Featured image: onion growers, Corey Maag and Bob Gressley attend past Idaho-Malheur onion growers meeting
Several informative sessions and reports, along with an industry trade show and the annual Hall of Fame Induction and association officers election, is on tap for the Feb. 4 Idaho-Malheur County Onion Growers Association meeting.
Held at the Four Rivers Cultural Center in Ontario, OR, the yearly event always draws a sizeable crowd, and our friend Stuart Reitz, Director of Oregon State University’s Malheur Station in Ontario, said 2020’s program covers a wide range of topics.
“The trade show will be as big as ever, with displays throughout the cultural center and outside,” Stuart said.
He continued, “For the presentations, there will be a complement of talks on various aspects of pest management, with the perpetual ‘public enemies’ – nutsedge, pink root, storage rots, and thrips. A couple of highlights for me will be Gina Greenway talking about the costs of production. Everyone has appreciated her talks about the economics of onion farming. The other, of course, is that FSMA is finally here. Pamm Juker and Susanna Pearlstein will talk about how the states are handling the Produce Safety Rule, what the first year of farm inspections have looked like, and what resources ISDA and ODA are offering to help growers comply with the rule.”
Dr. Greenway is an assistant professor in the Department of Business and Accounting at the College of Idaho. Pamela Juker is Chief of Staff/FSMA Administrator with the Idaho State Department of Agriculture, and Susanna Perlstein is with the Oregon Department of Agriculture.
The agenda is filled with important presentations, including a research committee report from Brian Taylor. Oregon Rep. Greg Smith, who is also Director of the Malheur County Economic Development Corp., will provide an update on the Treasure Valley Reload Facility starting at 8:45 a.m. Following Greg’s presentation, there will be sessions on pink root, yellow nutsedge, a seed report from BASF/Nunhems, a report on bulb rot pathogens in storage, cost of production overview, promotions committee report, FSMA update, seed report from Seminis, herbicide and growth regulator effects report and thrips/Iris yellow spot management.
The luncheon and Hall of Fame ceremony, as well as elections, will be held from noon to 1 p.m.
For registration information on trade show booths, luncheon and educational sessions, contact Cindy Pusey at Association Management Group, 208-888-0988 or by email at cindy@amgidaho.com.
Download the event details here:
