Scott Seus is a diversified specialty crop farmer in Tulelake, California. Scott, his wife Sara and their three children are the third generation to maintain the legacy started by his grandfather Ed Seus, who homesteaded in the Klamath Basin following World War II. Seus Family Farms prides themselves in growing high quality horseradish, peppermint and spearmint for tea leaf, onions, garlic, alfalfa and cereal grains. A portion of all the crops are grown for organic as well as conventional markets. In 2014, Scott purchased Butler Machine which serves the farm community with parts, service, fabrication and quality machine work. Butler Machine and Seus Family Farms are complimentary to one another, bringing practical farm experience to advise the machinists and fabricators working in Butler.
Scott graduated from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. Cal Poly and the friendships he forged gave Scott opportunities to travel to different farming areas, learn about the different crops and soils of California.
I’m blessed to have so many diverse experiences and friendships that have given me an understanding of different cropping systems. That baseline helps me to catch on quick to what other growers are dealing with on their farms across the west.
Barriers to growing organic crops in the short production season of Northern California and Southern Oregon include limited weed control opportunities, the cost of labor, and crops which don’t offer the same margins as other higher value crops grown in warmer climates that can justify costly, technical machines like laser weeders.
That means we must use tools that are affordable, cover large acreages quickly, and aren’t subject to costly downtime caused by issues requiring a technician to fix. Treffler checked all those boxes for us. Large enough to cover acres quickly, quality craftsmanship that doesn’t break down when we need it, simple enough my youngest daughter can run it, gentle enough it doesn’t slow our emerging crops or damage our crops approaching harvest, and effective enough we can clean up fields and keep our labor costs low. This works for us in all our crops, starting with fall planted organic garlic, organic grain fields, aggressive harrowing of both organic and conventional alfalfa, and keeping our early season and mid-season mint crops clean. We run a 40’ and a 60’ machine and walk our certilock irrigation systems over the well-built frames, taking care of weeds across the entire field with no voids. When we aren’t taking care of weeds, we use it to seed alfalfa, incorporate shallow fertilizer and chemicals (on conventional production) and at times dry out wet spring soils for planting. Treffler’s are physically light compared to other equipment, yet engineered to handle large working widths, reducing compaction and adding affordable efficiencies.