Linn County native in leadership role for national seed association

By ALEX PAUL
Albany Democrat-Herald

SALEM — Linn County native Marisa Eicher DeMasi was recently selected as the first female officer on the board of directors of the 130-year-old American Seed Trade Association.

DeMasi was elected second vice president, and in two years, will head the 700-member organization that represents farmers whose crops vary from tomatoes to grass seed.

DeMasi, who likes to be called Risa, is a co-owner and director of marketing and sales for Grassland Oregon, based in Salem.

She is the daughter of Sam and the late Roma Eicher. Her family owns a farm and feedlot on Eicher Drive between Albany and Lebanon on Highway 20.

DeMasi graduated from the Western Mennonite School in 1984 and earned an associate’s degree from Hesston Mennonite College in Kansas.

“It’s where my parents met,” DeMasi said. “I focused on the theater arts, psychology and music.”

After college, DeMasi started working in the ready-to-wear industry, but realized it wasn’t for her.

“Having grown up on a farm, surrounding by dairy and grass seed farms, I was offered a job in the shipping department with Olsen Fenell Seed in Salem in 1988,” DeMasi said.

She was soon promoted to shipping manager and then a year later, to operations manager and then went into sales.

“The owners gave me a lot of opportunities,” DeMasi said.

When Olsen Fenell was sold to ABT, the company was generating about $30 million per year in sales of grasses, forages and legumes.

After ABT collapsed, DeMasi and three partners founded Grassland Oregon in 2000.

“All four of us are working partners,” DeMasi said. “We are growing and we put our profits back into the company.”

DeMasi said the company had about $15 million in sales last year, specializing in forages, turf, reclamation and cover crops.

“Cover crops are get to be a huge market,” DeMasi said. “We’re not reinventing things. Cover crops have been used for centuries to control pests, weeds and for water management.”

The company with 11 staff members has an on-site research farm on Silverton Road east of Salem, but DeMasi said work is also under way at universities through the United States and in New Zealand and Canada.

“We’ve also bought seed from Germany and the Netherlands,” DeMasi said. “We’re at the very beginning of the food chain. We’re creating the products that get blended and mixed for pastures and golf courses.”

DeMasi said she hadn’t thought much about the fact that she is the first female executive officer, because “I’ve been a regional director for five years and have been sitting at the table with these guys for some time. At first, I didn’t think it was a big deal, but it really is exciting.”

DeMasi said belonging to a national seed trade organization is important for both large and small businesses.

“We have a voice and in our association, it’s a one company, one voice system,” DeMasi said. “Every company has an equal vote. We believe that by working together, we can all have a stronger voice, especially in educating the public about what farmers do.”

DeMasi is married to professional guitarist Michael DeMasi, a New York native. They met while she and some customers were enjoying the city and married in 1994.

Away from work, DeMasi enjoys exploring her artistic side — a trait handed down from her mother, the founder of the Conservatory for Music Education — using found art to create mixed media.

Read the original story from the Albany Democrat-Herald

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Travel Ready: ASTA is working to break down trade barriers and harmonize standards.


By MARIA BROWN
SeedWorld 

— An array of standards prevents seeds moving from nation to nation and continent to continent without some kind of oversight. Seed producers and their customers appreciate that these regulations aim to protect crops from pests and disease but, at times, the rules can become restrictive and limit or halt trade altogether. As a result, these barriers disrupt supply chains and seed production, limit farmers’ choices and hinder market growth.

At the moment, the American Seed Trade Association is monitoring several situations around the globe where the movement of seed is—or has the potential to be—limited due to phytosanitary concerns.

Spinach Seed Imports
Near the top of that list is addressing disease concerns that have affected the import of spinach seed from Europe to the United States. The fungal pathogen Phomopsis was first detected in shipments entering the United States in 2011. In the fall of 2012, the U.S. government began restricting spinach seed shipments from European countries such as the Netherlands and Denmark after declaring Phomopsis a quarantine pest. The fungus is not pathogenic to spinach, but can cause damage to other crops, including sunflowers and soybeans.

Ric Dunkle, ASTA’s senior director for seed health and trade, found these developments troubling due to the nature and value of the spinach industry. This short-season crop is grown nearly year-round on the West Coast. With only about 45 days from planting to harvest, growers require a steady supply of seed. The value of the spinach seed market in the United States is estimated to be between $12 and 20 million.

These factors prompted ASTA to take action and help facilitate research efforts. “We’re actually using our own dollars to fund research for treatment options, and we should expect to see results by summertime,” says Dunkle, referring to work being done at Washington State University to find an effective phytosanitary treatment.

