Programs & People Winter 2014

Winter 2014

page 8

page 19

Milk,Dairy

help Idaho and consumers thrive New genomics research, dairy worker outreach help industry

Garbanzos

4-H Camp

John Foltz

Basic agricultural research 30 years ago paying off

Natural resources, outdoor fun teach life lessons

Familiar face assumes leadership of CALS

page 35

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Advances in dairy science have helped make Idaho the No. 3 milk producer nationally. University of Idaho Extension works at the forefront of technology to help dairy producers make their herds more efficient. Other outreach focuses on improving dairy workers’ understanding of animal-care practices.

Programs & People is published by the University of Idaho College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and is available free by subscription.

JOHN FOLTZ, DEAN

LARRY MAKUS, ASSOCIATE DEAN AND DIRECTOR OF ACADEMIC PROGRAMS

DONN THILL, ASSOCIATE DEAN AND DIRECTOR OF THE IDAHO AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION

CHARLOTTE EBERLEIN, ASSOCIATE DEAN AND DIRECTOR OF UI EXTENSION

EDITOR: BILL LOFTUS ART DIRECTOR: SHANE JACKSON CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: DIANE NOEL LAURA KROSS Send address changes to: Dean’s Office, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Idaho P.O. Box 442331 Moscow, ID 83844-2331 or call 208.885.6681 Direct your comments, questions, and subscription requests to: Editor, Programs & People Educational Communications, University of Idaho 875 Perimeter Dr., MS2332 Moscow, ID 83844-2332 bloftus@uidaho.edu The University of Idaho is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and educational institution.

Time defines us. Our present reflects our family history, our own experiences, and our education. This year’s issue marks the passing of time in another way. John Foltz succeeded John Hammel as dean a year ago. Find out more in stories about each of them inside.

In this issue we invite you to find out how the McIntoshes are updating the century-old family farm by adding new enterprises. With their Harvest Ridge Organics and Lindsay Creek Vineyard, they’re looking forward.

Thirty years ago, CALS plant breeder Dick Auld had an idea that a new pulse crop could diversify rotations farmers rely on to cut pest and disease pressure on their high value wheat crops. With Genesee farmer Bill Haxton’s help, he tried growing garbanzo beans.

Inside you’ll read about how consumers’ taste for hummus turned Auld’s experiment into a profit center for the Pacific Northwest Farmers Cooperative’s entrepreneurial leadership – with some University of Idaho assistance.

During October’s Celebrating Idaho Agriculture and Ag Days festivities, the Idaho Potato Commission’s Pat Kole joined a panel discussion about agriculture today, advocating that every school should have a garden. Read inside about how UI Extension and 4-H are working on that idea.

Read, too, how UI Extension’s Wayne Jones in Bonneville County and Idaho Master Gardeners tested old favorite and new vegetable and flower varieties statewide. True citizen science, our founding farmers George Washington and Thomas Jefferson would have read the results with interest.

We note the centennial of the Smith-Lever Act, enacted May 8, 1914, to establish cooperative extension, a new vehicle to provide people with practical education you can trust. We plan to explore social media to test better ways to serve today’s public.

There’s no time like the present.

BILL LOFTUS, Editor bloftus@uidaho.edu

Winter 2014

University of Idaho College of Agricultural and Life Sciences

Programs & People FEATURES

A 70-year-old tractor guides students Class project teaches leadership, teamwork

Love of hummus fuels garbanzos 1982 UI report launched promising new crop

8 10

Assembling the cow’s genetic catalog 14 Genomics project focuses on dairy cow fertility

School gardens connect kids to food

16

4-H camps build understanding

20

Canola crushing plant boosts acres

24

Changing of the dean

26

Celebrating Idaho Agriculture

30

4-H Afterschool, UI Extension efforts grow statewide Natural resources, outdoor fun take center stage Edible and industrial demand for oilseeds grows

Foltz takes CALS helm, Hammel returns to faculty Photos of Ag Days’ 35th edition IN EVERY ISSUE

EVERY ISSUE

John Foltz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

4-H Home Food Preservation .4

Dean’s View

ScienceUpdate

AAAS honors Bosque-Pérez . .5 Study transforms steak . . . . . .5 Co-ops explore changes . . . . .7

BookShelf

RootsAlumni

Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 Alumni awards . . . . . . . . . . . .33 Diversifying alumni . . . . . . . .34

photo by BILL LOFTUS

A ripe tomato is a beautiful thing, especially on the Palouse. Even in the 1920s, an Idaho Agricultural Experiment Station report celebrated a summer of ripe tomatoes. In 2014, the University of Idaho is celebrating the 125th anniversary of its founding with three gifts of garden seeds, all developed by University of Idaho plant breeders. One will be Ida Gold tomatoes, an ultra-early variety by Arthur Boe in the 1980s. The others are Idelight green beans by Leslie Dean in the 1950s and a red blanket flower by Steve Love.

WINTER 2014 PROGRAMS & PEOPLE 3

bookshelf

FOOD PRESERVATION FOR KIDS

4-H Home Food Preservation Series With an adult helper alongside, even an 8-year-old can learn to freeze raspberries, dry tomatoes, or can a load of jam. Four new 4-H project manuals from University of Idaho Extension show how.

dean’s view JOHN FOLTZ

It is a great time to be taking the helm of the University of Idaho College of Agricultural and Life Sciences!

Agricultural productivity and efficiency continue to improve due to technological change and the entrepreneurial spirit of American farmers.

Demand for food, fiber and bio-based products remains strong and has buoyed the financial picture in agriculture. CALS also has been the beneficiary of supportive and passionate stakeholders who have allowed us to surpass our $40 million fundraising goal (as a part of the UI $225 million Capital Campaign) 1½ years prior to the conclusion of the campaign. Thanks very much to our donors!

I challenge all our readers to assist us in getting more students to pursue higher education (sending them to the College of Ag and Life Sciences would be great). To prosper in an increasingly technical and complex agricultural system, young people need the skills that we can provide them.

As a college, we are undertaking a bit of refocusing. We are calling our efforts PODs, for “Programs of Distinction,” and these were outlined in the college’s Strategic Plan developed last fall. We envision these to be areas focused on priority needs relevant to Idaho, with the idea of helping us determine where to invest our resources and development efforts.

College leadership determined CALS would have a maximum of five PODs. At the All-College Conference this past spring, faculty and staff worked in preliminary groups to advance this process. Out of that effort we have selected two areas we will move to “POD” status at this point: Globally Competitive Cereal Production, Products and Marketing Transforming Potato Production, Processing and Marketing.

Please consider this an invitation to communicate your ideas and perspectives about how we can best serve Idaho and agriculture as we move forward together.

Covering food drying (ages 8–18), freezing (ages 8–18), boiling water canning (ages 8–18) and pressure canning (ages 14–18), each manual covers the basics of healthy eating and food safety. Each manual also gives specific instructions for preserving foods.

Hands-on activities engage young people in preserving a wide variety of foods and using their preserved foods in recipes, menus and taste tests.

Authors Grace Wittman, Rhea Lanting, and Donna Gillespie wrote the manuals in response to high interest in putting up homegrown and locally grown foods. They base their information on tried-and-true USDA food-preservation guidelines.

Though written for use in 4-H programs, the manuals are well suited to other situations in which an adult guides young learners, including in the home.

In the boiling water canning project, kids learn to can fruits, tomatoes, tomato salsa, pickles, and jams and jellies with and without added pectin.

In the freezing project, they freeze fruits, juices, vegetables, meat, fish and even pizza.

The drying project covers fruits, vegetables, and herbs. Pressure canning deals with foods that aren't safe to can in a boiling water canner, such as vegetables, dried beans, meats, poultry, fish, spaghetti sauce and soups.

Download the manuals for free at http://www.cals.uidaho.edu/edcomm/catalog.asp . Look under the heading 4-H Youth Development.

by DIANE NOEL

4 COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL AND LIFE SCIENCES

SCIENCE FELLOWS

■

MEAT AGING

scienceupdate

UI student studies consequences of meat aging, makes tough steak toothsome

photo by JOE PALLEN, UI PHOTO SERVICES

AAAS honors Bosque-Pérez, IGERT’s Welsh-Unwala wins US AID Borlaug fellowship ENTOMOLOGIST NILSA BOSQUE-PÉREZ this year joined a select few University of Idaho scientists honored by their peers as fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The association’s section on agriculture, food and renewable resources recognized her “for international leadership in entomology related to plant health management, for fundamental discoveries in plant-virus-vector interactions and for distinguished contributions to interdisciplinary graduate education.”

Bosque-Pérez is a professor of entomology and 16-year faculty member of the University of Idaho College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. She directs the $3.2 million National Science Foundation-funded Interdisciplinary Graduate Education and Research Traineeship program that funds 22 doctoral students in Idaho and Costa Rica.

Her research focuses on insect-borne viruses that damage crops worldwide.

Bosque-Pérez spent 11 years in Africa at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Ibadan, Nigeria. She studied maize streak virus, a major agent of crop losses there, and helped plant breeders develop virus-resistant corn varieties that have contributed to food security in many parts of the continent.

At the University of Idaho, work by Bosque-Pérez, her colleagues and students in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences focuses on barley yellow dwarf virus, which can reduce wheat yields by as much as 20 percent.

Three University of Idaho IGERT graduate students, Sara Galbraith and Oscar Abelleira in 2012 and Kristen Welsh-Unwala in 2013, won prestigious Borlaug Fellowships funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The fellowship honors humanitarian agriculturist Norman Borlaug. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for leading the “green revolution,” an international effort to give poor farmers access to disease-resistant wheat to fight famine.

Contact NILSA BOSQUE-PÉREZ at nbosque@uidaho.edu

BUDGET-CONSCIOUS GRILLING FANS with a crowd to feed may welcome University of Idaho graduate student Michael Colle’s research into the science of steak.

Colle’s study showed that, with the right aging, inexpensive top round can become as juicy and tender as pricier New York strip steaks.

