Spilyay Tymoo
Warm Springs, Oregon
September 25,1997 11
ronamui umwmtv
Arlene Doileau
4-H 4c Youth
Norma Simpson
Bob Pawelek
Livestock
Clint Jacks
Staff Chair, Madras
Bodie Shaw
Ag & Natural Resources
.EXTeSJON
service
Sue Ryan
(503) 553-3238
Home Economics " Assistant
Internet Address: http:www.orst.edudoptwsext
The Oregon State University Extension Service star! Is devoted to extending research-based information from OSU to the people ol Warm Springs
in agriculture, home economics, 4-H youth, forestry, community development, energy and extension sea grant program with OSU, United Stales
Department of Agriculture, Jefferson County and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs cooperating. The Exenslon Service offers Its programs
and materials equally to all people.
The Clover speaks-
Natural Resource notables-
by Sue Ryan
Dates have been set for some of our full
4-H activitics-and we will be bringing more
detail on the other classes by the next issue.
Sign-up dates are different from class to
class, so doublechcck on each one. All classes
have limits so early sign-up guarantees you a
spot. Don't forget that if you signed up for
4-H Culture Camp at Peter's Pasture this
summer that you already have filled out a
registration Yrm - and this same registration
form is good for the entire school year! So,
you just have to come in and sign-up for the
individual class. However, if you did not
attend camp then you need an official 4-H
Registration form filled out completely and
signed by your parentguardian before you
can register for fall classes.
Also, a word of advice-please consider
what will really work for you and your child
when signing them up for classes. Often
times parents mean well but cheat them
selves and their child by making their sched
ule too busy and signing up for everything we
offer plus more at the school and community
center. While we encourage participation we
want to make sure that when you sign up you
also attend the class you've signed up for.
This ensures a fair time for all to take part,
especially when we have limits on ourclasses
and often have waiting lists.
Look Who's Cooking-Sign-up begins
Sept 29th
This will be our second fall series of
cooking-but the class will follow the same
theme of a basic introduction to cooking.
This was a popular series last year and so we
wanted to offer the same course again for
those who didn't have a chance to take it the
first time.
This course is for 3rd grade and up and
will be held for 4 weeks in October. These are
the dates and times. (Parents must pick up
children by 5:30 p.m.)
There is a limit of 10 for the class
Wednesday, Oct. 1, 3:30-5:00 p.m.
Wednesday, Oct. 8, 3:30-5:00 p.m.
Wednesday, Oct. 15, 3:30-5:00 p.m.
Wednesday, Oct. 22, 3:30-5:00 p.m.
There is no cost for the class, and all
cooking supplies are provided by the O.S.U.
Extension office. However, as some kids
found out last year- cooking can get MESSY!
So if you have an old apron or extra large
T-shirt your child can wear to cook in it keeps
favorite clothes from getting stained.
Sew Easy-Sign-up begins October 6th.
This is a new class, but one we had many
requests for last year. Sew Easy will cover
the beginning steps to sewing and members
will work on two simple projects to practice
the skills they learn. This series is for 4th
grade and up and will be held every other
week on Saturdays. These are the dates and
times.(Parents must pick up children by 3:30
p.m.)
There is a limit of 12 for the class.
Saturday, Oct. 18, 1:00-3:00 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 1, 1:00-3:00 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 15, 1:00- 3:00 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 6, 1:00-3:00 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 20, 1:00-3:00 p.m.
Tuesday, Dec. 30, 1:00-3:00 p.m.
Most of the materials will be provided by
the Extension Office. There may be a small
amount of material ( 14 yard or less) that the
students will have to provide.
Know Your Indian Government
Signup begins September 29th
This citizenship class started last March
and we will be offering it each fall and
spring. This fall the course schedule will
look a bit different, as we have divided
topics up into smaller segments. The course
will have evening sessions and day sessions
and will require the student to get an excused
absence from school for the two half-day
sessions. These dates are tentative for now,
and our ad visory committee will approve the
final version on October 7th. Know Your
Indian Government is for students in the
6th- 12th grades.
