Farmers may be able to drill new irrigation wells in Oregon’s Harney Basin despite a moratorium imposed by water regulators last year.

Worries about groundwater depletion prompted the Oregon Water Resources Department to halt well drilling in 2015, but the agency is considering rules to allow a limited number of new well permits.

In the meantime, regulators are conducting a study of the area’s groundwater that’s expected to be finished in 2020.

“The ultimate goal will be the stabilization of those groundwater levels,” said Ivan Gall, administrator of the OWRD’s field services division.

Each year, roughly 200,000 acre-feet of groundwater rights are used in the Greater Harney Valley area — where well permits are restricted — while only 170,000 acre-feet are available for use, according to an agency estimate.

Extensive well drilling in the past decade convinced the WaterWatch of Oregon environmental group to protest new permits last year, which led to OWRD’s moratorium while the agency performs the groundwater study.

This spring, the agency plans to enact regulations that would allow well permits to proceed despite concerns about declining groundwater, as long as the applications were filed before April 15.

Martha Pagel, an attorney representing the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, praised state water regulators for providing irrigators with a fair path to move forward if they have pending requests.

“It was a tough message in an area that’s really dependent on agriculture that you can’t develop anymore,” she said during a Feb. 26 meeting of the Oregon Water Resources Commission.

Under the proposed rules, an existing groundwater permit can be canceled to drill a well that generates the equivalent amount of water in another area. This allows farmers to switch to irrigating higher-value soils.

Irrigators who cancel a well permit to drill in another location would lose the original “priority date” for their water rights, unless they complete an official transfer of “certificated” water rights that have actually been developed.

Roughly 25 percent of the permitted wells in the area are currently undeveloped and will likely remain that way due to poor soils, said Dwight French, administrator of the agency’s water rights division.

These undeveloped permits, however, are eligible for cancellation to drill a new well under the proposed rules.

Even without a cancellation, new permits would also be allowed in the northwestern and southern sub-regions of the Greater Harney Valley area if the applications were pending as of April 15.

The agency doesn’t have data showing groundwater declines in these sub-areas but they’re likely part of the same overall water system, said Gall.

In both cases, farmers would be subject to certain conditions, such as setback distances between wells and a lack of interference with existing water rights.

Regulators expect the rules to be adopted on April 13, which is shortly before the April 15 cutoff date for pending applications because restrictions can’t be imposed retroactively.

Currently, 39 applications in the affected area are pending with OWRD and no new ones have been filed for several months.

SALEM — A legislative proposal to offset the cost of minimum wage increases to small businesses, farmers and other natural resources employers appears to be on hold until at least 2017.

Reps. Brian Clem, D-Salem, and John Davis, R-Wilsonville, had proposed giving tax credits to certain employers who are most likely to struggle financially to meet the requirements of a new three-tier minimum wage plan. The plan was laid out in Senate Bill 1532, which passed both legislative chambers earlier this month.

During negotiations with legislative leadership, the plan was whittled down to tax credits of no more than $15 million a year only for employers involved in animal production, aquaculture, crop production, fishing, hunting, trapping and food manufacturing.

That amount was insufficient to cover the additional costs of all of those employers, so lawmakers would have had to find a way to prioritize how to divvy out the tax credits, Clem said.

A group of associations representing agriculture has indicated it wants lawmakers to take more time to figure out those details, rather than push through legislation this session, which is scheduled to end by Sunday.

“The reality is that more time is needed to fully run cost and benefit scenarios to ensure any wage relief actually benefits the agriculture industry as a whole,” representatives from the agriculture industry wrote in a letter to Clem. “We believe there may only be one shot at alleviating the burden S.B. 1532 imposes on agriculture. The solution must meet the needs of our member families without picking winners and losers among the industry.”

The letter was signed by the Oregon Farm Bureau, Oregon Dairy Farmers Association, Oregon Association of Nurseries, Northwest Food Processors Association, Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, Oregon Blueberry Commission, Oregon Seed Council, Columbia Gorge Fruit Growers Association, Far West Agribusiness Association and Oregon Wheat Growers League.

