HISTORY
OUR FARMING STORY
COLUMBIA BASIN SPREADERS ESTABLISHED
Established Columbia Basin Spreaders for sales of fertilizer & chemicals. Further services were added for application of chemicals and fertilizers along with custom farming, planting and harvesting operations.
ONIONS, GRASS SEED, SWEET CORN PLANTED
Began growing Kentucky bluegrass early in the 1990s as an annual crop along with onions. First planting were onions raised for dehydration, followed by over-winter and summer onions for a fresh pack operation as well as processing. Fresh market onion planting began in the mid-1990s.
COLUMBIA BASIN ONION ESTABLISHED
To vertically integrate the onion crop, in June 2012 Columbia Basin Onion was established, a fresh pack operation and custom packer for other growers. Conventional onions are packed from mid-June through mid-May and organic onions normally running from August through mid-May.
COLUMBIA BASIN ONION PACKING SHED
CBO is a state of the art onion packing facility using computerized equipment to sort, grade, bag, and stack the onions for shipment.
COLUMBIA BASIN BIOSCIENCE
Columbia Basin Bioscience facility provides expanded drying capability and extraction of CBD oil from the Industrial Hemp biomass for further development in the pharmaceutical industry.
1975
1980
1980
1990
1998
2012
2016
2017
2018
2019
EASTERN OREGON FARMING
After graduation from Oregon State University, Alan Cleaver began his farming career in the Columbia Basin growing potatoes under circle irrigation.
POTATOES PLANTED
Alan Cleaver began leasing ground and growing for himself.
COLUMBIA RIVER SEED ESTABLISHED
Columbia River Seed is a grass seed processing company established with a group of growers in the lower Columbia River Basin. This allows growers to vertically integrate from production to processing to sales. Columbia River Seed now produces 13,500 acres of annual grass seed.
WESTON MOUNTAIN ONIONS ESTABLISHED
Recognizing an opportunity to increase marketable product, Weston Mountain Onions was established to be able to process the smaller onions. Using a burning process to burn the skin off of smaller onions, Weston Mountain Onions was able to market additional onions that would normally be wasted.
INDUSTRIAL HEMP PRODUCTION
Raising over 400 acres of Industrial Hemp product Alan Cleaver brought commercialized farming practices to an industry in infancy. As one of the largest producers in Oregon a drying operation was built allowing the hemp to be dried in a short time frame and then pelletized to reduce storage requirements. Planned production acreage is five times larger for 2019.
