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Ag community comes together for Oregon State Fair
SALEM, Ore. — Alea Minar, 14, has been keeping busy this year at the Oregon State Fair. A 4-Her for six years, Minar shows in every small animal category.
“Rabbit, poultry, cavies (guinea pigs), pigeons and dogs,” she listed off.
Along with showing animals, Minar, who is from Deschutes County, also competes in the static 4-H exhibits such as fashion, sewing, cooking, food preservation, art, photography and leadership.
This is her second year at the fair.
“It’s really awesome,” she said. “We have helpful stewards and volunteers, and great judges. It’s running smoothly.”
Minar enjoys all the opportunities that come with 4-H, and she said that it helps her grow as a person. Although she has many favorite parts, one of them is the lead up to the fair.
“Everyone is stressed out, and you’re studying with your friends, quizzing one another and cleaning the animals,” she said.
For 14-year-old Tatum Heathershaw from Washington County, the fair gives her the chance to be around people who share her love for poultry.
“There’s not a lot of places like that,” she said.
Once at the fair, Minar and Heathershaw said they like meeting new people from around Oregon. This fair year in particular has given them ample opportunity to do that.
“It’s the first year that 4-H and FFA club members have shown animals together since I’ve been alive,” Candi Bothum, 4-H program coordinator, said.
In past years, 4-H would show one week and FFA would show the other, but because many students are going back to school earlier and the groups utilize the same judges, it made sense to show all the youth competitions together, Bothum said.
“It’s been fun. A great opportunity with great organizations,” she said. “The state fair is an opportunity for kids to meet from all over the state. Young livestock raisers and ag enthusiasts — they’re the future of ag. A terrific group of young people.”
Combining the shows also helped lower the number of turnovers the clubs had to make to clean out the animal pens.
Bothum said that she thinks the two groups will continue showing together, but they have some logistical issues regarding space to fix for next year.
“It’s a big group,” she said, noting that the number of animal entries has gone up.
Elsewhere at the fair, the agriculture stage has also been a hit, Brooke Broadbent, the showcase organizer, said. She estimated 30 to 50 people attend the presentations and for the activities it “ebbed and flowed.” So far, the most popular event has been egg day, where 1,500 eggs on a stick were handed out.
Although the fair has stopped keeping daily attendance tallies, Dan Cox, the fair spokesman, said the fair had a good opening day and there have been more discount incentives this year to bring people out.
“I’ve been around fair a long, long time and can see the ebb and flow of the crowd. We’ll get a first wave that stays for several hours and then a second wave of people at night for the concerts,” he said. “On the hot days close to 100 degrees we might see people heading inside more towards the AC, but the one thing we’ve always seen is Oregonians come out no matter what, it’s an interesting thing.”
Cox says the fair offers something for everyone.
“It’s not just for the urban center,” he said. “It’s for the entire state.”
Apparently there was something that wasn’t right in the last CMC vote for a Volume Regulation
So the CMC voted again and split into two separate votes, one for 2017 and another for 2018. The Handler Set aside of 15% for 2017 is unchanged. The Producer allotment of 75% for 2018 was approved with a 2500 barrel exemption for each grower. All districts are included in this regulation, note that previously District 4 was exempted. This re vote split the independents with two voting no. The proposed action was still approved and will be sent to the Secretary of Agriculture for his approval.

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Table grape field day set for OSU’s North Willamette station
Promising table grape cultivars, not to mention tasty grape samples, will be on display and up for discussion during a field day at Oregon State University’s North Willamette Research and Extension Center.
The field day is Wednesday, Sept. 13, from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at NWREC, 15210 N.E. Miley Road, Aurora.
Research Assistant Amanda Vance, who has spent the past three years evaluating cultivars, will talk abut her findings. Oregon is known for its wine grapes, of course, but Vance believes there may be a table grape niche for small-scale growers who sell at farmers’ markets or roadside stands.
The grapes Vance found most promising include Neptune, a green grape from the University of Arkansas with high yields year after year, and Canadice, a smaller red grape from Cornell University with good flavor and uniform clusters. Agricultural researchers often share cultivars among themselves for evaluation and OSU received several over the years from John Clark, a University of Arkansas plant breeder and horticulture professor. Clark will attend the field day and talk about his work.