“I’m extremely disappointed that our bipartisan effort to try relieve some of the sign burden imposed by the minimum wage bill has been reduced so far,” Davis said. “Part of why there is so little interest in the current proposal is it’s just so small. If we were going to try to cover part or all of increase each year to all businesses, it is hundreds of millions and possibly billions of dollars. This is really a defacto tax we were trying to impose.”

Clem, who voted for the minimum wage bill, said he was concerned that small employers would have to lay off workers due to the cost of the increased minimum wage while larger employers would easily be able to absorb the cost.

The tax credit would have reduced the effective wage rate for those employers. The amount would gradually climb in tandem with the minimum wage, reaching up to $2 per hour per employee in July 2022.

Clem and Davis said their original concept also would have set smaller increases in minimum wage and lifted a ban against setting higher wages in Portland. It became clear early on in negotiations that both of those proposals were too complex to push through the waning days of the Legislature’s 35-day session, Clem said.

The minimum wage plan hikes minimum wages over a period of six years. The amount differs in each of three regions and is set according to a county’s median income and cost of living. In Portland, minimum wage will reach $14.75 in the Portland area, $12.50 in rural and coastal counties with struggling economies and $13.50 in the rest of the state by 2022.

Clem said he plans to pursue the wage support proposal in 2017.

“I think it’s fair to say the independent-minded Democrats are satisfied that if Ag thinks we can wait then we can wait to get it right,” Clem said.

NORTH BEND — The Bureau of Land Management will be holding an open house to discuss the management of the New River Area of Critical Environmental Concern in preparation for updating the New River ACEC management plan.

Armed with a lifetime of on-the-ground sheep production, a degree in animal science and years of research at Kansas State and Oregon State universities, Tom Nichols was the perfect choice for president of the Oregon Sheep Growers Association.

Installed at the OSGA annual convention in Sunriver, Ore., Nichols is focusing on OSGA’s mission — representing the interests of OSGA sheep producers, industry-related businesses and sheep industry products.

“Everything is taking a hit now days, but if Oregon sheep growers can stay united I think we can remain strong,” Nichols said. “My immediate goals are to strengthen OSGA’s annual convention, develop a digital communication system with members and the public and to promote our Make It With Wool program to a larger audience.

“I believe in conventions, I think they are important and I always learn a lot by getting together and rubbing elbows with the other people,” he said. “However, to steal fellow producer Mac Stewart’s phrase, one of the first things we need is to ‘right-size’ them and hold them here in the (Willamette) Valley, where most of the producers that attend live and work.”

He also said developing efficient digital communications will help get animal health and other information to members.

Born and raised in Ashland, Ore., Nichols is a fifth-generation Oregonian. His father raised cattle, sheep and timber, and his mother taught school. He attended Linn Benton Community College for two years. From Linn Benton, he joined a brother in Kansas and ended up getting a degree in animal science from Kansas State University, where he lived and worked at the beef and sheep research centers.

Back in Oregon, Nichols worked as a forage technician, ran sheep on valley grass fields for Tony Wahl and managed the Sheep Research Center for OSU.

Today, Nichols lives in Lebanon with his wife, Karen, and 14-year-old daughter, Anne.

“Karen is a sheep grower in her own right and was assistant shepherd at the OSU Sheep Center when I met her,” Nichols said. “She raises horned Dorsets, some Polled Dorsets and Suffolks while Anne, who is very active in 4-H, raises and shows Romneys. In addition to pasturing sheep for other growers, I’m the fence builder, truck driver and anything else that needs to be done.”

Reed Anderson, sheep grower, lamb processor and owner of Anderson Family Ranches in Brownsville, Ore., spoke highly of Nichols in his role as OSGA president.

“Tom has been raising and producing sheep his whole life, has extensive experience working with OSU and is well known with other state and national industry associations,” Anderson said. “He is the most knowledgeable and well-rounded person I know and I look forward to seeing what his leadership brings to OSGA.”

The OSGA board of directors for 2016-2017: president, Tom Nichols, Lebanon; first vice president, Mac Stewart, Salem; treasurer, Brian Dietrich, Silverton; past president, Paul Lewis, Bonanza.

Area vice presidents: Mike Cowdrey, Scio; Tasha Wahl, Shedd; Correy McAtee, Prineville; Kip Krebs, Ione; Morgan McKenzie; Langlois; John Kokkeler, Junction City.

