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While a hundred years ago farmers and ranchers made up about 90 percent of the population, and nearly everyone knew a chicken from a horse, today farmer and rancher numbers are down to about 15 percent.
Still, farmers and ranchers play a very important role — at least to those of us who think eating is necessary. The annual Union County Crops and Conservation Tour serves as a reminder of the importance of farming and ranching to the region.
This year’s 32nd annual crop tour brought out a record crowd of more than 200 people to learn not about how to grow a carrot but about such highly technical things as conservation strip tillage in sugarbeet production.
Those attending learned about soil and water conservation and sustainable forest management, took a tour of a very modern kind of farm, the Elkhorn Valley Wind Farm, and much, much more.
The tour helps city folks remember the importance of farming and rural life in Northeast Oregon. Farmers, whether they grow small grains, hay, turf seed grass or peppermint for oil, deserve respect and appreciation for staying on the cutting edge of their field and their conservation efforts to ensure consistent quality crops far into the future.
Union County is big into farming. A drive across the extremely fertile Grande Ronde Valley proves it. According to the 2002 USDA Census of Agriculture, the most recent one available, Union County includes almost 1,000 farms. And these farms are anything but small. The average size of a farm in the county is a whopping 482 acres. Of the approximately 478,000 acres in farms, some 65,000 are irrigated and 105,000 acres are harvested cropland. That’s no small potatoes.
Many volunteers and sponsors contribute lots of time, effort and resources to make the popular crop tour possible. Here’s a salute to their outstanding efforts to bring the city and the farm closer together and foster appreciation for just what farmers and ranchers mean to our overall quality of life.
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Opinion 
