by Amy Chozick Hundreds of years before John Wayne and Gary Cooper gave us a Hollywood version of the American West, with men as the brute, weather-beaten stewards of the land, female ranchers roamed the frontier. They were the indigenous, Navajo, Cheyenne and other tribes, and Spanish-Mexican rancheras, who tended and tamed vast fields, traversed rugged landscapes with their dogs, …
By Nellie McAdams How do beginning farmers and ranchers connect with the record number of retiring producers? What should be a straightforward question with a straightforward answer isn’t always so simple. Recent research by Oregon State University, Portland State University and Rogue Farm Corps found that the average age of Oregon’s farmers and ranchers is nearly 60, higher than it’s …
by Nellie McAdams Farm Preservation Program Director, Rogue Farm Corps Between 2012 and 2032, about two-thirds of Oregon’s 16.3 million acres of agricultural land will change hands.* The reason? Oregon farmers and ranchers have never been older — they are approaching the retirement age for most professions, at 59.6 years on average. What will happen to the 10.5 million acres …