Parched spring worsens drought
As of July 20, commissioners in 3 counties requested drought relief
BY JAYSON JACOBY | BAKER CITY HERALD
BY ISABELLA CROWLEY | LA GRANDE OBSERVER
BY BILL BRADSHAW | WALLOWA COUNTY CHIEFTAIN
The rain finally came, a holiday surprise on the Fourth of July, but the dousing didn’t come close to making up for a parched spring.
“It didn’t do much but settle the dust for a few hours,” said Mike Widman, a longtime Baker County cattle rancher. And that was in Baker County, which bore the brunt of the Independence Day tempest.
The Baker City Airport measured 0.39 of an inch, making it the wettest day in five months.
Elsewhere in Northeastern Oregon, though, little or no rain fell.
The Eastern Oregon Regional Airport in Pendleton, for instance, recorded just a trace.
So did Hermiston.
July isn’t known for being soggy, to be sure. It’s the driest month, on average, in most of the region.
But the scarcity of rain during July continued, rather than started, a trend.
With rainfall well below average since the start of April, the drought has progressed in severity.
As recently as May 6, no part of Northeastern Oregon was in drought or even rated as abnormally dry, the designation that presages the four categories of drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
But the map looks quite different now.
Most of the region is in severe drought, the second rung on the four-step ladder — moderate, severe, extreme and exceptional.
As of July 15, all of Union County, 86% of Umatilla County, 56% of Baker County and 35% of Morrow County was in severe drought.
In Wallowa County, 18% was in extreme drought — the only part of the region that had reached that level — and 74% of the county was in severe drought.
Elected commissioners in Baker, Union and Wallowa counties have approved local drought declarations asking Gov. Tina Kotek to declare a drought emergency within their borders.
Baker County commissioners made the first request, on June 18, and the governor declared a drought emergency in the county on July 11.
The governor’s executive order allows the Oregon Water Resources Department to authorize emergency measures, if needed, including temporary permits for landowners to
use groundwater to alleviate the drought.
The order also makes the county eligible for federal drought aid.
Both Union County and Wallowa County commissioners made their request July 16.
“From a general precipitation standpoint, for the last three months we’re well below 50% of normal precipitation,” said Nick Vora, Union County’s emergency manager. “The forecast for drought for Oregon and the Pacific Northwest, which was released on July 11, is forecast for drought conditions to persist or worsen with below normal precipitation and above normal temperatures forecast for the next three months.”
Union County Commissioner Paul Anderes said a few producers had already spoken to him about the dry growing season and drought conditions.
“If we approve it, it sets them up for lower interest on some of their loans,” he said. “And considering commodity prices right now for most commodities, I think that’s going to help our producers out.”
Wallowa County Commissioner John Hillock said some ranchers in the northern end of the county anticipate having to bring water to their livestock as springs and streams peter out.
The governor’s executive order allows the Oregon Water Resources Department to authorize emergency measures, if needed, including temporary permits for landowners to use groundwater to alleviate the drought.
Clouds looming over the Elkhorn Mountains west of Baker Valley on July 20, 2025, presaged a storm that brought significant rain to Baker County and other parts of Northeastern Oregon the next day.
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
U.S. Drought Monitor
As of July 15, most of Northeastern Oregon was in severe or moderate drought.
Abnormally dry spring
This was the driest spring on record at the Baker City Airport, where statistics date to 1944.
Total precipitation from March 1 through June 30 was 1.39 inches — 33% of average for the four-month period.
At the Eastern Oregon Regional Airport, rainfall for the four months totaled 1.97 inches. That’s 46% of average.
Widman, who has been raising cattle in Baker County for about half a century, said the drought has severely cut the amount of forage on his summer grazing pastures on Little Lookout Mountain, east of Baker City. Widman said he will have to move his cattle back to his land in Baker Valley at least a month earlier than usual.
That forced him to rush to cut and bale hale on the valley land and start irrigating the property so there will be grass for cattle when they arrive.
Unusual storm brings minor relief
When rain falls in the region in July it’s usually accompanied by thunder and lightning, but that wasn’t the case with a storm that swept through on July 21.
