May 22, 2015
CapitalPress.com
9
Oregon
West Coast Beet Seed marks 75 years in business
By MITCH LIES
For the Capital Press
On the surface, the idea
of four competing companies
jointly owning a company
sounds like a recipe for disas-
ter. In fact, it may be exactly
why West Coast Beet Seed
Co. has operated as long as it
has, celebrating its 75th anni-
versary this year.
Company Manager Greg
Loberg said the formula has
allowed the company to sur-
vive the sometimes turbulent
world of agribusiness.
“If one of the owner mem-
bers of West Coast Beet Seed
goes bankrupt, and this has
happened,” Loberg said,
“somebody else is probably
picking up the pieces and car-
rying on a program.
“With multiple owners that
are competitors, the loss of one
owner is probably the gain of
another owner,” Loberg said.
“The company, in spite of a
shifting ownership, has been
incredibly stable for 75 years.”
Generating roughly half
the U.S. beet seed production
in any one year, West Coast
Beet Seed is a model of con-
sistency in the Willamette
Valley’s shifting agricultural
climate.
The company, which start-
ed in 1940 with nine share-
holders, has had only four
managers in its history, and
the first lasted only two years.
George Burt, who still comes
around the office on occa-
sion, ran the company from
1980 until Loberg took over
in 2007. Before Burt, Sam
Campbell ran the company
from 1942 to 1980.
The company also boasts
minimal turnover among
non-managerial employees.
Its 17 permanent staff have
been with the company an
average of 15 years, provid-
ing a level of experience that
Loberg described as invalu-
able in a production regime as
complex as beet seed.
In a typical year, staff will
start by overseeing transplant
operations in January and Feb-
ruary, a time when the com-
pany’s employment swells to
between 150 and 200. During
March and April, staff will
walk production fields looking
Mitch Lies/For the Capital Press
Greg Loberg, manager of West Coast Beet Seed Co., discusses the history of the 75-year-old compa-
ny, depicted in these pictures at the company’s Salem headquarters.
for off-types and monitoring
past production fields for vol-
unteers. In June they will be
separating male plants from
females to eventually remove
the males and maximize yield.
In July and August, they will
be harvesting seed and plant-
ing the next crop. And in the
fall they will be processing
seed.
“It’s hard to find that kind
of experience in beet-seed
production,” Loberg said of
his staff. “They are multi-task-
ing people.”
Another competitive ad-
vantage the company enjoys
is it consolidates expenses for
the four owners.
“What we do is consoli-
date overhead expenses into a
place where they are shared by
multiple companies,” Loberg
said. “No one else has that.”
West Coast Beet Seed is
owned by American Crystal
Sugar, Syngenta, Holly Seed
and SES VanderHave.
Combined, it and its main
competitor, Betaseed, annual-
ly supply seed for between 1.1
million and 1.2 million acres
of sugar beet production.
Beet seed production av-
erages about 3,000 pounds to
the acre, but much of that is
removed during processing.
“We may take out 30 per-
cent here,” Loberg said, re-
ferring to West Coast’s Salem
plant. “Then the owners fur-
ther process it, and they may
take out another 50 percent.”
The owner-companies es-
timate their annual needs and
contract for growers to pro-
duce the seed. Seed produc-
tion contracts can range from
less than 10 acres to more than
50 acres, with an average field
size of 20 acres.
The company contracts
with a steady base of around
75 growers. Production is
spread out throughout the val-
ley to avoid issues with cross
pollination.
Legislative roundup: How ag bills have fared this session
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Mitch Lies/For the Capital Press
Andy Hulting, speaking at last year’s Hyslop Farm Field Day, is
back at work after suffering a stroke Jan. 31. He will be presenting
a talk on weed control in grass seed at this year’s Hyslop Farm
Field Day, May 27 in Corvallis.
Hyslop field day
marks Extension
specialist’s return
By MITCH LIES
For the Capital Press
From the surface, all will
appear normal when Andy
Hulting gives his presentation
on weed control in grass seed at
Oregon State University’s Hys-
lop Farm Field Day May 27 in
Corvallis.
