The first forecast for this fall’s U.S. apple crop is up 3.6 percent from the 2017 crop, which should be manageable, but big concerns linger about labor, fruit quality and exports, a top Michigan apple producer says.

Total U.S. fresh and processed production was estimated at 257.9 million, 42-pound boxes at the Premier Apple Cooperative meeting in Syracuse, N.Y., on June 26.

The USDA unadjusted figure for 2017 is 248.6 million boxes and the large 2014 crop was 272.2 million boxes, while the record was 277.3 million boxes in 1998.

“We have a couple factors impacting this season’s marketability. No. 1 is whether we have sufficient labor to pick on a timely basis to give us the quality we need, and the other issue is trade, that our biggest trading partners are or will be instituting tariffs,” said Don Armock, president of Riveridge Produce, Sparta, Mich., who attended the New York meeting.

Lack of immigration reform, including resolving DACA (Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals), and increased immigration enforcement all weigh heavily on the immigrant community who make up most of the tree fruit workforce, Armock said.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids on a meat packing plant in the upper Midwest and President Donald Trump’s tweets about swift deportations unsettle the labor force, he said.

As in Washington state, more large and mid-size apple growers in Michigan and New York are turning to H-2A-visa foreign guestworkers, he said.

“We can’t be taking chances on (domestic) workers who may or may not be legal,” he said.

Unless resolved soon, tariffs by Mexico, Canada, India and China in retaliation for U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum, undoubtedly will affect U.S. apple exports, Armock said. It is unknown to what degree, he said. Typically, 30 percent of U.S. apples are exported.

Mexico is imposing a 20 percent tariff on U.S. apples, India is adding 25 percent on top of 50 percent, China added 15 percent to a 10 percent existing tariff and will impose another 25 percent July 6 in retaliation for U.S. tariffs related to intellectual property theft. Canada has not set any tariff on apples.

“When you insult (Canadian Prime Minister Justin) Trudeau like we have, people take a bit of an anti-American stance,” Armock said.

Of the 257.9 million-box Premier estimate, Washington is 152 million boxes, down 4.9 percent; Michigan, 33.5 million, up 43.1 percent; New York, 31 million, up 7.8 percent; Pennsylvania, 11.7 million, up .3 percent; California, 5.5 million, up .4 percent; and Virginia, 5.1 million, down 2.2 percent.

Oregon is 4.2 million, up .8 percent and Idaho is 1.5 million, up 19 percent.

The Washington estimate is down partly because of a higher level of fire blight, said Mark Seetin, director of regulatory and industry affairs of the U.S. Apple Association, Vienna, Va.

Bruce Grim, manager of the Washington Apple Growers Marketing Association, said there were also holes at bloom time. He said the fresh crop should be in the mid-130 million boxes which seems to be a new normal.

Barring any weather disasters, fruit size could be pretty ideal, which would be good because it was down one to two sizes in 2017, up two sizes in 2016 and down one to two sizes in 2015, Grim said.

“We haven’t hit the sweet spot in three years and that creates marketing challenges,” he said.

Armock said Michigan and New York estimates are up. Crops didn’t get the spring frost damage they did a year ago and because warm weather during cell division means better chance of good fruit size.

The Washington State Tree Fruit Association will forecast the Washington crop in early August and U.S. Apple will give a national crop estimate at its annual Outlook conference in Chicago, Aug. 23-24.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Thousands fled their homes as major wildfires encroached on a charred area of Northern California still recovering from severe blazes in recent years, sparking concern the state may be in for another destructive series of wildfires this summer.

Severe drought has already forced officials in several western states to close national parks as precautions against wildfires and issue warnings throughout the region to prepare for the worst.

In California, officials said unusually hot weather, high winds and highly flammable vegetation turned brittle by drought helped fuel the fires that began over the weekend, the same conditions that led to the state’s deadliest and most destructive fire year in 2017.

Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday declared a state of emergency in Lake County, where the biggest fire was raging about 120 miles north of San Francisco, a rural region particularly hard-hit by fires in recent years. The declaration will enable officials to receive more state resources to fight the fire and for recovery.

Jim Steele, an elected supervisor, said the county is impoverished and its fire-fighting equipment antiquated. He also said the county has just a few roads into and out of the region, which can hinder response time. Steele said the area has also been susceptible to fire for many decades because dense brush and trees in the sparsely populated area, but the severity of the latest blazes is unexpected.

“What’s happened with the more warming climate is we get low humidity and higher winds and then when we get a fire that’s worse than it’s been in those 50 years,” Steele said.

The fire that broke out Saturday evening has forced 3,000 residents from their homes and destroyed at least 22 buildings. It is the latest devastating blaze to rip through the isolated and impoverished county of just 65,000 people in the last few years.

