I get worried when my blog stats fly off the roof on a random Tuesday in September.  Makes me wonder if anything is going on in cranberry land that I don’t know about.  (I am sure there are LOTS of things I don’t know about!)  What I do know is that the industry people think the Wisconsin crop is ok, not huge, not small.  That would probably be a good thing.

I also know that there are lots of things going on with the lawsuit.  Depositions have begun or are close to starting. Subpoenas have been issued and answered.  Both sides are lining up experts and building their case.  This case is on a relative fast track as these things go, but I don’t think anyone should bank on big bucks (if any) soon.  If you are an independent grower struggling to make ends meet, don’t plan on this lawsuit as a bailout.  Get to your bank and work something out.

I saw new releases that Oregon was harvesting already!  Now that is a surprise as I understand  that they usually harvest really late, sometimes early November.  I think that this early harvest was due to newer varieties that color up early, and the majority of Oregon has a ways to go until harvest.

Portland — If there were any doubt about the diverse faces of Oregon agriculture, consider this: More than 175 prospective farmers have signed up for a one-day Small Farm School offered by Oregon State University Extension.

The program, coordinated by OSU’s Center for Small Farms, takes place from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 12 at Clackamas Community College in Oregon City, southeast of Portland. A couple events are at the Clackamas County Event Center in Canby.

Workshops include horse handling and emergency vet care, tractor safety, soil testing, beekeeping and small engine basics, blueberry production, dryland vegetable farming, pasture management and more.

On-line registration is open through Thursday, Sept. 10.

Oregon’s small farms, especially in or next to urban areas, have found a market niche with high-end restaurants, roadside stands, farmers markets and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) subscription buyers. The state has more than 9,000 farms that are one to nine acres.

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 9

JOSEPH, Ore. — A group of farmers and Washington State University researchers are studying whether quinoa, a grain traditionally grown in the South American Andes, can be a viable cash crop in the Northwest.

In 2014 Ted Golder of Seal Rock, Ore., came to Eastern Oregon on an exploratory mission. He thought the climate would be similar enough to the Andes to grow quinoa. In a local coffee shop he met Jerome Geortzen of Joseph, who was also on the same mission. Last summer the two started quinoa test plots in fields around the Wallowa Valley.

Golder said he first became interested in quinoa when it became popular in health food markets a few years ago.

“A nutritionist friend of mine in Eugene told me the climate and altitude in Wallowa County is not that different than some areas in South America. Then I learned through Washington State University we really do have one of the most optimum areas to potentially to grow it.”

Golder and Goertzen discovered Washington State had a team of researchers led by professor Kevin Murphy who are working with farmers all over the Northwest to grow different varieties of quinoa.

Last year Golder and Goertzen grew test crops at local farms. Using seed from last year’s crop and a variety from Colorado, this year they have 300 quinoa plants growing in seven rows near a conventional wheat field that Golder said are doing quite well.

In contrast, they have 16 rows of quinoa growing at Patrick Thiel’s Prairie Creek Farm outside of Joseph overseen by Washington State University researchers.

“Quinoa is a good fit with what I do,” Thiel said. “We’ve always grown specialized crops.”

Thiel’s farm is organic, which is more along the lines of what the researchers at Washington State have in mind, Golder said.

“It’s a good fit with WSU — they wanted their test plots grown organically,” Golder said.

Thiel said he was impressed with Washington State’s researchers when they came to lay out the test plots and outlined a uniform regiment for watering and weeding.

“They saw a value in doing a trial here. They get great research information while we keep it organic and grow it in a unique enough area,” Thiel said.

Farming is always a gamble. Golder said last year the weather was more consistent as was the crop.

This year a wet May stunted the growth of the newly planted starts. Thiel said quinoa is physiologically designed to come out of its seed in five days and puts down a taproot.

“If it’s overwatered they will stress and not survive,” Thiel said.

Rows were replanted, pushing out the harvest well into September, Golder said.

Not needing much water may be a major plus considering the extended drought in the West.

“Water is getting tighter every day,” Golder said.

Thiel said in South America quinoa is planted in a field and left until harvest.

“One of the things they liked about that crop is you leave it in an environment where it is doing well by itself,” Thiel said.

Golder said working with Washington State is important to help determine what traits farmers will want in their quinoa crop.

