Category: Chemicals

1 Reason I Spray Round-up on Our Farm

We had a few nice days here in Oregon last week, and when it comes to spring time that means all hands on deck! This year in particular has been challenging because the rain just hasn’t stopped enough for fields to get dry in order to do much spring work. So in a matter of three days we were all running around like chickens with our heads cut off, fertilizing, spraying, planting, painting, you name it we were at it!

I had two sick kids at home so my role was mostly logistics manager via cell phone from the house. Nevermind a crying infant and wild toddler…I think I pulled it off pretty well.  But I did get to switch with Matt to enjoy a glorious 75 acre roundup spray application.

Round up in the past few years has gotten a bad wrap. Whether it be studies that it’s found in breast milk or the link to those oh so awful GMO crops, most are all very unscientific and unfounded. But that’s a whole series of blog posts, today I wanted to share why round up has made us more sustainable on our farm.

We have been growing no till spring wheat for about 5 years now on our farm. No till means that we don’t work the ground after the last crop is harvested. This saves not only time, fuel, and money, it also saves all the worms and bugs that have been making homes in the soil.  It gives the soil another year of resting which reduces soil compaction too.

 In order to do this however we have to be able to give the wheat a chance to grow in an uncompetitive atmosphere. If you were to take the field below, notice all the grass and weeds that are growing (basically everything that’s green)?

 That is all volunteer crop and weeds that if we planted into and never killed would be too much competition for our wheat crop and the wheat would grow a little bit, but would never be enough to even be worth harvesting.

So in the fall we spray round up on the fields to kill what grows after the final harvest of grass seed. Then we come back right before or right after planting to get one last application. Also round up only kills what is on the top of the soil, not disrupting any future plantings.

 I proudly wore my Monsanto hat, even though I was applying a generic brand of round up. I can’t help but appreciate having round up as a tool in our tool box that allows us to be better farmers and treat the land well.

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.

Business & Pleasure, A Trip South of the Border

I love when my hobbies in life can collide.  At the start of this month I was able to combine my love for traveling with my love for agriculture.  My husband and I took off for Mexico for a short getaway, a short conference, and a whole lot of sun!

 Bayer Crop Science has been a company that I have always been impressed with, but not more than in the past few years.  As a chemical company it might seem easy to stick their heads in the sand and just do what they have always done, which is provide safe and effective products for farmers all over the world, Bayer however is looking around at world wide agriculture and seeing that there are conversations that need to start happening.  Their commitment to agriculture goes beyond just the farmer, they work for the bees, the crops, and the soil.  Their slogan of “Science for a Better Life” is being played out right now at the forefront of their efforts.

 So on our little getaway we attended Bayer’s Horticulture Symposium.  Attended mostly by industry folks and farmers from all the Americas.  Along with Matt and I, Marie Bowers Stagg (OregonGreen Blogger) and her husband Tristan also attended to represent the Pacific Northwest.  It was interesting being at a conference where we had to listen through the voice of a translator for most of the presentations, but more interesting was that the challenges that people are facing all over the world are challenges that I am facing on my farm in Oregon.  The life of a farmer isn’t easy, pests find your crop no matter what, and learning new and innovative ways to take care of that pest is something that all farmers are looking for.  Another issue that was talked about at length was the challenge with finding good consistent sources of labor, a problem that has prompted more creativeness when it comes to robotics and machinery.

It wasn’t all about our problems out on the farm though.  We heard presentations about what customers around the world are looking for.  They like quality shown to them in certifications and standards, traceability, sustainability, and social responsibility.  So finding ways to balance all of that while at the same time encouraging the next generation of farmers, improving people’s lives and livelihoods, and taking care of the environment will be an ongoing conversation for as long as I’m farming I am sure.  It is encouraging though to see that these are real conversations that people are having on so many levels, from the dirt up you could say.

We were also fortunate enough to head out into Mexico for some farm touring.  We met a jack fruit farmer and a mango farmer.  Jack fruit is a large (watermelon sized) fruit that is grown in trees.  You won’t believe it until you see it!  95% of the jack fruit grown in Mexico is exported to the US, where it can be found in almost any Asian market across the country.

  I know, I know…let the jokes of “It looks like you swallowed a jack fruit” begin!
 Mangoes on the other hand are largely consumed in Mexico.  Only 35% of the mango production heads off to the export market. In the photo below is a 20 year orchard of mango trees.  To harvest the fruit, which grows throughout the very tall canopy, no ladders are used.  Just really good tree climbers, long poles for reach, and harnesses to keep from falling!

I did say there was a lot of sun involved and while it was a bit hot and humid for someone 7 1/2 months pregnant, it was still a great time to getaway!  We did go fishing one day and had a small amount of luck, the break from the humidity on land though was worth every second!

  We also were able to enjoy many sunsets on the beach, I had my share of mocktails, and some really really good food!

 I can’t thank our field man Barry Duerk from Bayer enough for inviting us to come and enjoy this experience of learning more about agriculture around the world, but also what they are looking at from their perspective.  I don’t think that there are easy conversations when it comes to how to best serve all parties involved in the agriculture industry.  It’s a complex system filled with farmers, pests, consumers, marketers and above all the ongoing challenge of getting enough food to feed the world.  I don’t think you can ignore the pure politics or complicated nature that gets injected into every piece of that puzzle.  But what I think we can do is keep having these conversations and keep working to find that balance that will probably never be fully achieved, but can always be improved and worked towards.  From what I saw on our trip south of the border, Bayer is going to be a player in these conversations for a long time to come!