AgLink
Engaging Oregonians Around Agriculture
OCT-DEC 2021
Double Feature: Agriculturist of the Year Alec Oliver Ag Connection Derrick Josi
PRST STD US Postage PAID Portland, OR Permit No. 5
President’s JOURNAL
Our Differences are Assets in Oregon Agriculture I am very excited to be heading to an in-person Denim and Diamonds event this year to see old friends and talk with new ones over a couple of drinks. For a lot of us that spend the day on farms and ranches, we can end up with a relatively small circle of people we see on a daily basis. While those people are great and we love all of them, part of the beauty of Oregon agriculture is the diversity of people we get to interact with in normal times.
While I was at Oregon State, my group of friends came from all corners and types of agriculture. We had grass growers from the valley, seed and mint growers from central Oregon, ranchers from Lakeview to Pendleton, a cranberry grower from the south coast, a dairy farmer from Tillamook, and I represented hop growers in my own special way. I find this difference of perspectives and experiences an asset. People may look at things differently but really should be judged on more meaningful qualities like how they treat others or contribute to their communities as a whole. Our award winners this year are excellent representatives of Oregon agriculture and some of the special differences it features in a single state. Derrick Josi runs his dairy in a lush green area near the coast, and Alec Oliver runs his ranch in the much drier and sunnier east. While it’s true that they both work with cattle and probably have things in common beyond the four-legged variety, this year they’ll share the stage as excellent representatives of Oregon agriculture. When I first learned about Alec Oliver’s story I was struck not just by his use of technology to oversee his ranch or his high tech gadgets that help him get around, but also by the level of determination and mental toughness it takes for someone with his challenges not only to persist but to excel. Managing a ranch with the scope of the Oliver Ranch is an impressive feat. Add to that the pride and pressure that comes from being in charge of the 150-plus year legacy, everyone will realize why Alec was chosen as Agriculturist of the Year of the Year. He will not only keep the ranch around for the next generation, he will make it a model for the industry to follow. Oregon Aglink exists to unite urban and rural people. We spend a vast amount of our time trying to explain what agriculture is to city folk. Under that definition, Ag Connection awardwinner Derrick Josi is a one man Aglink. What stands out is how “real” Derrick comes across. He is not scared to give his opinion, but he does it in a respectful and funny way that keeps people listening. We all can learn to be as proud of sharing what we do as Derrick Josi. We all should remember that in today’s world of judging people and being judged we should be proud of our lives and contributions to agriculture. No matter how uninformed or confrontational some are to our livelihoods, you can rest assured their lives would be much worse off without people like Derrick and Alec: people who are willing to put their energies into not only their operations but into making sure agriculture thrives into the future.
Fred Geschwill Oregon Aglink President 2 AgLink
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Engaging Oregonians Around Agriculture
VOLUME 16, ISSUE 4
2195 Hyacinth St NE Suite 105 Salem, OR 97301 971-600-0466 www.aglink.org OFFICERS Fred Geschwill, President F & B Transplants Michelle Markesteyn, Vice President Rootopia Abisha Stone, Treasurer SEDCOR Terry Ross, Secretary Integrated Seed Growers, LLC Megan Thompson, Past President Sage Fruit STAFF Mallory Phelan Executive Director Allison Cloo Director of Membership and Programs Leah Rue Program & Events Coordinator Liz Schaecher Program Coordinator
CONTACT US TO ADVERTISE IN OREGON AGLINK ADVERTISING AND GUEST FEATURES: ALLISON@AGLINK.ORG ©2021 Oregon Aglink. All rights reserved. Nothing contained within may be reprinted wholly or in part without the written consent of the publisher, Oregon Aglink. The opinions and perspectives published herein are those of the authors and should not be construed as those of AgLink® magazine.
Friday | November 19, 2021 | 5pm SALEM CONVENTION CENTER
Title Sponsor
Presenting Sponsor
Produced by
Tickets and details available at www.aglink.org WWW.AGLINK.ORG
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13th Annual Friends of Agriculture
Golf Tournament
One hundred and forty golfers joined Oregon Aglink to celebrate another year of golf and fundraising at the Chehalem Glenn Golf Course in Newberg. With the help of our hole and meal sponsors listed below, the Oregon Aglink staff and volunteers welcomed the teams made up of farmers, ranchers, suppliers, distributors, and other partners of agriculture who want to enjoy the fresh air and raise funds for programs such as Adopt a Farmer.
