October 27, 2017
CapitalPress.com
5
East Idaho young farmers pool knowledge through group texts
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
SODA SPRINGS, Ida-
ho — When Dan Lakey is
stumped about how to handle
a problem in one of his fields,
he sends a group text message
to several other young farm-
ers in the area.
For example, there were
the mysterious caterpillars
he discovered last June feed-
ing on Canadian thistles. In
response to a picture he sent
with his text, another young
farmer, Eli Hubbard, iden-
tified them as painted lady
caterpillars, informing Lakey
they were beneficial and
would eat only weeds.
Lakey and about six others
who participate in the group
texts reason the next genera-
tion of farmers faces a great
challenge in adapting their
operations to new technol-
ogy and the latest trends in
improving farm sustainabili-
ty. So for the past few years,
John O’Connell/Capital Press
Dan Lakey, of Soda Springs, Idaho, gives a demonstration about
soil health, and how the use of no-till farming and cover crops can
reduce water erosion, during a forum hosted at his friend Cody
Cole’s farm last summer. Lakey and Cole are members of an
informal group of young farmers who provide each other guid-
ance — especially on soil-health matters — by sending group text
messages or visiting each other’s fields.
they’ve been working togeth-
er and pooling their knowl-
edge to find an advantage.
“We share articles or vid-
eos or things we see in our
fields,” said group member
Jake Ozburn.
They also meet regularly
for breakfast and frequently
assess each other’s fields. Oz-
Summer heat, pleasant autumn
spur plentiful pumpkin crop
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
burn, for example, showed the
group crop damage caused by
army worms and brown wheat
mites to familiarize them with
the symptoms.
“We’d just load up into
trucks about once a month, and
we’d look at different fields
and different equipment we
would use,” added 30-year-old
Cody Cole. “Somebody would
see something that the others
wouldn’t see.”
Improving soil health has
emerged as the central theme.
They’ve acquired compaction
meters, penetrometers and oth-
er devices to assess soil traits
during their field trips, but
Lakey insists the simplest tool
is still the best — a shovel. For
Christmas, he bought family
and friends shovels for digging
in fields and assessing soil and
root structure.
“I’ll admit, five years ago
we would drive by all of our
fields and maybe walk around
the edge, but I never got out
and dug in the soil,” Cole said.
“Once we started these crop
tours, it was like, ‘Wow, I’ve
probably left a lot on the ta-
ble because I haven’t done
this.’”
The collaboration traces
back to 2012, when Lakey
and Ozburn began consult-
ing one another. A couple of
years later, Cole joined their
discussions. The text group
has further expanded during
the past two seasons, and now
includes a Delta, Utah, grow-
er who frequently lectures on
soil health.
Lakey is the group’s risk
taker, having eliminated till-
age on much of his farm and
substituted a machine that
stimulates soil microbe ac-
tivity with tractor exhaust, in
lieu of fertilizer, on half of his
acres.
Cole has made calculat-
ed changes, planting a series
of test plots this summer to
evaluate cover crop blends for
cattle forage and soil-health
benefits under his region’s
dryland conditions.
Ozburn considers himself
to be the “hardest to convince
on newer ideas.”
“When we try stuff, we try
it on a smaller scale,” Ozburn
said. “Dan is the go-big kind
of guy.”
By sharing knowledge of
the experiments they’re con-
ducting across their collective
acres, Lakey believes he and
his friends stand to discover
best farming practices much
faster.
“One thing I’ve learned is
there’s no right way to do it,
and everybody farms differ-
ent,” Lakey said.
Holly Rippon-Butler, with
the New York-based Nation-
al Young Farmers Coalition,
sees a trend of young farm-
ers around the country using
modern technology to net-
work and share information.
“They are really yearning
to find ways they can create
community in these rural ar-
eas,” she said.
Lebanon livestock auction
celebrates 30th anniversary
By ALIYA HALL
Capital Press
ANDERSON, Calif. —
Pumpkin farms in California
report some of the best yields
in memory as pleasant weather
this fall has brought scores of
tourists to enjoy their attrac-
tions.
At Hawes Farms in Ander-
son, grower Greg Hawes is
marveling at what he says is the
best crop he’s seen in about a
dozen years.
“It just really looks good,”
said Hawes, noting that siz-
es and overall quality have
improved from recent years.
“Most of my other stuff like my
grains didn’t do well, but the
pumpkins are beautiful. Maybe
they like the extra heat.”
Wayne Bishop, owner
of Bishop’s Pumpkin Farm,
thinks so, too. Heat waves this
summer delayed crop set a bit,
which worried him in August
and September, he said.
But the crop turned out
plentiful, and the temperatures
in the 70s and 80s during Oc-
tober brought in big crowds, he
said.
“It’s been a wonderful sea-
son,” Bishop said. “I don’t ever
remember weather any better
than we’ve had this fall.”
The season’s only blemish
was a light rainstorm on Oct.
19-20, but such little rain was
more of a help to unpicked
pumpkins than a hindrance.
“It’s nice to give them a lit-
tle shot in the arm,” said Carl
Hawkins, general manager of
Hawes Farms. He added that
mold and rot weren’t a concern.
“We have some clear skies
coming through, and next week
it’s supposed to get back up into
the 90s,” he said Oct. 20.
The big yields and relative-
ly warm weather should help
pumpkin patches meet what is
certain to be a high demand in
the days leading up to Hallow-
een.
