AgLink
Engaging Oregonians Around Agriculture
APR-JUN 2020
Member Q&A:
Schreiner’s Iris Gardens
PRST STD US Postage PAID Portland, OR Permit No. 5
President’s JOURNAL
The Learning Goes Both Ways What does Oregon Aglink mean to you? For some people, it’s all about getting kids onto farms through our Adopt a Farmer program. Some people see it as a bigger effort to show those “city folk” what agriculture is. For others, Oregon Aglink membership is as simple as a discount on insurance. And for others, it’s a chance to get together with far-flung friends from across the state at a killer annual dinner auction.
For me, as I step into my year as Oregon Aglink president, I think first about how the organization helps me reach people from other walks of life. I get to share how blessed I am to live on a farm with my family, but that also gives me the opportunity to learn about people who live in a different environment than I do. The learning can always go both ways. I have friends in Portland who don’t own cars, for example. Yeah, they don’t own a car! Then again, why would they? They walk or ride their bike a mile or so to work. They can get across town with a bus or an Uber. Why would they spend thousands of dollars on a car? What we feel is a necessity is a liability for them. It’s all about perspective. When I talk to my friends about living on a farm, they frequently ask “How big is your farm?” The concept of a section, 100 acres, 5 acres, or even one acre is foreign to them. No matter what I answer, a look of amazement often crosses their face. Our farm, which has passed down a few generations, is something that I see every day. We use it to make a living and raise our families. I view it as a part of my life, but for someone who makes a living in a city that concept might be vague. They might view wide open farm ground as a national resource, something akin to a national forest. “Why would someone own so much land?” they might wonder. This opens up a chance to really explain what it takes to be a farmer or rancher, and how many resources are required to make a living raising crops and livestock. These things are new to them in the same way I am still working to understand why my doctor friends spend so much money for a tiny office space in a building downtown. They might ask why someone would own so much land, but I ask how it can possibly cost that much to pay for insurance to be a dentist! All of these people are the same as me in many ways, yet quite different. It’s not a fundamental difference in who we are as much as a difference in the environment where we live and work. Oregon Aglink is an opportunity to learn from and communicate with people from all walks of life. I challenge each of you to take time and make a friend that lives a completely different life than you. Travel to their world and spend a little time there. Take an Uber to a community deli together and meet the people they spend time with each day. Then ask them into your world, take them out and walk a field, let them see what you do when you get up at 5 in the morning to start irrigation or feed the cattle. To me this is what Aglink is really about: learning about our fellow Oregonians and trying to understand each other. So I challenge you to take a chance, step outside of your comfort zone and meet other Oregonians.
Engaging Oregonians Around Agriculture
VOLUME 15, ISSUE 2
NEW LOCATION 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 Danielle Meyersick Program Coordinator Liz Schaecher Program Coordinator
CONTACT US TO ADVERTISE IN OREGON AGLINK ADVERTISING AND GUEST FEATURES: ALLISON@AGLINK.ORG
Fred Geschwill Oregon Aglink President 2 AgLink
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©2020 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.
WELCOME NEW PRESIDENT
Fred Geschwill BY ALLISON CLOO
After serving for three years on the executive committee of Oregon Aglink, Fred Geschwill has begun his yearlong term as president of the organization. The board of directors and Oregon Aglink members welcomed him at the Annual Meeting this January. Geschwill owns and operates F & B Farms in Woodburn with his wife Leigh, brother Bill and sister-in-law Heidi. Fred and Leigh have both been active in industry organizations such as the hop and nursery associations, as well as local fundraisers for schools and the Woodburn community. They had first learned about Oregon Aglink and its mission of educating consumers about agriculture in the late 1990s when they attended one of the first Denim and Diamonds award dinners. “Oregon Aglink seemed to fit right in with what we were already doing,” says Geschwill. The new president was thinking about his current term before January, though, as current executive director Mallory Phelan and other Oregon Aglink staff have noted. In anticipation of his year as president, he asked Phelan whether he could have a “theme” for his year. His idea? “Two-way communication,” or learning that goes both ways as farmers get a chance to expand their worlds while teaching people where their food and fiber come from on the farms, ranches, nurseries, and other agricultural operations in the state. It’s not that Geschwill believes that people in agriculture have more to learn or need to catch up to the rest of the world. Instead, he sees it more as an opportunity that we shouldn’t miss. Traditional education has its benefits of course-- Geschwill graduated from Woodburn High School and attended Chemeketa Community College and Oregon State to earn a crop science degree. His formal education has been useful in running F & B Farms with his brother and their wives after taking it over in the late 1990s. Still, he talks at greater length and more fondness of an early education on the farm. Fred was named after his grandfather, but the older German man actually went by Fritz. “Big Fritz and Little Fritz” could
