FROM PAGE ONE
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, August 25, 2021
Drought:
“It all depends on what
happens in the wheat world,”
he said.
But it’s all come down to
the water farmers were able
to get for their crops. But-
terfi eld noted that’s been a
problem this year.
“We ran out of water
to irrigate with, so that’s
another issue,” he said.
“We’ve been short of water
all year. Now we’re literally
almost out of water. It was
so cold this spring, the snow
didn’t melt and then when
it did melt, it melted really
fast.”
Melville agreed the
drought hurt them.
“We were short on irri-
gation water,” he said. “We
wished we’d had more.”
Continued from Page A1
Unfortunately,
they
didn’t have crop insurance
on the peas or timothy grass.
Jim Dunham, who raises
feed barley off Dunham
Road north of Enterprise,
agreed the drought was a
killer. He was in a holding
pattern Monday, waiting for
the weekend’s rain to dry
out. His prospects for har-
vest are not looking good.
“There just isn’t any
because of the drought. I’ll
run the combine through,
but that’s about it,” Dunham
said. “It’s a very poor crop.”
In fact, he said, in the
60-plus years he’s been
farming there, it’s about as
bad as it’s ever been.
“This is as poor a crop
as I’ve ever seen,” he said,
agreeing that it must get bet-
ter in the future. “I hope it
don’t get worse.”
Dunham said he usually
rotates his barley crop with
hay to feed the 350-400 cat-
tle that provide the mainstay
of his income.
He said he, too, is hoping
federal crop insurance will
bail him out this year.
“I hope to get enough
back to what I’ve got into
the crop,” he said.
He compared his dryland
barley to what the Melvilles
are getting in their dryland
DNS.
“It’s about the same com-
parison to the barley I raise,“
Dunham said.
For barley, that usually
means about 2 tons an acre.
Vaccines:
Continued from Page A1
“We just heard the
announcement that Gov.
Brown has directed OHA
to develop a rule ordering
schools to have vaccinated
adults in all K-12 settings by
Oct. 18 or six weeks from
FDA approval, whichever is
later,” the email said. “This
is a shock to say the least.
One saving grace is that we
have a bit of time to process
before the OHA rule takes
eff ect. At this time, we are
asking our staff and com-
munity to please be patient
while we process exactly
what this announcement
means. We will get more
information out as we learn
details — please understand
that we may not have all
information until the OHA
rule is written and do not
know their timeline. It is our
full intent to respect and sup-
port our school community
over the coming weeks.”
The message said there
are religious and medi-
cal exemptions allowed to
Brown’s staff , and that local
A13
Looking ahead
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Kurt Melville, of Cornerstone Farms, unloads soft white winter wheat after harvesting a dryland fi eld north of Enterprise on
Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. The dryland crops were particularly hurt by this year’s drought.
This year, he’s hoping to get
a half-ton per acre.
“It’s hardly enough to
even combine,” he said. “If
we get more than that, I’ll be
tickled to death.”
The drought and the
accompanying hot wind that
dried it up never allowed it
to grow, Dunham said.
Dan Butterfi eld, who
farms with his sons Rob-
ert and Eric and their wives
and raises about 600 acres of
DNS near Joseph, agreed the
heat was a killer this year.
“This heat was relent-
less,” Butterfi eld said.
“It was pretty hard on it.
(Wheat) just doesn’t grow as
well under that intense heat.
Alfalfa does well in heat,
but wheat and grass don’t do
well.”
He said that although
DNS is fairly drought resis-
tant and a “protein wheat,”
it still didn’t yield as large a
harvest as he had hoped. He
said he cut one dryland fi eld
on the moraine he estimated
as a yield of 35 bushels per
leaders “will learn more
about if these exemptions
apply to adults in the K-12
setting once the rule is writ-
ten and released.”
Cases of coronavirus
have exploded statewide in
recent weeks, including in
Wallowa County. Last week,
the county had its highest
one-day total of cases with
16, and after reporting 16
more cases over the week-
end stands at 348. More than
100 of those cases have been
reported by the OHA just in
the month of August, con-
tinuing the highest spike
in local coronavirus cases
during the pandemic.
Drought’s the killer
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acre. He said Portland prices
are more than $10 a bushel,
but it costs about $1 a bushel
to get it there by truck.
Being a protein wheat,
DNS tends to make more
protein in drought years,
Butterfi eld said. He said the
goal is for the grain to be
14% protein. The market
pays a premium if the pro-
ducer’s crop is higher than
14%, but docks the crop if
it’s under 14%.
But farmers don’t wallow
in their misfortune of one
year and are eager to move
on.
“I hope next year’s a lot
better,” Melville said. “Most
people you talk to, they’re
glad this year’s about done.”
Dunham, with his six
decades of experience,
agreed.
“You keep plugging along
and take it as it comes,” he
said. “You have to look to
the future and can’t look
back.”