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CapitalPress.com
June 16, 2017
People & Places
Reviving National Farmers Union in NW
Kent Wright,
regional president,
is optimistic of
organization’s return
Western
Innovator
Capital Press
Calendar
Friday, June 16
Square Dance and Benefit for
Oregon Pasture Network. 7-10
p.m. ZCBJ Hall, 38704 N. Main
St., Scio, Ore. Join us for a night
of family-friendly fun with live mu-
sic and square dancing. Beginners
welcome. All dances will be called.
The Slippery Slope String Band will
provide the music for the night’s
festivities, and the acclaimed
Woody Lane will be our square
dance caller. Proceeds will be used
to support the Oregon Pasture Net-
work, a project of Friends of Family
Farmers designed to support the
growth of pasture-based farming
in our state. OPN is a community
of farmers, ranchers, food busi-
ness owners and consumers who
believe that sustainable, humane,
pasture-raised, animal agriculture
is the best way to produce animal
products. Tickets are $10 per per-
son (kids 12 and under are free)
and can be purchased at online or
at the door. Kids 12 and under are
free. For more info visit friendsof-
familyfarmers.org.
Friday-Sunday
June 16-18
Kent Wright
Age: 30
Residence: Vancouver,
Wash.
Position: President of the
Northwest division of the
National Farmers Union
Occupation: Sixth-gen-
eration rancher from St.
John, Wash. Owns Wright
Way Angus with his mother,
Peggy Wright
Non-farm job: International
scouting director for the Doo-
san Bears, a team in South
Korea’s top baseball league
Glenwood Ketchum Kalf Ro-
deo and Bull Bash. Glenwood
Rodeo Grounds, Trout Lake High-
way, Glenwood, Wash. The Bull
Bash starts at 7 p.m. June 16, fol-
lowed by the rodeo, which starts at
Education: Walla Wal-
la Community College;
bachelor’s degree in wildlife
biology, West Texas A&M
University; master’s degree
in science, Western Ken-
tucky University
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Kent Wright, president of the Northwest division of the National Farmers Union, foresees the region
re-establishing itself as a full partner in the 115-year-old organization.
Family: Wife, Tiffany; son,
Maverick, 4
Capital Press Managers
Joe Beach ..................Editor & Publisher
Elizabeth Yutzie Sell .... Advertising Director
Carl Sampson ................Managing Editor
Barbara Nipp ......... Production Manager
Samantha McLaren .... Circulation Manager
Entire contents copyright © 2017
EO Media Group
dba Capital Press
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published every Friday.
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News Staff
tion that led to a job as inter-
national scouting director for
the Doosan Bears, a team in
South Korea’s top baseball
league. Wright scouts and
signs the three foreign-born
players allowed on the team’s
roster.
Younger members
Although he grew up on
a ranch, Wright said he had
never heard of the Nation-
al Farmers Union until he
was picked in 2012 for the
organization’s young farm-
er program. He soon was
president of the Washington
division, which had about
40 lifetime members, but
few active ones. About two
years later, the Washington,
Oregon and Idaho divisions
combined to create a North-
west division.
Wright, his wife and his
mother, Peggy, are three of the
division’s seven board mem-
bers. He said the Northwest
has about 180 members. It
will need at least 1,250 mem-
bers to have a vote in how the
national organization is run.
Moses Lake cattleman
Mark Ellis said that under
Wright’s leadership the North-
west division has provided
livestock producers with an-
other avenue for speaking out
on issues.
“Kent’s a very bright guy,”
Ellis said. “I don’t know if
there’s a better national or-
ganization than the Farmers
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Established 1928
Board of directors
Mike Forrester
Steve Forrester
Kathryn Brown
Susan Rana
Mike Omeg
Corporate Officer
John Perry
Chief Operating Officer
By DON JENKINS
Bellevue, a sprawling
satellite city of Seattle, is an
unlikely place for agricultur-
al milestones. But it’s where
the National Farmers Union
will have its 2019 national
convention, and it’s where
the Northwest division hopes
to re-establish itself as a full
partner in the 115-year-old or-
ganization.
