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		<title>Mattson begins spraying and seeding for next year&#8217;s crop</title>
		<link>http://www.mattsonfarms.com/news/mattson-begins-spraying-and-seeding-for-next-years-crop</link>
		<comments>http://www.mattsonfarms.com/news/mattson-begins-spraying-and-seeding-for-next-years-crop#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:41:14 +0000</pubDate>
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				<category><![CDATA[Press]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://mattsonfarms.com/news/?p=44</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By TERRI ADAMS, The Prairie Star
Friday, October 9, 2009 11:09 AM CDT
CHESTER, Mont. &#8211; For Megan Mattson, who grows wheat in Montana&#8217;s Golden Triangle, a year of work just ended and a new year is beginning.
“The harvest went well. We can&#8217;t complain at all. We had a very successful harvest, but now we are focused [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>By TERRI ADAMS, The Prairie Star<br />
Friday, October 9, 2009 11:09 AM CDT<br />
CHESTER, Mont. &#8211; For Megan Mattson, who grows wheat in Montana&#8217;s Golden Triangle, a year of work just ended and a new year is beginning.</p>
<p>“The harvest went well. We can&#8217;t complain at all. We had a very successful harvest, but now we are focused on next year,” she said.</p>
<p>The grain is all off the fields and in the bins.</p>
<p>And they are back in the fields planning to reseed the winter wheat variety Genou once again this year.</p>
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<p>&#8211;>“Some farmers in the area are not happy with how their Genou performed, but ours yielded well and had a great stand even through harvest. It even survived the winter so we&#8217;re going to go with again and we will see how it does,” Megan said.</p>
<p>As soon as the harvest was finished, Megan said they “hit the dirt with the drills just a few short days later.”</p>
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<p>But there has been little rain.</p>
<p>“We haven&#8217;t been in a huge rush mostly due to the planting conditions,” she said. “We have virtually no moisture in the ground right now and absolutely no rain in the forecast, so we&#8217;re not pushing ourselves hard to get things done.”</p>
<p>Megan said they weren&#8217;t “experts” at growing winter wheat.</p>
<p>“We&#8217;ve only been planting winter wheat for three years, but even the seasoned winter wheat producers are in the field despite the conditions, so we are too,” she said.</p>
<p>That day Megan was running a sprayer ahead of the drills. “We try to spray ahead of the drills and stay a day or two ahead of them. We are trying to control some of our grassy, problematic weeds.”</p>
<p>Then Megan laughed over her dislike of spraying, “I would much rather be sitting on the drill right now but someone has to operate the sprayer and since it takes a bit more know-how, I get the job.” At the moment her mother is running one of the drills, their mechanic is on a second, and a harvest employee who stayed on to help with seeding, is operating a third drill.</p>
<p>They run their drills with Trimble guidance systems and Trimble E-Z steer components. “A Guidance system on the tractor makes training new operators so easy. There is much less stress and fatigue, the driver can focus on what is important, plus the furrows are straight and there is very little overlap” she said.</p>
<p>“We&#8217;re looking at being finished towards the end of the week with our fallow acres,” she said. Right now they are a bit hesitant to plant many re-crop acres due to the poor planting conditions.</p>
<p>They will wait on those acres until they get some rain or at least see some in the forecast. Then they will push hard and possibly run 24 hours a day, if needed, to get the acres seeded.</p>
<p>Megan noted they were experiencing record high temperatures that day and the forecast was predicting more “and we&#8217;ve had high winds for the past month as well.” The heat and the wind have dried out the soil.</p>
<p>“It seems like just two months ago I was saying we had great moisture in the soil. Now it&#8217;s horribly dry out there. It&#8217;s like planting in dust, even the sky is hazy. Hopefully we will get a rain soon.”</p>
<p>Once the planting is finished Megan knows there is a break coming soon.</p>
<p>She will be attending the Young Ag Leadership Conf. in Helena, Mont., October 2 to 4. “It is a great opportunity for young producers to network and discuss current issues in ag,” she said.</p>
<p>The conference is put on by eight different ag organizations from all of Montana&#8217;s commodities and is open to anyone interested in agriculture.</p>
<p>“This will be my third year attending the conference. It&#8217;s a great time,” she said. In addition to the speakers and information, Megan is also looking forward to the socialization. “This time of year I am slightly lacking in socialization.”</p>
<p>After a long, busy season and harvest, she is ready to renew the friendships she has made at the conference in years past and meet other young producers.</p>