The Pacific Ag team took first place at the tournament. Pictured left to right are Gerry Diercks, David Andrews, and Josh Heckman.
Andrea Krahmer from Northwest Farm Credit presents Oregon Aglink executive director Mallory Phelan with a check to support Adopt a Farmer.
Oregon Dairy Princess Ambassadors hold up the golf ball of helicopter drop raffle winner Jamie Bansen of Forest Glen Jerseys. 4 AgLink
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Safety Weather BY ALLISON CLOO AND ERIC LLOYD
As days shorten and temperatures drop, many farms and other agricultural operations are moving from non-stop summer harvest mode to the slower pace of fall and winter. It’s what Eric Lloyd of Oregon Risk Management Solutions likes to call “safety weather”: a time where you might not have much to do in the field, but you’ve got a few extra hours to spare in your shop, office, or breakroom.
The most important parts to remember: write this down and remember where you put it. If you really want to get fancy, flip forward in your calendar six or seven months from now and leave it in a note for yourself.
Think Big (Or Not)
After you catch your breath from harvest but before you get sunk too deep in other projects, have a quick meeting with your crew to debrief. What went well this year that you want to remember for next year? What didn’t go so well that you want to avoid in the future?
If you’re staring down that extra time this winter and looking to fill the hours, switch your thinking from checklists to wishlists: what’s the big project that you never had time for during harvest? What are the things that could prevent minor accidents from turning into major incidents, or help your farm avoid fines later on? This could be something as big as rebuilding the locked storage for your chemicals or as small as installing hooks for the hoses that keep tripping you up and the safety gear that someone keeps forgetting. You’ve got time to re-imagine your safety infrastructure and organization, so check out some online catalogs and see what’s new.
If you’re feeling stuck, do a little “Who What Where When Why How” exercise to refresh your memories on how things went. Who solved a problem? What needed fixed? Where did things get tricky? When did things flow? Why and how did the rookie get his shirt ripped off in the bean picker?
Let us know what you’re working on this winter! Contact allison@aglink.org with pictures of your crew enjoying their tractor refresher with popcorn or your newest project on the farm and you could be featured in Oregon Aglink social media.
As you’re considering how to make the best use of that time, consider things like getting your annual refresher trainings out of the way and even how your overall safety program might benefit from a fresh look.
Before You Forget
The Annual Checklist There are four big refreshers that farms might need to remember, and the winter is the perfect time to get those done.
✓ If you run tractors, SAIF and Oregon
Aglink partnered to create a “Tractor Safety Elements” video available on Youtube in both English and Spanish.
✓ Worker Protection Standards (WPS)
videos for agricultural workers and pesticide handlers can be found in English and Spanish on Youtube as well, or downloaded along with many other tools from Pesticide Educational Resources Collaborative (PERC).
✓ Forklift refreshers can be a video, but it can also look like a hands-on skills test or a tailgate meeting where you hit the details and cover the most likely accidents.
✓ Respiratory Protection refreshers
can start with checking the written program to see if it’s current, then retrain on maintenance, cleaning, and storage. Put in an order for new materials if needed. WWW.AGLINK.ORG
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A Lifelong Learning Adventure at Oliver Ranch BY ALLISON CLOO
For some people, calling and visiting nearly a hundred ranches a year to discuss the various operations would make it hard to focus on your own land and business.
Rather than pulling him away from his home, the work Alec Oliver does managing the membership at Country Natural Beef helps him find perspective and motivation to lead Oliver Ranch. The blend of duties suits him well, and fellow industry members have noticed. He is Oregon Aglink’s recipient of the 2021 Agriculturist of the Year award following a nomination that called out both his external service to the industry and his “rooted determination, keen intellect, and visionary leadership” at his operation in Grant County. Oliver Ranch stretches across 13,000 deeded acres and a forest allotment, east of Seneca along Bear Creek and bordered by the Malheur National Forest where they graze cattle on an allotment each summer. Alec manages the ranch with his small and dedicated crew of family, mom Tinka and sister Kati, as well as a foreman, Jake, and another hand, Jay. The dogs Rocket and Alice have been joined by a more recent addition, Pepsi. Alec’s father passed away in 2017, leaving his son as the fifth generation of Oliver to run that patch of land.
