Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (May 18, 1972)
"Save the soil" is the password of 1972 Soil Conservation Man of the Year .4 In this picture. Mel stands on of the newer silt dams. The he is yet. Left front shows the beginnings of a new diversion ditch. Down the draw can be seen three silt dams. Harold Kerr indicates how high the grass is on this grassed area. Dale Boner right and Mel Moyer, center. Council draws 700 Women Women who attended Ore gon Homemakers Confer ence, OUS, Corvallis, May 2-3-4, found three full days and evenings of activity await ing them. Attending the con ference were Mrs. John Gra ves, Mrs. Elmer Palmer, Heppner, Mrs. Norman Nel son, Lexington, Mrs. Ernest Heliker, lone, Mrs. Weldon Soil Conservation Man of the Year. Mel tin Moyer stands bt one of lus first silt dams TIk' dim tus silk-J in almost to (lie top of the tUm and Mel is n. terming tehind the dim. the silted flat in front of one dam is some hat taller than I I Withernte, Fine City, Mrs. Arnold Holfmin, Boardman, and Birdine Tullis, Extension Aide. MRS. JOHN GRAVES was elected District Director for the Extension District WI, comprised of Morrow-Umatilla and tnion counties, to serve a three year term on the Homeniakers State Coun .it--1 - L. V. . 1 1 , v 4& 3 VXv.v.w. cil. MRS. NORMN NELSON served as song leader for the conference. She also as sisted with a slide presenta tion of the AC WW Trienniel in Norway which she attend ed last year. The women attended ban quets, business sessions, and educational workshops Gust speakers were Dr. Ro be rf-MacVicar, Dr. Lee Kol ni?r jV the Extension state staff, and Dr. Robert Dyer, Brigtiam Young University. Melvin k)rr nanied Soil OnTalton Man of the Vnr Tues. evening at the spring meeting of the Mor ro County Wheat Growera I Lmt;l"i Grant. H as n-lected by a c ret committee who Inserted a number of randies before nuking tlx difficult decision. Melvin Moyer'i ranch of 1200 acrea lays at the head of Mack Horse Canyon. II ti working towards an over all plan of conservation prac tices. hile he first start d a number of years ago, his efforts have increased In the last two or three years. Hi silt dams and diver sion ditches sho up very ell against the ne green ttheat as )ou break oter the top from Sand Hollo Into Rlack Horse. Ho did he start the pro gram? He tells ho he'd read and heard h many tons of top soil are lost per acre each year so he built the first silt dam to see. "Yes. they ere right. The evidence showed up In a hurry. That first silt dam started filling up that first season." In 19u9 Mel signed up for the first time with the ASCS but no diversions were built until 1970. Some earlier attempts of building dams had been by trial and error but after he signed up he re ceived engiiieering help from the Soil Conservation Ser vice. He has six silt dams al together and four up one draw. Dams and ditches are seeded to f rass as soon as they are finished. He says he was lucky because he'd just narrowed over the seed and then be got a good rain. They are heavily grass ed. A silt dam is primar ily to keep silt from the main stream of water. The moving of soil to form the silt dams makes a big hole that forms a reservoir behind the dam. One of the first dams built in 1965 is silted in within a few feet of the top of the dam and Mel is now farming thatarea. The newer dams on down the draw show a broad area of SMI rvwtaw't .i A,y-.Tp."t Kyle Robinson on the left holds the Greenland by Bank of eastern award providedby FirstNational. TedBellamy right holds the B fi' " " f1' holds his Swine 4 Production award, provided provided by Bank of Eastern Oregon. Greg Duff has made the presentations. Roberta Frasier Ander son conducted a workshop on communications. Ken Meier, Director of the 4-H Founda tion, spoke on developments at the 4-H site near Salem. Theme of the International Banquet was "Mexican American Neighbors". Spec ial entertainment and infor mation for this banquet included dancers, style revue, and guest speakers provided by the Mexican Americans of the area. dried kilt Hut has accumu lated behind the dam and is ktill 10 lei t In low the top of the dam. The 172 acre field is sown with Paha wheat. This new rlub wheat is said to be high er yielding and less suscep tible to tolling. Mel mtkes his own diver sion ditches. The bottoms are li ft wide and flat for a bet ler distribution of water so there's less washing. He tells of making his first dam built in l'.'H lie laid down Uiles of straw and kept adding to it as It flllt d. This dam has since filled with silt and he is now farming behind it. In other conservation prac tices he has seeded to grass extra acres. According to his conserving tuse, he has steded the maxim im al lowable acreage of grass se.