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CapitalPress.com
Friday, July 1, 2022
Women in Ag
Promoting ranching and beef
By HEATHER SMOTH THOMAS
For the Capital Press
ELLENSBURG, Wash.
— For Linda Henderson and
her husband, Lynn, ranching
is more than a business; it’s a
way of life.
With their son, Bryce, the
Hendersons own a cow-calf
operation east of Ellensburg,
Wash. She grew up on a cattle
ranch in this valley. Her hus-
band has also been involved
in agriculture all his life. They
were married in 1987.
They raise hay for 250
cows and lease some pasture.
Linda helps on the ranch with
everything — including feed-
ing and branding and does the
bookwork.
Linda has been president
of the Kittitas County Cattle-
women and president of the
state Cattlewomen.
“I’ve enjoyed being able to
Linda Henderson
By HERB SWETT
For the Capital Press
Megan Zapel
Linda Henderson with one of her horses.
promote agriculture and cattle
and be a voice for producers
who can’t always go to meet-
ings and participate in eff orts
to fend off some of the legal
and environmental challenges
that ranchers face,” she said.
“We all need to tell our story.
“My husband and I both
love ranching and taking care
of the animals — and we are
continually improving our
genetics,” she said.
It’s a good life but a hard
way to try to make a living,
she said.
Ranching holistically
By HEATHER SMITH THOMAS
For the Capital Press
BLACKFOOT, Idaho —
Wendy and Mark Pratt came
from ranching backgrounds.
Her family homesteaded in
1870 and Mark’s family in
1904. She grew up on a ranch
10 miles away from their
present operation near Black-
foot, Idaho. She and Mark
married in 1990 and have 3
kids.
When her kids were young
she stayed home with them.
“We got into low-stress
handling of livestock, which
was fun, and this added
another dimension to what we
were doing every day. Mark’s
mom raises border collies,
and the dogs are an integral
part of the ranch,” Wendy
said.
“My dad was an old-fash-
ioned naturalist and I became
focused on conservation
ranching when Mark and I
took our fi rst course in holis-
Wendy Pratt
Courtesy of Wendy Pratt
land. When we took a class
in holistic management, it
changed the way we look at
the world. We can see how
everything is connected and
fi ts together. There is a social,
fi nancial and ecological ele-
ment to our activities; that’s
the basic tenet of holistic
management,” she said.
‘We farm soil, not plants’
By GEOFF PARKS
For the Capital Press
SANDY, Ore. — Lili
Tova’s history of work-
ing on farms in Oregon
stretches back only 17 years,
but she started “getting her
hands in the dirt” as a child
and then while gardening as
a teenager.
Now, the 37-year-old is
owner and manager of Fly-
ing Coyote Farm in Sandy,
Ore., and farms her 37 acres
using certifi ed organic and
biodynamic principles.
“Biodynamics
means
looking at the farm as an
organism,” Tova said. “It
encourages you to be saving
your own seeds and seeds
from within your region as
well as trying to import as
little fertility from off -farm
as possible. We use some of
those principles and we’re
certifi ed organic, but we’re
not totally biodynamic.
“We farm soil, not
ELLENSBURG, Wash.
— Marty Stingley and her
husband, Russ, are ranchers
near Ellensburg, Wash. She
grew up in Kirkland, a sub-
urb across the lake from Seat-
tle, and came to Ellensburg to
go to college.
“I planned to become a
graphic designer or an archi-
tect,” Marty said.
“Between classes I had a
job at a local hotel restaurant,
where I met my future father-
in-law. He introduced me to
his son, Russ, who was born
and raised on a ranch. It was
his dream to continue ranch-
ing,” she said.
She joined him in making
that dream a reality.
“We moved to our current
place in 1978. It’s just 160
acres and he was converting
from sheep to cattle — and
had to teach this city girl about
farming and ranching,” Marty
said. “It was a hard time to try
to get started on our own; the
Piper Klinger
Herb Swett/For the Capital Press
Piper Klinger with some of her ewes and lambs.
said, they lived rent-free in
a house on campus that was
built to house herdsmen.
They have been farm-
ing together since 1983 and
for the past 20 years have
owned their farm. They
raise chickens for eggs on
the side.
All their sheep are of the
versatile Polypay breed.