Wednesday, Nov. 5, 7:00-8:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Nov. 12, 7:00-8:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Nov. 19, 7:00 - 8:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Dec. 3, 12 noon-5 p.m.
Wednesday, Dec. 10, 12 noon-5 p.m.
Wednesday, Dec. 17, 7:00-8:00 p.m.
Traditional Dance Nights-Sign-up be
gins October 6th
These will be basic activity nights to teach
traditional Indian dance. This class is meant
for the beginner dancer or someone who
wants to practice on what they already know.
Traditional Dance Nights are for 2nd-7th
graders.
Saturday, Nov. 15, 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 20, 6:00-8:00 p.m.
While we want everyone to have a fun
time at these nights, they are also a serious
learning time so that means you must register
the same as for other classes. There will be
a limit of 20 students for the Fall Tradi
tional Dance Nights.
We have some more ideas on the drawing
board, but must get commitments from com
munity members to help teach plus flush out
the details so take a look at the next edition of
Cloverspeaks for what more the 4-H pro
gram plans to offer.
Keeping the Farm "All in the Family"
Dob and Jean Nixon have spent a lifetime
trying to make the right decisions for their
2500 acre wheat farm near Junction City in
the fertile Willamette Valley. But all the
right choices and good luck in the world
would mean nothing if they weren't able to
keep the farm in the family. With plenty of
planning and clear communication between
the entire Nixon family, they are beating the
odds and seem to be successfully passing the
farm down to their grown daughter Betty.
"You can have all the desire in the world,
but it won't do any good without the plan
ning," says Jean Nixon.
Finances, tax laws, and the increasing
complexity of modern day farming all con
spire to make it very difficult to keep the
family farm within the same family.
"A typical family business going from
first generation to second only has a one in
three chance of surviving," says Patricia
Frishkoff, Director of the Austin Family
Business Program at Oregon State Univer
sity. "Going from second to third generation,
about half of the family businesses survive
that succession hurdle. I believe the odds
aren't even quite that good for farming be
cause it is such a challenging industry in
which to survive in the first place."
The Austin Family Business Program of
fers courses and holds workshops that help
Oregon families do the things necessary to
keep the business in the family. Many of the
"clients" are farmers and ranchers. A series
of succession workshops held around the
state are underway over the course of the
next several weeks.
"The biggest problem is that the farmers
and other business owners-just don't take
action," says Frishkoff. "Succession involv
ing your kids and your farm or company is a
very emotionally and financially charged
issue. A lot of people avoid it because they
don't want to talk about issues like money
and death. So they don't do the kinds of
homework necessary in order to have a suc
cession plan in place."
Betty Marguth, the Nixons' daughter who
now is involved in running the farm with her
husband, was one of the program's success
ful succession clients.
"We had the desire to operate the farm,
my parents had the desire to turn it over to
us," says Marguth. "But all of us were quite
naive thinking it would be smooth."
Marguth is still concerned that the suc
cession will turn out the way everyone
wants. Estate planning and tax laws are tall
hurdles to clear. Even though taking one of
OSU's courses has helped, some of the
knowledge has come too late.
Farm parents often dream that their son
or daughter will take over the family farm.
But it gets complicated right off the but
when there is more thun one child. Will
both children be ublc to stay on the farm?
Is the farm financially successful enough
to support two or more children, their fami
lies, and the parents? Perhaps most impor
tantly, are the children capable of managing
a farm in the 21st Century?
"It's not only going to take a lot of
agricultural skills, but also a lot of basic
business and marketing skills," says
Frishkoff. "I think the future generations
will have to be far smarter than their moms
and dads, their grandmas and grandpas.
There is always the risk of having a young
person who likes to get their fingers in the
dirt but really doesn't have the overall busi
ness skill to take over the farm."
All this is assuming the children even
want to stay in the agriculture business.
The solution to all the frustration and
complication of succession is good com
munication and planning. That is what the
workshops teach.
