Northwest Farm and Ranch Winter 2011

Boundary

Bonner

Kootenai

Benewah

Latah

Nez Perce

Lewis

Shoshone

Clearwater

Idaho

Morrow

Umatilla

Union

Wallowa

Baker

PendOreille

StevensFerry

SpokaneLincoln

GrantAdams

Whitman

Asotin

GarfieldColumbia

Walla WallaBenton

Klickitat

YakimaFranklin Farm and RanchFarm and Ranch

Northwest

WINTER 2011

‘Farmers of the Year’ pay it forwardLooking out for sage grouse Produced quarterly by Tribune Publishing Company

Inside this issue

Farm and Ranch | Winter 2011| Wednesday, November 30, 2011 | Moscow-PullMan Daily news / lewiston tribune2

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Farm and Ranch | Winter 2011 Wednesday, November 30, 2011 | MOSCOWPULLMAN DAILY NEWS / LEWISTON TRIBUNE | 3

Northwest Farm and Ranch is published quarterly by the Lewiston Tribune and Moscow-Pullman Daily News and printed at the Tribune Publishing Co. Inc.’s

printing facility at 505 Capital St. in Lewiston.

To advertise in Northwest Farm and Ranch, contact the Moscow-Pullman Daily News advertising department at 208.882.5561 or Advertising Manager

Craig Staszkow at [email protected], or the Lewiston Tribune advertising department at

208.848.2216 or Advertising Director Bob Reitz at [email protected],

Editorial suggestions and ideas can be sentto Lee Rozen at [email protected] or Doug Bauer

at [email protected]

Boundary

Bonner

Kootenai

Benewah

Latah

Nez Perce

Lewis

Shoshone

Clearwater

Idaho

Morrow

Umatilla

Union

Wallowa

PendOreille

StevensFerry

SpokaneLincoln

GrantAdams

Whitman

Asotin

GarfieldColumbia

Walla WallaBenton

Klickitat

YakimaFranklin

Farm and RanchFarm and RanchFarm and RanchNorthwest

Apples and pears$27 million gift soon will

start bearing fruit | 8

Homing inUniveristy of Idaho

leads collaborative land management effort | 12

Tall orderWheat scientists gettingto root of height issue | 9

On the cover: Sheryl and EricZakarison. Photo by Dean Hare ofthe Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Dean Hare/Daily NewsSheryl and Eric Zakarison feed hay to their goats on their farm between Pullman and Palouse. The Zakarisons were recently named the Tilth producers of Washington ‘Farmers of the Year.”

By Kristen Whitneyfor Northwest Farm and Ranch

PULLMAN – Fostering a com-munity food system is one of many goals farmers Eric and Sheryl Zakarison strive to ac-

complish through their daily work and farming.

“It’s sort of our life work, whether it’s farming or working, in my case on the Moscow Food Co-op board, or in Eric’s case now on the Tilth board. The legacy I

want to leave is a community that can feed itself, and feed itself well,” Sheryl said

The Zakarisons recently won Tilth Producers of Washington’s “Farmers of the Year” award for their commitment to conscientious farming and dedication to cultivating young and beginning farm-ers. Tilth promotes ecologically sound,

economically viable and socially equitable farming practices that improve the health of communities and the environment.

“One of our main areas of concern is making land available to young farmers and giving them the experience and the tools to succeed,” Eric said.

In order to do this the Zakarisons hold field trips to their farm about six miles north of town, give lectures on sustainable/organic farming to Washington State Uni-versity and the University of Idaho classes and host seminars on poultry processing.

Their passion, fed well

Cover Story: Tilth Farmers of the Year

Farm couple earns award for commitment

to present, future

Farm and Ranch | Winter 2011| Wednesday, November 30, 2011 | Moscow-PullMan Daily news / lewiston tribune4In addition to this, the Zakarison’s farm

provides employment for WSU organic agriculture students. Over the past four years, the Zakarisons have employed four students.

“It’s been great. They’ve helped us out, and I’m sure they’ve also learned a lot as they’ve been working out here,” Eric said.

Giving back to the younger generation is the Zakarison way of paying it forward, because 20 years ago, they were the young farmers being helped.

“Sheryl and I would never be able to do this without the help and support of my par-ents (Russell and Elaine Zakarison), because they were the ones that al-lowed us to begin farm-ing after we got married in 1983,” Eric said. “We could have never done it by ourselves. ... So now, it’s our turn to give back, either to our kids or whoever follows us.”

The Zakarisons started with a traditional wheat farm, but began sustainable/organic farming nearly 20 years ago.

“We started to raise pasture poultry and sheep, a lot of vegetables in our garden and from there we started having surplus food,” Eric said. “We started sharing with friends and neighbors and then we started selling a little bit of it, and then just over the years we continued to grow, until we got to the point five or six years ago, where we became more commercial with the organic/sustainable production.”

The whole farm is 1,300 acres. Em-bedded in that is 50 to 75 acres used on a rotational basis to run the organic/sustain-able part of the farm.

Currently Zakarison Farms has more than 150 customers, mainly in the Pullman-Moscow area, who it supplies with pastured broiler chickens, organic eggs, locker lambs and organic feed.

“It’s about just providing good, local food; the food tastes better, whether it’s a fruit or vegetable that’s grown under a little bit of stress, it just tends to have more

flavor,” Eric said. Eric said the same is true with the ani-

mals they raise.“If you take the chemicals out of their

(the animals) diet, the antibiotics, the hormones... it just simply tastes better,” Eric said. “We use good fresh local ingredients, so whether you’re supplying human food or animal feed, fresh local ingredients really make a difference.”