A Pacific storm more typical of late winter or early spring brought widespread rain that, while welcome, was hardly enough to curb the drought.
The July 21 downpour did surpass the July 4 storm both in its geographic scope
and in its sogginess.
The Baker City Airport, for instance, recorded 0.50 of an inch, breaking the rainfall record for July 21 and equalling the average rainfall for the entire month.
The La Grande/Union County Airport and the Joseph Airport in Wallowa County each measured about one-third of an inch, the Grant County Regional Airport near John Day was pelted with almost three quarters of an inch.
As with the July 4 storm, though, Umatilla and Morrow counties were comparatively dry.
The Eastern Oregon Regional Airport recorded 0.04 of an inch, and the Hermiston Airport 0.12.
Curtis Martin, a Baker County cattle rancher, said the pair of July rainstorms were “really beneficial,” although he said the drought will continue.
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Martin, who also owns several thousand acres of rangeland in northern Malheur County that burned in the 138,000-acre Cow Valley Fire in July 2024, said he’s pleased by the recovery of the native bunchgrass on his property, something he attributes largely to a relatively damp fall and winter.
He said he was also lucky.
A small but potent thunderstorm on June 10 doused much of his burned ground, and other adjacent rangeland, with what Martin estimates was at least half an inch of rain.
He said grass wouldn’t be as healthy now if not for that dose of moisture.
Power THE OF COMMUNITY
Carrying forward a family farming tradition
Matt Ward of Baker City mixes determination, technology to play an integral role in his family’s operation despite spina bifida
BY JAYSON JACOBY | BAKER CITY HERALD
BAKER CITY — Matt Ward’s climb from his pickup truck to the tractor’s cab is a trifle unconventional — a remote control is involved in the ascent — but once seated he’s prepared to take on the typical tasks of the farmer in the customary way.
The same tasks his father and his grandfather and his great-grandfather have plied in the rich soils of the grand valleys that lie between the Elkhorn Mountains and the Wallowas.
Plucking weeds.
Smoothing the fields so they’re ready to take seed.
Hoping the showers, never entirely reliable in this arid land of rain shadows, will come when the wheat can best make use of the moisture.
The hours can be lonely, Ward concedes, piloting the John Deere across these empty acres near the base of Ladd Canyon, several miles north of North Powder.
“I like the seclusion, but there are days when I wish I could farm in town,” he said.
There are distractions, to be sure.
An occasional antelope sprints past with its smooth effortless gait.
Hawks soar across the sprawling sky, riding the thermals.
And when wildlife are absent, there are manmade alternatives.
Ward gestures to Interstate 84, less than a mile to the west.
“There’s the freeway traffic to keep me awake,” he says with a smile. “I like to watch Oregon State Police pull people over. That’s my entertainment.”
Then there’s this tractor. It’s an altogether different machine from the ones his grandfather, Ralph Ward, drove.
(To say nothing of his great-grandfather, Clyde Ward, who relied on literal horsepower rather than the petroleumfueled sort.)
He points to the AM/FM radio perched above the airconditioning controls.
And of course he has his cellphone.
“I call people — or they call me,” Ward says.
But the tractor’s heated and cooled cab, its stereo speakers, aren’t the things that distinguish it.
Ward can run this powerful machine, dragging all sorts of implements behind its four head-high rear tires, by using only his two hands.
As, indeed, he must.
Ward, 30, was born with spina bifida.
A hydraulic lift enables Matt Ward to go from his pickup truck seat to a tractor.
— Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
His legs can’t support him.
Although he can move his left leg slightly, something he demonstrates and then immediately apologizes for after his cowboy boot grazes a visitor’s leg who sits beside him in the cab.
“Sorry for kicking you,” Ward says.
This tractor, which came equipped with hand controls, has done much more than make it possible for Ward to look after these 450 acres that grow dryland winter wheat, the part of his family’s operation farthest from their headquarters in Baker City, 25 miles or so to the south.
This machine, and others like it, have helped transform Ward from a member of the fourth generation of his family to farm in Baker and Union counties, to something else, something to him infinitely more meaningful.
