Friday, December 27, 2019
CapitalPress.com
3
U.S. hop production sets record in 2019
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
YAKIMA, Wash. — U.S.
hop production set a record
high above 100 million
pounds for the third year in
a row in 2019, apparently
continuing a reasonable
balance between supply and
demand.
At 112 million pounds,
the crop was up 5%, accord-
ing to a Dec. 18 report from
USDA’s National Agricul-
tural Statistics Service.
“In weeks leading up
to harvest we anticipated
a crop of around 115 mil-
lion pounds as mature
fields in particular looked
very strong while we knew
the babies (new plantings)
looked a bit weak,” said
Pete Mahony, vice presi-
dent of supply chain and
purchasing for John I. Haas,
Inc., a leading hop producer
in Yakima.
As harvest data came,
it was evident cool spring
temperatures took a greater
toll on baby plantings than
expected, Mahony said.
Production of 107 mil-
lion pounds in 2018 was
up 1% from 106 million
pounds in 2017, which in
turn was up 20% from 87
million pounds in 2016.
Washington
produced
73% of the 2019 national
crop at 82 million pounds,
Idaho grew 15% at 17 mil-
Courtesy of Petar Marshall
A top cutter makes its way
through the hop yard at
Cornerstone Ranches in
Toppenish, Wash., during
the 2018 harvest. U.S. hop
production set a record in
2019.
lion pounds and Oregon
grew 12% at 13 million
pounds, according to the
NASS report.
Hop supply has increased
because of tremendous
growth in craft beer but the
rate of that growth has been
slowing.
“While acreage growth
has recently slowed into
low
single-percentage
digits, we do expect this
smaller growth to be sus-
tainable in the near term to
keep supply in relative bal-
ance with brewing demand
that has also slowed but
is still growing,” Mahony
said.
It’s encouraging to see
some demand momentum
overseas for U.S. varieties,
he said.
Total acres harvested
was 56,544 with 40,880 of
that in Washington, 8,358 in
Idaho and 7,306 in Oregon.
Acreage
has
been
increasing since 2012 when
it was at 29,683. It declined
to that from 40,898 in 2008.
Avoiding over supply can
be difficult since it takes a
couple years for new plant-
ings to produce.
Total value of 2019 pro-
duction was $637 million,
up 9% from the prior year,
the report stated. Of that,
Washington was $475 mil-
lion, Idaho was $89 mil-
lion and Oregon was $72
million.
Average price per pound
was $5.80 in Washington,
$5.50 in Oregon and $5.25
in Idaho.
Citra, Cascade, Zeus,
Simcoe, C/T/Z and Mosaic
were the six leading variet-
ies in Washington in 2019,
accounting for 50% of pro-
duction, the NASS report
shows.
In Idaho, C/T/Z, Mosaic,
Chinook, Zeus, Citra and
Casade made up 65% of
production. In Oregon,
Nugget, Cascade, Citra and
Willamette were 50% of
production.
The average yield per
acre was 2,034 pounds in
Idaho, 2,006 in Washington
and 1,783 in Oregon.
The 64th annual Ameri-
can Hop Convention will be
in Portland on Jan. 22-24.
New Oregon Farm Bureau president leads diverse family operation
Iverson Family Farms home
of successful Wooden Shoe
Tulip Festival
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
WOODBURN, Ore. — Barb
Iverson says she has the experi-
ence that comes with a long career
in farming.
Over the years, Iverson Fam-
ily Farms — home of the famous
Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival that
drew approximately 150,000 vis-
itors last year — has evolved
with the times, growing dozens
of different crops while riding the
boom-and-bust cycles of agricul-
tural economics.
Those experiences have pre-
pared Iverson, 60, to lead the Ore-
gon Farm Bureau as producers
continue to deal with headwinds,
from low commodity prices to
extreme weather.
Iverson was elected president of
the state Farm Bureau during the
organization’s 87th annual conven-
tion Dec. 12 in Gleneden Beach.
She has previously served as pres-
ident of the Clackamas County
Farm Bureau, and was first elected
to the OFB state board of directors
in 2005, most recently serving as
its first vice president.
The Oregon Farm Bureau
serves 6,600 farmer and rancher
members statewide.
“It’s an honor,” Iverson said in
an interview with the Capital Press.
“Farm Bureau is really a family.
We talk a common language.”