Meanwhile, progress has already been made on other fronts to lessen supply disruptions. Dunkle says he’s pleased a protocol has been developed to inspect seed in Europe before it’s shipped, resulting in fewer lot rejections by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

Monitoring Major Markets
Vietnam is one of several countries ASTA is monitoring. Recently, the Southeast Asian nation declared it wanted comprehensive risk assessments completed on all seed and plant material for all species by the year 2014. If the task is not completed by then, import permits will not be issued. Dunkle says ASTA is working with APHIS officials to get the assessments prioritized.

If pest risk analyses can’t be completed in time, some companies, such as HM Clause, will feel the effects on multiple fronts. “Not only will seed sales stop, but seed production of tomato and pepper hybrids will be affected. This will be due to the fact that we cannot ship stock seed to Vietnam for seed production,” says Tom Moore, HM Clause’s West Coast small seed production manager.

Then there’s Brazil. ASTA has been paying close attention since 2010 to ongoing developments concerning some controversial changes to the country’s phytosanitary requirements, referred to as Normative 36. Had those changes been implemented, imports of U.S seed at the commercial level would have been halted, Dunkle says. Brazilian officials agreed to reconsider their plans and wait one year. That deadline has since been extended an additional year. “We worked very hard to provide science-based comments to their proposals. We believe it’s important to meet their needs but not shut down trade,” Dunkle adds.

Moore credits the partnership between ASTA, United States Department of Agriculture plant health officials, the International Seed Federation and Associação Brasileira de Sementes e Mudas, Brazil’s seed association, for acting quickly to arrange meetings with Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture to voice concerns. As a result, Brazil agreed to delay implementation of one very crucial rule—requiring seed tests instead of field inspections. “We are not out of the woods yet, but I think the industry will be able to adjust to the changes if they are scientifically based,” Moore says.

At the Ready
This type of work—keeping the flow of seed moving smoothly—is very unpredictable, says Dunkle. It is hard to gauge just where and when new trade barriers will arise. However, ASTA is keen on being as well prepared as possible. Members of the organization’s International Executive Committee explore market development in other countries and, as part of that work, assess what issues might impede economic opportunities.

“To me, the IEC is a think tank for international seed issues made up of experienced ASTA staff with seasoned industry members who outline current and future strategies for the industry,” says Moore, who currently serves as the committee’s chair.

“We work to set global and country priorities, develop strategies for ASTA representatives to ISF, and design strategies for USDA Cooperator Programs, including Foreign Market Development, Market Access Program and Emerging Market Programs, plus provide guidance and participate in ASTA’s Priority Country Working Groups. Today our working groups cover Argentina, Brazil, China, India and Mexico,” he says.

As evidenced by the roadblocks cropping up in places like Vietnam and Brazil, ASTA staff’s and committee members’ time is mostly consumed by addressing concerns over outbound products, rather than imports. “U.S. policy regarding seed is that it’s a relatively low risk commodity. They are aware of action of quality management procedures used to produce pure seed,” Dunkle says.

In addition to specific cases, ASTA staff devotes time to the fundamentals that govern seed trade, such as the development of comprehensive standards. Dunkle was one of 12 committee members who helped draft a regional seed standard, RSPM 36: Phytosanitary Guidelines for the Movement of Seed into a NAPPO Member Country, adopted by the North American Plant Protection Organization in March 2013.

The document states that its objective is to provide guidelines that will prevent the entry and spread of pests associated with seed and facilitate the re-export of seeds between NAPPO members—the United States, Canada and Mexico. It also seeks to promote the use of harmonized phytosanitary import requirements, testing protocols and phytosanitary certification systems for seed.

Now that the standard is in place, ASTA wants to see the same thing done on a larger scale. “We’ve been proactive on the international level to develop an international standard so that all countries can play by the same rules. We formed a coalition with other organizations, so we can demonstrate global desire for this to be done. We’ve been working with the International Plant Protection Commission and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and have been successful in encouraging them to begin work on an international standard,” says Dunkle.

According to the IPPC, an expert working group will meet this summer in the Netherlands to do just that—develop a draft document on an international standard.

Industry officials are also eyeing progress being made on such a standard. Jennifer Rashet, Monsanto’s U.S. seed regulatory affairs manager, says transnational companies like Monsanto are in need of a global standard. When it comes to innovation, Monsanto is intent on helping its researchers develop new plant varieties that meet the needs of many regions and microclimates, which “requires the frequent movement of small quantities of seed between our research stations around the world. An international standard for phytosanitary measures on the movement of seed would provide needed mechanisms to improve the predictability of trade between countries,” says Rashet.