His master’s degree research recently won top honors at a conference sponsored by the American Meat Science Association.

“We’re really proud of Michael,” said Matt Doumit, Colle’s mentor and a professor in animal and veterinary science. “His research helps provide guidelines for retail and foodservice to manage different cuts of beef for maximum consumer satisfaction.”

Colle, who presented his research during the Reciprocal Meat Conference, focused on the consequences of wet-aging meat, storing the bulk cuts in plastic vacuum packages at temperatures just above meat’s freezing point.

Colle wanted to know how extended storage affected the retail shelf life and consumer acceptability of popular beef steaks, namely top loin, top sirloin, top round and bottom round.

The large, whole muscles are typically vacuumpackaged, boxed, and stored by either meat packers or stores at about 32 degrees for varying times before being cut into steaks and sold.

Colle’s research tested wet storage times of two days and two, three, six and nine weeks. After each, steaks were cut, then displayed in a retail meat case. The steaks were monitored for discoloration daily for four days, and fat was analyzed for oxidation that causes off flavors.

The more tender steaks from the top loin, such as New York strip steaks, fared less well with long-term aging. Already tender by day 14, they showed little change in tenderness after that.

Top round, initially less tender, became much more tender and juicy during storage. Because the muscle from which top round steaks come are used by cattle for locomotion, the fibers are more coarse and contain more collagen to strengthen the muscle, making it tougher. Wet aging for 42 days made the top round tender.

Colle’s research was funded through the Idaho Beef Council and the Beef Checkoff.

Contact MATT DOUMIT, mdoumit@uidaho.edu

WINTER 2014 PROGRAMS & PEOPLE 5

scienceupdate VENTENATA

■

HEADBLIGHT THREAT

photo by STEVEN MARTINE

photo by TIM PRATHER

UI weed ecologist seeking ways to stop ventenata from expanding in Idaho AN INVASIVE, WEEDY GRASS COST HAY PRODUCERS in northern Idaho and nearby Washington and Oregon an estimated $22 million last year. Now the wiry grass known as ventenata appears to be aggressively spreading, a University of Idaho weed scientist says.

Tim Prather, UI Extension weed specialist, said he is hearing more reports of the weedy grass in southcentral Idaho and farther south. He’s also documenting ventenata’s spread into rangelands from roadsides and cultivated lands where it mostly existed in the past.

When ventenata, also known as North Africa grass, began expanding its range, Prather began looking for answers. He believes a new biological alliance may be helping ventenata.

Plant invasions typically start slowly, Prather said, then shift into rapid expansion. Ventenata already is found from California’s border with Mexico to Quebec’s northernmost reaches.

“For many areas of Idaho, we’re in this very rapid increase,” Prather said. “The number of calls I’ve gotten since 2004 is dramatically different. I’d say 80 percent are about ventenata.”

The weed appears to have help from fungi that live inside the plant and may be helping it outcompete other plants, weeds and native plants alike.

Ventenata presents a good-news, bad-news story. The good news is something has finally come along that may end the grassland dominance of cheat grass or downy brome.

The bad news is ventenata may be worse.

Cheat grass is loathed by farmers, ranchers, homeowners and pet owners. Among the annual grass’s faults is that it keeps native grasses from establishing; it burns like gasoline when it dries out; livestock and wildlife will eat it only when it is young and green; and when dry, its sharp, barbed seedheads stick in pets and people, sometimes requiring medical care.

Ventenata is worse. It is largely inedible at any stage, Prather said. With few leaves, the wiry stems’ high silica content discourages even insects from chewing on them. Its seedheads stick like cheat grass, too.

“We’re seeing other impacts in these systems in addition to impacts on livestock or forage production,” Prather said.

Contact TIM PRATHER at tprather@uidaho.edu

6 COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL AND LIFE SCIENCES

Headblight hits Klasic wheat hard in 2013 as more corn favors Fusarium fungal threat THIS YEAR’S HARVEST shows a fungal disease is a growing threat to wheat yields and prices for southeastern Idaho farmers, a University of Idaho Extension plant pathologist says.

Juliet Marshall said headblight or scab, which is caused by Fusarium fungus, is costing farmers as much as $1.50 a bushel as they bring their wheat to grain elevators after harvest.

“I’m hearing lots of complaints from growers about being docked 45 cents to $1.50 a bushel because of headblight,” Marshall said.

Klasic, a hard white wheat grown mostly in southeastern Idaho, seemed to be one of the varieties hardest hit, she said. “It’s a 30-year-old variety, but it is highly prized for its taste and its baking qualities.”

The problem has been growing in severity for at least the last four years, Marshall said, and coincides with the increase in corn production.

The Fusarium fungus favors corn as a host and persists in debris left after harvest, Marshall said. In southeastern Idaho’s arid climate, corn debris can persist for several years and harbor the fungus.

Klasic wheat was hit hard this year, Marshall suspects, because it flowered as the fungus was releasing its spores. Unusual weather conditions may have played a role in the overlap.

Although harvest is the moment of truth for growers, field monitoring and action during the growing season can lessen losses.

Growers can apply fungicides to protect grain at flowering from infection, the most susceptible growth stage for infection.

Fungicide treatments then can lessen but not completely control the damage. Changing crop rotations can help, too, as can other cropping changes such as seeding rate.

Contact JULIET MARSHALL at jmarshall@uidaho.edu

ANIMAL CARE TRAINING

■

CO-OP CHALLENGES

scienceupdate

Project examines challenges co-ops face connecting with customers in changing world

photo by BRAD BECKMAN

UI Extension, CSI and dairymen partner on animal care training focused on dairy workers A NEW ANIMAL CARE TRAINING PROGRAM for dairy workers began this fall through a partnership including University of Idaho Extension, the College of Southern Idaho and the Idaho Dairymen’s Association.

After pilot testing the program last summer the first training was in October. Mireille Chahine, UI Extension dairy specialist in Twin Falls, said the training was piloted with workers on two dairies in southern Idaho, and the results helped fine-tune the final version.

Workers who complete the training will earn certificates. They also may earn credits at the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls that can be applied toward a certificate program.

University of Idaho Extension has offered training programs in Spanish and English for dairy workers for many years.

This program expands those efforts with the additional support from the College of Southern Idaho and the Idaho Dairymen’s Association. The existing training program would become more valuable through this collaborative effort.

“It would positively impact the dairy industry by adding to the knowledge base of the workers as they are trained and certified,” Chahine said.

“An integral part of our mission at the College of Southern Idaho is to provide workforce training and technical certificate education to help improve skills that are important in the workplace,” said Terry Patterson, College of Southern Idaho instructional dean.

As a first phase, the training is focusing on animal care, milking techniques, calf raising and feeding dairy animals. The curriculum is developed in both Spanish and English.

Tony Vanderhulst, Idaho Dairymen’s Association president, said the group supports the effort. “The association is excited about the potential of this collaborative effort between CSI, UI Extension and the dairy industry.”

“We anticipate that with success the program will expand to include and be utilized by anyone interested in working with dairy animals,” Vanderhulst said. “It is critical when you’re working with animals to understand and implement proper handling techniques.

The program will be a valuable asset for our employees and our operations.”

Contact MIREILLE CHAHINE at mchahine@uidaho.edu

TODAY’S CO-OPS SHARE ROOTS with the cooperatives formed by farmers that helped American agriculture develop.

A University of Idaho project seeks to understand the changes and challenges facing cooperatives today.

The agricultural cooperative, like the world of agriculture as a whole, has become more complicated and competitive, said Aaron Johnson, a UI agricultural economist.

He oversees a study of co-ops in Idaho and the Northwest that began this fall.

The study is part of a graduate student fellowship funded by the CHS Foundation, the major giving entity of CHS, an energy, grains and foods company with a stewardship focus on building vibrant communities.

The $50,000 fellowship supports a master’s degree project by applied economics student Hannah Hallock. Darigold, the nation’s fifth largest dairy cooperative, is contributing $30,000 for expenses.

The project will focus on identifying how cooperatives can improve efforts to retain members and recruit new ones.

A member of the Idaho co-op council, the project started when Johnson heard a conversation among members. “One said, ‘if growers knew what we really did, there wouldn’t be any issues with membership.’ ”

“So the question for me became what are they doing to promote the value they offer members,” Johnson said. “How do they communicate with producers? How does their front office staff communicate that value, and how do the people on the loading dock communicate it?

“So the idea is what do co-ops really do?

Is that value pervasive throughout the operation or is it just a job? So we want to look at that and how it lands, how it is perceived by members and nonmembers.”

College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Dean John Foltz said the university appreciates the support from the CHS Foundation and Darigold. Their support is a welcome reflection of the importance of co-ops to agriculture, education and consumers, he said.

contact AARON JOHNSON at aaronj@uidaho.edu

WINTER 2014 PROGRAMS & PEOPLE 7

CULTIVATING MEMORIES

EDDIE GRAY got his second, ‘first look’ at a good-as-new, bright green 1943 John Deere AW tractor in September at the Latah County Fair

8 COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL AND LIFE SCIENCES

Eddie Gray is back in the driver’s seat (photo above right) after a student team including Jacob Hudson, left, and Conrad Williams restored a 1943 John Deere tractor in a class taught by Jim Connors, right.

story by BILL LOFTUS I photos by MELISSA HARTLEY, UI PHOTO SERVICES

Tractor restoration project teaches students leadership, teamwork and practical skills

THERE WERE A COUPLE OF DIFFERENCES between the first time Eddie Gray saw the tractor as a 7-year-old watching Moscow tractor dealer Everett Will nervously unloading it in 1943 at the Grays’ Viola farm and seeing the restored version in Moscow.

“It had steel wheels on it then because rubber was too important for the war effort for domestic uses,” Gray recalled. “Those wheels had big cleats on them and the tractor rocked back and forth when he was backing it off the truck onto a bank.”

Gray guessed it had been more than a dozen years since the tractor had run, and years since he had sold it to neighbor Howard Musick of Viola. “You did a real nice job of fixing this up,” Gray told University of Idaho students Conrad Williams and Jacob Hudson, who met him at the fair. Jim Connors, department head of agricultural education and 4-H youth development, explained the restoration project’s goals and his interest in the project.

