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CapitalPress.com
Friday, July 2, 2021
Kim Brackett: Wears many hats on and off ranch
Kathy Dopps: From school
teacher to ‘Blueberry Lady’
By HEATHER SMITH THOMAS
For the Capital Press
MARSING, Idaho — Kim Brack-
ett grew up on a ranch in Wyoming,
then married Ira Brackett and moved
to his family’s Idaho ranch in Owyhee
County near the Idaho-Oregon-Nevada
border.
“We’ve been here 25 years. Our
kids are the sixth generation of Brack-
etts on this ranch,” she said.
This is high desert, with 10 to 12
inches of annual precipitation. “We
always seem to be in a drought, trying
to manage around it,” she said.
Kim is involved with daily ranch
work alongside her husband.
“I love to ride and work on the ranch.
As the kids got older and insisted on
going to school, we got a house that is
closer to town (Marsing).”
Her life consists of getting them to
practices and games, FFA, 4-H, piano
recitals, rodeos and other events.
“I also do all the bookkeeping for
the ranch and don’t have time to be
outside doing all the day-to-day work
I once did, and I hate not being able to
do that,” she said. “I keep asking my
youngest son if we could just homes-
chool him so we’d have more time on
the ranch but he isn’t sold on that idea!”
Kim also works for the beef indus-
try at the state and national levels. She
was chair of the Idaho Beef Coun-
“When people tell me
that they are enjoying the
blueberries as much as I do,
HERMISTON,
Ore. it makes my day,” she said,
— As she walked through though she also said that it
her blueberry patch, Kathy is “a lot of work” and that
Dopps refl ected on the joy she must frequently walk
the farm and its visitors give through her farm, keeping
her.
an eye out for anything that
“I love the idea that I “isn’t quite right.”
Birds, she said, are a
have created a place where
common nuisance.
people want to
She must also keep
return year after
up with bookkeeping
year,” said Dopps,
and certifi cations.
who owns K&K
Dopps, who was
Blueberries with
born and raised in
her husband, Ken.
Hermiston, grew up
“It’s
enjoyable,
on a family farm as
and it’s a family
Kathy
one of six children.
activity.”
Dopps
Her parents worked
Four of her 20
acres of Duke blueber- at the nearby Umatilla
ries are U-pick. She started Chemical Depot.
Her family’s farm was
the farm in 2006 and the
U-pick in 2008. Some peo- small, she said. It con-
ple have visited the farm on sisted of a couple of cows
a fi rst date and then have and some chickens and
returned as married cou- pigs, but it did make her
ples. Other people have feel connected to her food.
made an annual tradition of Milking cows will do that,
visiting the farm and pick- she said.
Also, the farm connected
ing berries every year with
their children. Still others her to the community. Her
visit every morning during brothers and cousins were
the picking season to start all part of 4-H, and she
would attend local fairs.
their days.
By ERICK PETERSON
For the Capital Press
Courtesy of Kim Brackett
Kim Brackett is part of a sixth-generation ranching operation near Marsing,
Idaho.
cil and went on to chair the National
Cattlemen’s Beef Board. She’s cur-
rently vice president of the Idaho Cat-
tle Association.
“I chair the National Beef Qual-
ity Assurance Advisory Board and
Beef Industry Long-Range Plan Task
Force. We created a strategic plan for
the industry for the next fi ve years and
rolled out that plan last summer,” she
said.
Kim is also on the management
board of the Intermountain West Joint
Venture, a collaborative conservation
group.
“Their goal is to maintain or increase
wildlife habitat and they realize this
can’t happen unless we have working
ranches and rangelands,” she said, add-
ing that ranchers are the best conserva-
tionists. Without viable ranches these
lands would be subdivided and wildlife
habitat lost.
“I was hesitant about becoming
involved with that group, but have
enjoyed sitting at the table with folks
with the same goal, of keeping work-
ing ranches,” he explained. “Idaho
became involved with this because of
sage grouse.”
Jordyn Coon: Getting
agriculture’s message out
“High school ag teach-
ers are my heroes and I
respect them so much,
SHEDD, Ore. — Jordyn but I realized I wanted to
Coon has been involved in speak to the general pub-
agriculture as far back as lic about agriculture and
she can remember.
help them understand their
She is part of the sixth food supply and other
generation at Oak Park products that come from
Farms in Shedd, Ore. She farms,” she said.
She was hired by Syn-
worked summers on the
genta, a global crop
farm, was an active
protection and seed
FFA
member,
company, straight
earned an ag sci-
out of college and
ence degree from
spent more than 5
Oregon State Uni-
years on the sales
versity and spent
and marketing side,
fi ve years working
which involved liv-
for an international
Jordyn
ing in three states.
ag company.
