SALUTING OUR FARMERS

POMEROY–It is a once-upon-a-time type of story when John Dixon met Laura Barr, wed, produced three beautiful children, a herd of show cattle and a generous wheat farm. As we fast forward 21 years to 2020, a look at the evolution of their farming practices, cattle and family can be called inspirational.

Laura Barr Dixon was born to Clay and Sandra Barr in the late winter of 1976 and is no stranger to wheat farming. Her great-grandparents and grandparents farmed in the Hooper, Wash., area. But her father and mother, Clay and Sandy, didn't continue in that area, instead they farmed in Horse Heaven Hills outside of the Tri-Cities area, where he practiced stair-step farming. They moved to Pomeroy shortly after Laura graduated high school in Prosser, Wash. She then attended Eastern Washington University, graduating with an accounting degree.

John was born in the spring of 1974 to David and Sandy Dixon, where he was brought up on the family wheat and cattle ranch on Rickman Gulch Road homestead. His brother Justin was born a couple years later.

Over the years, John participated in 4-H and FFA, showing steers at area stock shows, including the Spokane Jr. Livestock show. He attended WSU, but was called home when his father became ill with cancer. There he tended the family farm and cattle operation until his father passed away in December of 1997.

When Laura's family moved to Pomeroy that they eventually met. The rest, you might say, is history. They now, represent the Barr family and the Dixon family, along with his mother in the wheat farming portion of their operation. Both Laura's sister, Shannon Blickenstaff, and John's brother, Garfield County Commissioner Justin Dixon, are involved in the farming operation with them. John took it upon himself to develop champion level show cattle.

John and Laura first settled on a place owned by her father, just below his mother's place on Rickman Gulch Road. The Dixon family eventually moved out on Knebel Grade, out past Dutch Flats, between town and the Tucannon at the top of Blind Grade, where they have lived for 15 years.

The Barr farming operation is in the fourth generation and on a certain piece of ground, owned by another branch of the Dixon family, John is the fifth generation to farm it.

The Dixon-Barr operation farms ground of its own, some rented ground and ground from other family members on both sides. They once custom harvested for McGregor's Land and Livestock for twelve years in the Hooper area during the time John's dad was sick to make ends meet. He would drive combine and she would drive truck.

They farm primarily winter and spring wheat, for some of the farms they would grow garbanzo beans and dry peas. But Garfield County is right on the edge of being productive sometimes, but other times not, because it is a dryer area. The rotation behind those type of commodities, especially in a dry year, can be tough, plus the weed management like Russian thistle, is also really tough. So, they opt stick with wheat for the shallower ground, which to them seems to be the best plan.

Prices

They are not happy with the price of wheat, but understand farming is cyclical.

"Farming has become politicized through the USDA and everything that is traded today in the trade world is-is-well, trade has become computerized, so the human element of commodity trading is out of it," said John. "Now things are computer traded and if USDA comes out and says one thing and the computer world is looking for that, it just trades down and trades down. Russia has probably become the largest exporter of wheat the last few years, making it tough to compete. But we need access to markets if we are going to be growing commodities such as wheat and I don't know how you go about that.

"I'm a wheat farmer, I'm in the production part of it. I'm not in the politics of it, so I don't know how you make it better," he continued.

In 07-08, when wheat was high, the input cost followed it up and it has been really tough backing away from high priced inputs. "I think in the corn and soybean world, technology has been a big deal in that part of the world," said John. "Their yield in corn has gone up, but wheat yields haven't. But as far as the markets, it's tough to follow; we are right at break-even prices at times.

"I thought, at one time in January and February with the China phase 1 deal, I thought we were going to see some $7 wheat this year, then one or two days later, this COVID thing happened," John said. "I think the market was ready for $7 wheat, but COVID has changed that and COVID may have forever changed that. I just don't have the answers to what COVID is going to do or what it's not going to do."

John says the markets are right at the edge of the Farm Service Agency (FSA) for the past few years, many farmers haven't got any government direct payments or subsidy payments. But this year, with the new Farm Bill, if it goes right, farmers are going to get some of those payments.

"We are relieved to see FSA make those payments if we get to that point this fall," said John. "Those payments are a year behind, so it goes back to all the politics of that how it will play out. I don't think we are at sustainable pricing in today's world for the input cost we see," he frowned.

"It comes down to this: Farming is a business," John said. "When you have the kind of inputs we have today through fertilizer and seed and technology..." "And yet the farmer has no control over increases which include the increase of labor costs in wages, labor tax-on the cattle side of labor tax, it is excruciating," Laura interjected."Yet we have no control over how we sell our product. We can market some, but we have no control over what the government is going to do, making it hard to budget, she continued. "The markets are all over the board, so we don't know how COVID is going to affect us as wheat and cattle ranchers," added John.