It helped make him a farmer.
“I would say my confidence level has gone up significantly in the past 10 years,” Ward said. “My dad has put a lot of trust in me. This has been my domain.”
Dad is Mark Ward. Mark and his brother, Craig, oversee the operation that their grandparents, Clyde and Leonora Ward, started in the early 20th century and that was continued by Clyde and Leonora’s children, Ralph, Alvin and Charlotte. Mark and Craig are the sons of Ralph and Alice Ward.
“This is the first tractor I could drive myself,” he said.
In addition to the hand controls, the tractor has an infinitely variable transmission — a type of automatic transmission that allows the driver to change speeds without pushing in a clutch pedal.
Ward said he can drive other tractors by using rods connected to foot pedals.
“But this is a lot better,” he said.
The tractor is only part of the equation, though.
Ward has to get to the cab, which is nearly as far off the ground as a basketball hoop.
“And I do not like heights,” he says with a smile.
The solution is bolted to the flatbed on Ward’s Ford F250 pickup truck.
The apparatus resembles something a movie crew might use to film a scene requiring an elevated vantage point.
It consists of a hydraulic arm that can move in any direction. Affixed to its end is a shiny steel seat that looks as though it would be as slippery as a cookie sheet.
“I would say my confidence level has gone up significantly in the past 10 years.”
— Matt Ward
(Both Ralph and Alice died in 2023.)
Ward Ranches — the family raised cattle for decades but now focuses on field crops — raises wheat, peppermint, potatoes, alfalfa and field corn.
Matt Ward said he always figured he would be a farmer.
But as he grew up, watching the seasonal sequence of plowing, seeding, irrigating, harvesting, he wondered what his role would be.
“It was definitely frustrating that I couldn’t operate the equipment,” he said. “Growing up it was a struggle. I couldn’t get in a tractor and do a field for my dad.”
But for the past decade or so, Ward has thrived.
Newer tractors, including the John Deere model 7980 he sits in on a hot, sunny morning in early July, are equipped with hand controls.
And, on this nearly cloudless summer day, almost as hot.
“It’s been hot enough that I’ve felt it through the seat of my pants,” said Ward, who is clad in denim overalls and a checkered western shirt.
This seat — equipped with waist and chest belts, both of which Ward eschews — is his ride from pickup to tractor.
He manipulates the seat by pressing buttons on a remote control attached to a lanyard around his neck.
Ward deftly maneuvers the seat until it’s about level with the pickup’s driver’s seat. He boosts himself onto the metal platform and, with the quick and precise movements of a dedicated video game player holding a controller, he elevates himself to the tractor’s door.
He clambers onto the air-cushioned seat inside the cab with a carefree ease that betrays long practice.
Ward is ready to spend the next eight hours or so in the field, which fades in the distance to a shimmering mirage as the temperature rises into the 80s.
That’s not a task for today, however.
This field is fallow, on a yearly rotation
with another nearby field where wheat is ripening toward harvest in late July or early August.
Ward said his main task this summer is to run the rod weeder through the field occasionally, preparing the ground for seeding this fall.
It takes four days or so to get through the whole of the 450 acres.
And although Ward relishes his autonomy, he also understands the vagaries of farming.
“As much as there are bad days, there are good days,” he said. “I just take the position that you’ll get through it.”
His favorite crop is peppermint.
The Wards’ fields near Baker City sweeten
the air with the astringent scent of mint each August, the aroma especially pungent when the distiller is running, concentrating the oil from the harvested plants.
The timing of the harvest, during the dog days of summer, isn’t ideal, Ward admits.
“Harvest time is hot,” he said.
But as with all the jobs that a farmer confronts, it has to be done, come scorching heat or drenching downpours.
And Ward, aided by technology but driven mostly by his own ambition, is happy to have the chance to carry on the tradition that in his family is well into its second century.
“Knowing that I get something done, and that I feel confident about doing it.”
