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Inn Foods, Inc. of Watsonville, Calif. has been awarded a contract to deliver frozen diced carrots from the Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The contract totals $212,361.60 in carrots.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL PURCHASE AWARD HERE

BRANDT Specialty Formulations has added two new territory sales managers, Cody Massey and Nate Britt, to its North American Ag sales team, covering the US Pacific Northwest and Canada.

They will focus on selling the company’s proprietary foliar nutrient technology, BRANDT Manni-Plex and BRANDT Smart System, as well as a wide range of sustainable crop inputs.

Massey holds an M.S. degree in weed science from Mississippi State University and a B.S. from Oklahoma State University. He has five years of agriculture and crop protection experience, including vertebrate eradication and crop protection. Massey will cover Oregon, western Washington, and western Canada.

Britt has 10 years of agriculture and crop production experience. He has a B.A. degree in Communications from the University of Hawaii. Britt will focus on eastern Washington and central Canada.

“We are thrilled to welcome Cody and Nate to the BRANDT family,” said John Guglielmi, BRANDT National Sales Director. “They have extensive hands-on experience in crop production and will bring a tremendous amount of value to our customers.”

Massey and Britt will work alongside BRANDT’s current Pacific Northwest territory sales manager, Rich Soweiralski.

For more information, visit BRANDT on the web at: www.brandt.co.

The Pacific Northwest Vegetable Association (PNVA) is joining the long list of organizations to move their conferences online due to COVID-19. The annual PNVA conference will be held virtually Nov. 18-19.

The group’s board of directors is working on plans to provide attendees with educational sessions covering pest management, organic production, onions and general vegetable topics. Organizers are also working to put together a program that will allow attendees to obtain recertification credits through their state. They plan to make additional details available in September.

For more information, visit www.pnva.org or contact Sheri Nolan at snolan@agmgt.com.

Story and photos by Denise Keller, Editor

Zak Stephenson farms 1,800 acres spread across the White Swan area of the Yakama Indian Reservation in Central Washington. But it’s a 40-acre field of carrot seed that demands as much time as he spends on the bulk of his farm. In his third year growing carrot seed, Stephenson is finding it to be highly labor intensive but is embracing the challenges that come with learning a new crop.

In addition to carrot seed, Stephenson grows 1,000 acres of alfalfa and 160 acres of alfalfa seed, as well as wheat as a rotation crop. In the past, he has farmed up to 800 acres of alfalfa seed, but that number has been decreasing due to changes in market demand.

While looking for an opportunity to fill some of the void left by the dwindling alfalfa seed acreage, Stephenson was approached by Central Oregon Seeds, Inc. The company produces seed for major seed companies and was looking for growers in the area to expand its carrot seed production. Stephenson planted his first crop of carrot seed in 2017 and is growing a Bejo Seeds variety this year.

Pollinating the Crop

Stephenson grows carrot seed on a five-year rotation, planting the crop after wheat. It’s a 13-month crop, planted in mid- to late-August and harvested mid-September the following year. During a six-week period mid-summer, bees do much of the heavy lifting in developing the seed crop.

“It’s all about pollen transfer. You want the bees actively foraging and collecting pollen and nectar from the carrots. The male plants are producing a lot of pollen. The bees are moving from that and jumping to the female plants, and they’re covered in pollen,” Stephenson describes.

He stocks the field with 3.5 hives per acre, almost overloading the field with pollinators.

“Carrots aren’t their favorite food in the world, so you want as many as you can. A certain percentage will go into something a little sweeter with higher sugar content,” he explains.

He also uses leafcutter bees in the carrot seed because he has more leafcutters than needed for the current alfalfa seed acreage. His experience growing alfalfa seed, a crop that has been part of the family’s farming operation since the 1950s, has been beneficial as he gets into carrots. It’s helped him come into the crop knowing how to deal with pollinators, understanding how seed develops and owning the right harvest equipment. However, alfalfa seed requires less labor, allows for more mechanical cultivation and offers more chemical options for weed control compared to the hybrid carrot seed crop.

“It’s been more hands on. You have to look at it every day,” the grower says of carrot seed. “It’s a complex crop.”

Managing the Challenges

The crop requires the most babysitting in the spring, Stephenson says. A crew of 15 typically hoes the fields and thins the rows of female plants to create 8 to 10 inches between plants, which allows each plant more space to grow flowers. Herbicides are also applied.

This year, Stephenson opted to forgo the extra help due to concerns about COVID-19. This made for an especially busy spring for his seven full-time employees and meant he had to live with some weeds in the field.

When June rolls around, Stephenson applies insecticides, miticides and fungicides to keep problems at bay before introducing the bees a week later. Once the bees are out of the field, another cocktail of chemicals is sprayed to eliminate pests. The male plants are mowed, and female rows are weeded. 
As a relatively new carrot seed grower, Stephenson is still fine tuning his management of the crop. The first two years’ crops had low germination rates, requiring more cleaning of the seed, which ultimately reduced yield. The grower attributes the lower germination rates to lygus bugs. The insects often migrate from hay fields when hay is cut, and then sting the seed and make it no longer viable.

“If we can’t control that, we can’t make seed,” Stephenson says.

Lygus bugs are difficult to control and may be building up resistance to some chemicals, according to Stephenson. The grower scouts fields weekly and monitors the buildup of lygus populations. However, once bees are in the field, he can no longer spray insecticides.

“Whatever kills the lygus is going to kill the bees,” he says.

Unlike the cool, wet springs the area has had the last couple years, this year has been drier and lygus pressure has been lighter. Stephenson is curious to see how this affects the germination rate, hoping that less insect pressure results in better germination. In late July, the crop was setting well.

