10 CapitalPress.com
June 1, 2018
Organic production means
changes large and small
By BRENNA WIEGAND
For the Capital Press
Third-generation Aamodt
Dairy near Hubbard, Ore.,
went organic in 2006. The
dairy, owned by siblings Doug
and Steve Aamodt and Nor-
ma Aamodt Nelson, made the
transition to get a higher price
for their milk and sell the 2
million pounds produced each
year by their 100-cow herd to
Organic Valley Creamery, a
co-op of organic dairy farmers.
“It worked out well because
all our ground was already or-
ganic, but everything costs
more, too,” Steve Aamodt
said. “Everything needs to be
approved and documented and
can only contain certain ingre-
dients, so it’s an ordeal.”
Fighting infection is a dif-
ferent story in organic produc-
tion.
“We start with natural treat-
ments and use antibiotics if
necessary to save the cow’s
life,” Aamodt said. “At that
point it must be taken out of
the herd and the whole ordeal
documented.”
Thankfully, the use of top-
ical mint oil has proven quite
effective for treating mastitis,
which is often a dairy cow’s
Brenna Wiegand/For the Capital Press
Steve Aamodt checks on heif-
ers at the family farm near Hub-
bard, Ore. He and his siblings
made the switch to organic
production 12 years ago.
biggest issue.
“You find out right away
how much money you wasted
on antibiotics,” Aamodt said.
“God gave us an immune sys-
tem that, if you work with it,
is really something. Some of
these mint oils and just try-
ing to take care of your cows
with vaccines, providing good
feed, not pushing them to high
production and just letting the
cow do its thing really makes a
difference.”
The Aamodts dedicate 280
of their 400 acres to the dairy.
The amount of pasture an or-
ganic dairy provides dictates
the number of cows. Over a
120-day period they must get
at least 30 percent of their dry
matter from pasture feeding.
In addition to pasture land
they raise alfalfa, corn for si-
lage, oats and wheat for their
cows. Alternative feeds such
as tortilla shells or brewers
grain are not permitted unless
certified organic and nitrogen
for the soil must be natural and
come in such forms as poultry
waste and blood meal.
“We don’t spray our crops
at all,” Aamodt said. “You get
more weeds and set your sights
on yields being down a little
bit.”
Conventional milk is fetch-
ing around $14-15 per hun-
dredweight and organic is go-
ing for about $30.
“Customers pay a premi-
um. ... Milk is a good food and
people want that choice,” Aa-
modt said. “It’s filling a market
that people want. ...
“It’s been a good market,
but we are currently in the
middle of a surplus because
some large farms have start-
ed up and flooded the mar-
ket,” Aamodt said. “We’re in
a downturn on our pricing,
but that’s both convention-
al and organic. It’s kind of a
tough time to be a dairyman,
period.”
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