Category: Agriculture

Seed Pre-emption at the Oregon Legislature

We are currently in the midst of a short session of the Oregon Legislature.  This year there are over 600 bills to get through, and only 35 days to do it.  Which means that many of us farmers are walking the halls of the capital more frequently than the rows of our fields.  Yesterday I headed down to Salem to testify on a bill that would remove important aspects from the Seed Pre-emption law.  A law that we got passed back in 2013, after a long hard battle.

The basic run down of this law is that it prohibits counties and cities from regulating seed production in Oregon.  This is important because as farmers we don’t want to have 36 different laws regulating how we can grow our seed, or 36 different policies on the growing of GMO’s.  It’s a common sense law, that protects farmers.

Here’s a good article that sums up nicely what is going on with this issue as of right now.
Oregon Seed Pre-emption Law Challenged in Legislature.

And here is what I looked like at the Capital yesterday…yes, baby in tow.

He was a trooper and didn’t complain too much about his early start to agvocacy.  Like I told many people yesterday, I’m here because I want to continue my legacy of farming here in Oregon.  I want my sons to have the opportunity to put their hands in the same soil that their great grandfather did.  And to do that, here in Oregon, we have to continually show up in Salem to let our voices be heard.  To hear testimony from many farmers you can click the link below.  The public hearing portion starts at about 1:09 into the meeting.

http://oregon.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?clip_id=10569

As the article states it was mostly farmers who testified yesterday and they all did a great job.  Now if only the battle was even close to over.  Tuesday presents another opportunity for this law to be called into question.

Photo Friday, Shop Safety Film Shoot

I was originally going to plan a “I am alive” post considering it’s been so long since I’ve blogged. I can assure you it’s not due to lack of content ideas, although my ideas have included topics closer to the realm of “How many dirty diapers can a person handle?!” than “Farming in the fields.”

  But regardless of that wanted to share a few photos from a fun project our farm got to be a part of this past week. 

SAIF and Oregon Aglink came together to working a farm shop safety video that will be given to farms all over Oregon to help in training employees.    

 I’m really excited to see the finished project considering the shoot included things like an ambulance scene, tea party and a poker game.  

    

 All in all it was a fun day with a great group of people! Both SAIF and Oregon AgLink have always been committed to keeping workers safe on our farms here in Oregon. A big thank you goes to them for their time and commitment. 

And now it’s back to diapers…until next week (hopefully)!

Working in the Cold here in Oregon

We have been having some pretty cool weather here in Oregon lately.  Which to tell you the truth, I have been loving!  It’s been that cold freezing and crispy weather, where the sun comes out yet you still have to wear a hat and gloves if you’re working outside.  It is a sign that this year not only is our little baby #2 due to arrive in just a week and a half, but also that Christmas is coming, winter work is gearing up and the hot long days of harvest are behind us for another few months.

  
So what do we do when it’s literally freezing outside?  Some days there is a lot of shop work or office work we find ourselves working on.  Other days you just do what you would have done if it had been 60 out.  Last week was one of those days and Matt and I headed out to the back of the farm to calibrate a sprayer that we had just finished doing some tweaks to.

  
Our sprayer can just about drive itself, it is GPS and auto steer equipped to give us an incredible amount of accuracy when out applying crop tools such as pesticides, herbicides, fertilizer, etc.  So this year we did some updating that made the automatic shut off even more accurate, and as smart as computers are, you still need to calibrate.  So I bundled up and headed out to stand in a field on a freezing cold morning and watch a sprayer turn on and off.  I know…it was thrilling!  It was awfully beautiful though with all the frost, and I’ll say it again, I just love this cold weather!

  
I hope that everyone has a great week.  Sorry I have been not very timely in my posts lately.  I have a list of excuses a mile long but really the only real ones are that family and farming have taken up most extra ounces of my time as of late.  And with our new baby due in only 11 days I doubt things will get better.  So bear with me for awhile, maybe a long while, on my blog posting consistency.