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CapitalPress.com
January 29, 2016
Youngest bull sale consigner already a veteran
By LEE JUILLERAT
For the Capital Press
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore.
— At age 15, Nicholas Sher-
idan of Yamhill, Ore., is the
youngest consigner at the up-
coming Klamath Bull & Select
Ranch Horse Sale, but he’s al-
ready a seasoned veteran.
This year’s sale, Feb. 4-7
at the Klamath County Fair-
grounds in Klamath Falls, will
be Sheridan’s third Klamath
bull sale.
As a 13-year-old, the sale’s
youngest ever consigner in
history, he entered an Angus
bull that was the reserve cham-
pion and sold for $5,600. He
entered and sold two Angus
bulls in 2015 and will offer
two more this year. His long-
range plans include four more
in 2017.
“It was pretty exciting,”
Courtesy of Mark Sheridan
Nicholas Sheridan stands with two bulls that will go to the Klamath
sale, NS Full Force 55N and NS Famous Prophet 52N. Two years
ago,when he was 13, he was the bull sale’s youngest consigner.
Sheridan said of his first year’s
success.
He began the process of
raising registered black Angus
bulls as an 11-year-old when
he bought three females. One
has produced three heifers an-
nually. Now a sophomore at
Yamill-Carlton High School,
he remains involved in 4-H and
FFA.
“My ultimate goal when I
graduate from college is to be-
come a veterinarian, preferably
for large animals,” said Sher-
idan, who lives on a 25-acre
farm and is the son of Mark
and Kim Sheridan. Grass hay
grown on the farm is used for
cattle grazing.
“I get up in the morning and
I go out and feed cows. I go to
school and when I get home I
go out and feed the cows,” he
said of his daily routine.
He said he learned about
the Klamath Bull Sale from a
breeder and has become a reg-
ular.
“I just like talking to people
and the people at the sale are
very pleasant and knowledge-
able,” Sheridan said.
“The best thing is he has
gotten to know so many great
people all up and down the
West Coast. Many of these
folks are well-established cattle
ranchers,” said his father, Mark.
“All of the cattle are his,
not ones his mother and I have
given him. He has purchased
them or raised them with his
own money,” Mark Sheridan
said. “All of the cattle are reg-
istered and every one is halter
broke, meaning he has earned
their trust and can put a halter
on them and lead them any-
where he wants them to go.
In fact, one big cow won’t go
anywhere unless Nicholas puts
a halter on her and then she just
walks alongside him.”
Mark Sheridan also noted
his son gives his own shots,
prepares the animals for arti-
ficial insemination, recently
completed an AI class at Ore-
gon State University, and re-
cently artificially inseminat-
ed his cows, with the unborn
calves destined for the 2018
sale.
“The knowledge Nicho-
las has about his cattle never
ceases to amaze me,” said his
father. “The first time Nicho-
las showed up at the Klamath
bull sale with one bull and did
very well, they all thought he
was a ‘one hit wonder.’ Last
year, when he brought two
really good Angus bulls, they
knew he was serious.
“This is all Nicholas Sher-
idan. He deserves every bit of
credit.”
For young Sheridan, work-
ing with cattle is something in
his blood. Although he sees
his future as a veterinarian,
he plans to keep his black An-
gus herd into adulthood. As
he insists, “I won’t forget my
Angus cattle even when I’m a
veterinarian. They’ll always
be a part of me. This isn’t just
a passing 4-H project.”
Of selling his bulls, Sheri-
dan explains, “It’s sad — un-
til the check comes. I always
know I’ve got more bulls at
home.”
AgriNorthwest to buy Boardman Tree Farm
By GEORGE PLAVEN
EO Media Group
AgriNorthwest, a farm op-
erator based in the Tri-Cities,
has entered into an agreement
to buy the Boardman Tree
Farm from GreenWood Re-
sources.
