Cape Blanco Cranberries  Oregon Cranberry Growers Association

With just over a month remaining in Oregon’s legislative session, lawmakers have acted on several bills related to agriculture and natural resources.

Controversial proposals that would increase the regulation of pesticides and genetically engineered crops have died in committee, while others — such as restrictions on antibiotics in livestock — are still awaiting committee action.

Following is a summary of bills that have either passed the legislature or crossed significant hurdles on the way to becoming law:

A mechanism for resolving potential disputes over cross-pollination between organic, conventional and genetically modified crops has made headway in the legislature.

House Bill 2509 creates a mediation system in which the Oregon Department of Agriculture would seek voluntary resolutions to coexistence conflicts.

After winning support from proponents and critics of genetic engineering, the bill was approved 57-1 in the House. The lone dissenter was Rep. Paul Holvey, D-Eugene, who introduced legislation restricting where biotech crops are cultivated. That proposal died in committee.

The mediation bill is now being considered by the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, which is scheduled to hold a hearing and possible work session on HB 2509 on May 20.

A proposal to increase funding for predator control by assessing rural landowners up to $1 per acre in special tax districts was approved by the House 56-2 and is now before the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources. While House Bill 3188 won by a strong margin, it is opposed by animal welfare and environmental groups that object to lethal methods and local management of wildlife. The legislation was supported by ranchers, who say that such added money is necessary in rural counties facing budget shortfalls and pressure from cougars, coyotes and other predators.

Legal protections for Oregon agritourism operators have passed muster in the Senate, which approved Senate Bill 341 unanimously. The legislation would shield growers from liability for visitor mishaps providing they post warnings, among other conditions.

The proposal got off to a rocky start due to opposition from trial lawyers, but managed to overcome that obstacle with an amendment to the bill.

Proponents hope that greater clarity on agritourism liability will convince more insurance companies to provide coverage for such operations.

A new method of reducing property taxes for urban farmers was approved 50-10 in the Oregon House, but House Bill 2723 will likely face changes on the Senate side.

The bill allows local governments to create agriculture incentive zones within urban growth boundaries where properties would be taxed at a lower rate if they’re devoted to farming for five years.

While HB 2723 appears to have momentum behind it, questions over its potential impact on urban growth boundaries still need to be answered. Supporters are also likely to amend the bill to include a 2023 sunset date and exclude marijuana from the tax relief proposal.

Oregon’s prohibition against raw milk advertising, which hadn’t been enforced for more than a year, is officially no longer a state law.

Gov. Kate Brown recently signed House Bill 2446, which removes the longstanding ban from statute but doesn’t otherwise change restrictions on raw milk sales.

The bill was introduced as part of a legal settlement between the Oregon Department of Agriculture and Christine Anderson, a raw milk producer who sued the agency for violating her free speech rights.

During hearings and work sessions, HB 2446 faced no opposition and sailed through the legislative process without so much as an amendment.

Northwest Farm Credit Services, a major agricultural lender in the region, will be able to participate in Oregon’s “Aggie Bond” program, which is aimed at providing loans to beginning farmers under House Bill 3239. The bill was signed into law by Brown recently and expands the definition of lenders who qualify for the program, which provides companies with a federal tax credit for lending to new growers.

A ban against using drones for hunting and angling was also approved by the legislature and Brown without encountering any objections, though lawmakers did make some adjustments to clarify that such devices can be used for managing wildlife with the approval of state regulators.

House Bill 2534 passed both chambers unanimously. The bill was supported by lobbyists representing hunters and fishermen, who feel that drones threaten the concept of “fair chase.”

House Bill 2432, which expands the use of fireworks for bird control, was another non-controversial measure that was recently signed into law. The legislation allows managers of golf courses, airports, landfills and similar facilities to use fireworks to repel birds. Before the bill was passed, such uses were limited to farms and forests.

Legislation that would streamline the permitting process for artificial beaver dams in the Malheur Lake drainage basin passed the House 51-7 and is now under review in the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources.

Artificial beaver dams are intended to restore the function of “flashy” streams by slowing them down, which also improves forage conditions for ranchers.

Environmental groups are split on House Bill 3217, with the Oregon Natural Desert Association supporting it but several other groups worried about reduced fish passage restrictions.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The state Drought Council has endorsed seven more county drought declarations and sent them on to the governor.

Water Resources Department spokeswoman Racquel Rancier says the council on Thursday forwarded drought declarations from Deschutes, Grant, Jackson, Josephine, Lane, Morrow and Umatilla counties to the governor’s office.

