Keeping Oregon Oregon Talks with a Sheep Farmer
This land is your land, and this land is my land. California, New York
Speaker 2:Whenever you hear somebody exclaim how beautiful Oregon is, please tell them it's because of Oregon's land use laws. Good morning. This is Wednesday, February 7th 2024. You are listening to keeping Oregon, Oregon. I am your host, Aileen Kaye.
Speaker 2:We are the 1st Wednesday of every month for 30 minutes at 8 AM. We are part of KMUZ's Willamette wake up team. We focus on Oregon's land use planning system and also on sustainability issues. Our engineer is Mark Albert. Thank you, Mark.
Speaker 2:On today's show, we are pleased to be speaking with Mickey Killingsworth, a sheep farmer from Madras, Oregon, which is in Jefferson County. I got to know Mickey because we have mutual connections with land use planning advocacy groups such as the Oregon Farm Bureau and A Thousand Friends of Oregon. I knew Mickey had great knowledge of land use laws, how to work with the legislature, etcetera, but I had no idea she was a big shot in the Oregon agricultural community until I did a Google search. Among her accomplishments, and I'll start with 2 of the big ones, in 2013, Mickey was named Oregon Farm Bureau Woman of the Year, and in 2019, she was inducted in the Oregon Farm Bureau Hall of Fame, which is the highest honor given by the Oregon Farm Bureau. It also means that you have had 35 years of service in the Oregon Farm Bureau.
Speaker 2:And to get that award, you also have to be nominated by your county Farm bureau. And Mickey did serve as chair, earlier of the Jefferson County Farm Bureau from 1989 to 1999. And before that, the Oregon Farm Bureau gave Mickey the 1998 top hand award. And in 2007, they named her the outstanding county Farm Bureau secretary. As somebody, me, who does a lot of legislative advocacy during session, it's just wonderful to have, Mickey there And because she is a farmer, and she's from another part of the state, not from the Salem area, and the legislators really like to hear from real farmers and people who aren't from right around here.
Speaker 2:It's a problem for a lot of farmers to get here, etcetera. But Micky has always stepped up to the plate given the perspective of the rural community. So welcome, Mickey Killingsworth. It's a pleasure to have you on our show, keeping Oregon, Oregon, and you are definitely doing your part to ensure that agriculture in Oregon stays strong. So tell us first about your sheep farm in Madras.
Speaker 3:Well, I used to have 500 producing ewes and run a 100 acres. And then my husband was killed in 05 in a car wreck, so I didn't know what I was gonna do. So now I just run on 20 acres, 70 producing ewes. And, that means those are the moms, and you keep about 5 dads around called the Rams or Bucks and Ilam starting the 3rd week of March to the end of April.
Speaker 2:And then And that's when
Speaker 3:the babies are born, and that's when you're out every 2 hours doing lab checks. And sometimes you never even get to come back in in that 2 hours period.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I know because I've called you unknowingly during that time and you go, I've gotta get back out there. So so I know what you mean. And then I also read that there was an attempt by New Zealand to, take kinda take over the sheep industry in the United States, and you had a role in helping curb that from happening. Can you tell us what happened there?
Speaker 3:Well, that's when I first really got involved with Oregon Farm Bureau. I was an officer in Oregon Sheep Growers and had been a member for a long time. I didn't feel they had the clout or was doing enough to help present this. So, actually, my lamb buyer was the person trying to import these live lambs. We studied the rules and regs, fought at the federal level, and we got the federal importation rules so tight.
Speaker 3:He got the 1st load of lambs in, and he lost money on them. And they had to be in, a 60 to 90 day quarantine. And if any lamb coming off the ship died in quarantine, Every time something died, that extended the quarantine period. So he lost a lot of money and never did it again. Wow.
Speaker 3:So that was my first real involvement with Farm Bureau is their lobbyist told me how to do things, and I, worked through my farm bureau and got other sheep producers who belong to their county farm bureaus. So we got all of our farm our county farm bureaus to help us, and, it was really good. It was interesting because they had hotshot attorneys. The gentleman trying to import them, he was a good friend, but he finally told his attorney one day, we were chit chatting and he and his attorney was being sort of arrogant. And he looked at his attorney attorney and says every time you talk to her, you cost me $50,000.
