Last Week's Program

Alan Harper introduced Kenji Hawkins and his mother, Eliana Jaramillo. Kenji is one of our outbound Exchange Students going to Japan and he will be leaving around August.  Secretary Pamela Norton introduced new member Peter Schultz. Juli Di Chiro then welcomed Ingi Torfason who is in the membership queue. Juli was followed by Kerry Kencairn who introduced John Souza (our speaker for today) and his colleague Micah Hillis, both from Rusted Gate Farm. Barbara Patridge then reintroduced Matt Clements, also in our membership queue. Susan Jain introduced for a second time, Julie Reeder, hoping that she too will soon become a new member. And finally, our frequent visitor from the Medford Club, Marc Bayliss, was welcomed by Pamela.


Rusted Gate Farm

Kerry Kencairn introduced our guest speaker, John Souza, Program Manager and Outreach Manager at Rusted Gate Farm.

John opened his remarks by saying that it's been 18 years since he addressed the club, the last time being when ARC met at the YMCA. He also has coached many of our members' kids as well as coached with several members as well.

John has been at Rusted Gate Farms for three years. The farm was founded about five years ago, but it originally started in 2014 when sisters Christy Walton and Rachel Hall purchased 154 acres in Central Point. This was at a time when small farmers were disappearing in the area and water shortages were a concern due to the boom in marijuana industry. The idea was to develop an experimental farm that would help other small farms to become profitable.

Rusted Gate Farm's Mission/Vision:  "Through sharing outcomes of experimentation with traditional, alternative, and innovative farm practices, Rusted Gate Farm intends to identify a mix of income producing activities that will increase average farm income, promote environmental health, and ensure long term financial security for small farms."

See Read More for more details of the presentation.

Last week's meeting was recorded and edited (thanks, Jack Fenster!)
Ashland Rotary_Mtg. of 04-18-24

About five years ago, the organization became a non-profit and today the Rusted Gate owns about 1,100 acres that they farm. An additional 300-500 acres are "sharecropped" where they grow products for farms that may not have the equipment or access to labor etc. to be successful. Rusted Gate sees itself as a "weaver", bring different parties of different organizations together to solve problems in agriculture that individually may not be achievable by separate entities.

They are involved in three basic businesses:  Hay, Cattle and Vegetable Production.
For their hay business, one of their advantages is based on a robust hay delivery system to small farmers. For the cattle business, they currently have about 100 head of cattle, free of antibiotics and artificial hormones. One current trial involves raising cross-bred Wagyu beef to achieve a higher price-point for cattle raisers when selling. Beef products from Rusted Gate Farm are provided direct-to-consumer either through exempt sales or via USDA inspected sales, including farm stands, schools, and restaurants as customers.

The farm also is involved in high-intensity organic vegetable production to determine profitable methods for these labor-intensive processes. The distribution of those products includes their farm stand, school districts and donations to organizations around the valley.
Rusted Gate Farm regularly offers demonstrations and teachings for improving yield and health as well as labor saving mechanisms for profitable farming.

A few of the key sub-programs of the Farm include:

Food Systems
-  Understanding our local food system (including food stands) and partnering with the Rogue Valley Food System Network, the Stockman's Association, and others.
- Creating a secure food system network for our region that is both resilient and financially viable

Community
- Farm Education (Crater High, The Valley School, Eagle Point High, Grace Cascade)
- Free u-Pick Flower Garden
- Community Gathering Space (District 6 School Board, Fire District 3, Oregon Food and Beverage Council)

Kernza/Drought Tolerant Hay Production
- A new dryland, drought tolerant perennial grain developed by researchers through selective breeding for over 20 years
- Into the second year of study: Can we get multiple cuttings? Growth with limited water? Will livestock eat it? etc.

Truffles (French Black and Burgundy)
- 700+ English Oak trees, planted 2018-2019
- Involves soil preparation, consistence, pH, Moisture

Klamath-Wampler Ranch
- 662 acres involving habitat restoration and sustainable grazing.

USDA Processing
- Their efforts have resulted in the USDA Processing to return to Rogue Valley this summer. (Currently the nearest processors are 2-4 hours from the valley causing added expense with round-trip transportation and also with up to a year of waiting time.) USDA provided Montgomery Meat with grant to provide this service.

John concluded his presentation by saying that Rusted Gate Farm is consolidating their dispersed offices into a new, net-zero energy building in Central Point this week. He also mentioned that Rusted Gate Farm will be open for visitors on July 14 during the 2024 Rogue Valley Farm Tour.  More details for that event can be found at https://www.roguevalleyfarmtour.com/events.

Q and A's
Jeff Monosoff  - Q. What are the financials, number of employees, etc.? A. 16 employees with about a $2 million budget.

Emile Amarotico - Q. Can you tell us more about the slaughterhouse coming to the valley. A. Right now there is no local USDA approved facility.  Rusted Gate Farm is working with Montgomery Meat in Central Point which has a USDA-approved mobile slaughterhouse. They needed a place to operate it and Rusted Gate Farm will be a partner (hopefully by July) by providing the land for the mobile facility.

Marc Bayliss - Q. Which is the most environmentally friendly method, shipping and retrieving cattle from Central Point to Klamath and back or shipping hay from Klamath to Central Point and pasture here over summer. A. The most environmentally and financial friendly method is to summer our animals there.  Anytime you can get the animals to graze on products that the environment is growing naturally and that that you don't have to cut and bale is the better option.

Juli Di Chiro - Q1. What opportunities are there for students interested in going into agriculture? A. We're working with Eagle Point FFA for a program of paid internships involving both cattle and organic food. We also working with the Middle School in White City as well as the Valley School in Medford for longer term studies, including packaging, marketing, etc.

Q2. How about increasing affordability of organic food for the schools. A. That's a tough one. Some organic foods are harder to grow than others, not being as bug resistant. Rusted Gate Farm is working on an additional grant from USDA for growing organic foods which will cut down on the costs to the school districts.