OFF PAGE ONE
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, April 7, 2021
Snow: ‘We have been in a La Nina cycle’ Vaccine:
Continued from Page A1
“I usually don’t get too wor-
ried about it. I feel like we’re
in pretty good shape.”
In fact, growers are
counting on more precipita-
tion in April and May. The
head gates for the Wallowa
Lake Irrigation District open
May 1.
Kurt Melville, a partner
in Cornerstone Farms with
his dad, Tim, and brother,
Kevin, also is optimistic on
local soil moisture.
“A lot of it depends on
how frozen the ground was
and how well the moisture
soaked in,” he said. “That
diff ers with every fi eld and
soil type.”
“Most of our soils around
here have soil-holding
capacity of about 2 inches
per foot,” Kurt said.
But that varies through-
out the county.
“Every single soil’s dif-
ferent depending how much
clay, sand, rock there is,” he
said.
“Most of our soils around
here are fairly shallow,” he
added. “We’re really rely-
ing on some April, May and
June rains.”
He said areas such as the
Palouse in Idaho and Wash-
ington have deeper topsoil
with a greater moisture-hold-
ing capacity per foot.
“They can get away with
more wintertime moisture
storing for the following
year,” Kurt said.
“Going into spring, I feel
fairly good about where
we’re at. It’s really import-
ant to get more rain for dry-
land (nonirrigated) ground.”
Patrick Thiel, of the
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Mark Butterfi eld stands by a soil moisture monitor on land
he farms east of Joseph on Thursday, April 1, 2021. He said
the monitor indicates the moisture is looking good for the
upcoming planting season.
all-organic Prairie Creek
Farms, also isn’t worried
about the soil moisture.
He’s confi dent the moun-
tain structure around the val-
ley adds considerably to the
moisture needs of farmers.
“Because of the mountain
structure, we’re really con-
sistent in getting that mois-
ture storage,” he said. “But
that could really change in
summer if it gets warmer.
… I usually need to irrigate
in September and October
where most don’t.”
Unlike most farmers in
the valley, Thiel’s farm is
almost entirely row crops —
diff erent varieties of pota-
toes, beets, carrots and qui-
noa on three plots of land
near Joseph, on the East
Moraine and near Lostine.
Unlike grain and hay
growers, many of whom will
start fi eld work in a week or
two, Thiel’s prime planting
season is May and June.
“I’ve only got a certain
number of growing days,”
he said. “I tend to be later.”
But he’s been watching
the weather and getting pre-
pared, both as a farmer and
as a volunteer fi refi ghter.
What he’s seen has his opti-
mism up.
“We have been in a
La Nina cycle,” he said.
“It gives me comfort as a
farmer, too.”
While many farmers rely
on Oregon SNOTEL or other
soil moisture reports, some
have testing equipment on
their farms. Mark Butter-
fi eld, who farms 2,200 acres
of hay, wheat and cover
crops his cattle graze east of
Joseph, is one of those.
His solar-powered soil
moisture monitor showed
the moisture at about 70%
Thursday, April 1.
“That’s pretty good,” he
said.
The monitor, which is
located right near a pivot
line that irrigates from
ditches drawing water from
the irrigation district, pro-
vides information via an app
he reads on his cellphone.
He said when the moisture
gets too dry, he can turn on
the pivot line — after May 1.
“You can read it from
anywhere — heck, I could
go to Jamaica, though I
wouldn’t advise that,” he
joked.
Butterfi eld won’t get
started in earnest for a cou-
ple of weeks. For now, he’s
just doing a little harrow-
ing — minimal cultivation
— and rolling fl at last year’s
alfalfa hay.
“It’s super early,” he said.
Continued from Page A1
available for people to get
vaccinated at one of the
Wallowa Memorial clinics
throughout the county.
“This will give people
more options on when and
where they can get the vac-
cine,” she said. “We’ll be
releasing a schedule next
week of when and where.”
At Safeway in Enter-
prise, the staff has given
out more than 500 doses
of the Moderna vaccine
between fi rst and second
doses, Pharmacy Manager
Nancy Stangel said Mon-
day, and the staff is con-
tinuing to work through its
progression.
“They said we could go
ahead and vaccinate our
workers (in the store). We
are right there with where
the guidelines are,” Stan-
gel said.
The pharmacy had pre-
viously given out all of
its initial allotment of the
Johnson & Johnson vac-
cine, of which the store
received about 200 doses,
according to a previous
Chieftain article.
At Winding Waters
Medical Clinic, CEO Nic
Powers said the clinic has
given 177 doses of the
Johnson & Johnson vac-
A7
cine after receiving autho-
rization last week to do
so, and is taking calls
for appointments for the
remainder of its supply.
