Oregon Small Farms Team Newsletter

 

Tuck*, B.V., Field Crops Faculty, Wasco County OSU Extension, 400 East Scenic Drive, The Dalles, OR 97058Stephenson, G., OSU Small Farms Specialist, Benton County, 1849 NW 9th St., Corvallis, OR 97330Kerr*, S.R., WSU-Klickitat County Extension Director, 228 W. Main Street, MS-CH-12 Goldendale, WA 98620Lucas, C., Oregon State University Extension Service-Benton County, 1849 NW 9th St., Corvallis, OR 97330Fery*, M., Oregon State University Extension Service-Benton County, 1849 NW 9th St., Corvallis, OR 97330Mathewson, M., Oregon State University Extension Service-Jackson County, 569 Hanley Road, Central Point, OR 97502Andrews, N., North Willamette Research & Extension Center, 15210 NE Miley Road, Aurora, OR 97002Angima, S., Oregon State University Extension Service-Lincoln County, 29 SE 2nd St., Newport, OR 97365

ABSTRACT Many residents moving into Oregon purchase

small acreages, yet are unfamiliar with agricultural issues and small farm management. To address the needs of this growing audience, a team of Oregon State University Extension Faculty in the fall of 2006 developed a newsletter called the Oregon Small Farm News. The purpose of the newsletter is to provide research-based information about livestock and horticultural production, marketing, noxious weed control, irrigation, small farm management and other issues pertinent to small farmers and rural landowners. Livestock, horticulture, forestry and agronomy agents contribute to this quarterly effort; additional articles are written by resource personnel such as weed control coordinators, NRCS and conservation district employees and other Extension educators. The newsletter is available without charge electronically at http://smallfarms.oregonstate.edu/newsletter/. In the spring of 2007, the successful Mid-Columbia Oregon/ Washington Small Farm Newsletter merged with the Oregon Small Farms Newsletter to better serve the small farms of Oregon. The result has been a very successful small farms resource for Oregon and parts of Southern Washington. The success of the Oregon Small Farms News is demonstrated by the number of hits on the Oregon Small Farms website where the newsletter is hosted. In 2007, the total number of hits reached 585,000 with 183,000 page views. Electronic circulation of the quarterly issues reached 6,000 in 2007.

SITUATIONOregon over the last several years has experienced

a dramatic increase in small acreage landowners who have a wide variety and diversity of information needs. With the increased numbers of small acreage landowners the demands for credible, research based information for use by both small acreage landowners and agriculture professionals has been of primary focus by the Oregon Small Farms Team.

2007 Web site Aggregate Use• Web site Hits – 585,000

• Page view – 183,000

                                   

                 

                                    

   

                      

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Ranking of Web Site Segments Based on Page ViewsRank Page Views

1. Small Farm News Summer 2007 60002. Small Farm News Nov. 2006 59533. Small Farm News Fall 2007 56044. Beginning farmers’ page 43435. Small Farm News Spring 2007 37376. Organic Fertilizer Calculator 36517. Crops page 25828. Livestock page 2531

ACTIONSTo address the educational needs of the growing small farm clientele, OSU faculty created the Oregon Small Farms team. In addition to conducting educational workshops on numerous topics, the team publishes a quarterly electronic newsletter for small farm owners. The team developed a Web site to house the newsletter and other resources, an event calendar and useful links. The URL is http://smallfarms.oregonstate.edu.