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CapitalPress.com
February 27, 2015
People & Places
WSDA official opens doors for ag exporters
Joe Bippert
manages state’s
international
marketing program
Western
Innovator
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OLYMPIA, Wash. — Joe
Bippert was almost through
with college and his job pros-
pects began circling the drain.
His school days were pro-
longed by a two-year church
mission to Mexico and a
time-consuming passion for
ballroom dancing. But he was
finally about to graduate from
Brigham Young University in
business finance with an em-
phasis in commercial real es-
tate.
This was in 2008.
The banking world crashed
and so did Bippert’s idea to
make a fortune in recreational
vehicle storage in Arizona.
Instead, he got a job audit-
ing food banks for the Wash-
ington Department of General
Administration in Olympia,
near where he grew up in
Thurston County.
A couple of years later,
his job was transferred to the
Washington State Department
of Agriculture. A little more
than a year ago, he was pro-
moted to manage the depart-
ment’s international marketing
program. Part diplomat, part
salesman and part go-between,
Bippert, 33, introduces Wash-
ington agriculture to the world.
“We’re in the business of
selling a brand — the state of
Washington,” he said.
From a cubicle in WSDA’s
Joe Bippert
Occupation: Manager,
Washington State Depart-
ment of Agriculture’s interna-
tional marketing program
Education: Brigham Young
University, business finance
Family: Wife, Corinne, two
children
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Washington State Department of Agriculture International Marketing Manager Joe Bippert oversees
the promotion of Washington agriculture abroad.
headquarters, Bippert over-
sees a marketing program with
a $1 million-a-year budget.
The program helps business-
es, from modest startups to
well-funded commodity com-
missions, make connections
with overseas buyers and for-
eign government officials.
“They do a great job on the
introduction side,” said Ryan
Holterhoff, Washington State
Potato Commission director
of marketing and industry af-
fairs.
The Washington and Or-
egon potato commissions
teamed with the Washington
and Oregon agriculture depart-
ments last fall on a trade mis-
sion to Southeast Asia. Hol-
terhoff said the commissions
could have touted potatoes on
their own. But having gov-
ernment representatives along
helped the commissions get
in to see officials to talk about
trade barriers, he said. “More
doors are open to us.”
Trade missions involving
agriculture department direc-
tors or governors are high-pro-
file affairs. Bippert has been on
four of them, but most of his
work is low profile, providing
small companies with infor-
mation about markets, promo-
tions, financing and barriers.
Call it Export 101.
“We fill in the gaps where
companies might be lacking,”
he said.
Right now, Washington ag-
riculture has a big trade prob-
lem — the labor dispute at the
ports that just ended. Bippert
said he’s worried that produc-
ers have lost contracts with
overseas customers and may
not get them back.
Meanwhile, there are all
sorts of smaller problems for
individual businesses. Bippert
recalled arranging a meeting
between a snack company and
foreign contacts. From the
meeting came the revelation
that overseas sales depended
on packaging that preserved
dried fruit for a year rather
than just six months.
“I love meeting all these
companies and seeing what
motivates them and see how
I can help them,” he said.
“We’re not into it to get mon-
ey out of them. We’re trying
to use taxpayer dollars to help
them, which in turn helps the
economy and increases the
success of Washington state.”
In pitching Washington,
Bippert stresses quality, food
safety and the state’s envi-
ronmental responsibility. It
doesn’t pay to bad-mouth oth-
ers, he said.
“It doesn’t help our relation-
ship with China to say, ‘Our
products are good, and your
products are bad,’” he said.
Now more about the ball-
room dancing.
Bippert was a competitive
dancer and time spent doing
that helps explain why he was
in college while everybody
was getting rich in business
finance.
He says he wasn’t good
enough to be a professional,
but while dancing he met his
wife, Corinne, and they have
two children: Jack, 4, and
Max, 2. So that worked out
well, too.
There’s a fine line between dumb luck, good marketing
By RYAN M. TAYLOR
For the Capital Press
T
OWNER, N.D. — I once
saw a “de-motivation-
al” poster that said,
“Mistakes: It could be that the
purpose of your life is only to
serve as a warning to others.”
Pretty inspirational, huh?
There have been times in
my 23 years of post-college
cattle ranching where I felt
my marketing decisions were
best used as a warning to oth-
ers. Kind of a “whatever I
do, do the opposite” piece of
marketing advice for others.
Maybe it wasn’t that bad,
but I have paid some tuition
to the school of hard knocks.
