Category: Farm Bureau

This is Your “Off” Season…right?

I hear this a lot when talking to people who aren’t farmers.  “Why are you so busy right now, it’s not harvest.”  or “I bet it is nice to not be so busy, it’s not like the crops are growing right now.”  And while yes, both of those things are true.  I more often talk to farmers this time of year about how truly busy we are right now.  While the crops might not be springing out of the ground with the colder winter weather, we take this time of year to learn more, walk fields and see what’s going on, catch up on industry news, and sometimes take time to play too.

This week alone I have a meeting or sometimes two almost everyday.  Today is my day off from meetings, so I’m getting payroll done, paying bills, checking on fields, getting a crew started working in one of our fields, organizing chemicals, picking up more for our next dry day, and looking through the endless pile of paperwork on my desk.

IMG_2732One of our fields that we are going to have to kill off because the slug damage is too severe.  We are working on trying to find a new crop to plant this spring so that this land isn’t a total loss this season.

It might not sound like much but trust me, it’s enough.  The rest of the week is filled with a GMO speaker, county farm bureau meeting, hazelnut grower meeting, state farm bureau committee meeting, local farmer meeting, ryegrass grower meeting, all with a week ending in a little more play at a chamber of commerce dinner for farmers.  I am not complaining though, I really do enjoy getting together with people from our industry.  There is always something that you can learn and take away that will be a benefit to your farm.  So while we aren’t out in the fields for 14 hours and working 7 days a week, this time of year can be just as busy; just a different kind of busy.

 

Loss of a Great Farmer

We all know that farming is dangerous.  Those of us who are out there everyday on large equipment…working near to moving gears and belts.  Driving down roads where our urban neighbors and us rural folks share the highway.  We all know it’s dangerous, we all respect it as much as we can.  We sit through hours of safety training every year, yet everyday a farmer is killed in this country.

So when I hear the tones for our fire department go off and it’s a tractor vs. motor vehicle accident.  I feel that as farmers our respect for the danger of our jobs has hit full force into the world where our speeds don’t match up to everyone else out there.  So I listened with my baby in my arms, knowing I couldn’t go.  Knowing that just down the road someone’s life, many people’s lives were changing faster than they ever thought possible.  The nightmare was hitting.

The farming industry in Oregon lost a great soul last night.  He was a farmer, he was a dad, a husband, a volunteer, board member, and one of those people who you were always glad to see.  There aren’t words for how much I want to tell his family about what a good man he was.  Or how he always had a way of rallying the troops around what he cared about, around what he knew was important not just to all farmers but to all people.  I know that when he spoke, people listened, because they trusted him and respected him.  And we laughed with him…oh all the laughter!  He was goofy, kind, and serious all mixed in a man who stood taller than most in stature, personality, and character.

Scott Miller, you will be missed by so many.

 

Oregon Farm Bureau Ag Tour 2013

A few weekends ago I took the weekend off and headed out on the road with other member of Oregon Farm Bureau to learn a little more about what Oregon agriculture entails.  This tour is done every other year and is put on by Oregon Young farmers and ranchers.  The tours are always focused on different areas of the state, as I’ve said before Oregon is incredibly diverse when it comes to types of farming and crops grown.  This year we were in somewhat my neck of the woods.  Only a few miles to the south and a few miles to the west, the amazing thing though is that I saw so many different types of farms, who are right next door to what I’ve always known.

The tour consisted of 3 days and about 15 stops.  I won’t go into all of them but just wanted to highlight a few and share a few photos and interesting facts.  Our very first stop was Willamette Valley Fruit Company.

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  • Family owned company started in 1999.
  • Work with over 20 local farmers to get ingredients for their products.

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  • Produce 2400 pies in one 8 hr shift.
  • The company itself processes over 20 million pounds of produce every year.
  • Their products also include cobblers, 2-pound bags of frozen fruit, freezer jam, jar jam, honey, syrup and fruit snack bars.

IMG_0043Another stop was in Tillamook Oregon, at the Pacific Seafood Company.

  • IMG_0130Pacific Seafood has a restaurant and oyster processing facility in Tillamook.  They process Oysters year round here.
  • Did you know an oyster can filter up to 30 gallons of water a day?!IMG_0135
  • Oysters can be genetically modified and have been for decades.  They found that by removing the sex chromosome in the oyster it will produce even in the summer months, allowing for a year round season.

IMG_0141Our last stop of the weekend was to the nation’s largest Christmas Tree farm!  Noble Mountain Christmas Tree farm is located in Salem Oregon.

  • IMG_0261This farm covers over 2000 contiguous acres.
  • They will plant 550,000 new trees every year.
  • IMG_0234They will also harvest over 500,000 trees every year on average and in only a 25 day window!
  • Their customers include local vendors around Oregon, but also all over the United States.
  • They also sell to Home Depot, Lowes & Wal-Mart.
  • IMG_0231IMG_0233They revolutionized their ability to harvest thousands of trees by adding helicopters into the list of harvest equipment many years ago.
  • They usually use 2 helicopters during the harvest season.

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So there is just a small peak at what we managed to squeeze into three filled days of touring Oregon.  Our other stops included a winery, flower operation, 2 dairies (one with a robotic milker!), grass seed cleaner, nursery, Portland Wheat marketing center, farm market & apple/pear processing facility,  and a beef ranch.  So as you can see it was a busy weekend, but it was also very interesting!