Matt Ward sits in a tractor on his family’s property north of North Powder. Matt can use a wooden stick to engage the brake on this tractor, but the machine also is equipped with hand controls. — Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
From Baker to Texas — and back
Kylie Siddoway, who grew up on a cattle ranch in Baker County, used her degree from Texas A&M to start her career in marketing for a cattle feed supplement company
BY JAYSON JACOBY | BAKER CITY HERALD
BAKER CITY — Kylie Siddoway grew up on a Baker County ranch more than 20 miles from a stoplight so naturally she chose to study at a university with more students than her high school.
About 150 times more.
Siddoway didn’t settle on Texas A&M University, with an enrollment of 75,000, until she was more than halfway through her four years at Baker High School, where about 500 students study.
Actually, she didn’t even consider the campus in College Station, Texas, until she had walked its tree-lined sidewalks and toured some of its mission-style buildings.
She was a junior at BHS and active in the school’s Future Farmers of America chapter.
Siddoway, whose parents, Bert and Terri Siddoway, own a cattle ranch in the Durkee Valley about 25 miles southeast of Baker City, was invited to job shadow Wes Klett, COO and CFO for Anipro Xtraformance Nutrition, which sells nutritional supplements for cattle.
The trip included a private tour of campus from Klett, himself a Texas A&M alumnus.
“I really got to see how incredible the campus is,” said Siddoway, a 2021 Baker High School graduate.
Her introduction to “Aggieland” — Aggies is the school’s mascot — was a life-changing experience.
Five years later, Siddoway, 22, has a bachelor’s degree in agriculture leadership and development, with a minor in marketing, from Texas A&M.
She earned the degree in a little more than three years by taking summer classes — online courses for her business minor — when she was home in Durkee.
“I just like to be busy,” Siddoway said with a chuckle.
Besides which, she didn’t relish spending summers sweating in southeast Texas, where tropical-level humidity is so different from dry Eastern Oregon (College Station is about 90 miles northwest of Houston).
“Texas heat was too much for me,” she said.
After earning her degree in August 2024, Siddoway enrolled in an online master’s degree program at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington.
Siddoway accomplished that with her customary efficiency, achieving her master’s in marketing research and analytics, in May 2025.
Throughout her college years, she stayed with Anipro, which has customers in 37 states, including Oregon.
Siddoway worked as an intern for Anipro most of her time studying at Texas A&M, starting in her second semester.
And now she works full-time for the company as a marketing specialist, helping clients both in Oregon and across the nation.
During an interview on July 15, Siddoway was preparing to leave the next day for a work trip to Alabama.
Rodeo leads to a college visit
It was in one sense a natural progression for Siddoway — her parents are longtime Anipro customers.
But she also can credit her own skill riding a horse with forging the connection with Anipro.
She met Klett when she was a sophomore in high school. He awarded her an Anipro belt buckle when she won the cutting competition at the Oregon state high school rodeo finals (a feat she repeated as a senior).
That meeting led to Siddoway’s first visit to Texas A&M and, ultimately, to her current job.
She believes her background, growing up immersed in the life of a rural cattle ranching family, affords her a perspective that not only helps her relate to her clients, but also to market Anipro’s products to ranchers nationwide.
“I have the same perspective as our clientele,” Siddoway said. “I know how to appeal to ranchers in an ad.”
The job also allows Siddoway to exercise her creativity.
“I’ve always really enjoyed English and writing, and marketing is about telling a story,” she said. “There are so many great narratives that need to be told in agriculture. I hope I can expose those stories to people outside the industry so they can see the ag that I know. I like to tell people what it’s like to live on a ranch.”
Kylie Siddoway manages her herd of about 50 head of Wagyu cattle on her family’s ranch in Baker County. — Sage and Spur Photography
Kylie Siddoway, a 2021 Baker High School graduate, returned to Baker County after earning her bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University and her master’s degree from Pacific Lutheran University. She works in marketing for a company that sells cattle feed supplements. — Sage and Spur Photography
Back to Baker County
Although Siddoway enjoyed her years as a student in College Station, she said she realized, relatively soon after starting college, that she wanted to return to the rural county where she grew up.
“My time in Texas gave me such an appreciation for Baker County,” Siddoway said. “It’s just such a beautiful place. The ag community here is so close-knit and supporting. I always knew I wanted to come back home eventually.”