Hudson of Redmond, Wash., said the project gave him a respite from classrooms and books while he studied agribusiness at the University of Idaho.

As a student, he found it a challenge to shift from life on the farm, with its chances to exercise his initiative and materially problem solve, to an academic lifestyle with mainly mental exercises.

As a sophomore, he learned about the agricultural education class in tractor renovation and knew he’d found an out, a route back to more familiar territory.

“So for me and this class, it was really key to my success at the university,” Hudson said. “Especially in the College of Ag, you’re taking kids off the farm and putting them into the university environment. This was where I was able to hit my stride because I knew how to do it.”

“The students learned to work in teams, to develop leadership skills, to do research and to solve problems together,” Connors said. The focus was a 70-year-old tractor, but the lessons will last throughout their lives.

Connors said he’d like to offer another group of students the chance to learn teamwork through a tractor project. “We’re looking for a Model L, which was a smaller tractor. They didn’t make as many, and because it is smaller, a lot of people want them. That makes the price too high in the ones we’ve found so far.”

The nine students who took the class in the fall and spring semesters devoted more than 1,000 hours to the project. Their research traced the tractor’s history from its manufacture by John Deere, through shipping manifests to the Everett Will tractor dealership in Moscow and delivery to Viola farmer James Gray in 1943.

The class unveiled the restored tractor during a finals week potluck May 8 that drew agricultural education faculty, college administrators and Dean John Foltz.

Also in attendance were tractor aficionados like David and Nancy Ruark of Pomeroy, Wash., who are active in the Lewis-Clark Antique Power Club.

As the evening ended, Hudson mentored several visitors on the fine art of driving the 70-year-old John Deere.

“That was a lot of fun, and it was a great project that we’d like to see future students have the same opportunity to learn from and enjoy,” Foltz said.

For Eddie Gray, the tractor project offered a chance for a little agricultural time travel. “We used this mostly to cultivate patches to keep the weeds under control. We had a man whose job it was to cultivate about 75 patches of fallow ground. He’d finish the last one and it would be time to go back to the start again. We had little roads through the wheat and peas to get to the patches.”

“That was before we had chemicals so we had to cultivate to keep the bindweed and others from taking over,” Gray said.

To complete the trip down memory lane, Connors started the tractor and Gray turned the agile machine in a tight circle on the lawn. The distinctive pop-pop of the Model A’s two-cylinder engine saluted the student team’s efforts.

WINTER 2014 PROGRAMS & PEOPLE 9

HUMMUS

PULSES

WITH ENERGY

by BILL LOFTUS

10 COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL AND LIFE SCIENCES

WINTER 2012 PROGRAMS & PEOPLE 10

{

hum·mus [hoo m-uhs] noun a paste or dip made of chickpeas mashed with oil, garlic, lemon juice, and tahini and usually eaten with pita.

M iddle Eastern staple propels garbanzo bean industry to new heights, builds on early work by UI researchers merica is a shining beacon of opportunity, and perhaps nowhere does the ideal of the melting pot prove more true than at our tables.

Some of it is agricultural innovation, finding new crops that growers can match with global markets to prosper.

Some of those crops develop domestic markets.

Our history is also one of cultural assimilation. Americans revel in making other cuisines their own. Chinese food in China or Chinatown evolves as it wins over American palates. Italian food? Let’s just say Boston-based Yankee Doodle knew a dish we call spaghetti and marinara as Sunday macaroni and gravy.

For a more Idaho-centric example, consider the chickpea – also known as the garbanzo bean.

Grown widely in Europe and Asia from India through the Middle East to Spain, chickpeas crossed the Atlantic to America as largely a food novelty. In the 1970s, they existed in many parts of the nation as an exotic, adventurous addition to the salad bar, next to sunflower seeds and pickled beets.

A

Humble origins as rotation crop As a crop, production focused on that American niche, limiting market potential.

Growers in wheat country like the Palouse were gaining a growing appreciation for crop rotations that involved legumes or pulse crops.

With their ability to break cereal disease cycles and naturally add Garbanzo beans grew from a useful rotation crop to a profit center with Americans’ growing taste for hummus. Genesee-based Pacific Northwest Farmers Cooperative now supplies most of the beans used in hummus sold by market leader Sabra.

}

nitrogen to the soil, peas and lentils often presented more value for subsequent wheat yields than as market leaders.

In 1982, University of Idaho plant breeder Dick Auld was the lead author of an Idaho Agricultural Experiment Station bulletin, “Garbanzo Beans: A Potential New Pulse Crop for Idaho.” At that time, California supplied much of the nation’s supply, some 3,500 tons. Mexico shipped another 10,000 metric tons north.

Auld’s team noted trends suggested that shifts in Mexico and California away from garbanzo production could open domestic and export markets in coming years.

Additionally, trial plantings since 1980 showed garbanzos could grow on the Palouse.

The garbanzo boom Fast forward to 2012. U.S. Pea and Lentil Council statistics show growers in Idaho and Washington have benefited from Auld’s early work. With production expanded to 150,000 tons nationally, Palouse growers supply nearly 80 percent of the total.

In addition to the growth in production, growers have benefited from the changing tastes of American consumers and rising prices. While peas brought $15 per hundred pounds as harvest wound down this year, garbanzos brought twice that.

About half of the crop was exported.

The other half was used domestically for salad bars, home use and a newly American phenomenon, hummus.

Good idea, good advice The story of garbanzo beans is the story of agriculture and of land-grant universities providing a center of innovation. That spark in turn fuels adoption and expansion by growers and ignites new rounds of innovation by marketplace entrepreneurs.

That’s how Genesee farmer Jim Hermann and Genesee-based Pacific Northwest Farmers Cooperative CEO Bill Newbry showed up on a Whole Foods blog this past January touting Billy Beans, or Pedrosillano café garbanzo beans, a new-to-the Palouse variety that is creating waves and raves as the hummus bean.

The cooperative and others saw in garbanzos the opportunity to build their businesses. In PNWFC’s case that opportunity meant meeting the needs of companies ranging from startups to Fortune 200-class food products companies.

The cooperative called in University of Idaho Extension Food Processing Specialist Jeff Kronenberg. The UI Boise-based specialist serves as a faculty member of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and the School of Food Science, a joint effort with Washington State University.

To satisfy food industry demands and expand its markets, PNWFC needed technical help in gaining the certifications that assured companies that its garbanzos met their requirements, according to Newbry.

“We knew how to do it. We just didn’t know all of their rules and how best to prove we meet them,” he said.

Newbry estimated that hiring a private consultant would have cost PNWFC $250,000. The company still invested a tidy sum for TechHelp’s

and Kronenberg’s assistance. But it was a small fraction of the going rate.

“My hat’s off to Jeff,” Newbry said.

“The guy’s been around and he knows what to do. And if he doesn’t, he has contacts from his years in the industry and he knows who to call to get the answer.”

As a result, the cooperative’s sales increased more than $3 million.

That’s above the $10 million in trade it kept by upgrading its systems.

Meeting market demands Boosting its food safety efforts helped PNWFC create six new jobs in addition to the 10 it kept by satisfying market demands that materials meet rigorous safety standards.

Long term, Kronenberg’s efforts also helped PNWFC officials avoid spending $5 million in unnecessary investments while rolling up cost savings of $250,000 that helped it underwrite $1.8 million in productive plant equipment.

“He saved us money, and he made us money,” Newbry said.

Three decades ago that same partnership among university, business and community planted the seed for what is today’s profit center based on garbanzo beans. PNWFC headquarters are just a few blocks from retired farmer Bill Haxton’s place in Genesee. Back then, Haxton was part of the network of grower cooperators that college researchers depended on to experiment with new crops and better ways of growing existing crops. Auld sought his help in testing garbanzos as a crop.

“I grew about four acres of garbanzos in a field I farmed between Genesee and Moscow,” Haxton recalled. “It was about the first commercial-scale planting that had been tried in the area.”

Planting the seed For Auld, who is now a faculty member at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, testing garbanzo beans as a potential crop was worth the investment of time and effort. “There wasn’t much production in the U.S. except in California, and we were importing them to meet demand.”

12 COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL AND LIFE SCIENCES

about four acres of garbanzos “inIagrew field I farmed between Genesee and Moscow. It was about the first commercial-scale planting that had been tried in the area.

”

“We wanted to give them a try, but the hard part was finding enough seed. I managed to get some from Brocke and Sons Seeds in Kendrick, bought a pallet of seeds somewhere else and that was how we started out,” Auld recalled.

The early days of garbanzo production weren’t pretty. After promising trials and modest production, growers began to embrace the new crop. Then a fungus that caused Aschochyta blight nearly killed the momentum. “I remember going out to a field where we’d scouted a couple weeks before and you could see exactly where we’d walked because the plants were all dead from the blight,” Haxton said.

As the millennium turned, Maury Wiese, a retired plant pathologist, was one of the UI College of Agricultural and Life Sciences researchers whose work helped turn around the blight threat. By monitoring the fungus, advising growers about how to control it, and encouraging them to plant blight-resistant varieties, he revived flagging interest in the crop.

Problem solving By the time interest in hummus began to create new demand during the past decade, efforts to breed new blight-resistant varieties, better fungicides and better growing methods all contributed to more interest and bigger harvests.

Last summer The Wall Street Journal published a story about the growing popularity of hummus and the associated demand for garbanzos prodded by market giant Sabra. The story, “Hummus Is Conquering America,” included an interview with a grower near Walla Walla and discussed Sabra’s plans to expand chickpea production in Virginia as protection should crop failures occur in Washington and Idaho.

Garbanzos remain part of the University of Idaho mission. UI Extension Regional Crops Educator Doug Finkelnburg tended variety trials at the Palouse Research, Extension and Education Center’s Parker Farm near Moscow and Kambitsch Farm near Genesee. Roy Patten, the farms’ superintendent, grew 20 acres of a recently introduced and promising variety, Sierra, that will expand options for a growing legion of garbanzo bean growers.