often be seen together doing chores around the Woodburn farm that grew hops, row crops, and cattle. Fred’s parents even dressed their son in the same overalls as his grandfather. “It evolved all the way to the point where he would come and pick me up,” says Geschwill, “he would get in trouble because he wouldn’t tell my mom and I had just disappeared out of the yard.” Thank goodness for everyone that it was a disappearance with a happy ending, as Little Fritz was always found later on with Big Fritz just going about the business of farming. One thing we can take from those early memories of riding around with “Big Fritz” is that the simple exposure to farming and experience of that daily life can have a big impact in the long run. It’s on this principle of experience and exposure that Adopt a Farmer does its best to give students multiple chances each year to relate to a farmer or rancher and, at least once, visit their operation to see, touch, smell, taste, and hear what agriculture looks like there. Geschwill is a big believer in the Adopt a Farmer program, and is also interested in working with the adult education program that creates opportunities for people to take an educational field trip even if they are well into their own careers. As part of opening up more lines of communication within agriculture and between rural and urban groups, Geschwill wants to pursue writing letters and opinion pieces for wider audiences outside of Oregon Aglink. While the Capital Press is a possible destination for guest columns, he doesn’t want to limit himself and miss a chance for readers in Portland and college towns to feel connected to agriculture. Finally, Geschwill says, “I’m really looking forward to getting out with Mallory [Phelan] and meeting people from the rest of the state. I think it’s really important to reach people in all different parts of Oregon.” “I want to see it engrained in Oregon Aglink as part of its whole ethos,” says Geschwill. “That’s really the number one thing: if I could get that to happen on some level where it’s always a two-way communication I feel that would be the biggest win.” WWW.AGLINK.ORG
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2020 Annual Membership Meeting Oregon Aglink members from all parts of the state converged on the capital in January to attend the 2020 annual membership meeting at Salem. The meeting once again took place at the Oregon State Fairgrounds during the Northwest Agricultural Show, presented by EO Media.
Updates from the Office
Following a board meeting that morning, members enjoyed lunch sponsored by Rabo Agrifinance and Pape Agricultural Machinery while executive director Mallory Phelan reported on important events during the past year of fundraising and education. These include:
AUTHOR MICHELE PAYN
Keynote Speaker
Oregon Aglink invited author Michele Payn back to speak about communicating with consumers, challenging misinformation, and her newest book, Food Bullying: How to Avoid Buying B.S.
Following her other books, Food Truths from Farm to Table and No More Food Fights, Payn has developed new material • Changes in office location and staff, creating to help farmers and other food producers understand the substantial savings and better access for members way people make decisions about the food they buy and and associate organizations. eat. According to Payn, it is “critical for everyone in this room and everyone out there and everyone who works in • Vision and Mission Resets that will help guide staff agriculture to understand the perspective on the other side in future work. of the plate.” • Continued engagement at events like the State FFA Convention in Redmond and Oregon Ag Fest in Salem. Payn encourages producers to think about reaching • New partnerships with groups like the Tualatin Valley consumers as an effort of conversation rather than Soil and Water Conservation District to produce road education. She provides many examples of the fear-based safety signs for members in Washington County, and food headlines and the emotion behind food marketing a sponsorship by Northwest Farm Credit to place over that can lead some farmers to assume that consumers are twenty new Crop ID signs along I-5. stupid, misinformed, or uneducated. Instead, Payn argues, • Further work with Adopt a Farmer and the Farmers Share we should be “listening to where people’s priorities are” education tours in partnership with OHSU and Oregon and meeting them there, whether it’s a matter of safety, Department of Education. freshness, or the people behind the food.
