Taylor Larson. The farm has 320 acres, and raises over 2,000 hazelnut trees, along with cider apple trees, pigs and bison, according to the website. Larson specializes in Yamhill, Sacajawea, McDonald and Wepster hazelnut varieties and mixes nut and apple trees in the same orchard.

“It stops disease pressure and breaks up pests,” he said.

After harvest, Larson runs his pigs through the orchard to eat the remaining hazelnuts.

However, for the future, he is looking into ways of harvesting the nuts from the tree instead of from the ground, using a machine that shakes the nuts out.

“Each farm has unique needs,” Kroeker said. “There’s all kinds of ways; do what works for you; innovate your way.”

TUESDAY, AUG. 29