“Our goal is to have a
strong contingent at that
event,” said the fledgling di-
vision’s president, sixth-gen-
eration rancher Kent Wright.
“I will feel disappointed if we
don’t have at least the most
people.”
The National Farmers
Union’s history in the North-
west goes back to 1907, the
year a Washington division
was formed. In recent years,
though, the group has been
mostly dormant in the region.
The rebirth of a Northwest
division — Washington, Ore-
gon and Idaho — and the na-
tional group’s decision to hold
its convention in Bellevue are
unrelated. The group meets
each year in urban areas. This
year, the convention was in
San Diego and next year it
will be in Kansas City.
But the 2019 convention
will be an opportunity for the
Northwest division to make a
showing. This year’s national
convention had two North-
west representatives, Wright
and his wife, Tiffany, the divi-
sion’s secretary.
Wright, 30, grew up on his
family’s ranch near St. John
in Eastern Washington and
works there part-time. He said
he expects to run the ranch
full-time someday, but for
now he lives in Vancouver,
where Tiffany is a hospital
nurse, and he pursues his oth-
er career as a baseball scout.
Wright played baseball at
Walla Walla Community Col-
lege and West Texas A&M
University. For several sum-
mers after college, he played
in independent professional
leagues stocked with players,
like Wright, striving to im-
press a major league team.
Primarily a catcher, he
played for clubs such as the
Kalamazoo Kings, Fort Worth
Cats, Rockford Riverhawks,
Amarillo Dillas and Witchita
Wingnuts. He wasn’t signed
by a major league organiza-
tion, but he made a connec-
Capital Press
12:30 p.m. June 17-18. Website:
http://business.gorge.net/
glenwoodrodeo.
Saturday, June 17
Forest Thinning and Pruning
Field Day. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. University
of Idaho Extension office, 1808 N.
Third St., Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
Whether you have problems with
insects, disease or concerns about
fire, the response from foresters is
nearly universal: Thin your forest.
Presentations about thinning and
financial assistance will be followed
by a field trip to a thinned stand. A
$20 fee includes a field notebook or
publications.
Tuesday, June 20
Trees and Taxes workshop.
5-7:30 p.m. Coos County Extension
Office, 631 Alder St., Myrtle Point,
Ore. This class is for anyone with
forest management expenses, recent
forest income or planning for future
income from their forestland. Tammy
Cushing, OSU Extension specialist
in forest economics, management
and policy, will explain topics many
landowners are unaware of and
the special provisions in the Inter-
nal Revenue Code that pertain to
forestland and income generated
from the land. This session will help
improve the records you keep on
your forestland as well as minimize
the taxes that you pay for income
generated by your forest. Pre-reg-
istration is required by June 16. For
questions, call Shawna at 541-572-
5263. Website: http://extension.ore-
gonstate.edu/coos/.
Tuesday-Wednesday
June 20-21
Center for Produce Safety Re-
Union as far as getting young
people into farming.”
Wright said most of the
division’s members are under
40, a generation younger than
most farmers.
Tiffany Wright started a
division at Walla Walla Com-
munity College and has twice
been honored at the national
level for recruiting members.
Kent Wright said the group
has history and clout, but it’s
small enough for individuals
to influence. “Your voice does
matter if you work a little bit
and show up,” he said.
The Farmers Union na-
tionwide has almost 200,000
members, with 24 divisions in
33 states, the national mem-
bership director, Tom Bryant,
said.
North Dakota and Okla-
homa have the largest mem-
berships, while the organiza-
tion has no presence in many
Southeast states. Membership
tends to be steady, though it
picks up when the farm econ-
omy slumps, Bryant said.
“When things aren’t going so
well, people realize it’s im-
portant to speak collectively,”
he said.
