Page 214 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

I’ll put my yellow stuff up against their green stuff any day of the week.
– Alex Parisio, third-generation owner, A & R Farms
(L-R) Alex Parisio with Peterson Ag saleman, Eric Peters in 2019
had such a tough time in California is because it required a 100 percent ag-focused person to run things. That happened in 2008 when Eric Peters came on as the ag salesman for California at the Willows store. The attention we’ve been able to give California’s ag business now has allowed it to grow. Even thrive.”
Eric Peters is a big reason for Parisio’s loyalty to Peterson. He helped solidify Peterson’s standing in the local ag community. He brought in new prod- uct, often at a customer’s request. He solicits feed- back and listens to it. And he understands the im- portance of a group of customers standing around the shop, drinking coffee and discussing crop yields, water rations, and the next 4-H event. “Eric has earned trust around here because he was born and raised here,” says Parisio. “He knows what this town needs. And to be honest, if Eric hadn’t been
here all these years, I might not have stayed,” ad- mits Parisio. That’s the power of relationship.
TRADITIONAL CATS ON THE FARM: BONANZA VIEW DAIRY AND WINDY RIDGE (2015)
The DeJongs of Bonanza View Dairy and Windy Ridge Organic Dairy are related to one of the big- gest dairy families in the world. Arie and Jenneka DeJong run their operation on four thousand acres near Klamath Falls, Oregon, and farm a total of ten thousand acres in the area. They milk 3,500 cows three times a day, feed them six times dai- ly, and clean up cow poo constantly. “Manure is a problem for a lot of people,” says Jenneka (pro- nounced Yen-nicka), who has been working along- side her husband for the past thirty years. “But it’s actually an asset to our business. We grow our own feed, so we recycle all the cow manure either in liquid form for our fields or dried compost as cow bedding. Some people use straw for bedding, some use sand—some even use waterbeds. But at Bonanza View Dairy and Windy Ridge, the cows sleep on composted manure. When it’s dry, it’s just like dirt,” says Jenneka. And it doesn’t stink to the DeJongs, whose beautiful stone homestead house is one minute from the barn. To Jenneka, it’s the smell of money.
The DeJongs happened upon the solution to their manure surplus several years ago by accident. A visiting OSU extension agent wondered why they were putting all their manure on just one field, and suggested they utilize it better. That winter, some of the manure water seeped out into a wheat field, causing it to grow twice as high as the rest. The accidental occurrence convinced them to change their plan. “We spent $200,000 to install under- ground pipes to bring the manure from one end of the dairy to the other and then out to all our differ- ent fields,” says Jenneka. “We need to be willing to take advantage of opportunities when they make sense.” And they have. Repeatedly.
212 | PETERSON: 85 YEARS AND GOING STRONG