“Providing clear, predictable, science-based phytosanitary requirements to companies will facilitate the export and re-export process to move seed from one country to the next throughout product advancement phases,” she adds. Ultimately, this means Monsanto could deliver enhanced varieties to customers more quickly.

Rashet expects a global standard would require the high quality assurance principles the company already abide by today. “We have a special team of quality experts that study the physiological, horticultural and genetic factors that affect seed quality. We believe that the best way to manage phytosanitary risk is to minimize or prevent the exposure to seed pathogens in the first place,” Rashet explains.

This is accomplished by adhering to good agricultural practices and seed quality management guides such as ASTA’s Guide to Seed Quality Management, among others, as well as using various risk management tools including Good Seed and Plant Practices. Rashet says these methods have been successful and should be embraced by the standard writers.

Beyond the Bottom Line
When trade barriers arise, a seed company’s economic losses can be significant. Dunkle says losses are often realized through additional demurrage costs, extra seed testing or treatment and, in some cases, the destruction of product.

These barriers can also impede efforts by farmers, the agribusiness industry and global leaders to address critical issues like food security, especially in developing nations that desire to be self-sufficient in seed production and availability. “Many farmers in these countries do not see the value of high-tech seed and prefer to use farm-saved seed thinking this is insurance against not having needed seed. They fail to recognize that the quality and performance of this seed in everything from germination and vigor to yield and disease resistance is usually drastically inferior to commercially available seed, even though the commercially available seed may be considered an extra cost,” says Dunkle.

Read the original article in SeedWorld.

Canola bill goes to governor

By MITCH LIES
Capital Press

SALEM — A bill to place a five-year ban on all but a smattering of canola production in the Willamette Valley has passed the Oregon Senate and is headed to the desk of Gov. John Kitzhaber.

Despite significant opposition testimony, the Senate approved House Bill 2427 by a vote of 18-12.

“It is a dangerous precedent” when the Legislature starts determining what crops farmers can and can’t grow, Sen. Betsy Close, R-Albany, said.

Close and other senators said those decisions should be left up to the experts at the Oregon Department of Agriculture.

Sen. Chis Edwards, D-Eugene, countered, saying the prohibition on canola production is needed to protect Oregon’s high value, preeminent specialty seed industry.

HB2427 allows minimal canola production on the far outskirts of the valley, but limits its production in the heart of the valley to 500 acres per year, and only for research purposes, until 2018.

The bill overrides action taken earlier this year by the Oregon Department of Agriculture that lifted a ban on Willamette Valley canola production that had been in place since 2009.

The ODA’s February ruling allowed growers to produce up to 2,500 acres of the crop in the valley.

The February ruling kept in place prohibitions on its production in the heart of the valley, where most specialty seed crops are produced.

The ODA has restricted canola production in the Willamette Valley since 2005 to protect Oregon’s $30 million specialty seed industry from an increase in pest pressure.

The specialty seed industry this session brought in seed buyers from Japan, who said they would discontinue purchasing seed from the valley if widespread canola production takes hold here.

HB2427 also stipulates the state will back research efforts in the valley to study canola’s impact on the specialty seed industry. Oregon State University researchers have asked for $679,000 to conduct the research.

The bill previously passed the House by a vote of 37-22.

Originally published 7/1/13 in the Capital Press

Oregon House approves bill to ban canola crops in Willamette Valley

By Harry Esteve, The Oregonian

SALEM — A bill that would prohibit farmers from planting canola crops in some parts of the Willamette Valley passed the Oregon House on Tuesday, over objections by some lawmakers that the Legislature is overstepping its authority.

“We should not be overruling the Department of Agriculture and picking favorites of crop types,” said Rep. Brian Clem, D-Salem.

But a majority agreed with Rep. Sara Gelser, D-Corvallis, who said the seed threatens other specialty seed crops that are important exports for the state.

“This is a clear threat to a $50 million industry,” Gelser said. She recited comments from Japanese importers who said they would look elsewhere for grass seed and other products if canola is allowed to be grown in the valley.

Canola is grown primarily for its oil, which is used for cooking and, increasingly, biodiesel production. Gelser and other supporters of the bill said canola can cross pollinate with other seed crops, however, diluting their value.

House Bill 2427 bans growing canola in the valley until 2019. In the meantime, it provides money for a study of the crop by Oregon State University.

