AgLink
Engaging Oregonians Around Agriculture
JUL-SEPT 2021
Feature:
Adopt a Farmer Back in Action
PRST STD US Postage PAID Portland, OR Permit No. 5
President’s JOURNAL
Summertime fun
Summer is here as we all have experienced having lived through all time high recorded temperatures in most places in the state. Summer has brought the kids home from school, in our district about a month later than normal. We just finished winter sports (basketball and wrestling) before the final bell. It is quite inspiring to see how many of the kids are resilient and kept their heads up through an unprecedented year. They will continue with there lives and tell their children and grandchildren about how they lived through a pandemic and school was conducted over the internet. By that time, it could be a completely normal process and the children will look at them like we look at our grandparents when they discuss not having phones and the great advent of the party line. Summer has also ushered in the return of the county fair. I will admit that I was a sports kid, I spent my summers working on the farm and in the weight room getting ready for the upcoming football season. However, I now have a great appreciation for the kids involved in FFA and 4H. The commitment of kids to their animals and projects is every bit as deep and in many instances deeper than my commitment to Friday night lights. The lessons I learned playing ball and wrestling were valuable, however the life lessons the kids I know who are involved in FFA and 4H run much deeper. I have seen first hand the speaking skills of a California district FFA officer who I enlisted to be a keynote speaker at a luncheon at the annual hop convention held in southern California that year. This young lady having never met me or having seen an actual living hop plant came and gave an overview of the career choices she and her fellow chapter members were choosing to pursue. This ranged from agriculture to medical to serving in the armed forces. They were all using the leadership and speaking skills learned in FFA to help secure places in their chosen fields. The other great aspect of FFA and 4H is community involvement. I would be hard pressed to name an ag supplier or processor who does not support the programs. They all see the value that these programs bring to the kids and the community. It is a heartwarming opportunity to attend an auction or the county fair where the kids display their animals and projects and the community supports them, not only with encouragement but hard dollars. In many cases these animals help to pay some of the college tuition and get the kids moving in the right direction. In return these businesses know that any child dedicated enough to raising animals and plan for college will return to the community as great leaders. With all that said I encourage everyone to go out and cheer on the school teams as we get back to school at the end of summer. But also remember to support those kids whose paths have lead them to a show ring with a steer or hog. Take time to attend a speaking competition or a debate. While the ball may not fly through the hoop, I guarantee you will leave just as impressed as if you just witnessed a three pointer at the buzzer to win the game.
Fred Geschwill Oregon Aglink President 2 AgLink
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Engaging Oregonians Around Agriculture
VOLUME 16, ISSUE 3
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 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.
Oregon Ag Fest Wrap-Up
Oregon Ag Fest moved to a new location with a new format in 2021 and Oregon Aglink participated in new ways this year, too! For more than three decades, the event has grown to draw more than 20,000 people over two days in Salem at the state fairgrounds. Since the fairgrounds were being used as a mass vaccination site for Covid-19, the event found a home for this year at the Clackamas County Event Center in Canby. Also new this year? It was all completely drive-thru as the typical gathering of previous years was restricted by the state guidelines and the Governor’s Executive Order. The event also started a day earlier than usual. Opening the gates on Friday, April 23rd, carloads of people were greeted by masked FFA State Officers or Oregon Dairy Princess Ambassadors, and some even got to see Betty the Berry mascot or Coni-Fir the Oreogn Women in Timber’s mascot! The first display past the greeters was Oregon Women for Agriculture’s Farmers Feed People which consisted of a small card table set for four people with plates, glasses, and silverware representing the four people a farmer fed in the 1930s along with a tractor from the same time period behind it. Then, in contrast, a 120 foot tablescape set for 155 people representing the number of people a farmer fed in 2018 with a modern tractor in the background. Following the farmers feed display, cars passed a dozen crop ID signs ranging from wheat to cherries. As the course wound around the event center, guests saw displays of farm and logging equipment, cows, sheep, chickens, goats, and more. Towards the end of the event, Oregon Aglink virtual field trips were on
Coni-Fir with Oregon Aglink Program Coordinators Leah Rue and Liz Schaecher.