The group is a little older,
but much smaller, than the
American Farm Bureau Fed-
eration, which has affiliates in
50 states and nearly 6 million
member families.
Other differences between
the two organizations are
rooted in their histories. The
Farmers Union was formed
in 1902 in a time of agrarian
populism. The Farm Bureau
became a national organiza-
tion in 1920, a period of con-
servative ascendancy.
The Farmers Union holds
more liberal views on issues
such as health care and cli-
mate change, and is more crit-
ical of trade deals.
“It’s all relative,” Farmers
Union spokesman Andrew
Jerome said. “A little more
liberal than the Farm Bureau?
Maybe yes. But a liberal
group? Certainly not.”
Wright agreed that the
Farmers Union is general-
ly viewed as more liberal
than the Farm Bureau on the
national level. “Here in the
Northwest, I say we probably
fight that a little. We tend to be
a pretty conservative group,”
he said.
The beginning
The National Farmers
Union was founded in Texas
by men concerned about the
price farmers were paid for
cotton.
By 1907, the Farmers
Union was growing into a
nationwide organization. The
Evening Statesman, a Walla
Walla newspaper, reported the
formation of a Washington
division under the headline,
“Farmers Meet to Form Trust
to Boost Prices.”
The goal was to make
wheat farmers price-setters,
N. California
Tim Hearden .................... 530-605-3072
not price-takers.
“The greatest product of
the country is wheat and to fix
the price of this cereal is now
the great object of the union,”
an organizer told The Evening
Statesman.
Today, the Farmers Union
still stresses the farmers’
share. Its website charts the
relatively small amount farm-
ers receive compared to the
retail cost of staples such as
potatoes, eggs and flour.
While the Washington
Farm Bureau has a steady and
influential presence in Olym-
pia, the Farmers Union does
not. Its main venture into state
policy so far has been to op-
pose raising the fee on cattle
transactions that ranchers pay
to support the Washington
Beef Commission. The posi-
tion aligned with the Cattle
Producers of Washington and
was at odds with the Wash-
ington Farm Bureau and other
cattle industry groups such as
the Washington Cattlemen’s
Association and the Washing-
ton Cattle Feeders Associa-
tion.
Wright said the Northwest
division has no plans to hire a
lobbyist.
“We don’t feel at this time
it’s the best approach for a
young, regrowing group to get
its point across,” he said.
That, however, could
change someday, he said.
GASES / WELDING / SAFETY / FIRE
www.oxarc.com
20 Northwest Locations
search Symposium. Hyatt Regency
Denver Tech Center, 7800 E. Tufts
Ave., Denver, Colo. Agricultural wa-
ter will kick off the program agen-
da. This session will focus on four
CPS-funded research programs that
will help stakeholders better under-
stand the factors involved in sourc-
ing, sampling, testing and treating
specific types of agricultural water.
Road, Riley, Ore. Presentations
will include managing wildfires,
livestock grazing for fuels manage-
ment, safe sites and restoration of
sagebrush rangeland. For more
information, contact Chad Boyd,
office: 541-573-8939, cell: 541-
589-4990, email: chad.boyd@or-
egonstate.edu. To RSVP for lunch,
call Petrina White at 541-573-4085.
Thursday, June 22
Wednesday, June 28
Saturday, June 24
Caneberry Field Day. 1-5 p.m.
North Willamette Research and
Extension Center, 15210 NE Mi-
ley Road, Aurora, Ore. Pesticide
registration updates; pollinator pro-
tection; weed management; and
an introduction to two new OSU
faculty members, Greg O’Neill, IR-4
Field Center Director, NWREC, and
Marcelo Moretti, weed management,
Department of Horticulture. Other
topics are the spotted wing drosoph-
ila, strategies for replanting red rasp-
berry, biocontrol of brown marmorat-
ed stink bug and irrigation practices
to enhance fruit quality. Walk through
the latest advanced selections and
new cultivars in the caneberry breed-
ing plots. Website: http://oregonstate.
edu/dept/NWREC/
Oregon Angus Field Day. 4-10
p.m. Quail Valley Ranch, Prineville,
Ore. Cattle on display, contests with
prizes, a meal and a time to visit.