If I sold the calves off the
cow, I’d have done better
if I’d weaned them and fed
them a while. If I contract-
ed them early, I should have
waited until later. If I sent
them to a feedlot and re-
Cowboy
Logic
Ryan Taylor
tained ownership to finish, I
shouldn’t have.
And there were times
when the market rallied and
I was plumb out of stuff to
sell. It was like the old joke
from the “Hee Haw” show on
television. A forlorn looking
Archie would tell Grandpa
Jones, “Ohhh, I lost $10,000
this week.” “How’s that?”
Grandpa would ask, and Ar-
chie would say, “Hogs went
up and I didn’t have any.”
Interesting times
These are interesting times
in the cattle market. All the
commodity markets are having
interesting times, but some are
a good kind of interesting and
some are a bad kind of inter-
esting. The last few years have
been good years to have cattle.
The market went up, and, un-
like Archie, we had some to
sell.
There’s a history to this joy
ride of marketing in the ranch-
ing business. My middle son
has taken to reading my old
“Cowpokes” cartoon books
that Ace Reid began drawing
in the 1950s. I had to laugh
when I was reading with him
and we saw Ol’ Jake explain-
ing to his banker, President
Tufernal, “Well, sir, it’s like
this: I wuz offered 35 cents on
them 28-cent calves, but I was
holdin’ out fer 40 cents. Now
it looks like we’re gonna have
to feed them 21-cent calves till
spring.”
Just add a zero to the prices
and it would fit pretty close for
some of today’s ranch market-
ing scenarios.
I’m not sure what’s go-
ing on, but, somehow, my
marketing decision this year
won’t serve as a lesson to
others in what not to do. Just
as last fall’s crazy good calf
market teetered at the tip-top
peak, I pulled the pin and sold
our steers. Check in hand, the
market started going down.
It’s still good, but down. I was
beside myself, wondering how
that good fortune could have
happened to a guy like me.
Something’s
got to give
Then I watched the price
of gasoline and fuel start
dropping with lower crude oil
prices. We’re not the biggest
consumers of gas and diesel in
the world but we use enough
that it’ll make a decent dent in
the year’s income.
I thought it looked like a
good time to buy, so I filled
up the bulk tanks with gas and
diesel. And, right after I did
that, the price started to go
back up.
I don’t know what this
world is coming to. If I can
sell our steers at the top of the
market and buy our fuel at the
bottom of the market, some-
thing’s got to give. Makes a
fella nervous.
Guess it’s time to hunker
down and wait. Along with
“Hee Haw” quotes and “Cow-
pokes” cartoons, I’ll throw in
a bumper sticker prayer I saw
pinned to a grain elevator bul-
letin board, “Lord, give me
$15 wheat again, and I prom-
ise not to ‘throw’ it away this
time.”
The sticker used an exple-
tive other than the “throw,”
but this is a family friendly
column.
There’s a fine line between
dumb luck and good market-
ing, but, either way, I’ll take
it. And hopefully heed the
bumper sticker lesson while
it’s still useful.
Ag students ponder opportunities at Chico State career fair
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
CHICO, Calif. — More
than 20 years after graduating,
Tyler Bramble was back at
school.
The 1994 graduate of Califor-
nia State University-Chico works
in Fresno as a regional manager
for Alltech, a livestock feed addi-
tive company. But he was back at
his alma mater on Feb. 18 telling
current students about opportuni-
ties with his company.
“We try to hire students
from Chico if we can,” said
Bramble, who’s on the advi-
sory board for the university’s
College of Agriculture.
Alltech, a 30-year-old mul-
tinational company that did $1
billion in business last year,
makes recruiting trips to many
colleges and universities each
year, he said.
“We get the chance to meet
the future of agriculture and
the future of our business,”
he said. The company likes
hiring “young, enthusiastic,
open-minded students” after
they graduate because “they’ve
got the creativity and hopeful-
ly the knowledge just coming
out of school,” he added.
Bramble’s booth was one
of 38 featured at Chico State’s
12th annual career and in-
ternship fair for agriculture
students, held in the pavilion
at the university farm. The
career way started as a way to
give students access to compa-
nies specific to ag, while the
job fairs on the main campus
mostly cater to other occupa-
tions.
“We really just want to ex-
pose the students to the best
opportunities that we can,”
said Hillary Bertagna, a Chi-
co State graduate who is the
university’s external relations
coordinator.