Oregon Make it with Wool director: Chandra Worman, Bend.

Oregon Sheep Commission representative: John M. Fine, Roseburg.

Online

www.sheeporegon.com

Tom Nichols can be reached at nicholslivestock@gmail.com

With financing in place, a Minnesota-based energy company plans to build its first commercial refinery that will transform farm waste into natural gas and liquid fertilizer at the Port of Morrow.

Novus Energy has received an $11 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s biorefinery assistance program. Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley and USDA Rural Development Undersecretary Lisa Mensah made the announcement Friday in Portland.

“This biorefinery will spur economic development, create new jobs and provide new markets for farm commodities in rural Oregon,” Mensah said.

Novus plans to take 750 tons of food waste every day — things like potato peels, onion skins and dairy manure — and convert it into renewable gas at the facility. By allowing the scraps to ferment in tanks, organic material breaks down and releases methane that can be captured and stored.

Joe Burke, Novus president and CEO, said the company has found a way to make that process 40 percent more efficient and is now ready for commercial-scale production. The USDA loan was critical to making the project a reality, Burke said.

“We just can’t wait to go to the next step,” he said.

Novus has spent several years already in Eastern Oregon, conducting small-scale tests using local food waste inside a retrofitted semi-trailer. Burke said he has been working on and off for three years toward a commercial refinery at the Port of Morrow.

The issue ultimately came down to financing. Despite successful tests, Burke said banks wouldn’t lend them money. However, the 2014 Farm Bill expanded the USDA’s biorefinery program to allow the agency to invest in advanced biofuels and renewable chemicals.

Mensah said Novus is one of the first companies to receive a loan under that expansion.

“It’s a very competitive program,” Mensah told the East Oregonian. “We are pleased to see this innovation happening in rural America.”

Novus will break ground on its facility at the port later this summer, Burke said, which will be located near Boardman Foods. The total cost is $25 million, and the plant will provide 5-10 permanent, full-time jobs.

At full operation, Novus will produce 3.8 million cubic feet of renewable gas each day. That’s more than 28 million gallons, which will be pumped directly into the Cascade pipeline on their property. A subsidiary of BP is signed on to buy the fuel.

The plant will also generate 350 gallons of liquid fertilizer daily.

“We’re taking waste and turning it into valuable resources. We’re very excited about that,” Burke said.

———

Contact George Plaven at gplaven@eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0825.

SATURDAY, FEB. 27

NORTH BEND — The Bureau of Land Management will hold an open house to discuss the management of the New River Area of Critical Environmental Concern in preparation for updating the New River ACEC Management Plan.

The 2016 Women in Agriculture Conference will again offer women in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Montana and Alaska a unique opportunity to gather for a one-day event focused on education and networking.

The event will be held on March 19 at 31 locations. Headline speakers will be available through webcasts to all locations.

In its fifth year, the conference — sponsored by Washington State University — will feature knowledgeable speakers, inspiring stories and practical advice for learning new skills.

This year’s event, “Power Up Your Communication, Power Up Your Farm” will focus on communication style and how to use it to manage, motivate and influence people.

Conference Chairman Margaret Viebrock, WSU Douglas County extension director, said in a press release, “Whether you communicate on Facebook or face-to-face, it matters how you communicate with others. Understanding your style is a powerful tool for building personal and business relationships.”

The interactive conference will define how women in agriculture communicate for success, she said.

Speakers will include Wendy Knopp and Michael Stolp of Northwest Farm Credit Services, who will help participants discover their communication style to improve decision making and connect marketing to what motivates prospects and customers.

Tangent, Ore., farmer Shelly Boshart Davis will talk about how she improved her communication approach to improve her business strategies, motivate employees, work with her family and increase business sales.

“In addition to improving communications, this conference will help women farmers use their personality traits to change as the situation changes,” Viebrock said.

The conference will be held at the following locations:

Alaska: Fairbanks, Kenai.

Idaho: Bonners Ferry, Caldwell, Cascade, Salmon, Sandpoint, Twin Falls.

Oregon: La Grande, Roseburg, Salem.

Montana: Bozeman.

