All tours end with reception and dinner at JUMP – Jack’s Urban Meeting Place. If not joining a tour, there will be transportation to Jump for Friday night activities.
All Site Visits will leave hotel around noon.
TOUR # 1 - Potatoes and Vegetable Research
Simplot potato processing plant, Caldwell
Potato processing from the truck to the finished frozen French fries. The second part of this stop will be the research and development laboratories at the same location.
Syngenta corn and vegetable seed research, Nampa
Syngenta recently spent $30 million to expanded this facility to do much more work on corn varieties in addition to their work on vegetable seeds like green beans. Some parts this tour will not allow photos.
TOUR # 2 - Fire Center, Canal System and Meat Packing
National Interagency Fire Center, NIFC, Boise airport
NIFC is the nation’s support center for wildland firefighting. Eight different agencies and organizations are part of NIFC, from the Forrest Service and Bureau of Indian Affairs to the National Weather service. There is no single director and decisions are made cooperatively. NIFC controls all resources from men to aircraft nationally and works with Canada and Australia on wildfires.
BOISE PROJECT BOARD OF CONTROL CANAL SYSTEM, from East of Boise to Oregon.
The Boise Project furnishes irrigation water to 167,000 acres in southwest Idaho and Eastern Oregon through the New York and Mora canals and over 460 other canals and laterals totaling over 1,500 miles. The project includes five storage dams which form reservoirs with a total capacity of 1,793,600 acre feet (one acre of water one foot deep), two diversion dams, three powerplants (with a capacity of 50,200 kilowatts), and seven pumping plants.
CS BEEF MEAT PACKING PLANT, KUNA
A joint venture between Simplot and Caviness Beef Packers this is the newest meat packing plant in the United States. This is a state-of-the-art facility. Live animal handling facilities were designed by Temple Grandin to minimize animal stress. Located only a few miles from the state penitentiary, the plant has a program to use inmate labor. Good inmate employees are offered a job on their release.
TOUR # 3 - Crops, Seed Processing, Hops
JEMMETT FARMS, PARMA
J & S farms is a row crop farm growing seed wheat, onions, potatoes, corn, carrot seed, green bean seed, and watermelons. Eric also manages Jemmett Consulting and Research which does contract research with various companies testing seed, chemicals, biologics, and other products.
Gooding Farms, Parma
Gooding farms was established in 1895 and is now run by Gooding sisters, Diane, Michelle, and Andrea, the sixth generation. The farm grows thirteen different varieties of hops in addition to edible beans, wheat, alfalfa, and pastureland on about 1,000 acres. There is a processing plant to dry and bale the hops. They also have a cattle operation and a farmers market/community center. Gooding farms was the first G.A.P. certified farm in southern Idaho.