“So far it’s all gone
smoothly,” he said. “We
haven’t had any adverse
reactions. At this point
we do not have a waitlist.
We are keeping up with
demand on shots in the
clinic, and a mobile (sta-
tion) in the parking lot.
We do ask that people call
ahead.”
Pace said the next step
for the health district is to
move into Phase 2, Group
2, which would open eli-
gibility to anyone age 18
and older who wants the
vaccine. She said the hos-
pital is taking calls at 541-
426-5437 for anyone 18
or older who wants to be
vaccinated.
Early Tuesday morn-
ing, the state announced it
intends to expand eligibil-
ity to anyone 16 and older
on April 19.
Anyone eligible who
wants to schedule with
Winding Waters for the
Johnson & Johnson vac-
cine can call 541-426-
4502. Powers said there are
123 more doses on hand,
but expects more to be
arriving soon.
To schedule with Safe-
way, visit the website at
safeway.com.
April 14, 2021
Registration 6:30pm - 7:30pm
Kindergarten room
Wallowa Elementary School
Soil:
Continued from Page A1
ers’ in no-till,” said Mark
Butterfi eld, who farms about
2,200 acres of wheat, hay
and cover crops near Joseph.
“Now everybody’s doing it.”
While they appreciate
the environmentally friendly
aspect of no-till farming, a
farm is a business, too, that
wouldn’t be able to con-
tinue unless it’s profi table.
The Melvilles recognize that
no-till has numerous eco-
nomic advantages.
“The economic side of this
no-till is that it used to take us
27 minutes to plow and culti-
vate and fertilize and plant an
acre of ground. In a day, we
would plant 80 acres and you
can fi gure what that would
be,” Tim Melville said. “With
no-till, we can do one pass
with the sprayer to control
the weeds and one pass with
the drill and we’ll only spend
7 minutes in a fi eld.”
The drill is the direct-seed-
ing implement that does the
actual planting.
“There’s also saving in
fuel, because now you’re
only burning 7 minutes’
worth of fuel instead of 27
minutes and you’re only
wearing out 7 minutes of iron
(equipment) instead of 27
minutes of iron. So, there’s a
huge economic advantage to
no-till.”
The Melville sons have
been brought up on the prac-
tice and took agriculture-re-
lated courses at the Univer-
sity of Idaho in Moscow.
“He started no-till before I
even went to college,” Kevin
said of his dad’s practices.
He noted that when he
fi rst went to the UI, profes-
sors there had little regard for
no-till, thinking it wouldn’t
allow crops to survive weeds.
“Now they’re pushing
Parents need to bring birth certificate,
social security number (voluntary), and
immunization records. Child must be five (5)
years old on or before September 1, 2021.
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Tim Melville, patriarch of the family owned Cornerstone Farms, cuts a steel rod Wednesday,
March 31, 2021, in the farm shop as the family prepares for planting.
no-till, whether it’s the UI,
Oregon State or Washington
State,” he said. “Even though
no-till had come out in mid-
late ‘70s, there was a little
push in the universities in the
‘80s to promote no-till, but
by the early 1990s, they did
not like direct seeding.”
Kevin Melville said
there seemed to be a shift in
thinking among agricultural
educators.
“I think it took a genera-
tional shift. By the late-1990s
and 2000s, they were push-
ing it again,” he said. “In the
past 10 years, they’ve really
started pushing it and cover
crops and soil health is a new
thing. That’s when they real-
ized no-till was an integral
part of that soil health.”
Tim Melville even takes
it to the point of the global
warming issue.
“This is one thing I’d like
our land-grant universities
like Oregon State and the
University of Idaho, I want to
know why they’re not speak-
ing up in defense of global
warming,” he said. “What
I mean is, the warmer it is,
the more crops you can grow
and the more carbon that’s in
the air, the higher-yielding
the plants are because they
breathe that carbon. I want to
know why nobody is speak-
ing up on that.”
He said there have been
studies where plants were fed
extra carbon in greenhouses
and productivity increased.
“Between you and me,
this ‘global warming’ might
be God’s way of saying the
population of this Earth is
getting so great we’ve got to
feed these people and we’ve
got to fi gure how to make
ag production increase. Heat
units and carbon are going to
help that,” he said. “I’m just
a farm boy out here, but I’ve
been taught that heat units
make things grow and carbon
breathes it. … It increases
production by increasing the
amount of carbon that a plant
breathes.”
Until now, producers have
been preparing and testing
their equipment for the plant-
ing season that is expected to
take six to eight weeks.
“I think we’ll get started if
weather holds in week or so,”
Kurt Melville said.
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