The flexibility that her job with Anipro offers was a “huge factor” in her decision to take the position.
Siddoway not only works with ranchers — she is one.
2024 after earning her bachelor’s degree, Siddoway has strived to strengthen her ties to the community.
“This county was so great to me when I was a kid, and I want to give back,” she said.
Siddoway has rejoined the Baker County Cattlewomen, serving as co-chair of the education committee.
Her family has been a fixture at the Baker County Fair for many years.
Siddoway appreciates the opportunities her job gives her — to travel, to meet people who can relate to her background, and she to theirs.
“It’s just the best place to live. It’s where I hope to be forever.”
— Kylie Siddoway, who grew up on her family’s cattle ranch near Durkee, in Baker County
She has a herd of about 50 head of Wagyu cattle pastured on her family’s land in the Baker Valley.
Siddoway also helps her parents with their operation based in Durkee, which includes about 200 head of Wagyu cattle as well as a commercial cattle herd.
Since she returned to Baker County in
But always she anticipates coming home, to the familiar green pastures of Durkee Valley, the sparkling of sunlight off the Burnt River, the distinctive pyramid of Lookout Mountain, its colors shifting with the seasons, from winter white to spring green to the tan of summer and fall.
“It’s just the best place to live,” Siddoway said. “It’s where I hope to be forever.”
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“Proudly serving and investing in the future of our communities”
Jake Lindsay devoted to his land and community
Amid drought and market challenges, the Morrow County farmer embraces the hard work that keeps alive a family operation dating to the 1850s
BY YASSER MARTE | EAST OREGONIAN
MORROW COUNTY — As the harvest season ramps up, Jake Lindsay powers his combine harvester through a sea of golden wheat, blades tearing through the tall straws while grain steadily fills the tank.
Lindsay, a wheat farmer and president of the Oregon Wheat Growers League in Morrow County, worked his field July 21 in Heppner. Warm, muggy air stirred the hard red winter wheat as scattered raindrops fell from a gray sky.
“We don’t really hope for summer rain,” he said. “It can set us back a day. We didn’t get quite enough to shut us down this time — the wheat dried out over Sunday — but summer rain is tough, especially for alfalfa farmers or anyone with a row crop on the ground. It can hurt your return and lower quality. Still you’re never really going to complain about rain. We need it.”
Drought during the fall, winter or spring can affect how the wheat crop develops later on, he said.
“This year, the average yield is a little above average for our county,” Lindsay said. “But what I’m seeing in terms of quality is that the grain is very shriveled and on the lighter side.”
Most farmers in the area, he added, are seeing the same issue — they’re not getting the test weight they’d prefer.
“A full truckload, which last year would’ve been about 62,000 pounds, is coming in closer to 55,000 to 57,000 pounds,” Lindsay said. “That means each bushel is coming in two to three pounds under what it should be and that’s due to drought conditions.”
Once the grain reaches the silo elevator, it undergoes a quality check. If it doesn’t meet certain standards, farmers get less money for their crop.
“They won’t necessarily take it off the price directly, but they calculate value based on what an average bushel should weigh,” Lindsay said. “So if your grain is lighter, you’re just not getting as much value per load.”
Protein content is another critical factor that can affect price. Each wheat variety has an industry standard for
protein levels. For soft white wheat, elevators typically want protein around 13%. For hard red winter wheat, the target is closer to 11–11.5%.
“We’re struggling to hit protein targets,” Lindsay said. “If you’re under or too far over the desired protein level, they’ll dock you for that as well.”
Although drought remains the top concern, Lindsay said invasive weeds and rising operational costs also threaten his family’s operation.
“The price of wheat seems to go down every year, while the cost to grow it keeps going up,” he said. “That challenge is an everyday stress — how do we survive another year? We’re not really thinking 10 years into the future as much as right now, how to pay the bills, keep doing what we love and protect the land that’s been in our families for generations.”
Like several other grain growers in Morrow County, Lindsay plans to spend the last part of July into early August harvesting his wheat, loading the grain into a truck headed for the Hogue-Warner Elevator in Irrigon.