COVID

When Labor and Industries (L&I) first came out with all the regulations, it impacted the Dixon's operation in unimaginable ways. Even though their small, by commercial-farming standards, is still mandated as if employing 500 or more workers.

"L&I is trying to put everyone in the same bailiwick," said Laura. "We have four full-time employees. The guidelines that came out for ag employers are all the same. We are wheat farmers with four employees, and we have to have the same stuff and set up as if we were an apple orchard with 500 migrant workers, exclaimed Laura. "We don't have the same direct contact they do every day. So, we took a look at the guidelines and asked ourselves what we could do to implement safety in our working practices, then did it." Unfortunately, wheat farms have not made the coronavirus payment list to offset the added expense of COVID guidelines and the other mandates and cost increases experienced because of the pandemic.

Cattle

Retail prices for beef rib steaks are $16 per pound and $6.99 per pound for hamburger, but feeder cattle sell for a dollar a pound. Farmers have taken a fifty percent hit on that and, unlike wheat, cattle producers were given an offset coronavirus payment through FSA, along with a few other commodities such as canola. The demand for beef is out of whack with production and the ability to process the product is raising prices. The producers are not getting much out of that inflated price, just the middle man. There has been a shift in how to market beef, and that is to sell to the local consumer.

"At first, it took a bit to sell a beef we ground up into hamburger, but it sold eventually," said Laura. "But now, meat is sold before we get it home. Local consumers get a better price and so do we because the feeders and packers are out of the equation that are jerking the prices around," said Laura.

The inflated retail prices are not trickling down to the producers. There is a positive for buying local beef and that is the consumer has a relationship with the producer and knows how the animal has been treated and what it has been fed; unlike mass-produced product.

"I grew up with Simmental cows and when my dad got sick in 1993, we sold all the cows, but kept 14 of my own," said John. "Early in our life, when we were 19 and 20 years old, the operation started with commercial cows, whatever we could afford. When Madison was a baby, 2001 we went to the Jr. Livestock Show in Spokane. I grew up showing at the Spokane Jr. Livestock show, I have a serious a passion for it because it taught me a lot about confidence and life and the ability to go on and do things. I have a love and a passion for 4-H and FFA. Anyway, we took Madison there in May when she was about seven months old, and the Gary Bye boys had Champion and Reserve Champion steer.

Before John and Laura met, her family had moved to Pomeroy from Prosser because the school was getting a bit rough. Laura had graduated, but her brother Paul had a few years to go and her little sister Shannon, who had a bum arm from a birth injury, had 12 years to go. "So, when I met John, he asked if Shannon showed animals...."

"And Laura said no," said John.

"We have never had animals except I had lambs two times, me and my brother showed lambs two times; that was it," said Laura. "And we had a couple horses, but we didn't show anything."

John piped up and stated Shannon should show a steer. Laura, who was a second mother to her, exclaimed she didn't think she could handle such a huge animal. After it was all said and done, Shannon got a steer project in the eighth grade and showed a steer that was "dog tame" and she caught the bug. "It became her thing from then on," Laura said.

That is why John and Laura went to the Spokane Jr. Livestock show when Madison was a baby; to watch Shannon show against the Bye boys. That is when John decided his daughter was going to have champion steers. John said he never had champion steers when he showed, but he had a serious desire to have one.

"I decided when Maddy was a baby I was going to raise her a champion steer," John said. "Laura said to me, 'you're crazy, you're crazy, you're crazy because it's hard.'"

"At that point, we had commercial cows, they were big, stout, good beef cattle" said Laura.

So, John went to research what it was going to take to raise that type of beef. He called Phil Lautner of Lautner Farms in Adel, Ia. The Lautner name in the show industry is common. John said "Phil's response to me is 'it is who made who'. So, in 2005, I started artificially inseminating (AI) the cows, just a couple at a time. Then when Madison Dixon was in the third grade, she had the grand and reserve champion steer," said John. "Yip, she did," said Laura. "Right out of our herd."

"And we have raised a bunch of them," said John. "That has led to selling steers to kids all across the northwest.

"One year we decided to have a sale; sell them all on one day, and quit selling them out of the feed lot pens," John said. "So, we have had six steer sales in October at the fairgrounds and we have sent cattle to thirteen states in our live auction sales. We have also had consigners bring cattle from around Washington, Montana and Idaho and over time we have grown the show steer sale selling 70-80 steers a year," John reflected. "This year, we had our first on-line heifer sale. We call it our "Holiday Heifer Sale". We sold heifers on line to five states and all but one heifer sold, so for an online thing, that was very good. And, we are happy with that."