Washington: Bremerton, Chehalis, Colville, Coupeville, Everett, Goldendale, Mt. Vernon, Nespelem, Olympia, Port Townsend, Pullman, Puyallup, Republic, Spokane, Tri-Cities, Vancouver, Walla Walla, Wenatchee, Yakima.

The conference registration fee is $30, with an early-bird special of $25 before March 5. The fee includes the workshop, light breakfast, lunch and conference materials.

Persons with a disability requiring special accommodations while participating in this program can contact Viebrock at Viebrock@wsu.edu.

Visit www.womeninag.wsu.edu for details about the conference and registration.

BEND, Ore. (AP) — Speed limits on some areas of Oregon are set to increase on Tuesday.

The Bulletin reports that The Oregon Department of Transportation is working to install new signs on U.S. Highway 97, U.S. Highway 20 and state Highway 31 before the change takes effect. The speed limit will also increase on parts of Interstate 84, U.S. 95 and OR 78.

The speed limit will increase to 65 mph in some areas and to 70 mph in some major highways in Eastern Oregon.

The Legislature set aside $735,000 to cover the costs of changing the 275 signs on hundreds of rural highway miles.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Ammon Bundy and another 15 defendants pleaded not guilty Wednesday to federal conspiracy charges related to the 41-day occupation of an Oregon wildlife refuge. Several of the accused, however, expressed doubt that they enjoy the presumption of innocence.

Bundy sat at the main defense table while most of his co-defendants sat in the jury box as they listened to a government prosecutor read the indictment and U.S. District Judge Anna Brown tell them their rights.

Brown reminded the defendants they are considered innocent until proven guilty. One by one, she asked them if they understood. Bundy simply said “yes,” but four co-defendants took the opportunity to express skepticism.

“It’s difficult to understand presumption of innocence when I’ve spent the last month in a jail cell and been led around in shackles and chains,” Ryan Payne said.

Another, Jason Patrick, told the judge: “You’re the federal government; you’re going to do whatever you want.”

The judge tackled several procedural issues during the nearly two-hour hearing, which started with Bundy, sporting a fresh haircut, blowing a kiss toward Odalis Sharp and her children. The family gospel band traveled from Kansas in January to sing at the occupation. One daughter, 18-year-old Victoria Sharp, was at the traffic stop in which authorities arrested Bundy and fatally shot Arizona rancher LaVoy Finicum.

The judge said a trial date had been tentatively set for April 29, although court papers show an April 19 date. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ethan Knight said he expects to file a superseding indictment with additional charges after investigators finish examining firearms, electronics, American Indian artifacts and other evidence.

Brown warned Knight to make it snappy, saying the accused deserve a right to a speedy trial — not one in 2017. She also pressed prosecutors to start turning over FBI reports and evidentiary material to defense attorneys and their clients.

“They’ve been in custody for weeks. They need information,” Brown said. She told prosecutors to produce at least some discovery material by March 4.

A total of 25 people are charged in connection with the takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, which began Jan. 2 and lasted until Feb. 11. The occupiers wanted the U.S. government to relinquish public lands to locals and free two Oregon ranchers who they say were wrongly imprisoned for setting fires.

Defense lawyers and their investigators plan to visit the refuge Thursday and Friday, their first look at the scene. The judge denied Bundy’s request to tag along with his attorneys.

One of the defendants, Kenneth Medenbach, told the judge he plans to serve as his own lawyer and made a motion to have his case dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. Brown scheduled a hearing for next week to go over those issues.

PORT ORFORD – The public is invited to Authors’ Night featuring Joyce Mueller and Weld Champneys at 6:30 p.m. Friday, March 18, in the Freedom of Speech Room at the Port Orford Library, 1421 Oregon St. (U.S. Highway 101).

BANDON -- Friends and family of Jeanie Strain Laub are invited to celebrate her 90th birthday at an open house from 1-4 p.m. Saturday, March 5, at the Bandon VFW Hall No. 3440, 55382 Bates Road.

Site planning is underway. The first objective is siting of a permanent outdoor equipment shed accessible from the pool structure. Shed installation will be completed by end-June this year.

ALGOMA, Ore. — It’s scramble time for Bob and Kathleen Buchanan.

“We’re in the frantic week,” says Kathleen, who with her husband owns and operates the Buchanan Angus Ranch in the Algoma area north of Klamath Falls, of preparing for this weekend’s 24th annual Bull Sale at the Klamath County Fairgrounds.