Eric said they have never advertised the farm’s products and all of their customers heard about them by word of mouth.

“The products really sell themselves,” Eric said.

“It gets back to creat-ing a local food system that is resilient,” Sheryl said. “It gets back to con-necting people a little more closely with their food.”

Organic/sustainable farming has different challenges than industrial farming because much of the work is done manually rather than by machine.

“It’s hard, physical work as well. Much of what we do isn’t like sitting on a large 300- or 400-horsepower tractor, which most modern Palouse farmers do,” Eric said. “They also work hard, but we’re actually

out there forking hay and in my case follow-ing behind a team of draft mules ... doing some harrowing on no-spray organic hay, or butchering chickens.”

Eric said despite being busy from the moment they receive their first broiler chicks mid-April until the Saturday before Thanksgiving, he lives for the moments of beauty the farm provides.

“My favorite thing is those small mo-ments, like a new set of twin lambs on a spring day and watching the mother nicker to them and watching the lambs struggle to their feet and begin to nurse,” Eric said. “Those are the times, no matter how short they may be, they’re priceless.”

Kristen Whitney can be reached at (208) 882-5561, ext. 236, or by e-mail at [email protected].

“My favorite thing is those small

moments, like a new set of twin lambs

on a spring day and watching the mother

nicker to them and watching the lambs struggle to their feet and begin to nurse. Those are the times, no matter how short they may be, they’re

priceless.”

Eric Zakarison

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“ ... there’s a variety of ag programs for men, but

sometimes women don’t feel comfortable going to them. They want to network and

share resources, and the time of the classes for men doesn’t necessarily fit the schedule or

lifestyle of women involved in agriculture.”

Margaret ViebrockWSU extension

Taking risksBy Kathy Hedberg

for Northwest Farm and Ranch

In the five years between 2002 and 2007, there was a 20 percent increase in the number of women making major or primary decisions

about how to run the family farm, accord-ing to a Washington agriculture report.

And yet educational opportunities for women involved in agriculture — either as farmers or ranchers or working off the farm to supplement its income — are paltry compared to those for men.

A $48,000 grant recently received by Washington State University from the West-ern Center for Risk Management Education is intended to help turn that around.

“There are a couple things involved,” said Margaret Viebrock, an educator with WSU extension service.

“There are not a lot of programs in Washington state for women involved in agriculture. We find that women learn dif-ferently than men. So there’s a variety of ag programs for men, but sometimes women don’t feel comfortable going to them. They want to network and share resources, and the time of the classes for men doesn’t necessarily fit the schedule or lifestyle of women involved in agriculture.”

For four years, Viebrock said, the exten-sion service and a variety of sponsors held statewide meetings for women in agricul-ture at Wenatchee. At the beginning the meetings were well attended, but the num-bers began to drop off at the final meeting.

Women told the sponsors that they didn’t want to travel that far because of responsibilities at home. So for a year the extension service held workshops in specific locations and had good turnouts.

“So when I applied for the new grant we were looking at addressing education op-portunities for women in Washington state that typically didn’t have a lot of educational programs, and we wanted it so women

didn’t have to drive more than an hour and a half to attend,” Viebrock said.

A planning group chose 16 locations throughout the state where, on Feb. 11, statewide educational programs will be conducted. Two keynote speakers, one from Pennsylvania, the other from Illinois, will be broadcast simultaneously around the state through a webinar.

Following the Feb. 11 workshops, a survey will be conducted with women to see what kind of follow up programs they want to see in their locations.

“That helps promote them finding out who they can network with in their area, also making connections with people in their area,” Viebrock said.

Typically the questions addressed in risk management education programs include the risks producers have as they try to develop their products to be successful as farmers, she added.

“So those risks deal with financial and insurance issues, marketing, interpersonal relationships” and other issues.

Kathy Hedberg may be contacted at [email protected] or (208) 983-2326

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Farm and Ranch | Winter 2011| Wednesday, November 30, 2011 | MOSCOWPULLMAN DAILY NEWS / LEWISTON TRIBUNE6

Contributed photo/Farm and RanchA male sage grouse struts on a lek, the name for tradional breeding grounds, where dozens of males dance at sunrise to attract females.

Looking out for sage grouseFarmers, ranchers can benefit from

protection of rangeland habitatsBy Katie Roenigk

for Northwest Farm and Ranch

Farmers and ranchers in the Pacific Northwest share an unusual bond with the greater sage-grouse, says Tim Griffiths,

Sage-Grouse Initiative coordinator for the Natural Resource Conservation Service.

“The exact same things sage grouse depend on for survival, the ranching com-munities and livestock owners also depend on,” Griffiths said in November, “incred-ible range land resources and native range land habitats (are required) to provide for-age for livestock and habitats for grouse.”

John O’Keeffe, a rancher in Adel, Ore., said the connection has led to a “tremen-dous opportunity” for his family and others in the industry, who have received assistance from the federal government to preserve sage grouse habitats on their property. The animal has been protected under the Endangered Species Act since March 2010, when Griffiths said it was labeled a candidate species by the U.S. Fish

and Wildlife Service.The listing was primarily driven by

the fragmentation of sage grouse habitats, which once spanned 375 million acres and housed millions of birds, Griffiths said. Now, only 200,000 sage grouse range through about 186 million acres in the United States and Canada.

Fragmentation has different causes in different states, Griffiths said. For O’Keeffe, much of the problem involves Western juniper trees that have encroached on his rangeland.

“Through 100 years of keeping fire out of those rangelands, these trees have come down like five million little straws,” Griffiths said.