WINTER 2014 PROGRAMS & PEOPLE 13

14 COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL AND LIFE SCIENCES

It’s in the blood UI Extension’s Dalton helps oversee dairy cow genomics project to address infertility in herds UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO EXTENSION DAIRY SPECIALISTS, in collaboration with faculty from Washington State University, will lead the outreach component of a project to help producers address cow infertility in their herds.

Caldwell-based Joe Dalton, together with WSU scientists Tom Spencer and Holly Neibergs, is overseeing the collection of thousands of blood samples from dairy heifers. The blood samples will provide the genetic information to better understand the origins of infertility.

Big money at stake Part of a $3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the project is based at WSU. Other collaborators in the five-year project include scientists from the University of Florida and USDA Agricultural Research Service. The goal is to uncover the many genes involved in fertility and reverse the fertility decline in dairy cattle. The conception rate for dairy cows has dropped from 50 to 35 percent since the 1980s.

The financial implications for dairy producers are enormous. A cow that doesn’t conceive in a timely manner costs the producer additional dollars in feed and care, costs that cannot be recouped until the animal bears a calf and starts producing milk again.

Fertility, like milk production and other genetic traits, is controlled by many genes. And just as in our families, UI Extension dairy specialist Dalton said, the same parents can produce children that look and respond to their environment very differently.

The study will be the largest effort so far to look at the genome, essentially the genetic catalog of all genetic traits, in dairy cattle to find the group of genes influencing fertility. The genetic analysis will be conducted by Spencer and Neibergs.

University of Florida scientist Pete Hansen will work with John Cole, a USDA Agricultural Research Service scientist, on the second portion of the project, identifying factors contributing to daughter pregnancy rate.

illustrations by NOAH KROESE

Ultimately this should enable the selection of sires that transmit high-fertility genes to their daughters.

First tests focus on Idaho heifers Dalton and Spencer, together with a team of associates, have already collected blood from thousands of southern Idaho dairy heifers. Blood sample collection from lactating cows will begin in 2014.

Dalton; Dale Moore, WSU Veterinary Extension director; and Mireille Chahine, UI Extension dairy specialist based in Twin Falls, will work with dairy producers to explain the implications of the study.

Workshops are planned in numerous states along with the development of web-based materials, by Albert DeVries of the University of Florida.

Dalton said the study will likely not produce a single answer about whether a cow is suitable for a dairy operation. Some producers, for example, may be willing to accept a cow that produces a lot of milk but may not have optimal fertility.

“Nevertheless,” Dalton said, “imagine having the ability to look into the future to see if particular animals have specific genes enhanced for fertility and production. Genomics offers one more piece of information on which to make a decision. For some folks, it will provide a tipping point in their decision about whether to spend $1,700 or $1,800 for two years to raise that animal and then find out if she is what they thought.”

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Young gardeners see the world differently, above, with help from UI Extension Idaho Master Gardener mentor Jennifer Brown, right, at Ms. Amy’s Daycare in Fruitland.

Photos by Pam Benham.

16 COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL AND LIFE SCIENCES

rowing ardeners 4-H afterschool programs, Extension outreach efforts connect students to gardening

by LAURA KROSS

TWO UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO EXTENSION 4-H AFTERSCHOOL PROGRAMS are teaching kids to garden to get them involved in growing and sharing locally grown foods.

The Potlatch Kids’ Co-op Garden and Plummer’s Success Center Garden both teach grade school kids about gardening, from planting and weeding to watering and harvesting.

“The kids really have a lot of fun out there,” said Becky Walrod, garden consultant for the One Sky One Earth Food Coalition in charge of the Success Center Garden.

“They like to eat the food they grow themselves.”

Along with enjoying the variety of fruits and vegetables they grow, kids also get the chance to share their hard work with the community.

Gardening with mentors The Idaho Master Gardener program also is working to connect kids to their food through gardening. This year they are launching a new mentor program that pairs certified Idaho Master Gardeners with schools that received a $2,000 grant for a school garden from the Idaho Department of Education’s Child Nutrition Program.

Idaho Master Gardeners already provide service to the public in counties statewide. Project leader Ariel Agenbroad, UI Extension Canyon County horticulture educator at Caldwell, said many already have been working with schools and community gardens.

During this pilot year, mentors were chosen to help 11 schools and childcare centers manage their own gardens by providing technical expertise and assisting garden leadership teams with horticultural issues.

For the Potlatch Kids’ Co-op Garden, the young gardeners deliver their produce to seniors and allow community

members to take what they need. Consumers have the option of making a donation.

“That’s why we named it the co-op garden – the goal is to link community with the kids,” said Heather Cummins, UI Extension afterschool program coordinator in charge of the garden. “We want to make connections across the community.”

At Plummer, the Success Center Garden has been selling its produce at the local farmers market, with the proceeds used to continue funding the garden.

“It definitely brings a return for the kids, and it shows them that with the hard work, they are getting something out of it,” said Yolanda Bone, afterschool program director for Plummer’s Success Center.

Both gardens began as vacant land on school grounds.

Now, the Success Center Garden located behind Lakeside Elementary School boasts nine raised beds measuring 4-by-8 feet. The school supplies the land and water, and the kids grow a variety of produce, including strawberries, bitter garlic, potatoes, carrots, radishes, beets, lettuce, kale and green beans.

Potlatch’s terrace garden The Potlatch Kids’ Co-op Garden rests on a terraced hillside plot donated by Potlatch Elementary School. It grew cabbage, sunflowers, squash, pumpkins, corn, lettuce and peas this past season.

The afterschool programs that run the gardens were both funded through a Children, Youth and Families at Risk (CYFAR) grant, a five-year program through the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Each site is seeking additional support to continue afterschool programming past the fifth year. At the Potlatch site, the Kids’ Co-op Garden is one aspect of the program, said Maureen Toomey, UI Extension associate at the Caldwell Research and Extension Center. Toomey directs the CYFAR grant for three sites in Latah, Canyon, and Boundary counties.

The Potlatch Kids’ Co-op Garden goes in line with what the CYFAR grant does for 4-H, said Kelli Loftus, who oversees the Potlatch afterschool program and serves as UI Extension associate for 4-H in Latah County.

“One of the elements is healthy living, and we wanted to have the kids have a connection to their food,” Loftus said.

The Potlatch Kids’ Co-op Garden shows young gardeners a different way to pick out some produce for dinner. Photo by Kaitlin Moroney.

18 COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL AND LIFE SCIENCES

The CYFAR grant funds the afterschool program. Cummins and Loftus sought additional support for the garden, winning grants from the Latah County Community Foundation, Potlatch Community Foundation and Whole Foods.

Plummer’s Success Center Garden was jump-started by the CYFAR grant awarded in 2008. The garden is now a partnership between UI Extension and the local One Sky One Earth Food Coalition.

That joint partnership became part of the larger 4-H program goals of teaching science and healthy living, Toomey said.

Knowing about food “Gardening is a great way to launch understanding of the whole food chain and food consumption,” Toomey said. “It ties together that connection between where food comes from and what they’re consuming.”

Working with schools helps University of Idaho Extension’s Idaho Master Gardeners program, too, said Canyon County’s Agenbroad.

“This is a great opportunity for Idaho Master Gardeners to continue to ‘grow’ as volunteers and serve their communities,” Agenbroad said. “They see that real need to connect kids to farming and agriculture through gardening.”

Jennifer Brown, Idaho Master Gardener mentor for Ms. Amy’s Daycare in Fruitland, has worked in early childhood education for years. Her background is ideal for mentors working with schools across Idaho.

University of Idaho Extension Educator Wayne Jones, left, and Idaho Master Gardener Don Curran visit an Idaho Falls Garden. Photo by Mike Hart.

Gardening Trials UI Extension offers gardeners chances to test new varieties next to favorites

by BILL LOFTUS

Idaho Master Gardeners in Bonneville County launched a variety trials program in 2012 to test old favorites with newer offerings of herbs, vegetables and flowers from basil to zinnia.

A summer squash brings out a sunny smile in the Potlatch Kids’ Co-op Garden.

Photo by Kaitlin Moroney.

“I was ecstatic when this opportunity came up because it just brings education and gardening together,” Brown said.

In many communities, schools are out for the summer, but gardens will continue to grow with help from their students, teachers, parent volunteers and the Idaho Master Gardener mentors, Agenbroad said.

The Idaho Department of Education program funded a range of schools from Coeur d’Alene’s Fernan Elementary to Boise’s Borah High School. Other participants include the Moscow Charter School, Mountain Home Air Force Base Youth Programs, Troy Elementary in Troy, Little People’s Academy in Idaho Falls, Parma Learning Center in Parma, Tater Tots Child Care in American Falls, Heritage Community Charter School in Caldwell, Meridian Middle School in Meridian, Ms. Amy's Daycare in Fruitland and Kellogg Middle School in Kellogg.

In addition to gardening and developing an appreciation for agriculture, Agenbroad said, the young gardeners will enjoy the healthy fruits, and vegetables, of their labors. She hopes they will take home their new appreciation for fresh produce and gardening.

Led by Wayne Jones of University of Idaho Extension in Bonneville County, the Idaho Home Gardens Variety Trials offered gardeners variety trial packets for $1 apiece.

In 2012, Jones, Idaho Falls-based UI Extension educator for potato production and urban horticulture, reported that gardeners statewide planted 291 variety trials. The most popular selection was spinach. In head-to-head comparisons between Tyee and Donkee and Tyee and Bordeaux, Donkee emerged the most popular, trailed by Tyee, then Bordeaux.

Jones was working to compile information from 2013 trials in time to help gardeners begin planning for 2014.

“I received some good comments,” he said.

“Some people were surprised to find they liked the new variety better than one that was their favorite for years and years. And they were happy to find something that was better.”

Gardeners who participated were asked to record some basic performance details like germination rate, plant health, earliness, taste, quality and yield.

