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CapitalPress.com
September 8, 2017
People & Places
New use for old irrigation tubing
Ken Carhart recycles
plastics to preserve
poles in vineyards
and hop yards
Western
Innovator
Capital Press
Ken Carhart
Age: 46
Occupation: Owner of Rot-
bloc, a product that wraps
around posts to prevent
them from rotting
Education: Graduated from
University of Oregon, studied
landscape architecture
Courtesy of Jessica Carhart
Rotbloc owner Ken Carhart, center, stands in front of irrigation tubing flanked by Austin Carpenter, left,
and Colt Carpenter of Carpenter Ranches in Granger, Wash. Carhart recycles the tubing into a product
that wraps around posts to keep them from rotting.
20-foot rolls and put them in 23
feed and grain stores.
The retailer’s approach
seemed to be “throw the rolls
on the shelf and see if they
sell,” he said.
They didn’t. Carhart said he
was close to bankrupt. He was
also sick. While he was trying
to get his business going, he
was diagnosed with Hodgkin
lymphoma. He underwent sur-
gery and chemotherapy. Run-
ning the struggling business he
started didn’t seem so bad. “It
was a good distraction from my
sorrows,” he said.
Around this time Rotbloc
took a different tack. While
Carhart was sick, his wife, Jes-
sica, with no sales background,
cold-called farmers and found
customers.
“Within 30 days, we were
profitable and haven’t looked
back,” he said. “She is the
hero.”
Craig Carpenter, whose
family owns Carpenter Ranch-
es in Granger, Wash., gave
Carhart’s product a try, hop-
ing to extend the life of trellis
poles. “They would always rot
right where they touched the
ground,” he said.
The waterproof material
wraps around the post below
ground level and a few inch-
es above it. After three years,
Carpenter said he sees a differ-
ence between wrapped and un-
wrapped poles. “You can defi-
nitely tell it’s working,” he said.
Another customer, Yakima
Golding Farms of Toppenish,
Wash., hopes to extend the life
of its poles by 50 to 100 per-
cent, the farm’s manager, Mark
Sechser, said.
The hop farm, owned by
John I. Haas Inc., has 70 poles
per acre. “There’s a lot of pole
money over there,” Sechser said.
“We’re pretty excited about hav-
ing our poles last longer.”
Last year, the Michigan
manufacturer suddenly closed
without notice. Carhart ob-
tained a loan from a nonprofit
lender, Craft3 of Portland, and
with the help of an engineer,
Larry Braun, opened a manu-
facturing plant in Bend.
The plant can produce 225
pounds of product an hour,
though Carhart said he hopes
production can be boosted. The
company gets plastic and rub-
ber from recyclers in Washing-
ton and Oregon.
Several months ago, a farm-
er asked Carhart if he did any-
thing with old irrigation tubing.
Carhart said “no,” but got to
thinking and researching. Car-
hart found out the tubing was
made from the low-density
polyethylene plastic he needs.
Other companies, including
several in California, recycle
irrigation tubing, but for other
products.
Besides hops, the Carpen-
ters grow wine grapes and other
types of fruit. Craig Carpenter
estimates the farm has 300 rolls
of discarded irrigation tubing,
each 2 feet wide by 4 feet tall.
The rolls are stashed in several
places. A gardener occasionally
asks for a strip, but that doesn’t
even dent the pile.
“We were trying to figure
out what to do with it,” Carpen-
ter said. “There’s a lot of it out
there, and it’s got to go some-
Family: He and his wife,
Jessica, have five children,
ages 23 to 7
Innovation: Found a use
for discarded drip irrigation
tubing
where. I don’t know what other
places are doing, but we sure
found a way out for us.”
He said he’s happy that re-
cycling is the way out. “We try
to be as green as we can.”
Since the first trip to Car-
penter Ranches, Carhart has
hauled away another trailer
load of tubing from another
farm. “I’m not sure what oth-
er outlet there is for that drip
tube,” Sechser said.
Carhart said most of his
Rotbloc customers are in the
Northwest, but he also has
shipped the product to several
foreign countries. On the ma-
terial, he prints instructions in
four languages: English and
Spanish, Italian and German.
The Carharts like visiting Italy,
and Germany produces hops.
“We’re preparing for suc-
cess in Germany,” he said. “The
sky is the limit at this point.”
Ag community comes together for Oregon State Fair
By ALIYA HALL
Capital Press
SALEM — Alea Minar,
14, has been keeping busy this
year at the Oregon State Fair.
