Our People

AgriNorthwest does more than try to grow the best crops. It aims to grow the best people, too. That is where Morgan, a Human Resources Manager, comes in.

“I would say that AgriNorthwest is an organization that strives to build the best employees that we can, and the best people,” Morgan said. “I think our slogan has always been ‘Good Land, Good People, Good Food,’ so we are building them up. We’re looking to invest in these individuals so that they’re ready for the next step.”

Morgan, who is always ready to support those in the organization, is quick to point out the ways AgriNorthwest prepares people.

“We treat everybody equitably,” Morgan said. “We have the same benefits available from the CEO down to our general laborer. We want to see the best outcome for our individuals, so we do give back to them in ways that will help prepare them: the training, the benefits, the opportunities for advancement. We want to make sure that the whole individual is ready for the next step when it's available.”

Morgan grew up riding horses in a small community in Northern California and knew she wanted to work in the agriculture industry. Thinking of a career in sales, she majored in agriculture business with an emphasis in marketing at Cal Poly. Morgan said a career in human resources just kind of fell in her lap, and she’s glad it did.

“I have grown to love human resources, just the act of helping others and really providing, I feel like, a service to our organization, and so that’s why I’ve stuck with it,” she said.

Morgan said she also loves the area, which is perfect for her family. Whether they are on their own farm, riding horses, enjoying time in the mountains or on the Columbia River, you will usually find Morgan, her husband, and their children outside.

“We’re big outdoorsy people,” she said.

Despite the large size of AgriNorthwest, Morgan says the HR department has the same general responsibilities as those in other industries.

“We’re still helping the organization and our employees make the most educated decisions that they can based on our human capital,” she said. “I don’t think that it really differs too much. Obviously, we have different challenges that we face within the agriculture industry — labor and automation that we’re looking at — but I wouldn’t say that we’re too far off from any industry outside of agriculture.”

Morgan acknowledges, however, that at AgriNorthwest there’s no such thing as a typical day.

“Every day is different,” she said, “but I think that is something that I really enjoy about this job, that something new is always around the corner for us. … We’re looking forward into the future. That’s part of human resources, being innovative about what our needs are going to look like, so we’re working hand in hand with management to prepare for that, while also making sure that we’re being compliant in the way that we’re operating. Something new gets thrown at us every day, but I think that’s the fun of it.”

Land acquisitions are some of the bigger things thrown at the HR department.

“I would say I’m most proud of supporting the organization through periods of change and supporting those who maybe their positions are changing, putting the right people in the right places,” Morgan said. “I think it’s seeing the fruits of your labor, whatever that may be. That’s important.”

It’s no surprise that Morgan also enjoys giving back to her community.

As a parent-teacher club board member, she takes a special interest in extracurricular activities and making sure a very full education is available.

Morgan is also part of Oregon Women for Agriculture, which she says is about providing additional resources for educational opportunities within the agriculture industry. She said more and more women are becoming part of what was a male-dominated industry in the past.

“Whether that’s through human resources, the finance side, the actual operations side, there’s more interest than ever in the industry, in seeing it more women-focused,” she said, while adding that AgriNorthwest wants to continue diversifying its workforce. “We are committed to reaching those individuals that maybe we didn’t in the past.”

The region and community, as well as the farm, its employees, and the many types of work they do, all make it easy for Morgan to recommend AgriNorthwest to anyone who might be considering applying for a job.

“I would wholeheartedly support you in that decision,” she said. “We have a great culture. It’s about giving back to not only our community, but our employees as well and making sure we have a family-friendly atmosphere that supports the individual and their dreams and aspirations as they continue in their career.”

At a farm as large as AgriNorthwest, there is something for everyone, and that includes those who did not grow up dreaming of one day bringing in the harvest.

Parker Burton is such a person. While he grew up in a rural area and majored in biological and agricultural engineering at the University of Idaho, farming wasn’t in his plans.

But, he was intrigued by an ad for an irrigation engineer at AgriNorthwest. He applied, got the job, and two years later was the Central Functions Manager. Now, his job on the farm is, well, pretty much everything except farming.