Their wool is sold to Pend-
leton Woolen Mills. The
sheep fi t for breeding go for
that purpose on the farm or
are sold.
“The thing I like most
about farming is the ani-
mals and the outdoor life,”
Piper said. “It is a complete
life for me. I grow my own
vegetables, have plenty of
eggs, and there’s never a
dull moment.”
Farmers market a way of life
INDEPENDENCE,
Ore. — Hang out at Martha
Walton’s booth at the Inde-
pendence Farmers Market
on Monmouth Street and
you’re sure to hear all the
latest news.
Martha, the market’s
manager, has been sell-
ing fl ower and vegetable
plants here for 30 years,
in addition to her job at
Central School District.
Friends stop by to unload
their wishes and worries
and walk away with hang-
ing baskets of fl owers and
containers of garden starts.
Gossip and cash is fair
trade for a woman whose
greenhouse work begins
when her school day ends.
Her weekends — March
through October — are
busy at the market.
Martha grows almost
all her plants in one
4,500-square-foot green-
house on property she and
her husband own on High-
Martha Walton
Gail Oberst/For the Capital Press
Martha Walton was born into farming and has man-
aged the Independence Farmers Market for 30 years.
way 51 north of Indepen-
dence. In addition to doz-
ens of hanging fl ower
baskets, she sells 30 vari-
eties of tomatoes, 18 vari-
eties of peppers and doz-
ens of other vegetable, herb
and fl ower plants.
“I’m not sure how it
happened,” she said of
her market management.
The city asked her to do
it, and she agreed. In ret-
rospect, Martha’s dedica-
tion has been a boon to
a town with agricultural
roots that run as deep as
Martha’s.
She was born the
youngest of 14 children on
a dairy near New Philadel-
phia, Ohio, a small town
south of Akron.
“We sometimes counted
21 at the dinner table,”
Martha mused. “We all
worked on farms and we
worked hard.”
Lili Tova
Geoff Parks/For the Capital Press
Lili Tova, owner and manager of Flying Coyote Farm in
Sandy, Ore., tends the mid-May growth of her green-
house pea plants.
plants,” she said, “so we try
to grow the healthiest soil
we can through our tillage
practices, the type of fertil-
izers and tillage equipment
we use.
“When I fi rst started
farming there were far fewer
female-owned farms than
there are now,” she said. “I
feel very lucky that most
of my farm mentors were
women farmers, and that
wasn’t necessarily by design
but by happenstance. I
started farming just because
I loved being outside, grow-
ing things and working hard.
It’s also something I feel I’m
good at.”
Ranch woman makes dream a reality
By HEATHER SMITH THOMAS
For the Capital Press
GRAND RONDE, Ore.
— Piper Klinger, who
with her husband, Bob,
raises sheep near the Grand
Ronde Indian Reservation,
was introduced to farm-
ing while a student at Ohio
State University.
A native of rural south-
ern Ohio, she did not grow
up on a farm. Her father
was a carpenter. While at
Ohio State, she was a tech-
nician at the university’s
agricultural experiment sta-
tion and involved in a study
of cattle.
She then attended grad-
uate school at Oregon State
University, where she spent
many hours at the university
sheep barn testing lambs.
That is where she met
Bob Klinger, who was the
sheep farm manager. When
they were married, she
By GAIL OBERST
For the Capital Press
Wendy Pratt with her ranch helpers.
tic management 30 years
ago,” Wendy said.
Ranchers were battling a
lot of bad press — a move-
ment to get cattle off pub-
lic lands, like “Cattle Free in
’93” and other anti-cattle pro-
paganda, she said.
“I hated to think our
industry was hurting the
Farming is a ‘complete life’
Marty Stingley
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Marty and Russ Stingley.
interest rates were high and
we were trying to buy a place
and equipment.”
They had a neighbor with
sheep who got fl ooded out
that winter. He brought his
200 ewes to the Stingleys’
corrals.
“We helped lamb those
ewes and that was quite an
experience for me,” she said.
“I had a crash course in ani-
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mal husbandry.”
She and Russ have four
children — Ryan, Ruley and
Rustin and a daughter, Katie.
They now have 12 grandchil-
dren, and another one on the
way.
“Our kids now have their
own ranches, but we all live
within 5 miles of one another
and run our cows together,”
Marty said.
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