On our farm we grow a number of proprietary varieties of grass seed for companies in the Willamette Valley. This means that these varieties by and large are bred to have specific traits. Some have disease resistance, some are greener, some are lighter, some are tall and some are short….without sounding too much like a children’s book here and before I start to rhyme my way through this post I’ll cut to the chase.
When we grow different varieties many of them are certified by Oregon State University. When certified it means that they have been signed up as such, inspected to check for issues with the field and also been “isolated” from other varieties.
Instead of having to plant fields that are super far apart, which would not allow you to use your land and soil to the best of your ability; we create isolation areas for fields.
These areas are kept separate when harvesting and cleaning the seed and are then paid out at a lesser price. The seed from these isolated areas are considered “un-certified”.
So if you’re out driving around in the grass seed capital of the world, and see some very tall markers out in the field this time of year, it’s more than likely to show the isolation areas of that field to keep the variety and characteristics of the variety pure.
Or if you see a helicopter that is flying super low above a grass seed field; it’s more than likely to check out the stand of that field and approve the certified sign up.
Here is where I would have posted the picture of the helicopter flying around our fields. However (in true Brenda fashion) as I was writing up this post and watching the helicopter in one of our fields get closer to the farm so I could take said picture, I realized that we forgot to flag one of the fields! So if you’re reading this today realizing that “whoopsie daisy now I have to pay for another inspection” let’s just say you’re not alone. I didn’t stick around to get the picture, but instead headed quickly to the field and got the flags up fairly quickly, however I’m quite certain I missed the boat (or more accurately the helicopter) this time around.
NuttyGrass 