2018 September Agriculture Magazine

september 2018

In this issue

M A G A Z I N E

Polyculture Goat lice, 4-H and more!

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100 Old Corvallis Road, Hamilton 363-3411 • rc.mt.gov/fair/

in this issue Polyculture of profits.............................................. 5 Goat lice.................................................................. 7 Hoary Alyssum........................................................ 8 Kennel cough.......................................................... 9 County Fair............................................................ 10 4-H in Ravalli County............................................ 12 Dirty fingernails..................................................... 15 How much water is enough................................. 17 Agricultural Heritage Notebook......................... 18 Tasty words............................................................ 22

MAGAZINE How did you like this issue of Agriculture Magazine?

Do you have any ideas you’d like to share with us for our next issue?

Let us know. Send comments to: Ravalli Republic, 232 West Main, Hamilton, MT 59840 or editor@ravallirepublic.com photo on this page provided by Ravalli Counth Weed District, Ravalli County Extension, Ravalli Couty Fairgrounds, ABC Acres Agriculture Magazine is published by the Ravalli Republic & Missoulian Newspapers, divisions of Lee Enterprises Mike Gulledge, Publisher Perry Backus, Associate Editor Kathy Kelleher, Lauren Parsons & Jodi Wright, Sales Dara Saltzman, Production & Design Agriculture Magazine is copyright 2018, Ravalli Republic.

232 W Main, Hamilton, MT 59840 ravallirepublic.com

Page 4 - Agriculture Magazine, September 2018

PHOTO COURTESY RAVALLI COUNTY MUSEUM

Steam shovel working on the big ditch.

Agriculture Magazine, September 2018 - Page 5

photos courtesy of abc acres

Diversity can bring profits to ag operations

by Tim Southwell ABC Acres

“You know, if you wait until dark, the chickens will go into the coop on their own.”

This was advice from a fellow farmer after hearing me complain that I simply couldn’t get the chickens in the coop at the end of the 5 p.m. work day. And thus began my foray into the world of agriculture. Pan forward almost six years and with a commitment to permaculture principles in our day to day operations, I can say with complete confidence that I know just a little bit more as to the ins and outs of farm life.

My evolution as a somewhat competent farm operator is not only the result of day to day successes and failures on the farm, but also net-

working with folks more knowledgeable than myself. Whether chats over the fence-line, at a local conference, or via the Internet highway, I have listened to many successful men and women that have come before me. And while the topics fluctuate from fostering vitality and health in one’s soil, pasture, crops, and livestock, the underlying fabric that links them all together is diversity.

And, yes, diversity in the sense of a polyculture of plantings most certainly increases nutrient and mineral loads in the soil, which in-turn provide nutritious fodder for the animals, while also offering fertilization and pest management aspects throughout the landscape.

But the idea of diversity in the farm operation

Page 6 - Agriculture Magazine, September 2018

does not stop with how you design your landscape, it has a much broader reach. Such mentors as Joel Salatin, Greg Judy, and Gabe Brown speak to the importance of diversity in a farm’s income. By not putting all your eggs in one basket--farm pun intended--lines of revenues are established that can ebb and flow with the unpredictability of today’s weather patterns. By implementing such an approach at ABC acres these past few years one such revenue stream has risen above all others; a revenue stream that all agriculture-based operations can implement with handsome returns.

The past two decades have seen a dramatic rise of the number of folks traveling to National Parks and other public lands, seeking a connection with their food, and enjoying experiences over material possessions.

The Farm Stay, an agri-tourism based offering, has gained traction coast to coast. During a Farm Stay guests spend a few days to a few weeks or more on the farm taking in the scenery and connecting with the natural world around

them. Happy to stay in a small cabin, or a large home, should that be available, the guests enjoy the sites, sounds, and activities all around them.

Theres’s no extra demand on the farmer’s side, though up-sell of value added items such as farm fresh food, walking tours, off-site activities, etc.) all bolster revenues. Multiplying ‘bed nights per year’ times corresponding ‘per night rates’, financial models showcase how small cabins can be erected and costs met to make this a viable annual income for almost any local farm operation.

So when it comes to outlining a plan for diversifying your farm operation make a point of including aspects beyond a rich, polyculture pasture. Whether selling annuals at the farmer’s market, raising pork for a local restaurant, or selling shares of beef to the neighbors, a venture into Farm Stays and the growing agritourism market will be both a rewarding and financially satisfying venture added to your farm income portfolio.

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Agriculture Magazine, September 2018 - Page 7

My goats have lice! Now what?

By Christin Rzasa Veterinary Technician Burnt Fork Veterinary Clinic

We see it every winter and spring – like dandruff at the skin-edge of a goat’s coat: lice. It’s as common here in the Bitterroot as spotted knapweed and probably as inevitable!

Lice exist all over the world and getting rid of them is extremely difficult if not impossible. That doesn’t mean that controlling them is either impossible or unnecessary.