<p>Some, like her, will be just coming in from the fields.</p>
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		<title>Wheat is lodging but with heavy heads on Montana farm</title>
		<link>http://www.mattsonfarms.com/news/wheat-is-lodging-but-with-heavy-heads-on-montana-farm</link>
		<comments>http://www.mattsonfarms.com/news/wheat-is-lodging-but-with-heavy-heads-on-montana-farm#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:39:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Press]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://mattsonfarms.com/news/?p=42</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By TERRI ADAMS, Lee Agri-Media
Wednesday, August 12, 2009 12:22 PM CDT
CHESTER, Mont. &#8211; As the wheat heads grow heavy in north central Montana, Megan Mattson is getting ready for harvest. They are getting their combines attached to the headers and trucks hooked up to trailers and ready to go. Their bins are waiting and now [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>By TERRI ADAMS, Lee Agri-Media<br />
Wednesday, August 12, 2009 12:22 PM CDT<br />
CHESTER, Mont. &#8211; As the wheat heads grow heavy in north central Montana, Megan Mattson is getting ready for harvest. They are getting their combines attached to the headers and trucks hooked up to trailers and ready to go. Their bins are waiting and now Megan is watching the weather.</p>
<p>“We&#8217;re still just hoping we don&#8217;t get any hail,” said Megan. “When my mom left for her U.S. Wheat Associates summer meetings in San Diego she wrote us a note that said to keep the hail away while I&#8217;m gone.”</p>
<p>She is also staying busy spraying a second round of weeds around the field borders. With it being the heat of summer, Megan can only spray if the temperature is below 80 degrees, so that has made for several early mornings.</p>
<p>“The weeds are still dying fairly easily so that&#8217;s nice,” she said. “I am getting to them a little late and often at this time of year the weeds are drying up and don&#8217;t seem to want to die. At least they are still growing and not setting seeds quite yet.”</p>
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<p>&#8211;>Another thing she is busy doing is taking soil probes on the chem fallow fields in preparation for fall planting. The soil probes are a representative sample of soil across the field. These samples are then tested to identify the nutrient content within each field and determine out how much starter fertilizer to put down with the seed when planting.</p>
<p>“I&#8217;m trying to get that done before harvest because it is looking like we could very well be planting immediately following harvest, if not during,” she said.</p>
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<p>Most of all, Megan has been enjoying watching their fields ripen. “The wheat is gorgeous right now. It&#8217;s really exciting to see it. We haven&#8217;t had a crop like this since I can remember. You can&#8217;t even begin anticipate a crop like this, at least not in our area,” she said.</p>
<p>That is why they are praying hard for good weather.</p>
<p>“We had a storm roll through a few days ago and we stood outside and watched as it passed just to the north of us,” Megan said.</p>
<p>Other producers can relate to that. Countless have stood and watched many storms roll through their area, hoping for needed moisture and dreading destructive hail or wind.</p>
<p>So far Megan&#8217;s crops have been spared and she is hoping to start pea harvest within the next week.</p>
<p>“Our winter wheat is going to be later. We&#8217;ve had a couple recent showers and that has continued to push it back, but these hot days are helping it ripen quickly” said Megan. “We have been doing some preliminary seed and head counts just to get a feel for what our yields might be. Inside the head right now there are three meshes filled. Some are trying to fill a fourth mesh. We keep thinking our yield counts or our formula must be wrong,” she said with a laugh.</p>
<p>Megan also admitted that some of their wheat is beginning to lodge but she feels that&#8217;s largely due to the strong winds and extra heavy heads this year, not necessarily the wheat stem sawfly.</p>
<p>“Sawfly damage usually isn&#8217;t evident until the wheat ripens and sometimes not even until we get high winds to rip though. We hope to not have much damage since we have a solid-stem variety, but you just don&#8217;t know.” Megan said. “So far it the crops look wonderful. I&#8217;m really excited and anxious.”</p>
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		<title>Planting peas keeps Chester producer busy</title>
		<link>http://www.mattsonfarms.com/news/planting-peas-keeps-chester-producer-busy</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 08 May 2009 17:36:31 +0000</pubDate>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://mattsonfarms.com/news/?p=40</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[


By TERRI ADAMS, The Prairie StarCHESTER, Mont. &#8211; This week a late winter storm dropped snow over Montana&#8217;s Golden Triangle where Megan Mattson farms wheat.