In 2015, a series of fires destroyed 2,000 buildings and killed four people.

The following year, an arsonist started a fire that wiped out 300 buildings.

Last year, the county was among those ravaged by a string of fires that ripped through Northern California wine country.

“I think we’re all just so traumatized and overwhelmed with all these fires year after year, this whole community is at a breaking point,” said Terri Gonsalves, 55, who evacuated her home around midnight Sunday.

She put four goats into her truck after she looked out her back window and saw a big hill aflame. She is staying with her daughter in nearby Middletown, a small city where dozens of homes were destroyed in 2015. “When this stuff happens, we rally around each other.”

Fire Battalion Chief Jonathan Cox said more than 230 firefighters were battling the Lake County fire in a rugged area that made it difficult to get equipment close the blaze.

A forestry scientist says it’s difficult to forecast how severe California’s wildfires will be this year, but said the drought-dried vegetation throughout the state is a bad omen.

“You have a lot of grass and its dry and that’s cause for concern,” said Keith Gilless, the dean of the University of California, Berkeley’s department of environmental science.

Authorities on Monday afternoon lifted evacuation orders in Tehama County, where two wildfires were burning. Multiple homes and businesses in the city of Red Bluff were destroyed.

A Red Bluff police officer helping residents evacuate lost his home, authorities said. Red Bluff Police Lt. Matt Hansen said people had donated about $10,000 in cash along with furniture and clothing to the family as they search for a rental home.

Residents also fled a wildfire in Shasta County.

No cause has been determined for any of the fires.

Last year, California’s costliest fires killed 44 people and tore through the state’s wine country in October, causing an estimated $10 billion in damage.

While the weekend’s blazes were the first major ones of the season to hit California, others have raged throughout the west for weeks. Earlier this month, a Colorado wildfire forced residents of more than 2,000 homes to evacuate. The last evacuees returned home last week.

The fire north of Durango was in the Four Corners Region where Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah meet — the epicenter of a large U.S. Southwest swath of exceptional drought, the worst category of drought.

Moderate to extreme drought conditions affect those four states plus parts of Nevada, California, Oregon, Oklahoma and Texas, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Associated Press writers Lorin Eleni Gill and Janie Har contributed to this story from San Francisco.

USDA will fund a new researcher to tackle a starch damage problem that in the past has cost Pacific Northwest wheat farmers tens of millions of dollars.

In the Omnimbus appropriations bill last April, Congress approved $1 million for falling number research at the USDA Agricultural Research Service. Wheat growers and commissions in Idaho, Oregon and Washington requested funding for the position.

The new researcher will help develop new wheat varieties resistant to starch damage, study environmental factors that trigger the problem and improve the falling number test, said David Weller, research leader for USDA’s wheat health, genetics and quality research unit in Pullman, Wash.

Many factors can lead to low falling number test results, Weller said, including wheat variety, temperature fluctuations and weather. Further research will hopefully lead to a model to help growers and industry members determine when conditions cause starch damage.

Weller hopes to advertise the new job shortly. He estimates the hiring process to take roughly six months.

The search for the researcher will be nationwide, he said, and include an advisory committee to screen candidates, who will visit the Washington State University campus, deliver a seminar and meet with faculty and commission members.

In 2016, low falling number test results hit a large portion of the Pacific Northwest’s wheat crop, costing growers between $30 million and $130 million in discounts.

The hope is for the funding to continue in the future, Weller said. “This is not something we’re going to solve in a few months.”

Weller called the group of “world-class” researchers working on the project from USDA, WSU, Oregon State University and the University of Idaho the “A-Team of falling number.”

“We are all working as a team in a seamless effort to address all aspects of this particular problem,” he said. “We are working night and day, as hard as we can, to find solutions.”

It may be several months late, but farmers and ranchers in the Klamath Project finally know just how much water is available for the 2018 irrigation season — pending an injunction requested by the Klamath Tribes to protect endangered sucker fish in Upper Klamath Lake.

The Bureau of Reclamation released its annual operations and drought plans for the Klamath Project on June 18, serving 230,000 irrigated acres in Southern Oregon and Northern California.

Regulators calculate the water supply based on factors such as stream flows, reservoir storage and existing legal obligations for fish. According to the 2018 plans, irrigators can use 233,911 acre-feet of water from Upper Klamath Lake and the Klamath River, which is 40 percent less than the historical full demand.

As of June 18, the bureau had already diverted 38,000 acre-feet for irrigation, leaving roughly 196,000 acre-feet still in the pipeline.