The governor’s declaration allows increased flexibility in how water is managed to ensure that limited supplies are used as efficiently as possible.

According to the state Water Resources Department website, 14 of Oregon’s 36 counties have declared drought disasters, and the governor has followed up with declarations in seven of them. Federal declarations, which make it possible to apply for drought loans and aid payments, have been made in 15 counties.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Running flat out for a new term at home and tiptoeing through tough issues in the Capitol, Ron Wyden brags that he’s “different, like Oregon.”

Not everyone sees that as a good thing, though, at least in the Senate. In the space of just a few hours this week, Wyden managed to offend Republicans and Democrats alike over legislation he co-authored permitting President Barack Obama to cut “fast-track” trade deals that Congress could approve or reject, but not change.

It’s part of Wyden’s effort to show he’s for trade, against government intrusion and pragmatic — even if it means embarrassing his president, irking his colleagues and angering labor and environmental groups back home. As the senior Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, Wyden is at the center of the debate.

“Wyden trying to pull a fast one on fast track,” blared the headline of a recent Oregon AFL-CIO newsletter.

“Save the Internet, Stop Fast Track,” read a 30-foot blimp by a company called Fight for the Future that flew over the senator’s town hall meeting last month.

Wyden acknowledges the hubbub and shrugs it off.

“It comes with the territory,” he said this week, hurrying from the Capitol to his office nearby. “I’m a big guy.”

Six-foot-four, to be exact — tall enough to play Division I basketball in college. Instead of a sports career, he opted for law school and politics. At 66, Wyden is a 35-year veteran of the House and Senate, facing re-election to a full fourth term amid a dizzying array of other details. He’s a father of five — including twin 7-year-olds and a toddler — a cancer survivor and a key negotiator on tax policy, privacy law, health care policy and trade.

“Some days I look at him and I know he’s got to be tired,” said Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del.

What’s high-energy and a “wide bandwidth” to some is considered frenetic and unpredictable by others in the Senate. But no one doubts that Wyden commands an unusually large portfolio of high-profile legislation or that his brand of pragmatism can be effective.

Wyden, from his post on the finance panel, is his party’s chief negotiator of trade legislation that would allow Obama to negotiate trade deals, such as an historic accord with 11 Pacific Rim nations.

And should Senate Republicans try next week to extend the Patriot Act’s expiring spying powers, Wyden says he’ll try to block the effort with a filibuster.

If he does, little love would be lost between him and majority Republicans, who spent the week openly questioning Wyden’s credibility. A dozen Democrats who support the legislation weren’t happy, either. On the brink of Senate action, they let Wyden know they would vote against it — unless Republicans agreed to demands on other measures that would give them political cover with unions and other groups.

Abruptly, Wyden abandoned the legislation he had helped write. He joined the dozen protesting Democratic senators in the last-minute ultimatum, demanding that majority Republicans also offer votes on bills to enforce labor standards with the U.S. trading partners and crack down on currency manipulation by foreign governments.

An only-in-the-Senate spectacle ensued: Wyden and the dozen Democrats voted against moving ahead on the package they, and Obama, support.

Stunned, the White House sputtered about the “snafu.” Obama summoned Senate Democrats for a meeting. And Republicans thundered about the perceived double-cross by Wyden, in a chamber that operates substantially on relationships and trust.

“Words,” grumbled Utah GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch ominously, “have been broken.”

Does he think Wyden, his negotiating partner on the Finance Committee, had been dishonest?

“I’m not going to talk about our relationship,” replied Hatch, the committee chairman. “Was I disappointed? Yes. That’s all I’m going to say.”

It remained unclear what had transpired between the two, but Wyden insists he did not promise to move forward without the enforcement and currency bills.

“I would not have agreed to that,” he says.

Within 24 hours, Republicans had agreed to the Democratic demands. And the legislation allowing Obama to strike a historic Pacific trade agreement inched forward. Pro-trade lawmakers can say they voted for giving the United States a bigger piece of overseas markets. Democrats could tell labor unions they tried to force through additional bills to enforce existing labor standards with overseas trading partners, and to crack down on currency manipulation by foreign governments. And Wyden could claim both, including co-authorship of the main bill to grant Obama the authority to strike the Pacific Rim deal.

“He did the right thing,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.

From Wyden’s viewpoint, the gambit succeeded. He’s pro-trade, but can now say he stood up for the enforcement of labor standards some in the Democratic base demand — both answers to the backlash he’s facing over the issue in Oregon.

