PHOTO ABOVE: The soils labora-tory at BYU-Idaho in Rexburg, Idaho, where undergrad-uate students take part in research projects for out-side companies and other clients.

Photo courtesy

BYU-Idaho

Three-year study finds similar risks among Brassica cropsBy MATEUSZ PERKOWSKICapital Press

Canola poses no greater threat to spe-cialty seed producers in Oregon’s Willa-mette Valley than turnips, radishes and other related crops, according to Oregon State University.

Problems with insects, diseases and volunteers weren’t materially different enough in canola fi elds for the crop to be considered a unique risk compared to other species from the Brassica genus, the three-year OSU study found.

“It’s feasible that canola can be grown in the Willamette Valley,” said Carol Mal-lory-Smith, the OSU weed science pro-fessor who wrote the long-awaited report.

“There’s no reason to treat canola dif-ferently,” she said.

The study was completed at the direc-tion of Oregon lawmakers, who ordered a six-year moratorium on most canola production in 2013 at the request of the specialty seed industry.

After the Oregon Department of Ag-riculture decided to loosen restrictions on canola production in the region, the

Willamette Valley Specialty Seed Associ-ation asked the Legislature to intervene.

Lawmakers passed a bill that suspend-ed canola production until 2019 but al-lowed 500 acres of the crop to be grown for three years as part of OSU’s study. They later extended the 500 acres of canola production to six years.

The OSU report has now been turned over to ODA, which has another year to develop recommendations for canola cultivation in the region.

OSU study: No unique threat from canola

VOLUME 90, NUMBER 46 WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM $2.00FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2017

Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press File

Canola seed is emptied from a combine into a truck in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Following the release of an Oregon State Univer-sity study, Brassica seed growers say they are looking for ways to co-exist and still avoid cross-pollination from canola.

Washington Department of Ecology

Snow piles up at Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park in this 2010 photo from the Washington Department of Ecology.

Conditions similar to last yearBy DON JENKINSCapital Press

La Nina conditions have emerged in the Pacific Ocean, fortifying the chanc-es of a cold and wet winter in the Northwest, federal fore-casters reported Nov. 9.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admin-

istration assessed the odds of La Nina prevailing at approximately 75 percent through the winter, up by about 10 percent from last month’s outlook.

La Nina, a cooling of surface and sub-surface waters, became more ap-parent in October along the equator across most of the east-central tropics, ac-cording to NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center. A month ago, the center reported sea

temperatures were edging toward La Nina, but were still neutral.

“Overall, the ocean and atmosphere system reflects the onset of La Nina condi-tions,” according to a state-ment from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center. “La Nina is likely to affect tempera-ture and precipitation across the United States during the upcoming months.”

La Nina picks up staying power, climatologists report

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Area in detail

Capital Press graphic

By JOHN O’CONNELLCapital Press

REXBURG, Idaho — Chase Wilcox is a college sopho-more, but he’s already col-laborated with agriculture industry professionals and

publicly presented research he conduct-ed for a major producer of crop nutrition products, the Mosaic Co.

Wilcox is one of several Brigham Young University-Idaho students in-volved in a rapidly growing research program operated under a unique part-

nership. Since September 2014, BYU-Idaho and the Research Business Devel-opment Center, a nonprof-it partially funded by the university, have collab-orated to provide under-graduates with the chance to take part in agricultural

research typically reserved for graduate students.

In replicated trials conducted at BYU-Idaho’s 190-acre Hillview Farm, Wilcox evaluated two Mosaic micronutri-ent products used to boost potato yields.

“It’s been pretty amazing that we get to do some of that serious research work,” Wilcox said. “Hearing I could do that at the place I am in my life and not having to go through years of college to get that experience was something I found in-triguing.”

High demand

Nels Hansen, chairman of BYU-Ida-ho’s Department of Applied Plant Sci-ence, explained there’s a shortage of ag-ricultural program graduates to fi ll vacant

Not just another class

Undergraduate students perform advanced research in fast-growing program at BYU-Idaho

Nels Hansen

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