Judging taste is entirely subjective, so Jones asked gardeners to grow produce they liked to eat. The one-page forms were submitted after the first killing frost, which signaled the end of the growing season.

More information about the results of past years’ trials is available online at web.cals.uidaho.edu/ gardentrials/home-gardening-variety-trials/.

WINTER 2014 PROGRAMS & PEOPLE 19

ADVENTURES ooten, 2013 Camp Wh

“HELLL OOOO O the camp!”

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IN C MPING 4-H’ers learn about natural resources, the great outdoors, and themselves during regional camps

by BILL LOFTUS

DON KERBY, A 4-H VOLUNTEER from Cherry Lane, Idaho, has a surprise for the young canoeists he’s training on a lake at Camp Wooten along southeastern Washington’s Tucannon River.

Kerby fills a piston-like water gun, then walks out onto the dock shielding the water gun from view. In the warmth of a sunlit July morning, the 4-H campers learning the finer arts of paddling are not caught unaware.

The lake ripples with excitement as some canoes, mostly paddled by girls, turn to avoid the arc of spray. Others, mostly boys, turn into it.

“They love it,” Kerby says, laughing.

Either way, the 4-H’ers are actively learning a skill that they may carry with them through life, whether it is teamwork, paddling or having some healthy fun in the outdoors. Those lessons are all part of the attractions at the camp sponsored

by University of Idaho Extension 4-H Youth Development programs in north central Idaho counties.

The three-night camp typically draws 80 youth ages 8 to 18 to the Camp Wooten Environmental Learning Center near Pomeroy, Wash. There, campers share cabins and meals in the dining hall.

They learn outdoor skills: shooting, archery, wildlife identification, hiking and crafts.

Most of the year, Ken Hart serves as UI Extension educator for agriculture and youth in Lewis County at Nezperce. But for a long weekend in late July, his main duty has been helping run the regional 4-H camp.

This year, his youngest son, Jon, served as camp mayor, an elected honorary position usually

going to a high school senior. The job may have also been a birthright, since Ken and his wife, Gail, began bringing Jon to camp when he was only a few months old.

“HELLLOOOOO the camp!” Ken Hart leads the shout from a rocky pinnacle some 500 feet above the camp buildings. The two dozen hikers have paused for a rest and the traditional shout-out announcing they have conquered the dry and dusty trail that snakes its way up the slope to the basalt outcrop.

This exercise is pretty much just that: exercise rather than derring-do. But it is a rite of passage for some that carries with it the challenge Ambus h! of boldly going where they have not gone before. In the more than 30 years the camp has operated, it has expanded many horizons.

Years later, Hart said, he will see a camper all grown up and feel like the camp made a difference.

“I’ll see these kids in different roles, in their jobs, in public service, and I feel that was one brick in their foundation,” Hart said. “For the kids it’s the chance to experience something different, especially in the woeful, dog days of summer, that is outside their comfort zone. They learn to get along with other kids and meet new friends.”

Marcia Ney of Lewiston recalled that when her husband, Jay, first joined UI Extension in Nez

WINTER 2014 PROGRAMS & PEOPLE 21

Perce County, the northern Idaho camp operated on the shore of Lake Coeur d’Alene. That was in the late 1960s, several years before 4-H’ers migrated to Camp Wooten along the Tucannon.

The Neys attended camp together for more than 30 years. She agrees with Hart that the camp helped kids learn lessons important in their adult lives. “I always thought that was the genius of the model, that as these teens got older they took on leadership roles. They loved being the go-to people and the ones in charge,” she said.

The Central Idaho Natural Resources Camp, another UI Extension-led camp for 4-H members and others, celebrated another episode this summer in a series that goes back at least 60 years. From its location nestled near the headwaters of Big Wood River north of Sun Valley, campers explore the natural world.

The camp’s explorations this year expanded to include learning about close-to-hand examples of Idaho’s fiery past at nearby Craters of the Moon National Monument, Snake River Plain geology, and other examples of volcanology.

Traditionally held in late June, the central Idaho camp is a joint exercise by University of Idaho Extension, Idaho Association of Soil Conservation Districts and the J.R. Simplot Co. This summer the campers repeated a popular feature revived last year immersing themselves in an example of an Idaho geothermal resource with a fieldtrip to Easley

22 COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL AND LIFE SCIENCES

Central Idaho 4-H campers enjoyed Easely Hot Springs 60 years ago, a tradition revived in 2012 as part of a new focus on Idaho’s volcanic past.

Smith-Lever Act celebrates a century in age of social media

Clearwater County-based UI Extension educator Bill Warren, left, explains the finer points of wildlife identification to campers.

A crowd gathers around tables to assemble ingredients that will become ice cream. Photos by Bill Loftus.

Hot Springs for some swimming and end-of-camp relaxation. Photos in the 4-H archives show individuals who could be the great grandparents of today’s campers splashing in the Easley pool in 1953.

“It’s a little reward for the kids after spending a week with a lot of activities and learning,” said Amber Moore, camp director and UI Extension soil scientist at Kimberly.

The camp relies on state and federal agencies for financial and other support. The Butte Soil and Water Conservation District based at Arco boasts one of the camp’s most dedicated recruiters, Frances Perkes, the district’s administrative assistant.

In 28 years, Perkes’ efforts have helped steer some 160 young people to the camp from Butte County and southern Custer County near Mackay.

“One of the most important things that has helped us is the schools have always been very welcoming and have allowed us to meet with classes to talk about the camp,” she said. Businesses help underwrite scholarships that help pay campers’ registrations.

One reason for her support for the camp was her son’s positive experience there the first year she became involved. Now retired after 22 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, Brian Perkes is studying wildlife biology at the University of Idaho.

“It’s wonderful to hear what the kids talk about and how excited they are when they get back,” Frances Perkes said, adding many who go to camp want to return the following year.

“We’re bringing in a lot more repeat campers,” Moore said. One reason is the cabin leader program that trains campers the first year to manage their cabins the next year.

IN THE AGE OF FACEBOOK and other social media, news flashes around the world in an instant. Finding a recipe for canning green beans requires just a few keystrokes. 4-H’ers become proficient photographers with iPads without ever putting film in a camera.

When a senator from Georgia, Hoke Smith, met a representative from South Carolina, A.F. Lever, to author a bill a century ago, they wanted to help people tap into information flowing from the nation’s land-grant universities.

Signed into law May 8, 1914, by President Woodrow Wilson, the Smith-Lever Act created a national cooperative extension service. The cooperators included federal, state and county governments. Their goal was providing people with research-based information that would improve their lives and livelihoods.

“The Smith-Lever Centennial provides an opportunity to highlight Extension’s past and also show how we’ve changed to meet the contemporary needs of people, businesses and communities in Idaho” said Charlotte Eberlein, University of Idaho Extension director.

A century ago, specially commissioned railroad cars housed movable “schools” that delivered education statewide. Today, Extension partners with 42 Idaho counties to house faculty in local Extension offices.

It provides workshops, seminars, print media and web-based resources.

“As part of the Smith-Lever Centennial Celebration we’re expanding our efforts to use social media, such as Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter, to deliver education and information,” said Eberlein.

“Since its beginning, Extension’s goal has been to provide practical education you can trust,” Eberlein said. “And we still believe introducing new ideas and practices, adapting research findings for practical application and providing relevant and timely education improves lives and serves society.”

WINTER 2014 PROGRAMS & PEOPLE 23

BOOM OILSEED

story by BILL LOFTUS

New canola crushing plant, greater interest in biofuels power economic impact

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A NEW OIL PROCESSING PLANT IN CENTRAL WASHINGTON is generating more enthusiasm than controversy. Rather than fossil fuel, this plant processes fresh-crushed oil from canola seeds that turn fields golden in more ways than one. Operated by Pacific Coast Canola, it is located near Moses Lake, Wash., and provides the closest processing plant for Idaho growers.

The Warden plant is focused on crushing seed to produce edible canola oil and began production in 2013 with a goal of processing 350,000 metric tons a year.

Brian Lorentz, Columbia Grain’s Grangeville-based manager, said the new crushing plant led to a surge of interest in edible canola on the Camas Prairie. Canola acreage doubled, and so did prices.

Lower transportation costs to the Eastern Washington plant meant greater returns to growers, Lorentz said.

Following that opportunity, growers planted enough canola to place it No. 2 or No. 3 on the prairie’s list of top crops, high enough to rival barley. Wheat remains No. 1.

“As much as anything else, there’s been a lot of varietal development, both spring and winter, that has moved things forward a lot. More so, the value of the crop has made it a lot more competitive with peas, lentils, wheat and barley.

We’ve seen a tremendous amount of growth in the last two to three years,” Lorentz said.

New variety sparks interest Similar enthusiasm for renewable oil production helped turn some 25 acres of Durola, plant breeder Jack Brown’s newest high-yield industrial oilseed variety, into a gold mine of sorts, too.

Planted under contract for Brown’s research by long-time University of Idaho agricultural cooperator Bert Henriksen, the field of Durola, a new winter rapeseed variety, was intended to supply experimental biofuel for Navy jets.

A related biofuel project will task Brown with producing 100,000 pounds of oil from Durola.

“It goes without saying that if the Navy starts using even a small amount of jet fuel made from rapeseed oil, that’s an enormous amount of rapeseed oil,” Brown said.

Not just any rapeseed oil. Durola, a newly released variety Brown developed during his 22-year career at the University of Idaho, is a specialty industrial oil plant.

Oil made by crushing Durola seeds is high in euricic acids, which render it unpalatable to people but boost its value as a lubricating oil. Durola seedmeal left over after pressing, however, is low in glucosinolates, the pungent chemicals that give mustard its bite. That makes Durola a good source of high-protein feed valued by dairies.

Tailoring oil to market Durola’s oil is high in monounsaturated fats, a characteristic that meets one of Brown’s goals in developing the variety to reduce fuel processing costs.

Creating high-quality fuel requires bubbling hydrogen through the oil in the presence of a nickel catalyst to saturate it or eliminate double bonds between carbon atoms.