Speaker 3:Wow. And I just smiled and thought, yep. You learn a lot when people talk and you listen.
Speaker 2:Okay. Well, I'm glad you were successful in that effort. And also, in reading about you, I read that you have a degree in agricultural resource economics from OSU and that you were one of only 40 women to hold that degree back in 1976. And I was wondering, did what you learned in school help in reality with the sheep farm? And the reason I'm asking that is when I was in high school at taking geometry, which I hated, I said to the teacher, what will I ever use this for?
Speaker 2:And she said hanging drapes. So I just wondered, did it come in handy, the economics, classes in, having a successful farm?
Speaker 3:I would say probably not so much in the day to day operation of the farm, but it has been very handy when I get on my, causes bandwagon
Speaker 2:Uh-huh.
Speaker 3:And attend meetings and different government agencies will do a presentation or lobbyists or things like that, and they'll give you reports. And I'll start in on saying, well, if we change this variable here, here, and here, that changes the outcome. So how did you establish these variables? And they just look at me like I'm talking in some foreign language. So then I know they didn't prepare the report, and they don't understand how you do statistic analysis and how you set up a result.
Speaker 3:And and the first thing you learn in economics, if you're a good economist, you can pretty much unless you do a true test, you it's what you plug in for your test will determine your outcome. You may be surprised at the end, but it will always determine your outcome, the variables you put in.
Speaker 2:Uh-huh. Now I know that you also do a lot of wonderful education of, people who are in farming and ranching, but also, people who care about our land use planning system in general. And, so tell us about your being the bureau agricultural Education Chair and what types of activities you do to help educate, farmers and the public at large.
Speaker 3:Well, we were in Salem last week when you guys got your wonderful weather that Yeah. You guys don't know how to deal with for the Northwest AG Show, and we were gonna have a booth and a play area for kids. What we do is we engage with people who attend different trade shows, and we try to do a play area kids component and give them educational materials about agriculture, and do activities. And our biggest event, well, they just rescheduled that Northwest Ag Show for March 11, 12, 13, 14.
Speaker 2:And where is that gonna be?
Speaker 3:It'll be at the state fairgrounds in Salem, but our biggest event is the end of April, and it's accessed at the fairgrounds. And we have the largest free booth, and and it's a great thing because kids get in free under 12 and under. And we make dirt babies, And we make always around 3000 to 4000 dirt babies in 2 days. And we have FSA kits, Farm Bureau members come in, 4 h'ers come in, and they help volunteer. And a dirt baby and I'll have to make you one.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Because I read that. I go, what is that?
Speaker 3:So a dirt baby, you take a a woman's knee high, and at the very end of the toe, you put Oregon grass seed in and you want to use ryegrass, annual ryegrass because it sprouts fast. Then you put 3 pack cups of good potting soil in, pack it, make it into a tight head ball, tie it off, and then you cut the end of it off, where the seam is because that's the wick. You glue and decorate them and you put them in water and in 7 days they sprout. Mhmm. And I will make you a dirt baby.
Speaker 2:Okay. Oh, good. Yeah. Because I really wonder what they want.
Speaker 3:We hand glue, decorate them for the little kids. And adults come through too, but families come back year after year and give us and as long as you water them and keep the hair trimmed, which is the graft once it sprouts, they'll come back and show us pictures and everything, and they come back year after year after year. And, it's it's a great event, but it it's a fun thing to do with kids. And then the other thing we do there, which you're gonna laugh at, we take little kid wading pools and we put in feed corn, livestock corn that hasn't been treated, and little kids will play for hours in those pools of whole corn, and we give them little tractors and cups and different things to play with, but they'll play for hours in there. Just hours.
Speaker 3:And nobody can believe it. They go we're gonna like, yeah. Well, simple things make kids happy. And we have educational materials there. We have videos going of different farm operations.
