What I Learned at the Barbecue

Until the '60s and '70s, most agriculture in the Kittitas Valley involved irrigated pasture for cattle. Then, at about the same time my Dad started doing custom harobed work in between teaching high school on Royal Slope, grass hay production got profitable here, and good markets developed. So the irrigated pastures turned into irrigated hay fields, and hay became a key part of diversified ranch-farms that included cattle. I hadn't understood the transition before: it was basically the result of technological progress.

I still don't understand why it's grass hay here and it was alfalfa hay that my Dad and I stacked on Royal Slope (I don't mean to brag, but one time I put up 23 loads in 5 hours -- that's over two thousand bales). I'm sure someone will explain it to me one of these days.

But I digress. At the barbecue I had good visits with several ranchers, and tried to listen as much as possible. Some topics of conversation included on-farm commercial-scale wind power, the need for better horse buildings at the fairgrounds, hassles with neighbors who don't understand agriculture, and opinions about the Department of Ecology and the upper county well moratorium.

It's nice to have some interesting things to write about in the future.