Annie's Organic Farmers: David & Dee Turner

 

It’s December and a warm 50 mph Chinook wind is blowing across northeastern MT. Dee Turner says, “if there’s a lot of southwest wind, then you know it’s going to be a dry year.” The Turners are full of knowledge like this. Dave and Dee are both third generation Montanans from ranch and farm families.

 

They consistently grow some of the best durum wheat available, and they are a real pleasure to work with.

 

Dee hails from Whitlash, a place closer to the Canadian border than the nearest US town. She traveled 40 miles of gravel road to the nearest town ofChester to attend high school. This year marks 100 years her family has lived and ranched in Whitlash.

 

Dave comes from Oilmont, and he has farmed all his life in addition to working other jobs to keep the farm afloat. In 2010, his family will mark 100 years in Oilmont. Dave and Dee are full of good stories, and you could spend an afternoon tracing back their roots.

 

Dave and his Dad always had a penchant for trying new things, so organic farming was a natural opportunity to try something new. Dee says that their grandparents lived a long time. They farmed without chemicals, and grew and canned all their own food. Organic has it’s roots in the way their grandparents lived. Dee can also remember the late 1970’s when all a farm had to do to was sign an affidavit that said “I’m organic.” Boy, things have changed since! The Turners formally went organic in 1989. They stopped using chemicals cold turkey after a particularly bad outbreak of fireweed that was nonexistent in fields that had not been sprayed. In 1993 they got their certification and it snowed so early they couldn’t harvest—the crop laid right down on the ground with all the snow. Somehow, Dee doesn’t have bitterness in her voice as she tells me all this.

 

The Turners farm about 2,000 acres, and because the climate is semi-arid, half of this land is fallowed each year for moisture and weed control. They grow small grains which include wheat, durum, barley, and flax. The 2006 season wasn’t great: yields were about half of 2005 yields, but overall crop quality was good. Typically the Oilmont area receives from 5-11 inches of rain, so it’s a very arid climate and rain is precious. Although this year yields were down, it’s better than the 7 years of drought they experienced from 1997-2004. They are hoping for a good winter this year to replenish moisture in the ground. Dave’s Dad has always said that if there’s no snow in between Christmas and New Year, then it will be a dry year. Dee says he hasn’t been wrong yet. We are all wishing for snow for Christmas.

 

Dave and Dee stay busy as grandparents; they have 5 kids, 3 boys and 2 girls and 7 grand kids with one on the way. Dave comes from a musical family and used to have a band named “A Family Affair.” Dave’s Mom, Dad, and brothers all played in the band. Dave can play nearly any musical instrument—piano, saxophone, steel guitar, accordion and Dee is hoping to build him a music room so he has somewhere else to play around other than the garage. He keeps threatening to play at the MT Organic conference next year. Rural life isn’t boring for them, they regularly host foreign exchange students. This year they have 3 students, from Colombia, South Korea, and Brazil. In the past 2 years, they’ve hosted 7 exchange students. Dee says they’re all good kids, “but a teenager is a teenager no matter what country they’re from.”

 

A few horses live on the farm and their son Matt runs a goat business, he has 1,600 goats right now. Holy Goat! In the summer Matt rents the goats out to eat noxious (bad) weeds down in Helena MT. In the winter some of them go to meat markets, or they stay through till weed season starts. The Turners are very proud of their kids, noting that growing up on a farm has made them all extremely employable. One of their sons applied for a job and got asked if he could change oil. “In what?,” he replied.

 

Dee and Dave hope to pass on the farm to one of their kids, but so far each of their children is so darn independent and opinionated that no one has stayed home. Hopefully, at least one will return. One thing Dee wants to pass on to consumers is to value farmers and not stereotype them as stupid country people. “It used to be that farming knowledge was truly valued, but now there’s an urban mentality that looks at farmers as peasants. Farmers are some of the smartest people I know.” Dee says, “Give a farmer some iron and he can make anything.” Farmers are the original engineers.