“The surface temperature is warm enough that most of it melted but it still managed to lay down a skiff of snow,” Megan said. “It&#8217;s been snowing for the last two [...]]]></description>
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<td colspan="3">By TERRI ADAMS, The Prairie StarCHESTER, Mont. &#8211; This week a late winter storm dropped snow over Montana&#8217;s Golden Triangle where Megan Mattson farms wheat.</p>
<p>“The surface temperature is warm enough that most of it melted but it still managed to lay down a skiff of snow,” Megan said. “It&#8217;s been snowing for the last two days but I don&#8217;t know how much it has snowed because most of it just melts. In town the streets are full of water. This is good for the crops that have been planted. The snow provides a little insulation for the wheat and it&#8217;s been above freezing so the moisture is getting into the ground and that&#8217;s good.”</p>
<p>She said they were waiting to see if the winter wheat made it through the winter months.</p>
<p>They had a cold snap come through last week that dropped temperatures to 12 degrees one morning.</p>
<p>“Genou is not known for being an extremely winter-hardy variety but that&#8217;s a risk we knew when we planted it. We&#8217;re still crossing our fingers to see if this cold snap caused in any damage but we won&#8217;t know for a couple of weeks. Not all of it is out of dormancy. Some hilltops and headlands may possibly need to be reseeded,” said Megan.</p>
<p>Before the cold spell, Megan also helped her brother plant what few acres of spring wheat they have to seed. They chose to plant registered Vida to sell as seed wheat.</p>
<p>Seeding is not the only thing taking Megan&#8217;s time.</p>
<p>She has been out late at night spreading zinc phosphide to suppress the rodent infestation in their fields.</p>
<p>“It&#8217;s getting to be a detriment to both our crops and our machinery. Our machinery is not made to take that kind of beating,” she said.</p>
<p>Because of the rodent infestation, Megan has spent a lot of time replacing tires and making repairs and adjustments. They are spreading the zinc phosphide directly over their fields in the form of coated oats.</p>
<p>She also recently returned from the 2009 “Leadership at its Best” program in Greensboro, N.C.</p>
<p>The program was sponsored by Syngenta and provides leadership training for members of the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) and American Agri-Women. The program is offered to these groups every two years. Megan&#8217;s name was recommended for the class by the Montana Grain Grower&#8217;s Association.</p>
<p>Megan is the coordinator of the Young Grain Growers committee within MGGA and was involved in the start-up of that committee just four years ago.</p>
<p>“I am very involved with the MGGA, so that is probably why they asked me to consider applying,” Megan said. “We were at the joint convention with the Montana Stock-growers Association and MGGA and the Stockgrowers had a Young Stockgrowers committee but we didn&#8217;t at that time.”</p>
<p>That year there were only four young grain growers in attendance. “Last year, between agri-businesses and producers, we had roughly 30 young grain growers in attendance. It&#8217;s not totally because of us, but I like to think our committee has helped,” she said. Shen enjoyed her time back East but was glad to get back to her farm.</p>
<p>While she was gone her brother planted edible green peas, the Cruiser variety.</p>
<p>“We will harvest them for seed and contract the rest for sale. Legumes also have the ability to fix nitrogen below the ground&#8217;s surface, so hopefully we will end up with a gain in the nitrogen when all is said and done,” said Megan. “They also provide a cropping rotation opportunity for weed management.”</p>
<p>This week the snow allowed Megan some time in the shop to get equipment ready for work. She will be getting the sprayers ready to address the first round of chem fallow within the next couple of weeks.</p>
<p>One of the first jobs she will be starting on when the weather warms is spraying their field boundaries to keep on top of the weeds outside of the fields.</p>
<p>Megan laughed over that job, knowing it is not her favorite but it is a job that is helpful and necessary.</p>
<p>“We are able to cut down on the need to spray entire fields by managing the weeds on the borders before they get that far. We do this all season long. I usually go around every field at least two times and sometimes three or four time-to check for weeds and get what&#8217;s coming up. I&#8217;m going to have to get going on that,” Megan said. That&#8217;s because she knows weeds will survive the cold snap, they always do.</p>
<p>Maybe, one day, they will develop a variety of wheat that grows like &#8211; well, weeds. Until then Megan will do what every producer does &#8211; treat for weeds and help her crops develop to the highest yields possible.</p>