"There are two things a farm family
needs to do," says Frishkoff. "First, they
have to make the time from their day-to-day
business to sit down around the kitchen
table and have some real heart-to-heart dis
cussions about what family members want
and what they have to do in the future.
Second, they need to commit the time and
the dollars to do the formal planning that
will help them keep the farm as a farm, and
keep it in their family if that's what they
want. The tax laws associated with inherit
ance are stacked against them and, in order
to take advantage of the few opportunities
they have, they need to be very proactive in
their planning."
The succession "success" stories nearly
always involve a family that has done the
communicating, the planning, and have had
a little luck thrown its way.
"Families need to talk uhout v. hut is going
to happen when dud or mom dies," suys
Frishkoff. "Thai's not un easy dinner table
Sun fs
conversution.
The workshops bring together a group of
business owners and begin asking those ques
tions. We help families learn not only that it's
okay to talk about these things hut how to do
it."
.Work books distributed al the workshops
provide a scries of "need-to-be-asked" ques
tions so that when the family goes home, it
knows exactly what needs to be discussed.
There is no single answer to each question.
The family also comes away understanding
the consequences of not answering those ques
tions. The succession workshops, sponsored with
the help of U.S. Bank, are being held in
Medford, Tangent, Portland, Pendleton, Bend,
Salem, Eugene, and Ncwberg over the course
of the next three months. While they are open
to all family business owners, it is expected
that many participants will be farmers and
ranchers.
The average age of farm operator in Or
egon is 54 years old and getting older, a
problem agriculture leaders are trying to sol ve.
"It is critically important for the younger
generation to get very active and involved,
become more than a kind of hired help on a
family farm," says Frishkoff.
Hopefully, efforts such as the succession
workshops will help.
For more information, contact Patricia
Frishkoff at (541) 737-6017.
Botulism case calls attention to home food preservation-
by Tom Gentle
The first thing you notice during the tele
phone conversation is that Susan speaks slowly
and deliberately. Maybe she simply wants to
choose just the right words. Or, you wonder,
maybe she still has to struggle to pronounce
them clearly.
Even though it is now August, perhaps
Susan (not her real name) has not completely
recovered from the botulism poisoning she
contracted from eating home-canned beets in
February 1997.
Susan, who is professionally employed, lives
in southern Oregon. She and her mother ate the
beets for lunch. Even though the beets had a
strange taste, Susan assumed it was caused by
an ongoing sinus infection. She remembers not
feeling well the next day, but she went to work
anyway.
By the end of the day, her vision began to
blur, she couldn't touch the tip of her mouth
with her tongue, and she had difficulty breath
ing and keeping her balance. Her mother re
ported similar symptoms.
Botulism is caused by the Clostridium botu
linum bacterial. Inactive spores of this bacteria
are found in soil and water throughout the
world. The soil in the western United States
from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean
contains a particularly high count of Type A
spores, the strain that produces the toxin most
dangerous to humans.
In spore form, these bacteria are relatively
harmless. The problem occurs when the spores
germinate into growing cells. As the cells grow,
they become overpopulated and begin to die,
producing a deadly toxin that causes botulism.
Several conditions must be present for the
spores to germinate and grow, according to
Carolyn Raab, Oregon State University Exten
sion foods and nutrition specialist.
The spores can grow in foods with a lower
acid level when oxygen, or air, is not present in
the area immediately next to them. "It's pos
sible to have conditions develop in situations
that, to the naked eye, do not appear danger
ous," Raab said.
Because oxygen-free conditions develop
when food is canned, botulism has most com
monly been associated with canned foods. Home
canning recipes for low acid foods such as
vegetables, call for use of a pressure canner to
attain temperatures high enough to kill any
botulinum spores that may be present.
The home-canned beets that poisoned Susan
and her mother had been canned in a boiling
water canner rather than a pressure canner. "I
learned about botulism as a kid and I knew that
certain vegetables had to be processed at higher
temperatures than you get with a hot water bath.
But I thought that applied only to green beans
and tomatoes," Susan said.