Part of the 25,000-acre tree
farm already sold to a local
dairy that will raise approx-
imately 8,000 cows south of
Homestead Lane. The rest
will now go to AgriNorthwest,
which farms mostly potatoes
and other irrigated crops.
The deal is expected to
close soon. Terms were not
disclosed.
In the meantime, Green-
Wood Resources will contin-
ue to harvest the trees that are
left under a leaseback agree-
ment. The Collins Companies
operates a sawmill at the tree
farm, and Columbia Forest
Products runs a veneer mill
that makes decorative ply-
wood.
Logs are also sold for pulp
and biofuel. ZeaChem, a com-
pany at the nearby Port of Mor-
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press
E.J. Harris/EO Media Group
Rep. Greg Walden, right, listens to swing shift team leader Richard Lewellen talk about the veneer
production line at the Greenwood Resources tree farm Friday near Boardman.
row, used sawdust from the tree
farm to make ethanol.
The tree farm has also host-
ed “A Very Poplar Run” since
2011, with 5K and 10K races
to benefit the Agape House in
Hermiston. Don Rice, director
of North American operations
for GreenWood Resources, said
the decision to sell the property
has been met with mixed emo-
tions.
“It has become a community
feature,” Rice said. “We have a
lot of photographers who come
out, especially in the fall, to take
pictures.”
The Boardman Tree Farm
borders six miles of Interstate
84, and extends 13 miles south
Take a new look at an old friend.
Lori Pavlicek, Oregon Aglink
President
Lori is a 4th generation farm girl and
co-owns 4 B Farms, Inc. with her
parents, Jim and Donna Butsch, and
brother Jeff. The farm grows garlic,
hops, hazelnuts, grass seed, and a
variety of row crops on 2600 acres
around the Mt. Angel, Gervais, and Hubbard areas.
Lori is a member of NORPAC and the Nut Growers
Society of Oregon, in addition to being a past Marion
County FSA Board member. After an 18 year run on
the Mt. Angel Oktoberfest board she continues her
community work by being the President of the Mt.
Angel Community Foundation Board and Secretary of
the Providence Benedictine Nursing Center.
of the highway. It includes
roughly 6 million hybrid poplar
trees that can grow to more than
100 feet tall. The trees are har-
vested in 12-year cycles.
It could take years to finish
milling all the remaining trees,
Rice said, depending on the
market conditions. He is hopeful
GreenWood Resources can con-
tinue to provide trees from its
other locations to keep the local
sawmill and veneer mill operat-
ing. Together, those businesses
employ about 100 people.
The tree farm has 20 em-
ployees, along with 50-60 con-
tractors. Rice said they were not
actively marketing the property,
but AgriNorthwest approached
them about acquiring the land.
“We believe they made a fair
offer,” he said.
Prior to becoming a tree
farm, the area was used for agri-
culture. The trees came in 1990,
and GreenWood Resources
bought the property in 2007. But
Rice said they won’t be planting
again in spring.
“Things change over time,”
he said. “This will continue to
be a valuable asset to the com-
munity and economy.”
Todd Jones, president of
AgriNorthwest, said the compa-
ny has been farming in the Co-
lumbia Basin for more than 50
years and is looking forward to
adding the Boardman property
to its operations.
In December, GreenWood
announced it sold roughly one-
third of the tree farm — 7,288
acres — to Willow Creek Dairy,
which was established in 2002
on land leased by Threemile
Canyon Farms located on the
other side of the Boardman
Bombing Range.
That sale closed for $65 mil-
lion.
The dairy will now be locat-
ed along the southern boundary
of the tree farm, near the Finley
Buttes Landfill. AgriNorth-
west’s fields will be located
more closely to the highway,
which marks the property’s
northern boundary.
Oregon State University hazelnut breeder Shawn Mehlenbacher
estimates that hazelnut cultivars with new sources of Eastern
Filbert Blight resistance will be released in a decade.
