Condon, Oregon
August 15, 2007
Customer satisfaction is taking on
a whole new meaning for wheat growers in Oregon’s Gilliam County
as they shift toward producing and marketing grain directly to
customers.
A group of 23 producers in the region have banded together in a
cooperative called Columbia Plateau Growers, Inc. with the
mission of producing wheat that fits specific requirements for
production of food products such as cookies, breads and noodles.
The Oregon State University
Extension Service has partnered with growers on the project over
the past several years.
“The move is an innovative new direction in wheat production and
marketing for our growers because their goal will be to grow
identity-preserved grain varieties that will be stored in
segregated lots, and they will collect data to document what
they’ve done,” said Jordan Maley, agriculture field faculty in
the Gilliam County office of the OSU Extension Service.
“This will give producers new marketing strengths,” Maley added,
“allowing them to guarantee the uniformity and quality of the
grain product they deliver to their customers, the food
production companies.”
Maley assisted growers with developing a wheat quality assurance
program, including the design and coordination of a
computer-based climate and soils information management system
and training in the use of geographic information systems
technology.
“The information system relies heavily on GIS to help growers
get very accurate information about growing conditions in their
fields, which in turn helps them produce a higher quality crop,”
said Maley.
Wheat is Gilliam County’s top agricultural commodity, generating
more than $14 million in farm gate sales last year. On a
statewide basis, wheat is Oregon’s fifth-ranked agricultural
commodity, earning $185 million in sales in 2006.
Traditionally, wheat producers have delivered their harvested
grain to bulk commodity handlers, like grain elevators. These
companies then market and distribute the grain to domestic and
international buyers.
“Operators of bulk collection facilities usually blend wheat
from many different fields within a region into huge lots of
grain,” said Maley. “The new segregated storage approach is a
key part of the growers’ direct marketing strategy.”
Maley has helped Gilliam County growers build support for the
new program by offering outreach education to inform others
about the project and how they can be a part of it.
“Making this work means growers will conduct an ongoing program
of record-keeping to carefully document crop production
management practices,” Maley said. “The records will also
include lab data on wheat grain characteristics such as variety,
protein level, moisture content, flour yield rate and several
other factors that milling and baking companies require for the
various products they make.
“Gilliam County growers and the cooperative have made great
progress toward their new marketing goals over the past five
years,” Maley added.
To date Gilliam County has built a facility for blending cereal
ingredients into bread mixes and grain quality testing. The
cooperative has developed a computer database for gathering
information on wheat growing conditions for wheat fields in the
county. The database will also contain individual reports of
grain quality characteristics for all wheat crops on a field by
field basis.
“The testing lab allows growers to conduct a consistent and
reliable quality testing program for all wheat crops, which is
crucial to guaranteeing quality to the customer,” said Maley.
The database serves growers in two ways, he pointed out. It
provides grain quality data that can be used for wheat quality
forecasting and grain inventory tracking; and it will provide
accurate climate and soils information for all Gilliam County
wheat fields. This will help growers identify the best varieties
for local growing conditions, which will maximize grain quality
and yields.
Another important component of the program will be
identification of new wheat varieties that offer strong
marketing potential. Maley is helping to coordinate on-farm
planting trials and new variety research throughout the county
by recommending new trial cultivars and making grower contacts
to establish new trial sites.
The OSU Extension Service is the statewide educational
outreach arm of the university; it helps Oregonians find
solutions to priority economic, social and environmental issues
and delivers research-based educational programs in agriculture,
forestry, family and community development, marine and fresh
water issues and 4-H youth development. |
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