Lane has been involved in science since attending Stuyvesant High School in New York, a school that specializes in teaching about the sciences and mathematics. He graduated in 1965 and then earned a degree from Syracuse University, also in New York, in zoology with a minor in creative writing. After a 2 1⁄2-year stint as a Peace Corps volunteer on the island of Borneo, where he worked in public health and helped provide clean water supplies to villages, he visited New Zealand. He spent six months traveling and working on sheep and cattle stations. After returning home and a couple years later, he became a graduate student at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., and studied international agriculture. "My life literally changed then," he said. "I never went back to the city to live or work." During the next several years, he earned his master's degree in animal nutrition; worked two years as an assistant animal scientist in West Virginia; made several trips to the Pacific Northwest, where he bucked hay along the Umpqua River; worked in a Madras feedlot; picked apples in the Yakima, Wash., area; and attended a sheep shearing school and worked on a shearing crew. He also continued his studies at Cornell and earned his doctorate. His education landed him a job as the state sheep and beef cattle extension specialist for the University of Wisconsin. But after six years of living in the dairy state, he wanted to return to Oregon on a full-time basis. He and his wife, Jeri, made the move in 1990. "I wanted to live in a place where sheep, cattle and grazing were big," he said. "There were very few beef cattle and sheep in Wisconsin."
Malaysia RPCV Woody Lane a fanatic about growing forage
Woody Lane a fanatic about growing forage
Caption: Woody Lane checks out the thickness and quality of grass growing in a pasture in the Melrose area. Lane is a livestock nutritionist and forage specialist. Photo: Craig Reed/The News-Review
Don't be fooled by that "Got Grass" hat that Woody Lane wears with a wide smile. It's not what you might think.
In Lane's case, he's all about growing forage, as in grass, for livestock. That green stuff is what puts pounds on beef cattle and lambs, preparing them for market and eventually the grill, the plate and the palate. That in turn earns green stuff for the livestock owner.
The grass here is why Lane settled in Douglas County back in 1990.
"It is one of the finest places in the world to grow forages," he said of this area between the Cascade Mountains and the Coast Range. "It is the equal to Scotland and New Zealand. It's a magical area for growing forages and foraged-based livestock production. We can grow forage here 365 days a year because of the mild winter climate.
"We're growing great forage right now and Minnesota hasn't even woke up from winter," he added.
Lane, who lives in a forested and pasture area several miles west of Roseburg, is a private consultant, helping livestock producers increase their forage production and quality so less is spent on buying other feed. He helps people study their soil, water and drainage conditions. Then he makes recommendations for what grasses and fertilizers would be best and how subsequent forage would be best grazed to maintain its health and quality to provide for the livestock.
Orchard, tall fescue, annual and perennial rye, white clover and subclover are the most popular grasses grown in Douglas County. While the climate is ideal for growing these grasses, the soil is not always the best. Limestone to increase the Ph and other nutrients may be added to enhance the ground's fertility.
"Each field is a little different," Lane said. "They have to be managed intelligently, but very often they're capable of tremendous production. The grass that is growing right now has the same nutritional quality as oats, but with a much higher protein. Cattle can gain as fast as being grain fed in a feedlot."
The growing season in Douglas County and western Oregon starts with the first rains in the fall and continues to May or June, depending on spring rains. Growth may slow during winter months depending on how cool temperatures get. There's a basic pattern to the growing season, but the timing might be different each year because of weather.
If ground has irrigation available, forage production can be year-round.
"I want to help farmers and ranchers improve their production and profit," said Lane, a 61-year-old livestock nutritionist and forage specialist. "I'm providing information and how it can best work in each person's situation. I'm providing alternatives for a farm or ranch.
"The type of work I'm doing is unique," he added. "There are consultants for dairy and feedlot operations, but there's not many people working with beef cattle, sheep and goats combined with forage."
Lane has taught courses and held workshops on forage and pasture management, livestock nutrition, and sheep and cattle production in western Oregon and across the U.S. and Canada. In addition to working in the U.S., he's done consulting work in Canada, New Zealand and Macedonia (north of Greece), a major sheep producer.
"If I had to write a job description that I really wanted, this would be it," he said. "I was interested in a profession of helping people with things they really need. Making food and fiber is a worthwhile livelihood. I'm living in western Oregon where I can help people do that, some of them being the most progressive and highly skilled forage growers there are."
Lane will be in the midst of some of those people at the 2010 annual meeting of the Oregon Forage and Grassland Council. It's a two-day event, scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday at the Benton County Fairgrounds in Corvallis. Lane has been on a four-person committee that has scheduled a full lineup of experts who will discuss numerous subjects ranging from livestock grazing to pasture fertilization to livestock responses to forages.
Lane will give a Wednesday evening presentation on "Forage and Pasture Management." Thursday morning, he'll be the moderator for a panel discussion involving representatives of the crops, soils, animal science, cattle, sheep, dairy, hay, seed and forage industries. He's experienced in such situations. He's the facilitator for three forage producer study groups - in the Willamette Valley, in Douglas County and on the southern Oregon coast. Those groups meet several times a year to discuss forages.
Kathy Panner, a Riddle area cattle and sheep rancher and a member of the Douglas County forage study group, has known Lane for 15 years.
"He's provided valuable education for our community," she said. "He leads our forage group, but not so much by teaching us as by helping us to share what we have learned. He's more of a facilitator, researcher and coordinator than he is a lecturer. When we get together, the amount of information that is shared is tremendous."
Lane also writes a monthly column called "From the Feed Trough." He's in the process of compiling about 100 of those columns for a book he's planning to self-publish.
He has reviewed reference books in agriculture for the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences and has done consulting work for national agricultural organizations.
Lane has been involved in science since attending Stuyvesant High School in New York, a school that specializes in teaching about the sciences and mathematics. He graduated in 1965 and then earned a degree from Syracuse University, also in New York, in zoology with a minor in creative writing.
After a 2 1⁄2-year stint as a Peace Corps volunteer on the island of Borneo, where he worked in public health and helped provide clean water supplies to villages, he visited New Zealand. He spent six months traveling and working on sheep and cattle stations.
After returning home and a couple years later, he became a graduate student at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., and studied international agriculture.
"My life literally changed then," he said. "I never went back to the city to live or work."
During the next several years, he earned his master's degree in animal nutrition; worked two years as an assistant animal scientist in West Virginia; made several trips to the Pacific Northwest, where he bucked hay along the Umpqua River; worked in a Madras feedlot; picked apples in the Yakima, Wash., area; and attended a sheep shearing school and worked on a shearing crew.
He also continued his studies at Cornell and earned his doctorate. His education landed him a job as the state sheep and beef cattle extension specialist for the University of Wisconsin. But after six years of living in the dairy state, he wanted to return to Oregon on a full-time basis. He and his wife, Jeri, made the move in 1990.
"I wanted to live in a place where sheep, cattle and grazing were big," he said. "There were very few beef cattle and sheep in Wisconsin."
He's right at home in the pastures of western Oregon. And he's "Got Grass."
• News-Review Features Editor Craig Reed can be reached at 541-957-4210 or creed@nrtoday.com.