Fortunately there are two pour-on products on the market for use in treating goats infected with lice: Cylence and Synergized DeLice.

Both of these products may be available at your local farm and ranch supply store (be sure to ask the staff if you don’t find them at first, as they may be able to order them) or online at Valley Vet Supply. They are comparably priced although Cylence is available in a smaller amount (16 oz) than the Synergized DeLice (1 gallon), which may make it more attractive to goat owners with fewer goats to treat. Either product can be safely used on lactating does and young kids, and both have short withdrawal times for meat animals. In most cases, the goats should be re-treated in three to four weeks depending on the product used (please refer to the package inserts or call your veterinarian for recommendations) to get the emerging hatchlings.

It is important to keep in mind that treating the animals is just one part of the solution to lice

infestations. We tend to think of lice as preferring to stay on their target animal, but with goats, these pests also take advantage of their environment. They thrive in old barn wood, dead trees and stumps, jugs, barns that are only cleaned once or twice a year, and even in old hay piled up around feeders.

You can also use either of these products as premise sprays for heavily infested jugs or barns (after they have been cleaned). photos perry backus Keeping lice populations in check is another good reason to maintain clean living areas for your goats!

Nutrition is another factor to consider when dealing with any parasite. Lice infestations are worse in underfed or malnourished animals. Since winter weather requires goats to use more calories to stay warm, the amount you feed your goats may need to increase some to compensate for the additional energy and to help ensure that they are healthy enough to stave off those lousy opportunists!

This is especially the case for young kids—which should be treated for lice as well to help their immune system and avoid the risk of anemia (in severe cases).

Goat lice are an unfortunate reality in raising these wonderful animals—especially in winter— but they’re not the end of the world, and we’re fortunate to have the tools to deal with them!

Visit Burnt Fork Veterinary Clinic at http://burntforkvet.com/.

Page 8 - Agriculture Magazine, September 2018

Hoary Alyssum needs your attention western Asia. It is believed that the weed has been in the United Hoary Alyssum, does it have you States since the early 1800s. Now worried? it’s wide spread throughout the If not - it should! This is the United States and Canada. Hoary fastest spreading weed we have Alyssum is a Priority 2A Montana in our valley and in Montana for state listed noxious weed. Hoary that matter. It is considered to be Alyssum is the fastest spreading part of the mustard family and is noxious weed in Ravalli County. also known as “hoary false madThe slightest bit of moisture wort” and “hoary false alyssum.” causes new infestations all season It thrives in dry conditions and long making this plant hard to in alkali soils. In Ravalli County treat and eradicate.

Hoary Alyssum can be found in So why is this plant so bad? In all types of sites - dry gravel bars, pastures, Hoary Alyssum decreases roadsides, meadows, pastures and photo provided by ravalli county weed district forage value but ingestion of the everywhere in between. plant can be fatal to horses if its effects are not The rigid stems are hairy and feel like sandcaught early. Hoary Alyssum is of great concern paper. They are grayish-green in color and grow to horse owners due to its unknown toxicity. one to three feet tall. The stems branch many Research at this point shows that if this plant times near the top and has a white cluster of consists of 30 percent or more of a horse’s diet small flowers about the size of a quarter, each they can show signs of poisoning that could flower has four white petals that are about a half lead to death. The plant can also remain toxic in a centimeter long and tipped with two lobes. cured hay. Symptoms of Hoary Alyssum ingesAlong the stem there is a small, oblong, and flat- tion in horses include the following: laminitis, tened seed pod. Each pod contains two to six leg edema, stiffness, fever, diarrhea, premature brown seeds. Seeds can germinate from early birth, and abortions. However, if treated early, spring to late fall. Seedlings established early in most horses recover. the spring and continue to flower and produce The best ways to treat and reduce Hoary seeds all season long.

Alyssum is to use herbicide and pulling. The Hoary Alyssum is an annual to short-lived pulling method is great to use for small infesperennial forb native to east-central Europe and tations especially if the weed has flowered. If you want to mow the Hoary Alyssum and it has flowered cut the flower and seeds off first, then DeeAnn Cranmore, CIC place the flowers and seeds into a garbage bag, (406) 375-9500 then mow. The best method to dispose of the dcranmore@mwfbi.com weeds is to place them in a plastic garbage bag www.dcranmore.com 803 S 1st St, Hamilton, MT 59840 and take them to your landfill. If you are considering herbicides to treat the Hoary Alyssum, HOME | RANCH | AUTO | BUSINESS | LIFE | ANNUITIES or have any questions about Hoary Alyssum or other noxious weeds please contact the Ravalli County Weed District at 777-5842.

By Kellieann Morris Ravalli County Weed District

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Agriculture Magazine, September 2018 - Page 9

My dog had the ‘kennel cough shot’ and still got kennel cough!

