Friday, April 29, 2022
CapitalPress.com 9
Family: Farm began raising cattle in 1960s
Krebs said he’s fortunate
to have a team of about six
H-2A migrant guestworkers
who follow the sheep on the
range.
“We’ve got a terrific
team, couldn’t have better,”
said Krebs. “They’re just
go-getters.”
Continued from Page 1
In 1933, Mac Hoke and
his business partner, Don
Cameron, acquired it. Cam-
eron later sold to Hoke’s
family, in whose hands the
farm has remained ever
since.
Hoke and his wife, Carrie,
the first generation, had two
daughters: Joan and Helen,
the second generation.
Joan married a Corey and
Helen married a Levy.
Joan Hoke Corey had
three children and Helen
Hoke Levy had six — the
third generation.
In the fourth generation,
there are six Coreys and 17
Levys.
The fifth generation is
comprised of around 30
children.
About 75% of the family
has stayed in Eastern Ore-
gon, and most family mem-
bers — including the chil-
dren — spend some time on
the farm.
Everyone has a voice
Industry leaders and
community members say
the farm’s success is partly
attributable to its structure,
which strategically incorpo-
rates generations of family
members.
Direct lineal descendants
inherit interest in the com-
pany, but non-owners also
play a role.
The family has two enti-
ties that contribute to the
business: a family board and
a family council.
The board includes eight
family members and one
independent director. Board
members vote on business
decisions. The current board
has seven fourth-generation
family members and one
third-generation
member.
Older generations are transi-
tioning out.
The family council is sep-
arate, existing to give every-
one a voice. Spouses of lin-
eal descendants are allowed
to participate. Although
council members don’t get
to vote on business deci-
sions, the council keeps the
family connected and is a
“breeding ground for ideas,”
Steve Corey said.
On some family farms,
only those who actually
work the ground get an
ownership stake and a say
in how the farm is run, but
that’s not the case with Cun-
ningham Sheep Co. This
family encourages each gen-
eration to pursue their own
career interests, on or off the
farm, but to be part of the
farm either way.
Some family mem-
bers have chosen farm life,
including Dick Levy, who
manages cattle, and Bob
Levy, who oversees sheep.
Others have chosen off-
farm occupations, including
Steve Corey, who worked
in the farm’s wheat fields
when he was young, studied
history at Yale University
and law at Stanford Univer-
sity, then returned to prac-
tice as an attorney in Eastern
Oregon.
Both categories — those
in full-time farming and
those with off-farm careers
— participate in the family
board and council, contrib-
uting their skills and knowl-
Lambing barn
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press
A group of ewes in a holding pen outside the lambing barn.
Leah
Swannack
Glen
Krebs
edge to the farm.
Sharing
responsibil-
ity between family mem-
bers has kept the business
in its best shape, said Corey,
though it has demanded “a
great deal of coordination
and communication.”
‘Wool was king’
Early in the farm’s his-
tory, Cunningham Sheep Co.
had about 25,000 sheep, and
the farm has a long history
of selling its wool exclu-
sively to Pendleton Woolen
Mills.
“Back then, wool was
king,” said Glen Krebs, the
farm’s lead sheep herder.
As markets changed
through the decades, Cun-
ningham Sheep Co. whit-
tled down its flock — the
farm now keeps about 4,000
ewes, plus rams and lambs
— and expanded into other
commodities.
In the 1960s, the family
added cattle and now raises
1,200 cow-calf pairs annu-
ally. The family also diversi-
fied by adding wheat, timber-
land and a hunting operation
called Hunt Oregon LLC.
Since the 1950s, the farm
has increased its acreage by
60% to 80%.
Steve Corey showed the
Capital Press a map of the
family’s holdings: private
land, timberlands and fed-
eral grazing lands extend-
ing across Umatilla County
and parts of Morrow and La
Grande counties. Corey esti-
mated the farm is larger than
75,000 acres.
Although the farm now
produces a diverse mix of
livestock, wheat and timber,
many locals still know Cun-
ningham Sheep Co. best for
what gave the farm its name:
sheep.
Fine-wooled
Rambouillets
Wool remains a major
part of the farm 149 years
after Cunningham started the
business.
The Coreys and Levys
raise Rambouillet sheep,
a large, white-faced breed
that produces fine wool soft
enough to be worn next to
the skin.
“Shearing is a busy time,”
said Glen Krebs, lead sheep
herder.
Krebs ascended a ramp
to the upper story of a barn
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press
Glen Krebs, Cunningham Sheep Co.’s lead sheep herder, enters a holding area where
pregnant ewes stand immediately before they are brought into the barn to give birth.
lined with shearing stations.
Annually, he said, the
farm pays a shearing con-
tractor to bring in several
shearers.
Shearing is fast-paced.