The trees out-compete grass and shrubs that livestock need to survive, Griffiths said, and the conifers also pose a threat to sage grouse by providing perches for birds of prey. So as part of the initiative, ranchers receive grants to remove the trees.

“It helps the sage grouse, it helps the watershed and it helps livestock forage,” O’Keeffe said. “It kind of puts your ranch in shape for generations that are coming up

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Contributed graphic/Farm and RanchThis map, provided by the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service, shows current and historic sage grouse range in the western part of the United States.

and going to be ranching in the future.”He would not have been able to remove

as many trees as he has without help with the expense, O’Keeffe said.

“The economic return in the short run is fairly slow, so ... you do need financial help to justify it,” he said.

Farmers are the focus in Washington, where the sage grouse population is isolated to areas in Yakima and Douglas County, according to NRCS biologist Jeremy Maestas. He said the land in those locations has been eroded through years of grain production.

“Most of them don’t want to have to farm it,” he said. “(It’s) not as profitable. ... But they have to have a way to pay the bills.”

He said the initiative is popular with Washington farmers, who are paid through the NRCS Conservation Reserve Program to keep the land out of production for a period of time.

“As a result, that habitat has come back, and sage grouse are doing really well there,” Griffiths said.

Last year, the majority of CRP contracts expired, he said, but the initiative has contin-ued the program in the state.

“In Washington the SGI is really respon-sible for saving that population of grouse,” he

said. It is beneficial for farmers and ranchers to

help keep sage grouse numbers up, Griffiths said, because if the animals are listed as endan-gered, use of their habitats may become more heavily restricted. Considering that sage grouse habitats cover 11 Western states, he said that situation would pose a problem for those who work the land.

“In fact ,we don’t see any threat in those 11 states facing our ranchers more than the listing of sage grouse,” Griffiths said. “If the bird is listed, the implications are huge.”

Although the initiative’s primary goal is to recover sage grouse populations and avoid the “endangered” label, he said his group also wants to ensure that ranchers are able to work in the region indefinitely.

“We want to make sure grazing is the predominant land use in those areas,” Griffiths said. “It’s that shared vision that’s really impor-tant.”

He invited people who would like to get in-volved with the initiative to contact their local NRCS field office or district conservationist.

Katie Roenigk can be reached at (208) 882-5561, ext. 301, or by email to [email protected].

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WSU photoOperations like WSU’s Sunrise Research Orchard will benefit from a recent gift of $27 million to WSU research at WSU’s research and extension centers at Wenatchee and Prosser.See Fruit Page 9

An apples to pears comparisonWashington State University organizing

8-year commitment by orchardists

By William L. Spencefor Northwest Farm and Ranch

WENATCHEE – A $27 million gift from apple and pear growers should start

bearing fruit at Washington State University beginning about a year from now.

Jay Brunner, director of WSU’s Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center in Wenatchee, said by that time he hopes to have one or two new endowed chairs in place.

In a statewide industry vote last fall, apple and pear growers agreed to contribute $1 per ton to fund tree

fruit research at WSU. The self-assess-ment, which will last for eight years, is the largest single gift in school history. The money will pay for a total of six new endowed chairs, as well as several outreach positions and for dedicated research orchards in Prosser and Wenatchee.

“The positions will be added over time,” Brunner said. “We’ll get about $3.5 million in funding after the next crop year. Where those dollars are allo-cated will determine how fast some of these positions are brought on board.”

A seven-member industry advisory committee will work with WSU to de-cide how to allocate the funds, he said.

The committee will also provide guidance on what type of research would be most beneficial to the industry.

“It will be a balance between applied and basic research,” Brunner said. “They aren’t just going to want us to find solu-tions to today’s problems. The industry recognizes that research is long term.”

The thinking right now is that three of the endowed chairs will focus on plant growth research, he said, including trying to understand the molecular basis for fruit size and other plant attributes. The remain-ing chairs will likely address crop protec-tion and pest management, soil health, and automation and technology.

A total of $11 million out of the $27 million will be dedicated to these endowed chairs. Brunner said the interest gener-ated by that investment — an estimated $80,000 per chair per year — will go to the faculty members who sit in those chairs. They can’t keep the money, but they can use it to fund their individual research projects.

“That’s money the rest of us don’t have,” Brunner said. “That gives WSU an oppor-tunity to attract the best scientists. There’s some prestige in having an endowed chair. It’s not an entry level position; we’ll be

looking for researchers who are near the peak of their careers, with a good national and international reputation.”

Another $11 million will be dedicated to industry outreach. The intent is to hire people who will work directly with the growers, helping bring them the latest research in a timely manner.

“Over time, the state investment in extension has diminished,” Brunner said. “The industry doesn’t believe the state will continue to invest in that area. They’ve said if it’s important to them, they’ll have to fund it.”

WSU is also hoping to raise an addi-tional $10 million from “allied industries” – companies that have a close association with apple and pear growers but that don’t directly participate in the self-assessment. If successful, that money would likely be used for equipment, infrastructure, irrigation systems and the like.

Brunner said he’s not aware of another investment of this magnitude being made by the tree fruit industry anywhere in the country.

“Nothing really comes close,” he said. “And the industry wouldn’t have stepped up if WSU didn’t have good standing in delivering research in the past. We’re cap-turing credits that we built up over time.”

William L. Spence may be contacted at [email protected] or (208) 791-9168.


Fruit from Page 8

See Wheat Page 10

It isn’t easy being tallWheat scientist try to get to the root of height issue

By Joel Millsfor Northwest Farm and Ranch

PULLMAN – While it’s an at-tractive attribute for a member of the human race, being tall doesn’t do a lot for wheat. In

fact, if a wheat stalk gets too tall, the plant will topple to the ground and take crop yields with it.

