As has long been the case, agriculture is one of the dominant industries in Wallowa County.  It made headlines in the Chieftain throughout 2019. Here are a few of the highlights.

The year came in with a blaze when a New Year’s Eve haystack fire on Rancho Road left one firefighter injured and laid waste to multiple tons of hay.

The Enterprise and Joseph fire departments answered the call late Dec. 31 and remained on the scene until 5:30 a.m. the next morning — the next year.

While working to extinguish the blaze, Amanda McHatten of JFD and Chuck Simpson of EFD were hurt by falling hay bales. Simpson suffered the worst of the injuries and McHatten helped extricate him from the area. He was taken to Wallowa Memorial Hospital for treatment and examination. 

People and businesses

With mules being an unsung hero of agriculture — except in Wallowa County — the Mule Days board of directors named long-time resident Julie Kooch as its 2019 grand marshal and recognized three Wallowa County graduating high school seniors each with a $1,000 scholarship for their college education.

This year’s scholarships were granted to Wallowa High School senior Michael Diggins, Joseph Charter School senior Emma Hite and Enterprise High School senior Deidre Schreiber.

FFA and 4-H — FFA is one of the building blocks in our schools for the next generation of farmers and ranchers. In March, the Chieftain was there as more than 100 alumni, friends and families gathered at the Cloverleaf Hall in Enterprise to enjoy a tri-tip steak dinner and support the Joseph FFA Chapter. The successful event raised between $8,000 and $12,000 that was to be used to support student travel to FFA national and state conventions and other events.

FFA members were also active in the Wallowa County Fair with FFA State Secretary and former CJD Queen Diedre Schieber advising the younger set on competition. 

4-H also prepared many youngsters for a great future in ag. Many of those also participated in and competed at the Wallowa County Fair this year, making it a successful event.

In July, Joseph Charter School vocational ag teacher Toby Koehn was honored by his peers in the Oregon Agriculture Teachers Association as the Outstanding Agriculture Educator for the year. Koehn’s peers in the Eastern Oregon FFA District nominated him for the award.

On Aug. 17, local ranchers Scott and Kelli Shear and Perry Johnston were honored at the Wallowa County Stockgrowers Awards Dinner.

Shear, a 30-year member of the organization, and his wife, Kelli, received the Cattlemen of the Year Award. Johnston was honored with the Honorary Cattleman of the Year award. He has for many years run a family cow-calf operation along the Lostine River.

In May, the Chieftain took note of Wallowa County Grain Growers marking its 75th anniversary. Established in 1944, the ever-evolving firm is one of the longest continuously operating businesses in Wallowa County. 

Cattle

In that ranching is the largest segment of Wallowa County agriculture, on Dec. 4 the Chieftain looked at the potential encroachment on the industry by plant-based meat substitutes. The issue was seen as important to a county with about 7,000 people and 25,000 cattle.

Northeast Oregon beef producers are wary of the newest-generation of plant-based burger offerings, including beef look-alikes Beyond Meat and Impossible Burger. Most ranchers interviewed didn’t feel their livelihood was threatened by the substitutes. But they wanted consumers to know what they’re getting: It’s not beef, it’s not local and it’s not as environmentally friendly or as healthy as many consumers think.

Both the CJD Ranch Rodeo and Wallowa County Stockgrowers Ranch Rodeo went off without a hitch. At Stockgrowers, Tom Birkmaier proved invincible in the Rockjack competition. 

Crops

In October, Wallowa County farmers were just getting going on their wheat and alfalfa harvests. While most got theirs done in time, some inclement weather delayed cutting for others.

Wheat farmer Erl McLaughlin never did get his 435 acres of wheat harvested and at year’s end, he was still trying to get his insurance company to let him destroy the crop so he could be ready for next year.

One of the newer crops is making its mark. Hemp farmer Shayne Kimball  is in his third year of growing hemp in Wallowa County. Kimball is one of about 1,650 Oregon farmers who have pioneered production of hemp since the crop was permitted by Oregon in 2015 and legalized nationally in the 2018 Farm Bill.

Conservation

As farmers and ranchers take their living from the land, they’ve also learned to preserve the land through conservation. On Oct. 23, the Chieftain recognized the Perry family for saving nearly 500 acres of Wallowa Lake’s East Moraine for posterity.

Working with Wallowa Land Trust, landowners Lou and Deyette Perry voluntarily established a conservation easement on their working farm that extinguishes development of one homesite, ensures that the 482 acres will never be subdivided, maintains working grazing and agricultural lands and conserves habitat forever.

The weather

As always, the weather is an ever-changing story. In late November, the Chieftain printed a revised forecast for a warmer and wetter winter. Since we’re still in the midst of winter, we’ll just have to see how that plays out.