“I think for kids who come from farming backgrounds, they need to understand that, yeah, this isn’t exactly glamorous — but I don’t think there’s a better way to live.” — Jake Lindsay
Continuing the family farming legacy
Lindsay steered his combine across the field as its interface flagged minor issues along the way. Nearby, his 16-year-old cousin, Mason Sites, operated a second combine, carefully guiding it through the field.
To operate the machine properly, he said, it’s about understanding the lay of the land and listening to the equipment — striking a careful balance between family tradition and modern farming technology.
Lindsay is the fifth generation to till and toil his family’s land, Turner Ranch, and for him, the pulse of harvest comes naturally. His great-great-great-great-grandfather, Sam Turner, bought the property in the 1850s, and it has stayed in the family ever since.
“I think for kids who come from farming backgrounds, they need to understand that, yeah, this isn’t exactly glamorous — but I don’t think there’s a better way to live,” Lindsay said. “You work for yourself. You put in the hours to protect something your family has put their heart and soul into for generations. Not a lot of things are cooler than that — five generations of one family working toward the same dream, keeping this place in our hands and helping it continue to thrive.”
Lindsay attended Oregon State University, where he earned a four-year degree in agricultural business management with a minor in soil science. When his parents asked whether he wanted to return to the farm, he wasn’t sure it was the life he wanted — especially after college.
But when he got home, the choice was obvious.
“Once I came back, it was clear this is where I wanted to be,” he said.
Still, he admitted the work is hard and often thankless.
“You’re doing it for yourself, for the land you grew up on and the land you love,” Lindsay said.
For him, the strongest pull was the hope of giving his future children the same upbringing he had — even though he doesn’t have kids yet.
“I’ve always wanted them,” he said. “So the question became, how do I come home, farm and give them the same opportunity I had? And if they choose a different path, that’s fine — they should follow their dreams. But of course, you’d love to see the farm continue into another generation. That’s what you do it for.”
Lindsay said that although younger generations have a harder time wanting to farm and would rather pursue different careers, as president of the Morrow County Wheat League he works with local farmers to discuss policies and support each other’s goals.
“We check in on how things are going, share what’s working and explore what could be improved,” he said. “We try to help each other because we’re not competing against one another. We’re all competing for the same thing — feeding the world and taking care of our land the best we can. It’s about banding together and knowing that if nobody else has your back, at least your neighbors do.”
Lindsay encouraged those without a farming background but interested in agriculture to reach out directly to farmers, noting that farm help is always in demand — especially workers passionate about the industry.
Jake Lindsay, wheat farmer and president of the Oregon Wheat Growers League in Morrow County, shares his passion for wheat farming and discusses some of the challenges facing farmers in the industry on July 21, 2025, in Heppner. — Yasser Marte/East Oregonian
Jake Lindsay navigates his combine harvester through his wheat field in Heppner. — Yasser Marte/East Oregonian
Seeking to fix the food system
Fourth-generation rancher dreams big in Elgin
BY ISABELLA CROWLEY | LA GRANDE OBSERVER
ELGIN — Lynique Oveson is dreaming big at Sitting Bull Farms.
Oveson, a fourth-generation cattle rancher, is building a collaborative hub on her 75-acre farm north of Elgin. She wants the Sitting Bull Collaborative Hub to be a shared-use place where farmers, producers, educators and community members can come together and grow.
“It’s been a lifetime in the making,” Oveson said. “I grew up on a multi-generational cattle ranch with registered Herefords out in Wallowa.”
Oveson Herefords was situated on 3,600 acres. She said her family aimed to be good stewards of their land. They paired old information with new technology to do what was best for the land, the animals and their bottom dollar.
“I knew that was what I was going to do. I was going to take over the ranch and run cattle and manage property,” Oveson said. “And then we ended up losing the ranch when I was a junior in high school.”
After she graduated from Wallowa High School, Oveson thought her options were limited to becoming an electrician, plumber or diesel mechanic. She had ruled out higher education since she hated school and her family wasn’t well off financially. But Oveson said her life then took a drastic turn.
