Quinoa

Organic grain growers in Washington looking for new crops with new markets could be producing buckwheat and quinoa, if Washington State University scientists can confirm their viability and develop varieties specifically for the Pacific Northwest.

Researcher Kevin Murphy currently has trial plots of 44 varieties of quinoa and 30 varieties of buckwheat in five different locations around the state, including the WSU Organic Farm outside Pullman.  His long-term goal is to breed varieties growers can count on regardless of where they live in Washington.

“We are trying to find a variety for each major ecosystem in the state,” Murphy said.

Murphy’s research, funded by WSU’s BioAg project, got its start in western Washington where he was working with organic grain growers. “They are using small-scale equipment and want to keep using it, diversify a little and sell a new product to the local stores,” he said. “Both PCC and Whole Foods Market would buy locally if they could.”

Some organic growers raise grain, but they want to diversify their grain rotation, Murphy said.

“Over the past couple of years, organic growers in western Washington have started to grow wheat for local consumption; bakeries that used to get their wheat from Canada, Utah, or the Great Plains states, prefer to source their grain from essentially next door,” he said. “Based on that success, a lot of farmers want to keep going.”

Making the new grains work in the Pacific Northwest is not without challenges, though.

“Quinoa usually isn’t grown above the 42nd parallel and we’re at the 46th,” Murphy said. “So, we’re going to have to develop varieties adapted to long days and a short growing season. The biggest issue is finding a variety that will mature on time.”

There are advantages to growing quinoa, though. “Quinoa is a dual purpose crop — both greens and grain,” Murphy said. “The leaves are very nutritious, have a taste similar to spinach, a relatively long storage life and would be very marketable.”

Buckwheat

Another advantage of the rice-like grain, which is grown primarily in the Andes region of South America, is its ability to pull salt from the soil. Saline soils are an unfortunate byproduct of irrigation. Murphy hopes to begin conducting research within the next year or two on using quinoa to remediate highly saline soils across the state.

So far, buckwheat seems much easier to grow in different climates. Having originated in Asia, it currently is grown in western Europe, as well as other locations in the United States, including New York and North Dakota. “We are hoping some of the varieties we’ve planted will adapt well to this area,” Murphy said.

In addition to the grain it produces, buckwheat also is an excellent cover crop and provides great honeybee habitat, he added.

Buckwheat and quinoa (pronounced “keen wah”) also have the advantage of being gluten-free, which opens yet another market for their use. And, Murphy said, neither one has to be irrigated to succeed.

The variety trials will continue for one more year. Murphy and his team will start making crosses in the greenhouse, grow them in the field and then develop another cross.

“We’ll be identifying existing varieties that can be grown right away and make that information public, probably within the next two years,” he explained. “Then we’ll start breeding varieties adapted to different areas. There is a good chance we can make some significant initial steps for the improvement of desirable traits that can make an immediate impact in the successful growing of quinoa and buckwheat in Washington state.”

A far cry from the normal farm animals fairgoers see, an elephant was on hand for rides during the Grant County Fair Aug. 18.

A miniature donkey was just one of the creatures that greeted children at the petting zoo at the Grant County Fair in Moses Lake Aug. 18.

Voice messages will be accepted by telephone answering service on Saturdays all day and Sunday until 11:30 a.m. for Monday water deliveries.

The school will take place Sept. 20 in Moses Lake. Stock photo.

Washington State University Extension is offering a swine artificial insemination school in Moses Lake Monday, Sept. 20, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Grant County Fairgrounds, 3953 Airway Drive N.E.

Tom Platt, WSU Area Extension Educator in Davenport, said swine producers who attend the one-day school will learn the basics of artificial insemination and will return to their farms with the skill and ability to inseminate their sows and gilts with commercially available boar semen.

The school’s instructor is Tim Safranski, University of Missouri State Extension Swine Breeding Specialist. Safranski teaches artificial insemination, farrowing schools, boar management and genetic improvement throughout Missouri and beyond. He was the 2001 recipient of the National Pork Producers Council Swine Industry Award for Innovation in Education.

School participants will learn basic anatomy and physiology of reproduction in swine, techniques for detecting and synchronizing heat, insemination techniques and sources of semen, supplies and reference material.

Cost of the school is $50 per participant, which includes refreshments, lunch and class materials. Advance registration is required by Sept. 3 and space is limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

A flier with registration form can be downloaded at www.livestocktopics.wsu.edu.