The OSU Extension weed
specialist has been a regular on
the field day’s agenda during the
past nine years.
But this year’s appearance
likely will mean a little more to
Hulting and those close to him.
It will be one his first grower
presentations since he suffered a
stroke on Jan. 31 that sidelined
him for most of three months.
“It is good to be back,” he
said. “It beats a hospital room. I
can tell you that much.”
Life is slowly returning to
normal for Hulting, who spent
two weeks in a drug induced
coma and another month in pro-
fessional medical care. Hulting
said he still doesn’t have full
range of feeling in his right leg,
but he has no memory loss, no
cognitive impairment and no
issue with concentrating. He
returned to work part-time in
mid-April and started back full-
time on May 11.
Hulting suffered the stroke
while delivering a talk on weed
control at an extension meeting
in Prineville. Five minutes into
his presentation, Hulting report-
edly sat in a chair, announced he
didn’t feel well and passed out.
Paramedics
transported
Hulting from Prineville to the
St. Charles Medical Center
in Bend, then airlifted him to
Oregon Health and Science
University.
“I have nothing but good
things to say about OHSU,”
Hulting said. “And I want to
thank the Prineville Fire and
Rescue, because they were the
first ones there.”
At OHSU, doctors placed
Hulting in the coma to stabilize
him, identify the cause of the
stroke and operate on him. They
brought Hulting out of the coma
in mid-February, with his family
gathered around his bedside.
“My parents were there and
everybody,” said Hulting, who
is married and has three chil-
dren. “It was a pretty surreal
experience.”
Hulting spent another two
weeks in recovery at OHSU,
then two weeks at a rehabili-
tation center in Eugene before
returning home in mid-March.
“It was pretty tough for a
while,” Hulting said, “but once
I got home, things started im-
proving.”
Hulting, 40, said he had no
sign that anything was wrong
until the moment he suffered the
stroke.
“I drove over (from Cor-
vallis) in the morning, had
lunch, and everything was
fine,” he said.
Hulting said there is no
history of stroke in his family.
Also, he said, doctors were un-
able to explain why the stroke
struck when it did.
“It is probably a birth de-
fect, and it just picked that day
to happen,” he said.
Hulting, who has been at
OSU nine years, wanted to
thank the many people who
have supported him over the
past few months.
“I just got tons of emails
from growers and industry peo-
ple,” he said. “I want to thank
them for all of their support.
“To be missed and be
thought of is a pretty neat ex-
perience,” he said.
With just over a month re-
maining in Oregon’s legislative
session, lawmakers have acted
on several bills related to agri-
culture and natural resources.
Controversial proposals that
would increase the regulation
of pesticides and genetically
engineered crops have died
in committee, while others —
such as restrictions on antibi-
otics in livestock — are still
awaiting committee action.
Following is a summary of
bills that have either passed the
legislature or crossed signifi-
cant hurdles on the way to be-
coming law:
Biotech mediation
A mechanism for resolv-
ing potential disputes over
cross-pollination between or-
ganic, conventional and genet-
ically modified crops has made
headway in the legislature.
House Bill 2509 creates a
mediation system in which the
Oregon Department of Agricul-
ture would seek voluntary reso-
lutions to coexistence conflicts.
After winning support from
proponents and critics of ge-
netic engineering, the bill was
approved 57-1 in the House.
The lone dissenter was Rep.
Paul Holvey, D-Eugene, who
introduced legislation restrict-
ing where biotech crops are
cultivated. That proposal died
in committee.
The mediation bill is now
being considered by the Senate
Committee on Environment
and Natural Resources, which
is scheduled to hold a hearing
and possible work session on
HB 2509 on May 20.