By Christin Rzasa Veterinary Technician Burnt Fork Veterinary Clinic

This is a complaint veterinarians hear occasionally from dog owners and the owners’ concern is valid, but it also illustrates the pervasive misunderstanding of this common canine illness. What we generally refer to as “kennel cough” in dogs is more technically known as “Canine Infectious Respiratory Disease Complex,” or CIRD. As this more accurate description implies, there are a number of causes for this malady—and most likely a novel bacteria or virus appeared in our area last year to join with our local instigators to cause the problems we saw.

In fact, studies have demonstrated that the root of this illness most often involves more than one bacteria or virus. Dogs purposely exposed to only one factor showed only mild symptoms.

Researchers have been unable to find the exact cocktail to artificially reproduce severe symptoms (in otherwise healthy dogs).

While the cause is usually multi-factorial, the most common pathogen is bordatella bronchiseptica—“bordatella,” for short. Not only is bordatella the most common cause of “kennel cough” symptoms (harsh, gagging cough, nasal discharge, watery eyes), it is extremely contagious and can persist in the environment for a long time. Direct contact isn’t necessarily required for a dog to become affected because bordatella can be spread through the air or water, and your dog could pick it up on a daily walk.

Studies have shown that clinically healthy dogs can be carriers of bordatella (78% in one study) and are capable of infecting susceptible dogs, and although this disease is most common in places where large numbers of dogs gather (kennels, shelters, grooming facilities), its ease of transmission and persistence in the environment

make it the most logical cause to target with a vaccine.

While bordatella is not widely considered a ‘core’ canine vaccine, most veterinarians strongly recommend this vaccine for canine patients, especially those older or health-compromised canines. Many boarding facilities require the bordatella vaccine to be renewed every six months; however, vaccine guidelines compiled by the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA)— along with other veterinary groups—recommend a yearly dose to be adequate. For dogs going to a boarding facility, it should be given at least a week before boarding.

While symptoms of this disease are not usually treated in otherwise healthy dogs (because the illness generally runs its course over about 14 days), CIRD can cause more serious symptoms including loss of appetite, lethargy, fever, as well as pneumonia. These cases should definitely be addressed by a veterinarian. A dog’s lifestyle is certainly a factor to consider, but unless a dog is completely isolated from other dogs and never leaves her home environment, the bordatella vaccine is a wise option for owners wanting to ensure the health of their beloved pet.

Visit Burnt Fork Veterinary Clinic at http://burntforkvet.com/.

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Page 10 - Agriculture Magazine, September 2018

Ravalli County Fair entries displayed in the First Interstate Building.

photos courtesy of Peg Andersen

Come play with us at the next year’s fair

By Joy McClure Superintendent Beer & Wine and Canned & Preserved Foods

The 2018 Ravalli County Fair has been put to bed. We had 1,099 exhibitors that brought in 7,891 exhibits to the County Fair. It takes a community to make a great county fair.

We have so many people that come to our fair from out of town or out of county and out of state. They always say the same thing,

“What a wonderful old fashioned, family oriented fair.” So what makes a fair with that kind of flavor? The exhibits.

Which brings me to this question: what did you exhibit at the county fair? Those of us who help to bring you, the community, the county fair, depend on you, the community, to bring in your exhibits. Your handwork, your canning, your flowers, your vegetables, your

Agriculture Magazine, September 2018 - Page 11

art work, your baked goods, your quilts, and the list goes on.

Every year we are delighted to have the first timers. Those excited souls that have never before entered the County Fair. This year we had a 74-year-old woman enter baked goods.

She had never entered a county fair and was positively glowing with excitement to do so this year. Last year we had a woman that had just lost her mother. She made pickles from her mom’s recipe and won a champion ribbon. There were a lot of joyful tears over that entry.

We talk to a lot of people at fair time. The most common reason for not entering is the “I could never do that…” excuse. We’re here to tell you that you can do that with a little help.

Every one of the 35 different department of the fair has the names and phone numbers of the superintendents. Call them. Ask ques-

tions. Ask for help. That’s why the names and phone numbers are listed. They would love to help you with whatever exhibit you might be thinking of entering. There is a large group in the community that think their hard work isn’t worthy of a ribbon. We are here to tell you, you are wrong.

So here is our challenge to you: enter the Ravalli County Fair in 2019. Even if you only enter a jar of raspberry jam or a photograph.

Enter it. Enter the fair and become part of the fair fabric that brings the community together for 4 magical days each fall.

It doesn’t cost you anything to enter an exhibit. Just follow the rules in the Exhibitors Handbook. And to let you in on a secret... if you win a ribbon, you get a premium – as in money – and you get bragging rights for a year.

So in 2019 it’s a date…Come play with us!

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Page 12 - Agriculture Magazine, September 2018

photos courtesy of Peg Andersen

Ravalli County 4-H members have many different projects to explore each year. Many members choose to exhibit at the fair while others choose to just take a project. Want to join 4-H? Contact your MSU/Ravalli County Extension Office at 375-6611 or ravalli@ montana.edu to get connected with a club in your area or start a new one.

