Friday, March 4, 2022
CapitalPress.com
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Koch Legacy Farms: Discovering the benefits of organic ag
CANBY, Ore. — Becom-
ing a certified organic farm
was a steep learning curve for
Koch Legacy Farms, but its
benefits have extended across
the entire operation.
The Canby, Ore., farm got
its start in 1900 when George
and Conrad Koch made their
way from Wisconsin to Ore-
gon. They farmed and built
barns and houses in the area.
Their
third-
and
fourth-generation
descen-
dants now have charge of the
farm: Ryan Koch and wife
Holly and Ryan’s parents,
Steve and Mary Jane Koch.
Mary Jane runs the office
and Holly, a crop and soil sci-
ence major from Oregon State
University, provides input on
the science behind farming.
“Having a resident sci-
entist and a top-notch book-
keeper really helps,” Ryan
Koch said.
The family grows a com-
bination of conventional and
certified organic crops, and
the rest of the farm is in con-
ventional grass, wheat and
sugar beet seed with a few
acres of hazelnuts in the mix.
The farm has continued to
expand the acreage allocated
to organic crops since getting
certified 20 years ago, but it
hasn’t come easy.
“There’s a big learning
curve to growing organic
and doing it well and we’ve
learned a lot over the years,”
Koch said. “We’ve made quite
a few investments in new cul-
tivating equipment, including
the RTK GPS which has been
a huge game-changer for us.”
The accuracy of GPS —
the acronym for global posi-
tioning system — allows
them to cultivate much closer
to the row, allowing the oper-
ator to do the same quality job
at the end of the day as at the
Koch Legacy Farms
Ryan and Holly Koch, of Koch Legacy Farms near Can-
by, Ore., with their daughter, Edith. With Ryan’s parents,
Steve and Mary Jane Koch, the family grows a combina-
tion of conventional and certified organic crops.
beginning. They had an “Aha!
moment” when they realized
the importance of soil health
and have delved into cover
crops.
“We’ve seen huge bene-
fits,” Koch said. “It’s more
expensive than conventional
fertilizer but you get the ben-
efits of soil health, which
closes that gap and makes it
a beneficial process on both
sides. We’re also learning
that by pushing soil health on
our organic ground we hardly
have any disease, and pests
are minimal.
“We treat our cover crops
like crops and take good care
of them,” Koch said. “Cover
crops get your water into the
ground better; they make
nutrients, pull nutrients up
from down below and pull
nitrogen out of the air.
“We used to look at them
as an expense and now we
look at them as an invest-
ment,” Koch said. “More and
more, we’re relying on them
to carry our crops through the
season.”
This year they’re experi-
menting with their own blend
of crimson clover, buckwheat,
sunflowers, vetch and oats,
with promising results.
“We no-tilled it into a
green bean field and it looks
really nice,” Koch said. “That
field probably won’t need any
added fertilizer this year.”
For Koch, farming is more
than an occupation.
“Farming just kind of
came natural to me; I can’t
imagine doing anything else,
and for me the fun part about
the organic business is con-
tinuously pushing the limits
and stressing the crop to find
ways to make it work for us,”
he said. “Our goal is to grow
crops without any added fer-
tilizer and avoid irrigation
wherever possible because
each irrigation brings weeds.
“Organics has really
changed the way we farm
and with every year that goes
by we get a little better,”
Koch said. “We’re in a chal-
lenge-rich environment right
now and having organic on
the farm also gives us a good
hedge against input costs.”
Koch cannot think of a bet-
ter place to farm than Oregon.
“We’re proud to farm in
Oregon; we can grow just
about anything in the North-
west and the quality is higher
than most,” he said. “We
have great personal relation-
ships with our employees and
I feel like I’m friends with
everybody I work with in this
industry.”
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