They’ll have 82 Angus bulls at the sale, which begins at noon Sunday. Sale activities actually begin noon Saturday, when the bulls will be available for viewing. A hosted cocktail hour is set for 6 p.m. followed by a free tri-tip dinner. Before Sunday’s sale, brunch will be offered at 10 a.m. with entertainment by Shane Thornton.

“It’s the old-fashioned western hospitality,” Kathleen says of the pre- and post-sale activities, which typically lure upwards of 300 people. “It’s more work, but it’s worth it.”

Unlike the annual Klamath Bull & Select Horse Sale, which was held at the fairgrounds in Klamath Falls earlier this month, the Buchanan’s sale features all Angus bulls. While most are from the Buchanan Ranch, others are from ranches, including one from Eastern Oregon, that have built their operations around the Buchanan’s genetic program. The bulls up for bid are mostly about 14 months old.

It’s a two-person operation for Bob, 62, and Kathleen, 64, who use their 500 acres to raise hay and, more importantly, oversee their carefully selected herd of Angus cattle. They typically breed 150 to 160 cows by artificial insemination annually and have about 125 calves each season.

“This is a hands-on cattle operation. We do all the work here on our own ranch,” Bob and Kathleen emphasize, noting they share daily ranch chores with their border collie dogs. On big work days, they often enlist their three children — especially their cowboy inclined son, Billy — and their children’s families. “We do the breeding, calving, feeding, repairs and maintenance on the equipment and facilities.”

“It’s a beautiful hidden valley,” Kathleen says of the location of their fourth generation cattle ranch that’s been raising registered Angus since 1965. She and her husband believe their mission is to improve the quality of Angus beef in general and their stock in particular.

“We’re into it for the betterment of the industry and the betterment of the herd,” she says. “The reason for doing this has to be to the improve for breed. There really isn’t a good reason for not raising good beef.”

That ever-improving breeding goal has led the Buchanans to concentrate on upgrading their herd. They have been using artificial insemination and embryo transfer technology since 1987, when it was accepted by the Angus Association. They pride themselves on what they describe as “high volume, big ribbed females in a moderate framed package.” The cows are turned out to pasture with young calves, which are born in late December.

Working working hard is the couple’s mantra. As they emphasize, “Our ranch is not a hobby, it is a livelihood. Angus cattle our only business so we have to work hard and perform or we won’t stay in business.”

Staying in business has been a family tradition since 1894. Bob says his family had a large operation of commercial cattle. “I was the rebel,” he tells of converting to breeding Angus, a shift that began in 1965. By the late 1990s, the commercial operation was history.

History, however, is a tradition that dates back to 1894 when Bob’s great-grandparents, John and Marie Hagelstein, who had come to the United States by ship from Germany then moved to Oregon 1893, settled in the Algoma area. His great-grandparents farmed, but Bob’s grandparents, George and Hilda Hagelstein, began raising cattle that, along with such family farm crops as milk, potatoes and eggs, were sold to workers at the nearby Algoma Lumber Mill.

Bob’s history with Angus started as a teenager, when he started buying Angus from Scott Warren in the early 1950s. Gradually, he took over Warren’s operation and moved into a house his uncle Fred had built as a dairy, just up the road from where he had grown up. “I have moved twice in my lifetime for a total of a half-mile,” Bob laughs.

With Kathleen’s help, the Buchanans have crafted a partnership that blends tradition with technology. They computerize their data, information on things like carcass genetics and pregnancy tests, “But we still have to look at and work with the cattle.”

The yearly focus is their bull sale, always held the fourth Sunday of February. They launched the sales to “give everyone first pick” at their sought-after bulls.

Their special touches, along with high quality bulls, have helped the Buchanans’ success.

“We get a lot of repeat customers,” says Bob, noting one ranch has been buying Buchanan bulls since 1973. “We make friends with our customers.”

“You’ve got to show appreciation for your customers,” Kathleen explains, laughingly telling about a long-time friend and buyer who once told her, “I don’t need any bulls. I just came for the cinnamon rolls.”