“I basically handle everything that is nonfarming or irrigation on the farm,” Parker said.

As a Central Functions Manager II at AgriNorthwest’s Plymouth, Washington, farm, Parker manages the shop and all the mechanics in it, as well as the parts room. Then there’s the building maintenance and road maintenance, and most of the hauling for the farm.

“Hauling fertilizer is our big thing,” Parker said. “Fertilizer and seed. At harvest, we don’t really haul the product but everything else.”

Parker orders all the fuel on the farm and makes sure fuel sites are up to U.S. Department of Energy compliance standards. There are also asset management and equipment auctions.

“Just stuff that doesn’t fit into the farming world, but that’s important and needs to get done,” he said. “We’re trying to keep the farmers in the field, so they can focus on growing a good crop for the company.”

Parker said he has a general plan for each day, things that are a priority and need to get done. There are, however, lots of spur-of-the-moment issues. And throughout the year his role changes.

“When harvest hits, I don’t give myself very many tasks for the day,” he said. “The task is to survive, get whatever resource that breaks down up and running.”

Parker said there are quite a few more meetings in the winter than in the growing season because the guys aren’t out in the field.

“It is nice coming to work and not really knowing what’s going to go on,” Parker said. “It’s kind of a healthy mix. My job, I do have paperwork and do sit on a desk, but I am out driving around checking on projects, troubleshooting things. It’s a pretty healthy balance, I think.”

Parker’s biggest love for things on the farm is identifying and fixing problems.

“For example, how wet our winter is,” he said, “directly affects my ability to haul fertilizer because my guys can fix the road or haul fertilizer, but we can’t do both. You’re managing problems and you’re managing resources and finding that perfect combination where you’re not wasteful with your resources, but you’re getting the job that’s needed done.”

During his time at AgriNorthwest, Parker has seen many things that make the farm special: the property size, the benefits, the retirement plan, and the culture of kindness that exists there. Parker also pointed out that AgriNorthwest is willing to invest in people with low experience if their drive is high. Those who put in the effort, he said, can move up the ladder.

“If you’re willing to work at it you can do well,” he said. “My two Central Functions Managers below me in Plymouth, they started as seasonal fuel truck drivers. Now they’re salaried managers, and that’s pretty neat. They didn’t know anything when they started, but they knew how to work hard and communicate well, and they’re good people.”

Based on all of this and his own history, it’s not surprising that Parker encourages people to seek work at AgriNorthwest.

“I think some people are intimidated that it’s a farm, and if they didn’t grow up on a farm, then they think they can’t do it,” he said. “And that’s simply not true. We’re willing to teach people. We just want good, quality, hard-working people. If you fit the bill, you can succeed.”

Back when Miguel Lombera began as a seasonal worker at AgriNorthwest, there was no way he could have imagined he would one day be in management. There was, however, a path for him on the farm in the Columbia River Basin, where he found teachers, motivators, and opportunities. It was the perfect combination for Miguel, who has always enjoyed working and learning.

Miguel started at the bottom and rose through the ranks to become one of AgriNorthwest’s Farm Unit Managers, which means being responsible for about 5,000 acres.

“I was hungry to learn everything, and I still am,” Miguel said. “My managers were always pushing me to do the next thing, always talking, not just as managers but as friends: ‘Yeah, you should try that, yeah, you should do that, yeah, go ahead, I think you can do it.’

“They are always going to push you, always going to say, ‘Let’s try it.’ They’ll always give you a chance.”
Miguel started as a vine puller during potato harvest. “You go on top of the machine and pull all the vines, weeds, whatever you can find in there,” he said.

That led to a job helping a manager prepare for winter, followed by a year and a half of being a seasonal night worker. Next was a move back to day shifts and a year spent as the “bird man,” going around checking nozzles and making sure the water was flowing well on the circles.

Miguel then became a full-time employee, first as an operator and then as a utility tech. During this time, he had the opportunity to drive tractors, plant wheat, apply fertilizer and chemicals, start the waters, do tillage work, manage people, and more.