Watching Over a Ranch Communicating with dozens of other ranches is only one of the out-of-the-box perspectives Alec has on his operation. Technology has changed how he oversees the ranch compared to his predecessors. Along with cell phones, which still work in spite of the spotty coverage, Alec uses drones to check and move his cattle, as well as the newest project: a collaboration with Northway Ranch Services using satellite imagery to measure ground conditions over time on his property and that of partnered ranches. “It’s amazing the technology we can use,” says Alec, “whether it’s a satellite hundreds of miles away in the sky or a camera right here on the ground and tying all that back into a spreadsheet” Some new technology came as a necessary adaptation following a truck accident in 2012, which paralyzed Alec from the sternum down. Although he can still work cattle from a ruggedly-equipped wheelchair or atop a horse, 6 AgLink
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Alec Oliver is the recipient of the 2021 Agriculturist of the Year award from Oregon Aglink. The presentation will take place on November 19th at our Denim and Diamonds Annual Awards dinner and auction courtesy of title sponsor Wilco and presenting sponsor Columbia Bank.
the drones allow him to check on far-off fields in a matter of minutes. Depending on the time of year and whether the cows have had their calves, Alec can even use drones to move cattle with pressure in their flight zones like he would with the horses and dogs. The drones and satellite imagery aren’t a compromise or a gimmick — they’re a type of innovation embraced on Oliver Ranch and added to the hands-on work that keeps it moving forward at a carefully measured pace.
Continuity and Change If you want an example of how grounded Oliver Ranch has stayed in its heritage, consider that the A2 brand at the ranch has been in use there since 1878. For every change that Alec and his family adopt in methods or technology, there is an equally strong focus on the continuity that ties the past to the future. “My family’s been right here since the 1880s,” says Alec, “and I want [us] to be here for another 150 years.” Alec has both seen and over-seen some changes on the ranch just over the course of his own life, which he points out is currently only thirty-two years worth of the much longer history. In 2001, Alec’s father had an accident of his own that shattered his pelvis and led to Oliver Ranch selling off its cows, moving from a full cow-calf operation to only grazing their pastures with outside cattle part of the year. After Alec graduated from college, he set out to rebuild their herd a few cows at a time. “Now we’re fully stocked on our own cattle again,” he says, and in the process of adjusting their balance of cows, calves, and yearling stock as well as their genetics and grazing methods.
His strategy for change acknowledges that agriculture, for all its shorter cycles of seasons, sometimes requires a longer view. “It takes a long time to notice change sometimes, and just sticking with it is really going to help,” says Alec. “There are some things we can do that we’ll notice a difference in tomorrow or next year, but there are also other things I may never see a big change but other generations will.” That means that the “quick” changes on the ranch like tinkering with their HerefordRed Angus cross or the length of grazing on springtime pastures may take longer to notice. Nevertheless, they are all part of the longer-term work of creating a more resilient ranch with well-suited cattle and meadows that make the most of their water each year. “A negative impact will be much quicker noticed and much longer lived than a positive impact,” Alec says. “It’s just that much more important to pay attention to what you’re doing and what implications are there with your actions.” The partnership with Northway Ranch Services to use satellite imagery of living ground cover and organic litter left behind after grazing is one way to measure the change each year, but Alec has noticed change at eye-level too. Insects, birds, and ruminants such as deer, elk, and antelope are more common sights again on the lands of Oliver Ranch now that the cattle are grazing year-round. While the grazing strategies might lend themselves to better water infiltration and carbon sequestration, and Alec can speak about those variables and more, he’s clear that the efforts are holistic and not just chasing buzzwords. As he says, “We’re watching to make sure the whole system is working together instead of focusing on just one part.”