Jeff Nettleton, area manager for the Bureau of Reclamation office in Klamath Falls, Ore., said this year has been challenging on all fronts, from the lack of usual snowfall to a court order requiring more water in the Klamath River to protect salmon from disease.

“I appreciate the willingness of the entire community to work together to seek solutions to meet these challenges,” Nettleton said. “Careful management of irrigation and continued water conservation efforts will help to minimize negative impacts of the reduced water supply as we proceed through the season.”

The Klamath Basin, like much of Southern Oregon, had a drier-than-usual winter, with snowpack at 55 percent of normal by April 1, 46 percent of normal by May 1 and completely melted by June 1.

The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service anticipates stream flows will be as low as 26 percent of normal in parts of the basin through September, and the bureau warns that most agricultural producers will not have enough water “to meet the requirements of good irrigation practices for the acres served by the Project.”

A federal judge in San Francisco also upheld a ruling earlier this year that requires more water from Upper Klamath Lake be kept in-river to flush away a deadly salmon-killing parasite known as C. shasta. The bureau released 38,425 acre-feet of water from April 6-15 and another 50,000 acre-feet from May 7-28 to comply with the order, which was secured by the Yurok and Hoopa Valley tribes in 2017.

That leaves the Klamath Project short its usual water allocation, though irrigators can expect a near full supply of water from Clear Lake and Gerber reservoirs.

Scott White, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association, said it has been a “crazy, crazy year” but nothing in the latest operations plan caught him by surprise.

“It’s going to be tough going, but we’ll be able to get through,” White said. “In a drought year, that’s all you can really ask for.”

The big question now, White said, is whether the Klamath Tribes win an injunction to hold more water in Upper Klamath Lake to protect endangered Lost River and shortnose suckers.

The tribes sued the Bureau of Reclamation, National Marine Fisheries Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in May. A hearing scheduled for July 11 before Judge William Orrick in San Francisco has since been rescheduled for Friday, July 20. The KWUA has also filed a motion seeking to have the case dismissed, arguing it should be heard in a different venue.

Tribal harvest of suckers decreased from more than 10,000 to 687 between 1968 and 1985, and today just two fish are harvested for ceremonial purposes. But if the injunction succeeds, White said it would essentially shut down the Klamath Project.

“All the dollars put into the land thus far would be wasted,” he said.

A spokeswoman for the Bureau of Reclamation said she cannot comment on pending litigation.

Capital Press

The Pacific Northwest Pest Alert Network in late June notified sugar beet growers in southern and eastern Idaho about powdery mildew, Cercospora Leaf Spot and the looper insect.

The advisories did not worry Wendell Robinson, agricultural manager for grower-owned cooperative Amalgamated Sugar’s western region.

“At this point, everything is manageable and treatable,” he said.

Robinson said beet fields should remain healthy overall if growers stay aware of pest and disease threats, and know how to treat them.

A crop consultant with J.R. Simplot Co. found powdery mildew in fields near Adrian, Ore., and Parma, Idaho, a June 23 alert said. Staff with Amalgamated Sugar confirmed the finding.

The alert said several fungicides are available to treat powdery mildew, and that applications should be repeated every two to three weeks depending on the disease pressure and chemistry used. A network publication said the fungus — whose spores can blow in from plants that carried over from winter, including previously infected seed beets — causes small white patches on both leaf surfaces. Widespread in several Western states for more than 40 years, it is often treated with sulfur dust.

Powdery mildew is “more or less a recurring problem we are having in the Treasure Valley” of southwestern Idaho and eastern Oregon, said Amalgamated Sugar Plant Health Manager Oliver Neher.

“Most of the time we see it in early July and it moves from west to east, he said. “We are seeing it this year a little bit early.”

Neher does not expect powdery mildew to be more of a problem than usual. Timely application of fungicide makes it fairly easy to control, he said.

The network on June 25 advised beet growers to start scouting for CLS as temperatures rise, beet field rows start closing and irrigation stays intense. Favorable conditions for the fungus that causes CLS materialize when average nighttime temperatures exceed 60 degrees and humidity is 90 percent or higher for at least five hours, the alert said.

An increase in fungicide resistance makes proper chemistry rotation important in treating for CLS, the alert said. It recommended consulting with Amalgamated field staff.

Sugar beet growers can control CLS by applying fungicide in a timely manner and by not over-watering crops, Robinson said.

CLS was not a major problem in southern Idaho and eastern Oregon until four to five years ago, Neher said.

“We saw a shift in temperatures and irrigation methods,” he said. As more irrigators used sprinkler pivots and hand lines, the moisture part of the equation became more favorable for the fungus that causes CLS, he said.

Last year saw many very overcast days with high relative humidity. “We even saw CLS in furrow-irrigated fields, where it is not so common,” Neher said.