Predator control
A proposal to increase fund-
ing for predator control by as-
sessing rural landowners up to
$1 per acre in special tax districts
was approved by the House 56-2
and is now before the Senate
Committee on Environment and
Natural Resources. While House
Bill 3188 won by a strong mar-
gin, it is opposed by animal wel-
fare and environmental groups
that object to lethal methods and
local management of wildlife.
The legislation was supported by
ranchers, who say that such add-
ed money is necessary in rural
counties facing budget shortfalls
and pressure from cougars, coy-
otes and other predators.
with an amendment to the bill.
Proponents hope that greater
clarity on agritourism liability
will convince more insurance
companies to provide coverage
for such operations.
Nursery shipping
Urban farm tax relief
A proposal to give farm
regulators the authority to re-
voke nursery shipping permits
is making its way through the
legislative process.
Senate Bill 256, aimed at
stopping nurseries from ship-
ping if they don’t abide by san-
itary standards for plants, will
be up for a vote before the Joint
Committee on Ways and Means.
A subcommittee on natural
resources recently decided to
move the measure out to the
full committee at a May 18
work session.
The Oregon Association of
Nurseries supports SB 256 be-
cause a disease outbreak tied to
an Oregon producer could have
serious export implications for
the entire industry.
The legislation would also
raise the nursery license fee cap
from $20,000 to $40,000 and the
“millage rate” — a mill is one-
tenth of a percent — on their rev-
enues from five to 10 mills,
A new method of reducing
property taxes for urban farm-
ers was approved 50-10 in the
Oregon House, but House Bill
2723 will likely face changes
on the Senate side.
The bill allows local gov-
ernments to create agriculture
incentive zones within urban
growth boundaries where prop-
erties would be taxed at a lower
rate if they’re devoted to farm-
ing for five years.
While HB 2723 appears
to have momentum behind it,
questions over its potential im-
pact on urban growth bound-
aries still need to be answered.
Supporters are also likely to
amend the bill to include a 2023
sunset date and exclude marijua-
na from the tax relief proposal.
Agritourism liability
Legal protections for Ore-
gon agritourism operators have
passed muster in the Senate,
which approved Senate Bill
341 unanimously. The legisla-
tion would shield growers from
liability for visitor mishaps
providing they post warnings,
among other conditions.
The proposal got off to a
rocky start due to opposition
from trial lawyers, but man-
aged to overcome that obstacle
Raw milk advertising
Oregon’s
prohibition
against raw milk advertising,
which hadn’t been enforced for
more than a year, is officially
no longer a state law.
Gov. Kate Brown recently
signed House Bill 2446, which
removes the longstanding ban
from statute but doesn’t other-
wise change restrictions on raw
milk sales.
The bill was introduced as
part of a legal settlement be-
tween the Oregon Department
of Agriculture and Christine
Anderson, a raw milk producer
who sued the agency for violat-
ing her free speech rights.
During hearings and work
sessions, HB 2446 faced no op-
position and sailed through the
legislative process without so
much as an amendment.
Aggie bonds
Northwest Farm Credit
Services, a major agricultur-
al lender in the region, will be
able to participate in Oregon’s
“Aggie Bond” program, which
is aimed at providing loans to
beginning farmers under House
Bill 3239. The bill was signed
into law by Brown recently
and expands the definition of
lenders who qualify for the pro-
gram, which provides compa-
nies with a federal tax credit for
lending to new growers.
Drone hunting
A ban against using drones
for hunting and angling was
also approved by the legislature
and Brown without encoun-
tering any objections, though
lawmakers did make some ad-
justments to clarify that such
devices can be used for manag-
ing wildlife with the approval
of state regulators.
House Bill 2534 passed both
chambers unanimously. The bill
was supported by lobbyists rep-
resenting hunters and fishermen,
who feel that drones threaten the
concept of “fair chase.”
Bird control
House Bill 2432, which
expands the use of fireworks
for bird control, was another
non-controversial measure that
was recently signed into law.
The legislation allows managers
of golf courses, airports, landfills
and similar facilities to use fire-
works to repel birds. Before the
bill was passed, such uses were
limited to farms and forests.
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