<p>With Mother&#8217;s Day just around the corner, Megan took some time to reflect on her own mother, Janice Mattson, and the harvest their relationship has brought.</p>
<p>“She&#8217;s my best friend, bar none. The transition from mother to friend happened pretty easily when we work together every day. I really enjoy being with her,” she said.</p>
<p>Her example helped inspire Megan to farm for a living and Megan is proud that her mother is still inspiring people around the world.</p>
<p>“I read once that the true way to measure to success in life isn&#8217;t by how much money you have or by your number of friends, but by the way your kids talk about you to others. If that is true, she&#8217;s a pretty great success.” </td>
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<div><strong>Copyright © 2010 The Prairie Star </strong></div>
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		<title>Golden Triangle producer preparing to begin spring seeding</title>
		<link>http://www.mattsonfarms.com/news/golden-triangle-producer-preparing-to-begin-spring-seeding</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:31:14 +0000</pubDate>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://mattsonfarms.com/news/?p=36</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[ By TERRI ADAMS, The Prairie Star






Megan Mattson runs her own dryland farm near Chester, Mont. She is following in the path set by her mother, Janice.  



CHESTER, Mont. &#8211; On a no-till dryland farm located in the heart of Montana&#8217;s Golden Triangle a golden-haired young wheat farmer is planting an impressive start to a golden career [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p> By TERRI ADAMS, The Prairie Star</p>
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<td><strong>Megan Mattson runs her own dryland farm near Chester, Mont. She is following in the path set by her mother, Janice. </strong> </td>
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<p>CHESTER, Mont. &#8211; On a no-till dryland farm located in the heart of Montana&#8217;s Golden Triangle a golden-haired young wheat farmer is planting an impressive start to a golden career in production agriculture.</p>
<p>Born and raised on the family wheat farm, Megan Mattson, grew up surrounded by agriculture.</p>
<p>Her father, Carl Mattson, is currently on staff with Montana Grain Grower&#8217;s Association as a Conservative and Farm Programs Associate. Megan&#8217;s mother, Janice, will be the first woman to serve as the chairman of the U.S. Wheat Associates with the term beginning this July. Megan doesn&#8217;t pay much attention to their titles. They&#8217;re just Mom and Dad to her.</p>
<p>Megan grew up playing hide-and-seek among the farm&#8217;s grain bins with her older brother, Vince. She went to Chester High school where she was active in basketball, volleyball and track. After graduation, Megan took off for college. Working hard, she earned a bachelor&#8217;s degree in geography at Oregon State University with an emphasis in Global Information Systems, or GIS.</p>
<p>“I came home every summer during college to help on the farm,” said Megan. “One summer just ended up being three years.”</p>
<p>She doesn&#8217;t mind, however. One thing she learned as she studied the earth is she loved the land she was raised on. After she had been home a year, Megan formed a partnership with her mother and the two began to farm together.</p>
<p>“I grew up knowing how to do it, so it came naturally to me,” she said.</p>
<p>Besides the work, Megan loves her family.</p>
<p>“My brother is one of the main reasons I came home,” said Megan. “I grew up working with him and enjoyed it.”</p>
<p>Currently the farm consists of almost all winter wheat and just a little spring wheat.</p>
<p>“Only two summers ago it was the complete opposite,” said Megan. But a prolonged spell of hot, dry summers brought about the rapid shift to the solid-stem wheat winter wheat.</p>
<p>“In the past a lot of farmers north of Highway 2 stayed away from winter wheat due to the possibility of winter kill. Although winter wheat typically yields better than spring wheat, many years there is a premium price for the spring wheat,” she said.</p>
<p>She pointed out that one of the main reasons for the change is the climate they are working in.</p>
<p>“In our area, for the last four years, we have had very little rain after mid-June. Spring wheat needs moisture in late June and early July to produce a crop.”</p>
<p>They did not have much of a problem with wheat stem sawfly in their winter wheat.</p>
<p>“We decided we would rather take a bit lower yield using the solid stem varieties than deal with crop losses due to the pesky sawflies,” Megan explained.</p>
<p>The dry hot July weather has led them to make the shift from spring to winter wheat and they haven&#8217;t regretted it.</p>
<p>Megan also doesn&#8217;t regret becoming a female wheat grower.</p>