Independence and Industry Whether it’s the Silvies watershed or the history of a century ranch, Alec often speaks of his operation as part of a larger setting. His take on the local community of Seneca is similar: no one is really alone, even in a region known for long stretches of forests and grassland between small towns. “We’re all really independent people out here and like doing things our own way,” says Alec, acknowledging the kind of
spirit that allows families like his to thrive in the area. At the same time, he says there’s a common spirit of living in the same landscape: “We don’t have a single bad neighbor. This is an incredible community that’s very willing to help and be around. It makes it easy to help them in return.” One of his neighbors is a celebrated rancher in his own right, and where Alec Oliver speaks fondly of his conversations with Jack Southworth, the owner of Southworth Brothers Ranch isn’t sparing in his praise of the younger man. “[Alec] is really managing a ranch, and too many managers think they need to be out operating a ranch,” says Southworth. “He is able to put the time in to do the financial planning, the grazing planning, the organizational planning that so many of us don’t take the time to do. We always think we’re going to get to it, but it’s late in the evening when we’re tired and we don’t do a very good job of it.” Alec talks about his degree in Animal Science and Agribusiness from University of Idaho and his work at Country Natural Beef as guiding forces behind some of those management strategies. Yet part of running Oliver Ranch seems like accepting a challenge to imagine more growth and, as part of that, being humble about how far he has to go. In his words, “It’s a lifelong learning adventure.” As he got out of college and later took over the ranch, he remembers, “I wanted to start at the same step as the guys I was looking up to were at, the guys who had been doing it for 40 or 50 years. That may not be realistic because you don’t have that experience.” As we know, though, Alec doesn’t quit. While it may not be realistic to start out with wisdom borne of decades in the industry, as Alec says,“to utilize that knowledge and experience, to have mentors and people that are willing to share and teach: that helps a lot.” “I attribute everything to my family, my heritage, my friends, and my neighbors and industry folk that have helped me along the way.” Join us in person at Denim & Diamonds or watch via live-feed on November 19 to see Alec Oliver receive his Agriculturist of the Year Award.
WWW.AGLINK.ORG
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The Farmer You Can Ask: Derrick Josi of TDF Honest Farming Out in the green fields and shaded barn stalls of Wilsonview Dairy in Tillamook, you can find over half a million people from around the world. That is, you’ll find them if you check the followers on Derrick Josi’s Facebook account for TDF Honest Farming. He’s racked up over 633,000 followers on that platform, with another fifty-plus thousand on Instagram and eighteen thousand on Twitter. That’s hundreds of thousands of followers that Josi invites into his world on a daily basis as he posts regular video updates and blog entries about his hardworking Jersey herd and the dairy business. Derrick Josi will receive the 2021 Ag Connection award from Oregon Aglink at the annual Denim and Diamonds award dinner and auction. He was nominated and then selected not just for his follower count, but his ability to reach a wide audience of friendly farmers, curious consumers, and even ambivalent activists. As Josi says, “if I didn’t think I was changing minds, I wouldn’t do what I do online.”
“Ask a Farmer, Not an Activist” Let’s dig into the TDF Honest Farming screen name that Josi has been using since 2016. “TDF” stands for Tillamook Dairy Farmer. Josi’s Wilsonview Dairy may be only one of nearly a hundred dairy farms that make up the famous Tillamook County Creamery Association co-op, but it may be one of the best known. His online presence has created a window into dairy farming in Oregon’s lush coastal region and into the industry more broadly: what happens during milking, how feed is managed, and even the topics that can stir controversy, like cow-calf separation and artificial insemination. That brings us to the “Honest Farming” part of his online persona. While he’s got a marketing person now, a recent book, and a partnership with clothing manufacturer Key Apparel, the success for Derrick Josi depends on his brand of honesty about the tough stuff. While “Cows Make Me Happy” is a crowd-pleasing slogan for the t-shirts pictured on many of his fans, the other popular slogan rings true for many in agriculture: “Ask a Farmer, Not an Activist.” Where online content about the industry can be dominated by anti-dairy activists, Josi is creating a body of work that 8 AgLink
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Derrick Josi is the recipient of the 2021 Ag Connection award from Oregon Aglink. The presentation will take place on November 19 at our Denim and Diamonds Annual Awards dinner and auction courtesy of title sponsor Wilco and presenting sponsor Columbia Bank.
sheds light rather than shuts doors. “I’m willing to talk about a lot of the issues that a lot of online influencers tend to brush over or don’t do deep dives, especially in the dairy industry.” It’s not so much courting controversy as depriving the more hardcore activists their fuel sources: confusion, emotional reaction, and the space to spread misinformation about dairy. His pinned post at the top of his Facebook page contains nineteen short videos, anywhere from three to ten minutes long, that address the frequently asked questions: what happens during milking? What about breeding? What’s a CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation)? How does he deal with bull calves? (Spoiler: he uses sexed semen for AI that brings the occurrence of bull calves down to around 5%). If you follow the account, you’ll see those topics re-addressed time and again along with the general daily business of milking, feeding, and problem-solving. Still, the fact that he’s not just posting the highlight reels and pretty scenery has paid some worthwhile dividends. “Groups that used to give me blow-back have probably come to the conclusion that I’m a lost cause,” says Josi. Creating an open-book atmosphere has reduced the number of negative interactions on his page. He continues, “when you push back at them they tend to end up leaving you alone.”