For more information, special needs accommodation or to have a registration flier mailed to you, contact Platt’s office at (509) 725-4171 or plattom@wsu.edu.

WSU Extension programs are offered without discrimination.

Farmers sometimes burn crop residue, such as cereal grain stubble and torn-out orchard trees, after harvest.

Smoke from this burning can harm the health of people who breathe in the smoke’s harmful particles and toxics.

Ecology regulates agricultural burning to protect public health while keeping burning available as an important tool for farmers.

Ecology’s Air Quality Program does this through its smoke management system.

This system operates seven days a week, including holidays, to help farmers — a substantial investment in effort and support.

Growers must have permits to burn most types of agricultural residue. The 2010 Washington Legislature amended the law (RCW 70.94.6528) that authorizes a permit fee for agricultural burning. The change raises the permit fee cap from $2.50 per acre to a maximum of $3.75 per acre. This is the first increase to the fee cap since 1991.

The Legislature also approved a new way to assess fees. Fees can now be assessed for pile burning instead of on a per-acre basis. This new fee is capped at $1 per ton of material burned.

Current fees cover only about 25 percent of the smoke management program’s costs. Increasing fees will help ensure Ecology can continue to support farmers and citizens 365 days per year.

This also will reduce the need to use the state’s scarce general fund money to supplement the smoke management program.

Under the law, the state’s Agricultural Burning Practices and Research Task Force determines agricultural burning fees. The task force proposes these fees to take effect in January 2011:

* Field burning — $30 for the first 10 acres; $3 for each additional acre.

* Spot burning — $30 for 10 acres or less.

* Pile burning — $80 for the first 100 tons; 50 cents for each additional ton.

The public can comment on the proposed rule and fees during two public hearings:

* 7 p.m. Aug. 26, at Columbia County Rural Library District, 111 S. 3rd St., Dayton.

* 6 p.m. Sept. 2 at Wenatchee Public Library, 310 Douglas St.

Ecology will accept comments through Sept. 9. You can submit comments by:

* E-mail to Richelle.Perez@ecy.wa.gov.

* Fax to (360) 407-7534.

* Mail to Richelle Perez, Department of Ecology, P.O. Box 47600, Olympia, WA 98504-7600.

Ecology will review all comments. The agency expects to adopt a final rule in November 2010.

Othello resident Jessica Schmidt recently competed at a national Angus show in Denver. Photo by Briana Alzola

By Briana Alzola

Staff writer

Nineteen-year-old Othello resident Jessica Schmidt is no stranger to cows.

After starting to show cows when she was 9 years old, she advanced through different leadership positions and was recently elected as the secretary-treasurer of the Northwest Junior Angus Association at a show in Prineville, Ore. In this role, her main obligation is planning the Northwest Preview, the biggest show in the area.

“I still have to choose the location, get entries and get everything ready,” Schmidt said.

The obligation is nothing compared to one she already has, she said, serving as the president of the Washington state Junior Angus Association for the past three years.

As president, Schmidt runs meetings and puts on different cow shows around the state. She is also in charge of recruiting new members.

Schmidt also competes, something that takes up a good portion of her time between May and August.

“This is pretty much my summer job,” she said.

Schmidt has traveled to Reno, Denver and Prineville this summer, as well as other shows around Washington.

She and her sister Shannon, 21, went to the national competition this year. This competition only accepts two competitors from each state, so it was very impressive the two people from Washington were from the same family.

“It is very, very competitive,” Schmidt said. “Nobody really knows us up here in the corner of the country.”

Shannon was able to get an honorable mention, meaning she was in the top 25 competitors. Jessica was a finalist, finishing in the top 15.

“It’s very prestigious,” Schmidt said. “It’s the first time anyone in Washington was recognized.”

It’s not all fun and games for Schmidt, though, as PETA and the Humane Society have made stands against the business

“The cattle industry is under attack right now,” Schmidt said. “We want to dispel things that aren’t true.”

These misconceptions are a challenge for everyone who raise cattle, particularly young ones, she said.

“That’s one of the biggest things our generation is faced with,” Schmidt said. “What we do is a good thing.”

The challenge to dispel the misconceptions is something she wants to take on before she becomes too old to participate in the association.

“Next year’s my last year, but I’ll still be involved,” Schmidt said. “I don’t think I could get out of the whole thing, I love it too much.”