Higher percentages of polyunsaturated fats – oils with many double bonds -- increase the processing cost.

Because its oil is high in single bonds, Durola gains an advantage because less processing is needed to make fuel.

Durola seeds also have a higher oil content than any other canola or rapeseed tested and the variety outyields any other winter rapeseed by 15-20 percent.

Durola is an ideal plant for producing fuel because its oil cannot be used for food, it is easy to process, the meal is valuable livestock feed and it produces high yields.

In July, plans changed for the better as the long seedpods formed and the dark seeds within them swelled to maturity. The seeds’ value grew, too.

A company interested in selling Durola seeds to growers bought part of the crop as certified seed, and part of the crop as foundation seed, both more valuable than oil.

Bert Henriksen of Lewiston, right, and CALS research scientist Jim Davis look over a field of the new winter rapeseed Durola nearing maturity. Photo by Bill Loftus.

Variety catalog grows Several other varieties of canola, rapeseed and mustard are now available to growers as a result of Brown’s breeding program focused on Brassica species.

“I think we have made a contribution by having varieties that are adapted,” he said.

Although Brown’s breeding program includes winter varieties, much of Idaho growers’ production is focused on spring varieties that grow and produce a crop in a single season.

In addition to developing new varieties for release, Brown is also part of a five-year, $7 million USDA Agricultural Research Service project that will focus on the genetics and physical characteristics of the nation’s canola and rapeseed collection.

Brown will use genomics to assemble a genetic catalog of the oilseeds. He will employ traditional breeding techniques to assess the different forms of Brassica napus lines in the collection.

WINTER 2014 PROGRAMS & PEOPLE 25

“

I see college leadership as public service combining the art of compromise with the responsibility of education.”

Changing of the Dean

by BILL LOFTUS

IT WAS A TRADITIONAL INITIATION for newly chosen College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Dean John C. Foltz.

Selected last December as interim dean, he had a month to prepare for his first legislative appearance.

An annual high stakes exercise, it is critical to setting the next year’s state budget – and appropriations for the University of Idaho and the college.

After nine years as associate dean and director of academic programs, Foltz had been party to the annual preparations by John Hammel, who decided to return to teaching and research early last December. Hammel became dean under nearly identical circumstances in 2003 when Larry Branen left to lead UI’s Coeur d’Alene center.

“That’s where I find myself in the dean’s role, negotiating strategies, compromises, hopefully successfully,” Foltz said.

Outside the dean’s office, is a photo of E.J. Iddings, who served as agriculture dean from 1915 – 46. His 31-year tenure leads Foltz to believe things must have been simpler then.

Finding common ground is something the world seems to value less these days.

That said, Foltz praised support from agricultural interests and legislators during the 2013 session. The sense of shared responsibility for the college’s mission was exemplified a few months later when the Idaho Barley Commission pledged a $1 million endowment to the college to support barley research.

In his role as associate dean, Foltz already knew many of the key people in Idaho’s agriculture industry through the college’s advisory committees. As an agricultural economist, he studied and tracked issues as a faculty member since 1991. As an educator, he taught hundreds of students and collected a wall full of UI Alumni Association Awards for Excellence as the honored students’ most influential faculty member.

His connections to those students generated a statewide network of agricultural producers and professionals. Its most tangible sign is etched annually into an 11-acre field near the Lewiston Roundup Grounds, the Clearwater Corn Maze.

The partners include CALS students, the Roundup, and Steve, Phil, Jeff and Joe Kaufman, the four sons – Vandals all – of Fred and Doris Kaufman of Lewiston.

The maze is the largest example of Foltz’ appetite for the collaborative, the off-beat and fun experiences college can offer. On the miniature scale, Foltzville is his effort to liven up the shortest days at the end of fall semester. His model train display of a tiny town in holiday finery delivers a respite from finals, and illustrates economic principles.

There is nothing micro-sized about the college that Foltz leads. With nearly 350 faculty and staff in Moscow and across the state, the college fulfills UI’s teaching, research and extension mission as a land-grant university.

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Dean John Foltz enjoys connecting with friends during October’s Celebrating Idaho Agriculture dinner, June’s cutting the Clearwater Corn Maze, and working with CALS ambassadors whenever he can.

In the 2013 session, Foltz maintained the momentum begun earlier as the college’s budget stabilized, then turned as friends of the college worked with Idaho legislators to begin restoring funding lost during the Great Recession. Legislators appropriated more than $23 million, a gain of $1 million, to the Agricultural Research and Extension budget. State funding represents about a third of the college’s overall budget, which also depends on federal and private funding.

The college’s budget includes the Idaho Agricultural Experiment Station, which maintains nine research and extension centers covering more than 4,000 acres statewide. It funds University of Idaho Extension and researchers on campus and at the centers. Extension faculty provide research-based practical education statewide through 42 county offices.

By nature and nurture, by training and temperament, Foltz may be most adept at sorting through sometimes competing interests, sometimes selling a solution.

As a recipient of bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Ohio State University, Foltz explored agribusiness for

six years with Ralston Purina. His career interest turned back to academics, and led to a Ph.D. at Purdue in agricultural economics.

At Ohio State, he met Barbara Haffner, who graduated in family and consumer sciences, and they were married.

At Idaho, she has helped lead the efforts of the UI Social Sciences Research Unit for more than 20 years.

An agricultural economist, he has studied issues such as consumer preferences and perceptions of Idaho-raised trout to help the industry better market its product.

Other studies focused on country-of-origin labeling in the beef industry and back-to-the-farm traceback technology, carbon credit marketing by Idaho dairies, and the impact of Idaho’s wine industry.

Politics were part of life in the Foltz family home in Virginia, not far from Washington, D.C. John’s father served as a deputy undersecretary for the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a Congressional liaison for Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz, and in other roles during the Nixon and Ford administrations. He later returned to serve President George H.W. Bush.

The interest in government service and politics passed to the son, who in high school served as a page in the House of Representatives and as an intern for U.S. Sen. Bob Taft of Ohio.

GROUND LEVEL

Part of the University of Idaho’s undergraduate required general education program, Hammel’s class is a great issues seminar for juniors. It focuses on the Dust Bowl, the Great Depression and agricultural, economic and social upheaval.

The spring semester class will read author Timothy Egan’s “The Worst Hard Times,” a National Book Award winner.

Hammel returns to soil science “The American Dust Bowl, an ecological tragedy; Or how I met my mother.”

The course, like its originator and instructor, isn’t your typical college offering. It will be taught by John Hammel, who returned to teaching and research last fall after serving nine years as dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and six years as associate dean of academic programs for CALS.

As a soil scientist, Hammel’s early research after joining the Idaho faculty in 1982 focused on reducing erosion from Palouse fields through the Pacific Northwest Solutions to Economic and Environmental Problems program, or STEEP.

His new class will offer students a look at how a severe drought, the Great Depression and farming practices combined to bring ruin to vast areas of Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico and Kansas.

And that’s where his mother, Roxie Hammel, enters the story. Born in Hugoton, Kansas, in 1926, she endured some of the Dust Bowl’s darkest days until the Lease family sought a brighter future in the West and settled in Maupin, Ore., when she was 10. She met John’s father, Leo, who farmed near Dufur, and the rest is history, literally John’s own.

“This class will help our students understand a critical episode in U.S. history, and help them understand that as individuals we share a common history” said UI Interim Provost Katherine Aiken, who will co-teach the class. A historian, she joined the faculty in 1984.

Along with teaching, Hammel is digging into current issues, working on those confronting wheat production under zero or limited tillage in northern Idaho such as compaction, acidic soils, diseases and yield variation.

WINTER 2014 PROGRAMS & PEOPLE 27

giving

highlights GENEROUS GIFT

CHS gift funds enhanced CALS curricula, strengthens bond with College of Business and Economics

NEW CURRICULA in agricultural commodity trading will be developed in the CALS Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology (AERS), thanks, in part, to a $250,000 grant from CHS Inc., a global agribusiness cooperative based in Grove Heights, Minn.

FOCUS ON BARLEY

Idaho Barley Commission’s $1 million endowment underwrites long-term research support IDAHO’S BARLEY PRODUCERS stepped forward in 2013 to support College of Agricultural and Life Sciences research and extension efforts.

Gathered at the Tetonia Research Farm, Idaho Barley Commission and University of Idaho representatives spoke about the importance of the industry’s contribution to the state’s economy and the industry’s recognition of the university’s value.

The day’s focus was research and the announcement of a $1 million endowment funded by the commission to support a dedicated Barley Agronomist Professorship at the UI’s Aberdeen Research and Extension Center. The university will commit as much or more to hiring the new scientist and provide technical support.

“This endowment will enable us to invest in expertise that will produce generations of benefits to Idaho and will help the whole agricultural sector in Idaho to lead the nation,” said Don Burnett, UI interim president.

“We felt there was a strong need, and we were confident that growers would want their dollars put to good use to continue the important research that directly benefits them,” said commission chairman Dwight Little of Teton.

Barley generated more than $300 million in projected receipts for Idaho growers in 2012, a 32 percent jump from 2011.

“Idaho ranks No. 2 nationally in barley production and that is important for agricultural economy of the state and the economy as a whole,” said John Foltz, CALS dean.

“We really recognized that for Idaho to maintain its leadership role as a barley producing state and in yield and quality, we really needed to step up our game,” said Pat Purdy, IBC vice chairman and malting barley grower from Picabo.

“As an Idaho barley grower, I know we are constantly faced with new challenges that are putting pressure on our bottom line profit,” Purdy said.

“To help growers face these challenges, we need the research efforts and field work that only a dedicated barley scientist with the University of Idaho can provide, and this endowment will guarantee that such a position is permanently in place.”

by BILL LOFTUS

28 COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL AND LIFE SCIENCES

The grant also strengthens the connection between AERS and the College of Business and Economics, whose Barker Capital Management and Trading Program introduces students to trading and risk management strategies. Students in the program manage actual accounts and make trades using real money in real time.

“The experience of the Barker program is invaluable in preparing students to move into risk management-oriented positions,” said Larry Makus, associate dean for academic programs at CALS and a professor of agricultural economics. AERS's involvement will increase the program's commodity focus and better prepare AERS students for careers providing risk management services for the ag sector.

Those services are increasingly in demand.

The CHS grant includes funds for renovating the Barker program's trading room. “The idea of the Barker program is that trading for real money is dramatically different from trading for simulated money,” said Makus. AERS students trading actual futures contracts “will develop a more realistic understanding of how these risk management tools work.”

The grant from CHS follows its years of sponsorship of CALS's annual Ag Days event and its recent $50,000 gift to support AERS graduate student research on the benefits of agricultural cooperatives.

“We greatly appreciate the long-standing relationship that CHS has with the college and its recent support of the department,” said Cathy Roheim, AERS department head.

“We are gratified to know that this gift will enhance the University of Idaho's ability to provide exceptional teaching and training for the next generation of leaders within the agricultural industry,” said William Nelson, vice president, Corporate Citizenship and president, CHS Foundation. CHS Foundation is the major giving entity of CHS Inc.

by DIANE NOEL

CALSDEVELOPMENT TEAM ■ CHS GIFT

NICCOLLS RENEWED

FCS faculty, staff and students head to upgraded building early in 2014

IT WAS FUN WHILE IT LASTED, but the new year will find staff and faculty of the School of Family and Consumer Sciences ready to head back home to Niccolls Hall, said Sonya Meyer, FCS director.

The CALS development team includes, from left, Jen Root, Carly Raska, Kim O’Neill, Shea Saralecos, Kathy Devoe and Seth Pratt. Photo by Steven Martine.

DEVELOPING CALS

Team reaches full strength to help alumni and friends support the college THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL AND LIFE SCIENCES development team regained its strength and then some as its successful Inspiring Futures campaign exceeded its $40 million goal more than a year ahead of schedule.

Kim O’Neill, senior director of development, led the college’s campaign solo for a time until vacancies could be filled. Now the team includes Jen Root, development director; Carly Raska, alumni and donor relations; Shea Saralecos, 4-H development coordinator; Kathy Devoe, part-time administrative assistant, and Seth Pratt, intern and agricultural education major.

The CALS Development team, with college administration support, helped secure a $1 million endowment from the Idaho Barley Commission to support a new researcher focused on barley. Support from CHS and its subsidiary Primeland also funded a graduate student’s study of modern cooperatives, and an expanded Barker Trading Center in the College of Business and Economics and greater access to it for agricultural economics and rural sociology students.

The college’s development team also organized Celebrating Idaho Agriculture to recognize the industry’s importance to the state and its leaders. The event was held in concert with Ag Days in October.

The Inspiring Futures campaign continues to find more opportunities for CALS friends, alumni and stakeholders to help the college grow and meet its potential. “We are incredibly thankful for the generosity from so many.

Our team will use this momentous success to continue matching the philanthropic goals of our donors with the needs of our college,” O’Neill said.

Major renovations to the Niccolls Building began almost as soon as spring semester classes ended.

All of the school’s Moscow-based 16 faculty and three staff exited the building, most finding temporary homes in the Ag Sciences Buildings.

Three faculty were relocated to other buildings on campus to be in close proximity to laboratories and studios.

“It was good for us to be there and interact with our colleagues in CALS, and it was an advantage to be close. When a budget or administrative issue came up, it was easy to answer questions face-to-face,” she said.

“And I think it was good for the people in CALS to get a better understanding of what we do and who we are,” she said.

Still, the schedule calls for FCS to be back in Niccolls shortly after New Year’s Day and before Jan. 15 when classes begin.

That move is time critical because FCS could not offer some classes because the foods lab was out of commission, and the child development lab was relocated. Classes for other university departments also are scheduled in the building.

Alumni of the Margaret Ritchie School of Family and Consumer Sciences returned to campus in mid-October for the annual Alumni Brunch. One of the activities was a tour of the renovations in progress. As move-in day approaches, the School of Family and Consumer Sciences is seeking additional help from alumni and friends to buy equipment to finish off the renovated labs.

“We need to stock the stations in the Foods Lab and buy new educational toys and materials for the Child Development Lab. Although these items are small, they are an important part of completing the renovation,” said Jen Root, CALS development director.

To contribute, visit www.uidaho.edu/inspire and select the Niccolls Building Renovation as your funding priority.

by BILL LOFTUS

by BILL LOFTUS

WINTER 2014 PROGRAMS & PEOPLE 29

IDAHO

CALS and the Vandals throw a party to celebrate agriculture and Ag Days on a picture-perfect October weekend photos by STEVEN MARTINE

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30 COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL AND LIFE SCIENCES

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The Vandal Marching Band revved up the 200 high schoolers on campus for Ag Days.

FFA and 4-H members explored campus and competed in career development events.

The Ag Days Barbecue returned to its traditional location next to the Kibbie Dome.

The Kibbie Dome received some agricultural garnish during Ag Days.

CALS livestock researchers shared a hearty appetite for their life’s work.

Ag Days fun transformed the face of a campus visitor.

Enthusiasm for the college life ran high during pre-game festivities.

Vandal headgear crowned ISDA’s Celia Gould during the Celebrating Idaho Agriculture Dinner Tomatoland author Barry Estabrook joined a panel with Idaho agriculture representatives.

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WINTER 2013 PROGRAMS & PEOPLE 31

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roots alumni COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL AND LIFE SCIENCES

ALUMNI & FRIENDS ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS DISTRICT I – NORTHERN DREW BRAMMER ’07, Kendrick CARRIE STARK ’93, ’02, Moscow KRISTI OVERFELT ’07, Moscow DISTRICT II – SOUTHERN TRAVIS JONES ’00, ’02, Boise GRACE WITTMAN ’02, ’04, Burley, Vice-President DISTRICT III – SOUTHCENTRAL NICK USABEL ’07, ’12, Caldwell

DISTRICT IV – EASTERN SARAH BAKER ’02, ’04, Challis MARK PRATT ’88, ’97, Blackfoot MARY SCHMIDT ’86, Boise JANNA VOLKERS ’99, ’08, Nampa, President FAMILY & CONSUMER SCIENCE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION TAMMY RENFROW ’04, Moscow

CALS ADMINISTRATION JOHN FOLTZ, Dean CARLY RASKA, Moscow, CALS Alumni Director

CALS STUDENT AFFAIRS PRESIDENT MICHELLE BALL, Junior, Agricultural Education

The Alumni & Friends Association assists the college with alumni events, helps recruit students, and promotes the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences wherever and whenever possible. If you are interested in becoming active in the association or filling a vacant position on the board, please call 208.885.4037 or send an e-mail to CALSAlumni@uidaho.edu.

COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL AND LIFE SCIENCES

Winter-Spring 2013-14 Events Calendar DECEMBER 2013

13 14 17 23-31 23-31

JANUARY 2014

1 1–14 15 20 21–22 21–23

21 21 22 30

New Year’s Day – UI Closed Winter Break Classes begin, Moscow Martin Luther King celebration – UI Closed Higher Education Week, Boise 46th Annual Idaho Potato Conference and 35th Ag Expo, Pocatello Legislative Breakfast, Boise Meet the Vandals, Boise UI 125th Anniversary Kickoff Celebration, Boise UI 125th Birthday Celebration, Moscow

FEBRUARY 2014

1 17 17–18 19–22

CALS Award Nominations Due President’s Day – UI Closed Larry Branen Idaho Ag Summit, Boise Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, Moscow

MARCH 2014

10–13 17–21 28

APRIL 2014

4–6 10 17 18

MAY 2014

8 15 16 17 26

JUNE 2014

16

JULY 2014

24

32 COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL AND LIFE SCIENCES

Awards for Excellence Winter Commencement Palouse Holiday Dinner, SUB Ballroom Winter Break Holiday Break– UI Closed

CALS/Extension Annual Conference, Moscow Spring Recess Vandal Friday 1, Moscow

Moms’ Weekend, Moscow Silver and Gold Celebration/Award Presentations, Boise Silver and Gold Celebration/Award Presentations, Moscow Vandal Friday 2, Moscow Smith-Lever Act Centennial Alumni Hall of Fame Reception, Moscow Alumni Hall of Fame Induction Luncheon SUB, Moscow Commencement, Moscow Memorial Day – UI Closed Summer Session classes begin, Moscow UI 125th Anniversary Celebration Cruise, Coeur d’ Alene

CALSCALENDAR ■ ALUMNI AWARDS UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL & LIFE SCIENCES

2013 Alumni Awards Congratulations, recipients of the 2013 CALS Alumni and Friends Award, for exceptional service to the professions, the college, and Idaho. Awards are sponsored by the UI CALS Alumni and Friends Association board of directors. Information and nomination forms for the awards are found at www.uidaho.edu/cals/ friendsalumni.

DISTINGUISHED ASSOCIATE

CELIA GOULD, Boise, serves as director of the Idaho State Department of Agriculture.

Before 2007 when Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter appointed her to lead ISDA, she served 16 years as an Idaho state legislator.

Cooperation between CALS and the ISDA blossomed under her leadership. She has considered CALS among her closest allies in serving Idaho and agriculture.

ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT

TIM BODINE ’97, Nampa, earned degrees in animal science and agribusiness. Now president of Performix Nutrition Systems, an Agri Beef company, he continues to support CALS research and teaching programs through student internships and directed studies.

JASON TINDALL ’97, ’98, Wilder, has served as an agricultural education teacher since earning his degrees in agricultural education and animal science.

He taught for the Notus School District for 12 years before teaching for the Meridian School District. His continuing strong ties with CALS include mentoring CALS student teachers.

MIKE TESNOHLIDEK ’99, Fruitland, earned his degree in agricultural education from CALS. Mike has taught high school agriculture for 10 years in Fruitland, after teaching in Nyssa, Ore. Mike has been involved in the Idaho FFA Association and the Idaho Vocational Agriculture Teachers’ Association Career Development Event Committee.

DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI

JOE ANDERSON ’65, ’67, Potlatch. Joe owns and operates a farming operation on approximately 3,400 acres near Potlatch.

Since earning his bachelor’s degree in agriculture and master’s degree in accounting from the University of Idaho, he has advocated for agricultural research and extension programs in Boise and Washington, D.C. He allows researchers to use parts of his fields each year.

RON CEGNAR ’67, ’70, Lexington, Ky. After graduating from UI with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agricultural economics, Ron went to work in McDonald’s french fry program in 1972.

He is recognized today as a world expert in food distribution supply systems. Now president of CEO Partners, Ron serves CALS through giving guest lectures, serving on the Ag Economics and Rural Sociology Advisory Board and finding new ways to raise funds for scholarships and faculty resources.

ART LEE ’62, New Plymouth. After earning his degree in agricultural engineering, Art spent four years working in Portland as a design engineer with Hyster Co. He and his wife Freda returned to New Plymouth in 1966 to work in production agriculture.

He continues working today alongside his son. Art has always been a strong supporter of UI CALS, serving on the CALS Animal and Veterinary Science Department Advisory Board.

GLENN ORTHEL ’73, ’80, ’91, Meridian.

Glenn earned a bachelor’s degree in animal industries and two master’s degrees in agricultural education and educational administration. Glenn served as Twin Falls High School agriculture teacher, Meridian School District transportation supervisor, Kuna High School principal, and other roles while expanding agricultural education in Kuna. In 2006 he accepted his current position as the Idaho Division of Professional-Technical Education Coordinator of Professional Development and Certification.

LETTER

Dear Alumni and Friends:

My name is Janna Volkers, and I am a proud VANDAL ‘99, ‘08! I am a high school agricultural education teacher and FFA advisor in Nampa. I was surprised recently to receive four letters from former students now at the University of Idaho. They thanked me for their high school experiences and for encouraging them to attend UI.

Their letters reminded me of two things.

One, that we don’t often thank inspirational people in our lives. And two, Vandal alumni must continually encourage the youth in our lives to consider attending UI.

I encourage all alumni and friends to promote UI and the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at every opportunity.

Many alumni took part in Celebrating Idaho Agriculture during Ag Days October 4–5.

It was great seeing so many familiar faces at the dinner. Please join us for Ag Days 2014.

Over 200 high school students attended to explore career opportunities, compete in judging events and learn Vandal traditions.

From the annual barbecue to farm equipment displays, we celebrated one of Idaho’s top industries, agriculture!

I know that my high school students and my own children went home from that weekend excited about being future Vandals.

As president of CALS Alumni and Friends, I encourage you to visit the alumni website at www.uidaho.edu/cals/friendsalumni. Please look over the RECOGNITION AWARDS and think about nominating the Vandals you know. If you are interested in volunteering or becoming more active alumni, please contact us.

Also, please take a minute to share with us your latest information and updates by emailing calsalumni@uidaho.edu. We look forward to hearing about your wonderful accomplishments.

In closing, I want to thank my inspirational UI professors, including Jim Connors, John Mundt, Jack McHargue and Robert Tripepi.

Thank you! You do make a difference!

Janna Shopbell Volkers President, CALS Alumni and Friends Association

WINTER 2014 PROGRAMS & PEOPLE 33

2012-13 CALS GRADS

Finding their ways to diverse futures after commencement

KATIE HOWARD, ’12, Animal Production

Katie Howard graduated last December with a bachelor’s in animal and veterinary science, the animal production option.

Originally from Monroe, Wash., she married her fiance, Caleb Howard, in August. They met in Moscow, and found they shared a dream: cattle ranching, his family heritage in Joseph, Ore.

The daughter of medical professionals, she learned about livestock through 4-H and FFA. “I’ve always liked animals and having the responsibility of taking care of them,” she said.

“With being in FFA, I decided I wanted to become an ag teacher,” she said. “A friend and I got information about the University of Idaho, came here for Vandal Friday and decided this is where we wanted to go.”

With a new home near northeastern Oregon’s spectacular Wallowa Mountains, she found work full-time with Community Bank in Joseph. Caleb works on the family ranch, and the couple is working toward their dream of becoming ranchers and building their own herd with eight cows their first fall.

LUKE TONNEMAKER, ’12, Nutrition

Luke Tonnemaker graduated in December with a bachelor’s in nutrition. His career choice: head back to Royal Slope, Wash., where his family farms.

The farm was founded in 1962 by his great-grandfather, who served as an Extension agent for Washington State University as federal efforts were bringing water to the desert lands flanking the Columbia River.

The 132-acre farm passed to Kole and Sonia Tonnemaker, Vandals both, in 1981. They began building their operation into one of the Moscow Farmers Market’s marquee produce booths. Luke was at nearly every market since.

Luke chose nutrition because it caught his interest and because it fit into the family’s business. “My dad has such a deep background in plant science and growing the fruit and vegetables that we have, I decided to diversify a little bit,” he said.

“There are a lot of things that we can do to diversify the farm's offerings, and my nutrition degree will be helpful with these projects.” he said.

34 COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL AND LIFE SCIENCES

KATE MILLS, ’13, Clothing, Textiles and Design

Kate Mills graduated last spring with a family and consumer sciences bachelor’s in clothing, textiles and design.

She served as co-organizer of Moscowrade, an April fashion show focused on wearable art.

A participant in earlier shows, Mills stepped behind the runway in 2013 to serve as the show’s co-director and designer. The show drew about 300 people and involved some 80 designers, models, crew and others.

BodyCon (short for Body Conscious), a new student group she helped found, raised $2,000 for Alternatives to Violence of the Palouse.

“I came to UI because the major I wanted was here,” said Mills, a Pocatello native.

“And with the major being small, I knew I would really get to know the faculty and staff better than I would have at a larger school. With that, I was able to become very involved in my college and on campus.”

She liked Moscow, too, finding her first job after college in advertising with Inland Northwest Broadcasting.

PEDEE EWING, ’13, Agronomy

Pedee Ewing graduated last spring with a bachelor’s in agricultural systems management.

It proved to be a transition to the next phase of his education, studying agronomy in a master’s program with oilseed and wheat breeder Jack Brown.

“I really liked agriculture, and the agricultural systems management program at the University of Idaho was a really good fit,” says Ewing. “There’s so much you can do with it.”

And agriculture has a lot to offer, Ewing observed first hand while on 2012’s spring break tour of Idaho agriculture.

“It was a great experience to see all of the great career opportunities and the amazing diversity of Idaho agricultural companies,” he said.

Pedee served as president of FarmHouse Fraternity, learning valuable lessons about leadership and how to get along with different people.

An articulate spokesman for agriculture, educational and leadership opportunities, Ewing didn’t grow up on a farm. He found agriculture as an FFA student at Meridian.

Harvest Ridge Organics markets flour made from wheat grown on the McIntosh Farm near Lewiston. Photo by Steven Martine

Harvest Ridge Organics, Lindsay Creek Vineyard expand McIntoshes’ farm enterprise portfolio

by BILL LOFTUS

IT WAS A FAR BUSIER FALL than most for Art and Doug McIntosh, brothers who farm together just east of Lewiston.

As they were seeding several thousand acres of winter wheat, a new and larger grain mill for their new venture, Harvest Ridge Organics, was aboard a ship from Denmark.

The mill will increase the company’s ability to process wheat grown organically by the brothers. With organic wheat production expanded from 2013’s 30 acres to 100 acres in 2014, the new mill’s larger capacity will be needed.

Bright blue steel beams rested on a foundation in a nearby field. Late September rains momentarily impeded construction on the McIntoshes’ other major venture, the Lindsay Creek Vineyards winery.

Juggling duties, overseeing construction, running the farm and building new business enterprises kept Art and Doug either in the fields for long hours or on alternating road trips to central Washington or Boise or beyond. And then there were grapes to pick and crush, wine to make.

With Art’s two daughters, Kaylie and Kristen, and Doug’s son, Scott, the McIntosh Clan sees Harvest Ridge Organics and Lindsay Creek Vineyards as a way to build

the family business and diversify. All are Vandals, with Kaylie, Kristen, and Scott still attending classes.

In May, Doug and Art came back to the Moscow campus they had trod as students to see what today’s students could tell them about agribusiness, specifically about business opportunities for Harvest Ridge Organics.

Students suggested ways to refine the company’s labeling and branding of its products and new markets to explore. Harvest Ridge Organics largely focused its marketing on local bakeries and volume flour users.

The student teams suggested trial forays into retail flour markets, too, something the brothers had also targeted for exploration.

Their approaches were novel and thought-provoking, Doug McIntosh said after the presentations. For Art, the quality of the students’ analyses made them worthy of careful consideration.

As fall arrived, the brothers’ immediate attention was focused on the here and now. Art was looking at grapes in the Yakima Valley of central Washington one day, back on the farm seeding winter wheat the next. Doug stayed around Lewiston to move along construction of the winery, then headed off to Boise to participate in a board meeting for the Leadership Idaho Agriculture Foundation.

In the meantime, there was wine to make, a new grain mill to track and the farm’s regular busy drumbeat of fall work.

WINTER 2014 PROGRAMS & PEOPLE 35

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IN THIS ISSUE

ONLINE

www.cals.uidaho.edu/pnp

School gardens

Connecting children to gardening

New weed breaks out

Ventenata rapidly expands range, grassland damage

Four recent grads

Post-commencement futures take shape

Distinguished researchers, Sanford Eigenbrode, left, Carolyn Hovde Bohach and Alex Karasev received University of Idaho presidential honors for their efforts. Bohach’s work on E. coli bacteria and as director of the Idaho IDeA Network for Biomedical Research Excellence earned her the rank of distinguished professor in 2012. Eigenbrode earned the rank distinguished professor in 2013 for his work as an entomologist and director of the Regional Approaches to Climate Change in Pacific Northwest Agriculture. Karasev’s work on potato virus Y and other major crop diseases earned him the University of Idaho Mid-Career Faculty Award in 2013.