Vance has a viticulture background and volunteered to take on the OSU table grape research project. She’ll discuss her work, and OSU berry crops professor Bernadine Strik will talk about grapevine morphology, physiology, trellising, pruning and training. Javier Fernandez-Salvador, an OSU Ph.D. candidate and an assistant professor, will talk about organic table grape production, including disease and weed control.
Wildfires burn around Oregon; 4,500 people evacuated
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Wildfires in Oregon are burning an area roughly equivalent to half the state of Rhode Island, affecting air quality throughout the state and forcing the evacuations of more than 4,500 people, fire authorities said.
Two dozen fires in southern, eastern and central parts of the state had scorched a total of 571 square miles.
And although fire crews appreciated cooler weather and some fog on some fire lines, they are bracing for triple-digit temperatures and the return of windy conditions and extremely low humidity later this week and into the weekend, said Terry Krasko, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman.
The largest fire is near the coastal town of Brookings near the California border.
That 196-square-mile blaze is 5 percent contained and 4,568 people have fled their homes. Firefighters have managed to carve out a containment line along the southwestern edge of the fire to protect the 6,500-person town that will be bolstered by the arrival Wednesday of six Oregon National Guard teams.
The fire started July 12 from a lightning strike in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest but grew rapidly last week.
“That 5 percent doesn’t sound like a lot but it’s very critical to this town and we feel very good about that. There have been people asking, ‘What about the other side of the fire, what about the east?”’ Krasko said. “But we have to put our efforts first where the homes and businesses are — where people live. These are our family and friends.”
Also in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, but further east, a complex of fires forced the evacuation of six homes Tuesday in a rural community called Joe Bar near the Applegate River Valley. Several of the fires have merged and firefighters have divided the largest ones into three areas of attack, fire authorities said.
About two dozen blazes all began on Aug. 12 after a lightning storm in the area but most were put out quickly by crews.
In central Oregon, a 34-square-mile fire west of Sisters is now 44 percent contained. No mandatory evacuations are in effect.
Fires statewide continue to generate thick smoke that’s affecting air quality in southern and central Oregon.
Smoke forced the Oregon Shakespeare Festival to cancel its outdoor performance on Tuesday.
Nine cities, including Bend, Medford, Ashland and Klamath Falls, had unhealthy air conditions on Wednesday, according to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.
Smoke from all the blazes has also converged on Portland, which is several hundred miles away, and has obscured the iconic view of Mount Hood.
On Tuesday, some Portland residents reported finding ash on their parked cars.
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Bandon IT offers computer, adds Internet, AT&T, DIRECTV services
Cranberry Run benefits Lions causes
Merlin Wheeler
Oregon wine industry census shows more acreage, wineries
Oregon’s winemakers reported a 12 percent sales increase to $529 million, planted 2,400 more acres of grapes and opened 23 more wineries in 2016, according to an annual census commissioned by the Oregon Wine Board.
The growth came despite a 6 percent drop in production, slipping to 79,782 tons from the 84,782 tons harvested in 2015.
Not to worry, said Steve Thomson, CEO of Cristom Vineyards and the wine board chair. For one thing, the 2014 and 2015 vintages were unusually large, and 2016 was closer to normal — although the 2017 yield is shaping up as another big one.
More important, he said, is the price per ton is increasing and the state’s “pricing power” is intact. In other words, the state’s winemakers concentrated from the early days on quality rather than quantity, and consumers remain willing to pay more for Oregon wine.
“It all fits together really well,” Thomson said.
The Willamette Valley’s internationally acclaimed Pinot noir is still the big dog, accounting for 64 percent of the 30,435 acres of wine grapes grown in Oregon. In addition, about 73 percent of the grape “crush” happened in the North Willamette Valley. But Thomson said the state is no longer a “one trick pony.”
The warmer Southern Oregon and the Columbia Valley regions, the latter including American Viticulture Areas in sections of Eastern Oregon and Eastern Washington, produce a range of Mediterranean and Bordeaux varietals to complement the Burgundian style Pinot noir. Across the state, buyers can find Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot gris, Syrah, Zinfandel, Malbec, Merlot, Tempranillo and more.
“It’s a strong healthy sign for our industry,” Thomson said. “I marvel a little bit. Ten years ago it was Pinot noir driven, now there’s incredible variety. It helps immunize our industry for the future by having greater diversity across our industry.”