“Do they want it to be easily spotted from other similar plants like lamb’s quarter? Faster maturity?” he said. “The techniques we are using to grow quinoa will be repeated next year with a strategy. We are only half way there.”

Thiel said he couldn’t emphasize enough how important it is that Washington State is involved.

“They’ve worked with potatoes for more than 100 years. I see the same with the quinoa. They know how to do it,” Thiel said.

MURPHY, Ore. (AP) — Deer got the munchies at an industrial hemp crop in southern Oregon.

The deer got by barbed-wire fencing a couple weeks ago and went through the hemp plants like high-powered mowers, the Grants Pass Daily Courier reported.

“Generally, I don’t think they like cannabis. They liked ours, though,” said Cliff Thomason, a real estate agent who is the steward of the first industrial hemp crop in Oregon, which was planted near Murphy by Thomason and his partners with Orhempco.

The company planted roughly 1,000 plants in the section the deer got into, and Thomason said there are only about 40 left.

Industrial hemp has a low level of THC, the psychoactive property of marijuana. Kit Doyle, another partner in Orhemco, said it’s high in protein and that’s likely why the deer went on a binge.

Orhempco has several crops of industrial hemp — each planted at a different time and is in a different stage of maturity. Doyle said the group expects to have other plants go to harvest that will produce hemp seed for sale.

The land is owned by Josephine County Commissioner Cherryl Walker and her husband, Martin Hill. Fellow county Commissioner Simon Hare also is a partner.

Only some of the crop is protected by the tall fencing needed to thwart deer. Doyle said a reason some crops were left vulnerable was because of the uncertainty surrounding the program. A bill in the Oregon Legislature would have put Orhempco out of business had it passed the Senate.

“We wanted to hurry and get in the ground and we didn’t want to spend a lot of money,” Doyle said. “Next year, if we decide to grow in the same place, we will have the necessary infrastructure.”

ROSEBURG, Ore. (AP) — It’s been a smoky summer in Douglas County because of wildfires, and prescribed burns are about to add to the haze.

Farmers and ranchers use controlled burns to prepare their fields and pastures for the spring. The fires remove noxious weeds, brush, insects, and plant disease. They also reduce the buildup of flammable vegetation that can cause massive summer wildfires.

But the burns mean people will see more smoke. To lessen the impact, Kyle Reed of the Douglas Forest Protective Association says the burns are only allowed when conditions are favorable to keep smoke away from heavily populated areas.

To get a burn permit, landowners must prove they have the equipment and personnel to maintain control of the blaze. Fire trails are built around the burn site before the fire starts.

Today is Sunday, Sept. 6, the 249th day of 2015. There are 116 days left in the year.

Be Prepared — again

Be Prepared — again

Be Prepared — again

Be Prepared — again

MONDAY, SEPT. 7

Upcoming Road Runs

Upcoming Road Runs

The Bandon Lions Cranberry Run will be held on Sunday, Sept. 13.

The Bandon Lions Cranberry Run will be held on Sunday, Sept. 13.

The “Timber Belt” running from Northern California up through Oregon and into Washington sustained an economic collapse and population loss similar to the “Rust Belt” and “Corn Belt” of the Midwest, but its recovery has been entirely different, according to the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis.

In a new report on demographic and economic trends unfolding in rural Oregon, state analysts detail pockets of resurgence, surprisingly hopeful statistics and unanswered questions of what comes next.

“All along the Timber Belt, people keep moving in” at a pace just as strong as the migration to urban centers such as Portland, state economists Mark McMullen and Joshua Lehner wrote.

“In general, these incoming migrants are different than the households moving out,” the analysts wrote. “Much of the time they are older and relocate to rural Oregon as they retire or reduce their work hours.”

The new residents of rural Oregon bring a “lifetime of experience” and wealth, “often in the form of California home equity,” McMullen and Lehner wrote.

“Figuring out how best to exploit the Timber Belt’s strong influx of retirees should be a top priority given such individuals are voting with their feet, in essence, saying they want to live in the area and be a part of the community,” the analysts said. “Overall this is certainly a good thing.”

Rural Oregon loses population during the “root setting” years of ages 25 to 34, when young adults are establishing careers, starting families and buying homes, the report said. Unlike most of rural America, however, Oregon is offsetting those losses with older migrants.

But for the young adults who stay in rural Oregon, McMullen and Lehner said statistics show children raised in rural Oregon, especially Eastern Oregon, have a good chance of succeeding in life.

