Bryan Ostlund and his wife and business partner, Lisa Ostlund, have announced they are retiring after more than 35 years of administering Oregon commodity commissions and agricultural associations under the umbrella of their Salem-based company, Pioneer National Advertising.

During their tenure, the Ostlunds have expanded sales opportunities for Oregon growers by working to open foreign markets for fresh blueberries. They have expanded domestic markets for grass seed by helping promote the use of annual ryegrass as a cover crop in the Midwest. They brought on Steve Salisbury as the grass seed industry’s research and regulatory coordinator to advance research for seed growers. And they have built close working relationships with Oregon State University and the Oregon Department of Agriculture, relationships that have provided significant benefits in research and promotions for the many Oregon growers and processors that the Ostlunds serve.

But, Bryan Ostlund said, he and Lisa are most proud of the little things.

“It’s just hanging in there,” he said. “Sometimes it’s not necessarily the highlights. It’s just that you don’t drop the ball on things that you are responsible for maintaining. It’s maintaining registration in the EU for Highland Bentgrass, a small issue in the overall scheme of things, but an important issue to some growers. It’s always running a clean office, always getting perfect audit reports.

“People gave us their trust, and, to my knowledge, we have not let them down, and that’s important,” he said.

Kent Burkholder, who has served on several seed commissions and is on the Oregon Tall Fescue Commission, said the industry greatly appreciates all the Ostlunds have done for them and will miss their professionalism and expertise.

“We’ve been spoiled by the level of professionalism the Ostlunds provide our commissions, and I’m afraid we don’t even know it,” Burkholder said. “In my experiences, the commissions have never run smoother than since the Ostlunds have been around.”

David Brazelton, chairman emeritus of Fall Creek Farm and Nursery, who served multiple years on the Oregon Blueberry Commission, including as its chairman, also said the Ostlund’s will be greatly missed.

“Since they started working with the Oregon Blueberry Commission in 1996, Bryan and Lisa and their company, Pioneer National Advertising, have brought valuable professionalism to the benefit of blueberry growers throughout Oregon,” Brazelton said. “Their tremendous knowledge in how to administer an organization that is tasked with advancing growers’ interests made the OBC a model for state commodity commissions.

“Their retirement is well deserved, but they will be greatly missed,” Brazelton said.

The Ostlunds, who have set a retirement date of Sept. 1, serve as administrators of the Oregon Tall Fescue Commission, the Oregon Ryegrass Growers Seed Commission, the Oregon Fine Fescue Commission, the Oregon Clover Commission, the Oregon Mint Commission and the Oregon Blueberry Commission.

In addition, their office serves as the administrator of the Oregon Seed League, the Oregon Essential Oil Growers League, the Oregon Seed Research Institute and the Mint Industry Research Council, a national organization that funds research for the U.S. mint industry.

When the Ostlunds launched their operation in 1989 by taking over a business formerly owned by Wally and Donna Hunter, they started as administrators of only two commissions, the Oregon Highland Bentgrass Commission, which has since rolled its assessment authority into the Oregon Fine Fescue Commission, and the Oregon Ryegrass Commission. The business at the time also included political campaigning. The Ostlunds soon, however, decided that politics wasn’t their cup of tea and began focusing on agriculture.

“Politics just wasn’t for us, and we really enjoyed agriculture,” Ostlund said. “And then you start to develop a reputation and attrition happens, people retire, and people started contacting us, and so it just became a specialty for us.”

Their business grew from four full-time employees to the six that work out of their office today. The Ostlunds also work with several outside contractors.

As the couple prepares to retire, Ostlund said he hopes to create a soft landing for the commissions and the employees that work under the couple.

Ostlund said it wasn’t any one thing pushing the couple to retire but just the fact that they both will be turning 65 this summer and that they felt the time was right to pass the baton to the next generation.

“We just felt like it was the responsible thing to do, to facilitate this transition while we can,” he said. “And that is really in the interest of our clients and our employees.

“Right now my relationship with Oregon State University has never been better,” he said. “We’ve never seen so many research proposals come in to the commissions. We have a great relations with (College of Agricultural Sciences Dean) Staci Simonich and Shawn Donkin, the associate dean of research. It’s all very positive right now and that’s a good position to be in when you’re hitting the exit.

“It’s been a great career, working with a lot of great people, but times marches on,” he said.