About 300 students attend-
ed this year’s career fair, most-
ly from Chico State but also
from nearby community col-
leges, including Butte College
in Chico and Shasta College in
Redding, Calif. Garrett Wallis,
the student herdsman for the
beef unit at Chico State, was
interested in companies related
to livestock and heavy equip-
ment.
“It’s definitely beneficial
to students” to meet company
representatives, said Wallis,
who transferred to Chico from
Shasta College in 2013. “You
learn what they want and what
they’re looking for in future
employees.”
One long-time participant
in the fair is Driscoll’s, the
world’s largest distributor of
fresh berries. Recruiters were
telling students about intern-
ships related to plant health,
production research, sustain-
ability and other issues, said
Maria Vieyra, a human re-
sources representative for the
company.
“It’s a great way to get peo-
ple into the company and ex-
cited about working with the
company,” said Jeff DeClue, a
Driscoll’s recruiter.
For many companies, Chi-
co State is one of their favor-
ite universities from which to
recruit workers, Bertagna as-
serted.
“Most of them come every
year,” she said. “They come
back because they keep hiring
Chico State students.”
Stewart Center and CH2M Hill Alum-
ni Center, OSU campus, Corvallis,
http://osublueberryschool.org/
March 17 — What To Do with
My Small Farm? Oregon State
University Extension Small Farms,
Jackson County, 541-776-7371,
ext. 208 paula.burkhalter@ore-
gonstate.edu. Cost: $25 Register:
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/
sorec/farms
March 20-23 — Oregon FFA
State Convention, Silverton, www.
oregonffa.com
March 20-22 — Northwest Horse
Fair & Expo, Linn County Fair and
Expo Center, Albany, www.equine-
promotions.net
ing meeting room, Seventh Avenue
and College Street, St. Maries, 208-
245-2422, http://www.uidaho.edu/
extension/forestry
Fruit Association Annual Meeting, The
Grand Del Mar , San Diego, www.CA-
FreshFruit.com
www.idffafoundation.org/
Calendar
FEBRUARY
OREGON
Feb. 28 — Oregon Small Farms
Conference, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Oregon
State University LaSalle Sells Cen-
ter, Corvallis, http://smallfarms.ore-
gonstate.edu/sfc
IDAHO
Feb. 27 — Idaho Hay and For-
age Conference, Best Western Bur-
ley Inn, www.idahohay.com, 208-
888-0988 or cindy@amgidaho.com
Feb. 27 — Drones for Forestry
workshop, 1:15-4:30 p.m., University
of Idaho Extension, 1808 N. Third Ave.,
Coeur d’Alene, $15, 208-446-1680
MARCH
OREGON
March 16-17 — Oregon State
University Blueberry School, LaSells
IDAHO
March 27 — Forestland gazing
workshop, 1 to 5 p.m., Federal Build-
CALIFORNIA
March 3 — Walnut (7-year-olds)
No Pruning-Pruning Comparison
Field Meeting, morning, Nickels Soil
Lab, Arbuckle, 530-822-7515, http://
cesutter.ucanr.edu
March 3 — Walnut (2-year-olds)
No Pruning-Pruning Comparison
Field Meeting, afternoon, Nickels
Soil Lab, Arbuckle, 530-822-7515,
http://cesutter.ucanr.edu
March 17-18 — Fruit Ripening
& Retail Handling Workshop, Uni-
versity of California-Davis, http://
postharvest.ucdavis.edu/Education/
fruitripening/
March 22-24 — California Fresh
APRIL
OREGON
April 18 — Oregon Women for
Agriculture Auction and Dinner, Linn
County Fair and Expo Center, Albany,
503-243-FARM (3276), http://owaon-
line.org/
CALIFORNIA
April 18-21 — California State
FFA Conference, Selland Arena,
Fresno, www.calaged.org/statecon-
vention
IDAHO
April 8-11 — State FFA
Leadership Conference, College
of Southern Idaho, Twin Falls,
MAY
WASHINGTON
May 14-16 — Washington FFA
Convention, Washington State Univer-
sity, Pullman, www.washingtonffa.org/
convention
CALIFORNIA
May 1-2 — Forest Landowners
of California annual meeting, Holiday
Inn, Auburn, www.forestlandowners.
org/
JUNE
CALIFORNIA
June 15-26 — Postharvest Tech-
nology Short Course, University of
California-Davis, http://postharvest.
ucdavis.edu/Education/PTShort-
Course/
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