-dings UiMler his present farm program. He follows a practice of stubble mulch except for about 1"0 acres. When he feels it is necessary, he uses a moldlHurd plow, to kill the cheat grass that grows when stubble mulch Is used. A chisel plow is used for stub hie mulch and a moldlioard turns the dirt over complet ely. On the less steep draws, Mel lus planted grassed wa terways. In some instances he has developed patches of native grass. He has re claimed one slooe where Hip grass had been killed out due to the beat of the hooves of 40-50 horses. A watering trough stood on this slope for many years and the hor ses poundeu out all the grass. He has brought it back with crested wheat gross, alfalfa and native bunch grass. Mel was the first one in the county to use the new weed control chemicals. He says. "They really work ed' . He has a few cattle on the ranch and the Bellamy boys have their FFA stock on his pasture. Moyers came to Morrow County before the turn of the century. Mel's grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. John Mover came by train from Tennes A ... . . . . . And they lived happily ever after, Mr. and Mrs. Meivin Moyer. Ruben Contreras, present ed a slide history of the Mexican - American. Mrs. Gilbert Anzaldsia spoke on "Migrants, why they Mi grate, Problems and Educa tion". Dr. Mac Vicar speak ing on "Foundations for What Kind of Future?" told of chal lenges ahead for the exten sion study groups and all ex tension programs. Entertainment for the Wed. evening banquet was by the Golden Notes, a senior citi zen singing group from Bend. see in 1893. TVy brought with them sons. Frank (Mel' Father) Joseph and Ernest and one daughter, tffie. His other rrandiarents, Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Connor came from Missouri In 1900. They had three daughters, l.aura (Mel's mother), Nora and Kfie and two sons, Per ry and IfciWd. They home steaded in Gooseberry coun try where one of the Herg stronis now ranch. vVhen they grew up, the three Moyer brothers, Frank, Joseph and Frnesl, ranched together. Frank Moyer and Laura Connor were married at Top penish where Frank rana liv ery stable. In 1904, they bought the first part of the place that Mel is now farm ing and started farming in 1908 and bought the rest in 1910 where the house stood. The house has since burned They Moyers wereawayfrom the ranch in the 1920's and were on a hay ranch near Merrill where Melvingradua led from high school. He went to Oregon Slate for two years and has been on the ranch off and on since 1929. His brother Ellis Is in Spo kane Melvin has two sons, Bruce Moyer, a data processor for the Montana Stale Department at Missoula who is married and has two children; Dean C. Miyer in Walla Walla who has three sons and one daugh ter, Francine whose husband is in the Air Force station ed in Oklahoma. They have four children. This year Mel has started doing something he's wanted to do for a long time. ..Learn ing to fly. He is going to ground school classes each Mon. night in Hermiston. He likes to do a little hunting, elk and deer. He is handy with mechanics and repairs all of his own equipment ex cept for the major repairs. After a whirlwind courtship last winter, he married Ruth Irwin Stoddard on New Year's Eve. Both of them were proud and pleased with Mel's honor of being chosen "Soil Conservation Man of the Year." Mrs. Graves and Mrs. He liker were honored at the Wed. luncheon for having been in Extension activities for more than 40 years. Over 709 women were in at tendance. GET A HEAD START WITH SPRING CLEANING. Sell your Don't wants with Class ified Ads - 676.9228. The Big Night in FFA Greg Duff has just presented Judy Hewlett with a pocket knife for being the outstanding beginning student. Ted Bellamy receives the Chapter Swine Production award. The plaque is provided by Bank of Eastern Oregon. V". L-ir ' I Carl King receives the Bank of Eastern Oregon plaque for Placement in Sales and Service. Greg Duff of Pendleton, state FFA vice president was in Heppner to present awards at the annual FFA banquet recently. Here he is presenting Kirk Robinson the DeKalb award for having the outstanding Senior Project program. 0 Tom Cutsforth receives the award also sponsored by Bank Kirk Robinson recieves the Chapter Star Farmer award. First National provides the plaque. J Placement in Ag Production of Eastern Oregon.