Shorn sheep are guided
down chutes resembling
slides at a park, while han-
dlers classify the wool’s
quality before it’s mechani-
cally stuffed into bags.
When Krebs was growing
up, his family stuffed round
burlap bags, often 7 1/2 feet
tall, with wool manually
rather than mechanically.
“When I was little, they’d
throw me in a bag and I’d
have to work my way out,”
said Krebs.
He chuckled.
Krebs is not part of either
the Levy or Corey side. The
family hired him because
he has a lifetime of indus-
try knowledge; Krebs’ fam-
ily also runs an Eastern Ore-
gon sheep business.
The farm hired Krebs
in 2013 after their former
Basque lead sheep herder,
Juan Erice, retired.
To the mill
Once wool is bagged,
it’s shipped to Pendleton
Woolen Mills.
The mill and farm have
a longstanding relationship
built on trust. For decades,
the mill has committed to
buy the farm’s wool at the
best price it can afford to
offer. Pendleton’s wool
buyer does a visual inspec-
tion, talks with the farm
about the year’s clip and
negotiates a price.
“If you want to call it
a handshake relationship,
you can call it that,” said
Dan Gutzman, who man-
ages Pendleton’s wool buy-
ing department. “But it’s one
that’s withstood (decades).”
Corey, of Cunningham
Sheep Co., said Pendleton
Woolen Mills has been loyal,
buying the farm’s wool even
during difficult years.
Many factors drive the
international wool market.
Tariffs, disease outbreaks,
drought and shipping con-
gestion all impact pricing.
Pendleton Woolen Mills
consumes about 2.4 mil-
lion scoured pounds of
wool annually — 40% from
domestic growers, 60%
from overseas — and Cun-
ningham is one of the lon-
gest-standing suppliers.
Wool, however, isn’t the
farm’s main money-maker.
More profit comes from sell-
ing meat and breeding stock.
Registered, commercial
flocks
Twilight lapped across
the hills like a quiet tide
near Pilot Rock, south of
Pendleton.
Krebs, the foreman, with
help from a Border Collie,
led a pair of 300-pound rams
through a gate.
These rams belonged to
the farm’s registered flock,
comprised of sheep with
fine wool and white faces
that meet Pendleton’s wool
standards.
Each year, Krebs said, he
sells about 100 top-quality
rams as breeding stock.
Animals that don’t meet
the standards are in a com-
mercial flock, many of
which end up as meat.
Krebs keeps track of each
animal’s pedigree with elec-
tronic ear tags, which the
farm started using four years
ago. He said the tags provide
him with data for targeted
breeding.
Plus, Krebs said, he
anticipates the meat market
is moving toward consumers
demanding more traceabil-
ity — tracking with ear tags
which animals have received
antibiotics, for example.
“Traceability is coming,”
said Krebs. “We’re trying to
get ahead.”
The sheep business’ main
profit comes from selling
lamb through Stan Boyd,
based in Eagle, Idaho, the
farm’s broker for the Rocky
Mountain Sheep Marketing
Association.
Krebs said he’s pleased
that demand for lamb is on
the rise.
“I’m really optimistic,”
said Krebs.
He was interrupted by an
uproar of dogs barking.
Cunningham Sheep Co.
has about 40 farm dogs,
each with different roles —
working, herding, guarding
— across a range of breeds
including Border Collies,
Turkish Kangal Shepherds
and Great Pyrenees.
Some of the dogs protect
sheep from predators.
Main challenges
Predator pressure is one of
the main challenges the farm
faces.
Last year alone, the farm
had 17 confirmed sheep kills
and two dog injuries from
wolves. Those were just the
confirmed cases. According
to Corey, “It’s tough to get a
wolf predation confirmed.”
The family says the farm
is affected by the state’s deci-
sions on wolf management.
“It’s not us making those
rules. We just live and deal
with them as best as we
can,” said Corey.
To repel wolves, the farm
has increased its number of
guard dogs.
Krebs, the foreman, said
the dogs take different roles.
Some chase. Others bark.
Yet others remain close to
the sheep. Krebs said he
doesn’t assign the dogs their
roles; they decide.
“It’s like they have a cof-
fee every morning and say,
‘You go here, I’ll go there,’”
said Krebs.
He laughed.
The farm faces other
challenges, too: the econo-
my’s unpredictability, envi-
ronmental regulations, the
ongoing agricultural labor
shortage and concern over
the new farmworker over-
time pay law.
Despite the challenges,
The next morning, Corey,
Krebs, the herders and a
veterinary student met at
the lambing barn in Nolin,
between Pendleton and
Echo.
Beside the farm’s Nolin
headquarters, the Umatilla
River, brown from rain-
storms, meandered past
cottonwoods and hills that
buckled into each other.
In the river valley stood
a grain elevator and nearby,
the lambing barn.