If this year’s wildfire season is active, smoke conditions could increase relative humidity and in turn keep conditions favorable for CLS as leaves stay moist longer, he said.

Also June 25, the network said Amalgamated Sugar reported that loopers, which are minor leaf-feeding pests controllable with biological or chemical means, were found in fields in the Caldwell, Idaho, area.

Robinson said the small, worm-like loopers often are controlled by applying an insecticide in conjunction with a fungicide.

Monmouth, Ore. — Aquaponics is gaining popularity in Oregon, and as producers build their systems they can reduce their risk by starting small and designing their operations in modules, a commercial aquaponic producer says.

Doing that allows a scalable operation that can be more easily expanded and isolates any problems that arise, said Joel Kelly, CEO of Live Local Organic, a commercial aquaponic farm in Milwaukie, Ore.

Aquaponics is a system of farming that combines aquaculture — raising fish — with hydroponics — growing produce in nutrient-rich water. The produce uses the fish waste to gain nutrients and simultaneously cleans the water, reducing the amount of water needed to produce the crops.

The Oregon Aquaculture Association sponsored a conference on aquaponics last weekend at Western Oregon University. In the Pacific Northwest, tilapia and coy fish are usually used in aquaponics, said Kate Wildrick, co-chair of the conference. She said the number of aquaponic farms in the region is still relatively small.

Kelly discussed some of the challenges of aquaponic farming on a commercial scale at the conference.

“I think (aquaponics) is possible on any kind of a scale, but I think what has to happen is it has to be modular,” he said.

The idea is to take a small, simple system that works and then replicate it as many times as you have space or resources for in order to produce more crops and fish, Kelly said.

“Not everything that works at a small scale works at a large scale,” he said.

There are some big benefits that come with having a system set up in multiple self-sustained pieces, Kelly said.

“When we modularize everything, if there is something bad that happens to a tank … it is just contained in that one little area so we can still keep producing and keep supplying our customers if there is a fish die off or some kind of disease,” making the method fairly low risk, he said.

However, profit margins are still fairly low, Kelly said. Most aquaponic farms raise herbs, lettuce or some other type of greens because the grow time is a lot shorter than, say, a tomato. A shorter grow time means less risk, he said.

Kelly said no one he is aware of has been able to successfully grow fruit-bearing plants such as strawberries or tomatoes in a commercial setting for profit, but that is where he sees the industry going in the future.

“The golden ticket and what we are really trying to figure out is how to produce something like tomatoes or strawberries or cucumbers profitably,” Kelly said.

“If you are growing basil or lettuce and you plant your crop, four weeks after you plant it you are going to be able to harvest some of it, eight weeks you will be able to harvest pretty much all of it,” he said.

“If you plant a tomato plant … you have to wait four months for it to start producing,” Kelly said. “So if something goes wrong in that four-week period it’s like, OK, you restart and then in another four weeks you will be fine, but if something goes wrong in month four for the tomato plant your whole four months is gone and you have to restart and you don’t get anything.”

The other struggle with fruit-bearing plants such as tomatoes or cucumbers is space. Herbs and greens don’t require as much space to grow as a cucumber plant, Kelly said, because a cucumber grows up and out while something like basil is more contained.

Kelly said the aquaponic community should be seeing more variety of produce in the future that they can farm successfully for profit.

“What we have now, they’re profitable, they’re good. I think we have figured out how to do that,” Kelly said, “I think in the next five to 10 years, we will have a lot more products that can be produced profitably.”

The first picture I am sharing this week was taken on Charlie St. Sure's cranberry bog in October of 1961 as local plumber and fire chief Bob Schultz demonstrates a pump he has devised for helping water pick the berries.…

We were not paid to write this story. The products and services mentioned below were selected independent of sales and advertising. However, Simplemost may receive a small commission from the purchase of any products or services through an affiliate link…

Two more Oregon counties have officially declared drought as warm weather and lack of snow catches up across the state.

Gov. Kate Brown declared drought emergencies June 18 in Baker and Douglas counties, bringing the total number so far to six. Drought has already been declared in Klamath, Grant, Harney and Lake counties.

“All signs point to another record-breaking drought and wildfire season for Oregon,” Brown said. “That means we must continue our urgent work to build communities that are ready for the challenges of climate change. I have directed state agencies stand ready to help and work with local communities to provide assistance.”

Almost the entire state is experiencing some stage of drought, from “abnormally dry” to “severe,” according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor. The worst conditions are in central and southeast Oregon, though Douglas County becomes the first area west of the Cascade Range to receive a drought declaration in Oregon.