In the 1960s, Washington State Uni-versity wheat breeder Orville Vogel found a solution, using dwarfing genes to reduce the height of the wheat plant from 6 feet to about 3½ feet.

“These genes are what triggered a green

revolution around the world,” WSU wheat scientist Kulvinder Gill said.

Yields more than tripled as seas of wheat flourished. Today, about 90 percent of global wheat crops contain Vogel’s dwarfing genes, Gill said.

But like many solutions, dwarfing led to its own set of problems. One of the main drawbacks is a smaller root system that isn’t able to absorb as much water.

“The root length is really a problem because then water cannot be utilized ef-fectively,” Gill said.

Now he is trying to develop so-called

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Barry Kough/Lewiston TribuneA new type of wheat may be developed that’s more suitable for land even drier than the Palouse.

Wheat from Page 9

“desert wheat” that can thrive in drier climates.

“We are trying to reduce the plant height by using a different gene system,” Gill said.

Last year, the National Science Founda-tion and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foun-dation awarded Gill’s research team a $1.6 million, three-year grant to work on desert wheat. They’ve started their pursuit with an Idaho variety of wheat called “Indian” that was a tall plant before Vogel’s dwarfing genes were introduced.

Vogel’s genes stopped production of a hormone called gibberellic acid, or GA.

“When you reduce a very important plant growth hormone, then it has to have a negative effect on the plant,” Gill said.

Other than the desired reduction in plant height, the negative effects included a smaller root system, and problems that probably haven’t even been discovered. So Gill has taken a completely different ap-proach.

“We are not reducing any plant hormone,” he said. “We are changing the

distribution of (growth hormone) auxin.”Auxin is produced in the tip and

migrates through the whole plant. But it inhibits root growth, and Gill is trying to manipulate genes so more of it stays in the top part of the plant.

In fact, the auxin transport system is so

important that 70 percent of the project’s resources are dedicated to understanding it through basic research, Gill said.

And if the new dwarfing method doesn’t boost root growth there still will be a ben-efit, Gill said.

“Even if our hypothesis is wrong, getting

a different gene system will not be bad,” he said. “It will increase diversity and decrease susceptibility just in case there is a prob-lem.”

Joel Mills may be contacted at [email protected] or (208) 883-0564.

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A home for good bugsNew e-publication focuses on sustainability

By Kathy Hedbergfor Northwest Farm and Ranch

PULLMAN — A recently launched publication of Wash-ington State University’s College of Agriculture, Human and Nat-

ural Resources will help people throughout the region keep track of what’s going on in organic and sustainable agriculture.

Green Times is a free monthly electronic newsletter that came out Nov. 1. Brian Clark, editor of the newsletter said the pub-lication touches on new research, people and the multifaceted ways they are involved in agriculture.

“It focuses on organic and sustain-able agriculture in the Pacific Northwest, especially in Washington,” Clark said. “But

anywhere WSU has something going on. And in some cases, like in this first issue, one of the pieces is a very short story with a link to a video about one of our researchers who is doing some work in three African nations.”

Clark emphasized that people can self-subscribe to the newsletter at this shortened Web address http://bit.ly/vih6wL and the university does not share or sell its email lists.

Clark is enthusiastic about plans for upcoming issues.

“There’s going to be a research story in every issue,” he said. “And in this issue it’s about insect biodiversity. That’s a big issue to farmers and so one of the things that WSU has been working on for ages is: how

The Green Times is a monthly electronic newsletter produced by Washington State University for various agriculture-related endeavours.

By Kathy Hedbergfor Northwest Farm and Ranch

MOSCOW — The University of Idaho recently created a

collaboration of researchers, educators and land manag-ers to focus on rangeland stewardship throughout Idaho.

The new Rangeland Center comprises 23 people with backgrounds in grazing, rangeland ecology, entomology, soil science, rural sociology, fish and wildlife management and other sciences.

“There’s a lot of litigation on rangeland (issues) and a lot of misunderstanding,” , said Karen Launchbaugh, coordinator of the rangeland center. “And we hope

that we will be the place to go if you really need the answer.”

The rangeland depart-ment used to be housed in the College of Natural Resources, she said. But the people who worked in that field were scattered throughout the state.

“It seemed like a good idea to work together rather than work

do you control those suckers?“One of the things people have found

out over the years is you can manipu-late the environment to create a habitat that is hospitable for good bugs that will prey upon bad bugs that eat your crop. We have a story about how sustainable farming practices are a way of creating that environment that is hospitable as a bio-control.”

Clark said another future story involves bakers on Washington’s west side who are using locally grown wheat in their bak-ing products. It traces how most wheat grown in the Pacific Northwest is exported overseas and obtaining local wheat for commercial purposes is no small task.

“One of the primary focuses of this newsletter is to supply people with the information they would need to be able to close that loop or complete that circuit,” Clark said. “Because they would know what it would take to buy locally and sup-port local farmers and learn more about

who they are and what they are doing that goes into making them effective.”

Clark said another recurring feature of the newsletter will be an events calendar and encouraged readers to submit informa-tion about upcoming events, whether or not they have some connection to WSU.

There will be a people’s section involv-ing news about what WSU researchers are doing. But it will also include stories about folks in the field who are using that research in practical ways, such as the story in the current issue about a couple in Stevens County who are making artisanal cheeses out of goat’s milk and offering cooking classes at their home.

There have been past newsletters with plenty of subscribers, he said. But the mo-ment word about Green Times got out he had a flood of emails from people inter-ested in signing up.