Iverson Family Farms was
started by Barb’s parents, Ross and
George Plaven/Capital Press
Barb Iverson, of Iverson Family Farms in Woodburn, Ore., was elect-
ed president of the Oregon Farm Bureau during the organization’s
annual convention.
Dorothy, in 1950. It is run today by
Barb and her brothers, Nels, Ken
and Paul, and their nephew, Jon.
Together, they farm 1,200 acres
near Woodburn, Ore., growing
primarily grass seed, vetch seed,
tulips and, most recently, industrial
hemp.
The farm also has a few blocks
of table grapes, winegrapes and
hazelnut orchards.
But perhaps the best-known
feature of the farm is the Wooden
Shoe Tulip Festival, which has
grown into a bright and colorful
rite of spring in the Willamette Val-
ley. What started strictly as a retail
business for flowers took on a
whole new identity when the farm
began opening its fields to the pub-
lic in 1985.
Now the festival attracts fami-
lies, gardeners and photographers
from all 50 states and 140 coun-
tries over six weeks in late March
and April.
“There’s just something about
flowers that connects people,”
Iverson said. “You talk to people
who have been out here, and they
just light up. It’s those types of
memories that you just can’t create
anywhere else that we strive for.”
Agritourism is just one way
the farm has adapted to stay prof-
itable amid changes in markets.
For years, Iverson Family Farms
earned the majority of its income
from growing potatoes. When
that soured, it forced the family to
sell one of its farms or risk losing
everything.
“We got through it,” Iver-
son said. “But farming overall is
tough.”
Iverson graduated from Ore-
gon State University in 1982 with
a degree in horticulture. She said
the farm has tried more than 100
different crops, including nursery
stock, green beans and sweet corn.
The family quit growing row
crops a few years ago, and has
since turned its focus to what could
become Oregon’s next most valu-
able agricultural product — indus-
trial hemp.
They began growing hemp in
2016, after seeing how the extract
cannabidiol, or CBD, helped
Barb’s father, Ross, when he
was diagnosed with liver cancer.
Whereas before he could barely
get out of bed, CBD allowed Ross
to move more freely, eat and spend
a month and a half of quality time
with the family before he died.
“It was just a game-changer for
us,” Barb Iverson said.
Despite an explosion of regis-
tered hemp in Oregon in 2019 that
has flooded markets and strained
infrastructure, Iverson Family
Farms has positioned itself well
amid the “green rush,” incorporat-
ing CBD oil extraction facilities on
the farm and creating its own brand
of CBD-infused retail products,
called Red Barn Hemp.
The CBD extraction business,
named FSOil, employs 80 people
year-round and contracts to sell the
oil to Charlotte’s Web, a company
in Colorado.
From tulips to hemp, Iverson said
she has learned the importance of
diversification in farming. As pres-
ident of the Farm Bureau, she said
her main goal is to help growers be
competitive while ensuring healthy
rural lands and communities.
“I just want to make their jour-
ney easier,” Iverson said.
Iverson takes over as president
from Sharon Waterman, who is
retiring. She was chosen by mem-
bers from a pool of candidates
that included Angi Bailey, a sec-
ond-generation nursery owner near
Portland, and Dylan Wells, pres-
ident of the Marion County Farm
Bureau. Bailey was elected first
vice president under Iverson.
Dave Dillon, OFB exec-
utive director, said Iverson
“brings the knowledge and wis-
dom from a complex, dynamic,
and forward-looking family farm
operation.”
“In this era when communicat-
ing farm issues to the non-farm
public is so important, Barb brings
a perspective about public engage-
ment that we haven’t had before,”
Dillon said. “Her leadership style
is collaborative and collegial, and
she is going to be a great president
as Farm Bureau starts its second
century in Oregon.”
One of Iverson’s first duties as
OFB president will be to partici-
pate in the national American Farm
Bureau Federation House of Dele-
gates as one of four seated repre-
sentatives from Oregon during the
2020 AFBF Convention in Austin,
Texas. It takes place Jan. 17-22.
Iverson said she is also look-
ing forward to helping the Oregon
Farm Bureau expand its outreach
and education programs.
“I really want to focus on some
education, so people understand
what we do and why we do it,”
Iverson said. “There’s just not that
connection anymore. (People) are
three and four generations removed
from farms. I think it’s important to
get them out on the countryside to
see what we’re doing.”
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