Within hours of voting down the initial bill, Wyden’s re-election campaign issued a release bragging about the ultimatum.

“I remain committed to expanding trade opportunities for Oregonians and all Americans,” he wrote. “But we’re going to do it right.”

Several Oregon farms have filed crop liens against an out-of-state seed company they claim is past due on more than $1.5 million in payments for radish seed.

Other growers whose contractual payment dates are still upcoming have also filed liens against Cover Crop Solutions, based in Pennsylvania, bringing the total to 35 grain producers liens worth $4.85 million.

“I don’t know of any small business owners in Oregon that can take that kind of hit for an extended period of time. It’s a scary situation,” said Anna Scharf of Scharf Farms, which filed a $250,000 lien against the firm. “When we’re asked to be the banker, it’s hard for farmers.”

David Weaver, CEO of Cover Crop Solutions, said he could not yet discuss the situation but would soon respond to a request for comment from Capital Press.

Jim Gardner of K&J Farms, which filed a $97,000 lien, said his family is relatively new to producing radish seed but it was a major crop for their operation last year.

“I haven’t seen a penny and I need to pay people,” he said.

The uncertainty over payments from Cover Crop Solutions will probably make farmers think twice about growing radish seed, Gardner said. “A farmer can’t grow something for nothing.”

A recent oversupply in the market for radish seed, which is planted as a cover crop, was aggravated by weather in the Midwest last year, said Gary Weaver, president of Weaver Seed of Oregon.

A wet spring in 2014 delayed the planting and harvest of corn and soybeans, which left many farmers in that region with insufficient time to plant cover crops in autumn, he said.

Seed producers in Oregon’s Willamette Valley also overestimated demand for radish seed, Weaver said. “The whole valley planted too many acres.”

However, the oversupply is likely to ease over the next 18 months as seed companies work through their inventories, he said.

Gardner of K&J Farms said that growers file liens because they’re nervous about an eventuality similar to the bankruptcy of Agribiotech, which defaulted on contracts with grass seed farmers in 2000.

“I think it opened a lot of farmers’ eyes about what they need to do to protect themselves,” he said.

In a bankruptcy, liens ensure that farmers are treated as secured creditors who have collateral in the company’s assets, said Tim Bernasek, an Oregon attorney specializing in agriculture.

“Being first in line to get paid enhances your ability to get paid,” Bernasek said.

Under a grain producer’s lien, a company’s entire inventory serves as collateral for the grower — not just the crop he delivered, said John Albert, an Oregon attorney who specializes in agricultural liens.

Farmers therefore don’t have to show the company still has possession of their crop, he said.

“That makes it a pretty powerful tool in the hands of a grower,” Albert said.

However, grain producers liens aren’t effective indefinitely, since they expire after six months.

Before the expiration, growers can enforce the liens to foreclose on a company’s inventory, which is then sold as part of a sheriff’s sale and used to compensate farmers, he said.

Scharf said she doesn’t intend to bash Cover Crop Solutions but is disappointed farmers in the Willamette Valley don’t have the opportunity to plant canola, a related crop that’s restricted in the region.

Canola is a commodity crop that buyers pay for shortly after delivery, unlike contracted seed, she said. “The power is not with the farmers, it’s with the companies.”

From the surface, all will appear normal when Andy Hulting gives his presentation on weed control in grass seed at Oregon State University’s Hyslop Farm Field Day May 27 in Corvallis.

The OSU Extension weed specialist has been a regular on the field day’s agenda during the past nine years.

But this year’s appearance likely will mean a little more to Hulting and those close to him. It will be one his first grower presentations since he suffered a stroke on Jan. 31 that sidelined him for most of three months.

“It is good to be back,” he said. “It beats a hospital room. I can tell you that much.”

Life is slowly returning to normal for Hulting, who spent two weeks in a drug induced coma and another month in professional medical care. Hulting said he still doesn’t have full range of feeling in his right leg, but he has no memory loss, no cognitive impairment and no issue with concentrating. He returned to work part-time in mid-April and started back full-time on May 11.

Hulting suffered the stroke while delivering a talk on weed control at an extension meeting in Prineville. Five minutes into his presentation, Hulting reportedly sat in a chair, announced he didn’t feel well and passed out.

Paramedics transported Hulting from Prineville to the St. Charles Medical Center in Bend, then airlifted him to Oregon Health and Science University.

“I have nothing but good things to say about OHSU,” Hulting said. “And I want to thank the Prineville Fire and Rescue, because they were the first ones there.”