“It’s all going to be in the next couple weeks. This is where the crop is made. Once the bees come out, those four to five weeks are really critical,” the grower explains.

Enjoying the Experience

Stephenson is a fourth-generation farmer. His great-grandfather moved to an 80-acre farm in the area when the irrigation project opened around 1930. His grandfather expanded the farm to what it is now. His dad, Vern, is mostly retired but helps during harvest. Stephenson graduated from Washington State University with a general ag degree in 1997 and has been managing the farm since 2000. His brother, Alex, is a partner and manages the farm’s chemical program and hay trucking.

After farming hay and other row crops all his life, Stephenson is enjoying growing a hybrid crop.

“Seed in general is interesting to me. I like working with the pollinators and watching them work. I’ll come out to the field and watch the bees move back and forth. I find that interesting and enjoy that,” he shares.

He also has liked learning about drip irrigation, which is used in carrot seed production because it delivers water deeper to the roots and because bees won’t work under sprinklers.

“It’s been fun having a new crop. I like the challenges. It’s something different. You get stagnant if you don’t change things up a little every once in a while. Doing the same thing almost becomes boring after a while. You have to change,” Stephenson says.

The grower is not planting carrot seed this fall in order to reassess things and get the rotation on track to plant into a desirable field next year. Going forward, he plans to keep production between 40 and 80 acres in order to minimize risk. So far, the crop has been more profitable than hay and wheat, and if he can increase the germination rate, there’s potential for real profit, he says.

“It should pay for itself at the end. That’s the thought,” he smiles.

The National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes program awarded a five year, $20 million grant to explore foundational AI goals and innovative uses of AI to develop a prototype autonomous “farm of the future,” anticipating a world in which low-cost AI-driven systems enable breeders and farmers to achieve large improvements in yields and profitability with minimal or even positive environmental impacts.

The project, AI Institute for Future Agricultural Resilience, Management and Sustainability (AIFARMS) is sponsored by the US Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) AND THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION (NSF).  The Institute will be centered at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and its 40-member team will work to advance fundamental AI research in computer vision, machine learning, soft object manipulation and intuitive human-robot interaction to solve major agricultural challenges including labor shortages, to enhance efficiency and welfare in animal agriculture, to improve environmental resilience of crops, and to address the need to safeguard soil health.

Todd Mockler, PhD, member and Geraldine and Robert Virgil Distinguished Investigator at the Danforth Center will co-lead a research team applying AI approaches to extract plant phenotypes, from sensor data sets in order to accelerate crop improvement, with a focus on enhancing nitrogen and water use efficiency in major row crops such as corn and soy.

“Crop and livestock production are extremely complex systems that feed billions of people despite tight cost constraints and chronic risks from weather and other external challenges. I’m excited to be part of a fantastic team of colleagues in diverse disciplines ranging from artificial intelligence to robotics to plant biology. said Mockler. “The AIFARMS institute is poised to address fundamental challenges facing world agriculture while improving the resilience of crops and the sustainability of crop and livestock production systems.”

About the National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes program

The NAIRI is a joint effort between the National Science Foundation (NSF) and U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture was created in response to the White House’s 2019 update to the National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan, which aims to provide support for AI research that focuses on impacting and improving society.

KEY RESEARCH THRUSTS

• Autonomous Farming
• Labor Optimization for Livestock
• Environmental Resilience
• Soil Health

For additional information, contact: Karla Roeber, (314) 406-4287, kroeber@danforthcenter.org

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is inviting offers to sell frozen vegetables pursuant to the AMS Master Solicitation for use in the National School Lunch Program and other Federal Food and Nutrition Assistance Programs.

The offer includes 15,840 cases of frozen diced carrots.

Acceptances will be announced by midnight, September 25, 2020.
Deliveries are to be made between January 31, 2021-June 15, 2021.

To view the entire solicitation, click HERE.

By Lindsey du Toit, Tim Waters, Carrie Wohleb and Sheri Nolan, 40^th International Carrot Conference Organizing Committee

It is very disappointing to have to announce the decision to postpone the 40^th International Carrot Conference (ICC) that was scheduled to take place Oct. 5-6 in Mount Vernon, Washington (www.internationalcarrots.org). Based on significant international attendance at past ICCs and significant uncertainties around travel capabilities and approvals for a meeting of more than 100 attendees under the current COVID-19 restrictions in Washington state, the organizing committee of the 40^th ICC has decided to postpone this event.

The International Apiaceae Conference is scheduled for Oct. 4-7, 2021 in England. Since there is significant overlap in those interested in attending that event as well as the 40^th ICC, the 40^th ICC will be held in Washington state in late summer/early fall 2022. The dates will be finalized in 2021. We welcome your recommendations for potential dates of the conference between late August and late September 2022.

We thank you for your gracious understanding during this very difficult time of a global pandemic that has affected all of us in so many ways. We hope you and your families and colleagues stay healthy. We hope to see you in 2022, if not sooner.

The Agricultural Marketing Service has issued a solicitation for the procurement of canned and frozen seasonal vegetables that includes 31,680 cases of frozen carrots and 1,620 cases of frozen diced carrots.

Bids are due August 28.

The specialist for this solicitation is Luma Kale, Luma.Kale@usda.gov.

The contracting officer for this solicitation is Kelli Dawkins, Kelli.Dawkins@usda.gov.

Contact the specialist first, with questions regarding the requirements of this solicitation. Do not discuss your bid prices with the specialist or contracting officer before award.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD FULL SOLICITATION