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Research, outreach, and teaching are the three missions in the field of agriculture at Oregon State University, the state's land grant institution. Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station (OAES) is the research unit, with laboratories and field stations located on campus and throughout the state. The Extension Office is the outreach effort, with branches throughout the state bringing the results of research to the industry and farms of Oregon; Extension's communications center is housed on campus. Teaching of OSU students is centered in the College of Agriculture on the main campus; there is also and agriculture program at La Grande, and on the OSU Cascade campus. With OSU, Oregon Grows Higher Value Crops, and Adds Value to What is GrownOregon State University, true to its roots as a land-grant college , continues to help Oregon Agriculture diversify by increasing the worth of its crop mix and by adding value to raw products. Smart agriculture is good for the local economies - and good for Oregon. |
pear ginger soup, pear potato pancakes, pear-cranberry sauce, Jell-O pear shapes, port wine poached pears, pear pie, pear tarts, pear vinaigrette, and pear juice . . .
A showcase provides insight and inspiration about new and innovative ways of preparing, presenting, packaging, and processing Oregon commodities.
In 2001, a showcase on pears provided outreach to growers, commodity commissioners, agencies, raw product buyers and marketers, and others. This transition from grower to value-added producer is supported by the technical staff and research performed at the FIC. When a showcase is set up at the Center, producers, marketers, growers, commissioners, educators, researchers, Extension faculty, and department heads are invited to attend. A variety of products is demonstrated, and formal presentations are made.
Focus group evaluations revealed that the favorites were the pear potato pancakes and the pear ginger soup. FIC staff offered to do further work on products of special interest to the participants.
One purpose of a showcase is to create greater demand for a product, which, in turn, could lead to increased acreage, with associated potentially adverse environmental impacts. However, OSU research and Extension have made, and continue to make, producers very aware of environmental production externalities and have encouraged best management practices, such as integrated pest management and integrated fruit production methods. An example, for pears, is the work at the Mid-Columbia Research and Extension Center (Hood River) and the Southern Oregon Research and Extension Center (near Medford).
Results from these initial showcases are not yet known. It will take some time and much more work to actually bring more value-added production of pears and other commodities instate. But the FIC is poised to make this happen. And when it does, the agricultural product of Oregon will experience the well known, and often hoped for, multiplier effect. Farmers, packers, processors, and the communities where the additions to value are accomplished will all benefit economically.
The development of value-added products should increase the number of pleasurable eating occasions for consumers. For example, one improved product is a frozen pear that does not turn brown upon use. Another example is combining products from Hawaii and Oregon in innovative ways. Showcases should encourage the movement of new food products to market, broadening consumer choice and pleasure.
Sponsors of the Pear Showcase include Hood River Growers and Shippers, which contributed pears, and the Pear Bureau Northwest and Fizzy Fruit North America, which both supported product development work.
Source: Oregon Invests! Research Accountability Database
Everybody knows putting all your eggs in one basket is risky. That's why researchers and Extension agents at Oregon State University's Hermiston Agriculture Research and Extension Center have long encouraged farmers to diversify into more and higher-value crops. Since the mid-80s, OSU has teamed up with local business leaders, local and state government leaders, and farmers in a "regional strategy" of diversification. The visionary strategy involves not only production of crops, but also the whole chain of distribution, processing, and marketing; the thrust has helped attract eight companies to the area. They now can multiply the value of what farmers get for their products, right in the area. For example, huge piles of raw carrots are tumbled, tossed, and packaged to become appetizer carrots with a handsome price tag.
"Before the regional strategy, we had about 160,000 acres in center-pivot irrigation on the Oregon side of the river economically dependent on the potato crop. That's dangerous," explains Gary Reed, superintendent of the OSU facility. Now, growers have many opportunities to branch out, to protect themselves from disease or marketing problems that are potentially disastrous when they depend upon a single crop. They have increased their acreage of peas, asparagus, carrots and other crops whose value is multiplied when they're processed at the Hermiston plant. OSU researchers still spend at least half their time studying ways to fight disease and increase production in the area's high-value potato crop.
OSU doesn't keep all of its innovative eggs in Hermiston. The headquarters for the Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station is on the Corvallis campus, and it operates a network of branch research and extension facilities. Besides at Hermiston, there are experiment stations in the Northern Willamette Valley, Hood River, Moro, Pendleton, Union, Ontario, Burns, Squaw Butte, Klamath Falls, Medford, Newport, and Astoria, and there is an extension office in each county. Scientists permanently assigned to the branch stations do research to improve agriculture, and the economy, in each region. Many research projects are directed at environmental objectives, such as improved water or air quality, and reduced use of pesticides. Extension specialists and agents work with researchers to carry recommendations to farmers and bring farmers' problems back to researchers.
The processing plants in the Hermiston, Oregon area used to produce fine french fries. But to do so, they would import dehydrated onions from California. These they would ship along with flour to Washington, where a Seattle plant made the ingredients into a coating, then sent it back to Hermiston to be applied to the waiting potatoes.
After OSU's Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center began encouraging the area to diversify into local-value-added products, Continental Mills (owner of Krustees') located a plant in Pendleton.
This plant now makes a coating using local flour, plus onions dehydrated in plants in Umatilla and Boardman, Oregon. Putting together wheat, onions, and potatoes multiplies the value of these crops to the area.
Enjoy your Oregon fries!
The Oregon wine industry, now including over 100 wineries, is developing regional, national, and international markets. The OSU Enology Extension has been meeting the need for technical assistance, including wine analysis for quality control, and consultation on processing. Helping make fine Oregon wines benefits the wineries as well as the state's grape growers, whose 5,420 acres brought $9.8 million in sales in 1995.
Fruit orchards in southern Oregon are a big business. To deal with the threat of tough insect pests including the codling moth, OSU research has found that use of sex attractants, oils, and other aspects of integrated pest management can save more than $179 an acre and reduce use of synthetic pesticides by up to 80%. Improving fruit quality brings multi-million dollar economic benefits and includes a premium in world markets.
The orchard-killing disease threatening the Oregon hazelnut (filbert) industry may have met its match. OSU researchers have identified the single, dominant gene that gives resistance to eastern filbert blight, a fungal disease. In continuing research, their goal is to have a fully resistant, good-yielding variety of hazelnuts in the next few years. That's good news for western Oregon, which dominates the $20 million industry with almost 98 percent of the national crop.
Wheat plants must compete against ever-changing diseases, pests, and other challengers. Breeders often take 10-12 years to develop an energetic new variety; then usually in just 3 or 4 years, pests catch up and growers need yet another variety. That's why wheat breeder Warren Kronstad has been busy at OSU for 35 years accomplishing amazing feats. Since the 70s, OSU's program has developed all the major wheat varieties grown in Oregon, and the average yield has risen from about 49 bushels per acre to over 65. The economic impact of the program is about $7 million a year.
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Phone 541-737-3467 Fax 541-737-9041
researchsupport@oregonstate.edu
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