Washington Pear Growers Face Record Flooding and Unusual Pest Management

Fri, 19 Dec 2025 14:44:43 GMT

Last week, approximately 78,000 residents in the Skagit River floodplain in Washington state were ordered to evacuate as back-to-back atmospheric rivers saturated the region. The water surpassed historical marks, notes Robert Ezelle, director of the Washington Military Department’s Emergency Management Division.

“What we have seen in actuality is it came through right at about the record flood level,” he told AgDay. “That doesn’t mean to say that we’re out of the woods. We’re not, because as the waters come down here, they’re still going to be gaining strength. And as they hit the Burlington, Mt. Vernon area, we’re still expecting to see about 2 feet higher than record flood level. It’s going to be most likely worse than you experienced back in 2021.”

Last week’s storm impacted many parts of Chelan County, as well as other parts of the Pacific Northwest, where officials evacuated Washington State University’s Northwestern Washington Research and Extension Center in Mount Vernon due to high water and flood warnings.

The impact stretched across the Cascades into the Cashmere Valley, where Randall Chipman, a certified crop adviser in Cashmere Valley between Wenatchee and Leavenworth, scouted area orchards to assess what he saw. In a video he posted on LinkedIn , a pear block in Cashmere that usually sits 10 feet or more above the waterline had trees pulled up with roots almost 5 feet in the air.

“The main concern now is, alright, where are we going to get our topsoil back?” he says in the video. “We have all of our roots exposed. It’s going to be more detrimental than maybe just having regular soggy feet. Now we have to wait for next year, but keep an eye on it.”

Chipman says a bright spot to the flooding is that it hit during dormancy, when trees have already shut down for the winter. Prolonged wetness isn’t necessarily as much of a concern as exposed roots. And, he says in the winter, most orchards are waterlogged with snow, so this is almost the same thing.

“Realistically, dormancy will help,” he says. “We’re not worried about waterlogging. If it was during this season and we had fruit on the trees, then you have no oxygen, and then that’s it’s an issue.”

Chipman says some pear growers in the area have experienced flooding, but nothing to the extent that happened last week.

“It’s going to be this annoying thing that we’ve never really thought we had to deal with,” he says.

Downed trees with exposed roots are a main concern for pear growers in the Cashmere Valley in Washington, says Randall Chipman, a certified crop adviser.

(Photo: Randall Chipman)

And he’s also optimistic that all this rainfall could help limit pear psylla pressure next growing season, though he says he needs to monitor pest pressure next year to see if his assumptions play out. Instead of psylla overwintering under the limbs of nearby pine trees, it could be those rains could have washed the psylla out of the trees, he says.

“We’re essentially doing an overhead wash right now, which is a pest management strategy for washing psylla out of a tree,” Chipman says.

He points out that growers in the Hood River of Oregon have much less pear psylla pressure, which could be due in part to the amount of rainfall the area gets compared with the Cashmere Valley.

“It’s not exactly on the packing side of things, but it would be interesting to find out,” he says. “It’s definitely an interesting horticultural phenomenon of sorts.”

Yamaha Ag Q&A: When Can Growers Buy Farm Robots? North America Rollout Explained

Sat, 15 Mar 2025 12:59:00 GMT

Yamaha is a Japanese legacy automotive and motor sports giant known the world over, but many aren’t aware that the company also has a long and storied history in ag tech.

Yamaha’s R-Max gas-powered spray helicopter launched in Japan in the 1990s, making it one of the first unmanned aerial application vehicles on the market for applying crop protection products to growing crops. FAZER-R was its next iteration of spray drones, and the company says it has over 2,800 units of both R-MAX and FAZER remote controlled spray helicopters deployed today with farmers around the world.

In late January, the manufacturer announced the launch of Yamaha Agriculture , a new U.S.-based company that will focus on delivering autonomous equipment and AI-powered digital solutions. The company came together as a single business unit as a result of strategic acquisitions of robotics and AI focused startups Robotics Plus and The Yield.

We recently connected with Nolan Paul, who was named CEO of the relatively-new ag tech division, to learn more about the venture as it gets a footing established on the West Coast. Previously Paul was Head of R&D Strategy and Emerging Technology for Driscoll’s, the global market leader in production of fresh berries.

Farm Journal (FJ): How long of a timeline do you anticipate until commercialized robotics solutions are available for growers to purchase?

Nolan Paul (NP): Robotics Plus’ Prospr vehicles are already deployed with customers and distributors in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand.

FJ: What type of specific use cases do you envision bringing to market that will leverage advanced data analytics and AI?

NP: A multitude of use cases with time to market based on the degree of technical difficulty. We already offer weather-driven predictions to customers in the form of yield forecasts and harvest and spray timing. The next set of use cases will be variable rate spray applications based on real-time sensing on the vehicle (e.g., spray volumes based on canopy density).

(Yamaha Agriculture)

FJ: How do you envision Yamaha’s robotic solutions being marketed/sold to growers?

NP: Robotics Plus already has distributor partners in the U.S. and Australia/New Zealand. However, it’s important for Yamaha to maintain direct relationships with growers, especially our larger customers, to optimize customer success and develop our product roadmap. Regarding our monetization approach, we believe growers should purchase our hardware solutions the same way they prefer to purchase the rest of their machinery. Some prefer to buy outright. Others prefer a financing or lease option. We remain open to alternative monetization options if it makes life easier for the grower.

FJ: Where will the new division Yamaha Agriculture be based? How many employees will make up the division?

NP: Yamaha Agriculture is a U.S.-incorporated business with subsidiaries in Australia and New Zealand. Our headquarters is in the Bay Area as it provides easy access to Tokyo, Sydney and Auckland. We also have local offices in Napa, Calif., and Wenatchee, Wash., along with team members based up and down the West Coast. Currently, Yamaha Agriculture has approximately 175 employees.

FJ: Ag technologies that solve a specific problem for the farmer seem to be the solutions that are adopted by American farmers. Are there any specific issues that your technology will be able to solve for growers?

NP: Currently spraying and weed control with our Prospr vehicle. However, it’s a modular platform, so the product roadmap includes several implements such as mowing and under-row cultivation. Our goal isn’t to develop implements from scratch. We are partnering with implement companies to integrate their tools on Prospr.

Separately, we also offer yield predictions and crop recommendations through our acquisition of The Yield. These two capabilities lay the foundation for increased closed-loop opportunities (actionable insights) with a focus on reducing block-level variability.

FJ: Do you have any concerns with the new U.S. administration’s trade policies considering Yamaha Agriculture is targeting the U.S. as a primary market for your technology?

NP: Yamaha sells a lot of products in the United States, ranging from motorcycles to outboard motors, ATVs and golf cars. As a result, we will take guidance from our broader organization and implement a strategy that is most effective for Yamaha Agriculture and our customers.

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Pears

Washington Pear Growers Face Record Flooding and Unusual Pest Management

Yamaha Ag Q&A: When Can Growers Buy Farm Robots? North America Rollout Explained