4-H is alive and well in Ravalli County

By Katelyn Andersen MSU/Ravalli County Extension

Raising kids is an important yet challenging job. Fortunately, there’s a group of people who love the colors green and white, repeats the mantra “making the best better” when mistakes occur and “learning by doing” to describe their work. This group is also known as Ravalli County 4-H where families work together to share knowledge and to help kids learn practical skills and important values.

“Past 4-H members in the county may wonder if the program is shrinking since the face of

agriculture in Ravalli County has changed. Our 4-H program is alive and reaching more youth in diverse settings. We have dynamic volunteer leaders who care about the youth and their personal success,” said Katelyn Andersen, MSU Extension Agent.

4-H is the youth development program of Montana State University Extension and it is celebrating the start of their 106th year in Montana.

This connection to the university system makes 4-H different than other youth organizations.

“Here in Ravalli County, there are 21 community clubs, over 150 registered adult leaders, and about 475 4-H members. Every year our office

Agriculture Magazine, September 2018 - Page 13

reached over 2000 youth through various school and out of school activities. This means one out of every four kids ages 5-18 is benefiting from the learning by doing philosophy. It does take effort to be engaged in a 4-H club but the benefits are tremendous,” Andersen said.

The 4-H program is the youth development program of Montana State University Extension.

The Extension Office also provides non-biased, research-based education in the areas of agriculture, 4-H/youth development, community development, family and consumers sciences and natural resources.

The 4-H program started around the turn of the 20th century. There were many society changes that spurred the beginnings of 4-H. For example, families were moving from rural settings to the cities. School wanted to incorporate agriculture in the classes.

At this same time, researchers at the experiment stations (much like the MSU Experiment Station in Corvallis) noticed that adults in the farming community were not accepting new farming techniques. Educators found that youth were more likely to experiment with the new skills and ideas. These youth then taught their parents their discoveries. The “learning by doing” practice of 4-H was born. In 1914, the U.S. Congress created Cooperative Extension as a part of the land-grant universities to provide education to the public and to the 4-H program.

4-H is a program designed to teach youth life skills through hands on learning, thus teaching youth to learn how to learn. Research shows 4-H youth are 1.9 times more likely to get better grades, 2.1 times more likely to report high school engagement and 3.4 times more likely to be actively engaged in their community.

“The 4-H program has many opportunities outside of the 4-H club for kids to participants in and develop as an individual. The fair is one event held annually that the 4-H program participates in to provide the opportunity for the youth to exhibit their projects and be rewarded

for their hard work and efforts through the year,” explained Andersen, “but there is so much more!”

Ravalli County 4-H members are doing projects that relate to cooking, livestock, sewing, poetry, dogs, horses, scrapbooking, cake decorating and more! 4-H occurs year round with club meetings, project meetings and many different events.

“There are many opportunities for youth develop social and life skills as well as knowledge related to their project,” she said. “Some of those events include trips, camp, fundraisers, or community service projects. If you are not taking the opportunity to experience the many different opportunities that 4-H offers, I would highly encourage you to look into those opportunities as many of them only come once in a lifetime.”

Are you interested in learning more about joining the 4-H program? Come to one of two information nights on October 9, 7 PM at North Valley Public Library or October 16, 7 PM at Corvallis School Lunchroom. Or, visit or call your MSU/ Ravalli County Extension Office to see how you can volunteer or become a member with of 4-H. Katelyn Andersen, M.S., is an Associate Professor for Montana State University. She serves as the 4-H/Youth Development and Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Agent for Ravalli County. Contact: 375-6611 or 215 S. 4th Street Ste G, Hamilton.

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Page 14 - Agriculture Magazine, September 2018

What’s new in vegetables?

dirty fingernails

MOLLY HACKETT

Master gardener Molly Hackett welcomes your questions. Write her at 1384 Meridian Road, Victor, Mont.

59875 or call 961-4614. Her email address is: mhackett@centric.net

Just as surely as there are fashions in clothing, in music, in vehicles, there are fashions in growing vegetables.

Although we still eat quantities of potatoes and onions, for instance, neither crop takes up a quarter of the garden space any longer. Root vegetables are more likely to be purchased than home grown.

Potatoes which are grown in the garden now are seldom giant baking types. Instead, they may be yellow, pink, purple, or blue. Part of this fashion change has come about because the garden world is a wider one, in which we are eating foods from other countries and other continents. While our grandparents may have struggled to find any certified seed potatoes, our growing stock may be only a few years away from valleys high in the Andes.

Although many gardeners still grow onions, long rows of yellow onions for storage are a thing of the past. They have been replaced by other members of the onion family--sweet onions, red onions, green onions, shallots.

Garlic, first cousin to the onions, is a major player on the gardening stage. Not only do most gardeners include a few garlic plants among the vegetables, they experiment with

stock photo

garlic varieties from other parts of the world.

Every year sees new garlic varieties with subtly different flavors. They are eaten minced, sliced, pressed, sauteed in oil, browned, roasted. Garlic may appear in any course of a meal. There is even garlic ice cream.