According to the Okla-
homa State University
Extension Service, when
Rambouillets lamb, only
20% to 35% have twins.
This spring, Cunningham
Sheep Co. birthed between
4,500 to 4,800 lambs out of
3,800 ewes — a good rate
considering the breed and
last year’s drought.
Inside the barn, Leah
Swannack, a Washington
State University veterinary
student doing a mixed-ani-
mal rotation at the farm, was
moving between jugs —
stalls holding a single ewe
and her young — checking
their health.
The Coreys and Levys
say they’re intentional about
surrounding
themselves
with good veterinarians.
While Swannack did
health checks, migrant
workers labeled ewes and
lambs with colored chalk-
paint: blue for singles, red
for twins. The farm also uses
letters with different mean-
ings: for example, “A” for
“ayuda,” Spanish for “help,”
painted on a lamb needing
attention.
Even bummer lambs have
their own warm, clean space
with individual pens. Krebs
jokingly calls this “The
Hilton.”
With such a large opera-
tion, it’s crucial to be orga-
nized, he said.
The future
With younger faces on the
family board and council,
Corey said he looks forward
to seeing how the farm inno-
vates in the future.
Younger family members
have bounced around ideas
that may take shape, includ-
ing harvesting more of the
farm’s timber, acquiring a
small lumber mill and buying
more land to expand pheas-
ant hunting. Young family
members have also talked
about marketing lamb differ-
ently, with more direct sales
under a brand name such as
“Cunningham Lamb.”
At this point, those ideas
are still just that: ideas. But as
new generations of the family
take leadership, Corey antici-
pates the farm will adapt with
the times.
In the meantime, consum-
ers continue to see the farm’s
ripple effects far and wide:
at the grocery store, on the
landscape and woven into
cloth in Pendleton Woolen
Mills’ 35 retail stores.
Water: About 40% of the water will be sent down Klamath River for ESA-listed salmon
Continued from Page 1
in Upper Klamath Lake during
April and May for suckers to
access shoreline spawning habitat.
However,
Reclamation
acknowledged there is not enough
water in the system to meet that
target regardless of project sup-
ply. The agency laid out its 2022
operations plan on April 11, call-
ing for a minimum surface ele-
vation of 4,138.5 feet in Upper
Klamath Lake and minimal Proj-
ect allocation.
Gentry states the 2022 plan
“directly contravenes Reclama-
tion’s own water allocation for-
mula, the honest application of
which would straightforwardly set
project supply ... at zero.”
“It gives me no pleasure to send
this letter, or for the Tribes to be
forced to sue the United States for
the third time in five years,” he
wrote.
George Plaven/Capital Press
Upper Klamath Lake
C’waam and Koptu fisheries
have sustained the Klamath peo-
ple for millennia. The species are
also central to the tribes’ cultural
and spiritual practices, yet they
now face extinction due to habitat
loss and water quality issues, Gen-
try added.
Basin farmers, meanwhile,
argue they are being deprived of
water for crops and livestock with-
out benefitting fish.
A year ago, the Klamath Proj-
ect received no water from Upper
Klamath Lake. As canals went dry,
fields turned to dust and more than
300 domestic wells failed in Klam-
ath County.
According to the Klamath Water
Users Association, a group that
represents 1,200 farms and ranches
in the Klamath Project, this year’s
expected allocation of 50,000 acre-
feet equals no more than 5% of all
the water that will be used this sea-
son from Upper Klamath Lake.
About 40% of the water will be
sent down the Klamath River for
ESA-listed salmon; 28% will be
held in Upper Klamath Lake for
C’waam and Koptu and 27% will
be lost to evaporation.
KWUA President Ben DuVal
called the regulators’ performance
“unacceptable” and “embarrass-
ing” in a recent statement.
“On a single acre, we can pro-
duce over 50,000 pounds of pota-
toes or 6,000 pounds of wheat,”
said DuVal, who farms near Tule-
lake, Calif. “This year, most of that
land will not produce any food
because the government is denying
water for irrigation. We’ll just be
trying to keep the weeds and dust
under control.”
Reclamation will provide $20
million in immediate drought assis-
tance to farmers, and $5 million in
technical assistance for tribal-led
water conservation projects. The
Biden administration’s infrastruc-
ture bill also set aside $162 million
for the basin through 2026.
Gentry said C’waam and Koptu
have seen no major recruitment
into the breeding population since
the early 1990s, and the remain-
ing adult fish are nearing the end
of their natural lifespan. The tribes
are urging Reclamation to rescind
its 2022 plan to comply with the
ESA and prioritize the needs of
fish.
“The Tribes will do everything
in our power to ensure that the pre-
cious remnants of these once boun-
tiful populations are not forever
erased from the face of the Earth,”
he wrote.