For more information, contact Becky
Tekansik, Quail Valley Ranch, 541-
699-8562, or Dick Hubman, president
of the Oregon Angus Association,
541-601-5495.
Washington State Dairy Am-
bassador Coronation. 5-9 p.m.
Byrnes Performing Arts Center,
18821 Crown Ridge Blvd., Arlington,
Wash. Doors open at 5 p.m. with the
program beginning at 5:30. This year
dinner will not be provided; instead
there will be light hors d’oeuvres and
refreshments served during a short
intermission. Tickets purchased by
June 16 will be adults $20, students
$10, and under 6 years free. Tickets
purchased after June 16 or at the
door will be adults $25, students
$15, under 6 still free. For ticket
information, please contact Gloria
Edwards by email at gloria.wsdw@
hotmail.com or 360-273-7313. Web-
site: http://wastatedairywomen.org/
ambassador-contest.html
Tuesday, June 27
Range Field Day. 8:30 a.m.-4
p.m. Northern Great Basin Exper-
imental Range, 100 Placidea Butte
Wednesday-Saturday
June 28-July 1
128th Annual Washington State
Grange Convention. Ocean Shores
Convention Center, 120 W. Chance
a La Mer NW, Ocean Shores, Wash.
Thursday-Friday
June 29-30
3rd International Conference
on Livestock & Nutrition. 9 a.m.-7
p.m. Avani Atrium, 880 Phetch-
aburi Road, Bangkok, Thai-
land. The Bangkok Livestock
1-800-765-9055
Nutrition Conference welcomes
attendees, presenters and
exhibitors from all over the
world. Cost: $699. Website:
http://livestocknutrition.confer-
enceseries.com/.
Friday, June 30
Farm Practices to Support
Beneficial Insects. 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
Day 2 of this two-day class will of-
fer a tour of the Wandering Fields
farm in the Applegate area. Partic-
ipants will practice identifying ben-
eficials and observe how a blend of
hedgerows, cover crops, flowering
seed crops and native plants cre-
ates a system of biological pest
management. Participation on Day
1 on June 9 is a requirement to
attend the tour. Cost: $15 one/$25
two from the same farm. Website:
http://bit.ly/JacksonSmallFarm-
Dream.
Bark Beetle Field Day. 8 a.m.-5
p.m. University of Idaho Extension
Kootenai County office, 1808 N.
Third St., Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
Participants will get first-hand ex-
posure to major bark beetles’ biol-
ogy and research into controlling
bark beetles. Pre-register by June
23. Cost: $20 ($22 with a credit
card at www.uidaho.edu/BarkBee-
tle) Website: www.uidaho.edu/ex-
tension/forestry
Friday-Tuesday
June 30-July 4
St. Paul Rodeo. Rodeo Arena,
20045 Fourth St. NE, St. Paul, Ore.
The St. Paul Rodeo will continue
to bring a slice of the old West to
the north Willamette Valley. Infor-
mation: (503) 633-2011, tickets@
stpaulrodeo.com, Website: http://
www.stpaulrodeo.com/
E Idaho
John O’Connell ................. 208-421-4347
Idaho
Carol Ryan Dumas .......... 208-860-3898
Boise
Sean Ellis .......................... 208-914-8264
Central Washington
Dan Wheat ........................ 509-699-9099
E Washington
Matthew Weaver .............. 509-688-9923
Oregon
Eric Mortenson ................ 503-412-8846
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Alan Kenaga ..................... 800-882-6789
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Index
California ................................ 9
Dairy .....................................11
Idaho ...................................... 8
Livestock ..............................11
Markets ............................... 13
Opinion .................................. 6
Oregon .................................. 7
Washington ......................... 10
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