A 4-H’er for six years, Minar
shows in every small animal
category.
“Rabbit, poultry, cavies
(guinea pigs), pigeons and
dogs,” she listed off.
Along with showing an-
imals, Minar, who is from
Deschutes County, also com-
petes in the static 4-H exhib-
its such as fashion, sewing,
cooking, food preservation,
art, photography and leader-
ship.
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 oppor-
tunities 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,
Established 1928
Board of directors
Mike Forrester
Steve Forrester
Kathryn Brown
Susan Rana
Mike Omeg
Corporate Officer
Heidi Wright
Chief Operating Officer
By DON JENKINS
A little more than a month
ago, Bend, Ore., entrepreneur
Ken Carhart drove to the Car-
penter family’s hop farm in
Yakima County, Wash., and
hauled away discarded drip ir-
rigation tubing.
The farm was pleased to be
rid of it, and Carhart was hap-
py to get it. Carhart will recy-
cle the tubing into a material
to wrap around wooden posts
and poles to prevent them from
rotting.
Carhart has been manufac-
turing and selling his patented
product, Rotbloc, for several
years. Only recently, however,
did he learn that his best cus-
tomers, farmers, have a surfeit
of the raw material he needs.
The serendipitous discovery
may give farmers an alternative
to disposal fees and open a new
phase in Carhart’s venture in
agribusiness.
“This whole thing has been
a blessing and sort of a curse,”
he said.
Carhart, 46, once worked
for a lumber distributor and
sold wooden posts to farmers.
The Environmental Protection
Agency then tightened rules
on wood preservatives, and
options became more limited,
Carhart said.
In 2013, he quit his job and
drew on his experience with
posts, agriculture and landscape
architecture — that’s what he
studied at the University of Or-
egon — to design Rotbloc.
He contracted with a plant
in Michigan to make Rotbloc in
Capital Press
Aliya Hall/Capital Press
4-H and FFA members compete in one of the poultry competitions. This was the first year that 4-H and
FFA members competed together.
and you’re studying with your
friends, quizzing one another
and cleaning the animals,” she
said.
For 14-year-old Tatum
Heathershaw from Washing-
ton County, the fair gives her
the chance to be around peo-
ple 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 liked
meeting new people from
around Oregon. This year in
particular has given them am-
ple 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 Both-
um, 4-H program coordinator,
said.
In past years, 4-H would
show one week and FFA
would show the other, but be-
cause many students are going
back to school earlier and the
groups use the same judges,
it made sense to show all the
youth competitions together,
Bothum said.
“It’s been fun. A great op-
portunity with great organi-
zations,” 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 reduce 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 ani-
mal entries has gone up.
Elsewhere at the fair, the
agriculture stage was also a
hit, Brooke Broadbent, the
showcase organizer, said. She
estimated an average of 30 to
50 people attended the pre-
sentations. For the activities it
“ebbed and flowed.” The most
popular event was Egg Day,
when 1,500 eggs on a stick
were handed out.
Although the fair has
stopped keeping daily atten-
dance tallies, Dan Cox, the
fair spokesman, said the fair
had a good opening day and
there were more discount in-
centives 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 mat-
ter what. It’s an interesting
thing.”
Cox says the fair offered
something for everyone.
“It’s not just for the urban
center,” he said. “It’s for the
entire state.”
Capital Press Managers
Joe Beach ..................Editor & Publisher
Elizabeth Yutzie Sell .... Advertising Director
Carl Sampson ................Managing Editor
Jessica Boone ........ Production Manager
Samantha McLaren .... Circulation Manager
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Calendar
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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 97301 or emailed to
newsroom@capitalpress.com.
Through
Saturday, Sept. 9
Eastern Idaho State Fair. 8 a.m.-10
p.m. Eastern Idaho State Fairgrounds,
97 Park St., Blackfoot, Idaho. Website:
https://funatthefair.com/
Through Sunday, Sept. 24
Washington State Fair. 10 a.m.-
10 p.m. Fairground in Puyallup, 110
9th Ave. SW, Puyallup, Wash. The
Washington State Fair, commonly
referred to as the Puyallup Fair, is
the largest single attraction held
annually in the state of Washing-
ton. Closed Tuesdays and Sept. 6.