After about five years as a utility tech, he was promoted to Farm Unit Manager.
“I gained my position through the grace of God,” Miguel said. “And experience, trying to do the extra, the extra, the extra. Trying to learn as much as I could.”
Now, it’s Miguel trying to help others grow.

“I have one thing that I tell my workers,” Miguel said. “I’ll say, ‘Usually there is no unteachable person. Everyone can learn. If I can do it, you can do it. If they can do it, we can do it.’ That’s the mindset I put into my workers, so they can start thinking they can do things themselves. We don’t need experts; we just need people motivated.”

Miguel, who enjoys spending time with his family and woodworking, said that if he has any expertise, it’s in managing people. “I approach it like I wanted to be approached when I wasn’t in management,” he said. “You have to understand that once people get happy, they work better.”

One way to have happy workers is to listen to them, and Miguel makes it a priority to ask the operators, mechanics, and others on his crew what they need. “One thing I always tell them, and that I think should be standard, is ‘(My) job is to make sure you have everything you need to do your job,’ and that’s what has made me successful.”

Asked what he would tell someone who was considering applying for a job at AgriNorthwest, Miguel is quick to say, “Go ahead. The opportunity to grow is amazing. Even if you’re not thinking of being a manager, if you start as a seasonal, you have the opportunity to grow, to go up higher in your positions.”
Miguel has proved that with his journey at AgriNorthwest.

Ask Matt John, and he’ll tell you that being bigger is part of what makes AgriNorthwest better. Matt, a Farm Unit Manager at AgriNorthwest’s Boardman, Oregon, farm, grew up on a family farm and worked on farms while he went to high school and Arizona State University. But, the size and scale of AgriNorthwest make it something special.

“Last harvest, our general manager had a group of farmers from New Zealand and Australia come here just to see the operation,” he said. “So, if they have to travel that far just to see something, then that’s scale. The big (farming) equipment you see that they build, well this is where they’ll use it. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Matt went through what AgriNorthwest now calls its Manager Trainee program. It generally lasts one to three years, depending on the individual, but Matt was able to move into the Farm Unit Manager position in just under a year.
“It provides you with some critical skills to be successful as a Farm Unit Manager, kind of understanding the fundamentals of how the company operates,” Matt said. “A company this size operates a little differently than your mom-and-pop farm or a typical family-owned operation. That training program provides you with a general understanding of how we can operate and be successful at this size, this scale.”
Each Farm Unit Manager has a unit, which is basically a geographical area. That area consists of about 5,000 acres.

“You oversee everything that happens in that area, the irrigation, the fertilizing, maintenance, just everything that you can think of that has to do with farming,” Matt said. “You do have support staff, like an irrigation department, HR department, accountants, a lot of support staff that helps you, but you’re basically the agronomist for all the crops, calling the shots on fertilizer, water, planting dates, harvest.
“On top of that, because of our scale, we get to utilize it where I don’t have to do certain critical functions, like another farm next door might have to do,” he added. “Like tillage, there’s another manager that takes care of all the tillage, and he will take care of the tillage in my area. Once it gets to my area, I have to ensure that everything’s done properly, it’s done the way that I want it to be done.”
For his part, Matt receives and cuts all the seed potatoes and does the prep for all the potato planting.

“I also harvest all of the potatoes that are going to our storage facility,” Matt said. “I don’t only do that for my farm; I do that for the other five units that are on Boardman. At that same time, they make sure everything looks up to their standards, that I’m taking care of their crop the way they want me to.”
Matt said he likes the fact that the work and responsibility are shared.

“It allows me to become an expert in that one field more so than any other,” he said. “But at the same time, there’s somebody else coming in and harvesting my corn or spreading my fertilizer or doing those other critical functions. It relieves some of the workload so we can focus on that one project and really be excellent, perfect at it.”