“It is a brief time out” for canola, and only in specified areas of the valley, Gelser said.

The bill now goes to the Senate.

Published 6/25/13 in the Oregonian

Seed farmers try to beat the rain

By Alex Paul, Albany Democrat-Herald

This week, despite nearly daily rainfall and a forecast of more to come, swathers began chewing up grass seed fields.

“When the grass is ripe, you need to get it cut,” said Albany area farmer Glenn Miller. “The rain just makes the work a little harder.”

Miller said under normal weather conditions, it takes from 10 days to two weeks before the swathed grass is dry enough to be run through a combine.

“When it’s wet like this, it will be several days after it stops raining before we can combine,” Miller said.

Early season dry weather has brought the crop to the cutting stage a couple weeks earlier than usual, Miller said.

“The moisture can steam up through the swaths and cause some seed to sprout and that’s not good,” Miller said. “It really just depends on how long this weather lasts. We’ll have to wait and see how the yields turn out.”

Miller, 60, starting farming in 1972 and puts in about 2000 acres of Gulf variety annual ryegrass.

He said it will take about eight days to swath his fields.

According to the Hyslop weather station between Albany and Corvallis, rainfall in the mid-valley is still 10 inches behind normal – 11.16 inches compared to 21.77 inches.

Rainfall for the first three weeks of June is just 0.62 of an inch.

“It’s not uncommon to get rain this time of year,” said OSU Extension specialist Paul Marquardt. “But, due to the warmer weather in April and May, harvest is getting pushed up. Usually swathing might start in early July and things are usually dryer by then.”

Marquardt said rain actually affects the crop once it’s on the ground, not when it’s being swathed.

“You can get seed sprout that grows up through the swath and that can make it much more difficult to combine,” Marquardt said. “And, seed quality can decline.”

Marquardt added that the longer the swathed grasses are on the ground, the greater the chance there will be issues with pests such as voles or disease, such as fungus.

“It’s really not a good thing if the rain hangs around,” Marquardt said.

According to Oregon State University, Oregon is the world’s largest producer of cool-season forage and turf grass, with annual sales of more than $228 million.

Grass seed is produced on nearly 1,500 grass seed farms in Oregon.

There are more than 300 seed conditioning plants in Willamette Valley.

Published 6/22/13 in the Albany Democrat-Herald

Subcommittee passes revised canola bill

By MITCH LIES
Capital Press

SALEM — A legislative subcommittee has approved a bill banning all but a smattering of canola production in the Willamette Valley until Jan. 2, 2019.

House Bill 2427 as amended also allocates $679,000 in general funds to study how canola production would affect the valley’s specialty seed crops.

The bill marks a departure from an Oregon Department of Agriculture rule issued in February that allowed up to 2,500 acres of canola production in the valley outside a restricted zone in the heart of the valley, where the bulk of Oregon’s specialty seed production occurs.

HB2427 calls for Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences to produce up to 500 acres of canola in the valley for research purposes for three years, keeping intact isolation distances between canola and specialty seed crops that equal or exceed industry-recommended isolation distances.

The bill calls for the college to develop information and recommendations regarding whether, and under what conditions, canola can be grown in the valley compatibly with other crops. And it calls for the college to complete its research and deliver a report to lawmakers no later than Nov. 1, 2017.

HB2427 also calls for the college to conduct field monitoring of the acreage used for the canola study for the presence of volunteer plants, diseases and insects for five years after completing the research.

In earlier testimony before the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Natural Resources, specialty seed producers said widespread canola production will lead to an increase in insect, weed and disease pressure in the valley’s multi-million-dollar specialty seed industry, and ultimately run their industry out of the valley.

Producers hoping to grow canola commercially in the valley said it is a valuable rotation crop that can be produced in a way that doesn’t threaten the specialty seed industry.

Advocates for growing canola in the valley also contend the Legislature should not be regulating crop production, a job they said belongs with the state Department of Agriculture.

Ivan Maluski, policy director for Friends of Family Farmers, a group supporting a ban on canola production in the valley, said his organization supports the bill, but characterized the amendment offered June 18 as a compromise.

“The amendment that passed today is a big step back from the original canola prohibition proposed in HB2427 as introduced,” Maluski said. “It grandfathers in pre-existing producers who operate outside of the 2009 Willamette Valley Protected District boundaries, while the original bill would have banned them from growing it, and it would allow significantly more canola for research inside the protected area’s boundaries than has been grown before.”

