Orchard owners look to robots as labor shortage worsens

By Nicholas K. Geranios /Associated Press SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Harvesting Washington state’s vast fruit orchards each year requires thousands of farmworkers, and many of them work illegally in the United States. That system eventually could change dramatically as at least two companies are rushing to get robotic fruit-picking machines to market. The robotic pickers
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Low Interest Emergency Physical Loss Loans Available for 16 Idaho Counties with Assistance to Producers in Surrounding States

Press Release BOISE – U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) Acting Administrator Chris Beyerhelm today announced that physical loss loans are available for 16 counties in Idaho. Farm operators who have suffered major physical losses caused by blizzard, excessive snow, excessive rain, freeze, flooding, flash flooding and high winds that occurred on
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Federal efforts to eradicate Idaho potato pest succeeding

By Keith Ridler/Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Progress is being made eradicating a microscopic pest that has been threatening Idaho’s $900 million potato industry the last decade, federal officials say. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said viable potato cyst nematodes can no longer be detected in three additional fields. The agency on Friday released
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Idaho dairy owners bringing immigrant labor plight to GOP lawmakers

By Zach Kyle/Idaho Statesman Hans Nederend, the third-generation owner of Nederend Dairy near Marsing, mostly employs Latino immigrants for a simple reason: Idaho-born workers don’t want the jobs. Idaho’s worker pool evaporated as the state’s unemployment rate fell to a meager 3.7 percent, causing worker shortages in agriculture as well as hospitality, construction and food
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