Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Fewer foreign seasonal agricultural workers were hired in Washington state through the federal H-2A guestworker program in 2009. Growers hired 1,549 H-2A workers, a 26 percent drop from 2008, according to the state Department of Employment Security. It reversed three years of increase. State ...
Sunday, February 07, 2010 2:09 PM
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In a rare turn of events, Oregon's 2009 hazelnut harvest has greatly exceeded pre-harvest estimates. While the Portland field office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service pegged the 2009 crop at around 38,000 tons in August, actual orchard run figures just released put it at 46, ...
Saturday, February 06, 2010 11:08 AM
WENATCHEE, Wash. -- He intended to run the family farm in Kansas. Instead, he became a research scientist and rose through the ranks of academia to become dean of the College of Agriculture and Home Economics at Washington State University in 1989. But Larry Schrader's greatest legacy is ...
Saturday, February 06, 2010 10:08 AM
Many hazelnut growers are now replacing old trees with new cultivars resistant to the pathogen Eastern filbert blight, but the process can be complicated for smaller farmers. For larger farmers, the situation can be more straightforward. Knocking out entire orchard blocks allows them to ...
Saturday, February 06, 2010 11:08 AM
The outlook for the blueberry industry is being shaped by counterbalancing forces: strong consumer demand and relentlessly climbing supply. For farmers, the question is whether the public's appetite for blueberries is growing quickly enough to offset rapidly increasing production. Ef ...
Saturday, February 06, 2010 11:08 AM
Since it first became a commercial variety, Ennis has been Oregon's prize hazelnut variety because its size earns price premiums. But Ennis is also the hazelnut variety most susceptible to eastern filbert blight. In some areas of the Willamette Valley, growers have ripped out entire ...
Saturday, February 06, 2010 11:08 AM
Research groups in Washington, Oregon, California and New York will seek a federal grant to launch an all-out assault on powdery mildew in cherries, apples, winegrapes and hops. The Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission and other groups formed a project team at a recent meeting in Ya ...
Saturday, February 06, 2010 11:08 AM
California may produce a 10-million-box cherry crop this year and that's a concern to Pacific Northwest cherry growers, especially if the California crop is late. California's crop comes first. In a perfect season it opens the pipeline and gets juices flowing for cherries before the larg ...
Saturday, February 06, 2010 10:08 AM
China could become the first overseas market to import 1 million boxes of Pacific Northwest cherries in the next year or two. That plus potential increases to other countries and studies that may tout health benefits of cherries are all positives following the dismal 2009 season, says B.J ...
Saturday, February 06, 2010 11:08 AM
WENATCHEE, Wash. -- The Pacific Northwest cherry industry had a small food safety scare in Boston last year that an industry leader says underscores the importance of the issue. Two people who bought cherries and three other items in common at a Boston grocery store got hepatitis A, said B.J. T ...
Saturday, February 06, 2010 11:08 AM
PORTLAND -- Martin Damus, a Canadian Food Inspection Agency entomologist, recently created a map matching the spotted wing Drosophila suzukii with areas conducive to its survival. The map showed that the fly could do quite well in much of the U.S. The West Coast, according to the map, con ...
Saturday, February 06, 2010 11:08 AM
The state of Washington will spend $6 million in grants this spring to build more farmworker housing near Wenatchee and Pasco. That's about half of what it would have spent had it not been for the recession and state budget shortfall. The money comes from the state Department of Com ...
Thursday, February 04, 2010 11:54 AM
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- North Dakota has started a grant program to boost a growing wine industry. Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring says that in just a few years, North Dakota has gone from being the last state to commercially produce wines to having more than half a dozen l ...
Saturday, February 06, 2010 8:49 AM
HEALDSBURG, Calif. (AP) -- In this cool, fertile wine growing county in Northern California, grape growers are stomping mad at a new plan to limit the amount of water vineyards can pump from local rivers and streams to protect their crops from frost -- a draft regulation meant to safeguard coh ...
Sunday, January 31, 2010 8:48 AM
DALLAS (AP) -- A federal appeals court has sided with Texas in a dispute over buying wine and efforts to control its quality. The Dallas Morning News reported Thursday that the recent ruling by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allows Texas to continu ...
Saturday, January 30, 2010 8:49 AM
Berry plant being built GRANDVIEW, Wash. (AP) -- Olsen Brothers Ranches has broken ground for a new $2.4 million blueberry packing plant in Grandview, Wash. The warehouse will be used to fresh-pack organic blueberries into 6-ounce clamshell boxes for distribution. Olse ...
Saturday, January 30, 2010 11:08 AM
WENATCHEE, Wash. -- Integrated pest management in Washington's tree fruit industry was "pretty much under control" but now is "more unsettled" as new pests show up while the industry is switching to softer pesticides. So says Tim Smith, Washington State University Extension tree fruit spe ...
Saturday, January 30, 2010 11:08 AM
A major avocado marketing company has been able to substantially boost its net income despite a dip in total revenues. Calavo Growers, based in Santa Paula, Calif., saw profits rise 75 percent in its 2009 fiscal year even as sales fell about 5 percent, according to an annual financial rep ...
Saturday, January 30, 2010 10:09 AM
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- The wine industry received sobering news this week: California wine shipments dropped in 2009 for the first time in 16 years. Analyst Jon Fredrikson says wine consumption is up 2.1 percent nationally, but consumers are turning to cheaper imports to tantaliz ...
Saturday, January 30, 2010 1:08 PM
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer says a proposal at the federal level threatens exports of wine from states including New York, while separate talks could greatly boost sales to Canada. Each issue could impact wine exports from New York, California, Washington, Oregon and M ...
Friday, January 29, 2010 11:49 AM
MIAMI (AP) -- The Farmworker Association of Florida and other advocates are asking Gov. Charlie Crist to help thousands of workers who lost wages after this month's nearly two-week cold snap. They say the lost harvest will cost farmworkers $50 million in lost pay. State agriculture offi ...
Friday, January 29, 2010 8:08 AM
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) -- Fewer beekeepers are reporting evidence of a mysterious ailment that had been decimating the U.S. honeybee population. But losses due to colony collapse disorder remain high enough to keep beekeepers on edge, and longtime stresses on bees such as starvation and ...
Friday, January 29, 2010 8:08 AM
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) -- December's sub-zero temperatures could cost some western Colorado grape producers up to $5 million in table grapes and wine. State viticulturist Horst Caspari of the Colorado State University Research Station on Orchard Mesa says frost killed nearly all the vine ...
Thursday, January 28, 2010 9:39 AM
GRANDVIEW, Wash. (AP) -- Olsen Brothers Ranches has broken ground for a new $2.4 million blueberry packing plant in Grandview, Wash. The warehouse will be used to fresh-pack organic blueberries into 6-ounce clamshell boxes for distribution. Olsen Brothers production manager Keit ...
Sunday, January 24, 2010 12:49 PM
SELAH, Wash. -- Growers likely will plant more Fuji and Honeycrisp apple trees than other varieties in Washington this spring, according to a survey by Tree Top Inc. Fuji will account for an estimated 22.8 percent of varieties planted, Honeycrisp will be second at 15.6 percent and Gala will be ...
Sunday, January 24, 2010 12:09 AM
Lack of sufficient labor and excessive government regulations and mandates were the top concerns of tree fruit producers, a major farm lender says. Northwest Farm Credit Services, a customer-owned lending association headquartered in Spokane, Wash., recently released the findings of a survey c ...
Sunday, January 24, 2010 12:09 AM
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