Along with people at the fairgrounds, the sale is broadcast live on the Internet and reaches potential buyers from across the U.S. and Canada. Last year, the majority of bids came via the Internet. “It’s definitely high-tech, but still old-style Western hospitality. We figure our bulls sell themselves. We like to stay at a size where we can do it ourselves,” Bob says.

The annual sale is critical financially, but the Buchanans says they like all phases of their business.

“I really enjoy the cattle and the people. We deal with the greatest people on the Earth. When they tell you something you can count on that happening,” Bob says. “I love working with the animals. We are kind of our bosses. It’s very rewarding at calving season, seeing the fruits of your thoughts and labor. And the lifestyle. To be able to make a living in a lifestyle you love is nothing short of a blessing.”

THURSDAY, FEB. 25

SALEM — A bill that would require genetically engineered fish to be labeled in Oregon has died in committee but the proposal will likely be resurrected next year.

House Bill 4122 was approved 32-27 earlier this month by the House and was referred to the Senate Committee on Health Care, which did not act on the bill by the legislature’s Feb. 23 deadline.

Supporters of the bill said it would bolster Oregon’s fishing industry by allowing consumers to easily discern between local wild-caught salmon and a biotech variety approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last year.

Critics of HB 4122 argued that labeling would unnecessarily alarm consumers about the safety of such fish and claimed the bill was premature because the FDA is still determining whether federal labeling guidelines for such salmon are appropriate.

Sen. Laurie Monnes Anderson, the committee’s chair, said during a Feb. 23 hearing that she was generally supportive of HB 4122 but it was “dropped in our lap” only recently, so there wasn’t sufficient time to discuss it during this year’s short legislative session.

Originally, HB 4122 would have lifted Oregon’s ban against local regulations on genetically engineered crops, which the Legislature approved in 2013 as part of a broader package of bills passed during a special session.

The Oregon Farm Bureau vigorously opposed the reversing this pre-emption statute, arguing it would create a patchwork of conflicting county ordinances across the state. Proponents said local control was necessary due to insufficient regulations on biotech crops at the state and federal levels.

However, the initial language of HB 4122 was replaced with the fish labeling provisions, which won the approval of Oregon’s salmon industry but continued to face opposition from biotech supporters and food manufacturers.

The Center for Food Safety, which supported both versions of HB 4122, will continue to educate legislators about genetic engineering in anticipation of proposals being revived in 2017, said Amy van Saun, legal fellow for the non-profit group.

The fish labeling component may be rendered moot by 2017, depending on federal action, said Scott Dahlman, policy director of Oregonians for Food and Shelter, an industry group that opposed the bill.

However, Dahlman said he wouldn’t be surprised if the biotech pre-emption issue will be raised during the longer legislative session next year.

SALEM — The fate of an environmentalist lawsuit over the removal of wolves from Oregon’s list of endangered species will soon be decided by the Oregon Senate.

Under House Bill 4040, the legislature would ratify last year’s decision by state wildlife officials to delist wolves, effectively neutralizing a legal challenge filed by several environmental groups in the Oregon Court of Appeals.

The Senate will soon vote on HB 4040 having passed a key legislative committee on Feb. 23 and earlier having passed the House.

Proponents of the bill, including the Oregon Farm Bureau and the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, argue that livestock producers could be excluded from any potential legal settlement between the environmental plaintiffs and Oregon’s wildlife regulators, thereby circumventing the public process in setting wolf management policy.

Environmentalists and animal rights advocates fear the delisting will lead to hunting and argue that HB 4040 will preclude judicial review of whether the delisting decision was based on sound science, which the Legislature should not attempt to answer.

Sen. Chris Edwards, D-Eugene, said it’s not unprecedented for Oregon lawmakers to weigh in on thorny policy issues instead of having them hashed out during prolonged litigation.

“As public policy makers, we do intervene when we believe it’s healthier to resolve a situation rather than let it happen in a courtroom,” he said.

Edwards joined two Republican colleagues on the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources in voting in favor of the bill, which passed the committee 3-2 and is now headed for a vote on the Senate floor.

The two other Democrats on the committee — Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, and Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland — said they were uncomfortable with lawmakers trying to influence the legal process from the outset.

Prozanski said he would have preferred a bill that would require the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association and Oregon Farm Bureau to be included in any settlement negotiations, rather than render the lawsuit moot.