<p>“I enjoy being outside,” she said. “I&#8217;m not afraid to work hard and get dirty.”</p>
<p>Megan knows how to run all the equipment on the farm.</p>
<p>“I always had to do what my brother did and when he started driving the big equipment I made the mistake when I was younger of saying I thought it looked like fun. Now I drive all the time,” she laughed.</p>
<p>“I don&#8217;t maintain the equipment, but I can fix minor breakdowns,” she admits.</p>
<p>She even knows how to keep a lot of the equipment running, though she does let her brother and their full-time employee do most of the mechanical repairs.</p>
<p>“We all have different things we are really good at,” she said.</p>
<p>When she is not working the land, Megan can often be found in the office. Filled with her father&#8217;s model tractor collection and samples of the harvests from previous years, Megan trades a tractor seat for a computer chair.</p>
<p>There she uses her college degree to study the land and map the acreage.</p>
<p>Having just finished spreading fertilizer, Megan is anxious to start seeding.</p>
<p>“Vince says we&#8217;ll start on Monday but it will depend on the weather,” she said.</p>
<p>Many people have wondered what Megan does out on the farm.</p>
<p>“I have a lot of people who think I just live out here on the farm. They often ask me, so what do you actually do? The ones who know me know that I have a full-time job operating equipment during the crop season. They are respectful of it,” she said.</p>
<p>Megan attributes a lot of the respect and acceptance she has been given to the effort and example of her mother.</p>
<p>“I think my mom had to earn that respect as well. She&#8217;s a phenomenal leader and role model for females in the agriculture world. I grew up watching her outside working so it came natural for me to work outside. I didn&#8217;t think anything of it. I have a lot of girlfriends who didn&#8217;t see that growing up, so they&#8217;re not quite sure why I do it.”</p>
<p>Megan knows why she does it.</p>
<p>Whether it&#8217;s sharing 24-hour shifts with her family to get the work done, laughing over past memories or making new ones, she loves the land, the work and the family. Farming is one of the few industries that combine all of that.</p>
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		<title>Montana wheat producer is first USW woman chairman</title>
		<link>http://www.mattsonfarms.com/news/montana-wheat-producer-is-first-usw-woman-chairman</link>
		<comments>http://www.mattsonfarms.com/news/montana-wheat-producer-is-first-usw-woman-chairman#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 12 Mar 2009 21:45:09 +0000</pubDate>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://mattsonfarms.dnsalias.com/news/?p=16</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By SUE ROESLER, The Prairie Star
As a warm, sunny, high-40s degree day flooded over the northern tier of central Montana near Chester, Janice Mattson reflected on her grain farm and her recent election to the top post at U.S. Wheat Associates (USW).
Mattson will be the first woman to ever hold the position.
USW is the wheat [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>By SUE ROESLER, The Prairie Star</p>
<p>As a warm, sunny, high-40s degree day flooded over the northern tier of central Montana near Chester, Janice Mattson reflected on her grain farm and her recent election to the top post at U.S. Wheat Associates (USW).</p>
<p>Mattson will be the first woman to ever hold the position.</p>
<p>USW is the wheat industry&#8217;s export market development organization, and educates wheat customers in more than 100 countries on behalf of America&#8217;s wheat producers. It operates through cost-share funding with the USDA and producer wheat checkoff dollars.<br />
<img class="alignright" title="Mattson Family" src="http://images.townnews.com/theprairiestar.com/content/articles/2009/03/12/ag_news/local_and_regional_news/local1.jpg" alt="" width="202" height="252" /><br />
“It means a lot to me that I will be the first woman chairman,” she said. “As a wheat producer myself, I can talk production agriculture with the other board members, whether it be about fertilizer, chemicals, varieties, or other day-to-day operations.”</p>
<p>Mattson said the “guys on the board” (there is one other woman member) all accept her as “one of them,” an equal as a hard-working wheat farmer, and she&#8217;s grateful for that.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the entire Mattson family is involved in grain farming, and they all have nearby operations. With the way the farm programs are set up, it made better sense to each have their own farms.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.theprairiestar.com/articles/2009/03/12/ag_news/local_and_regional_news/local1.prt" target="blank">Read Full Article &raquo;</a></p>
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