Edmundson chosen
as OGA director of
the year
50¢
VOL. 140
NO. 44
10 Pages
Wednesday, November 3, 2021
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Local farmers raise sunflowers
Using corn planter with special seed meter
Pat Edmundson (right) was presented with her award last
week. -Contributed photo.
Morrow County Museum head Merle Cowett (center) welcomes the Heppner Chamber of Commerce to lunch at the museum
recently. With him are Peggy Fishburn, museum treasurer and Kathy Cutsforth, secretary. County Extension Agent Larry
Lutcher (left) was the featured speaker at the Oct. 21 meeting. -Photo by David Sykes
about the impact the dry
weather had had on our
recent wheat crop. “Most
locations in Morrow Coun-
ty got four inches of rainfall
last year. Usually we get
9, 10, 11 or 12 inches,” he
said. “It was pretty abysmal,
and people are worried.”
Morrow County normally
averages about 35 bushels
an acre for dry land wheat,
and last year the county got
23, he said. “And there were
12 to 18 in many fields,” he
pointed out.
Lutcher said the only
“saving grace” in the wheat
crop was that the post-har-
vest price had a pretty good
increase. “Eight to 10 dol-
lars a bushel can take the
sting out it (bad harvest),”
he said, adding that was
about double what farmers
were getting last year.
Local farmers are about
75 percent done planting
now, Lutcher says, and
they are, of course, hoping
for more rain in the com-
ing year. “We are hoping
for a wet winter.” He said
predictions are optimistic
too. “It depends on who
you listen too, but the Farm-
ers’ Almanac says Morrow
County is going to have a
typical winter, and National
Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA)
experts are saying there
will be a greater than aver-
age snowfall in December,
January and February. “So
that would be great,” Lutch-
er said. NOAA bases their
prediction on an expected
La Nina effect expected
to have high pressure in
the north that should bring
moisture in from the Pacific
Ocean. “We are hoping for
that prediction,” he said.
Lutcher also spoke
about a recent soil judging
event put on by the exten-
sion. He said 75 high school
students from Ione, Hep-
pner, Echo, Boardman, Pi-
lot Rock, Irrigon, Stanfield,
Hermiston and Pendleton
came to the Future Farmers
of America event. In soil
judging events, long deep
pits are dug and then the
students go down into the
pits to examine and study
the different soil layers and
types of soils, which he said
this year uncovered some
very interesting layers.
Lutcher said he got a lot
of help this year from Mike
Proctor and Greg Close
from the county OHV park
in getting the holes and site
prepared for the students.
And he added that the stu-
dents were very polite and
well behaved at the event.
She always wants to leave
things better than she found
them – which she does –
and has been a wonderful
ambassador for Willow
Creek Country Club, golf,
for the handicap system and
for the OGA.”
OGA directors are the
official representative from
each respective club to
serve as a liaison to the Golf
Association and the Exec-
utive Committee. They are
the lifeline of communica-
tion from the OGA to its
member clubs. In addition
to expressing club concerns
to the OGA and voting on
behalf of their club before
the board of directors at an-
nual and special meetings,
directors serve by relay-
ing all information about
OGA membership, events,
championships, services
and volunteer opportuni-
ties to their members and
golf professionals and club
executives at their courses.
Temps near normal in October
According to prelim-
inary data received by
NOAA’s National Weather
Service in Pendleton, tem-
peratures at Heppner aver-
aged near normal during the
month of October.
The average tempera-
ture was 51.2 degrees which
was 0.1 degrees below nor-
mal. High temperatures
averaged 62.9 degrees,
which was 1.3 degrees be-
low normal. The highest
was 78 degrees on the 1 st .
Low temperatures averaged
39.4 degrees, which was 1.0
degree above normal. The
lowest was 27 degrees, on
the 12 th . There were four
days with the low tempera-
ture below 32 degrees.
