Lady bugs eat aphids off the wheat.
Bees pollenize our squash.
And crazy hopper bugs move in for harvest.
Tag: Farming
Farm Talk
When I was down at Loyola Marymount for college, my freshman year I got put with a random roommate, miss Ashlee. She was a city gal from San Diego, who did have some roots in farming but for the most part, my life was very foreign. We are still very close friends to this day, it was a great random assignment. But I remember very vividly the first few months and even still today she will stop me mid-sentence and say, “Ok quit talking Farm Talk, I have no clue what you just said!” I never thought of how I talked to be “farm-ish”, honestly there are many times on the farm that I’m lost as to what to call things still today. I use “that thingy over there”, or “You know that deal that rolls, with the notches, and the whoop.” So I thought I would put together a small piece of translation so when you come out to visit, you can bring your dictionary for “Farm Talk”
Rig – any vehicle that you drive
Truck – A semi-truck of sorts, NOT A PICK-UP
Pick-up – If you’re smart it’s your Ford…if you’re not it’s your Dodge or Chevy
Jockey Box – Glove box
Creek – pronounced Crick, small trickle of water that runs below our farm
Baby Grass – A first year grass seed field
Yellow – Our Yellow Truck
Blue – Our blue truck (seeing a pattern here?)
Mojo – The ’67 Ford that was bought new and still runs like a champ
Lean To – Any building that is open on one side and connected to a shop or fully enclosed structure. If you have a shop, or any building you have to throw up a lean to, I’m not kidding. Even my house has a lean to!
“To Town” – If you go to this place, always ask everyone if they need anything, town is not close and fuel isn’t cheap
“Beep Me” – We use direct connect, or basically walkie talkie each other…Niner Niner
Tile Suck-out – When the tiles that are underground that we use to help the soil drain, break. It causes a HUGE hole in the ground and has to be flagged so that we don’t loose a tractor in a hole.
Anchor – corner post for your fence, not for your boat.
Slicker than a hog on Ice – be careful whatever it is, it’s slippery!
Romeos – Comfortable slipper looking shoes, great for work and everyone has them
Pop – It’s not soda, it’s not cola, it’s not even Coke…it’s Pop!
Oregon – Now this is important…it’s pronounced OR-GUN…not OR-EY-GONE
Most important thing to know – How much Rain did you get yesterday?
Farmer’s Tan – The reason when I put my arms next to my legs after summer, it resembles a ying yang sign.
What do you think…did I miss anything?? Anymore “Farm Talk” on your farms??
Why I want to End the Oregon Death Tax…
I have been working on a campaign to End the Oregon Death Tax for about 6 months now. It all started when I got wind of a small gathering in my town to talk about the death tax and an initiative that was hopefully going to make it to the ballot this coming November (with a lot of work, signature gathering, money, etc.) I feel like I’m a fairly informed person, I love to learn and read and try very hard to keep up on what is going on, especially when it comes to issues that are close to the agricultural industry. So when I heard a lot of facts about the death tax in Oregon, I realized that this issue was much more detrimental and harmful than I ever expected.
I know that I have written a blog about this issue already (as have many of my friends) but I feel as though lately I’m getting more and more questions about why this is important and more and more statements from people about why farmers have never been and aren’t going to be effected by this and it’s all about big rich terrible slimy investors saving in taxes. I’m sick of people asking me how much my farm is worth, and then telling me that there is no way I will reach an exemption. I’m sick of people looking at the death tax as a non-issue just because it doesn’t affect them since they aren’t millionaires. So here you go, all you naysayers! Here is my honest story about why the Death Tax WILL affect me someday.
- To those who say farmers have never been and won’t ever be affected…
I personally know of farms that have been split up because of the death tax liability. They have had to sell off portions of their farm, split up a family business, and take huge hits personally because of a death of a parent. To those who want specific examples, that is as specific as I will get because it’s their story to tell.
- To those who want to know how much my farm is worth and if I will reach the exemption…
I want to give you an example of a typical farm in my area. 1000 acres of prime farm ground, market value can be upwards of $10k-15k per acre. Right off the bat with only the land, not including buildings, houses, shop equipment, harvesting equipment, large tractors, trucks, etc, you are hitting $12 million dollars. So let’s say that both parents die, and the agricultural exemption (even though no one can really explain it to me clearly) is at $7.5million per person. If we take a conservative land value amount along with all the other things involved in running a farm you’re still left with about $3 million that is taxable, usually at a rate around 10%. Are you still doing the math? It’s $300,000…in cash…that you and your siblings as heirs have to pay to the state within 9 months. Do you have that kind of cash?? Or do you expect a farm to have that kind of cash when over farms are usually very leveraged against that land just to make their operating loans every year? And just as a reminder, majority of these farms are generational, so as it is in my case, more than likely the family a generation before has already paid the tax on that same base of land.
- Death Tax is a non-issue and won’t affect anyone other than millionaires…
This tax, doesn’t just tax the rich, it inhibits and discourages successful business to come into our state. Oregon is becoming an increasingly business unfriendly state and I think this is another way that we can start to turn that around. You can’t have a healthy economy without jobs, and you can’t have jobs without businesses willing to come in, invest in our state, and plan to stay for the long haul. I can’t move my business, but I have to tell you that after paying income taxes, after dealing with measure 66 and 67, there is a large part of me that wishes I could pick up my soil and move it to a state that sees the common sense piece that in Oregon we are missing. I am not a millionaire, my dad is not a millionaire, and my grandfather was not a millionaire. We are farmers who just want to be able to farm the soil that generations of blood sweat and tears have given to us.
As you can see I’m passionate about this issue because I honestly see it as a true road block for my future here in Oregon agriculture. Please take the time to look at the issue, contact me if you have questions and I will try to help to clarify, and please help us to get this out of our state so we can start healing and making Oregon’s economy better for family business. Also just fyi…signed petitions are due July 6th!
NuttyGrass 