“I’m concerned about us being asked to intervene at this stage in a judicial proceeding,” he said.

Hemp

A far less controversial bill on hemp growing regulations, House Bill 4060, is also headed for a vote on the Senate Floor after passing the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources.

The bill, which was already approved by the House, eliminates restrictions on hemp that require the crop to be directly planted in fields larger than 2.5 acres and prohibit it from being grown from cuttings or in greenhouses.

These limitations were enacted by the Legislature in 2009, when recreational marijuana wasn’t yet legal in Oregon and lawmakers thought hemp would be grown mostly for industrial products like fiber and oil.

Instead, many growers want to plant hemp on a smaller scale for cannabidiol, a compound intended for medicinal uses.

The Joint Committee on Ways and Means has appropriated $25,000 for a Task Force on Drought Emergency Response, which will consist of up to 15 members chosen by the governor and legislative leaders. The goal of the task force will be to identify short-term, medium-term and long-term tools to combat drought, which caused severe problems for agriculture and the environment last year.

House Bill 4113, which would establish the task force, will now be voted upon by the full House.

The House will also vote on another drought-related bill, Senate Bill 1529, which invalidates rules requiring landscape irrigation by local homeowner associations when a drought has been declared by the governor, the Oregon Water Resources Department or a local government. The bill was approved unanimously by the House Committee on Consumer Protection and Government Effectiveness after earlier passing the Senate.

Local county governments will be allowed to create rangeland protection associations to fight fires in remote areas under House Bill 4007, which will be voted on in the Senate after earlier winning the approval of the House and now passing a key committee in the Senate.

Without this bill, only the Oregon Board of Forestry has the authority to create such associations. The county-created associations will be able to obtain more favorable insurance terms if HB 4007 passes, but they’re still subject to the oversight of the Oregon Board of Forestry.

Ag interests say the three-tiered plan to hike the state’s minimum wage passed by the Legislature is better than some alternatives, but still will have a bit impact on growers and processors.

Under the plan awaiting Gov. Kate Brown’s signature, in July Oregon’s minimum wage will jump from $9.25 to $9.75 statewide.

It will gradually climb to $14.75 in 2022 in the Portland urban growth boundary, which includes parts of Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties. It will rise to $13.50 in Benton, Clatsop, Columbia, Deschutes, Hood River, Jackson, Josephine, Lane, Lincoln, Linn, Marion, Polk, Tillamook, Wasco and Yamhill counties, and parts of Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties outside Portland’s urban growth boundary.

In rural areas, the minimum will increase to $12.50. Those areas include Malheur, Lake, Harney, Wheeler, Sherman, Gilliam, Wallowa, Grant, Jefferson, Baker, Union, Crook, Klamath, Douglas, Coos, Curry, Umatilla and Morrow counties.

Jenny Dresler, state public police director for the Oregon Farm Bureau, said the increased minimum wage will cause some farmers to mechanize while others will probably go out of business because they can’t compete against growers in other states.

“Farmers are price takers. They have no ability to recoup those higher labor costs,” Dresler said.

The three-tiered county wage schedule is a “bizarre choice” since many farms operate across county lines, she said. Growers in some areas will now be less competitive than those in their neighboring counties, Dresler said.

Malheur County onion growers say the plan will have a major impact on local packers.

But the 46 farmers, onion processors and small business owners who traveled 400 miles by charter bus to Salem last month to oppose proposals to raise the state’s minimum wage prevented the outcome from being worse, participants said.

“As bad as it was, it could have been worse,” said Nyssa farmer Paul Skeen, president of the Malheur County Onion Growers Association, which helped finance the trip along with the Malheur County Potato Growers Association.

Bus trip participants told lawmakers that raising the state’s minimum wage would result in agricultural and other businesses moving to neighboring Idaho, which has a $7.25-an-hour minimum wage.

The governor’s original two-tier proposal would have raised the minimum wage to $15.52 in the Portland area and to $13.50 in the rest of the state, so the noise made by the Malheur County crew clearly made a difference in the final outcome, said Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, who helped organize the bus trip.

The change to a three-tier system was made as a result “of the loud noise made by the people of Eastern Oregon,” he said. “I think it’s extremely important that people understand they did have an impact.”

