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CapitalPress.com
Friday, January 28, 2022
People & Places
How one dairy got through dry year
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Established 1928
ORLAND, Calif. — Last
year was a tough one for
northern California dairy
farmer Martin Poldervaart,
who only received 6% of his
water allocation due to the
ongoing drought.
Fortunately, he was able
to overcome the challenges
with the innovative technol-
ogy and management he’s
adopted over the past several
years.
“This year was just a chal-
lenge for water,” he said.
He usually plants every
available acre to winter for-
age, corn, sorghum/sudan-
grass and alfalfa. But he
found out in April water
from the irrigation district
was going to be sparse. He
planted his usual winter for-
age acres but followed with
just 200 acres each of alfalfa
and corn.
He used the district water
to keep the alfalfa alive and
water from his two wells to
keep the corn going.
“It’s been a challenging
year, to say the least,” he
said.
In addition to the water
shortage, milk prices weren’t
up to par, and feed costs were
high. But like most dairy pro-
ducers, he figured out ways
to tighten the belt and bor-
rowed a little money.
“We were fortunate to
grow a good crop the year
before. But this will be a year
we use up all of our inven-
tory before the new crops
come in,” he said.
All the crops he grows are
for the cows, mostly silage
and alfalfa for dry hay. But
he still has to buy feed com-
modities — and those took a
pretty good jump in price at
the end of 2020 and begin-
ning of 2021, he said.
“Farming is there to sup-
port the dairy. In some years,
the dairy supports the farm-
ing,” he said.
But both took a hit last
year. Fortunately, he had
already put practices in place
to help him weather the
situation.
Tillage practices
“For our area, we were
really the first ones to incor-
porate strip till and no-till.
It had its challenges, but it’s
worked pretty well,” he said.
That saves on tillage costs
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Entire contents copyright © 2022
MARTIN
POLDERVAART
EO Media Group
dba Capital Press
Business: MTSJ Dairy
Location: Orland, Calif.
Age: 50
Cows: 900
Farmed acres: 270
owned, 350 leased
MTSJ Dairy
The Poldervaarts: From left, Trina, Martin, Jared and Sammie.
Crops: Triple crop winter
forage, corn and sor-
ghum/sudan, alfalfa
Practices: Conservation
tillage
Irrigation: Flood, putting
in a linear system
MTSJ Dairy
A computerized inventory system helps Martin Poldevaart track his silage and feed
use.
and pre-work before plant-
ing, with savings on fuel,
equipment, maintenance and
time. He knocked down the
number of passes in his corn
fields from six to two. The
turn-around between crops
is quicker, it saves time and
money and he doesn’t need
as much irrigation water.
“It definitely makes a big
difference. With the cost sav-
ings, it helped out a lot,” he
said.
He had to work to get the
same yields as conventional
crops, and now they’re pretty
close, he said.
He’s also experimented
with corn, with the help
of DeKalb, to find more
drought-tolerant varieties.
Adoption of new genetics
also applies on the dairy
side and helped him get a
higher price for his milk
and calves.
Genetics improve
“With the dairy, we’ve
worked 10-plus years very
heavily on genomics,” he
said.
All his animals are genet-
ically tested, and he uses
sexed semen on the better
half of the herd.
“That makes a big differ-
ence in how quick the herd
improves. That translates
into quite a bit more milk,
and higher-quality milk,”
he said.
In 2010, his annual milk
production was 23,000
pounds per cow on a roll-
ing herd average. Today
it’s 28,000 pounds, and
he’s increased the butter-
fat and protein in the milk.
Higher fat and protein con-
tent translates into a larger
milk check, he said.
He uses beef semen on
the lower half of the herd
to get a better price when
he sells those calves for the
beef market.
Tracking inventories
On the feed side, he uses
cloud-based software to
track inventories each day.
The software deducts from
his inventory the amount
of alfalfa, silage and com-
modities he’s feeding each
group of cows.
“Through the tracking
program, we are able to
keep track of all of our feed
inventory and costs to make
sure we are being efficient
and using the ingredients to
their fullest potential. There
is no longer any guessing
or estimating involved,” he
said.
He’s also used drones
to calculate his silage
inventory.
In 2015, he installed 805
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Affiliations: Dairy Herd
Improvement Associa-
tion, FFA, 4-H
To Reach Us
Family business: Wife,
Trina, keeps the books
and genetic records; son,
Jared, helps with the
farm and has a baling
business; daughter,
Sammie, is working on a
master’s degree in dairy
nutrition and helps with
cow nutrition.
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solar panels to help off-
set high energy costs. They
provide electricity for the
milk barn and some pumps
and wells and will have paid
for themselves by 2024.
All of the practices he
has incorporated helped
him deal with the chal-
lenges in 2021, but he’s not
done yet. He’s putting in a
linear irrigation system to
maximize the acreage and
dairy wastewater and get
more uniform application.
He hopes to install robotics
for the dairy in the next few
years.
“You have to do anything
you can to stay up on any-
thing that’s new,” he said.
He’ll keep utilizing con-
ventional practices that
work but will continue to
look for practices and tech-
nology that improve effi-
ciency, he said.
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E. Oregon teen raising steer, plans to donate beef to food bank
By DICK MASON
EO Media Group
SUMMERVILLE, Ore.
— The Northeast Oregon
Regional Food Bank is set
to receive a one-of-a-kind
1,200-pound bonus thanks to
the generosity of an Imbler
High School senior.
Tel McBride is raising a
steer for his senior project
and plans to donate all of the
meat from it to the Northeast
Oregon Regional Food Bank,
which is operated by Com-
munity Connection of North-
east Oregon. McBride said
he wants to make beef avail-
able to those in need because
the price of meat has gotten
so high during the past year.
