Wednesday, May 2, 2007, The Sun 5
4-Hers tour Willamina Meat
Youngsters in the 4-H Crazy Critters took a field trip to Willamina
agriculture. All the 4-H members have animal projects and found
right, shows them how to grade a lamb carcass.
Photo courtesy of Gall Bennett
Meat to learn more about the processing side of animal
the tour very interesting and educational. Mike Alger, at
The Associated Press
Mid-valley farmer Weldon
Burkholder starts the engine on his
augur, and white and black pellets
begin streaming into a hopper on a
fertilizer spreader.
Soon, Burkholder has loaded
more than 2,500 pounds of nitro-
gen that will cover about 6 acres
on a field southeast of Albany.
He's also spent about $500. The
routine will be repeated Several
~imes throughout the day.
Burkholder and other area farm-
ers and livestock producers are pay-
ing more for fertilizer this year, as
are producers all around the Coun-
try.
"In January, we paid $350 per
ton for 46-0-0 nitrogen,"
Burkholder said. "This week, it's
about $400 per ton. It doesn't seem
like it was too many years ago that
it was about $200 per ton."
Burkholder has grown grass
seed for about 25 years and expects
his per-acre input cost for some
types of fertilizer to be about $80.
The type of fertilizer and how much
is used depends on the crop. Some
crops need 250 pounds of fertilizer
per acre, while others require 400
pounds.
"Everything we use in agricul-
ture is interrelated," Burkholder
said. "Costs have gone up across
the board, from production to de-
livery. Chemical prices are also
going way up.
Burkholder farms about 1,300
acres and said a number of factors
are contributing to escalating fer-
tilizer costs.
"For the first time in history,
domestic nitrogen is cheaper than
imported nitrogen," Burkholder
said. "Emerging countries like
China and India are now big buy-
ers on the international market."
Like many mid-valley farmers,
Burkholder's operation is diversi-
fied. His crops include annual
Beth Parsons, purchasing coor-
dinator for Western Farm Services
Cascade Division based in Tangent,
said she has seen five or six price
increases in one month for some
forms of fertilizer.
"Fertilizer prices are up, in part
due to supply and demand," Par-
sons said. "New prices come out
to the growers on a monthly or
semimonthly basis. They don't nec-
essarily see the price increases we
see."
Parsons said the fertifizer export
market is strong. Demand is grow-
ing in countries like Brazil and
Malaysia. With increaseddemand
comes increased production, Par-
sons said, but plantsneed downtime
for maintenance.
"It's hard to resume increased
production required every quarter
or every year without putting some
money and downtime into the
plants. When they're down, it
means lost business,"Parsons said.
Many fertilizer plants and mines
are old, Parsons said, and are ex-
periencing growing paros as they
attempt to make renovations to
handle trucks and rail cars more
efficiently.
The boom in ethanol production
in the Midwest is also a factor in
escalating fertilizer prices. Parsons
said. The amount of land dedicated
to corn production in key Midwest-
em states is expected to grow by
more than 13 percent to about 88.5
million acres -- the most since the
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1940s. Planting corn alter corn re-
quires more fertilizer than rotating
corn with other crops such as soy-
beans.
"Obviously, this is going to take
a huge amount of fertilizer off the
market and will put pressure on our
local markets," Parsons said.
Pat Boren, also of Western Farm
Service. said getting an accurate
snapshot of fertilizer prices is like
try to hit a moving target: " -:
It's also important to compare
apples to apples -- comparing the
same fertilizer mixtures -- when
talking about price increases.
"In the 1990s, domestic fertil-
izer plants were closing because
they couldn't compete with low
prices from the world market,"
Boren said.
Boren said the price for 40-0-
06 -- fertilizer widely used on grass
seed crops -- has gone up about
$100 per ton in the last three
months. Depending on the type of
fertilizer and the amount needed,
cost per acre could be up $15 to
$20. he said.
The good news, he said. is that
commodity prices are up through-
out much of the country.
Dave Nelson of the Oregon
Seed Council said that although
producers are looking at relatively
strong seed prices, he expects their
costs to outstrip their gains.
"They're going to get a little
more for seed, but it's all going to
be eaten up by extra costs," Nelson
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136 E. Main Street - P.O. Box 68 - Sheridan, OR 97378 - Phone (503) 843-2312
The latest battle in the war were detected in a residential area
against the plant-eating gypsy moth of Bend, in central Oregon. That
in Oregon is about to begin this followed the detection of a single
spnng m St. Helens and Bend as moth in Bend in 2005. A higher
the Oregon Department of Agricul- density of traps placed in the area
ture prepares to once again keep the confimted a breeding population of
invasive insect species from estab- gypsy moths. Never before have so
lishing in the state, many gypsy moths been trapped
The 2007 gypsy moth eradica- east of the Oregon Cascades. ODA
tion efforts include the first ever entomologists found additionalevi-
project east of the Cascades and dence that pointed to a problem.
only the third time ODA has dealt "When you find 57 gypsy moths
with the Asian variety of gypsy in an area, as well as live female
moth. gypsy moths and live egg masses,
"We had no gypsy moth, eradi- you know you have a reproducing
cation projects in 2006, so this is a population," says Johnson.
big year for us," says Kathleen In Bend, three aerial applica-
Johnson, supervisor of ODA's In- tions of a biological insecticide will
sect Pest Prevention and Manage- take place during the month of May
ment Program. on a 533-acre site that includes resi-
Gypsy moth is not native to Or- dential and other properties located
egon and is considered a serious primarily between U.S. Highway
pest of trees and shrubs. ODA's 20 and U.S. Highway 97. The three
goal is to prevent negative eco- applications are scheduled to take
nomie and environmental damage place 14 days apart.
to Oregon by loss of foliage on Introductions of gypsy moths in
trees, restrictive quarantines on Oregon can usually be traced to
commodities, or loss of favorable vehicles or outdoor household ar-
fish habitat due to degraded water- ticles originating from infested ar-
sheds, eas of the northeastern U.S. When
After a couple of years ofa rela- people move to or visit Oregon
tively low fiumber of gypsy moth from these infested areas, the gypsy
detections in Oregon. activity moth or its eggs hitches a ride. In
picked during last summer's state- this case, the Bend infestation is
wide trapping program. A total of believed to have originated from a
66 gypsy moths were found in traps car purchased from the East Coast.
throughout the state -- up from only When the car arrived, so did the
nine detections in 2005. Of the 66 gypsy moth unwtttingly by the
gypsy moths trapped last year, 57 new owner.
said. "The farmers I've talked to are
going to try to minimize their trips
across fields to cut down on fuel
costs Maybe they can get by with
one disking instead of three, that
kind of stuff."
Nelson said he is optimistic
about seed prices, although there is
some concern about the continued
winter weather in the Northeast,
which is a major spring market for
many grass seed companies.
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