At OHSU, doctors placed Hulting in the coma to stabilize him, identify the cause of the stroke and operate on him. They brought Hulting out of the coma in mid-February, with his family gathered around his bedside.

“My parents were there and everybody,” said Hulting, who is married and has three children. “It was a pretty surreal experience.”

Hulting spent another two weeks in recovery at OHSU, then two weeks at a rehabilitation center in Eugene before returning home in mid-March.

“It was pretty tough for a while,” Hulting said, “but once I got home, things started improving.”

Hulting, 40, said he had no sign that anything was wrong until the moment he suffered the stroke.

“I drove over (from Corvallis) in the morning, had lunch, and everything was fine,” he said.

Hulting said there is no history of stroke in his family. Also, he said, doctors were unable to explain why the stroke struck when it did.

“It is probably a birth defect, and it just picked that day to happen,” he said.

Hulting, who has been at OSU nine years, wanted to thank the many people who have supported him over the past few months.

“I just got tons of emails from growers and industry people,” he said. “I want to thank them for all of their support.

“To be missed and be thought of is a pretty neat experience,” he said.

Second only, perhaps, to being back at work.

Hyslop Farm Field Day

Oregon State University’s Hyslop Farm Field Day includes presentations on winter wheat cultivars, an update on canola and disease management trials, and looks at weed, disease and insect control in Willamette Valley cropping systems.

The field day starts at 8:15 a.m. May 27, and ends with a complimentary lunch served by the OSU Crop and Soil Science Club.

Hyslop Farm is at 3455 NE Granger Ave., Corvallis.

LANGLOIS — Students at the Wilderland School have been busy getting acquainted with the community of Langlois again, said teacher and co-founder Kelly Fleming.

BANDON — Everyone is invited to pick up a board (18-inches by 24-inches) to paint for the 2015 Port of Bandon Boardwalk Show. Those participating have until June 15 to turn in their completed board.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has signed a bill that allows advertising of raw milk

Oregon is among 30 states that allow the sale of unpasteurized milk, but it can be sold only on the farm. Sellers have not been allowed to advertise since the 1950s.

In 2013, a McMinnville farmer challenged the ban, filing suit after state inspectors told her to remove milk prices from a website.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture settled the case in February 2014 by ordering staff to stop enforcing the ban and asking the Legislature to repeal it.

Consumer demand for raw milk has increased in recent years. Health officials say raw milk can carry harmful bacteria that can make you sick.

SALEM — Opponents of a proposal to extend canola production in Oregon’s Willamette Valley want to stop the bill in the Senate after its resounding win in the House.

House Bill 3382, which would allow 500 acres of the crop to be grown in the region for an additional three years, passed the House 42-16 and is now being considered by the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources.

A six-year moratorium on canola production in the Willamette Valley was established under 2013 legislation, but 500 acres were allowed to be cultivated for the first three years as part of an Oregon State University study.

Proponents of HB 3382 say that extending production on a limited acreage for the full six years will avoid disrupting their market, but opponents who fear cross-pollination with related seed crops argue the bill will double the “seed bank” of potential volunteers.

“It’s unnecessary and should be rejected,” said Nick Tichinin, president of the Universal Seed Co., during a May 11 hearing.

Leaving the Willamette Valley free of canola for the final three years of the moratorium was intended to provide insights about problems with volunteers, he said.

Opponents say that canola seeds have been shown to persist in the soil and remain viable for several years.

Tichinin said canola threatens specialty seed production in Oregon just as it did in France, Italy and Britain, which were dealt a severe blow as seed buyers decided to source product from elsewhere.

Allowing additional canola production undermines the carefully crafted legislation from 2013 and “jumps the gun” because OSU’s study is still incomplete, according to opponents.

Supporters of HB 3382 counter that the legislation wouldn’t have a negative impact on the specialty seed industry.

“Five hundred acres is a drop in the bucket in the Willamette Valley and I don’t think it will hurt to continue for three more years,” said Eric Bowers, a farmer near Harrisburg, Ore.

Tomas Endicott of Willamette Biomass Processors argued that canola poses no bigger threat to related brassica seed crops than turnips or radishes, which are grown without any regulation in the area.

Halting canola production in the Willamette Valley will prevent Endicott’s company from using its full oilseed crushing capacity and delay any possible investment in expanding the facility, he said.

Scott Setniker, a farmer near Independence, Ore., said he already grows closely related crops like chard and sugar beets without cross-pollination problems.