Even with his focus on potatoes, Matt said, there’s always lots of new things going on: “That’s kind of why I like it. It’s not like an assembly line, right? There’s a lot of new stuff that happens.”
For sure, though, there are daily duties. Each day Matt checks in with the supervisor of his irrigation crew to make sure all is going according to schedule when it comes to his water, fertilizer, and chemical applications. And, he checks with his field mechanic daily to make sure everything is OK with the crew that keeps the seed cutting, harvest, and storage equipment in top shape. Matt will also be checking fields, moisture, crop stages, and plant health.

“Other than that, you just take what comes at you,” Matt said.
And as the days have turned into years, Matt is able to reflect on his personal success and the success of AgriNorthwest,

“Becoming a Farm Unit Manager was big,” he said. “Over the years we’ve done pretty well. We’ve had some really good yield, some really good quality products. We’ve had some really happy customers. I think that’s big.”

When Colter Poole was in college, he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do for a living. While trying to figure it out, he discovered he had a passion for potatoes. That passion made him an attractive target for the recruiters at AgriNorthwest, and it has since made him a successful Farm Unit Manager.

“I love the variety,” Colter said of working at the large farm in the Columbia River Basin. “Every day you’re outside, you’re doing something new, you’re working with your hands. You get to learn things at a rapid pace, which sometimes can be stressful, but when you start to get things, and you start to understand things, and you accomplish more, it’s an awesome feeling. It’s gratifying.”

Colter, always a quick learner, has accomplished a lot in a short amount of time at AgriNorthwest.

“Initially, they start you as a manager trainee, and they told me three years is what they want you to spend in that position to learn everything,” Colter said. “I was one of the exceptions – I mean, there’s been plenty of exceptions in the past – I got eight months and then they put me in the Farm Unit Manager position. It’s not unheard of, and I think it was a combination of things, but it’s just how it worked out.”

Colter, as one of four Farm Unit Managers at AgriNorthwest’s Eureka farm, is in charge of a crew of six and about 4,200 acres, where the primary crops are potatoes, corn, and wheat. Colter is responsible for all dry fertilizer spreading across the entire Eureka farm, as well as corn cultivation and the harvest of all potatoes that stay on the farm.

In his first year as a Farm Unit Manager, Colter’s potato yields and margins were the highest across the farm. “Potato harvest is very stressful for anyone in that situation, new or not, and we had a successful harvest,” he said. “We were able to accomplish it before our allotted time, and we were able to do so without any major accidents, which I think is super important.”

Unlike those who always knew exactly what they wanted to do in life, Colter’s path was filled with twists and turns. Usually, however, potatoes were part of the journey.

Colter started as an exercise physiology major at BYU-Idaho.

“Agriculture wasn’t really on the radar,” he said. “But, while I was going to school, I was working at a potato packaging facility in Rigby, Idaho. I got different opportunities with them until the point I was kind of a liaison between the plant and the farm, and so I’d see a lot of different facets of agriculture.”

He soon realized he wasn’t excited about studying physiology.

 “We were about to have our first son, my wife was in the nursing program there, and she was getting into the harder portion of her classes,” Colter said. “So, I said I don’t know what I want to do, I don’t know what I want to study, I’m just going to take a break, just work while she’s going to school.”

For about two years he worked for the Idaho State Department of Agriculture, an experience that taught Colter he really liked working with potatoes. Colter switched to an agribusiness major when he returned to school, figuring it would allow the most opportunities.

Then, an internship with one of the world’s largest processors of frozen potatoes (and, coincidentally, AgriNorthwest’s largest customer) showed Colter that he wanted to be in production agriculture and that he was passionate about staying with potatoes.

A general manager and an area manager from AgriNorthwest visited one of Colter’s classes at BYU-Idaho and left an impression. Upon graduating, Colter applied for a job. After a telephone interview, he received an invitation for a panel interview in Washington.

“I felt I bombed that interview,” Colter said. “And, come to find out, two days later they called and offered the position. And it felt right at the time, I don’t know why. But, having worked in the organization, I can understand now. It’s a great place to work. It’s been a lot of fun. There are times when you feel like you’re drinking from a firehose, but there’s no other organization that I know of that allows the same opportunities that we get here to learn such a broad view of agriculture.”