[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 98 (Friday, June 26, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1604]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY'S HERMISTON 
               AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND EXTENSION CENTER

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                               speech of

                            HON. GREG WALDEN

                               of oregon

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 25, 2009

  Mr. WALDEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to draw my colleagues' 
attention to the historic June 30, 2009, centennial of Oregon State 
University's Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center, 
located in the corner of northeast Oregon near the mighty Columbia 
River.
  Few areas in the world can match the quantity or quality of crop 
production of the Columbia Basin region that straddles the Oregon-
Washington border. This center has been in the middle of it all for 100 
years, helping farmers, ranchers, and researchers find ways to better 
grow and steward crops ranging from dry land wheat to watermelons; from 
sugar beets to wine grapes; from beef cattle to dairy cows.
  Established in 1909, the ``Umatilla Experiment Farm'' initially 
served farmers trying to make a living on 20,000 acres of semi-arid 
northern Oregon desert as part of a federal government reclamation 
program. By the 1930s, farming expanded to well over 160,000 acres and 
the demand for the center's research reached levels far surpassing its 
initial 40 acres. The center moved and expanded to its current 300-acre 
location to better serve the region's agricultural communities. Today, 
the work done at this center serves well over 500,000 acres of 
irrigated and non-irrigated crop land.
  The West is dominated by nutrient-deprived, semi-desert soils. The 
Columbia Basin is no different. So at the beginning, the center set 
upon helping farmers and ranchers overcome the fundamental challenges 
posed by an annual rainfall rate of eight inches. Researchers 
determined which types of organic matter, when put into the soil, would 
produce the best crops. They worked with farmers, ranchers, and 
communities to identify more efficient water use, based on soil type, 
topography, and micro-climate.
  Madam Speaker, it is summertime, and if you enjoy a refreshing slice 
of watermelon this time of year, chances are you have the great work at 
this center to thank for it. The Columbia Basin is renowned for its 
delicious watermelons, and the center's researchers helped increase 
their production from 30-tons per acre under center-pivot irrigation to 
70-tons per acre with drip irrigation and weed control. In the process, 
they made more efficient use of the water and decreased the amount of 
herbicide needed during production of the watermelon crop.
  The center's researchers are in the middle of the battle against crop 
disease. Tuber worm has emerged as a threat to root crops in recent 
years. Late blight, the same fungus that caused the great potato 
famine, has resurfaced. Researchers are on the cutting of edge of 
identifying new methods to fight diseases that cost producers thousands 
of dollars each year to control.
  And if all that work were not enough, researchers at the center are 
helping improve the quality of the country's food supply. This is one 
of the only centers of its kind in America with a molecular biologist 
working to increase the nutritional quality of our food.
  The center's research is so valuable to the region that the many 
producers who benefit from its research return their thanks generously, 
donating over $1 million to the center in the past two decades. Growers 
also funded the building of two large insect houses at $40,000 each 
that facilitate research on which pests carry crop damaging diseases.
  Today's challenges require innovative thinking and solutions. New 
crop varieties developed at the center help overcome the present 
challenges facing old crops. Many of the solutions that producers and 
individuals in the region see as major milestones are all in a day's 
work for the researchers of the center. As described by the station 
superintendent, Philip Hamm, ``Our staff are just doing their job, and 
looking for the next challenge.''
  Madam Speaker, this center has played a vital role in helping 
farmers, ranchers and agricultural communities thrive on the sandy 
soils that have presented many challenges over the past 100 years. 
Today, the region served by the center is one of the most important 
agriculture production areas in the Northwest and produces some of the 
highest yielding, highest quality crops in the United States.
  I congratulate Oregon State University's Hermiston Agricultural 
Research and Extension Center leadership, its board members, area 
farmers and ranchers, and the community on reaching this remarkable 
milestone. I am confident the center's next 100 years will be as 
successful as 1909-2009 has been.

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