display on a TV under a tent which was thankfully to help shade from the sun instead of keeping the rain out! Attendees received a QR code that smartphones can scan to pull up our Adopt a Farmer YouTube channel. We also contributed to the first coloring book for Oregon Ag Fest with pages in chronological order to the event and QR codes linking to further learning opportunities! Thank you everyone who made the modified Oregon Ag Fest event a success this year reaching more than 6,000 people! We’re already looking forward to giving away tomato starts, quizzing folks on Oregon ag trivia, and more people at our booth for 2022 Oregon Ag Fest’s return to the Oregon State Fairgrounds!
Oregon Women for Agriculture’s Farmers Feed Display. WWW.AGLINK.ORG
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Back in Action:
Adopt a Farmer Returns to School By Allison Cloo
Late in May, near the end of the 2020-2021 school year, Oregon Aglink staff visited Victor Point School in Silverton for some important business: bringing Adopt a Farmer back into the classroom.
keep this crop of students involved. “I appreciate the field trips and the class visits that then connect the field trips to science concepts,” says Lierman. “[Students get to] apply learning to real life situations and explore career paths,” she continues, “and it also shows that there are multiple career options in agriculture that require higher education.”
After a year of school closures and safety measures due to COVID-19, the Adopt a Farmer had its first inperson event in 438 days.
Luckily, the move to reopen schools with safety measures lined up with the construction of a new outdoor recreation area at Victor Point School. Adopt a Farmer staff received approval to do a “pop-up” event for all of the students who would have been receiving visits from farmers or taking the school bus to different farms during the year if the pandemic hadn’t caused such widespread closures.
In a typical year at this small Willamette Valley school, the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade classes would be paired respectively with a dairy farm (Abiqua Acres), a hazelnut farm (Aman Bros), and a berry operation (Willamette Valley Pie). When COVID-19 still had schools in safety mode for the start of the school year, the Adopt a Farmer program pivoted to virtual field trips and take-home kits for students who were either learning remotely or could not have visitors in the classroom.
Taking advantage of the good air circulation and shade, Oregon Aglink staff and volunteers set up four stations in the recreation area where small groups of students could comfortably spread out. A favorite station was the classic Turf Buddies activity, which highlights photosynthesis and the local grass seed industry. Another stop for the students included making ice cream in a bag after watching a virtual field trip of the robotic milking at Abiqua Acres.
Eighth grade teacher Megan Lierman has participated in the Adopt a Farmer program for several years and was looking for a way to 4 AgLink
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Adopt a Farmer staff member Leah Rue shows students how to shape the small ball of soil that makes the base of a “Turf Buddy”.
One familiar face at the pop-up event was Jake Tschiegg, an agronomist with Valley Ag who has participated in previous field trips to local grass seed operation Victor Point Farms and a packing plant Northwest Onion. This year the focus was on hazelnuts, from their early days in the field to the later stages of processing and distribution.
fall and be back on field trips and in the classrooms with the kids, and also hopefully we’ll be able to reach even more students with our virtual farm trip resources we’ve created.” Rotating through the stations, students seemed enthusiastic to be learning in the fresh air. Teachers from all three grades looked grateful for the guest speakers. Everyone seemed to enjoy the change of pace from computer screens.
“Some of those kids were at the Aman’s farm,” says Tschiegg, referring to the eighth graders who would have visited the hazelnut operation two years before. “They still remembered Tom teaching them how to crack the nuts with their hands. That was neat to see that Tom taught them and they kept it.”
The first and last in-person Adopt a Farmer activity for the 2020-2021 school year felt a little too short, but staff are already reaching out to past schools and farms to set up the familiar routine of class visits and field trips beginning in the fall. The students at all of our Oregon middle schools may not know it, but the staff and volunteers of Adopt a Farmer are just as excited as anyone to be back in the field connecting young learners with the agriculture in their state.