A few years ago, the Dixon-Barr Farm and Ranch sold a steer which brought a lot of money. People from seven states bid on that steer and he was sold to a young girl from Coeur d'Alene. She took the steer to shows in Oregon, Arizona, California, Nevada where he won his class in every show accept in Denver, Nev. That kid and her family put 16,000 miles on their rig to show that steer and won everywhere but his class in Denver, then went on to win the Kootenai County Fair and brought $14 a pound at sale. "This girl had a real passion for showing cattle, and that is what it is all about," said John.

"I watched the entire thing," said Laura. "When we met, he had maybe fifty cows and they were just commercial cows. He ate, drank and slept making this cow herd into something better for 4-H and FFA kids. We at first used it as a business where we grew pounds, but he wanted kids in the Northwest to be competitive. How are we going to help these kids to be competitive? Well, he found a way and he just did it; because of the kids."

"I grew up in the 80s when farming was tough, but I was involved in 4-H and FFA," said John. "What it offers kids is confidence and passion and work ethic; every day. I tell my kids and kids in general I believe you have to be competitive before you can win. Larry Wilson, Pomeroy Ag teacher, believed in John Dixon. He taught me passion; my family and parents did that for me, too, but Larry showed what confidence and people who believe in you can do."

John and Laura spend a lot of time giving back to kids, whether for FFA projects and shows or the Jr. Livestock Show, 4-H, hauling them to basketball games, or hauling them to volleyball games. "The objective is to have people who are confident and can compete and go out there and be successful Americans," said John. "You can look at those six girls who just graduated this year. They competed every day. They had parents behind them who believed in them and taught them something. And I think that is what it comes down to."

Looking at John and Laura's youngest, Tye, it was plain to see his great interest in the whole farming and ranching process. He just had that air of uneasy excitement about him. "It doesn't matter where we go, whether it is to the field to check on the turning wheat or coming to the shop to repair the combines and headers, the anticipation of harvest starting makes Tye a basket case," said Laura. "He can hardly wait. I am taking my sister and my mom on a short adventure and I have to entice Tye to come with me, instead of coming out here working 16-hour days in over 100-degree heat in harvest. 'You will only miss three days if you come with your Nana, aunt and I, just for a little break,'" coaxed Laura. "But, oh mom, oh mom, it's Central Ferry and it's flat and I get to drive the bank-out wagon," exclaimed Tye. "But that is what you want, that passion, that drive,' said Laura.

John and Laura have always been big on no electronic devices or phones. In fact, Madison did not have a phone until she was a freshman in high school. "That was a hard battle, they both agreed. "Raising kids without devices, without social media, snap chat; they also have their friends and they are trying to keep their circles," they both said. "But it is a balance," said Laura. "They laugh and tease us for them not having a phone, but we are working really hard to build work ethic and get outside of that box of social media," she continued.

"That's what you want," said John. "You want to see kids learn how to compete and raising Madison a champion steer did just that."

John said they are really blessed to have an incredible crew who works hard for them a lot of the time of the year and to have farm families give them the opportunity to farm for their ground. Reflecting on how others live and spend their time, the Dixons just say "at the end of the day, when it comes down to it, we don't have snowmobiles, four-wheelers, but we do have those show steers and John Dixon can take a lot of heat for having those show steers. He can also take great pride in the kids that got one of those steers."

"When you look at the industry today, you look at the people who 4-H and FFA have affected," John said. "Look at Ryan Klaveano. He's running Wilbur Ellis. He's big time, he's one of the big guys and Wilbur Ellis is worldwide. You have Chat Shelton with Albaugh seed. These are Pomeroy kids. They grew up on farms and they understand FFA, they understand 4-H. When you talk about the 4-H thing, you see those who have been affected by it. Look at Heath Druffel, he's the General Manager at McGregor's. All these people were affected by 4-H and FFA. I was just at a high level meeting the other day, and everyone of the people showed at Jr. Show. What it teaches is value."

Traditions

In the beginning, Laura was a stay-at-home mom and helped with the farming operation for seventeen years, a tradition she enjoyed and found value in the day-to-day operations. Then came Obamacare. "Health insurance was killing us," said Laura. "We were paying about $1,100 each month with a $15,000 deductible, so we were paying everything out of pocket plus the premiums. Then we discovered the next year premiums were going to be $16,000 with a $20,000 deductible. And, as it is with the technology of equipment of today, it was something I just couldn't do easily. I couldn't go out and jump in a truck and drive, combines yes, but the tractors and trucks became very complex. So, when I looked to see where my value could be, I have a degree in Accounting from Eastern Washington University and thought I should try to support the farming in a different way.