Audrey Smith, man-
ager of the Northeast Ore-
gon Regional Food Bank, is
delighted about the prospect
of receiving meat from the
steer.
“Beef is our No. 1
requested item,” she said.
Unfortunately, the North-
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group
Tel McBride with his cattle at a Summerville ranch on
Jan. 17. He is donating the beef from one of the steers
to Community Connection of Northeast Oregon as a
part of his senior project.
east Oregon Regional Food
Bank rarely can provide beef
because the cost makes it
prohibitive. Smith said in the
five years she has been man-
ager of the Northeast Oregon
Regional Food Bank, it has
been able to offer beef only a
couple of times.
Smith is McBride’s men-
tor for his senior project and
said she is impressed by the
steps he has taken to make
sure the meat from the steer
will be able to be distrib-
uted by the food bank. The
Imbler senior is ensuring
the meat processing com-
pany is properly certified so
the meat meets government
health standards for public
distribution.
The steer is one of five
McBride is now raising and
among about 30 he has raised
altogether.
McBride started raising
cattle at his family’s home
more than a decade ago. He
stopped for a few years and
then started raising cattle
again in 2017. He said raising
cattle is a process of perpetual
discovery.
“It is fun. Everyday I learn
something new about them,”
he said.
McBride, whose mother,
Susy, works for Community
Connection of Northeast Ore-
gon, added that cattle can be
unpredictable.
“They keep you guessing,”
he said.
McBride said when cat-
tle make up their mind to do
something they are hard to
stop.
“If they want to go some-
where they will go there,” he
said.
McBride’s interest in cattle
dates back 15 years when he
was visiting a ranch in North
Powder run by Butch Mas-
call, who offered a free calf to
him if he could lasso the ani-
mal with a rope.
“I lassoed it on my first
try,” he said.
McBride’s family took the
calf home and proceeded to
help raise it. McBride went
on to raise more cattle, while
receiving guidance from Mas-
call and former La Grande
Police Chief John Courtney.
McBride plans to sell
off his cattle after graduat-
ing from high school so he
can have a chance to attend a
school in Hermiston for rail-
road conducting. After grad-
uating from there he plans to
pursue a career in railroads.
He will be following the
lead of his father, Kevin, who
works for the Union Pacific
Railroad.
McBride said that he will
likely return someday after
high school to again raising
cattle at some level because it
is in his blood.
“It is something I really
enjoy,” he said.
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attracts attendees from around the
nation — and the world. Website:
http://www.WorldAgExpo.org
TUESDAY-THURSDAY
FEB. 1-3
WEDNESDAY
FEB. 9
Cattle Industry Convention &
NCBA Trade Show: George R. Brown
Convention Center, Houston, Texas.
The convention will include indus-
try speakers and educational events.
Website: http://www.ncba.org
Intro to Hazard Analysis Crit-
ical Control Points: 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
Hazard Analysis and Critical Con-
trol Points (HACCP) is an interna-
tionally recognized method of
identifying and managing food
safety-related risk. Participants will
receive an International HACCP
Alliance seal and certificate. Web-
site: https://techhelp.regfox.com/
introhaccp2022
Horse Keeping and Land Man-
agement Masterclass Series: The
Tualatin and Clackamas Soil and
Water Conservation Districts and
Alayne Blickle of Horses for Clean
TUESDAY-THURSDAY
FEB. 8-10
World Ag Expo: 9 a.m. Interna-
tional Agri-Center, 4500 S. Laspina
St., Tulare, Calif. One of the world’s
largest ag shows returns this year to
Tulare, Calif. With hundreds of exhib-
itors, presentations, seminars and
other events, the World Ag Expo
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Water are presenting this master-
class series. Whether you’re new
to horse-keeping or have years of
experience, this course will help
you learn ways to simplify your
chores while managing your prop-
erty in a way that benefits the
entire ecosystem. Free workshops
will be held virtually on Wednes-
day nights from Feb. 9 to March
16 at 6:30-7:30 p.m. Registration
id required. Sign up at https://bit.
ly/3Km9SQd Questions? Contact
Kristina Peterson at kristina.peter-
son@tualatinswcd.org
est event focused solely on
organic seed in North Amer-
ica, bringing together hun-
dreds of farmers, plant breed-
ers, researchers, certifiers, food
companies, seed companies,
and others from across the U.S.
and around the world. Farm
tours and short courses are held
prior to the full two-day confer-
ence. Website: https://seedalli-
ance.org/
WEDNESDAY-SATURDAY
FEB. 9-12
Oregon State University
Small Farms Conference (online):
Everything you ever wanted to
know about succeeding as a small-
scale farmer. Website: https://bit.
ly/3IA8jx9
Organic Seed Growers Con-
ference: Oregon State Univer-
sity Campus. The Organic Seed
Growers Conference is the larg-
FRIDAY-SATURDAY
FEB. 18-19
THURSDAY
FEB. 24
Virtual classes for pesti-
cide applicators (online): 8 a.m.-
noon. There will be virtual classes
for pesticide applicators’ recerti-
fication, offered by Oregon OSHA
and the Oregon Farm Bureau
Health & Safety Committee. The
virtual training will provide con-
tinuing education credits for any
pesticide applicator licensed in
Oregon. Participants will receive
pesticide recertification CORE
credits to maintain an applica-
tor’s license. The four CORE credit
hours provided are approved by
the Oregon Dept. of Agriculture’s
“Worker Protection Standard:
What You Should Know.” Web-
site: http://www.OregonFB.org/
pesticideclass
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Markets .................................................12
Opinion ...................................................6
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