Among the other root vegetables, carrots are the rising star, but they are not our grandmothers’ carrots. First, carrots divided into strains of different sizes, including short ones for rocky ground and even shorter ones for container gardening. Then hybrid carrots came on the scene.

Why would anyone bother with the work and expense of hybrid carrot seed? I wondered the same thing but finally tried a few as an experiment. Now I grow only the hybrids because they really do have better flavor, crispness, and size.

Speaking of crispness, that particular quality is why most gardeners grow carrots. The very crisp garden varieties--Nantes and its offspring--are never available commercially because they are brittle and break in shipping. Customers in a market will not buy broken carrots. Of course the newest carrots on the garden scene come in a rainbow of colors: red, orange, yellow, white, purple.

Not only carrots but several other vegetable seeds are now available in types for container growing. These are compact plants with small root systems, which produce more vegetables in the limited soil of a pot or a box. They are a boon to all the gardeners whose space is a few pots on a deck or patio. Plant breeders have worked hard to give them not only carrots but

Agriculture Magazine, September 2018 - Page 15

also green beans, cucumbers, lettuce, bell peppers, tomatoes, even zucchini. There are also available a range of containers to hold the vegetables, made of different materials in different shapes and sizes, pleasantly inexpensive.

Other families of plants available to American gardeners only in recent years are the ones which come from Asia. Many Asian seeds which are imported and grown by gardeners in warmer parts of this country are unsuccessful here because they are adapted to hot climates.

I have tried, for instance, yard long green beans.

The plants grew but were clearly unhappy with cool summer nights.

Asian greens of several families prosper in local gardens in both early and late summer, even though they bolt to seed in the long midsummer days. Welcome additions to salads and stir fries, they include bok choi, chinese cabbage, komatsuna, mizuna, various mustards, shungiku, and tatsoi. They bring a cascade of new flavors to green salads.

Other kinds of greens are proliferating also.

Kale has slowly moved into the spotlight and now is a designer vegetable, a standby for gourmet cooks and advocates of healthy eating, since it has a generous supply of antioxidants.

Most often kale appears at the table in a salad, but it also replaces curled parsley as a garnish.

Three varieties of kale are now widely grown.

Curly kale, both green and red, is the most cold hardy. The whole plant can be cut at one time, or individual leaves can be harvested as they mature. Russian kale is the type with smooth leaves, which often are an ingredient in mixed salad greens and microgreens. Kales which originated in Italy have long leaves with a surface that looks blistered. The leaves of Italian kales are soft and tender.

The production of spinach in northern gardens is vastly improved with the introduction of varieties which are slow to bolt, even in long summer days. Some other new spinach varieties are bred to cut all at once for baby leaves.

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Page 16 - Agriculture Magazine, September 2018

Lettuce varieties continue to proliferate. Most vegetable gardeners grow at least some lettuce as the major ingredient of summer salads. Every new year sees at least half a dozen new kinds of lettuce, both green and red.

The best news in cucumbers has been the introduction of varieties which cannot become bitter, even if the weather is hot and the soil is dry. Most of them originated in the Mideast or Asia, but they have been bred in this country for several years. Non-bitter cucumbers have a gene which prevents the naturally bitter cucumber chemical from developing. They are the only kinds I grow.

Older varieties bred in this country have no such gene. While other parts of the world ate their cucumbers raw, American breeders were concentrating on cucumbers for pickles. They did not need to worry because the bitter taste disappears in a vinegar solution.

Swiss chard has grown in popularity as a salad ingredient and a cooked green, especially with the introduction of rainbow type chards. Only the leaves of these Swiss chards are green; stems and leaf stalks may be green, yellow, white, orange, pink, or red. Colored chards have even moved into the flower garden as an ornamental edging.

The discovery of Latin American and Asian cooking has brought several new vegetables into gardens. Probably the range of hot peppers are paramount. Vegetable breeders dutifully went to work and developed several kinds of hot peppers which can be grown in a cold climate.

Sweet corn is no longer just sweet corn.

The old fashioned “normal� sweet corn lost its sweetness in a matter of hours. Remember the old rule to have the pot of water boiling before the corn was picked? That type of corn still exists, but it has been joined by sugar enhanced, which keeps its sweetness for three to five days, supersweet, which lasts eight or ten days, and synergistic, which is the newest type.

It is a blend of sugar enhanced and supersweet.

Gardeners must make a choice of the type they grow, because letting different types crosspollinate results in inedible corn. All commercial sweet corn is now supersweet. Sweet corn is no longer limited to yellow kernels, either. Both white and bicolor varieties exist. The bicolor types are among the earliest to mature; thus they are suitable for northern gardens.

Herbs proliferate these days. There are more varieties of basil grown than of any other herb, but contemporary gardens usually include several kinds of herbs instead of just one plant of moss-curled parsley.

And tomatoes, that most popular of all garden vegetables: what has happened to tomatoes is a story in itself, for another time.