"When a job came up at the health district, I decided to apply for it and got it," Laura said. "What it did to help support us financially was on the insurance side of it. It was significant."

"In farming, fields were worked in the traditional fallow and work-the-ground fashion, then in my younger days, when I farmed on my own, I went to an older landlord and I got him talked into chem fallow and it was a 152-acre field and he said I could have 20 acres to chem fallow," John said. "The first year we chem fallowed my allowed 20 acres and the remaining acres was farmed as we normally did it.

"Before Thanksgiving, we had a big rain which ran ditches in the black fallow and didn't move one stinkin' ounce of dirt in that chem fallow. That landlord called me; he says 'John Dixon come down here.' He says 'I want chem fallow on that whole thing and not only do I want chem fallow on the whole thing, I want a bill for a third of the chemical because I don't want to see my soil go down the ditch,'" John said.

You know there is a tradition that came from a different generation which isn't used much anymore, and there is chem fallow which has a down side, too," he said. "Making chemical applications can create some resistance issues, but it is keeping the soil. "We are a minority of the farming community that doesn't see dust blowing or soil erosion and what is that worth in today's society?" asked John. "When you're in the business to farm and you got what you hope is the next generation, you need the soil to be there."

Now that farmers are baling straw off their fields to send to the straw pulp plant, it presents another group preserving issue.

"The straw plant requires taking the straw off the land and we have double our production in winter wheat which produces more residue, said John. "The easy way to do it is swath it, bale it and remove it. But when you look at the studies from ARS, WSU, Oregon State, and there's a pile of them, but these are local and they apply to us; the long-term value of removing that straw is not sustainable. Removing the straw just is not the long-term answer. We have three spring crop fields that we have put 100 plus bushel straw back into the ground and I think they are our best three spring wheat fields.

"When we took over for my dad," said Laura, "we used no-till and it was a one pass kind of a deal. But with John and I, we want to protect our soil, but we also need production. "It is a fine balance between achieving production, because that is what is going to pay the high-input bills, and keep your soil on the ground. John has worked his tail off to find that balance. That has taken some traditions off the table to implement new practices."

"It took away some tradition on how we do it and now this is how we do it in a no-till situation and it involved modifying that no-till thing to make it work, said John. "I tell people all the time that no-till is not a magic bullet and you have to be flexible. We have seen what prolonged no-till can do. It has created some other issues where you have to being some sort of tillage in or completely rely on chemicals. At this point, we are not complete to rely upon chemicals and that being our only mode. We are still into flexibility.

"The tradition we are trying to keep has to do with our kids," said Laura. "So, Madison really wanted to play basketball in college and what we were discovering, living in a small town, is that she needed more exposure." Was she getting exposure here? Yes, Laura acknowledged, but for what she wanted to do, we needed to go a bit further. So, we got her on a travel team in the summers which took her away."

"I grew up driving truck and combine," Laura reflected. "Back when we moved here, before I met John, my dad and I harvested by ourselves. It was me and him. We took turns driving truck and combine and we harvested everything, just the two of us. That's what I pictured what Madison would do. Then she got it into her head she wanted to do this basketball thing and so it took her away. That was a tradition I was not quite ready for or had anticipated. Does she do a lot? Yes. And when she comes home, she goes right to work.

"It was an adjustment and not how I thought it was going to be. But in the end, it got her where she wanted to be and this summer, we are going to work her tail off, Laura said laughingly, because she has her scholarship and she is going to be in that tractor over there and she's going to be driving bank-out wagon. So, one of the traditions we are trying to keep is that we are there working and our kids are there working together as a family," she said

Succession

"What makes us different than a lot of other people," John said thoughtfully, "is we are not afraid to criticize ourselves, we're not afraid to analyze. I see the negative in everything, initially, eventually it gives way to more optimistic and positive view-later. As far as succession planning, we are in the middle of our lives and now is the time to work. Our parents are not a burden, they planned for their retirement well. We do support some other family members, but what we are starting to see, is that we don't want to be a burden to our own kids. We want to pass something on to them."

John and Laura summed up the way thing may play out. "Madison's goal is to get a degree in business then return. She is just as passionate about the cattle as John and she loves helping 4-H and FFA kids. She is super passionate about that part and unless she finds some Montana cowboy, she's going to come back. Tye definitively loves the farming, so we see our children coming back. So, we want to leave them something and not leave them a burden. Kendall, from all indications, will do well in business and develop innovative ideas."

The Dixon kids are the future of farming to come and with the passion instilled in them by their parents and generations of farming family, the farming and ranching has a place in the future.