Bend Bulletin: Tiny crop, mighty impact: Central Oregon carrot seed helps feed the world
MADRAS — Carrot seeds grown near this small town are tiny but add up to create a mighty impact around the world.
Jefferson County harvests roughly half the global supply of hybrid carrot seed, which could produce enough carrots to feed 1.1 billion people every year — more than triple the U.S. population.
“I can say with a pretty high degree of confidence that you’ve eaten a carrot where the seed originated from my farm or maybe my neighbor’s,” said Kevin Richards of RB Ag.
Experts said carrot seed from near Madras, population 7,764, is shipped to large production farms across the U.S. and to numerous foreign countries.
“It’s a neat little industry and we’re blessed with where we plant our feet,” said Ken Stout, CEO of Central Oregon Seeds, Inc., which contracts with growers.
Travis Feigner of Feigner Farms said few areas can grow carrot seed with the quality and consistency of Jefferson County.
Carrot agricultural data
The North Unit Irrigation District in Madras supplies water to more than 950 farms and tracks agricultural data.
The organization estimated in a 2024 report that the average annual value of carrot seed production in Jefferson County was $19 million between 2017 and 2021, trailing only grass seed ($38 million) and alfalfa hay ($26 million).
The district’s carrot seed acreage used to hover between 3,500 to 4,500 annually until 2017, then declined, hitting 2,200 acres in 2021.
“That lines up perfectly with the drought in Jefferson County,” Feigner said.
Despite persistent drought, an estimated 1.15 million pounds of carrot seed are grown in Jefferson County every year, according to the district.
Some farmers in nearby Deschutes and Crook counties also grow carrot seed.
The value of expertise
Experts said local production and quality of carrot seed stems partly from soil and climate suitability, but also thanks to the experience of farmers, partners such as Oregon State University, and COSI and other seed contractors.
COSI formed in 1978, when carrot seed was limited in the region, and invested in developing expertise and educating growers.
Now, more than two dozen farmers in the area diversify with the crop through COSI, Stout said. Industry insiders said COSI coordinates what growers plant near Madras and sometimes provide specific instructions for varieties.
“Not every hybrid is treated the same way,” Feigner said. “This is their market and it was built on hard knocks. It takes a lot of years to learn those things,” he said.
Feigner said farmers are natural risk-takers, so there’s a thrill in figuring out carrots, a complex crop that takes dozens or even 100 steps, some of which are difficult and time-consuming.
“Once you do them all, it’s pretty amazing what comes out in the end,” Feigner said.
A great place to grow
Stout said Central Oregon’s High Desert climate, with cooler nighttime temperatures and dry fall conditions, benefits carrots.
Carrots have a low threshold for cross pollination, and in Central Oregon, there are nearly no wild carrots to taint a crop.
Jeremiah Dung, an OSU associate professor at the Central Oregon Agricultural Research and Extension Center, said there isn’t strong pest pressure, and dry western regions limit diseases.
“There’s a whole book on carrot diseases. We’re lucky we don’t have to deal with a lot of them here,” he said.
A new OSU study co-authored by Dung shows the persistent airborne spread of a plant disease called bacterial blight in Central Oregon, which can reduce seed quality and yields.
It was thought that the disease became airborne because of harvest activities, but the paper found bacteria can be airborne throughout the growing season, which can lead to spread.
Findings mean farmers can explore management strategies throughout the year.
A bright spot for ag
Carrot seed is playing a vital role this year as the prices of other Central Oregon commodities, such as grains and grass seed, are extremely low.
“Right now, the carrot seed crop is a bright spot,” Stout said.
Richards, who grows 400 acres of carrot seed, said the crop remains a safer bet in agriculture, but the segment isn’t completely risk-free from weather and water problems.
Tough winters have killed carrot seed crops, resulted in rot or made it difficult to get good growth, Feigner said.
Hot weather also can affect the crop and honeybee hives.
The seed is hybrid — male and female plants rely on pollination — and ensuring flowers are blooming and receptive together can be tricky in years with wild weather.
Carrot seed is planted in the late summer or early fall, and late water curtailments can derail farm plans. Water allotments aren’t determined until the following spring based on snowpack and reservoir fill, so growers can also easily overplant or underplant.
Water efficiency during drought
The stability of carrot seed extends to scarce and expensive water during drought.
“Our costs of production are very high in Central Oregon. We don’t keep any rain and we rely a lot on stored irrigation water,” Richards said.
Alfalfa, the most common crop in the basin, has high water needs while carrot seed requires far less water and has a high commodity value.
During curtailments, growers typically prioritize water for their best returns, so they continue to irrigate carrots, while other acreage could go fallow, experts said.
Focusing water on seed crops instead of grains during extreme drought helped diversified farms generate revenue in ways that forage-only producers couldn’t, Feigner said.
Many farmers rely on drip irrigation for increased water efficiency with carrot seed, but that isn’t a silver bullet for the region, as it can’t be used for many crops, Richards said.
Not easy to enter field
Despite the advantages of diversifying with carrot seed, it isn’t easy to enter the field or scale up, experts said.
Farmers need specialized equipment, growing contracts and isolation.
Plots have to be a mile or more away from other varieties of carrots to avoid cross-pollination.
“You can’t plant fence row to fence row of carrots,” Richards said
After harvest, the ground is taken out of production for carrot seed for five years to ensure no volunteers pop up.
“With a lot of these hybrids, it’s unlikely you’ll grow the same one twice in the same field,” Feigner said.
Carrot seed contributes to more than half of his operation, but it’s also important for crop rotations.
“It’s one of those pieces of the puzzle to raise the quality of other crops,” Feigner said.
Carrot roots become woody and dehydrated when the plant bolts, and growers said those are worked back into the soil and provide nutrients.
The basics of growing carrot seed
Carrot seed is a biennial crop, planted in August or September, more than a year before it will be harvested the following fall.
Farms typically stagger acreage, with new seedlings growing as the previous year’s plantings are swathed, dried in windrows and then threshed.
Feigner said some varieties won’t survive the winter, so they are grown in other areas of the U.S. before being transported to Oregon for transplanting in the spring.
Nearly 50 proprietary varieties of carrot seed are grown every year in Central Oregon. Some are fresh market carrots, while others are for processing.
A handful of carrot shapes have different purposes. Certain varieties with long skinny roots, for example, produce the best “baby” carrots.
Some types have been mainstays for decades, while others are nearly new. Carrot seed yield varies by variety and can be anywhere from 75 to 500 pounds per acre. Each umbel, a collection of flower stalks, can produce hundreds of seeds.
Under the radar
Central Oregon carrot seed farmers are proud of the role they play in feeding the country and the world, though their industry flies under the radar. Experts said the segment’s impact isn’t well known outside of the area.
Feigner said people sometimes forget farmers need seed to raise crops. “That seed has to come from somewhere. People have to grow those seeds,” he said.
Read more at: https://bendbulletin.com/2025/09/12/tiny-crop-mighty-impact-central-oregon-carrot-seed-helps-feed-the-world/
Photo: Ken Stout, CEO of Central Oregon Seed, and Jeremiah Dung, an Oregon State University researcher, stand in a Feigner Farms carrot seed field north of Madras on Aug. 13. Dung estimated that Central Oregon growers produce 40-60% of the world’s carrot seed, depending on the year. (Kyle Odegard/Capital Press)
