Perennial Crops
We mainly raise perennial crops, which can produce a seed crop for multiple years. Some benefits are that they don’t require annual tillage of the soil nor replanting every year. Also, perennial plants develop much greater root mass and protect the soil year-round. Our perennial crops include perennial ryegrass (2-4 year rotation), tall and fine fescues (3-7 year rotation) and red clover (2-3 year rotation).
Annual and Specialty Crops
We use annual and specialty crop rotations between perennial grass and clover crops. These rotation crops include grains such as oats and wheat, specialized crops like meadowfoam, crimson clover and forage brassicas. Oil is extracted from the meadowfoam seed and used as an ingredient for the cosmetic industry. The forage brassica and clover seed is utilized to plant pastures for grazing animals and cover cropping.
Soil Health
Management is key in crop production. We use soil testing to determine economical quantities of lime and nutrients to add to the soil to maintain fertility. We take care in preventing soil erosion by having the ground always covered with living roots and improving soil structure with no-till practices. Rotational crops help to manage weed, insect, and disease pests, improve soil health, and reduce soil erosion by wind and water. Specifically, perennial grass between our hazelnut tree rows help with erosion and mud, and our fields of clover fix nitrogen.
No-Till Planting
No-Till means the new crop is directly planted into remaining stubble from the prior year’s crop. Specialty no-till drills are able to cut through residue to place and cover the seed at an accurate depth. We have found that no-till planting works very well for annual crops such as oats and meadowfoam. Perennial grasses also are no-tilled when field conditions are correct. Some of our ground has been in no-till rotations for over 30 years. This has provided significant buildup of organic matter which improves the stand quality and utilization of nutrients.
Diversity
Because of our location in the foot hills of the Cascade mountain range, we have many fields that are rocky and on very steep slopes unsuitable for production of grasses, grains, or specialty crops. We produce timber and Christmas trees in these areas. We carefully manage our timber lands and always replant after logging to create a sustainable forest environment. We also have been diversifying into permanent crops such as hazelnuts to fill a growing demand.
Conservation
As good stewards of the land we consider it a top priority to implement methods that preserve the integrity of the area we serve. Some of our techniques that help to achieve this are: working in full straw loads in fields that will be tilled, utilizing cover crops on fields that would otherwise be bare over winter, and using erosion stabilization bags filled with straw to eliminate washing into ditches of freshly tilled soil. We have also installed drip irrigation in our hazelnut orchard to conserve water rather than using above ground irrigation which is less efficient due to wind and evaporation.
Honoring the past, Ioka is named from a Chinook Indian word meaning “a thing of loveliness” or “a cherished piece of land noted for its beauty, health, and fertility”.
