Friday, March 8, 2019
CapitalPress.com
McLeod Family: Farming
for more than 100 years
By HEATHER SMITH THOMAS
For the Capital Press
Justin McLeod has been
farming near Nez Perce,
Idaho, for about a dozen
years.
“This was a century farm
that’s been in our family a
long time, but when I came
back to the farm my dad and
my uncle were farming it
together,” he said.
“I started buying out my
uncle’s share, and my dad
and I have been farming for
about 10 years. Last year my
dad retired, so now it’s just
myself and my wife, Pol-
ley. We also own a title com-
pany, and she is the presi-
dent of that company.”
McLeod does most of the
farming himself, with help
from two part-time employ-
ees who work for him
through most of the year.
Currently the main seed
crops on the farm are fall
wheat and bluegrass. Rota-
tional crops have included
lentils, peas, garbanzo beans
and canola. The legumes add
fertility to the soil between
seed crops.
“We used to grow quite a
bit of canola but the price has
not been very good lately;
we haven’t grown canola
for the past
two years,”
McLeod
said.
T h e
grass seed
he grows is
Justin McLeod p u r c h a s e d
by Jacklin
Seed, a subsidiary of Sim-
plot. This seed company
supplies a full line of turf
grass varieties for lawns
and golf courses. Markets
for Kentucky bluegrass seed
have been very good lately,
with the growth in the hous-
ing industry and overseas
markets.
“I think the market will
be good again this year, but
there are some indications
that it will soften after that,”
he said.
The grass seed is har-
vested a little differently
than cutting the fields for
hay or grain. “We swath and
then combine it. At first we
used our regular combines
and just put pick-up headers
on them to pick up the rows
of grass, and set the com-
bines a little differently. The
main difference is that we
don’t use our regular semi-
trucks. Instead we use semi
vans that have been con-
verted for hauling seed, with
the tops taken off them. We
dump into those, for haul-
ing the seed to the cleaner,”
McLeod said.
Seed has to be clean
and weed-free. It is certi-
fied through the Idaho Crop
Improvement Association.
McLeod has been grow-
ing grass seed his whole
farming career, and his
father and uncle grew seed
for 30 years before that.
“This is all high-end
grass seed that goes to golf
courses, horse farms — for
paddocks that get a lot of
wear and tear — and lawns.”
These are durable turf vari-
eties that can handle a lot of
pressure and not get beat out
by heavy use.
McLeod and his wife have
three boys ages 7, 9 and 11.
“They are still too young
to help much, but they all
enjoy riding on the equip-
ment and would like to drive
it. They have lots of ambition
right now, and don’t mind
going out to help pick rock
and other chores.”
Family farms in this
region just keep growing
larger to survive.
“To stay competitive, the
reality is to get bigger, but it’s
challenging with the price of
land,” he said.
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