2019 YEAR IN REVIEW Top left to right: 2019 Denim and Diamonds, Farm Caution Sign Collaboration, Oregon Dept. of Education Tour 4 AgLink
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Together in Unprecedented Times By Mallory Phelan We know that the COVID-19 coronavirus is disrupting our economy and communities right now and will have long-term impacts, too. The immediate effects are seen in what a whirlwind March has been. The price of milk has plummeted after a hopeful start to the year, as did the value of lamb, wool and pelts, and time will tell what happens to the grass seed market if golf courses remain open or the housing market slows. With a 1500% jump in unemployment filings the last week of March, food insecurity in our state is increasing. On the positive end of the spectrum, demand for wheat, price of apples as well as potatoes jumped as sheltering at home consumers' needs are met through retail sales. Farmers markets are down to core functions and CSA shares from small farms are growing quickly. And of course we all know the demand for timber products like toilet paper, which is still flying off the shelves. For our organization, the first disruption due to the coronavirus in our calendar was the cancellation of the 92nd Annual Oregon FFA Convention. It is one of our favorite weekends of the year and we missed being part of the energy in Redmond in person, but we were so impressed with the quick adjustment to offer essential parts of convention virtually. Next came the cancellation of Oregon Ag Fest when more than 20,000 people come to the Oregon State Fairgrounds over two days in April. They will still give their Ag Education awards and promote 30 days of Oregon ag facts across social media in April. We’re already looking forward to these events in 2021! After the closure of schools and the Governor’s executive order, our work to engage Oregonians around agriculture is shifting to work to connect with people in new ways. Our Adopt a Farmer program has had to adapt to this new environment. With field trips and classroom visits suspended through the school year, we are working to make many of them available virtually! We will collaborate with Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom to pair extra curriculum and promote the field trip across digital platforms. Looking toward the 2020-21 school year, we hope to be back to normal operations which will include matches in new counties in Oregon, but are planning contingencies if need-be.
Our small farm safety program met virtually in March and we are working hard to develop more safety content in partnership with Oregon Risk Management Solutions to be available electronically. We’re also taking this time to improve our websites. Our aglink.org site has an Oregon Ag calendar we’re looking to build as a one-stop place to check what events are happening to help avoid crossover of functions in our industry. We’ll be launching our Adopt a Farmer website focusing on connecting middle school students with Oregon producers. Finally, we’ll be updating our consumer-facing website oregonfresh.net with 2017 USDA Census data. Yes, agriculture is still open for business — but as Dave Dillon, Oregon Aglink board member and executive vice president of the Oregon Farm Bureau noted, there's a difference in continuing to operate and operating profitably. USDA's Farm Service Agency is increasing the flexibility of its services to ensure producers have what they need to continue operating. The U.S. State Department is waiving interviews for most H-2A guest workers, but worry about available workforce for harvest as well as farmworker health is already apparent. There’s some relief coming down the pipeline. The $2.2 trillion federal stimulus package has $9.5 billion for livestock, including dairy, specialty crops and local food producers as well as $14 billion to replenish the Commodity Credit Corporation which was established in 1993 to stabilize, support, and protect farm income and prices. Locally, SAIF Corporation has established a $10 million fund for policyholders affected by the coronavirus. We encourage our members and greater community to be proactive in communicating with lenders and government agencies to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on your businesses. While we can't get away or ignore the headlines that feel like a month's worth of news every week, we can come together. Farmers, ranchers, fishers, and foresters are particularly adept at problem solving and surviving. In this new economic and social landscape we are navigating, it is more important than ever to share resources and find new ways to collaborate with one another. We've always known agriculture is essential to our world and we will navigate these unprecedented times together. Visit our COVID-19 response page with resources for Oregon agriculture at aglink.org. WWW.AGLINK.ORG
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Adopt a Farmer on the Road! March 10
hood river
March 4
Coos bay
trip one 6 AgLink
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March 5
klamath falls
March 6
merrill
By Allison Cloo In addition to maintaining established partnerships, Adopt a Farmer staff are always looking to grow new relationships with farmers and teachers around the state. A portion of this work is being funded by our current Specialty Crop Block Grant from the Oregon Department of Agriculture which will help us expand into seven new counties within the next two years.
March 10
hermiston
To explore some new opportunities for the Adopt a Program, Oregon Aglink executive director Mallory Phelan and I took two trips in early March to meet representatives from local extension offices and school districts and develop leads on where the program might head next. Altogether, we had seven meetings in seven days. Between getting to the meetings and getting home, we covered 1,600 miles of the state!