Agriculture Magazine, September 2018 - Page 17

How much water is enough?

By Patrick Mangan MSU Ravalli County Extension Agent

That tree in your yard, in the parking lot strip of your favorite store, or along the fence line of your property probably needs more water than it is getting this summer. A tree can’t outright tell you it needs more water, but it could probably use more than it is getting through the sprinkler or drip irrigation. Right now it is probably experiencing drought-like stress due to a lack of water.

Trees, like humans, use water for a variety of daily growth and maintenance processes. All plants use water as part of photosynthesis, the manufacturing of carbohydrates. Plants also use water to cool down by evaporating water out of small pores found in the leaf surfaces, called stomata, much the same way we sweat. This process is called evapotranspiration.

Often times, a tree does not show outward symptoms of a moisture deficit until it is severely stressed.

Deciduous trees will sometimes cup, or curl their leaves as a sign of moisture stress, but that isn’t always the case.

We usually see signs of moisture stress in trees when they are well beyond the initial stages of deficiency.

Evergreen trees can start to drop needles, or needles will turn orange at the tips. Deciduous trees can display leaves with scorched outer margins, or drop leaves all together.

Once these symptoms of moisture stress appear, it is too late to reverse the signs for the growing season. The best plan of action is to ensure your trees have adequate water throughout the whole growing season and into the fall.

Toby Day, MSU Extension Horticulture Specialist, has watering advice for tree owners. While every species of tree is different, a good rule of thumb is to supply ten gallons of water per week for every inch in diameter of the trunk. As an example, the maple tree in my front yard, with a four inch diameter trunk, would need approximately forty gallons of water every week to maintain healthy conditions.

Most yard sprinkler and drip irrigation systems are not set to deliver that volume of water to yard trees. A lot of the water delivered by sprinkler systems is intercepted by grasses in the yard, leaving less moisture to infiltrate into the rooting zone of the trees. Your trees need supplemental water above and beyond what the yard sprin-

klers supply in order to be at their healthiest.

Use a slow and thorough strategy when considering supplemental water for your tree. A low-volume flowing hose placed under the drip line of the tree will allow water to soak into the soil to a target depth of twelve to eighteen inches. Move the hose around to different places along the drip line. The drip line is the imaginary line on the ground that follows the outer edge of the leaf canopy of the tree. Water all around the rooting zone of the tree, which can radiate out from the trunk as far as two-and-a-half times further than the drip line of the tree. A low pressure sprinkler placed around the rooting zone of a tree can do a similar deep watering of the area it is hitting. Leave the sprinkler in the same place to thoroughly water an area, and move it around occasionally from place to place, watering all sides of the tree.

It is best to direct sprinkler water off the foliage of trees when you are watering them. Water sitting on the foliage can promote the growth of bacterial and fungal pathogens, and lead to cosmetic and disease issues in your tree.

Water your trees well into fall. The practice of limiting fall watering, to encourage trees into dormancy is not an accurate strategy for optimal tree health. Deciduous trees will continue to loose water through evapotranspiration until they drop their leaves. If we withhold water from the tree in the fall, it can send the tree into the dormant season with considerable stress. Evergreen conifers will lose moisture through evapotranspiration throughout the year, whenever conditions are warm enough. An evergreen tree can become moisture stressed in the fall and be more susceptible to winter damage without adequate fall moisture. Best practice is to do a thorough deep soaking of your conifers late in the fall, just before the soil freezes up, to bank soil moisture your tree can draw upon when needed.

A tree that has adequate water is more likely to be healthy, and have fewer disease and insect challenges.

This August will be a critical time to supplement additional water to your trees, with high temperatures, low humidity, and hot winds forecast for much of the month.

So, get out there and give your trees the water they want and need, and enjoy a healthy tree through the rest of summer and the fall.

Page 18 - Agriculture Magazine, September 2018

Agriculture Heritage Notebook The Bitter Root Cultural Heritage Trust

interpretation and affirm cultural values.

works in partnership with families,

The Heritage Trust provides an article for

neighborhoods and communities to restore

each edition of Agricultural Magazine,

historic structures, bring back traditional

highlighting the Bitterroot Valley’s

events and celebrations, encourage

agricultural history and heritage.

Story WENDY BEYE photos courtesy of the RENNAKER FAMILY

After waiting nearly ten years for the opportunity to do a story about the beautiful barn that stands below Como Peaks on Old Darby Road, my dream came true. Lori Schallenberger of the Rennaker family (see the September 2018 issue of the Ag Mag) graciously provided me an introduction to Anna Mae Paddock, who now owns the barn and surrounding ranch land.

On a beautiful blue sky day in August, I drive to my appointment with Anna Mae, stopping as hundreds of other photographers have done over the years to snap a few pho-

tos of the stately barn from the road. (Anna Mae says later with a twinkle in her eye, “I should put up a donation box on a fence post by the ditch. I bet I could collect quite a bit that way!”)