Likewise, snowpack has all but disappeared across the state, with just trace amounts remaining in the Willamette, Crooked and Upper Deschutes basins. Snow melted away at a rapid rate in May, up to several weeks ahead of schedule, and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service is advising irrigators to prepare for critically low water supplies heading into summer.

Dry conditions are expected to impact farms, livestock, recreation and tourism, while also exacerbating wildfire danger. Two new large blazes have erupted in central Oregon, including the 18,000-acre Boxcar fire burning south of Maupin and the 2,000-acre Graham fire near Culver and Lake Billy Chinook.

Long-term forecasts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center show an increasing probability of hotter- and drier-than-usual weather over the next three months in much of the Pacific Northwest.

The governor’s drought declarations do give state agencies the ability to expedite water management tools, such as emergency water permits, exchanges, substitutions and in-stream leases, to provide relief on the ground. Most of the state’s major reservoirs are also faring well, holding 70 to 110 percent volume.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Florida boat builder absorbs $4 million in lost business and expects more pain. An Ohio pork producer is losing access to a vital export market and fears the damage will last years. A motorcycle shop near…

WASHINGTON — A Florida boat builder absorbs $4 million in lost business and expects more pain. An Ohio pork producer is losing access to a vital export market and fears the damage will last years. A motorcycle shop near Cologne,…

State wildlife officials will allow a northeast Oregon rancher to kill one wolf on privately owned pasture near Joseph Creek in Wallowa County following a string of gruesome attacks on livestock.

The Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife issued a kill permit June 21 for RL Cattle Company, based in Enterprise, Ore., after confirming the wolf depredations June 13 and 14.

According to the investigative reports, a wolf — or wolves — injured three calves in three days on the same private pasture within an area of known wolf activity in the Chesnimnus Unit.

ODFW counted three wolves in the area at the end of 2017. None are wearing a radio tracking collar. It is not certain whether the wolves are remnants of the Chesnimnus pack or new animals that have moved into the territory.

Under Phase III of the Wolf Conservation and Management Plan, ODFW may consider killing wolves in Eastern Oregon found to prey on livestock at least twice. The agency last issued a kill permit in April for two wolves from the Pine Creek pack in Baker County.

But first, ranchers must demonstrate they have tried using non-lethal deterrents and cannot leave bone piles or carcasses that would otherwise attract wolves. In this case, RL Cattle routinely monitored for wolves, maintained a human presence around cattle and removed injured livestock from the pasture.

In his letter to ODFW requesting a kill permit, owner Rod Childers said the impact to his business far exceeds injured or missing animals.

“This harassment of my cattle has caused a change in their demeanor making them more difficult to handle, nearly causing injury to myself while sorting,” Childers wrote. “Additionally, these wolf problems are causing great problems in my ability to utilize my spring range effectively.”

The permit issued by ODFW extends not only to the pasture, but also an adjacent public forest allotment. It expires July 10, when Childers plans to remove his cattle from the pasture.

The action has stirred debate about wolf management in Oregon at a time when ODFW is in the midst of updating its wolf plan, which was last updated in 2010. Since then, wolves were removed from the state endangered species list in 2015.

The species remains federally protected west of highways 395, 78 and 95.

George Rollins, a Baker County rancher and Eastern Oregon wolf committee chairman for the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, said the group is advocating wolf management zones with population targets, which would open the door to more lethal control and, possibly, hunting.

“These management zones would be established, and with local decision making, the number of wolves can be managed so that we can reduce potential conflicts,” Rollins said.

Environmental groups, however, oppose killing any wolves, arguing the overall population is still too small and fragile. Oregon had 124 officially documented wolves at the end of 2017 — an 11 percent increase over 2016.

Furthermore, Sean Stevens, executive director of Oregon Wild, said the next iteration of the wolf plan should have stronger requirements allowing non-lethal deterrents the chance to work before rushing to kill wolves.

“According to ODFW’s own reports, depredations appear to have stopped after non-lethal deterrents were put in place. Yet a week after the last conflict with wolves, ODFW is issuing a kill permit anyway,” Stevens said. “This permit is unnecessary. It’s the latest proof that the wolf plan needs to be strengthened, not weakened.”

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission indefinitely postponed its vote on the wolf plan revision earlier this year. ODFW recently hired a professional mediator, Debra Nudelman of Portland, to work with groups to reach a broader consensus. Those meetings have yet to be announced.

In addition to management zones, Rollins said OCA wants to see at least one wolf in each pack fitted with a GPS tracking collar, and local agencies — such as county sheriffs — given greater control over wolf-livestock investigations.

“These people investigate murders and robberies and everything else,” Rollins said. “My goodness, they should be able to do a wolf investigation.”