“And what that tells me is there was a huge pent-up need and desire for some-thing like this,” Clark said.

Kathy Hedberg may be contacted at [email protected] or (208) 983-2326.


Bugs from Page 11

WSU photoOperations like WSU’s Sunrise Research Orchard will benefit from a recent gift of $27 million to WSU research at WSU’s research and extension centers at Wenatchee and Prosser.See Range Page 15

Homing in on the range issuesUI leads collaborative effort

on land management

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WSU Extension receives grant for riverbank grazing workshopsWater regs prompt need for management strategies

By Holly Bowenfor Northwest Farm and Ranch

Livestock producers, conservation workers, biologists and others involved in managing grazing livestock are being invited by

Washington State University Extension and the National Riparian Service Team to attend a two-day workshop in May.

The workshop regarding water quality issues related to grazing along rivers and streams is scheduled for May in Mount Vernon and White Salmon.

It’s funded by a $49,982 grant that WSU Extension received from the Western Center for Risk Management Education to provide strategies for maintaining proper riparian function and water quality in areas where livestock are allowed to graze near bodies of water.

Workshop participants will learn how to assess riparian health, identify risks to water quality, manipulate livestock behaviors and vegetation characteristics to achieve landscape goals, design grazing strategies to improve riparian health and water qual-ity, implement cost-effective monitoring methods and link environmental health to profitability.

Tip Hudson, rangeland and livestock management educator for WSU Extension in Kittitas County and project manager for the grant, said nonpoint source water qual-ity regulations are a major issue for regional livestock producers right now.

“The Department of Ecology has been increasing their level of surveillance and enforcement on nonpoint source water quality regulations,” he said. “Our objec-tive is to provide producers with some management strategies that will help them maintain proper riparian function, which is the main key to protecting water quality.”

He said researchers have studied riparian grazing for the past 50-60 years, but some risk management strategies haven’t been widely adopted.

Properly functioning riparian zones

feature vegetation that prevents erosion, filters runoff and increases the water hold-ing capacity of floodplains.

“The goal is to graze it less frequently,” Hudson said.

He said a major conflict point for live-stock producers is the decision whether to fence off riparian areas from their animals.

According to a “Livestock Management and Water Quality” publication authored by Hudson, managing livestock to improve or maintain water quality must incorpo-rate practices that reduce the likelihood of manure deposition into the water, discour-age overland flow of bacteria-contaminated water and encourage precipitation and irrigation to enter the soil.

Management techniques include provid-ing a water tank to discourage livestock from drinking from the natural body of wa-ter and making the natural water difficult for livestock to reach with steep slopes or other barriers.

Hudson recommended producers, scientists and others interested in riparian grazing management check out a “Grazing Management Processess and Strategies for Riparian-Wetland Areas” document hosted online at this shortened link: http://goo.gl/GMp2y.

Those who are interested in attend-ing one of the May workshops should call (509) 962-7507, email Hudson at [email protected] or visit http://kittitas.wsu.edu.

Hudson said workshop registration will cost about $40, which covers the cost of food. If it weren’t for the grant from the Western Center for Risk Management Education, such a workshop could cost up to $400 per participant, he said.

“The workshop is really for anybody involved in planning grazing management in forest and rangeland,” Hudson said.

Holly Bowen can be reached at (208) 882-5561, ext. 239, or by email to [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter: @DailyNewsHolly

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Tyson Koepke, 27, of Cut Bank, Mont., a doctoral candidate in molecular plant sciences at Washington State University, shows the growth of a rootstock variety of stemless cherry growing in a gelatin and nutrient base

Dean HareDaily News

Amit Dhinga, a horticulture

and landscape architecture professor at Washington

State University, explains the

experiment he is running on how

different colors of light affect plant growth, and how that may or may

not affect the development of

stemless cherries.

Dean HareDaily News

Good cherries mean good genesResearchers work with USDA, partners to improve harvest of stem-less cherries

By Brandon Maczfor Northwest Farm and Ranch

Washington State Univer-sity researchers are working with

farmers to sweeten the state’s cherry industry using genetics to make the fruit easier to harvest in an attempt boost productivity.

Funded under the USDA Spe-cialty Crop Research Initiative, the aim is to maximize the efficiency

of harvesting cherries by reducing both the labor costs and the fruit losses when cherries are separated from their stems.

The latter has been the focus of Amit Dhingra’s research at WSU. The associate professor with the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture is analyz-ing the genetic composition of different varieties of sweet cherry seedlings to determine why some

See Cherries Page 15


Range from Page 12

against college boundaries,” Launchbaugh said. “This was a way to formalize our interaction.”

In August, the rangeland center was formally designated and the group has met twice since in different locations or by use of video conferencing.

“Our goal is to be kind of the center of being able to bring people to the table — to be the place to go where, if you need unbiased information on a project we’ll have it,” Launchbaugh said. “But we’ll also be the fulcrum to bring other organizations together to solve problems.”

The group hopes to assist investigations by scientists and professionals studying

sustainable land management practices. It hopes to publish peer-reviewed reports and conduct workshops and symposiums around rangeland issues.

Launchbaugh said the group is trying to find ways to get students in internship programs engaged on the ground with ranchers and other land managers. And a future plan is to form a stakeholder advi-sory group to inform and evaluate center activities.

“I do see us, as they always say, to be the unbiased source of information for rangeland management,” Launchbaugh said.

Kathy Hedberg may be contacted at [email protected] or (208) 983-2326.

Cherries from Page 14

cherries separate more easily from their stems than others, which will allow for gene-assisted breeding, he said.