Website: www.thefair.com/
Through Friday, Sept. 8
Western Apicultural Society’s
40th annual conference. University
of California-Davis Harry H. Laidlaw
Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility,
Davis, Calif. Bee Culture magazine
editor Kim Flotton will address “The
Rapidly Changing Bee Scene;”
beekeeper and author Les Crowder
will discuss managing honeybees in
top bar hives; and bee expert Larry
Connor will cover “Keeping Your
Bees Alive and Growing.” Cost:
$225. Website: www.westernapicul-
turalsociety.org/
Wednesday, Sept. 13
FSPCA Preventive Controls
for Human Food — One-Day
Blended Course. 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Hil-
ton Garden Inn, 1741 Harrison St.,
Twin Falls, Idaho. The new Food
Safety Modernization Act regulation
requires every processing facility
to have a trained resource person
or “Preventive Controls Qualified
Individual” who has completed a
specialized training course (such as
this one) that was developed by the
Food Safety Preventive Controls
Alliance and is recognized by the
FDA. This person will oversee the
implementation of the facility’s food
safety plan and other key tasks. Jeff
Kronenberg, an assistant professor
at the University of Idaho and Food
Safety Specialist at TechHelp, will
GASES / WELDING / SAFETY / FIRE
www.oxarc.com
offer this One-Day FSPCA Blended
Course as an alternative to the tra-
ditional 2.5-day course. Cost: $330.
Website: www.techhelp.org
Thursday, Sept. 14
Food Safety Internal Auditor
Workshop. 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Hilton
Garden Inn, 1741 Harrison St.,
Twin Falls, Idaho. A comprehen-
sive audit system is essential to a
company’s food safety and product
quality. It provides confirmation that
systems and procedures are oper-
ating effectively and identifies ar-
eas that require improvement. The
Internal Internal Auditor Workshop
will teach you how to conduct in-
ternal audits in your facility against
one of the GFSI Audit Schemes,
which are becoming a standard
for the food industry as a tool for
assuring food safety and regulato-
ry compliance and have become
a customer requirement for many
processors. Many of the schemes
require formal, documented training
for personnel who conduct internal
auditing. This one-day course will
provide attendees with a full un-
derstanding of audit requirements
as well as promote personal pro-
20 Northwest Locations
fessional development. Cost: $330.
Website: www.techhelp.org
Friday, Sept. 15
2nd Annual Rice Weed Course. 8
a.m.-4:25 p.m. Rice Experiment Sta-
tion, 955 Butte City Highway, Biggs,
Calif. Website: http://cesutter.ucanr.
edu/
Tuesday-Wednesday
Sept. 19-20
Central Oregon Occupational
Safety & Health Conference. The Riv-
erhouse, Bend, Ore. Cannabis work-
er safety and health will be a topic,
and small agriculture employers can
learn about becoming conditionally
exempt from Oregon OSHA inspec-
tions. Website: safetyseries.event.
com/central17
Thursday, Sept. 21
OSU Small Farms School. 8:30
a.m.-4:30 p.m. Clackamas Commu-
nity College, 19600 S. Molalla Ave.,
Oregon City, Ore. This day-long
event features classes in a variety
of topics important to small-scale
farmers. Sponsored by Oregon State
University Extension, the Clackamas
Soil and Water Conservation District
1-800-765-9055
and Clackamas Community College.
Website: http://smallfarms.oregon-
state.edu/small-farm-school
Saturday, Sept. 23
Goat Education Day. 8:30 a.m.-
4 p.m. OSU Southern Oregon Re-
search and Extension Center Audi-
torium, 569 Hanley Road, Central
Point, Ore. Choose four classes
from a selection of 11, two in the
morning and two in the afternoon, for
$35. Or choose two morning classes
and cheesemaking in the afternoon
for $50. Class topics are geared to
both beginner and advanced goat
owners from Getting Ready for
Kidding Season and Holistic Goat
Care to the foundations of Nutrition
and Feed and the Making of Goat
Milk Soaps and Lotions. Present-
ers include Dr. Charles Estill, OSU
veterinarian; Gianaclis Caldwell,
author; and Christina Strickland and
others from the Rogue Valley Dairy
Goat Association. Register online at
http://bit.ly/JacksonGoatEdDay2017
or call 541-776-7371. Ask about a
youth discount. Cost: $35 to $50.
Website: http://extension.oregon-
state.edu/sorec/SF-classes
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Index
California ................................ 9
Dairy ...................................... 7
Idaho .....................................11
Livestock ............................... 7
Markets ............................... 13
Opinion .................................. 6
Oregon ................................ 10
Washington ........................... 8
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