The hands-on learning is a signature piece of Adopt a Farmer programming that helps students connect higherlevel concepts to memorable activities where they physically move, play, and practice their problem-solving skills. In line with this thinking, Tschiegg had the students act out the stages of spraying in orchards where newly planted trees compete with weeds for nutrients--in this case, mini candy bars the students could keep. Liz Schaecher, the most recent staff member to join the team at Oregon Aglink and Adopt a Farmer, was hired just before the closures began in 2020. She has been key in adapting content and farm-school matches into the virtual format that still allowed students to connect with their local farmer. The Victor Point visit was her first in-person activity with students, and she brought a new activity for the Adopt a Farmer program: separating strawberry DNA to show how every berry contains “instructions” for growing into the sweet treats that people love eating every summer. “It was really fun to do a quick handson science experiment with them and watch their eyes get huge when they saw the DNA clump together in a test tube,” says Schaecher. Still, she adds, “I can’t wait to get back to normal in the
After mashing strawberries with salt and dish soap, students strain the mix through cheesecloth to help separate the DNA into a visible clump. WWW.AGLINK.ORG
AgLink 5
Beyond Farms & Ranches Food & Beverage Processors Now Eligible for Aglink’s Association Health Plan
This past January, Aglink launched its own association benefits program with the Leonard Adams Insurance agency of Portland. Farm and livestock companies were given access to over 20 medical and dental plans with a statewide and national network of doctors, dentists, clinics and hospitals. “Our members signing up for the program have seen a significant reduction in the cost of their medical and dental insurance,” says Mallory Phelan, executive director of Aglink. “Our own staff costs went down by quite a bit!” As of last month, per approval from the State of Oregon, the eligibility to participate in the program has expanded beyond farm and livestock companies to now include food processors and beverage operations.
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This change allows companies producing jams, jellies, sauces, frozen vegetables, chips, ice cream, chocolates, pastries, pet food, cider, wine, liquor, meats and snacks — to name a few — to get access to the same program as their farmer and rancher producers. The Aglink program offers employers a wide array of copay-style and healthcare savings account plans for their employees. Many participating companies give employees a choice of up to 3 plans to allow each employee to select the type of plan which best fits their personal or family needs.
AGLINK’S ASSOCIATION HEALTH PLAN
According to Richard Skayhan of Leonard Adams, most employers use a mix of an affordable “base” plan with fixed copay amounts ($20 for a visit to a primary care physician or urgent care) for doctor visits and prescription options, then adding “buy up” plans for employees, managers and company owners to select a plan with a lower deductible or out-of-pocket-maximum. Further, says Skayhan, employers may join the plan at any time so if they’d like to have a September to September coverage year, they can do so. Or, if they feel more comfortable with a January to January schedule, that works too. He says many companies believe they’re locked into a year of coverage with their current insurance company when in actuality, they can change at any time.
“Our members signing up for the program have seen a significant reduction in the cost of their medical and dental insurance. Our own staff costs went down by quite a bit!” — Mallory Phelan, Executive Director of Aglink
“The Aglink program has been set up to give employers the greatest flexibility and affordability possible so if they want to start now — because of the savings — and then change to a January renewal date for management purposes, it’s their option!”
experiencing billing under what’s called usual, customary and reasonable charges (UCR).
The Aglink dental program has the largest number of innetwork dentists available which helps employees pay less out of pocket for major services. Going to a dentist who has a contracted agreement with an insurance company allows an employee benefit dollar to go a lot further than
Current or prospective members of Aglink can contact Richard Skayhan at Leonard Adams (502-296-0077 or ricks@lacoinsurance.com) to find out more about the health and dental plans or get a free quote to see if the Aglink program is better for them.