What Does “Pushing Back” Look Like? Most of us have seen the explosive interactions between farmers and activists, or at least between their respective followers. For a lot of people, “pushing back” could mean going blow-for-blow on comments and reactions. For Derrick Josi, some of the most successful “push back” has been the aforementioned videos, his blog posts, and now his book, An Industry Worth Fighting For. Beyond creating his own content, though, he’s a classic example of choosing your battles wisely. Part of Josi’s success stems from his choice to engage or not engage with others on social media. His videos are often framed to respond to viewer questions in the first place, but you can also spot him replying in the comments section of his own posts. After all, being around to respond to that curiosity or confusion
is a necessary part of the “Ask a Farmer, Not an Activist” slogan. Engagement can also be sharing or responding to activist posts from their own accounts, and that’s where Josi points out the need for a more strategic approach: “We see an activist video come out and we can’t help but share the video and try and tell people why it’s wrong or go into the comments and try to argue with people who don’t even care about our opinions. It makes us feel better that we’re doing it, we’re doing something, when all we’re really doing is letting someone see a misleading video and then see farmers sometimes viciously attack people that they don’t know.” It can be tough, but Josi makes it a point to hang back and see if the anti-dairy videos get any traction of their own. It can even happen that, sometimes, the video is revealed as being staged or edited in a misleading way. So much of that can be avoided, he says, if farmers avoid the trap of responding too impulsively. “We are our own worst enemy online,” says Josi. “We are just as guilty of emotional response as everyone else.”
Facts and Feelings Some of the long term work undertaken by the TDF Honest Farming brand looks like changing the social media landscape around farming in general and dairy in particular. The idea of consumer education has to reckon with the material that people can access online and how they interact with it. For instance, the emotional appeal of animals cuts both ways: it can be the warm fuzzy feelings about a cute calf, or the way a normal farming scene might inspire extremely negative feelings for people who don’t understand what is happening.
irrational engagement. That goes for consumers trying their best to navigate information online, but also for farmers who see their work being dragged through the mud. What kinds of emotions has Josi seen farmers express online at times? “Anger, frustration, betrayal, hate.” He also gives voice to some common feelings he’s seen: “‘They’re attacking our livelihood’ or ‘I hate these people.’” Josi understands it, and he has strong reactions too, but he goes on to explain, “You have to step back. In [the critic’s] view, what they’re doing is the right thing to do.” The information or facts they’ve got in mind are wrapped up with their sense of morality and a lot of feelings about animals, freedom, and suffering. When farmers respond with their own strong emotions, the conversation is moving further from resolution rather than closer to it. “They respond emotionally and then we respond emotionally, instead of taking a step back and realizing that we’re not changing anybody’s mind by doing it that way,” says Josi. “If you don’t take into account people’s feelings and try to see where they’re coming from, it doesn’t matter how many facts you use.” So what’s the solution? There likely isn’t a simple answer, but there’s an encouraging trend that Josi has noticed in the comments outside of his own accounts. “Every time there’s videos that surface online from these groups, inevitably there’s people in the comment section tagging me and saying ‘if you want to know what’s really going on with dairy, ask this page.’”
“Any emotional human being is going to be harder to reason with,” says Josi.
We’re used to seeing viral memes and videos spread across the internet, but good information can do the same thing. With patience and slowly-built trust, Derrick Josi and his TDF Honest Farming brand have become a credible source of information about the dairy industry.
And while it may be impossible to fully separate people from their feelings, we can acknowledge whether the conversation at hand is being powered by rational or
Join us in person at Denim & Diamonds or watch via livefeed on November 19 to see Derrick Josi receive his Ag Connection Award.
Derrick Josi with his daughters Reagan, left, and Dylan, right WWW.AGLINK.ORG
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2021 AUTUMN EVENTS November 19
DENIM AND DIAMONDS AWARD DINNER AND AUCTION SALEM CONVENTION CENTER For tickets and more, visit aglink.org
January 12-14
NORTHWEST AG SHOW
OREGON STATE FAIR AND EXPO CENTER For more info, visit northwestagshow.com
January 13
OREGON AGLINK ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING
OREGON STATE FAIR AND EXPO CENTER For more info, visit aglink.org
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WELCOME NEW MEMBERS! R & R Seed Farms, Inc. A & R Farms, Inc. Lange Winery LLC Solena Cellars 5-H Farms LLC Tails & Trotters Lewis Seed Co. Ankeny Vineyard Northwest Hazelnut Co. Gigantic Brewing Cornucopia Vineyards LLC Forest Glen Jerseys, Inc.
