Oregon Cranberry Growers Association
Feed aggregator
WHAT'S UP?
Blossoms, Butterflies and Bees on the Boardwalk
Cranberry Food Fair offers challenges
Apple brandy and cider mix with vinegar for a fall cocktail
Apple brandy and cider mix with vinegar for a fall cocktail
Bandon Rain storms the Oregon cider scene
Bandon Rain storms the Oregon cider scene
Oregon court rules couple must surgically ‘debark’ dogs
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon court has ruled a couple must have their dogs surgically “debarked” after causing their neighbors several years of disruption.
The Oregon Court of Appeals determined Wednesday that the devocalization operations were necessary since the dogs’ owners, Karen Szewc and John Updegraff, had not done enough to quiet the Tibetan and Pyrenean Mastiff dogs, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. The surgery involves cutting an animal’s vocal cords and is banned in six states under certain circumstances, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association.
Neighbors Debra and Dale Krein of Rogue River decided to file the lawsuit as a last resort after enduring more than a decade of nuisance barking by six or more dogs. The loud barking begins as early as 5 a.m. and has caused the family and their guests discomfort to the point where the children dread coming home, according the Kreins.
The dogs bark when they sense predators and are necessary to keep the livestock on her rural southern Oregon property protected, Szewc said in an interview with The Oregonian/OregonLive.
“The dogs are my employees,” she said. “We do not have the dogs to harass the neighbors. We have the dogs to protect our sheep.”
In April 2015, the Jackson County Circuit Court ordered Szewc and her husband Updegraff pay $238,000 to the Kreins as compensation, but the Kreins argued the court ruling would not do anything to stop the noise. The Appeals Court upheld the $238,000 decision and a ruling ordering the dogs be debarked to avoid a “judicial merry-go round.”
Szewc fears that the court ruling will put her small farm in danger. In 2010, the couple went through with court directive and had one of their dogs debarked. As a result, a cougar successfully made off with six lambs in a week, resulting in a $3,000 loss, Szewc said.
County hearings officer Donald Rubenstein determined that the Szewc and Updegraff’s land did not qualify for farm-use laws that permit the sound of barking dogs.
Szewc is debating whether they will follow the court order or appealing the decision.
Treasure chest -- a chance to win!
Farm and festival exhibits at the Bandon Historical Society Museum
Pirate theme for this year's Cranberry Festival parade
Glide rumbles past Bandon in opener, 34-6
Ag community comes together for Oregon State Fair
SALEM, Ore. — Alea Minar, 14, has been keeping busy this year at the Oregon State Fair. A 4-Her for six years, Minar shows in every small animal category.
“Rabbit, poultry, cavies (guinea pigs), pigeons and dogs,” she listed off.
Along with showing animals, Minar, who is from Deschutes County, also competes in the static 4-H exhibits such as fashion, sewing, cooking, food preservation, art, photography and leadership.
This is her second year at the fair.
“It’s really awesome,” she said. “We have helpful stewards and volunteers, and great judges. It’s running smoothly.”
Minar enjoys all the opportunities that come with 4-H, and she said that it helps her grow as a person. Although she has many favorite parts, one of them is the lead up to the fair.
“Everyone is stressed out, and you’re studying with your friends, quizzing one another and cleaning the animals,” she said.
For 14-year-old Tatum Heathershaw from Washington County, the fair gives her the chance to be around people who share her love for poultry.
“There’s not a lot of places like that,” she said.
Once at the fair, Minar and Heathershaw said they like meeting new people from around Oregon. This fair year in particular has given them ample opportunity to do that.
“It’s the first year that 4-H and FFA club members have shown animals together since I’ve been alive,” Candi Bothum, 4-H program coordinator, said.
In past years, 4-H would show one week and FFA would show the other, but because many students are going back to school earlier and the groups utilize the same judges, it made sense to show all the youth competitions together, Bothum said.
“It’s been fun. A great opportunity with great organizations,” she said. “The state fair is an opportunity for kids to meet from all over the state. Young livestock raisers and ag enthusiasts — they’re the future of ag. A terrific group of young people.”
Combining the shows also helped lower the number of turnovers the clubs had to make to clean out the animal pens.
Bothum said that she thinks the two groups will continue showing together, but they have some logistical issues regarding space to fix for next year.
“It’s a big group,” she said, noting that the number of animal entries has gone up.
Elsewhere at the fair, the agriculture stage has also been a hit, Brooke Broadbent, the showcase organizer, said. She estimated 30 to 50 people attend the presentations and for the activities it “ebbed and flowed.” So far, the most popular event has been egg day, where 1,500 eggs on a stick were handed out.