This is a process where breeders “keep only those seedlings that have the desired qualities you’re looking for and get rid of the rest,” Dhingra said. “We actually kind of use those genes as a fingerprinting tool. … We have identified five or six genes that are related to bings.”

While some cherry varieties like skeenas easily separate from their stems, others do not, and require more force to remove them, said Dhingra, which can cause tearing of the fruit, making them dry too quickly and essentially lowering produc-tion.

“You’re leaving wounds, and pathogens get in,” he said.

Harvesting cherries typically has been done using either workers to shake the trees or machinery that bangs against the trees, causing ripe fruit to fall — preferably without their stems. Dhingra said farmers want a shake-and-catch system that will require less force by using cherries with genetic predispositions to separate from their stems more easily.

“This change in force allows us to har-vest these (trees) mechanically, as well as ensure a clean separation between the stem and the fruit,” he said.

The work of Matthew Whiting, WSU assistant professor and project director, at the university’s research station in Prosser has also yielded a more efficient produc-tion system for stone fruit, said Dhingra, which focuses on upright fruiting off-shoots. Rather than letting the tree grow any which way, he said, trees are planted at a 45 degree angle to the ground and one main branch is allowed to grow upright branches from it, providing a singular plain from which to harvest.

Dhingra said this process of upright fruiting offshoots allowed the trees to begin producing fruit for harvest in two years — much faster than the conventional method — and also yielded a higher ton-nage of fruit per acre.

“The tree is reaching its potential much faster,” he said.

And that’s good news for farmers who also have a stake in this research funded with $3.9 million from the USDA, plus $3.9 million in matching funds from the industry, Dhingra said. Orchardists are looking to capitalize on the cost-savings these new production and processing sys-tems will provide in the future. Two years into the four-year grant, Dhingra said that as long as WSU and its partners continue producing positive results, funding will be renewed for the next phase of research.

Brandon Macz can be reached at (208) 882-5561, ext. 238, or by email to [email protected].

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By Kelli Hadleyfor Northwest Farm and Ranch

There are many ways to make a car move, but fuel for aviation is a little more complicated, said Norman Lewis, director

of the Institute of Biological Chemistry at Washington State University.

“There may be different ways in which people can figure out ways to make a car move — it could be solar power, battery, ethanol — but once you get into aircraft, it’s got to be high octane,” Lewis said. “It’s a larger task but it’s also more lucrative.”

Two $40 million grants given to teams from the University of Washington and from Washington State University will col-laborate on projects to research the use of wood-based fuel for aviation purposes, said Lewis, a leader of the WSU-led program.

For that program, WSU will partner with the University of Idaho Colleges of

Natural Resources and Art and Architec-ture and the Northwest Advanced Re-newables Alliance. Lewis said part of the research involves growing and researching different kinds of feedstock, particularly looking into how to get past challenges associated with converting wood-based materials into fuel. Eventually, that portion of the program aims to develop a regional source of aviation fuel for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

“You can take wood and convert it into almost anything, if you want to, but the economics can be terrible,” Lewis said. “So if you wanted to take wood and break the carbons down, and use that to build some-thing else you certainly can, but it might be very inefficient and very expensive.”

The project will determine the best

Pacific Northwest plant lines that convert most easily and efficiently to jet fuel.

Additionally, the project will consider how to build up an industry that supports the natural resources for aviation fuel, Lewis said, which, if done successfully, could help address rural unemployment.

“What’s often forgotten is that there used to be a lot of pulp mills and lumber mills around here and on the wide side of Washington as well,” Lewis said. “Those just aren’t here anymore because other countries have either competed price-wise or the orders just aren’t there because of the economic slump.”

As the concept of “woody biomass” becomes more familiar as a resource, Lewis said they are also looking at ways to edu-cate those in the K-12 system on alternative forms of sustainable energy. The other $40 million grant, led by the UW, is more fo-cused on K-12 education and community outreach, Lewis said. Additionally, one of that program’s main goals will be to assign a consortium of eight organizations to work on the woody biomass supply chain to promote the operation of biorefineries.

One of the groups in the WSU-led project will gather sugars from wood by chemical means, then convert those into a molecule called isobutanol, Lewis said, which is then converted into jet fuel.

Easier said than done. Wood’s genetic makeup resists efficient conversion into sugars.

Corn, which contains starch, is fairly simple to convert into sugar and then ferment into ethanol, Lewis said. Woody biomass, on the other hand, is made up of materials like cellulose and wood lignin, which are not as easy to degrade as starch is.

“Lignin can be 20 to 30 percent of tree material, depending on the species,” he said, and is quite recalcitrant when you attempt to convert it into sugar.

“You can’t chew the stuff down into what you want,” Lewis said. “It’s like the

glue that holds everything together.” Lewis said some researchers will focus

on breeding plants that break down more easily. Through breeding, he said, they can select for specific traits that will result in the most efficient production.

“So we’ll be trying to fix the problem with these recalcitrants, whether that’s by lowering the lignin content or shunting the carbon in a different way,” Lewis said. “Many don’t realize that our domesticated plants didn’t really look like this when they began. … If you saw a potato in Peru you probably wouldn’t eat it, because it’s highly colored and gone through years of cultiva-tion.”

The Pacific Northwest is home to a lot of softwood species, generally evergreens, which Lewis said often have more lignin in them, but are also a better source of car-bohydrates, which can be easier to ferment into ethanol or isobutanol. Poplar and red alder are also plentiful in the Northwest and will also be researched for conversion.

