By CRAIG REED

For the Capital Press

UMPQUA, Ore. — While more land in Western Oregon has been planted with filberts, blueberries and grapes in recent years, Mike Ritchie has remained in the grass seed growing business.

His father, LaBrie Ritchie, was a seed grower and Mike, 62, has kept that tradition in the family. His two sons, Tyler and Seth, are now also full-time with the operation and siblings Ashley, Matt, Jackie and Joey have helped during the summer harvest. Mike’s wife, Tammy, who grew up on a family farm in the Umpqua area, does the bookwork.

The family business, the LaBrie Ranch, is unique in that it’s the only commercial seed growing operation in central Douglas County, where row crops and orchards are more prevalent. The Ritchies farm 1,000 acres and they have a small mill for processing and bagging the seed crop.

“We’re in a good seed production area because of the dry summers,” Mike Ritchie said. “There’s been a good market for seed. If you grow (vegetable) crops, you can get rid of only so much fresh market cabbage.”

Rye, orchard and fescue grass seed are the ranch’s main crops, and wheat, cabbage, mustard, radish and kale have also been grown for seed and sugar beets for root stock.

Mike Ritchie said that with less ground being used for seed production, he takes more calls from company representatives asking him to grow specific crops.

“There are more options now, but I sort through them and pick out the ones that are well-suited to grow here,” he said. “With less ground being used for seed, that does help the bottom line for those of us still growing it.”

Ritchie said the seed market went down when the economy slumped about five years ago. He said that when money got tight, some people didn’t re-seed their pastures and lawns. But he added the surplus seed of recent years is used up and the market price is looking better than it did a few years ago.

Tammy Ritchie said farming is the right profession for her husband.

“Going from one project to the next, nothing is the same, each day is different for him and he enjoys that aspect of farming,” she said.

Mike Ritchie said he learned from his father and from a lot of just doing the work.

Back in his late teen years when his dad’s operation included sheep, Ritchie learned to shear the animals. He then sheared sheep into his early 20s, saving his money until he had enough to buy his own farm property at age 25. He had sheep for a while, but gradually got out of that business and concentrated on seed crops.

In addition to the acreage and the seed mill, the Ritchies have their own machine shop and maintain their collection of combines, tractors and trucks.

“I’ve been around ag all my life and it’s all I know,” Mike Ritchie said. “It’s treated me well.”

LaBrie Ranch

Location: Umpqua, Ore.

Farmers: Mike and Tammy Ritchie and sons Tyler Ritchie and Seth Ritchie

Length of time farming: Mike Ritchie has been a full-time farmer/rancher for 42 years

Crops: The LaBrie Ranch’s main crops are rye, orchard and fescue for seed, and also grows wheat, cabbage, mustard, radish and kale for seed and sugar beets for root stock

Acreage: 1,000 acres in production