As we visit in the ranch house kitchen, Anna Mae shows me a black and white photograph of a crew operating a portable sawmill. The men, young and old, were all neighbors who worked to cut timber along Rock Creek, used the portable mill to saw timbers and lumber, poured concrete, and began to raise the barn in 1915 for the new mid-western landowner in

Agriculture Magazine, September 2018 - Page 19

Como, George Elderkin. I later find through research at the courthouse that Elderkin purchased the homestead where the barn is located in 1910 from Walter Mowbray, who owned the land for a little more than a year after he purchased it from Samuel Kyle. Kyle purchased from Lafayette McKinney, who appears to be the original homesteader, in 1897.

Anna Mae has written up a history of her family, the Shawvers, who came to the Bitterroot from Boise, Idaho, by wagon in 1900.

Fred Shawver, Anna Mae’s great uncle, ranched the homestead from about 1940 to his death in 1972, when ownership passed to his sister, Tish Shawver Harding, Anna Mae’s grandmother. Tish’s daughter Fern married James Paddock, and the Paddock family operated the ranch as a dairy from the 1960s till 1999, when James had to give up the hard work due to failing health.

He died in 2001, nine years after his wife died, leaving their only child, Anna Mae to continue ranching

The Elderkin barn unfinished loft floor bracing.

The north end of the Elderkin barn.

Page 20 - Agriculture Magazine, September 2018

operations.

We walk to the barn, and I realize it is much bigger than it looks from the road. Its footprint is 80 X 35 feet, and it soars into the sky, resting on a poured concrete foundation that is at least ten feet high. The hundred-year-old foundation is in amazingly good condition, with no settling or crumbling evident. It was poured in layers into two-foot wide wooden forms that were wired together. Some of the clipped ends of the wires poke out here and there. Wooden vents allow air to flow through the interior of the barn and out through the cupolas high above. Anna Mae makes sure I photograph the cupolas, saying that when her parents hired a contractor to put a new roof on the barn in 1972, the workers stood on top of the cupolas to fasten the metal. She didn’t remember that they wore safety harnesses.

The Elderkin granary.

I comment on the lovely sorrel wood color of the barn lumber, asking whether it’s been oiled periodically over the years. She assures me that the wood aged naturally to that shade, except on the north exterior wall, which has turned gray where precipitation has blanched the boards. Most of the windows have been covered recently with boards, because the glass was breaking as the glazing putty shrank and released its hold. Though that wood is new, it is already darkening to match the siding on the barn. We enter the dusty first floor of the barn, and when I look up, I’m puzzled to see a whole section of the ceiling has cross bracing that has never been nailed into place. There are no nail holes in the lower edges of the short boards that form the bracing. I later find out more about that.

The milking stanchions, built from lumber with wooden latches, still run the length of the first floor. Anna Mae’s dad removed the horse stalls that were at the south end of the barn and added a milk can cooler for his dairy operation. He eventually used milking machines on his cows, so galvanized pipes run along the top of the stanchions to collect the milk.

I really want to photograph the loft, but after clambering up a vertical ladder only to find that the next section is offset more than a foot toward my back, leaving me dangling in a sitting position, I decide to forego that exploration. I can’t even take a photo at the loft floor level because I need to hang on with both hands to the upper ladder. I do see the old hay trolley track still in place, though Anna Mae said her father put up hay in small bales and used an elevator to raise them into the loft. He cut some openings in the barn walls so that the elevator would fit in. The huge hinged door that opened when loose hay was swung into the loft years ago required a lift

Agriculture Magazine, September 2018 - Page 21

bucket to close it because it was too heavy to move with the attached rope and pulley arrangement.

I thank Anna Mae for her time, and she suggests I visit with Bill Kyle, whose grandfather was an early owner of the property. He lives less than a mile north, so I stop on my way back to the highway. I am surprised and pleased when Bill invites me to sit on the porch of his log home to learn more about the history of the barn and surrounding property.

Bill brings out the same photograph of the sawmill crew that Anna Mae had showed me.

He can identify many of the men, including his grandfather, Sam Kyle, and Anna Mae’s uncle, Fred Shawver. An Elderkin who may be George’s son is also in the photo. Bill says that construction on the barn was halted for World War I, when many of the neighbors in the photo joined the army and were deployed in Europe. Several never made it home.

Work resumed on the barn in about 1920, but it was never completely finished, and

A portable sawmill crew for the Elderkin barn.

George Elderkind never used it. An article in the August 19, 1911 issue of The Missoulian features a visit by “George D. Elderkin of the George D. Elderkin Publishing Co. of Chicago” (a music publishing company) to his two sons at their “fruit ranch” at Como. The only apparent orchard on the property consists of a few apple trees that were planted west of the barn by the original homesteader.

Elderkin left the Bitterroot to return to his mid-western home, deeding the property to a son, Jesse, in 1919. Apparently Jesse was not successful as a rancher or orchardist, and the land was taken by Ravalli County for back taxes and sold to the Federal Land Bank of Spokane in 1940. The story of loss was repeated many times in the Bitterroot during the Great Depression. Land changed hands, but the great old barns, at least those that people care about, still stand as a testament to the optimism of the valley’s early farmers and ranchers.