While canola opponents say their market is threatened, the current system is already harming farmers who want to grow the crop for its rotational and financial benefits, Setniker said.

Canola supporters say the crop gives them more weed treatment options when grown in rotation with grasses and is more easily marketable as a commodity compared to other seeds, which are produced under contract and typically aren’t paid for as quickly.

“I can’t have all my eggs in that one basket,” Setniker said.

Port Orford has the highest percentage of students in poverty in Oregon — but every year, its kids outperform their South Coast peers.

PORT ORFORD — Grim statistics translate to reality in Port Orford, as you look around at a tiny town appearing to crumble and fade.

lindaprehn:

I just learned that the trademark on Cranberry Cove was abandoned as if 6/30/2014. Looks like we won’t be seeing these packages on the shelves.

Originally posted on United Cranberry Blog:

I have to say, I don’t know what to think of Cranberry Cove. It says on the label “made with Ocean Spray cranberries” with the OS logo. What it doesn’t say, is Ocean Spray trademarked and owns the Cranberry Cove name. This is an Ocean Spray product. I found them in my local Wal-Mart. $1.00 for 3.5oz. That equals $4.57/lb. Clearly someone is making $$ on cranberries.

When turning over the bag (which, by the way, I like: the graphics are excellent) I looked at the ingredients. Cranberries, Sugar, Citric acid, sunflower oil and ELDERBERRY JUICE(for color). Emphasis mine. Since when do we have to add acid and color back into cranberries? Seems like they take so much out they have to add stuff back in? This is the first time in my memory that we’ve added color to cranberries. Cranberry Cove seems to ME to be the Choice product…

View original 17 more words

The Cranberry Marketing order is up for a vote…to renew or not to renew that IS the question!

Sure, I have my problems with the CMC.  I go to most meetings and get frustrated, and vow never to go again.  Mainly this is due to the fact that I believe we should use the part of the order that allows us to limit supply in an over supply situation.  That handler withhold or producer allotment has only happened 4? times in the history of the order, so it is rare that the members come together on that item.

What members DO agree on, mostly, are the data collection parts of the order and the leveraging the power of all of us growers to invest in our own crop and futures by accessing the matching funds to bring the cranberry to all parts of the world.  I believe the marketing efforts of the CMC both domestic and international have been outstanding.  We have been targeting specific markets in the past few years and I think the results are just beginning to show.  It would be premature to stop those efforts now, as I believe that the only way to get out of this over supply situation is the sell our cranberries, everywhere.  Period.

So, the time is now growers.  The ballots are in the mail to your farm.  Vote no, or vote yes…but please vote!

There are about 900 varieties on the market, and planting a crabapple is a decision that lasts for decades.

MYRTLE POINT — Thanks to a $2,000 check, workers were able to recently paint the Coos County Logging Museum's ceiling.

COOS BAY — Paddles up. We’re coming in peace.

COQUILLE — For businesswoman Lisa Johnson, the Coquille Carousel comes to more than simply promoting her town. She wants this to be for all of Coos County.

For starters, Trigs is generically calling a sweetened dried cranberry a Craisin. If I were OSpray I would have a problem with that. 

The product is apparently (elderberry) OSprays choice product which they claimed they would never sell retail.   See above. 

Finally. $5.99/lb??  Wowzer. I’m calling Trig.

Don’t you love it when I go shopping??  

I’m thinking the concentrate auction results were good news! The starting auction prices were 11.90, 12.16, $12.77 and the final prices after 7 rounds of bidding were $14.65, $12.91 and $15.02. All up above the last auction. Am I missing something here? Clearly those prices are not good enough for the grower, but up is up and that is better than down.

But on another note, in looking at this slide that Scott Soares showed at the Cranberry Institute meeting in March it seems like our 2014 carryin didn’t have an huge supply of whole frozen fruit or processed goods, but a large supply of concentrate. If I’m reading this right at 8/31/14 we had a carry in of 2.6mm barrels of whole frozen fruit. That is the frozen fruit that would carry us unitl the 2014 crop is sufficiently frozen and ready in January-february 2015. Given that we have capacity to dry about 8mm barrels of cranberries into SDCs, (my estimate) the 2mm barrels of carry in seems about right or even light. That would suggest an interesting tightening of the SDC market. That along with a good not great crop in 2014, and a government purchase that will absorb 400,000 bbls…the CMC numbers that are about to be reported as of today 4/30 will tell an interesting story.

Comments anyone??