Speaker 3:When we have, like, sheep pelts, cowhides, and displays that talk about how they're raised, their their byproducts, and all that at the show. So our goal as ag ed committee is to help educate people about agriculture, but also to make sure people out there, as we call them urbanites, have a good feeling about agriculture, about the people who are the farmers. We're somebody that really loves you. We love our families. We try to do a good job raising our crops, going to production, and being part of the communities that we live in.
Speaker 2:Great. And I know that that there is a lot of publicity in the Salem area when, AgFest is gonna happen and all that. That's very popular. Also, did you know that a nursery owner in from Malala named Jim Gilbert just made a really good film, called An Oregon Story that details the blood, sweat, and tears that went into creating and maintaining Oregon's land use laws. It has been shown twice now in Salem to big crowds.
Speaker 2:It's, it's really great, the interest in it. And people said that they had no idea that the land use laws had been challenged via ballot measure 3 times. All the effort that's been made to keep our land use laws intact, it's it's an 80 minute film. Is that something that could be shown at at some type of functions like AgFest or local county Farm Bureau meetings? Or what's a way to get that movie shown in the ag community?
Speaker 3:In our case, our farm bureau would have to host an event because it's such a long film. Email invite guests to come and watch it and do that. And we've talked about doing it, but we we've got to get to that point where it takes a little planning. So, my board meets next week, it's on our agenda again and talking about, well, maybe we should do it as a major fall event.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Okay. And I know, the filmmaker could get you a copy that you could even look at or watch it in your computer before you talk to the other people that make sure that you love it, but I think you will. Now I know about the women's advisory council because you had a wonderful session that I got to go to in Salem, and there were people, farm people from all over the state there. And I was wondering if you could talk about the women's advisory council and the various activities.
Speaker 2:I think it's just a wonderful group.
Speaker 3:So the women's advisory council is a, leg or program of Oregon Farm Bureau, and they were established in 1932. And some people say, why do you need a women's advisory council? And it is a board parallel to the main state board because it's a council. But the Oregon Farm Bureau gives them an operating budget, and their focus is education for women. So women feel more comfortable, talking to the press, doing interviews like this today, meeting with legislators, meeting with county commissioners, setting on, FSA committees, NCRS committees, different agriculture federal committees.
Speaker 3:It's really unique and it still exists. So last fall, we did a legislative one. And on February 5th, we're doing a communication one. You will be one of our guests representing the radio industry. We will have, Statesman Journal and Capital Press, reporters there.
Speaker 3:We will have, the median person from Oregon Farm Bureau there. So we're gonna have a panel of 5 to 6 speakers, and we'll have Farm Bureau men, both women and men come in and, learn about communication so that they learn how to communicate, feel comfortable on communicating, and that's the one in February. Normally, the first day of session, we do a huge legislative reception at the capital. But as you know, the capital is closed till 2025 except for going into security and you can go to hearing rooms or you can go to the house or senate side. So this is what we're doing in lieu of that.
Speaker 3:Normally, we do this at the capitol and do communication, education workshop, and we have legislators and the governor come in and speak to attendees.
Speaker 2:COVID and then the remodeling of the capitol, it has really been terrible because it it has shut off a lot of communication between the legislators and their constituents. It it's really sad. We have a lot of time to make up for. So now, also, with the Oregon Farm Bureau, they have a lot of committees and they're important. You've been on several committees and if you could tell us what committees you have served on and then what committees you're on now.
Speaker 3:Well, I've served on a lot. I've served on livestock, labor, aggregate, governmental affairs, ag reduction membership, land use, farmers market, water, and Ralph Smiley. And I'm on land use, farmer market, water, and Ralph Smiley currently. So let me explain how these work. These are policy advisory committees.
Speaker 3:Farm bureau is based upon grassroots and policy. So you have to look at every county farm bureau as a state, and every county farm bureau by membership, which would be by population, has so many delegates. They have a house of delegates. So every County Farm Bureau can send in what would be equivalent to legislation, policy things. They're called resolutions.
Speaker 3:And they go through these committees that they're germane to, and then they say amend them, adopt them, do not adopt them. They go back to the full body of the annual meeting, which finished, the 1st week of December. And they go through there, and those policies are opened up on the floor of the house of delegates. And they are voted on just like you would at the senate or house at the congressional level or at the state level. And then they're adopted, amended, or fail.