The census is the work of the Southern Oregon University Research Center. Among other statistics, the report showed Oregon now has 725 wineries, adding them at a pace of nearly two a month. Case sales at winery tasting rooms, where visitors can sample “flights” of various varietals, jumped to 484,714 in 2016 — 63,000 more 12-bottle cases than in 2015.
The Oregon Wine Board is a semi-independent state agency that does marketing, research and education for the industry.
Online: The 2016 Oregon Vineyard and Winery Census Report
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Early season Oregon spuds off to market
HERMISTON, Ore. — The spring weather may not have been ideal, but Tony Amstad is still pleasantly surprised with the size and quality of his early season potatoes.
While an abundance of rain and snow pushed back planting by about a week in March, Amstad said the delay doesn’t seem to be affecting his fresh market crop. Harvest is now underway, and what he sees are spuds that are just the right shape, color and consistency for supermarket shelves.
“It’s going to be a decent year,” said Amstad, owner of Amstad Farms. “It started out bad and ended up good.”
Amstad Farms grows 2,250 acres of potatoes, mostly around Hermiston and Echo. On Tuesday, Amstad watched as crews sifted through a stream of Russets that were loaded up a conveyor belt into the back of a 30-ton semi-truck bound for the farm’s packing plant in Sherwood.
In another three weeks, Amstad said they will be going full bore on filling their eight, 9,000-ton storage sheds around the county. Most of what Amstad grows are fresh market potatoes — the kind you find in the produce section of the grocery store — though the farm also plants several varieties of red and yellow potatoes, which are sold to Reser’s Fine Foods to make potato salad.
Not only is quality looking good this year for Columbia Basin potatoes, but so is price, according to Amstad. Thanks in large part to a 15,000-acre reduction in neighboring Idaho, Amstad said the fresh market is looking to bring in about $12 per 100 pounds, which is the best he’s seen in three years.
“It’s called supply and demand,” he said. “And demand has been real good so far.”
Bill Brewer, CEO of the Oregon Potato Commission, said the fresh market has been dogged by overproduction the last couple of years. When Idaho, the largest supplier nationwide, reduces production, Brewer said Oregon is well positioned to reap the benefits.
Oregon’s potato export markets have also been on the rise over the last 10 years, Brewer added, thanks to the prosperous french fry and potato chip industries overseas in countries like Mexico, China and throughout the Pacific Rim.
“Our international markets are extremely important to us,” Brewer said, noting that 65 percent of Oregon potatoes are exported.
Domestically, about half of Oregon potatoes are sent to french fry factories like the massive Lamb Weston plants in Hermiston and Boardman. Another 20 percent are used for potato flakes and flour, like what’s made at Oregon Potato Company in Boardman. Roughly 8-10 percent go to potato chip processors like Shearer’s Foods in Hermiston.
The rest are fresh market, which makes up the bulk of taters at Amstad Farms.
Tony Amstad started the business in 1959, making this his 58th potato harvest. He has seen plenty of cycles in the industry, and has learned to take the good with the bad.
“Overall, when I look back on 58 years, it’s been very good to us,” he said.
Amstad’s partners include his two sons, Jeff and Skeeter, and his nephew, Todd Dimbat. Amstad Farms is now one of the region’s larger growers of fresh market potatoes.
This year brought excellent growing weather during the months of April, May and June, Amstad said. He admits he was concerned as temperatures have climbed in recent weeks to triple digits, as such stifling heat can essentially halt the development of tubers. But with harvest beginning Aug. 5, he said yields are so far looking promising.
Brewer cautions it is still early, and said he wouldn’t be surprised if the intense heat does result in a slight dip in yields. Most growers are prepared for that, he said, and he doesn’t anticipate any quality issues related to the heat.
Meanwhile, Amstad’s crews will remain busy with harvest well into October. Barring anything unexpected, the crop should fetch a reasonable profit.
Lebanon man fatally electrocuted in farming accident
LEBANON, Ore. (AP) — A handyman in Lebanon, Ore., has died after being fatally electrocuted in a freak farming accident.
Linn County authorities said Tuesday that 58-year-old Robert Leeland Prock was standing a 40-foot irrigation pipe on its end to move it when the pipe touched an overhead electrical wire.
The 12,000-volt wire was suspended 22 feet above the ground.
Prock was knocked unconscious by the shock and was pronounced dead at the hospital a short time later.
His 11-year-old son, who was helping him, was also shocked but survived with no serious injuries.
The investigation is continuing.