Page 22 - Agriculture Magazine, September 2018

Tasty Words

Expanding your agricultural vocabulary

by Kristine Komar for the Ravalli Republic

I love to read books about food and where it comes from (a few of my favorites are listed below). This has led me to build a little muscle in my vocabulary, wonderful words that describe things I knew or tasted but didn’t yet have words for.

It’s fun to have new ways to describe the subtle characteristics and qualities of food especially as I’ve learned to appreciate the powerful taste differences in local foods.

These words also drive me to be more focused on finding tasty food, usually fresh and locally grown.

Here are four new words that might be new and useful to you: Localvore [loh-kuh-vawr,-vohr] A person who makes an effort to eat food that is grown, raised, or produced locally, usually within 100 miles of home.

The locavore movement aims to capture that flavor difference and promote sustainable, community-based agriculture by favoring “low-mileage” foods over ones that have traveled long distances to arrive at your plate.

--Christie Aschwanden, “The Locavore,” Runner’s World, October 2008 Origin of locavore: Locavore was coined in 2005 by Jessica Prentice (born 1968), an American chef and author, and a co-founder of Three Stone Hearth, a community-supported kitchen in Berkeley, California. Locavore is a compound of English local, from Latin localis “pertaining to a place” (from locus “place”) and Latin vorare “to swallow ravenously,” which also appears in devour “to swallow down, gulp down,” carnivore “meat eater,” and herbivore “grass eater.”

Terroir [terawär] A French term meaning that all food expresses a sense of place, the belief that the flavor and character of a food product is directly attributable to the complete environment including climate, geography, soil, and farming practices from which it sprung.

Originally used in the French wind appellation system, terroir is now used to describe most artisanal crops including, coffee, tobacco, chocolate, chili peppers, hops, agave (for making tequila and mezcal), tomatoes, heritage wheat, maple syrup, tea, and cannabis.

Origin of terroir: Medieval Latin, French The word has been around since medieval times but use skyrocketed since the late 1990s.

Umami [/uamaami/] or pleasant savory taste, is one of the five basic tastes (together with sweetness, sourness, bitterness, and saltiness). It has been described as savory, and characteristic of broths and cooked meats with a long-lasting mouthwatering and coating sensation over the tongue.

People taste umami through taste receptors that typically respond to glutamate, which is widely present in meat broths and fermented products. Since umami has its own receptors rather than arising out of a combination of the traditionally recognized taste receptors, scientists now consider umami to be a distinct taste. Tomatoes are rich in umami. Soy sauce is also rich in umami components.

Origin of umami: from Japanese for savory taste, is one of the five basic tastes. First proposed in 1908, in 1985 the tern umami was recognized as a scientific term.

And here’s one I’ll throw in that isn’t directly

related to agriculture, but I do feel as if petrichor is more prevalent in our valley of open space and agricultural lands: Petrichor [apeatrakôr/] A mixture of plant oils, bacterial spores and ozone is responsible for the powerful pleasant scent of fresh rain.

Step outside after the first storm after a dry spell and it invariably hits you: the sweet, fresh, powerfully evocative smell of fresh rain.

Origin of Petrichor: The term emerged in the 1960s, a blend of words derived from the Greek petro (relating to rocks) and ichor (the fluid that flows like blood in the veins of the gods) was coined in 1964 by two Australian scientists studying the smells of wet weather — is derived from a pair of chemical reactions. The smell derives from an oil exuded by certain plants during dry periods, whereupon it is absorbed by clay-based soils and rocks. During rain, the oil is released into the air along with another compound, geosmin, a metabolic by-product of certain actinobacteria, which is emitted by wet soil, producing the distinctive scent; ozone may also be present if there is lightning.

Sources: Dictionary.com and Wikipedia From Dictionary.com and Wikipedia.)

Book Recommendations: Razor Clams, Buried Treasure of the Pacific Northwest, David Berger, University of Washington Press, 2017 American Terroir, Savoring the Flavors of Our Woods, Water, and Fields, Rowan Jacobsen, 2010, Bloomsbury.

(Also, Chocolate Unwrapped, The Essential Oyster, Apples, The Living Shore, and more. So good.)

Desert Terroir, Exploring the Unique Flavors and Sundry Places of the Borderlands, Gary Paul Nabham, 2012, University of Texas Press. (Very prolific… many more great reads.)

There are many more books in this realm… these will lead you to others.

MFU works for family farms through legislation, education and cooperation. Just ask members Kody and Serena Cator.

“I would absolutely recommend someone join Montana Farmers Union. It’s a lot of fun, my kids love getting together with other Farmers Union kids.

It draws us closer as a community and as farmers in general.”

– Serena Cator

Kody, Serena, Faith and Ridge Cator; Big Sandy

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