Derek Broman, state carnivore biologist, has taken the lead on the wolf plan revision since Russ Morgan retired last year. He said the plan may be ready to present to the Fish and Wildlife Commission as early as September, and possibly adopted before the end of the year.

“We feel like we’re in a good spot,” Broman said. “We’re still seeing increases in wolf numbers. Last year, we saw a decrease in depredations. ... We still have a pretty good plan to be working with.”

HERMISTON, Ore. — Fred Ziari of IRZ Consulting and most of the 30 Brazilian farmers he hosted in Hermiston this week don’t speak the same language — but they do share a common goal.

“We are blessed because we have food,” Ziari said, gesturing to nearby trays of fruit and pastries laid out for the guests from Brazil. “But I travel to Africa and other places every year where people are extremely hungry. As well, our state of Oregon looks beautiful but we have hunger here, too. All of us, Brazilian and American, need to play a vital role in feeding the world.”

IRZ Consulting, one of multiple businesses that Ziari has founded, helps farmers around the world increase their efficiency and yield through high-tech irrigation. Ziari said the Hermiston-based business hosts visiting farmers from other countries for an “international exchange of ideas.”

Leonel Olivira, a soybean farmer from the Brazilian state of Bahia, said Tuesday he was most impressed by “how you can remote control your farms.”

“You can rule your farm with your cell phone,” he said. “It’s quite different here.”

He said he was also interested to see how integrated farms and suppliers are in the United States.

Marcos Pooter, who grows soybeans, corn, wheat and sorghum, said he admired the “amazing” infrastructure in the country.

“Here, everything works,” he said. “In Brazil, you have to work a lot to do a little.”

He said he was interested in seeing how the pump stations used here are different than in Brazil, and he wanted to study the system further to see if it could be adapted well in the region where he grows crops.

Before the group set out for a second day of tours on Wednesday, Ziari hosted an informal question-and-answer session with one of the bilingual group members translating.

One grower asked how much of the world was using the advanced precision irrigation technology that they had seen at Herb Stahl’s farm during their tour. Ziari said worldwide, irrigation is at about 30 percent efficiency, but Stahl’s farm achieves about 90 percent efficiency.

“I think that it is a global model for efficiency, but we have large areas, many hectares in the United States that are not that efficient, that need to be brought up. But we are progressing fast,” he said.

Other questions were about the growth of agriculture in the United States, and whether the Eastern Oregon region could support more crops. Ziari said growth is limited in the United States not so much by land availability but by political issues. In 1900, 50 percent of Americans were involved in farming, he said, and now it’s less than three percent due to the technological advances that have made farming more efficient, and large corporations who are now operating many of them..

“Because we are now 2 percent of the population, politicians are ignoring the needs of agriculture,” he said.

He told the group that investment in new projects was needed for Brazil’s agricultural economy to grow, and the investment community was interested.

Olivira said Brazil was ready. And if the government stabilized, the country’s agriculture could reach the level of technology used in the United States “very fast.”

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The words blasted to cellphones around Salem, Oregon were ominous: “Civil emergency. prepare for action.”

Within half an hour, a second official alert clarified the subject wasn’t impending violence, but toxins from an algae bloom, detected in the city’s water supply.

In both reservoirs and lakes used for recreation in communities around the country have been experiencing similar events with growing frequency; a trend that researchers say represents another impact of global warming and raises looming questions about their effects on human health.

“When water bodies warm up earlier and stay warmer longer... you increase the number of incidents,” said Wayne Carmichael, a retired Wright State University professor specializing in the organisms. “That’s just logical, and it’s being borne out.”

Technically called cyanobacteria, the ancient class of organisms that create the blooms are present nearly everywhere water is found, but thrive in warm, still bodies like lakes and ponds. They also create a unique class of toxins, the impact of which on humans is only partly understood.

Long linked to animal deaths, high doses of the toxins in humans can cause liver damage and attack the nervous system. In the largest outbreaks, hundreds have been sickened by blooms in reservoirs and lakes, and officials in some areas now routinely close bodies of water used for recreation and post warnings when blooms occur.

But less is known about exposure at lower doses, especially over the long term.

Small studies have linked exposure to liver cancer — one toxin is classified as a carcinogen, and others have pointed to potential links to neurodegenerative disease. But definitively proving those links would require larger studies, said Carmichael, who helped the World Health Organization set the first safe exposure standards for the toxins.

“It’s absolutely certain in my mind that warming temperatures are going to end up causing more of these algal blooms,” said Steven Chapra, an environmental engineering professor at Tufts University.

Chapra led a team including scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in one of the most comprehensive studies to date of the interplay between global warming and the blooms, published in 2017.

Because they prefer warm water, higher summer temperatures and more frequent heat waves help the organisms. More frequent droughts also cause reservoirs to be shallower in summer, causing them to warm faster.