Precipitation totaled
1.02 inches during Octo-
ber, which was 0.12 inches
below normal. Measurable
precipitation, at least .01
inch, was received on nine
days with the heaviest,
0.49 inches reported on the
22 nd . Precipitation this year
has reached 6.52 inches,
which is 4.56 inches below
normal.
The outlook for No-
vember from NOAA’s Cli-
mate Prediction Center
calls for near normal tem-
peratures and above nor-
mal precipitation. Normal
highs for Heppner fall from
57.0 degrees at the start of
November to 45.0 degrees
at the end of November.
Normal lows fall from 35.0
degrees to 28.0 degrees.
The 30-year normal precip-
itation is 1.60 inches.
High winds damage home
~ G-T Trophy Corner ~
The Heppner Gazette Times would like to see pictures of your trophy animals
from this hunting season. Please send a photo along with your name, age, town
you live in, location of the hunt and a description of the animal to editor@
rapidserve.net, upload to Heppner.net or text to 541-980-6674.
The home of Debra and Mitch Bloecher at Blake Ranch was damaged by the high winds on
Sunday, October 23. -Contributed photos.
E L E VAT E YO U R A DV E N T U R E
Morgan Cutsforth, 15, Hep-
pner, shot this 6-point elk at
974 yards with her T65 338 Carter Adams 9, of Heppner,
Raptor cartridge.
shot this mule deer buck in
the Heppner unit. It was his
T h e H e p p n e r G a - first buck and he got it with
zette-Times wants to see one shot.
pictures of your trophy
animals from this hunting
season. Stop
by to have
your picture
taken, drop
off photos,
mail them to
PO Box 337
in Heppner, email them to
editor@rapidserve.net or
text cell phone photos to
541-980-6674.
Print
&
Mailing Services
*Design *Print *Mail
Sykes Publishing
541-676-9228
CALL
541-989-8221
ext 204
NEW
2022
FOR
By David Sykes
Several local farmers
are trying their hand at
producing sunflowers com-
mercially, OSU Extension
Agent Larry Lutcher told
the Heppner Chamber of
Commerce recently.
“At last count we had
about 500 acres of sunflow-
ers in Morrow County,”
Lutcher told the chamber,
which was holding its quar-
terly luncheon meeting at
the museum in Heppner.
Lutcher said sunflowers
do well in our dry envi-
ronment, and some local
farmers were getting into
growing and harvesting the
plants for their seeds.
Lutcher provided in-
sight into how the crop is
produced. “The sunflowers
are planted with a corn
planter, and inside a corn
planter is a seed meter,” he
explained. “That meter is
swapped out for a sunflower
one that picks up one seed
at a time and drops it into a
hole and it feeds by gravity
into a furrow opener that
runs an inch or two below
the soil surface. It’s a very
accurate planting opera-
tion,” he said.
Lutcher said the sun-
flowers are planted three
feet apart with about
16,000 plants per acre.
After harvesting, the seeds
are hauled to the market
in Madras where they are
crushed and made into poly
unsaturated shortening,
salad dressings, cooking oil
and margarine. “It’s a very
healthy product,” he added.
The price farmers are
getting in Madras is 30 to
40 cents per pound and
they can expect to get 750
to 1,000 pounds average
per acre in our area. He said
there is an open market for
the seed and no contract
is required. “We think it’s
going to continue,” Lutcher
said of local production.
Lutcher also talked
Pat Edmundson, Hep-
pner, was recently chosen
as director of the year for
her continued support of
Oregon Golf Association
(OGA) programs, her com-
mitment to the dual roles of
handicap chair and director
at Willow Creek CC and for
her many years of dedicated
service and travel.
The press release stat-
ed, “In her time as a repre-
sentative of the OGA, she
has gone above and be-
yond to support and spread
awareness of golf in the
community, even when it
meant traveling all the way
from Heppner. In 2020,
when the World Handicap
System unveiled its new
program, she took on the
challenge, educating herself
and her fellow golfers. Pat
is a retired schoolteacher,
and as such is a person
who is very detail oriented,
a good communicator and
a “cross your t’s and dot
your i’s” type of person.
for more
information
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