“If you look at where we get oil from in this region, a lot of it used to come from the Alaskan slopes, but their production is slowly going down and we have this big question of domestic security,” Lewis said. “So this provides an opportunity to look at how far along the path we can get to solv-ing some of these issues.”


Wood-based fuel projects turn skywardResearchers looking for more

efficient creation of aviation fuel “You can take wood and

convert it into almost anything, if you want to, but the

economics can be terrible. So if you wanted to take wood and break the carbons down, and

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be very inefficient and veryexpensive.”

Norman Lewisdirector of the Institute of Biological Chemistry

at Washington State University

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By Amelia VenezianoDaily News staff writer

The relationship between the land and the life it feeds is as intrinsic as soil and crops.

But the relationship be-tween forestry and agriculture isn’t as clear.

A recent $40,000 grant aims to bring the two fields closer. It was given to the Northwest Natural Resource Group for tree management from the USDA, admin-istered by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, awarded by the Western Center for Risk Management Education and housed at the WSU Extension in the School of Economic Sciences.

The NNRG project, “Managing Young Stands: Forest Management for New For-est Owners,” creates workshops for the Nisqually and McKenna forest subdivi-sions in Western Washington, said Shan-non Neibergs, the director of the Center for Risk Management Education at the Western Center.

But it could have implications wherever forestlands can be developed as croplands.

Small foresters produce wood, forest byproducts like plants and floral pieces, and agriculture products, like mushrooms and berries, NNRG executive director Dan Stonington said.

Another grant from the USDA in Oregon is helping other landowners participate in emerging ecosystem service markets, like selling carbon credits, water quality trading and other new ways to profit from forest lands.

The workshops started in October and conclude in February, covering topics including forest inventorying, improv-ing forest health, pruning and thinning Douglas-fir stands and small-scale milling and lumber sales.

“The importance of investing during an economically challenging time is critical,” said Stonington. “It’s critical to support programs that allow innovative new tools to become available for forest land owners.

There’s increasing recognition that eco-nomic and environmental goals go hand in hand, and tools to support that are more and more important.”

The workshop also include “fireside chats” in the winter, on managing a timber sale, county and state forest management regulations, forestry taxes and harvesting and marketing non-timber forest products.

“This was a unique proposal,” Neibergs said. “This is an area that hasn’t been covered before ... We collectively rated this as a proposal to fund in the competitive process.”

Many of the projects funded in 2011 relate to crops and critters, helping farms and ranches faced by new economic and product demands and other farm-related fields. The Northwest Natural Resource Group allocation was the only one for wildlands.

“We’re trying to improve the economic viability of agricultural producers, and in this case the small landowner was viewed as a woodland ag producer,” Neibergs said.

“We’re trying to improve their econom-ic viability, which tied back to profitability and their long-term economic viability.”

Most of the potential clients for the NNRG seminars are small landowners, with 20 to 40 acres, although the group defines “small” by volume of product, not acreage.

Much like other small agriculture pro-ducers, small forest landowners have a hard time competing with major producers, in terms of time, expense and manpower.

“There are similarities in the oppor-tunities and challenges for small-scale producers in both agriculture and forestry,” Stonington said.

They include higher transactions costs and greater efficiency challenges on the small scale.

“Both also have great opportunities to have non-commodity and unique local market products,” he said.

Another emerging area in forestry is

Forest Service Certification, which allows foresters to be certified and “branded.” FCS is also the certification brand and process NNRG uses for its membership program.

“Certification is a big advantage,” Ston-ington said. “It’s a brand we feel is really strong in economic, environmental and social outcomes.”

The $40,000 Western Center grant will help NNRG hold the seminars, and assist in developing a protocol to streamline participation in the marketplace.

“It’s great having that support to go work with smaller forest owners in the Nisqually, on management and certifica-tion,” Stonington said. “It’s an innovative partnership.”

Amelia Veneziano can be reachedat (208) 882-5561, ext. 233, or by emailto [email protected].

Farm and Ranch | Winter 2011 Wednesday, November 30, 2011 | MOSCOWPULLMAN DAILY NEWS / LEWISTON TRIBUNE | 17

Grant helps forest owners manage landTrees aren’t the only crop that can be involved “The importance of investing

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By William L. Spencefor Northwest Farm and Ranch

A reluctance to decapitate mice early in his career led one Wash-ington State University research-er to focus on plant defense

mechanisms — a move that resulted in a recent discovery that could help combat a major crop disease.

Andris Kleinhofs has been at WSU since 1967. He got his start in plant science dur-ing a college biochemistry class.

“We had to isolate an enzyme from the brain of a mouse, and I got volunteered to decapitate it,” he said. “At that point I de-cided to study plants. They don’t scream.”

Kleinhofs, who is now semi-retired, spent his career investigating the genetics of barley, one of the world’s major cereal crops. He tries to identify different genes in the plant and understand what role they

play, particularly in disease resistance.His most recent line of research began

in 1993, when he and his WSU colleagues set out to clone the Rpg1 gene.

“We knew it was an important gene for stem rust resistance,” Kleinhofs said. “Once we cloned the gene, then we started asking how it worked.”

Stem rust is a major crop disease, both in barley and in wheat. Unlike stripe rust, it historically hasn’t been a problem in the Pacific Northwest, preferring moister, hot-ter areas like the Great Plains.

Spread by fungal spores, stem rust has largely been controlled through the devel-

opment of disease-resistant seed varieties. However, a virulent new strain - Ug99, first identified in Uganda in 1999, has been devastating wheat and barley production in Africa and the Middle East, reducing crop yields by 60 to 100 percent.

