2
CapitalPress.com
September 4, 2015
People & Places
Family company changes with the times
R.M. Wade Co.
evolves during 150
years of innovation
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
The R.M. Wade & Co. has
long been venturing into new
frontiers.
Founder Robert Marshall
Wade was an Oregon Trail pi-
oneer who began his career by
peddling goods to gold miners
out of a tent in California.
Wade’s business evolved
and relocated over time, even-
tually selling implements to
farmers in Oregon’s Willa-
mette Valley.
Since then, the company
has continued to transform.
Now in its 150th year,
the firm is still run by R.M.
Wade’s descendants, but its
focus has shifted to distrib-
uting irrigation equipment in
far-flung international mar-
kets.
“You have to reorga-
nize it from time to time,”
said Edward H. Newbegin,
great-grandson of R.M. Wade
and president of the company,
which now does business un-
der the Wade Rain moniker.
When the company was
founded in 1865, the U.S. was
entering an era of revolution-
ary agricultural innovation.
R.M. Wade introduced Or-
egon farmers to many of these
mechanized inventions, such
as horse-driven seeders, reap-
ers, manure spreaders, thresh-
ers and other implements.
The modernization trend
continued under the leader-
ship of Edward J. Newbegin,
R.M. Wade’s son-in-law, and
later Wade Newbegin, the
founder’s grandson.
With the advent of porta-
ble fuel-powered engines, the
company began to capitalize
on machine-powered vehicles
and implements.
R.M. Wade & Co. brought
early tractor models, such
as the Heider and Fordson,
to Northwest growers who
were able to afford improving
on the efficiency of the draft
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press
Edward Newbegin, president of R.M. Wade & Co. and great-grandson of the company’s founder,
stands in front of some irrigation equipment that the company sells in international markets. The com-
pany has been operated by the same family for 150 years.
Western Innovator
R.M. Wade & Co.
Founded: 1865
Family ownership: Five generations
Headquarters: Tualatin, Ore.
Employees: 120
Annual sales: $41 million
International subsidiaries: Mexico, Peru, Tanzania
Company history website: www.rmwade150.com
horse.
While such machinery
certainly accelerated the ef-
fectiveness of American ag-
riculture, it did not prevent
the company from struggling
through hard times.
A plunge in crop prices in
the 1920s was followed by
the Great Depression, leaving
R.M. Wade & Co. with excess
inventories as the demand for
farm equipment contracted.
Wade Newbegin, by then
running the company, was
able to keep it alive by closing
branches, slashing expenses
and liquidating inventory —
often at steep discounts — to
generate cash.
“His purpose was to build
the company, which he did a
great job at,” said Edward H.
Newbegin, his son.
The company’s fortunes
improved and in 1936 the
FFA officers answer public’s
questions at Oregon State Fair
By JAN JACKSON
For the Capital Press
SALEM — Ag youth
at its best was on display
opening day at the 150th an-
nual Oregon State Fair.
While 4-H Club and FFA
exhibitors worked with their
animals in the stalls, pens
and show rings, the 2015
FFA officers positioned
themselves up front in an in-
formation booth and orches-
trated much of the action.
They arrived before the
fair started to help exhibi-
tors move into the barns and
they will stay after it’s over
to help exhibitors move out.
They were there to an-
swer questions from the
public and sent runners to
the nearby FFA staff trailer if
they didn’t have the answer.
“Our focus this year is
to help educate the public
about FFA and its youth in
the future of agriculture,”
Luis Mendoza, state FFA
president, said. “We are do-
ing a lot of that here in our
information booth here in
the barn. We are also getting
some new chapters started
like reopening one at McK-
ay High School in Salem and
a new one in Portland that is
excited about developing a
rooftop garden project.”
Mendoza said about 330
exhibitors from the 35 to 40
FFA chapters are involved
in the fair this year who are
showing an average of two
Jan Jackson/For the Capital Press
From left, the 2015 Oregon State FFA officers are Bailey Myers,
Nyssa, state sentinel; Addie Howell, Jefferson, vice president; Alys-
sa Smith, Elton, treasurer; Joe Matteo, Sutherlin, secretary; Ricky
Molitor, Madras, reporter; and Luis Mendoza, Molalla, pesident.
They are available at the Oregon State Fair, where they answer the
public’s questions about agriculture.
For more
information
Call 541-7.7-2.95 or email
Emily@oregonffa.com.
to three animals each. In
addition, 20 members are
competing in tractor driv-
ing, 20 in livestock judg-
ing and another 10 in horse
judging.
“These exhibitors are
proud to show off their hard
work on their projects and
they love earning and taking
home the champion ribbons
to prove it,” Emily Kraz-
berger, associate director of
Calendar
To submit an event go to the Community
Events calendar on the home page of our
website at www.capitalpress.com and click on
“submit an event.” Calendar items can also be
mailed to Capital Press, 1400 Broadway St.
NE, Salem, OR 97.01.
Through Monday, Sept. 7
Oregon State Fair, 10 a.m.-11 p.m. Oregon
Oregon FFA programs, said.