Harvard University’s Equality of Opportunity Project found that a rural Oregon child born at the bottom income level had a strong probability of reaching the top level as an adult, the authors said. Among more than 700 communities nationwide, the Oregon towns of Burns, Condon, Enterprise, John Day and Lakeview were among the top third in fostering such success, according to McMullen and Lehner.

Bruce Weber, director of the Rural Studies Program at Oregon State University, said the state analysis is “insightful.”

If the “boom and bust” nature of rural economies “creates an environment in which children grow up with different expectations and different levels of investment in education, these could also reduce upward mobility,” Weber said in an email.

Meanwhile, economic recovery in Oregon has pockets of success and stagnation.

While Portland and its suburbs are popping again, most of rural Oregon has not recovered the jobs lost in the recession, the authors said. An exception is the Columbia River Gorge, which the analysts said has benefited from three major trends.

First, agriculture remains strong, mainly fruit, and higher commodity prices helped local farmers. Second, wind farm construction provided investment and jobs from 2007 to 2011, which included the depth of the recession. Last, the unmanned aerial vehicle industry — drones — has grown dramatically over the past decade. Insitu, a major drone manufacturer, is headquartered in Bingen, Wash., across the Columbia from Hood River.

“A large portion of such jobs are on the Washington side of the Columbia River, however the economic and population base in the gorge is on the Oregon side, where much of the consumer spending occurs,” McMullen and Lehner wrote.

Although not cited by name in the state report, Hermiston, in Umatilla County, rode out the recession to become the biggest and fastest growing city in Eastern Oregon.

In Hermiston’s case, a strong agricultural sector is a stabilizing base for the economy, City Manager Byron Smith said.

“However you want to phrase it, people still need to have food,” he said. “A lot of our economy is based on that, either the actual production or the processing of agricultural products.”

Hermiston farmers grow potatoes, onions, melons and multiple types of other irrigated vegetables. The area has several food processing plants, and attracted a DuPont Pioneer corn seed research station.

Finally, the city diversified its economy through growth in the transportation and logistics sector. Wal-Mart has a distribution center in Hermiston, and FedEx and UPS also have facilities in the area.

“That’s another piece of the economy that does well for us,” Smith said.

Online

See the Rural Oregon analysis at https://oregoneconomicanalysis.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/rural-oregon-2015.pdf

Oregon’s small urban farms have an out-sized place on the state’s agricultural landscape, but operators sometimes have trouble finding affordable implements that fit into tight spots and meet city sensibilities.

A Sept. 22 workshop at Oregon State University in Corvallis highlights tools specifically developed or revised for small-scale farms. The tools range from battery-powered tillers — with solar recharging panels — to hand carts with adjustable wheelbases that can expand or retract to match the width of crop rows.

The event includes an equipment showcase and demonstrations, a presentation on ergonomics, tool maintenance and sharpening and a panel discussion.

Businesses taking part include Green Heron Tools, Slow Hand Farm, BCS America, Johnny’s Tools, I Tech Designs and Carts & Tools. An OSU Small Farms Extension news release said people should bring in their hoes, pruners and blades for sharpening at $4 to $12 a tool.

Engineering students from OSU will attend and listen for senior project ideas.

Michael McGowen, whose Carts & Tools business in Corvallis was featured previously in the Capital Press, favors that sort of collaboration.

“I always felt like it was a good fit — agriculture and engineering,” he said. “OK, let’s get the two sides talking and working with each other.”

The event happens Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2015 from noon to 6 p.m. at the Oak Creek Center for Urban Horticulture, 844 SW 35th St., Corvallis.

Registration is $25. To register, or for more information, visit http://smallfarms.oregonstate.edu/smallequip or call the Benton County Extension office, 541-766-3556.

The 2012 Census of Agriculture counted 9,119 Oregon farms of one- to nine acres. Many small-scale farmers, especially new or beginning producers, either can’t afford standard or don’t need the size, fuel use and noise of standard farm equipment.

Funding for the workshop comes in part from the National Institutes of Food and Agriculture, under the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program.

Bandon's football team still has to wait a week before playing its first official game, but the Tigers got to experience competition under new coach Tobias Robinson for the first time last week at the Coquille jamboree.

Bandon's football team still has to wait a week before playing its first official game, but the Tigers got to experience competition under new coach Tobias Robinson for the first time last wee…