Karen & Mike Wendte brought in 64 head this year from Cornelius.

The Ninth Annual Oregon’s Best Showpig Sale was featured at the Polk Country Fairgrounds this Saturday. The Wendte Farm among others, brought in 64 of 150 head of pigs to Rickreall this year. In a morning seminar Mike Wendte explained how to pick a good pig, and to value each one according to it’s health.

Wendte explained, “The main reason we do these events is it really does help with the bio-security of the animals. Anybody can buy a pig, but they are especially popular with the FFA and 4H kids. One only needs 4 to 6 months to get them up to show weight, around 250 pounds. Most are shown at the Washington County Fair at that time.”

The auction was held today at noon by John Walton.

Greg & Bryson Peters, Nick and Marv Vanaken are members of the Verboort Livestock 4H Club out of Forrest Grove.

Casey Applen with FarmSeller.com  and Scott Brown with Capital Press attended the Realtors Land Institute in Pendleton, Oregon this week. With 60 attending licensed real estate professionals.

Over 62 area businesses offered generous donations in support of the event, held this Saturday night at the Polk County Fairgrounds in Rickreall, Oregon.

The 4H Spaghetti Feed was hosted by area Polk County 4-H Clubs, including The 4-H Achievers, Spring Valley Riders and Small Animal Express.

Polk County event organizers with the 4-H Achiver's Club pictured L to R:Lori Smith (parent), Zachary Odegard, Sierra McBeth and Debbie Macbeth (parent). Zachary and Sierra were instrumental getting donations for the auction and dinner at tonight's event. Dinner was prepared by Tater's Cafe of Dallas.

The colorful array of events included cake walk, games, 50 silent auctions items, and two bike raffles. Proceeds for the event went to the 2009 Polk County Relay for Life to support the American Cancer Society.

2009 Event Details

Having been at 3 farm shows in the last three weeks, (Red Bluff Bull Gelding, Colusa and World Ag Expo.)  I thought perhaps I should share what farmers in general are talking about:

Water is a huge problem.  The 600,000 irrigated acres in the San Juaquin Valley will soon turn into 200,000 acres. This is because of drought conditions. Almond growers, particularly in the West area of the valley anticipate loosing their crops and businesses because there are not enough water acres to retain their orchards.  This in an economic depression will make thing in California that much worse.

Many farmers are turning to special crops to survive, using organics, using less water.

The cost of  protein in the market place is leaving the United States less competitive in recent months. Proteins as world wide commodities traditionally have been very stable.  Recently though other countries have been able to target our market competitively.

There are two factions of farmers out there,  some who wax “Green” in their philosophy, others who are opposite. Myself, I am still not sure really what green means. It seems to be a popular term in Portland now, but most certainly lacks clarity, but seems to be he vogue thing.

There seems to be less chemical companies at all farm shows.

We are a nation becoming less competitive in the food marketplace. If you thought you hated the thought of high gas prices and thought that made our Nation insecure, wait until we import the highest percentage of our food. Food is becoming a National Security issue.

Efficient dairies are making alot of money.  However, fewer people though are willing to own and operate them.

Myself and Jeff Moggenburg ready our papers for distribution here on the first morning.

This year we are ready with almost twice as many Capital Press newspapers and Ag Ads this year.  In addition to the Capital Press showcase booth in Pavilion C, we have racks place at all information booths at the World Ag Expo in Tulare.

Quiet before the storm. Vendors quickly make way to their locations in order to ready displays for the first day at the World's largest farm show in Tulare.

Feeding Bankers? Better build your chicken coop now.

When I was a kid…I got one of those magic 8 balls that would tell your fortune,  with water and a cube in it. I have a feeling, if one was to shake and ask about the economy it would show, “Outlook not good.”

Corporations have outsourced manufacturing to China, services to India, and food to foreign countries.  With impending draught,  middle class  Americans who can grow their own food by square foot gardening or trade for be able will survive.

The economy is in the dump because of lack of manufacturing, services and car sales. The bailout will not generate that.  Banks are no longer trustworthy. Insurance companies are worse.  Pharmaceutical companies  have such a huge lobby they are immune even to the nation’s largest lobby groups, the AARP and the American Medical Association.

Sure we benefit from rebuilding bridges and roads. But how is that going to put create a product that people will buy, and we can export? My personal feeling is no amount of money will save the economy.  Money is not the reason there is a lack of jobs.  Outsourcing is. We now lack original products and services that make us globally competitive, and domestically secure.

So, how many cups of soup can a trillion dollars buy over 10 years? There may come a time when we need to feed to poor, and not rich bankers.

Oranges are imported from Brazil.
Cars imported from Japan.
Services from India.

And now Oregon, the World wide provider of hazlenuts is importing them from Chile.

When will it stop? Maybe. But for now, hotels are empty, travel is down, and airlines are hurting more than ever. I say save bailout for the soup.  We will need it sooner than you think.  Ask California state employees that are being furloughed this week.  We’re seeing the tip of the iceberg.

Oh yeah. Another thing. My great grandmother survived the depression because she had chickens. If we keep on feeding bankers with bailout money, we might as well start building chicken coops.

“Since the 1930s, the number of family farms has been declining rapidly. According to the USDA, 5.3 million farms dotted the nation in 1950, but this number had declined to 2.1 million by the 2003 farm census (data from the 2007 census hasn’t yet been published). Ninety-one percent of the U.S. farms are small family farms.”

Source: http://thehipgrandpa.wordpress.com/2009/02/06/20-ways-to-annoy-people/

Interesting World view post on the power of food in politcally comprimised nations.

Members of the Lincoln FFA Club observe the nutcracking machine operations.

Clarence and Jan Davidson were the first people to sign up for the Colusa Farm Show 44 years ago. Their marriage is going strong after 53 years. Clarence and Jan are known for being the longest attending vendors since The Colusa Farm Show’s opening.

Clarence told me a couple of years ago, his wife didn’t attend, so he told her, “this year I’m giving away Gideons again” (meaning New Testament bibles) in addition to his regular selling nutcrackers. “I knew that would get her to come with me again.”

Clarence, owner of his privately held Davebilt Company manufactures a table rotary nutcracker,  high leverage crackers and nut gleaning tools.

A father and visiting orchardist from Butte City told me his boys (Skyler and Caleb pictured) are influencing him to make a purchase. It was clear the machine works quickly, and makes a crunchy noise that makes the activity really seem fun.

The rotary nutcracker is a popular novelty for youth and old alike. All day at the show people couldn’t help but want to the crank the it.  Each and every unit is hand-built by Clarence.  “I have 30 other vendors selling my product, two of which sell online, but I am the only builder.”

Clarence and Jan are an easy find just across from the Capital Press Booth #39 at the Colusa Farm Show.

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Colusa Farm Show is the longest running farm show in California.