April 13, 2018
CapitalPress.com
13
Hazelnuts offer farmers diversification
By BRENNA WIEGAND
For the Capital Press
Five years ago, Butler
Farms started making room
for hazelnuts among the grass
seed, peppermint, corn and
bean fields.
Brothers Gary, Tim and
David Butler began replacing
a little of each crop on their
2,000-acre family farm in the
Stayton and Aumsville, Ore.,
area with hazelnuts. After
three years the farm had 140
acres of hazelnuts.
“Now we’re taking a break
to get some return on our in-
vestment,” David Butler said.
The week after the But-
lers planted their first group
of 24-inch trees temperatures
plummeted to zero degrees
Fahrenheit. They experienced
a 20-25 percent die-off.
“It gets expensive and it’s
a big learning curve,” Butler
said. “They are a fairly easy
Brenna Wiegand/For the Capital Press
David Butler of Butler Farms harvested his first hazelnuts last year. The farm is working hazelnuts into
its 2,000-acre operation, which includes grass seed, peppermint, corn and beans.
crop to raise but the first five
years it’s a lot of work. There’s
lots of trimming the suckers
and then the trees themselves
get shaped to grow correctly.”
With the variety of crops,
harvest season spans July
through October with few
breaks.
“We learned to work hard
as kids, so we just carried that
on,” Butler said. “They keep
saying we need more volume
and more nuts to be a major
player in the market; that you
need the supply before you
can create a demand,” he said.
Brothers Tim Aman of Ha-
zelnut Growers of Oregon and
Tom Aman of Wilco Valley
Ag provide valuable advice.
The two are experienced ha-
zelnut growers and propaga-
tors on their own farm.
“We buy our trees from
them,” Butler said. “Because
of their experience I take their
advice very seriously. I see
the success they have and if I
could do that I would be ex-
tremely happy.
“I think there’s a sense of
excitement for the new grow-
ers, because we’re looking
for something to add value
to our farms,” he said. “The
grass seed has been a strug-
gle at times and the vegetable
industry has been horrible the
last five years. You look out-
side the box to see how you
can fill it.”
The new blight-resistant
hazelnut cultivars developed
by Oregon State University
are especially partial to the
ONV18-3/101
Willamette Valley. To get in
on the action larger players
are showing up.
“You’re seeing a lot of the
big corporations come into
the valley and invest in hazel-
nuts; whether that’s good or
bad I don’t know but it’s hap-
pening,” Butler said.
Setton Farms of Terra Bel-
la, Calif., is one of America’s
largest pistachio growers. It
also markets some 4 million
pounds of hazelnuts every
year, buying them from Tur-
key.
“They decided they need
to be in the business them-
selves,” Butler said. “They
bought land a stone’s throw
from our place and put in
200 to 300 acres last spring.
Their goal is around 1,500
acres.
“You’d think that it’s go-
ing to be a good crop down
the road if they’re willing to
invest millions of dollars.”