Although the fair has stopped keeping daily attendance tallies, Dan Cox, the fair spokesman, said the fair had a good opening day and there have been more discount incentives this year to bring people out.
“I’ve been around fair a long, long time and can see the ebb and flow of the crowd. We’ll get a first wave that stays for several hours and then a second wave of people at night for the concerts,” he said. “On the hot days close to 100 degrees we might see people heading inside more towards the AC, but the one thing we’ve always seen is Oregonians come out no matter what, it’s an interesting thing.”
Cox says the fair offers something for everyone.
“It’s not just for the urban center,” he said. “It’s for the entire state.”
Apparently there was something that wasn’t right in the last CMC vote for a Volume Regulation
So the CMC voted again and split into two separate votes, one for 2017 and another for 2018. The Handler Set aside of 15% for 2017 is unchanged. The Producer allotment of 75% for 2018 was approved with a 2500 barrel exemption for each grower. All districts are included in this regulation, note that previously District 4 was exempted. This re vote split the independents with two voting no. The proposed action was still approved and will be sent to the Secretary of Agriculture for his approval.
WHAT'S UP?
Table grape field day set for OSU’s North Willamette station
Promising table grape cultivars, not to mention tasty grape samples, will be on display and up for discussion during a field day at Oregon State University’s North Willamette Research and Extension Center.
The field day is Wednesday, Sept. 13, from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at NWREC, 15210 N.E. Miley Road, Aurora.
Research Assistant Amanda Vance, who has spent the past three years evaluating cultivars, will talk abut her findings. Oregon is known for its wine grapes, of course, but Vance believes there may be a table grape niche for small-scale growers who sell at farmers’ markets or roadside stands.
The grapes Vance found most promising include Neptune, a green grape from the University of Arkansas with high yields year after year, and Canadice, a smaller red grape from Cornell University with good flavor and uniform clusters. Agricultural researchers often share cultivars among themselves for evaluation and OSU received several over the years from John Clark, a University of Arkansas plant breeder and horticulture professor. Clark will attend the field day and talk about his work.
Vance has a viticulture background and volunteered to take on the OSU table grape research project. She’ll discuss her work, and OSU berry crops professor Bernadine Strik will talk about grapevine morphology, physiology, trellising, pruning and training. Javier Fernandez-Salvador, an OSU Ph.D. candidate and an assistant professor, will talk about organic table grape production, including disease and weed control.
Wildfires burn around Oregon; 4,500 people evacuated
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Wildfires in Oregon are burning an area roughly equivalent to half the state of Rhode Island, affecting air quality throughout the state and forcing the evacuations of more than 4,500 people, fire authorities said.
Two dozen fires in southern, eastern and central parts of the state had scorched a total of 571 square miles.
And although fire crews appreciated cooler weather and some fog on some fire lines, they are bracing for triple-digit temperatures and the return of windy conditions and extremely low humidity later this week and into the weekend, said Terry Krasko, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman.
The largest fire is near the coastal town of Brookings near the California border.
That 196-square-mile blaze is 5 percent contained and 4,568 people have fled their homes. Firefighters have managed to carve out a containment line along the southwestern edge of the fire to protect the 6,500-person town that will be bolstered by the arrival Wednesday of six Oregon National Guard teams.
The fire started July 12 from a lightning strike in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest but grew rapidly last week.
“That 5 percent doesn’t sound like a lot but it’s very critical to this town and we feel very good about that. There have been people asking, ‘What about the other side of the fire, what about the east?”’ Krasko said. “But we have to put our efforts first where the homes and businesses are — where people live. These are our family and friends.”
Also in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, but further east, a complex of fires forced the evacuation of six homes Tuesday in a rural community called Joe Bar near the Applegate River Valley. Several of the fires have merged and firefighters have divided the largest ones into three areas of attack, fire authorities said.
About two dozen blazes all began on Aug. 12 after a lightning storm in the area but most were put out quickly by crews.
In central Oregon, a 34-square-mile fire west of Sisters is now 44 percent contained. No mandatory evacuations are in effect.
Fires statewide continue to generate thick smoke that’s affecting air quality in southern and central Oregon.
Smoke forced the Oregon Shakespeare Festival to cancel its outdoor performance on Tuesday.
Nine cities, including Bend, Medford, Ashland and Klamath Falls, had unhealthy air conditions on Wednesday, according to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.
Smoke from all the blazes has also converged on Portland, which is several hundred miles away, and has obscured the iconic view of Mount Hood.
On Tuesday, some Portland residents reported finding ash on their parked cars.