The Ways and Means Subcommittee on Natural Resources on June 18 moved the bill with a do-pass recommendation to the full Ways and Means Committee with only one objection.

HB2427 must now gain approval from the Ways and Means Committee, the full House and Senate and the governor before becoming law.

Published 6/18/13 in the Capital Press

Sprague Pest Solutions Named a Top 100 Company

Tacoma, Wash. – Sprague Pest Solutions (http://www.spraguepest.com/), a third-generation, family-owned provider of pest management services, was recently named to the Pest Control Technology Magazine Top 100 List, an annual compilation of the leading pest management companies in the United States. The list was included in the magazine’s May issue (www.pctonline.com).

For more, see Sprague Named A Top 100 Company

Senate passes ODA budget

By MITCH LIES
Capital Press

SALEM — The Oregon Senate on June 13 passed the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s proposed 2013-15 budget with only 1 “no” vote.

ODA Director Katy Coba earlier characterized the budget as “probably the best budget we’ve had since I’ve been director.”

The budget increases the department’s overall funding from $84 million in 2011-13 to just under $95 million for the next biennium.

Full-time staff under the budget would increase from 343 to 351.

Earlier in the budget process, while in the joint Ways and Means Natural Resources Subcommittee, lawmakers added $500,000 to the department’s weed program, a program that was facing $518,896 in cuts under a previous budget proposal.

And the subcommittee increased the state’s wolf compensation and assistance fund from $100,000 in the current biennium to $200,000 for the next two years.

Lawmakers also continued to fund the state’s pesticide stewardship partnership program, putting $1.49 million into the partnership.

And lawmakers put $4.4 million into the department’s agricultural water quality program, including $1.9 million of general funds.

Lawmakers also provided the department a water-quantity position to work on increasing water supply development in Oregon.

Published 6/13/13 in the Capital Press

Experts say ryegrass seed exports have likely peaked

By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press

The robust growth in ryegrass seed exports seen in recent years has likely peaked due to diminished European demand and higher domestic prices, experts say.

“The party is over,” said Steve Tubbs, president of Turf Merchants, Inc., in Tangent, Ore. “In general, there’s not much good news at the export desk now.”

The value and volume of ryegrass seed exports surged in 2011, stayed strong in 2012, and saw a healthy uptick during the first quarter of 2013, according to federal trade data.

Higher sales in early 2013 likely represented the tail end of the upswing in exports, said Tubbs. The dimming prospects for exports are largely due to the market outlook in Europe, a major buyer of perennial ryegrass seed for turf.

Unseasonably low temperatures and adverse weather in Europe have hampered demand for perennial ryegrass seed, said Aaron Kuenzi, vice president and marketing manager at Mountain View Seeds in Salem, Ore.

“Spring business is weather-driven, even more than economy-driven,” he said.

Of course, the economic situation within the European Union continues to be troubled and the dollar has grown stronger against the euro, making U.S. grass seed more expensive in Europe, said Bill Dunn, executive vice president and general manager of Seed Research of Oregon in Corvallis, Ore.

“That may be the real sleeper in the deal,” Dunn said of the currency fluctuation.

Even without the change in currency values, grass seed has risen in price due to limited availability, he said. Growers in Oregon’s Willamette Valley have been planting more wheat and other crops that compete with grass seed.

“It seems like a lot more of everything and a lot less of grass,” Dunn said.

Fortunately, sales of grass seed in the U.S. are strong enough that companies won’t have to rely on exports to clear out inventories, said Tubbs.

“We think the good news is the supply and demand are very much in equilibrium,” he said.

While domestic demand for ryegrass seed appears sufficient, it’s strongest during the fall and spring seasons, said Sam Cable, export and seed position manager at Barenbrug USA in Tangent, Ore.

Exports, on the other hand, provide an outlet for grass seed throughout the year, he said. “It’s critical for cash flow for the entire industry.”

The prognosis for exports isn’t entirely negative, as the demand for annual ryegrass seed — primarily used for livestock forage, rather than turf — is healthy in emerging markets like China that are consuming more meat and dairy, Cable said.

“They get on buying streaks,” he said. “China needs a lot of milk. More milk than they ever thought.”

However, changes in Chinese regulations could cramp exports due to stricter permitting requirements that represent a “major shift in how they buy seed,” said Tubbs.

The fundamentally solid reputation of Oregon grass seed remains unchanged, though, so overseas buyers will continue to rely on the region for at least a decent portion of their supplies, Kuenzi said.

“They know they can count on the quality and consistency,” he said.

Published 6/12/13 in the Capital Press