Speaker 3:And that's how it works. And then there's a policy book that's published, and you have to abide by the policy book as a member of Farm Bureau, County Farm Bureau does. And if you want to dissent, you have to send in a dissension registered letter before the session starts that you're not gonna follow policy. It's really a good base thing because you know where you're at. You as a individual Farm Bureau member, you don't have to follow policy.
Speaker 3:But as a County Farm Bureau member and anybody on any of the committees and anybody in Farm Bureau leadership here to follow policy.
Speaker 2:So there's a land use committee?
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:There is a bill coming up in the short session which is really supposed to just be budget emergency budget items. It's that's a huge bill coming up, which I have a lot of concerns about called s b 1537. One of the things in there relates to our urban growth boundary procedures In that bill, it says that every city in Oregon has the option of increasing their urban growth boundary without going through the regular process to add x number of acres, supposedly one time, depending on the size of your city. And I was wondering how, the Farm Bureau might feel about that. Do they take a vote on how they're going to testify or is this from the policy book?
Speaker 2:Is that how the decision's made or how is that gonna work?
Speaker 3:So the leadership will look at what policy we have, and I would say that bill will fall under under policy 3.790 and 3.800. And our county farm bureau has already taken a position, and we will oppose that bill. We will use the Farm Bureau policy that I've cited. Because we have policy on it, they do not have to take it back to a committee. They can, but they can look at it.
Speaker 3:The board of directors can look at it. The lobbyists have policy, and they can decide what position they're gonna take. That is the state Farm Bureau, but the County Farm Bureau, we have control of what we do. So our county farm bureau is opposing that bill, and we will be testifying and, against that bill.
Speaker 2:Okay. And the problem that a lot of people are having is there are a lot of good things in the bill for providing infrastructure funds for, like, converting space within urban growth boundaries so that houses housing or housing units could be built within the urban growth boundary. So some people are confused about how are we gonna not throw out the baby with the bathwater. And so some people have come up with well, ask that it be amended to omit the part about the automatic urban growth boundary expansion. And I did talk to a mayor of a city.
Speaker 2:I won't say who, but and I said, do you like this bill where it says cities can just do this quickie urban growth boundary expansion? And he said, no. He said, we like the planning process and everything's established, everybody knows the timelines, Everybody knows how much land we have already to provide affordable housing, and so we're happy with what we have. And I I hope that cities who feel that way will testify too. So I didn't ask this mayor if he was going to because I didn't even have time to think about it, but I I hope that they do.
Speaker 3:Well, I would anticipate most of the cities would jump on it because they would say it's an opportunity. And then once we get it, we don't have to go through the process down the road. We already have it. It's like kid in a candy store. And that's my concern about it is we have a system in place that's very logical, very practical.
Speaker 3:Just because you bring in UGB where I live, it would impact prime farm ground.
Speaker 2:Right. Right.
Speaker 3:So we have a lot of concerns about what it'll do. Then they've got to come up with the money to do the infrastructure. So, really, what any bill needs to do is say we're gonna focus on infrastructure and take the gray areas, which I call they're in cities that they don't have adequate infrastructure in or their infrastructure is old and equated, and they need to go in and fix those first and then spend those dollars getting that fixed so the housing industry can build in there and offer the housing to the people.
Speaker 2:Right. Last session, there was a bill similar to this that failed because of that urban growth boundary piece, And there was a letter read on the floor of the senate. I think it was from an association of Oregon planners or something. They didn't want it. It was gonna be a mess because we've had these good land use laws and people are used to the procedures and have been following the procedures.
Speaker 2:So I think that letter, helped to kill it back then. So we'll see what happens. Well, Mickey, we are out of time and I wanna thank you so much, for being our guest today. And, for our listeners, we've been speaking with Mickey Killingsworth, who is a sheep farmer from Madras, very active in, the Farm Bureau, A Thousand Friends of Oregon, and many other groups and educational entities to help people understand the importance of agriculture in our state.
Speaker 3:Thank you. And I wanna end with eat lamb, wear wool.