Know someone who should join?
Share this magazine with them! They can contact us at info@aglink.org with questions or sign up for membership at www.aglink.org/membership
Executive NOTES Agriculture Excellence Across the State 2021 OFFICERS Fred Geschwill, President F & B Transplants Michelle Markesteyn, Vice President Rootopia Abisha Stone, Treasurer SEDCOR Terry Ross, Secretary Integrated Seed Growers, LLC Megan Thompson, Past President Sage Fruit DIRECTORS Nicole Anderson, Wilco Joe Beach, Capital Press Ryan Bennett, Northwest Onion Company Dave Buck, Aldrich Advisors Jeanne Carver, Imperial Stock Ranch Dave Dillon, Oregon Farm Bureau Amy Doerfler, Doerfler Farms Brandon Emery, Corteva Jeff Freeman, Marion Ag Service Eric Groves, George Packing Kathy Hadley, Hadley Family Farms Bryan Henny, Columbia Bank Kerisa Kauer, MetLife Andrea Krahmer, Northwest Farm Credit Services Pamela Lucht, Northwest Transplants Margaret Magruder, Magruder Farms Molly McCargar, Pearmine Farms Jennifer McCarthy, Rabo AgriFinance Myron Miles, Miles Ranch Lori Pavlicek, 4-B Farms Karren Pohlschneider, French Prairie Gardens Dick Severson, Severson Farms
With the Oregon Aglink board deciding to forego awards in 2020 so as to ensure the honorees felt the full impact of an in-person ceremony, it has been even more of a joy and inspiration than usual to get to know both our 2021 Agriculturist of the Year Alec Oliver and our 2021 Ag Connection Award recipient Derrick Josi. Both men have significantly contributed to the betterment of Oregon agriculture in their own unique ways. Hailing from Seneca and Tillamook respectively, Alec and Derrick present a unique opportunity to showcase impactful work happening around the state. With a majority of Oregon’s population concentrated in the Willamette Valley, which is also where more farms and ranches are registered by number not acreage, Oregon Aglink has more members from this region and historically more award nominees and recipients, too. This is the first year we’ve honored people in agriculture who call an area east of the Cascades and west of the Coast range home. Both Alec and Derrick are younger than a majority of our previous award winners, which you might think is the main reason for their adaptation of technology on their operations, but that is only part of it. Alec’s motor vehicle accident that paralyzed him from the sternum down led him to adapt a “work smarter, not harder” philosophy into using technology in ways that most others don’t, such as sometimes using drones to monitor and move cattle. Derrick realized if he was consistent in sharing his life online, he could connect with people unfamiliar with agriculture not only in Oregon but around the world, becoming a positive influence on their perceptions of dairy farming. Another first for our annual awards? Both honorees have never been livestock producers! Unless you are in animal agriculture, you may not realize the scrutiny this segment of our industry encounters, not only from a regulation standpoint but also from people who have unfounded environmental or moral objections to dairy farming and cattle ranching. This is evident in messages producers like Derrick receive online, and also in the fact that there is a ballot initiative filed for the 2022 Oregon general election that if passed would make hunting, fishing, trapping, livestock slaughter and even pest control in our homes illegal. Voices like Alec and Derrick help bring reason to people who may be influenced by extreme or misleading views. Oregon agriculture and our state as a whole are better because of the steadfast dedication to growth and improvement Alec and Derrick commit to in themselves as well as in their respective operations. The future of Oregon agriculture is stronger because of their efforts and we all benefit from the work of these two men who lead by example. To say it’s been a long time coming feels like such an understatement, but I am so excited to gather together with Denim & Diamonds attendees to honor these two deserving men!
Mark Shipman, Saalfeld Griggs Josh Stolpe, Papé Machinery Sam Taylor, Pacific Ag Solutions
Mallory Phelan Executive Director WWW.AGLINK.ORG
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Agricultural safety webinars November 16 – 17, 2021
Trainings for Oregon’s agriculture industry Topics:
• • • •
Using communication skills on the family farm Every farmer is a firefighter Ag hacks 2.0...and introducing ag myth busters! After the ambulance leaves
We’re holding these webinars this fall instead of in-person seminars. Watch for an announcement in December about the seminars in early 2022.
Register at saif.com/agseminars, or call 800.285.8525 Webinar recordings and materials will be made available on saif.com, though credits are only available for the live webinars.