WWW.AGLINK.ORG
AgLink 7
Let’s Get Some Perspective on Risk By Allison Cloo
In the day-to-day business at your own operation, it can be hard to see the big picture of safety. That can mean looking beyond this day, season, or year to the overall pattern of safety at your farm or ranch. It can also mean looking beyond your own business to see how safety decisions add up or come with consequences for your region or industry. A safety consultant like Eric Lloyd, owner of Oregon Risk Management Solutions, gets to see both of these things: the way a single farm might operate over time and also how its safety culture compares to other farms. Besides the human cost of injury or worse, the decision making on a single farm in turn can affect things like insurance rates and discounts on premiums via the Oregon Aglink partnership with SAIF. Essentially, each day and choice may feel like a stand-alone unit, but it almost always adds up in ways that we have trouble seeing on our own.
When 1 in a 1000 Catches Up Sometimes we rationalize that a risk only has a “one in a thousand chance” of causing injury or death. The chances seem so remote that it can feel worth the risk to play the odds and get away with a quick indiscretion like skipping personal protective equipment or checking your text messages while driving between work sites. With the repetitive and cyclical nature of farming, though, don’t forget that you might end up doing something a thousand times over a decade or your career. That “one in a thousand” is bound to catch up sooner or later. Another way of looking at “one in a thousand” is not whether you finally faced the odds after a thousand tries, but a common workplace behavior at farms across your industry might happen a thousand times in a year. Someone will probably face the bad side of those odds between January and December. The stories can show up in local papers or the safety reports from state agencies. They may seem remote and anonymous, but in some ways they can also seem familiar: how many times have you or a coworker taken the same risk?
Adding up the Costs On top of that uncertainty about where and when, the consequences can be unpredictable. Let’s take a common scenario like jumping down from a piece of equipment, maybe from the ladder on a combine or the side of a flatbed trailer. Young and fit employees might look at the jump-down as something easy, convenient, and even fun. Older employees might have the bad knees from a few decades of similar abuse — that too is a sort of cost to the repetitive behavior, even if it doesn’t seem like the “one in a thousand” injury that we might come up with when brainstorming how a jump could go wrong. 8 AgLink
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Ask a group of workers in the break room “what could happen?” and the list is easy to generate: sprained ankles or knees, broken bones, slips that lead to a head injury and so forth. Sometimes the lists of potential injuries can even get pretty creative and the exercise even seems silly. It can feel dramatic to point out that 15% of accidental workplace fatalities happen as the result of slips, trips, and falls, because so many slips, trips, and falls end up being minor. In many cases, you stand up, brush yourself off, and hope no one saw it happen. On the other hand, that statistic illustrates how seriously one can be injured during a common occurrence most of us have experienced. The truth is that there is a large spectrum of risk for some common behaviors on the farm, but very little range of reward. Unlike casinos, the “one in a thousand” odds for farms are typically about what you stand to lose rather than gain. The savings of time or materials may add up slowly over time, but rarely would they ever outweigh the potential risk of you or another person getting gravely injured on-site.
What You Can Do At Oregon Risk Management Solutions, Lloyd has some suggestions for action Items you can implement at your own operation: • Talk about habits at the safety meeting: “Our challenge to you is to take this back to your group on the farm where you’ve tricked yourself into thinking something is good practice just because nothing bad has happened yet,” says Lloyd. Think about the daily habits, from seatbelts to ladders or chemical usage, where the bad outcomes merit a closer look at the behaviors preceding them. • Take close calls or stories from similar farms a little more seriously: According to Lloyd, close calls are a chance to “ask what action items would we take if this were a serious injury rather than a near-miss.” Reporting on close calls in a safety meeting can lead to some nervous laughs or teasing, but the trick is to follow up: “take the same action either way,” says Lloyd, whether it resulted in an injury or not. Patterns and behavior matter over time, especially when they become models for other employees. That’s why it’s a “safety culture” and not just a set of rules. As much as we might see routines on the farm from day to day or season to season, new situations do come up. Our ability to apply some good safety practices can mean staying safe that first time and establishing a habit that keeps our workplace safe in future situations as well.