And more intense rainstorms, also conclusively linked to climate change, can wash more nutrients into lakes and reservoirs, especially from farms where nitrogen and phosphorous-rich fertilizers are used, Chapra said.

In Utah, a 2016 algae bloom in a recreational-use lake sickened more than 100, and when the story made national headlines other states reached out.

“We started getting calls from other health departments all over the country saying, ‘Hey, we’re dealing with an algal bloom in a lake that has never ever had one before,’” said Aislynn Tolman-Hill, a spokeswoman for the Utah County Health Department.

Officials only recently started carefully logging the blooms, but they seem to be becoming more intense, said Ben Holcomb, a biologist for Utah’s environmental agency. “They’re starting earlier, they’re lasting longer, and their peaks seem to be getting bigger,” Holcomb said. “I don’t think any state is isolated.”

In Lake Erie, a major bloom in 2014 caused authorities to warn against drinking tap water in Toledo, Ohio, for more than two days, cutting off the main water source for more than 400,000 people.

Now blooms happen every year in Utah and Ohio. Officials in both states say they’ve largely been able to stop them from toxifying drinking water, but they can still sicken people and pets that go in the water, and often hit recreation businesses that depend on lake access.

Other blooms, including flare-ups affecting drinking water, have been logged in recent years in New York, Florida, and California.

In Oregon, officials lifted the capital city’s drinking water advisory after several days, but then had to re-issue the warning.

The water supply serves a population of just over 150,000 in the city, along with residents outside city limits.

Officials also warned that dozens of other water supplies could be vulnerable, and indeed, when workers from the city of Cottage Grove inspected another reservoir, they found a bloom, according to a report by Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Officials pointed out that testing for the blooms isn’t required by either federal or state law.

Researchers say that needs to change because blooms are likely to become more common, including in states where low temperatures had previously provided a buffer against the blooms.

“These things like you’re seeing in Lake Erie and in Oregon are kind of like the canary in the coal mine,” said Chapra, the Tufts researcher.

“It’s going to get worse, and it’s going to get worse in a big way.”

A defunct Oregon beef packer wants to pay out more than $600,000 of the $1.3 million in USDA trust claims that cattle suppliers have filed against it.

Bartels Packing of Eugene, Ore., shut down in March, citing declining sales and the loss of a major customer, among other factors. A court-appointed receiver has since overseen the company’s dissolution.

Under the federal law, certain assets of meat packers are held in trust for the repayment of cash livestock sellers, who must file claims to obtain the funds. Livestock suppliers who sell their animals to packers on credit generally aren’t protected by the trust.

The USDA has received more than $1.3 million in trust claims since Bartels closed, with the agency determining that about $624,000 of those claims are valid.

The receiver hasn’t yet finished analyzing the remaining claims, some of which the USDA has determined aren’t valid under the Packers and Stockyards Act.

Pivotal Solutions, the receiver, has now asked a judge for permission to turn over the $624,000 “after holding back a reasonable amount for the estate to be able to maintain the necessary liquidity” of the operation as it dissolves.

The majority of livestock suppliers who’d receive payment are auction yards, with the largest claim — about $330,000 — owed to Toppenish Livestock Commission of Toppenish, Wash.

Though Bartels has shut down, the receiver is using its facilities to re-process certain cuts and sell meat to make money available for creditors.

The USDA hasn’t objected to the receiver’s request, which will be the subject of a hearing scheduled for July 23 in Lane County Circuit Court in Eugene.

When Bartels Packing closed, it claimed to have roughly $14 million to cover its $8.3 million in liabilities, including nearly $4.7 million owed to cattle suppliers and feedlots.

Documents filed in the receivership case show that representatives of Pivotal Solutions have actively been trying to sell the company’s facilities, which include a processing plant and slaughterhouse.

The receiver has had numerous meetings, tours, emails and phone calls with undisclosed potential buyers and held talks with local government representatives and state economic development officials, according to invoices submitted to the court.

Chances are rising that next winter will be warmer than usual in the Pacific Northwest, the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center reported Thursday.

The outlook is largely based on the likelihood that the Pacific Ocean will heat up to El Nino conditions by fall, according to forecasters,

“Odds for above-normal temperatures continue to increase during the winter 2018-19 from the Pacific Northwest east to the Northern Great Plains and Upper Mississippi Valley,” according to center’s new seasonal forecast.

An El Nino generally brings warmer weather to the Northwest, though the effect on summer water supplies have varied. A weak El Nino prevailed during Washington’s snowpack drought of 2014-15. There was a strong El Nino the following winter, but the state’s snowpacks were normal.