The increase in the state’s minimum wage will still have a negative effect on Malheur County’s agricultural industry, which competes against Idaho farmers and processors just across the border, Skeen said.

While Oregon’s final minimum wage plan is somewhat better than the original, “It’s just a slower death,” he said.

Faced with a much higher minimum wage than their competitors a few hundreds yards away in Idaho, onion processors in Malheur County will do one of two things that will result in fewer Oregon jobs, Skeen said: “They will mechanize or move to Idaho or both. They won’t have a choice.”

The bus trip did some good, said MCPGA President Rob Wagstaff. But based on the ultimate outcome, “I feel like (legislators are) telling us they don’t really care a lot about small businesses here. I’m just frustrated they didn’t hear us a little bit better.”

The minimum wage increase will also have a major impact on Oregon fruit growers, said Jean Godfrey, executive director of the Columbia Gorge Fruit Growers Association, which represents 440 cherry, apple and pear growers.

The group’s producers are in an area that will experience the $13.50 minimum wage rate by 2022.

One fruit grower who penciled out the impact of a $13.50 minimum wage on his 150-acre orchard calculated it would cost him an additional $150,000 a year in wages, Godfrey said.

“If you’re in retail, you can pass the increased cost on to consumers,” Godfrey said. “But we can’t do that. We don’t set our prices. It seems to me the people in Salem don’t understand agriculture and the impact (the increase) has on our industry.”

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 24

PORTLAND — Generational changes are expected to stymie per-capita U.S. consumption of wine in 2016, at least temporarily stunting the longtime upward trend, experts say.

The “baby boomer” generation, which consumes the most wine, is now preparing for retirement and feeling pressure to spend less and save more, said Mark Freund, managing director for Silicon Valley Bank, which tracks the wine industry.

Meanwhile, the “millennial” generation faces its own financial concerns — such as paying off student debt — and isn’t as dedicated to wine, he said Feb. 23 during the 2016 Oregon Wine Symposium in Portland, Ore.

Over the long term, though, there’s reason to believe that history will repeat itself and young people will come to prefer wine as they grow older, Freund said.

Other economic factors cut both ways.

Fuel prices are lower, allowing consumers to spend more on wine, but the volatile stock market has raised concerns about recession and inflation-adjusted incomes remain flat, he said.

“It’s difficult for the middle class to get ahead when there hasn’t been real wage growth,” Freund said.

U.S. wineries can also expect to face more foreign competition: While the output of wine-producing countries such as France, Italy and Spain has trended upward, their domestic consumption is down, he said.

That means those countries will be eager to export to the U.S., which has emerged as the top wine consumer in the world, he said.

Young drinkers’ appetite for craft beer doesn’t necessarily have to come at the expense of the wine industry, said Christian Miller, proprietor of Full Glass Research, a market analysis firm.

The popularity of craft beer is associated with consumers seeking higher quality and more intense flavors, which is a “cultural trend” that may also help wine, he said.

“What they’re shedding is the Budweisers and Coors of the world,” Miller said.

The millennial generation represents about 30 percent of the “high frequency” class of U.S. wine drinkers, who buy roughly 80 percent of the wine in the U.S., he said.

Baby boomers comprise 38 percent of high frequency wine drinkers, while the older generation represents 13 percent and “Generation X” represents 19 percent.

Sparkling wines are experiencing consistent growth since 2010, which may bring new consumers to the overall wine industry, Miller said.

Consumers associate Oregon wines with small producers, food friendliness and good value, though the region still isn’t as well-known as the Napa and Sonoma regions of California, he said.

The main reasons cited by high-frequency drinkers for not buying Oregon wine is that they prefer wine from other regions, that Oregon wines aren’t available where they shop and that Oregon doesn’t produce the varietals they commonly drink, Miller said.

In 2016, Oregon wine producers surveyed by Silicon Valley Bank said they expect sales to increase 13 percent in value and 9 percent in volume, which reflects the trend of consumers “trading up” to higher-quality wines, said Freund.

However, about 28 percent of Oregon wineries said they were experiencing poor financial performance, compared to 16 percent for all wineries surveyed, he said. Oregon wineries also reported being more willing to sell their companies than the industry as a whole.