Category: Agriculture

I am Oregon Agriculture!

Did you know that 98% of farms in Oregon are family owned an operated??  Well the Agri-Business Concil of Oregon is spreading the word that families in Oregon truly can say with pride, “I am Oregon Agriculture!”  The Agri-Business Council of Oregon is an organization that works to help reduce the gap between our farming families and our more urban neighbors.  I wanted to show you two new videos they have put out to help in accomplishing their goals in Oregon.

The first campaign is called “I am Oregon Agriculture”  This video is going to be airing on KATU starting today!  It features many farming families and lots of facts about Oregon agriculture.

This next video was actually shot completely on our farm, although we can’t claim any of the very cute kiddos in the video, it’s just a small bit of information that students get to take away when participating in Adopt a Farmer (the second great program Agribusiness Council of Oregon sponsors!)

I encourage you to hit up their website http://www.OregonFresh.net and see what is going on.  They have a great blog on there featuring many family farmers, recipes, and tips on where to find all this delicious Oregon grown food!

WE’RE DONE!!

We’re done with summer harvest!!!!

Peas for freezing – Check
Crimson Clover for seed – Check
Perennial Ryegrass for Seed – Check
Wheat for Seed – Check

Combining wheat is always a little more fun than ryegrass I think.  Mostly because you get to cut while you combine.  In perennial ryegrass we have to swath at night, wait a week, then combine the already cut rows that look like this.

wpid-2013-07-19_17-41-09_902.jpgBut in wheat, we make the haircut while also separating the crop from the straw.  It looks like this:

2013-08-08_13-26-49_164

We also get to dump on the go, the combine never stops (unless you have a girl like me driving and you have to use the bathroom every hour, sorry dad!)

2013-08-07_12-18-43_317

While in the cab you can look ta see the quality of the wheat that you’re combining by just looking through the window at the rear of the cab.

2013-08-07_11-53-47_9852013-08-07_12-41-50_164Here’s a picture of the final “Mohawk” I like to call it of wheat in our field.

2013-08-08_17-13-50_671And here’s one of how I felt when we were finally done!

2013-08-08_17-17-36_717A finished up wheat field, time to head for the barn!

2013-08-08_18-04-00_184

Hurry Up and Wait…

We finally finished up our third crop harvest.

1. Peas
2. Crimson Clover Seed
3. Perennial Ryegrass Seed

So after a month of beautiful weather, we finished grass harvest and hurried up to get the wheat header on, get the combine all cleaned up and set out to harvest some wheat…and then the weather changed.  It went from blue skies over the crop like this…

2013-07-25_19-45-05_1402013-07-25_19-46-13_476To a view more like this…with a wheat truck parked, patiently waiting for some sunshine.

2013-08-02_06-03-22_371I’m not complaining, this has been about the best weather a farmer could ask for the past month, so having to hurry up and wait this one time…no problem here!

2013-08-02_06-59-26_148And while other parts of the country are nervous about drones…we get to look at beautiful hot air balloons on nice calm mornings like this! Hope everyone has a wonderful end of the week and weekend!