“We’re all really proud of
our state FFA officers for
doing a great job of coordi-
nating everything. They are
extremely passionate about
the future of agriculture and
it shows in everything they
do. They are doing a great
job representing agricul-
ture.”
The National FFA Or-
ganization is dedicated to
making a positive differ-
ence in the lives of students
by developing their poten-
tial for premier leadership,
personal growth and career
success through agricultural
education.
State Fairgrounds, Salem.
Thursday, Sept. 10
Oregon State University Dairy Open House,
10 a.m.-. p.m. OSU Dairy, Corvallis, Ore.
The OSU Dairy has been converting to a
grazing-based operation.
Thursday-Friday, Sept. 17-18
California Poultry Federation Annual Meeting
and Conference, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monterey
Plaza Hotel, Monterey, Calif.
firm began manufacturing ir-
rigation equipment that would
be sold under the Wade Rain
brand.
Advances such as its
“Poweroll” line of powered
wheel-line sprinklers, devel-
oped in the 1950s, helped
the irrigation unit gain prom-
inence, and the company
expanded into center pivot
systems in the 1970s and drip
systems in the 1980s.
Meanwhile, the firm con-
tinued to distribute tractors
and implements from other
manufacturers.
Wade Newbegin was al-
ways looking for new products
to introduce but didn’t market
equipment until he was sure
it was reliable, said Edward
Newbegin. “He would very
carefully test things.”
The early 2000s brought
major changes to the compa-
ny.
Its manufacturing divi-
sion was having trouble with
profitability, so the company
decided to sell the unit to an-
other firm in 2002.
For succession planning
purposes, the company’s farm
equipment distribution unit
was divided from the irriga-
tion unit in 2004, becoming a
separate firm that eventually
re-oriented into real estate in-
vestment.
Such splits become neces-
sary when a family company
grows to include many share-
holders with different visions
for its future, Newbegin said.
“The biggest tension is
between reinvesting in the
company and distributing the
profits,” he said.
Fortunately, the descen-
dants of R.M. Wade were
able to resolve the situation
amicably, Newbegin said. “I
think we had a strong ethic
that family was more import-
ant than the business.”
While the early 2000s
brought some endings for the
company, an important new
venture was also launched.
In 2002, Newbegin’s son,
John, opened a subsidiary
company in Mexico to sell
irrigation equipment, which
the company now sources
from other manufacturers.
The operation flour-
ished, growing to 15 branch
locations, and now rep-
resents roughly 60 percent
of the overall company’s
revenues.
The Mexican subsidiary’s
success prompted the com-
pany to increasingly focus
on exports — similar subsid-
iaries were created in Peru
in 2012 and in Tanzania this
year.
Wade Rain has long sold
products to overseas import-
ers, but the subsidiaries allow
the company to sell directly
in those markets.
Newbegin characterizes
the expansion into Tanzania
as “a bit of a gamble” but
he’s willing to take the risk
because it’s a stable country
with a need for irrigation.
“I think our timing is right
in Tanzania,” he said.
Capital Press
Established 1928
Board of directors
Mike Forrester ..........................President
Steve Forrester
Kathryn Brown
Sid Freeman .................. Outside director
Mike Omeg .................... Outside director
Corporate officer
John Perry
Chief operating officer
Capital Press Managers
Mike O’Brien .............................Publisher
Joe Beach ..................................... Editor
Elizabeth Yutzie Sell .... Advertising Director
Carl Sampson ................Managing Editor
Barbara Nipp ......... Production Manager
Samantha McLaren .... Circulation Manager
Entire contents copyright © 2015
EO Media Group
dba Capital Press
An independent newspaper
published every Friday.
Capital Press (ISSN 0740-.704) is
published weekly by EO Media Group,
1400 Broadway St. NE, Salem OR 97.01.
Periodicals postage paid at Portland, OR,
and at additional mailing offices.
POSTMASTER: send address changes to
Capital Press, P.O. Box 2048 Salem, OR
97.08-2048.
To Reach Us
Toll free ............................. 800-882-6789
Main line ........................... 50.-.64-44.1
Fax ................................... 50.-.70-4.8.
Advertising Fax ................ 50.-.64-2692
News Staff
N. California
Tim Hearden .................... 5.0-605-.072
E Idaho
John O’Connell ................. 208-421-4.47
Idaho
Carol Ryan Dumas .......... 208-860-.898
Boise
Sean Ellis .......................... 208-914-8264
Central Washington
Dan Wheat ........................ 509-699-9099
E Washington
Matthew Weaver .............. 509-688-992.
Oregon
Eric Mortenson ................ 50.-412-8846
Mateusz Perkowski .......... 800-882-6789
Graphic artist
Alan Kenaga ..................... 800-882-6789
To Place Classified Ads
Ad fax .............................. 50.-.64-2692
or ...................................... 50.-.70-4.8.