“I was fortunate enough to get the Ford Family Foundation (college) scholarship, which pays for 90 percent of any unmet need if you stay in the state of Oregon,” she said. “I took full advantage of the scholarship. Got as many credits as I possibly could and ended up doing a master’s degree.”
Lynique Oveson launched Sitting Bull Farms in 2024 in Elgin. She was recently awarded just over $792,000 from the Oregon Department of Agriculture to build a food hub and shared kitchen. — Sitting Bull Farms/Contributed Photo
Making her dream come true
After her family lost the ranch, Oveson said her dream was to open an outdoor ranch school. There were some detours along the way, a few stints teaching in public school and years in the commercial fishing industry
She’s made that dream come true.
“This is the universe giving me an opportunity,” she said.
Oveson runs Sitting Bull Farms and two nonprofit organizations — Outdoor Adventures For All and Learning Adventure For All. The nonprofits were originally one organization, but this limited her funding opportunities because some groups won’t award grants to recipients that allow hunting.
So, Outdoor Adventures For All takes kids hunting, fishing and trapping, while Learning Adventure For All focuses on homesteading practices, such as processing and canning fruits and vegetables.
Fixing the food system
These paths eventually led Oveson to the Sitting Bull Collaborative Hub. Her goal? To do her part in fixing the food system.
“My hope is by partnering with the nonprofit and working with Sitting Bull Farms and working with other producers, that we can somehow fix a little,” she said. That hope is one step closer to reality thanks to a grant from the Oregon Department of Agriculture. Oveson was awarded just over $792,000 to build a food hub and shared kitchen, which will provide a space for aggregation, processing,
manufacturing, storing, wholesaling and distributing Northeastern Oregon produce and food.
The grant is made possible through the Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service.
Oveson said the grant will fund a 36foot by 48-foot building and the necessary equipment.
This, however, is just a portion of Oveson’s plan.
The collaborative hub, at its biggest scope, runs a $2.5 million price tag. This would allow Oveson to construct a 60-foot by 100-foot building.
“Obviously if we don’t get all of that funding, certain things won’t happen,” Oveson said, “But as it’s proposed right now, there’ll be an eight-foot wildlife fence around the greenhouse, garden and small animal area.”
The plan would include a 15,000-squarefoot chicken, rabbit and compost area, a 25,000-square foot orchard and a 50,000-square-foot garden.
“Our big goal is to have a pay-whatyou-can farm stand in every community in Wallowa, Union, Baker, Morrow and Umatilla counties,” Oveson said.
Currently, Oveson is working with 12 producers. She is also partnering with two Umatilla County based producers — Rise and
and Peterson Farms — to
in Elgin.
Technology trends in ag lower costs
Threemile Canyon Farms outside Boardman uses tech to increase energy efficiency and reduce input costs
BY BERIT THORSON | EAST OREGONIAN
BOARDMAN — Efficiency is the name of the game in farming these days.
According to Greg Harris, manager of Threemile Canyon Farms in Morrow County, many of their decisions come down to efficiency.
Threemile Canyon Farms is a large operation outside Boardman. The company farms about 39,000 irrigated acres and milks around 36,000 cows. About 6,000 acres of the farm are dedicated to organic farming. Harris said one of their focuses is closed-loop farming.
“It really starts with healthy soils, right? It starts with the ground,” he said. “We have a land mass that we’re able to combine farming and dairy.”
Harris said in addition to growing potatoes — which mostly go to Lamb Weston for processing — Threemile also grows wheat, alfalfa, grain corn, silage corn and grasses. The silage corn and waste potatoes then feed the cows in their dairy. By filtering out solids, he said, they can use effluent water from the dairy to irrigate most of the farm. Doing so is a “much cheaper and much more efficient way to move the fertility,” he said.
“We’re feeding the cow with silage that we’ve grown, and then we’re taking the nutrient source from the cow, putting it back onto the field and growing that silage crop again,” he said.
Saving energy and money
Efficiency is a major part of Threemile’s approach to farming and the decisions that must be made on the farm. They’ve been partnering with Energy Trust of Oregon for more than two decades. The nonprofit focuses on
energy efficiency and renewable energy in residential homes as well as businesses, such as agriculture.