Some forecasting models show sea-surface temperatures along the equator peaking at 1 degree Celsius above normal between November and February, according to the prediction center. That would put the El Nino just into the “moderate” category.

A La Nina, lower-than-normal sea temperatures, prevailed this past winter. The ocean has warmed to neutral conditions and likely will stay that way through the summer, according to the center.

The outlook for July, August and September favors above-average temperatures across most of the country. The odds are especially high for a warm summer in the Pacific Northwest and the Great Basin, including Idaho.

Below-average precipitation is favored for summer for Oregon, Washington and the Idaho Panhandle. Northern California and the southern half of Idaho have equal chances of being wet, dry or average, according to the center.

The Boise Project Board of Control, a major player in southwest Idaho’s water system, continues to deal with the area’s population growth as a leadership change nears.

The project stores water behind two of the three Boise River dams, operates a large canal system and an off-site reservoir, and services a handful of irrigation districts.

“Urbanization is a big issue,” said project Assistant Manager Bob Carter, who will replace retiring Tim Page as manager Aug. 1. “As the population is growing and with all the new subdivisions, it’s a challenge to operate, maintain and keep our easements.”

Subdivisions ultimately become water users to which the project and its client irrigation districts deliver, often via existing infrastructure linked to a pressurized system the developer installs.

Potential encroachment poses a challenge.

“We have to protect our facilities and easements,” Carter said. The project constantly works with developers “to maintain our easements so we can do operations and maintenance.”

Most of the water the Boise Project stores on behalf of its water-rights holders is in Anderson Ranch and Arrowrock reservoirs under a 1926 operation and maintenance agreement with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, including the Lake Lowell storage reservoir between Nampa and Caldwell, and a nearly 1,500-mile network of canals, laterals and drains servicing about 165,000 acres.

The project does not store water in Lucky Peak Reservoir, operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Anderson and Arrowrock dams prioritize irrigation while Lucky Peak prioritizes flood control. But the Army Corps and Bureau of Reclamation have a joint agreement to operate the three reservoirs to help with flood control. The dams maintain minimum winter flows to benefit fish, wildlife and riverside public space.

The project is also an operating agency for five irrigation districts, which are essentially taxing districts; they return a portion of their assessments as tolls to the project to cover system operation and maintenance. These are the New York, Boise-Kuna, Wilder and a portion of Nampa-Meridian Irrigation District in Idaho; and the Big Bend district near Adrian, Ore. Water rights are held by the Bureau of Reclamation and the irrigation districts for Boise Project patrons.

Carter said the nonprofit project aims to keep tolls as low as possible while maintaining good service to users. Farming is the biggest user category, and servicing pressurized irrigation systems for subdivisions and individual homeowners is a growing segment.

The project has automated some of the outlet and check structures used when canal water levels are raised and lowered. Automation can increase the efficiency while keeping levels consistent and maintaining head pressure for making deliveries, Carter said. Because automation helps maintain exact water levels while reducing tailwater spillage, water is conserved.

The project for the past decade or so has also operated small hydropower plants. It has two on dams and three in its canal system. The project, which can deliver about 0.5 to 4 megawatts, sells the electricity to power companies that put it onto the larger Northwest power grid.

“We’re always looking to add more” power customers, Carter said. “It’s green power, and that money can go back in and help keep end users’ costs down.”

The project would be impacted by any changes to system infrastructure.

Adding as much as 30,000 acre-feet of storage capacity at either Arrowrock, Anderson Ranch or Lucky Peak dams is the subject of current studies by the Bureau of Reclamation and Army Corps of Engineers, Carter and Page said.

Current capacities of the reservoirs east of Boise are 272,200 acre-feet at Arrowrock, 413,100 acre-feet at Anderson Ranch and 264,400 acre-feet at Lucky Peak.

Gov. Butch Otter and House Speaker Scott Bedke on June 21 announced an agreement between water users and water managers on prioritizing water rights from Boise River reservoirs. The agreement involves the state Department of Water Resources, municipal water system operator Suez, the Boise Project Board of Control and the irrigation districts the project serves.

The agreement includes specifics about processes for prioritizing and appealing water-right allocations, the governor’s office, the governor’s office said in a release. Water users were concerned about the right to refill the reservoir space opened up by flood-control releases in order to ensure their water-rights allocations could be met. They wanted assurances that allocating water to fill new storage capacity within the system was not prioritized over filling established reservoirs.

C

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The European Union is set Friday to slap tariffs on $3.4 billion in American products, from whiskey and motorcycles to peanuts and cranberries. India and Turkey have already targeted U.S. products, ranging from rice to autos to sunscreen.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States attacked first, imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum from around the globe and threatening to hit tens of billions of dollars in Chinese products.