Coon
“I was work-
“You
could
say agriculture is kind of ing with PR and adver-
a big deal for me,” she tising agencies learn-
said. “I enjoyed the work ing about messaging and
and learning about the marketing strategy, how
to get your brand or mes-
process.”
She went to OSU with sage across and realized I
plans to become a high could apply that to what I
school ag teacher and FFA wanted to teach people,”
adviser but that trajec- she said.
She saw the power of
tory changed after serv-
ing as a National Colle- social media platforms as
giate Ag Ambassador her an eff ective way to edu-
junior year, one of just 20 cate people on various
college students selected topics and to create the
from around the country. type of career she hoped to
Ambassadors are trained develop. She began writ-
to speak to the public about ing mostly food-based
agriculture and coached on blogs — on topics such
as expiration dates, organ-
some of the hot topics.
“Then we had to go and ics, how to pick the perfect
present at least 30 hours of watermelon — through
ag presentations to basi- her website, https://theo-
cally anyone we could get livebranch.net/.
“There are so many
to sit down with us,” Coon
said. “I talked to Rotary pieces to the ag puzzle,”
groups, Lions groups, ele- Coon said. “I want to help
mentary schoolers and people understand them
college students; it was a and let them decide for
themselves.
wonderful experience.
By BRENNA WIEGAND
For the Capital Press
Dave Leder/For the Capital Press
Jacqui Gordon of the Washington State Tree Fruit As-
sociation directs a worker safety training video at an
east Yakima apple orchard in mid-May.
Brittany Dalton
From left, Buckle, Kyle, Brittany, Rusty and Dallie Dalton.
Brittany Dalton: Hard work
Jacqui Gordon: Mentors
help tree fruit safety advocate pays off for ranch family
By DAVE LEDER
For the Capital Press
YAKIMA, Wash. —
Jacqui Gordon doesn’t
know where she would be
if it weren’t for all of the
support she has received
from other people in Wash-
ington state agriculture
over the past 10 years.
The Ecuadorian-born
horticulturalist came to the
U.S. in 2011 as an intern
for the Washington Tree
Fruit Research Commis-
sion and used that expe-
rience to earn a master’s
degree from Washington
State University in 2016.
Immediately after grad-
uation, Gordon was hired
as the director of train-
ing, education and mem-
ber services for the Wash-
ington State Tree Fruit
Association, where she has
made an immediate impact
by developing a series of
bilingual training and out-
reach programs for grow-
ers and packers around the
state.
But she admits she never
would have reached such
heights without the help of
mentors such as Ines Han-
rahan and Jon DeVaney.
Connecting with Hanra-
han, the WTFRC executive
director, and Devaney, the
WSTFA director, proved to
be the catalyst for Gordon
to become one of the most
infl uential young women
in Washington agriculture.
By HEATHER SMITH THOMAS
For the Capital Press
CAREY, Idaho — Brittany
Dalton grew up on a farm at
Carey, Idaho, with 4 sisters and
2 brothers. Her mother was a
stay-at-home mom and her dad
was an outfi tter. When she was
little, her dad fed cows with
draft teams.
When she was a high school
senior her mom was in a car
accident, then passed away after
being paralyzed for 10 months.
Brittany kept the farm running
and took care of 2 younger sis-
ters while her dad kept the out-
fi tting business going.
“I stayed close to home,
attending College of Southern
Idaho, so I could come home
and help,” Brittany said.
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“Every cowgirl’s dream is to
marry a cowboy and that came
true for me 10 years ago. Kyle
and I fell in love when we met,
and were married 7 months
later,” she said.
Like many young married
couples, they had no money,
but she had 4 cows.
“We stayed in Carey where
we purchased 25 more cows.
Kyle worked for an electrician
that summer while I helped
Dad with the farm and outfi t-
ting business,” Brittany said.
“A year later we were
expecting twins. We moved
to the Deseret Ranch in Utah
where Kyle cowboyed. Then
Kyle’s dad passed away and
we realized we needed to come
back closer to family.”
They moved back to Carey
where Kyle worked for a
rancher while Brittany tended
the twins, a boy and a girl.
“We built our cow herd over
the next few years with the
twins in tow. While Kyle day-
worked for other ranchers, the
twins and I fi xed fence, hauled
water, moved cows, and tried to
keep things going,”she said.
She was also part-time
bookkeeper for a local weld-
ing shop.
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