Workers’ comp that really works Low premiums, great service, and an unmatched commitment to safety—that’s workers’ comp that really works. saif.com
WWW.AGLINK.ORG
AgLink 9
2021 SUMMER EVENTS September 30
BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING LOCATION TBD
WELCOME NEW MEMBERS! Cape Blanco Cranberries
November 19
Fir Ridge Holstein Farm, LLC
12pm - 2pm
23RD ANNUAL DENIM & DIAMONDS AUCTION AND DINNER SALEM CONVENTION CENTER; SALEM OR
5 pm Check-in
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
The 23rd Annual Denim & Diamonds
Dinner and Auction November 19, 2021 | 5pm Presented by
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Produced by
mark your
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Executive NOTES Back To School
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 Justin Gutierrez, Columbia Bank Kathy Hadley, Hadley Family Farms 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
Interacting with people unfamiliar with agriculture and forestry in our state is the most exciting, surprising, and challenging part of working for Oregon Aglink. There is power in personal storytelling and genuine connection — it’s one of the coolest things to watch unfold. It’s the time of year when we kick all of that into high gear as students go back to school! The excitement of middle school students bounding off a school bus onto a farm for the first time is one of my absolute favorite things. They are curious and full of questions. Their worldview is taking shape from first-hand experiences and what a better place to gather those than on the farm? Students who struggle with attention in the classroom, often thrive on a field trip. We watch students become fascinated by things we forget are novel because they’re so common to a farmer. Adopt a Farmer field trip experiences help create positive associations with and a better understanding of Oregon agriculture. For the past several years we’ve also been connecting students in OHSU’s dietetic internship program with farmers and ranchers. Curiosity combined with critical thinking sure makes for a great jumping off point. These interns are passionate about food - nutrition, access, production, sustainability, the list goes on. There really is rich dialogue to be shared between farmers and future registered dietitians who could reach thousands of people during the course of their careers. We get to help with myth busting ideas like that organic doesn’t mean no chemicals. Sometimes interns have strongly held beliefs around food and farmers may share answers that surprise them or challenge those notions. Even if both sides don’t come to an agreement, we continue to have conversations and interactions that result in better understanding of one another. As we gear up for a school year with the excitement of students returning to school in person, we are excited to connect students and teachers with farms and ranches again. We are ready to see students face to face and hope to get them out of the classroom on field trips, but also understand that we’re still starting the school year with some uncertainty. Our farmers and ranchers are ready to host as soon as we’re given the go ahead by school administration to facilitate these valuable experiences. Working to make connections between Oregonians and farmers, ranchers, fishers, and foresters is so rewarding, worthwhile, and necessary. It is only thanks to our members’ dues, generous fiscal donors, and steadfast volunteers that we as staff are able to ensure that “back to school” includes agriculture. We are grateful for another year to help students know an Oregon farmer and are always looking to include more people in the program. If you are a farmer who has thought about participating, this is a great year to do so - and it’s not too late! Sharing your story and answering questions directly with Oregonians is a powerful and effective way to help create a two-way dialogue instead of one way streets.
Mark Shipman, Saalfeld Griggs Josh Stolpe, Papé Machinery Sam Taylor, Pacific Ag Solutions
Mallory Phelan Executive Director WWW.AGLINK.ORG
AgLink 11
Association Health Plan Have you heard about the new Association Health Plan through Oregon Aglink? Our members have exclusive access to a new health plan through our partners at Leonard Adams Co. There are twenty different medical plan designs that offer savings for employers and choices for their employees. A dental plan is available too!
Contact the team at Leonard Adams to get your free quote! Richard Skayhan, Benefits Team Director 503-296-0077 ricks@lacoinsurance.com Kristi Charlton, Senior Account Manager for Associations, 503-922-4868 kristic@lacoinsurance.com
MEMBER FEEDBACK/TESTIMONIAL
"We are coming from the individual marketplace, and had already looked into the regular group market, which would have saved us ~$250/ month. I then got a quote through the Aglink program. We'll have about $550/month savings AND a better plan!" Kathy Hadley, Freeborn & Hadley Family Farms