While green beans do have to be pressure
canned, tomatoes are more acidic and may be
safely processed in a boiling water canner fol
lowing laboratory-tested instructions.
Although she didn't think it was pertinent,
Susan raised the possibility of botulism with
her doctor and told him about the beets. In the
meantime, the symptoms worsened. Her
mother was hospitalized immediately. Three
days after eating the beets, Susan went to the
hospital. She wasexperiencing blurred vision,
slurred speech, had difficulty walking and no
gag reflex.
A paralytic illness, botulism can be mistak
enly diagnosed as Guillain-Barre syndrome,
stroke, myasthenia gravis and tick paralysis,
among others. Treatment includes adminis
tration of an antitoxin. Six days aftereating the
tainted beets, Susan was flown to the Oregon
Health Science Center in Portland where she
was given antitoxin.
By then she was on a ventilator to assist her
in breathing. Her paralysis spread, allowing
movement only in her hands and lower legs.
She could communicate only be writing mes
sages. Her mother, completely paralyzed and
unable to go to Portland, received the anti
toxin in southern Oregon.
Susan did not recover quickly. After being
removed from a respirator, she experienced
another respiratory failure and had a trache
otomy. In mid-March she was moved to the
hospital near her home.
After treatment in a transitional center
where she learned to use a walker, Susan
returned home in early April. Her mother
remained in the local hospital and died later
that month. It wasn't until July, five months
after the onset of botulism, that Susan had almost
fully recovered.
The beets had been a gift from a friend's
garden, Susan explained. She had canned them in
a boiling water canner, following the directions
in a commercial canning book that was 25 years
old. It was also the way she and her family had
always canned beets. This time however, they ate
them raw rather than boiling them first. Boiling
would have destroyed the toxin that caused botu
lism. Susan's case is far from unique, according to
Raab. The US Department of Agriculture made
major changes in home-canning recommenda
tions in 1 988 ; any thing published before that date
should be considered outdated, she pointed out.
"A lot of pre-1988 canning books are still on
kitchen and library shelves where they will con
tinue to pose a threat to health," Raab said.
People who are unsure whether home-canned
vegetables are safe to eat should boil them for 10
minutes plus one minute for every 1,000 feet
above sea level.
For up-to-date instructions on canning foods
safely, contact your local county Extension of
fice. An OSU Extension Service Food Preserva
tion Hotline will be operating from 9 a.m to 4
p.m., Monday through Friday, until September
30 to answer questions. The hotline number is 1 -800-345-7319.
As for Susan, one way in which she has begun
putting her life back together has been to share
her ordeal with others. She hopes her example
keeps others from a similar fate.
STOCKMAN'S ROUNDUP: Economics
by Bob Pawelek
OSU Livestock Agent
Two OSU scientists, Tim DelCurto and
Marty Vavra took a look at how beef cattle
producers face the dilemma of maintaining
economic viability during times of low mar
ket values and, more recently, increased pub
lic criticism of beef product quality and in
dustry compatibility with the environment.
Following is a discussion by the two re
searchers and their findings:
Unlike other meat animal industries such
as sw ine and poultry, the beef industry in the
western United States is very dynamic with a
great deal of diversity. Most of this is related
to arid environments and subsequent effects
on forage quality, quantity, and associated
relationships to beef cattle nutritional re
quirements. As a result, the western beef
cattle industry is very extensive with opti
mal production being a function of the re
sources each ranching unit has available and
matching the type of cow andor production
expectations to the available resources. Suc
cessful beef producers are not necessarily
the ones that wean the heaviest calves, dis
play 95 percent conception, or provide the
most optimal winter nutrition. Instead, the
successful producers are the ones who dis
play economic viability despite the economic
and public pressures that can and will con
tinue to plague the industry.
In a real sense, there is not a right way to
manage cattle in the western United States.
What works for one producer may not be
appropriate for the neighboring ranch. Eco
nomic viability often relates to three general
factors:
1) value of beef,
2) input costs per cow, and
3) the production per cow.