According to Caryn Appler, senior outreach manager for Energy Trust, the nonprofit started by learning about Threemile’s operations and identifying areas of improvement before assisting with information and financial incentives to help them make those changes. Appler said much of what Energy Trust does is help
lower costs by increasing energy efficiency.
Threemile has built efficiency into its business model. Appler said. The various projects the farm and the Energy Trust have worked on together have saved Threemile water and labor as well as money. According to Appler, the projects over the past 20 years have saved Threemile about 39 million kilowatt-hours of electricity and reduced energy costs by $3.3 million.
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An employee monitors the field data coming at Threemile Canyon Farms outside Boardman. The farm tracks the amount of the irrigation and the level of water pressure going to each field. — Berit Thorson/East Oregonian
“I love working with farmers because they are some of the most innovative customers that we have,” she said. “They are always thinking about how to improve things and make them more efficient.”
Threemile and Energy Trust have collaborated on a range of projects on the farm. One of the biggest was upgrading the farm’s irrigation system to a variable speed drive on the pump stations as well as relining their pipelines to have lower friction between the water and the lining.
Those two projects each saved about 1 million kilowatt hours per year, Appler said, which equates to powering about 94 homes per project.
The variable speed drives are like a dimmer light switch rather than an on-off switch, Harris said. A computer speeds up or slows down the pumps.
Instead of turning on irrigation for all fields at full capacity, the farm’s zone managers can monitor the individual needs of each field and irrigate them only as much as they need. And as that water travels, it does so more efficiently.
“As we started modernizing the system as well, working with Energy Trust and looking at some of the technology in place and the additional monitoring that we’re able to do,” Harris said, “we also found our crop yields to start to be more consistent.”
While industry prices were going up, Harris said because of their energy projects, Threemile saw its pumping costs per acre-foot going down. The farm has also worked with Energy Trust to get more efficient refrigeration units for chilling their milk before it’s transported to Tillamook, and to replace its lights with LED lighting.
Appler said farms of any size care about efficiency.
“For a farming operation, focusing on energy efficiency by managing their overhead allows them to be more in control of other cost escalations that could impact them through grain prices or equipment prices or other things
that may not be within their control,” Appler said. “This is something that can help in a very practical way at the business level.”
Technology trends
Harris said the technology they’ve installed and the projects with Energy Trust have also helped Threemile managers identify which crops should be planted in which parts of the farm. Shorter season crops are being grown in less efficient parts of the farm, while long season crops are growing in more efficient areas.
“We’re able to manage everything and maximize the efficiency of the farms,” Harris said.
According to Kristine Buckland, an associate professor in Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences, farms “have to be on the front edge of innovation to stay profitable and continue to evolve.”
Public perception of farming is that it’s more or less the same as it was a century ago, she said, but that’s not the case.
“It’s changing and it changes faster than sometimes even our research does,” Buckland said. “I think (technology and efficiency) affects sort of every bucket of budgeting on a farm.”
Technology on farms is becoming more about precision, she said, which helps with using only the nitrates or pesticides or water that is necessary, rather than applying the same amount for all crops. Farmers tend to be good stewards of the land, she said, and care deeply about the impact their actions are having on the world around them.
“If the land doesn’t work anymore, they’re out of business,” she said. “So, why would they not be good stewards at heart?”
In the long run, Buckland said, she thinks the trend toward technology, efficiency and precision will be better for the environment.
“The more precision we can have, the better we can allow the rest of the ecosystem to function,” she said. “In my opinion, there are ways to have ecosystem diversity and still have some uniformity in the field.”
• Identify power lines • Inspect the height of your equipment to determine clearance • Always keep equipment at least 10 feet away from power lines • Remember to lower extensions • If a power line is sagging or looks dangerous, contact your utility
Greg Harris, manager of Threemile, checks on the variable pump drive station at Threemile Canyon Farm. — Berit Thorson/East Oregonian
Cows in stalls being milked at Threemile Canyon Farms. The machine rotates the cows while they’re milked, allowing for smooth transitions on and off the machine. — Berit Thorson/East Oregonian