Before she was president of the Washington group, she was the secretary and before that, the eastern Washington representative.

Her experiences raising and showing cows have taught her many things and not just about the industry itself.

“A lot of people think it’s just about cattle, but you also learn life skills,” Schmidt said. “You learn about hard work, responsibility and respect.”

Of course, there is also a lot about cattle.

“You learn how to raise them and the efficient use of money to get the best meat on the plate,” Schmidt said.

Some of the lessons are harder to learn.

“You definitely learn how to be a gracious loser,” Schmidt said, with a laugh.

Through it all, she wouldn’t be the same without it, she said.

“It definitely made me the person I am today,” Schmidt said.

She participates in 10 to 15 shows a year, she said. The distance she has to travel to each show affects how many cows she shows.

“When we go to shows far away, we only take one or two heifers each,” Schmidt said.

The biggest Angus show in Washington is in Moses Lake, she said.

Schmidt, older sister Shannon and 17-year-old sister Amanda brought a combined 14 cows to the event.

“They are just as involved as I am,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt’s family owns Sunny Farms and have 1,000 head of cattle roaming the fields on the J.R. Ranch.

“They’re all breeding livestock, we don’t do dairy,” Schmidt said.

In the fall, Schmidt will be a junior at Washington State University.

She is studying speech and hearing sciences.

“I want to work with deaf children who have had cochlear implants,” Schmidt said.

Showing cows has gotten in the way of schoolwork, on occasion.

“I missed the last week of classes right before finals for a show, so that was stressful, but it doesn’t happen very often,” Schmidt said.

Mike Cerillo, far left, Angel Garza Jr., Angel Garza and Rolando Cerillo are the principals involved in a new state of the art storage and distribution facility being built on Bruce Road. Photo by Bob Kirkpatrick.

By Bob Kirkpatrick

Editor

Construction is slated to begin this week on a storage-distribution warehouse at 515 Bruce Road. Angel Garza, owner of  Angel Garza Trucking, purchased the property from Bob Boersma with Washington Carriers, which was originally earmarked for a bio-diesel plant.

“This facility will service the entire Columbia Basin,” he said. “We’ll be storing fertilizers for several plants, as well as bulk salts for cities, counties and possibly, the state as well.”

The project has been in the works for about three years.

“It was put on hold because of the state of the economy,” Garza said. “But we started it back up at the beginning of this year and are excited to finally see it come together.”

Survey crews with CDA Structures based out of Coeur d’Alene started marking the corners of the 48,000 square-foot building Aug. 4.

“We’re using GPS units to mark the coordinates to keep everything as precise as possible,” Mike Cerillo, project superintendent with CDA Structures, said. “The building will be erected adjacent to the railroad tracks on the property, which makes for easy loading and unloading of product.”

Garza said it will be a state-of-the-art facility.

“We’ll have two pits to unload rail cars and a pit to unload trucks,” he said. “At the same time, we can use the pit to offload rail cars directly into trucks.”

Garza expects to hire between six to 10 people at the facility, depending on demand for product, but they could also employ up to two dozen or so truck drivers to transport
the materials.

“I could see this business employing 20 to 30 people,” he said. “The way I see it is it’s just not going to be the guys running the facility, it will also employ my truck drivers. So instead of having seasonal jobs, this will provide a year round job for them.”

One of the first to come on board is Garza’s son Angel Jr., who will take care of the logistics and coordinate and control the traffic in and out of the facility.

“We’re pretty happy to have him on board,” Garza said. “He’s a smart kid and I know he can handle it.”

Cerillo said the state officials have given the thumbs up on the project.

“There weren’t any huge surprises,” he said.  “We did a lot of homework before we started the process … followed all the guidelines with CEPA … made sure everything was done right … engineered properly.  Adams County has been pretty good to work with too … pretty flexible with what we are doing. It’s going to be a good project.”

Port of Othello Commissioner Mike Beardsley agreed.

“We’re excited about the project and we are working closely with Angel to help him succeed,” he said.

Beardsley said the Port has entered into an agreement with Garza to allow him to use its rail spur to ship and receive product.

“The Port is serious about growth within the county and is hoping to target and attract more ag-related businesses to places like the water tower property out there,” Beardsley said. “It sure makes it a lot easier when people like Angel, who has a great entrepreneurial spirit,  is building out there and making improvements. He makes things happen and is a good guy to work with.”