Telephone (toll free) .......... 866-4.5-2965
Online ......www.capitalpress.com/classifieds
Subscriptions
Mail rates paid in advance
Easy Pay U.S. $..75/month (direct with-
drawal from bank or credit card account)
‘FFA Way’ shows fair-goers
what organization does
By CRAIG REED
For the Capital Press
ROSEBURG, Ore. —
The “FFA Way” display at
this year’s Douglas County,
Ore., Fair in early August
was all about showing off
the diversity of the program.
The display was fronted
by three 12-by-12-foot land-
scape exhibits, created by
teams of FFA students from
Elkton, Oakland and Suther-
lin, Ore. Concrete blocks,
stepping stones, plants,
shrubs, trees, bark mulch,
water and chairs were all
used to create clean, outdoor
settings.
Behind the landscape
exhibits sat such items as a
wood picnic table, Adiron-
dack chairs, a 14-foot-long
trailer and several tables
with smaller items such as
a boot jack, birdhouse, yard
art, a pair of pliers and nu-
merous other creations. To
the left were wood and metal
benches and several educa-
tional posters that gave in-
formation on such subjects
as animal health, genetically
modified organisms, cloning
in agriculture and ticks and
the diseases they are capable
of spreading,
Ninety-five FFA mem-
bers from five Douglas
County schools — Days
Creek, Elkton, Glide, Oak-
land and Sutherlin — cre-
ated the “FFA Way” dis-
play, using their developing
metal and wood working
skills and their agricultural
Thursday-Sunday, Sept.
17-20
science knowledge.
Wes Crawford, the ag-
ricultural science teacher
and FFA advisor at Suther-
lin High, described the FFA
display as impressive, but
also important because it
showed the visiting public
that unlike years ago, there
is more to the program than
livestock.
“The fair tradition pro-
vides a one-dimensional
view of FFA — livestock,”
Crawford said. “This allows
us to show all the different
components in today’s ag
program.”
FFA was founded in
1925, but over the last cou-
ple of decades, the program
has diversified beyond an-
imals. The changing times
and interests in the food,
fiber and natural resource
industries — encompassing
science, business, technolo-
gy and production agricul-
ture — were recognized in
1988 when the name was
changed to National FFA Or-
ganization, and the program
became known simply as
FFA.
Michaella
Black,
a
17-year-old senior at Oak-
land High School, said the
diversity that FFA offers
provides an option for just
about everybody.
“There are so many more
paths to take now,” she said.
She and Bryson Price, a
17-year-old senior at Suther-
lin High, spent time at the
display, answering questions
and visiting with people.
toolmakers and suppliers, try tools out, see
equipment in action, and ask questions.
Mount Angel Oktoberfest, 11 a.m.-11: 55 p.m.,
Saturday-Sunday, Oct. 3-4
Mount Angel, 1-855-899-6..8.
Alpaca Harvest Fest, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Alpacas
of Oregon, Sherwood, Ore., 50.-628-202..
Two farms, one convenient location. If you’re
curious about starting a fiber farm or breeding
fiber animals — sheep, goats, alpacas, llamas
— we’ve raised them all and love to talk about
them.
Tuesday, Sept. 22
Small-Scale Equipment Field Day
Noon-6 p.m. Oak Creek Center for Urban Hor-
ticulture, Corvallis, 541-766-.556. This event
will allow participants to connect with multiple
1 year U.S. ...................................$49.99
2 years U.S. .................................$89.99
1 year Canada .................................$275
1 year other countries ......... call for quote
1 year Internet only .......................$49.99
1 year 4-H, FFA students and teachers ....$.0
9 months 4-H, FFA students & teachers .....$25
Visa and Mastercard accepted
To get information published
Mailing address:
Capital Press
P.O. Box 2048
Salem, OR 97.08-2048
News: Contact the main office or news
staff member closest to you, send the in-
formation to newsroom@capitalpress.com
or mail it to “Newsroom,” c/o Capital Press.
Include a contact telephone number.
Letters to the Editor: Send your
comments on agriculture-related public
issues to opinions@capitalpress.com, or
mail your letter to “Opinion,” c/o Capital
Press. Letters should be limited to
.00 words. Deadline: Noon Monday.
Capital Press ag media
www.capitalpress.com
www.FarmSeller.com
www.AgDirectoryWest.com
www.OnlyAg.com
www.facebook.com/capitalpress
www.facebook.com/farmseller
www.facebook.com/onlyAGdotcom
twitter.com/capitalpress
www.youtube.com/capitalpressvideo
www.blogriculture.com
Index
California ................................ 9
Dairy .................................... 16
Idaho ...................................... 9
Livestock ............................. 16
Markets ............................... 17
Opinion .................................. 6
Oregon ................................ 1.
Safety ............................. 14-15
Washington ..........................11
Correction policy
Accuracy is important to Capital
Press staff and to our readers.
If you see a misstatement,
omission or factual error in a
headline, story or photo caption,
please call the Capital Press
news department at
50.-.64-44.1, or send email to
newsroom@capitalpress.com.
We want to publish corrections to
set the record straight.