March 9
la grande
trip two March 9
ontario
Since the agents and school district representatives sometimes covered multiple counties, the potential reach of the program might extend beyond just the counties visited (Coos, Klamath, Malheur, Union, Umatilla, and Hood River) and spread into neighboring counties as well. There were also several interested parties who were not able to meet us during the tight travel schedule, but information will be available to them and anyone else who thinks there might be a potential Adopt a Farmer match in their area. It was exciting to hear about the many programs already working to educate students about where their food and fiber come from. Along with great programs like Oregon Ag in the Classroom, there were stories of 4-H, FFA, SNAP-Ed, Farm to School and School Garden programs doing fantastic work on a local level. Our goal is always to support and integrate with local efforts so that students get multiple opportunities to see why agriculture is so important to Oregon. Along with warm receptions, we received many great questions about Adopt a Farmer at all of our meetings. One of the greatest strengths of our program is how simple and beneficial we try to keep our program as we coordinate schedules, provide activities, and reimburse schools for buses and other costs associated with transporting students to a farm or ranch for the day. We’ve had a chance to learn from years of our current partnerships, and creating new connections in new areas will help us refine even more as we serve communities across the state. Stay tuned for the possibility of some big new matches in the 2020-2021 school year! WWW.AGLINK.ORG
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A Chat with Oregon’s Iris People
By Allison Cloo
If you have driven north or south on I-5 during any May of the last half century, you’ve probably noticed the colorful fields of irises outside of Keizer. These belong to Schreiner’s Iris Gardens, a member of Oregon Aglink. Around our office, they’re also known as long-time users of our Crop ID signs for their irises, of course, but also for the wheat and clover they plant as rotational crops. The Oregon part of the Schreiner’s story starts as the family moved West from their origins growing irises in Minnesota, where F. X. Schreiner had first begun breeding and selling them in the 1920s. By 1947, his children had relocated to the Willamette Valley to a 15-acre parcel, which has since grown to just over a hundred acres. The 10acre show garden, a draw for iris-loving tourists and photographers every May, sits on the original parcel of land. Ben Schreiner, grandson of the founder, was kind enough to share some thoughts in an interview earlier this spring to help us understand some of the work behind the beauty:
Q: Does Schreiner’s still create its own hybrids? Has the method or scope of this side of Schreiner’s changed over time?
A: Yes. We generally introduce 16 new hybrids each year. These are selected out of the thousands of seedlings we grow. Some seedlings are only given one bloom before they are discarded. Others we may keep for a few years before we decide to get rid of them. For those that are ultimately introduced, it’s usually ten years or so from the time of the initial cross.
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Q: Where do your products end up and how do they get there? How are people ordering them?
A: We sell both retail and wholesale. So on the retail side we sell both via our website and a printed catalog. The majority of sales now come via the web. The retail rhizomes (as an aside, irises are technically rhizomes) end up in the home gardens of our customers. On the wholesale side, we sell to various large bulb and garden companies and distributors. Wholesale rhizomes are generally shipped to warehouses or greenhouse growers. They will then sell them to box stores, garden centers, or directly via their own catalogs and websites.
Q: What factors determine which varieties you grow each year?
A: We want varieties that are strong growers and bloomers. Strong growers because these will provide us the numbers we will need to sell each year and because a strong grower is more likely to thrive in a garden setting. Strong bloomers because the bloom performance is the reason people want to grow iris in the first place.
Q: Many people come for events, the show garden, or to walk along the fields. What are some other aspects of the Schreiner’s property/ operation they might not be seeing that are still essential to the business? To put it another way, when the flowers aren’t in bloom, what sort of work is still happening?
A: Once bloom is finished we prepare for our shipping season. From late June-October we have to dig all our fields, divide and grade all the plants, and then ship out orders and replant our fields. So the bulk of the work is done during that time. After replanting in the fall we have to finalize inventories and start taking wholesale orders. We will also prepare our retail catalog during this time. Outside, we have to service all our equipment, fertilize/spray our fields, and maintain our
grounds. As spring comes we have to prepare for our bloom events and then start hybridizing. We also grow daylilies. Certain daylilies are shipped in April, otherwise the daylily schedule is similar to the irises.
Q: What are some of the biggest challenges you face year to year? Are there different challenges now than there were 20-30 years ago? Are there any challenges down the road that you're keeping an eye on?