This year’s conditions were
just right after several years in
which weather complicated
pumpkin season in one way or
another. Last year, crews rushed
to harvest as many pumpkins
as possible in early October
before anticipated rains came,
eventually breaking records for
the month in some areas.
In 2015, hot weather lin-
gered into October, keeping
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
Carl Hawkins, general manager of Hawes Farms in Anderson,
Calif., takes a break from checking pumpkins after a storm passed
over the area early Oct. 20. The farm is seeing some of its best
pumpkin yields in years.
people busy with summertime
activities and stifling atten-
dance, Bishop said.
“People need to know that
it’s fall and not summer any-
more,” he said. “When it’s up in
the 90s, people are not thinking
about getting pumpkins.”
And in 2014, a storm that
dumped nearly 3 inches of rain
in the northern Sacramento Val-
ley in late September caused
Hawes Farms to lose between 5
and 10 percent of its pumpkins
to rot.
California’s
abundance
comes as retailers in some areas
of the country are reporting a
pumpkin shortage, largely be-
cause of hurricane and storm
damage in Florida and Texas,
CNBC reported.
Home Depot, which usually
sells about 1.5 million pump-
kins per year, isn’t stocking as
many this year, the network re-
ported.
However, demand for
pumpkins has also waned
this year as residents in hurri-
cane-impacted areas focus on
essentials.
“When you have a natural
disaster, it changes everybody’s
priorities,” C. Britt Beemer, a
retail analyst with America’s
Research Group in Orlando,
Fla., told CNBC.
Nationwide, the retail
price of pumpkins has aver-
aged $3.89 apiece, down from
$3.95 a year ago, reported the
USDA’s National Retail Report
for specialty crops.
The per-pound average on
Oct. 20 was 33 cents, down
from 46 cents the week before
and 89 cents a year ago, accord-
ing to the USDA.
In a typical year, nearly
6,000 acres of pumpkins are
grown in California, one of the
nation’s top six pumpkin-pro-
ducing states. Most are planted
in May or June for the Hallow-
een season, according to the
University of California Coop-
erative Extension.
Most of the pumpkins
grown in California are sold in
the state, the California Farm
Bureau Federation reported.
LEBANON, Ore. — Coy
Cowart lasted about a year in
retirement before he became
bored of fishing and hiking
and decided he wanted to go
back to work.
Having initially worked
in construction, Coy Cowart
and his wife, Helen, wanted
a business. In 1987 they pur-
chased the Lebanon Auction
Yard, where Helen Cowart
had worked 25 years before.
“We work for fun,” Hel-
en Cowart, 81, said. “Some
people never work, and then
there’s people like us.”
Although Helen and Coy
Cowart, 83, still attend auc-
tions, the yard is now run
by their son, Terry, 57, and
his wife, Lezlie, 54. Terry
Cowart is the auctioneer, the
fourth that the yard has had.
On Thursday, Oct. 19, the
Cowart family celebrated the
30th anniversary by auction-
ing off 741 head of cattle.
Helen Cowart laughed when
she said the date only means
that she and Coy were get-
ting old.
The anniversary also
marked the retirement of
Claude Swanson, who has
worked at the auction for the
full 30 years. Helen Cowart
said she approached Swan-
son because he was knowl-
edgeable about sheep, but he
also worked in the ring and
sorted cattle.
“The family has known
him forever,” Lezlie Cowart
said. “He’s a pretty cool old
(guy) with a wealth of infor-
mation. Claude’s never met a
stranger.”
Swanson, 83, said it was
a good time to retire because
he is going through chemo-
therapy treatments for pros-
tate cancer. “I wouldn’t quit
Aliya Hall/For the Capital Press
Helen and Coy Cowart bought the Lebanon Auction Yard in
1987. Coy Cowart said that he assumes the grandchildren will
eventually take over the business and keep it in the family.
if it wasn’t for this cancer,”
he said.
Swanson’s
knowledge
has left an imprint on the
community that regularly
attends the auction. He said
that people have asked his
opinion on the animals, es-
pecially sheep, which are his
expertise.
But the auction yard
means more than animals.
Swanson and Helen and Le-
zlie Cowart agree the cama-
raderie with the customers is
most rewarding.
“To me, it’s an awful lot
of work, but there’s also a
lot of pride to have the same
customers and a fairly large
business,” Lezlie Cowart
said.
Even through the auction
yard’s tough times the cus-
tomers have remained loyal.
In 1993, the building burned
down, but customers and
members of the community
volunteered time and money
to help the Cowarts rebuild.
They put up a tent and didn’t
cancel the auction.
“The fire just about broke
us,” Coy Cowart said, but the
response of the customers
“makes the heart feel good.”
Along with the auction,
Coy and Helen Cowart creat-
ed a cattle-holding equipment
business, and own three semi-
trucks to haul cattle.
Although the number of
cattle varies depending on the
week, Helen Cowart estimat-
ed that it averages 200 to 600
head. The auction is held ev-
ery Thursday, except Thanks-
giving, at 1 p.m.
The biggest challenge fac-
ing the auction yard is labor,
Lezlie Cowart said, because
few people want to do it and
she can’t do it by herself. Al-
though plenty of children are
around, they’re too young to
control the animals, she said.
Coy Cowart said he as-
sumes the grandchildren
will eventually take over the
business, and he wants it to
be that way. Already his two-
year-old great grandson, Hen-
ry, can tell every cow apart.
He learned Holstein first, Coy
Cowart said.
He said that he’s fortunate
to be surrounded by family,
and it feels good when people
want to be around him.
“God’s first, then fami-
ly, and then business,” Coy
Cowart said.
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