A8 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
HALE:
continued from page A6
“Some people plant
the crops before they sell
them,” he said. “Part of
our proposition is ‘sell it
before you plant it.’ ”
Hale said they started a
marketing-based plan that
tempted possible buy-
ers into purchasing their
product even before it
was ready to sell. He said,
in an uncertain business,
they wanted to create as
much certainty as they
could.
“I am the chief certain-
ty officer in an uncertain
business,” he said. “We
are dependent on nation-
al and international mar-
kets and those things that
are not always under our
control. We learned kind
of by mistake early on
that you wanted to create
as much certainty as you
could. You want consis-
tent buyers for your prod-
ucts that you can depend
on in advance.”
DITCHEN:
continued from page A6
“I run my entire 3,000-acre
irrigation system from my
smart phone and a laptop,”
he said. “We’re ever-evolving
and changing. What used to
take me four hours a day to
drive in and out of each cir-
cle to check and change water
now takes me 15 minutes a
night, and I’m doing a better
job. I really don’t have the
surprises of a stopped circle.
I already know it’s stopped.
If something happens, it calls
me within a minute or two.”
Even the farm’s tractors
utilize advanced technology.
Ditchen said, with GPS sys-
tems, the tractors can be used
24 hours per day.
“Our same tractors are
doing double the work now,”
he said. “We’ve gone from
‘Once the sun goes down,
you go home’ to ‘You can go
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2015
With Hale at the mar-
keting helm and his
brother Rick producing
the crops, they expand-
ed their operation, pur-
chasing bigger and better
equipment. They then be-
gan experimenting with
other types of crops, in-
cluding potatoes, onions
and other vegetables.
With success in initial po-
tato and onion crops, they
moved their operations
into what they describe as
the sandier and more pro-
ductive soils part of the
region. They rented some
fields west of Hermiston
that were irrigated by the
Columbia River.
After expanding even
more,
they
acquired
their first center-pivot
irrigated farm in Herm-
iston and rented a small
onion-packing shed that
allowed them, and Levy,
to market onions and sell
them under their own
brand.
Bob Hale said their
customers
appreciate
the fact they grow all
their own crops. He said
they are what is called a
“sourced-based,” verti-
cally integrated vegetable
supplier, meaning they
plant the seeds and con-
trol the whole process.
He said everything from
growing, harvesting and
storing, to marketing,
packaging and shipping,
remains in their control.
“Customers want to
know, ‘Do you really
farm, or do you just have
outside contract grow-
ers?’ ” he said. “While we
have great outside grow-
ers, like Jake Madison,
for example, we do really
farm. We are definitely a
farming operation.”
Hale said they also en-
sured they had the best
people working for them
and worked hard to create
relationships that would
last. He said they also
were fortunate to base
their establishment in the
Hermiston region, which
has some of the best soil
and climate for farming a
variety of crops.
“Hale Farms is about
people, soil, climate, land
and water,” he said. “We
are in a great area — high
yields and high quality
per acre.”
To date, Hale Farms
and affiliates grow a vari-
ety of vegetable crops per
year. That includes pota-
toes, sweet corn and peas,
sugar snaps and carrots.
The business also grows
blueberries. Their prod-
ucts are sold to restau-
rants and organizations
all over the United States,
including Sonic Drive-In,
where their potatoes are
commonly used in french
fries.
Hale Farms success al-
lowed the Hales and Levy
to expand into another
venture in 1983. Today,
River Point Farms is con-
trolled by Bob and Rick
Hale, in addition to Craig
Reeder and nephew Todd
Longgood, and the oper-
ation now produces about
450 million pounds of on-
ions per year.
Bob Hale said they de-
all night’ now with these GPS
tractors. That’s how farmers
evolve. We’ve had to grow.”
Ditchen said he enjoys the
challenge, and the farm’s crops
are growing well so far this
year. He said he is a little wor-
ried, however, about the little
precipitation over the winter
and how the lack of snow in
the mountains could affect irri-
gation later in the year, but he’ll
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Ditchen said the primary crop
is grass harvested for its seed.
He said the farm grows pe-
rennial ryegrass, Kentucky
bluegrass and Chewing’s fes-
cue. He said the seed is sold
“all over” through a broker-
age company in the Willa-
mette Valley, and the prices
and contracts are determined
before the grass is even plant-
ed at the farm.
“We plant our grass in the
fall,” he said. “Usually, the
end of August all the way up
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some type of seed going in the
ground depending on the vari-
eties of grass seed. The grass
basically goes dormant in the
winter. In the spring, we get
out there and do dry fertilizer,
and then we start irrigation.
Once we turn on (irrigation) in
mid-March, that’s a 24/7 job.
During the growing season,
we are watering (and) spray-
ing for weeds and bugs. Har-
vest is at the end of June and
the whole month of July. In
August, we work the grounds
and get ready to plant.”
Ditchen said the farm em-
ploys 11 people full time and
adds another 20 temporary
employees for a month and a
half during the summer. He
said he began working on the
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summers when he was in high
school, and he loves his career.
“Some days, I think have
the greatest job on the face of
the earth,” he said. “I get to be
a businessman and challenge
myself, but I also get to grab
a dirty truck with a dog in the
back and not have to worry
about combing my hair and
put a ball cap on. Not many
people can say that, and I
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world when I’m outside.”
Ditchen said he also gets
satisfaction from seeing the
result of a long day’s labor.
“When you’re measuring
the day in productivity and
acres and you look out over
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did this today,’ there’s some-
thing great about that,” he
said. “It’s not like clocking in
and clocking out. When you
look out over what you’ve
done and see your accom-
plishment, it’s a pretty good
feeling some days. It’s not a
job, it’s a lifestyle.”
veloped a sustainability
plan that includes protect-
ing the area’s natural re-
sources, including water.
They conserve about 7.8
million gallons of water
per year, which is enough
to sustain about 683,000
people. Hale said the rea-
son they conserve is be-
cause they wanted to give
back to the region that has
given so much to them.
He said, at River Point
Farms, like at Hale Farms,
they do everything from
planting the onions to
the fresh-cut processing,
warehousing,
market-
ing and shipping of their
product.
“We control the pro-
cess, from seed to sand-
wich,” he said.
Hale said, with their
latest business venture,
they landed their first
national chain restaurant
contract with Subway in
2003.
“That is part of our
proposition in selling
it before you plant,” he
said. “It’s a long story,
but they were looking
for red onions. We asked
them what they wanted,
and they asked us what
we could do. We’ve been
together for years.”
Now, Hale said they are
expanding the River Point
Farms venture by building
a new 80,000-square-foot
whole packaging plant,
which will be complete in
August.
Hale said there really
isn’t any secret to their
success. They earned
their keep through good,
old-fashioned hard work
and by surrounding them-
selves with smart, talent-
ed people who believe in
the same things, he said.
“We work hard, have
great people work for us
and have really been a
marketing-driven orga-
nization,” he said. “We
are in an area with great
people. The support for
agriculture in this area
is second to none. The
ag industry has a great
support structure around
it.”
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