Beardsley said a new onion storage facility has been built on a parcel of land in the area and he has been in talks with a company that could employ as many as 300 workers if it were to purchase property and build a facility for waste straw.

He said there is a six-acre parcel of land in that vicinity two parties are interested in purchasing and developing as well.

“We want good growth in Othello and the surrounding area and still be able to maintain our great small town environment,” he said. “So this makes sense to us.”

Garza said he’s hoping to have the facility built by November and anticipates moving approximately 60,000 tons of product each year.

He said the storage and distribution facility is pretty much a win-win situation for the entire Basin.

“If these guys (fertilizer plants, city, county and state entities) are buying product in the off season at a discount and we have the facility to store it for them, they can then offer the farmers a better price for it.”

My wood duck drake still looks good after more than 30 years, thanks to a good taxidermist. Photo by Jim Pearson.

By Jim Pearson

Contributing writer

I’m not a trophy hunter.

If I see something that looks good to me and it’s legal, BANG! Some of them hang on the wall in my trophy room even they don’t “score” in any record book. They’re products of a taxidermist’s skills or lack thereof.

One of them is a reedbuck and hangs in a high position so no one can see the fist-size gob of brown plastic below his horns on the back of the head.

I was angry about that, so I emailed the taxidermist in Zimbabwe and told him so. He didn’t believe me and neither did the outfitter with whom I had booked the hunt, so I sent photos.

The taxidermist returned $500 and apologized. The outfitter who got a kickback from the taxidermist apologized, too.

I should have listened when a local taxidermist warned me, but I didn’t.

He’s very good and I just delivered my red stag cape and antlers to him.

He will send the cape away for tanning and after that, he will make a shoulder mount that I will be proud to hang on my wall beside other mounts he has done.

When we took the lid off the shipping box, he inspected the cape closely. “Whoever caped this did a good job,” he said. “Lots of times, they don’t leave enough skin around the eyes and the lips.”

After that, he looked at the antlers and we got out the book to decide on what kind of mount to do. When he’s finished, I know it will look nice and that’s important.

It’s also important I have it on my wall before I die from old age. I’m finally going to get my stuff back from South Africa and that has taken more than two years.

On my first trip to Africa, a pro hunter convinced me if I had my trophies mounted in the U.S., every one of them would look like a whitetail deer.

That isn’t true, of course, because the most innovative and beautiful African mounts are done right here in the United States.

But I didn’t know that at the time.

I’m a slow learner, but from now on, all my work will be done by local taxidermists licensed by the state of Washington and I’ll avoid unlicensed guys operating from their garage.

Years ago, a friend wanted a Canadian goose mounted, but he didn’t want to pay the price. Finally, he found a “taxidermist” who worked cheap.

He charged about half what others demanded. Lance didn’t know mounting a goose properly is time consuming because all the fat has to be removed from inside the skin.

The mount hung on his wall only a short time before it began to look greasy and the feathers began falling out.

But removing the fat from a goose skin isn’t as tough as removing it from a wood duck skin because the skin is sheer and tears easily.

Thirty years ago or more, I took a wood duck drake to Selah taxidermist Brian Mitchell. It took a year to get the mount back, but that’s how long it takes if the guy has a successful business going.

Brian has since moved on, but he was a real artist who also did wonderful wildlife oil paintings. His wood duck mount still looks good after all this time.

When I was a kid and nuts about fishing and hunting (the urge has declined slightly), I sent some money to Northwest School of Taxidermy, an outfit that would teach me to mount my trophies by correspondence.

I skinned out a pheasant and wrapped thread around a big gob of excelsior to replace the body. When I finished, that bird looked dead as Latin.

I don’t think commercially manufactured body forms were available back then, but even if they were, I couldn’t afford them.

That ended my desire to be a taxidermist. I’m not an artist, and I believe a good taxidermist needs a touch of the artist in him.

Today, I’ll email the outfit in South Africa to tell them their list is correct; now, please send my trophies.

They’ve had them two years and longer. Later today, I’ll visit Kevin and tell him I’m having second thoughts about my red stag mount. I’m thinking maybe a pedestal mount would be nice.

He’ll help me make a decision and I’ll have the stag in my trophy room in a few months. That’s another plus to having the work done locally.

Yes, I admit to being a slow learner, but I’ve learned the taxidermy lesson well.

Voice messages will be accepted by telephone answering service on Saturdays all day and Sunday until 11:30 a.m. for Monday water deliveries.