A: I think the biggest change we’ve seen in the last 20-30 years has been in the labor market. The amount of people looking for agricultural work has been on a significant decline for some time, and I don’t think that’s going to change going forward. That forces us to focus more on mechanizing where we can and streamlining as many processes as possible. Another challenge is the weather. Farming always involves battling the weather to a certain extent, but we’ve noticed that the weather patterns are becoming less predictable. And again, we know this is something we will have to deal with going forward, as the climate as a whole is changing globally. For more information on Schreiner’s products and events, visit their website at schreinersgardens.com or follow them on social media
The crimson clover and wheat that Schreiner’s uses as rotation crops can be just as stunning as the irises.
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Executive NOTES Process of Change
2020 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 Anissa Branch, Riddell Farms Dave Buck, Aldrich Advisors Jeanne Carver, Imperial Stock Ranch Cindy Cook, Cook Family Farms Dave Dillon, Oregon Farm Bureau Amy Doerfler, Doerfler Farms Jeff Freeman, Marion Ag Service Bobbi Frost, Harrold’s Dairy Larry George, George Packing Justin Gutierrez, Columbia Bank Kathy Hadley, Hadley Family Farms Doug Hart, Hart’s Nursery of Jefferson Kerisa Kauer, MetLife Andrea Krahmer, NW Farm Credit Services Randy Lyons, NORPAC Margaret Magruder, Magruder Farms Molly McCargar, Pearmine Farms Jennifer McCarthy, Rabo AgriFinance
According to Merriam-Webster, the first known use of the word transition was in 1545. Other first known uses from that year include: thick-skinned, traditional, revise, sure enough, and workable. The stories of Oregon’s natural resource industry are rooted in transitions — big and small, they all play a role in where we have been, who we have become, and where we are going. One of the big, generational transitions for farms, ranches, forests, and fishing boats is that of succession. The next steward of the land and sea is traditionally a passing of responsibility from one family member to another. Traditional (one of those other words first used in 1545) doesn’t currently paint the whole story of succession in Oregon. Succession is happening from family to employees, by sale to other producers or investment groups, and going out of business - a reminder that transition has not always been peaceful, ideal, or comfortable. Especially while going through transitions as big as succession, it is often difficult to feel like it is workable in the present and hard to see what it will be like on the other side of it all. There may be no better illustration of transition over time than examining the evolution of what Oregon’s land and water has produced throughout the decades. From the endless orchards full of hazelnut trees of varying ages across the Willamette Valley to the explosion of hemp production all around the state, Oregon’s farmers are pioneers in innovation and their willingness to transition ground to new crops. Many farms no longer have animals like their grandparents raised and ranches look different than they did decades ago. Not only are all our producers having to comply with a myriad of regulations, but interrupted access to local, national, and international markets necessitate creativity and flexibility. The ever eternal optimists, Oregon’s food, fiber, and shelter producers are constantly looking to revise practices and improve efficiency in the safest and most sustainable way. What worked for one generation might not be the best for the next - the world is changing rapidly and Oregon producers are at the forefront of keeping up with it all. At a time in which so many facets of our life are being disrupted, we are served well by remembering that transitions across Oregon’s farms, ranches, fisheries, and forests have been happening long before we were here. In fact, the decisions of our ancestors are why we are here today. We are strongest when working together, generation to generation, neighbor to neighbor, and community with community. Thankfully, we don’t have to look far to find these examples all around us or in our past. It’s within our power and our interests to set more of these strong examples for the future.
Myron Miles, Miles Ranch Lori Pavlicek, 4-B Farms Karren Pohlschneider, French Prairie Gardens Kelly Ross, Oregon Fairs Association
Mallory Phelan Executive Director
Dick Severson, Severson Farms Mark Shipman, Saalfeld Griggs Josh Stolpe, Papé Machinery Sam Taylor, Pacific Ag Solutions WWW.AGLINK.ORG
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Nominations
now open
Awards begin with Nominations. Nominations begin with You. Help us recognize the best of Oregon Agriculture by nominating an individual, group, or organization for one of our annual awards presented at the Denim and Diamonds dinner and auction in November.
Ag Connection: To honor outstanding work connecting the public with agriculture. Agriculturist of the Year: To honor an outstanding contribution to agriculture as a whole. For more information, including a list of past winners, please visit aglink.org
The 2019 Agriculturist of the Year award was shared by Dave and Rita Doerfler of Ioka Farms in Silverton, and Dona Coon of Oak Park Farms in Shedd took home the Ag Connection award. You can learn more about both award winners in the Fall 2019 issue of AgLink magazine or by visiting our website at aglink.org.