“If Ug99 were to arrive in the United States today, it would probably take out most of the wheat and barley in regions where stem rust is a problem,” Kleinhofs said.

His investigation of the Rpg1 gene could help prevent that. While monitoring the gene’s activity, Kleinhofs and Assis-tant Research Professor Jayaveeramuthu Nirmala recently documented an extremely rapid defense response when stem rust spores land on a barley plant.

Prior to this discovery, Kleinhofs said, the standard thinking had been that a plant’s defensive response wouldn’t kick in until it’s actively under attack. But when a spore first lands on a plant, it doesn’t immediately go on the offensive. The pathogen enters the plant through respira-tory openings in the leaves, then fungal mycelia grow between the cells and begin constructing “hausitoria” — basically little biochemical factories that pump out the enzymes which actually break down cell walls and weaken the plant.

“The dogma had been that that was when resistance would initiate,” Kleinhofs said. “But that process takes about 15 to 20 hours. We observed the whole plant react-ing within 5 minutes of a spore landing on a leaf. That was as fast as we could measure it; it may be happening even faster. It was something totally unexpected.”

When the spore lands, he said, it re-leases a couple of proteins. The Rpg1 gene quickly recognizes the proteins and realizes the plant is under attack. This begins a “sig-nal cascade,” with Rpg1 sending messages

to other genes, which send more signals to other parts of the plant to start marshalling its defenses.

Researchers could eventually use the work to improve plant resistance to stem rust and other diseases.

Although Kleinhofs focuses on barley genetics, his work also involves plant sig-naling mechanisms — the methods used to communicate within and between plants.

Mike Kahn, associate director of WSU’s Agricultural Research Center, said the uni-versity has a distinguished history in plant signaling research, dating back to the work of Clarence (Bud) Ryan.

“Bud showed that plants can transmit the idea that they’re under attack to other parts of the plant,” Kahn said. “He worked out which molecules are used to transmit signals within the plant, and which mol-ecules are used to alert the plant and other plants that they’re under attack.”

As Kleinhofs noted in his work, an attack generates a “signal cascade.” One gene recognizes the pathogen, other genes are used to communicate that information within and between plants, and still other genes actually produce the proteins and chemicals used to combat the pathogen.

“There’s a lot of communication going on that people aren’t aware of,” Kahn said. “It really gets baroque. Some plants will release volatiles that attract other insects that attack the insects feeding on them. It’s a way of recruiting allies.”

Ryan’s work focuses on protein inhibi-tors in potato plants. These are chemicals that prevent insects from digesting plant material. The thinking used to be that inhibitors were present in the plant all the time, but Ryan showed it was manufac-tured in response to an insect attack.

“Bud was clearly out ahead of every-body,” Kahn said. Plant signaling “was an area that didn’t exist 20 years ago. Now we know a lot about signal molecules.”

What’s particularly significant about Kleinhofs’ recent work, he said, is the speed of the defense response.

“In most disease processes, timing is critical,” Kahn said. “If the pathogen moves


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faster than the plant’s defense response, the pathogen wins.”

Kleinhofs said signaling in plants is very similar to the signaling that takes place in animals, but it hasn’t been investigated to the same degree. It’s only been in the last 15 years or so that adequate funding has been available – and as his own work shows, it can take years of research to make an important discovery.

“The public sometimes gets discouraged

about funding scientific research and about mistakes or dead-ends,” he said. “But that’s part of science. It’s not straightforward. We’re probing the unknown, and some-times make mistakes. But as long as it’s an open process and there’s an opportunity to question and re-examine the research, we move forward.”

William L. Spence may be contacted at [email protected] or (208) 791-9168.

H&R BLOCK® DOWNTOWN1446 Main, Lewiston

(208) 743-0222Mon. and Thurs. 10-5pm

ORCHARDS455 Thain Rd, Lewiston

(208) 746-0656Tuesday 10-5pm

CLARKSTON435 Elm Street(509) 751-8872

Wednesday 10-5pm

MOSCOW124 West C Street

(208) 882-0702Wednesday 9-3pm

PULLMAN151 N. Grand

(509) 334-5808Wednesday 9-3pm

326595K4_11

You tend to your crops.Your people will tend to your taxes.If you want to make farm life less taxing, talk to your people at H&R Block. Our people can answer questions about things like fuel credit, farm income averaging, and casualty losses.

For a location near you, call 1-800-HRBLOCKor visit hrblock.com

1850 Idaho Street, Lewiston

Hours: Monday - Friday 9-Close Evenings & Saturdays by Appointment

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Modern hearing aids offer a wide range of functions and variety. Puretone Hearing Service will help you make the choice that is perfect for you.

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Spread your message,build your business

To advertise in Northwest Farm and Ranch, contact the Moscow-Pullman Daily News advertising department at 208.882.5561 or Advertising Manager Craig Staszkow

at [email protected], or the Lewiston Tribune advertising department at 208.848.2216.


LEWISTON 1408 Main Street 208 7431594

LEWISTON ORCHARDS 251 Thain Road208 7462948

GRANGEVILLE 411 E Main Street 208 9831650

MOSCOW 1421 E White Avenue

208 8823538

OROFINO 302 Johnson Avenue

208 4765589

PULLMAN 160 SE Bishop Boulevard

509 3341835

COLFAX 215 W Walla Walla Hwy

509 3974678

CLARKSTON 1468 Bridge Street

509 7519661

EIGHT AREA LOCATIONS TO SERVE YOU! WWW.LESSCHWAB.COM

Les Schwab: Growing with Farmers and Ranchers for Over Years™

Documents

Northwest Farm and Ranch Winter 2011