Unfortunately, beef cowcalf producers
are usually considered "price takers" in that
they have very little influence on setting
market value for commercial beef cattle. In
addition, the beef cowcalf industry is one
that typically over-produces, which often
leads to price scenarios that are less than
desirable.
Therefore, the cowcalf producer, by de
fault, must focus on finding an optimal bal
ance between beef cattle production and
of sustainability attainable
economic inputs to attain the associatea
level of production. In this kind of manage
ment scenario, it is not uncommon for a
beef cattle manager with modest produc
tion expectations, but low input cost per
cow, to have similar or better economic
prospects than a producer with high beef
cattle production expectations. Obviously,
the producer with high levels of beef cattle
performance had input costs per cow that
was greater than the production advantages.
What follows is a general discussion of
potential management strategies that may
offer economic advantages to western range
livestock producers. Many scenarios orstrat
egies may not be appropriate for your envi
ronment or production goals. Instead, most
of the following information should be con
sidered potential management alternatives
that may offer economic advantages by de
creasing input costs per cow.
When to calve?
The western beef cattle industry is domi
nated by spring-calving cattle. If your goal
is to match the cow's nutritional require
ments to the range forage quality, a pro
ducer might coincide calving with the onset
of green forage. A typical beef calf does not
become a functioning ruminant until almost
4 months of age. This is usually associated
with a cow that has passed its peak lactation
period (day 70 to 90) and, as a result, calf
performance will depend, to a greater de
gree, on the forage quality available to the
calf.
Thus, a calf born March I , w ill be effec
tively utilizing forage available in June. In
contrast, a calf born May 1, will not be
effectively utilizing forage until August.
Because of the vast difference in calf nutri
tion from day 90 to weaning, the earlier-born
calf will have weaning-weight advantages
that outweigh the 60 day difference in age.
Obviously, if higher weaning weight is a
measure of economic importance (you mar
ket calves in the fall), then this is your best
approach.
Are weaning weights important?
Spring calving cowcalf production with
high weaning weights have limited oppor
tunities as stocker cattle on grass markets.
Another change in the beef industry is the
trend to retain ownership. This has led pro
ducers to reevaluate weaning weight goals
because of the opportunity tocapture weight
gains on yearlings in the feedlot.
Fall calving
Some benefits exist with this strategy.
By calving during the fall (September to
October), a calf is produced that is big
enough to efficiently use the early
high-quality forage available in the spring;
with the cow still producing some milk, to
make rapid gains during this period. This
program allows calves to stay on the cows
longer and continue to make economical
gains. In contrast, spring-born calves are
often not able to effectively utilize spring
and early summer forages.
Likew ise, fall calving may provide ben
efits relative to the environment that calves
are exposed to at birth. Typical spring calv
ing conditions include poor calving weather,
long breeding seasons, and problems such as
infectious diarrhea and respiratory diseases,
which are compounded by calving on wet,
muddy ground. Wind is also prevalent in early
spring, and wind-chill can adversely affect
calf morbidity and mortality.
A potential strategy may be to wean fall
calves before turnout. Regardless, dry cows
and cows with older calves spread out over the
range betterm improving distribution, and re
ducing overgrazing associated with poor dis
tribution. Other considerations
Early weaning as a management tool helps
dry cows do betteron range forage, improving
body condition. This translates into a cow that
will be easier to feed during the winter months
and have a higher chance of breeding back in
a 365 day calving interval.
The producer may also wish to defer graz
ing of irrigated pasture or native range to the
fall or winter months. "Stockpiling" forage by
pasture will act as supplementation to hay.
There are several other potential tools or
management strategies that may help reduce
costs. Obviously, if you are using low-quality
roughages, your strategy must emphasize mini
mizing supplemental costs while maintaining
acceptable beef cattle performance.
Keep in mind that w estern beef cattle pro
ducers and resources are dynamic and incor
poration of some of these strategies has to fit
your production philosophy, production goals,
and holistic ranch management plan.