Santiam agriculture going full tilt

The Sublimity Harvest Festival may be a month away, but harvest in the Santiam region is full tilt and ongoing through August.

Combines are kicking up dust while bringing in grass seed and grains, bean harvests are engaging and corn crops are blooming toward their ripening intervals, much of which will be tasted in Aumsville during and around the Saturday, Aug. 23, Corn Festival.

Oregon Department of Agriculture statistics from 2012 cite Marion County as the top agricultural land in the state, topping all of Oregon's 36 counties in farm and ranch sales by grossing $639,326,000 in 2012, outpacing No. 2 Umatilla County by more than $150,000,000; Linn County ranks No. 6, $301,932,000. Fed by the north and south forks of its namesake river, the Santiam region is no small part of those lofty ag-production numbers.

Who's got ag?

Oregon Department of Agriculture reported that nearly half of the state's agricultural production takes place in the Willamette Valley, and Marion County is the perennial runaway leader of all the state's 36 counties.

ODA data also showed three Eastern Oregon counties following Marion successively, while 25 of Oregon's 36 counties reported an increase in agricultural sales in 2012, according to statistics compiled by Oregon State University.

1. Marion $639 million

2. Umatilla $487 million

3. Morrow $482 million

4. Malheur $373 million

5. Clackamas $343 million

6. Linn $301 million

7. Washington $292 million

8. Klamath $290 million

9. Yamhill $269 million

10. Polk $162 million