Gaining Perspective Gorton Gets Lesson On Legumes From Cab Of A Grower’s Combine

Sen. Slade Gorton got a lesson in legumes Monday.

Gorton donned a red baseball cap and climbed aboard a 1967 John Deere 95 combine to harvest peas for the first time ever.

Grinning when he came down from the machine after about 10 minutes, Gorton said, “This is very interesting.”

It’s exactly what the farmers and the Washington Dry Pea and Lentil Commission wanted to hear. They arranged a tour of Lee Druffel’s farm just south of Pullman to cultivate Gorton’s interest in their crops and their issues.

“We want him to see it’s a different operation working with legumes and other alternative crops,” said Tim McGreevy, president of the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council and supervisor of the Washington and Idaho commissions. That way, when it comes to allocating money or voting on agriculture issues in the next session of Congress, Gorton will know first-hand what he’s dealing with.

Already, the Republican senator has helped the pea and lentil industries by directing $250,000 of the U.S. Department of Agriculture budget to pay for a second legume geneticist to do research at Washington State University.

If the budget is approved by the president this week, USDA agronomist Fred Muehlbauer can begin the search for a colleague to be hired as soon as November. An extra researcher would ease the burden on Muehlbauer and his WSU student assistants.

“Right now we’re trying to do peas, lentils and chickpeas,” Muehlbauer said.”The work load is so heavy and we’re spread so thin, we’re just trying to keep up.”

Gorton said he had no doubts about directing money to an additional geneticist as well as fighting for $2.5 million for the Prosser agricultural research center and $350,000 for a club wheat geneticist and support.

“Research positions like these are the fundamental reason that United States agriculture continues to lead the world,” he said.

With more research to draw from, farmers like Lee Druffel can start experimenting with alternative crops. Druffel is growing 50 acres of mar rowfat peas, which are used in Asian snack foods. Only 10 farmers in the state are trying marrowfats this year. If they’re successful, the number may grow, McGreevy said.

Druffel is a third-generation farmer who grows wheat, peas, barley and grass on 4,000 acres. He wanted to see how the marrowfats fared on his land.

“I don’t think we could have had a better year for them than this year,” Druffel said. The long summer and little rain will make for a good yield.

“I’m sure they’re going to go over a ton an acre,” he said. And they could fetch as much as $100 per ton.

The drawback with marrowfats is that they’re labor-intensive, Druffel said. “I have to be really aware of the weeds and I have to swath them.”

Druffel has sampled the Asian snack foods for which the marrowfats are used. Some might not be very popular in the United States, he said. “There’s one that smells and tastes like they put fish on it.”

While Druffel and other farmers are looking to international markets, politicians are keeping an eye at home.

Gorton said he’d be watching the next sign-up for the Conservation Reserve Program, which pays farmers not to cultivate portions of their land in order to prevent erosion.

In the sign-up this spring, few Washington farmers qualified for the program, while farmers with similar land in Idaho and Oregon were accepted. Gorton said the discrepancy was due to a USDA error.

“I think they just goofed up,” he said. “I hope we’ll repair most of the damage (in the sign-up this fall). I think I’m confident in saying they won’t make the same mistake again.”

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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Hannelore Sudermann Staff writer