New blight-resistant genes
identified for hazelnuts
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
New sources of resis-
tance to Eastern Filbert
Blight, a devastating fungal
pathogen, are being incor-
porated into hazelnut trees,
though getting them into or-
chards will take a while.
Blight-resistant varieties
released by Oregon State
University are all dependent
on the Gasaway gene, which
was discovered in 1975 in
trees impervious to the dis-
ease.
About 100 different trees
from countries including
Spain, Chile, Turkey, Rus-
sia, Serbia and Georgia
have found to be resistant
to EFB, even though the
disease isn’t native to those
regions.
“We’ve been testing
material from all over the
world,” OSU hazelnut
breeder Shawn Mehlen-
bacher said at the recent Nut
Grower’s Society meeting
in Corvallis, Ore.
While it’s uncertain why
these trees developed re-
sistance, their genetic se-
quences are being analyzed
by Mehlenbacher to find the
location of resistant traits.
“We start with that and
whittle away,” he said.
EFB-resistant genes have
so far been found on three
distinct chromosomes.
Several resistant genes
are found on only one of
those chromosomes — the
same one as the Gasaway
gene — but Mehlenbach-
er said he’s optimistic they
will also confer new sourc-
es of resistance to hazelnut
trees.
Since the genes were
discovered in far-flung
geographic locations, it’s
unlikely they are identical,
he said. Genes that confer
disease resistance are often
found in clusters on a chro-
mosome.
Mehlenbacher said he’s
already using some of the
new resistant genes in his
hazelnut breeding program,
but it will probably take a
decade before OSU releases
a new variety with a resis-
tance source other than Ga-
saway.
Developing a variety
with two or more sources
of resistance will require
closer to two decades, since
it’s more complex to incor-
porate multiple genes into
trees that also generate suf-
ficient yields and quality, he
said.
It’s unlikely OSU will
soon release any new ha-
zelnut varieties with the
Gasaway gene unless the
cultivar is significantly bet-
ter than existing ones or has
a novel trait, said Mehlen-
bacher.
“The standard is pretty
darn high,” he said.
The most recent commer-
cial variety released by OSU
was McDonald in 2014 and
the most recent ornamen-
tal variety was Burgundy
Lace in 2015. Trees that fill
a niche — such as having
mature nuts ready for har-
vest earlier than other cul-
tivars — would also justify
a new variety release, he
said.
Mehlenbacher said he’s
reluctant to release new va-
rieties because the industry
still needs time to absorb
recent cultivars, since nurs-
eries are still trying to pro-
duce enough trees to meet
demand.
Newton named Nut Grower of the Year
Lori and her farm became members of Oregon Aglink
because “We believe the ‘Link’ between rural and urban
consumers is the education and use of our natural
resources. Oregon Aglink is the voice of the Natural
Resource community, and we need to spread the word.”
Farmer recognized
for innovative
practices, new
undertakings
Become a membeu today!
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
7360 SW Hunzikeu St., Suite 102
Poutland, OR 97223 • 503-595-9121
www.aglink.oug
Capital Press
5-1/#8
Hazelnut farmer Jeff
Newton of Amity, Ore., has
been honored as the Nut
Grower’s Society Grow-
er of the Year for 2015 in
recognition of
his innovative
production
practices and
contributions
to the industry.
Newton has
equipped his
Newton
newest hazel-
nut orchard with drip irri-
gation lines that can supply
fertilizer to the trees, allow-
ing him to experiment with
nutrient-to-water ratios, ac-
cording to the NGS.
As he seeks to replace
orchards infected with East-
ern Filbert Blight, a fungal
pathogen, with disease-re-
sistant varieties, Newton
is also undertaking nursery
production and has likely
generated enough trees to
plant 500 acres this year.
He has also been in-
volved in educating farmers
who are new to the hazelnut
industry and has worked to
improve food safety mea-
sures at receiving stations
and elsewhere in the supply
chain.