Oregon Fighting Pests & Banning the Rooster

Oregon Fighting Pests & Banning the Rooster plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. We have talked many times about the possible infestation by the spotted winged fruit fly but farms across Oregon are gearing up to battle the invasion. Dr. Helmuth Rogg, Entomologist with the Oregon Department of Agriculture talks about how this pest arrived. ROGG: We receive actually fresh fruit if I'm not mistaken from Japan so it could have come into the U.S. on fresh fruit from Asia and even though we have a control at the border, it's a maggot. It's a drosophila maggot so it's not really an actionable pest or reportable pest. The Seattle City Council will consider banning roosters after all in its urban agriculture legislation. The city's planning department initially proposed banning roosters, but upping the backyard-chicken limit from three to eight. Council President Richard Conlin asked to have the rooster-prohibition removed; saying the city already has noise codes. He pointed out that roosters currently in the city would be grandfathered in. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. It's beginning to look like the end of an era across the western farming and ranching landscape. The old metal and wood windmill giants that have dotted the countryside for over a century are slowly but steadily being replaced with their modern counterparts, solar powered electric pumps. Solar powered pumps have been around for over twenty years but it's only recently that they've become durable enough and efficient enough to justify their cost. Also, in that amount of time the majority of traditional windmills have aged to the point where breakdowns occur more frequently and the cost of reoccurring repairs makes going solar more appealing to farmers and ranchers. All this though doesn't mean the iconic metal and wood windmills will be here one day and gone the next. There are still those that feel a loyalty and fondness for their metal windmills; plus for some there is the mindset that windmills have been on their farms or ranches for several generations, if it was good enough for our folks, its good enough for us. Mechanical windmills have served American farms and ranches well, but everything does have its own time and season. Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network. plus Food Forethought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. We have talked many times about the possible infestation by the spotted winged fruit fly but farms across Oregon are gearing up to battle the invasion. Dr. Helmuth Rogg, Entomologist with the Oregon Department of Agriculture talks about how this pest arrived. ROGG: We receive actually fresh fruit if I'm not mistaken from Japan so it could have come into the U.S. on fresh fruit from Asia and even though we have a control at the border, it's a maggot. It's a drosophila maggot so it's not really an actionable pest or reportable pest. The Seattle City Council will consider banning roosters after all in its urban agriculture legislation. The city's planning department initially proposed banning roosters, but upping the backyard-chicken limit from three to eight. Council President Richard Conlin asked to have the rooster-prohibition removed; saying the city already has noise codes. He pointed out that roosters currently in the city would be grandfathered in. Now with today's Food Forethought, here's Lacy Gray. It's beginning to look like the end of an era across the western farming and ranching landscape. The old metal and wood windmill giants that have dotted the countryside for over a century are slowly but steadily being replaced with their modern counterparts, solar powered electric pumps. Solar powered pumps have been around for over twenty years but it's only recently that they've become durable enough and efficient enough to justify their cost. Also, in that amount of time the majority of traditional windmills have aged to the point where breakdowns occur more frequently and the cost of reoccurring repairs makes going solar more appealing to farmers and ranchers. All this though doesn't mean the iconic metal and wood windmills will be here one day and gone the next. There are still those that feel a loyalty and fondness for their metal windmills; plus for some there is the mindset that windmills have been on their farms or ranches for several generations, if it was good enough for our folks, its good enough for us. Mechanical windmills have served American farms and ranches well, but everything does have its own time and season. Thanks Lacy. That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.