Angus ranch, wineries part of Ag Tour

Group learns more about agriculture

MOSES LAKE - The Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce's Ag Tour brought about 40 chamber members together on Wednesday to learn about an Angus operation and three area wineries.

The Ag Tour is designed to educate the business community about different aspects of agriculture in the area, the chamber's Executive Director Debbie Doran-Martinez said earlier this week.

The day started at 8 a.m., when the group boarded a school bus at the chamber office in Moses Lake. The group included a variety of people, representatives from a farm credit service, the Moses Lake School District, an employment agency, a restaurant and two state legislators.

The first stop was the Rathbun Angus Ranch near Moses Lake where owners Greg and Jennifer Rathbun talked about the operation and showed the group a handheld computerized cattle ID tag machine and hydraulic cattle shoot.

Greg called the business a fairly diversified cattle ranch, which moved from Connell, Wash., to Moses Lake in 2000. Greg said his father worked in Moses Lake in the mid 1960s and also farmed in Mesa, Wash., and Connell.

The operation grows 2,000 acres of alfalfa and timothy hay. The farm has about 1,000 head of cattle with 325 mature cows who are calving, Greg said.

The Rathbuns raise bulls to sell to commercial beef operations in the Northwest or other breeding stock enterprises, he noted.

The business is unique because it's a fall calving operation located in the northern U.S., Greg noted.

"The biggest thing, is that it gives us a good age of bull to sell," he explained.

Their customers run cattle in steep, tough and dry country. So the calves are prepared for their new homes by the hilly terrain at the Rathbun ranch. The animals get plenty of exercise. They are fed at the bottom of the hill and watered at the top, he explained.

The ranch works heavily with artificial breeding and a fairly large embryo transfer program. Over 90 percent of the cows are from artificial breeding or embryo transfer, he said.

The operation ramps up in April and May and haying and calving occur in the late summer. A bull sale is coming up in November and breeding starts at the end of November.

Greg also talked about electronic tagging of cattle. He said it is fully implemented on the ranch.

"We did it to help us keep records on the ranch," he explained.

Greg explained he quit following the U.S. Department of Agriculture's advice because everything was changing so rapidly. Instead, the business is exceeding guidelines and using a variety of methods, such as the traditional outer ear tag and vaccination records, he added.

A small plastic chip is placed in the cow's ear and scanned with a handheld scanner. Information about the cow appears on a handheld monitor.

The ranch has worked with similar ID programs on feed lots to export cattle within a certain window of time and received a premium, he said.

Robert W. Gore, acting director of the state Department of Agriculture, also spoke, sharing newly released statistics from the Washington Ag Statistics Service.

He said 170,000 people work in agriculture statewide and there's been a 23 percent increase in production, which reached a record $8.51 billion, according to 2007 figures.

Forty billion dollars was brought in from agriculture, which is a significant increase from the previous year, he noted.

Agriculture provides about 13 percent of the tax base in the state, Gore said.

"The state of agriculture is very healthy right now," he added.

The top five commodities were apples, which brought in $1.75 billion, milk, $1.06 billion, wheat, $975 million, potatoes, $685 million, and cattle and calves, $581 million.

Gore also talked about a grassroots project under way called "The Future of Farming," which entails what can be done to keep agriculture relevant in the state.

A variety of people will be spoken to for the project and a report is due to the state Legislature in December, he noted.

Forty focus groups said they were concerned about water issues, transportation, land cost, pressure on farmland and education when talking to urban residents about agriculture.

He said Gov. Christine Gregoire announced spending reductions for his agency earlier this week. Gore pointed out that only 18 percent of his agency's budget comes from tax money, which is significantly lower than other state agencies.

The next stop on the tour was a tour and tasting of Kyra Wines near Moses Lake. Owner Bruce Baerlocher said he owns the business with his wife Kyra, which they started in 2005.

Kyra Wines grew to bottle 2,400 cases of wine and offer eight labels.

He said they market their wines to restaurants, small high-end grocery stores, wine shops and novelty stores in larger cities in the Northwest.

Their marketing plan was to be exclusive in choosing their other sales locations, but not snobby, Baerlocher explained.

On Wednesday, a huge vat of dolcetto grapes was fermenting. It takes about seven or eight days to complete the process, Baerlocher said.

Many tour participants peered into the vat while he talked.

The next stop was a family winery called the Dry Falls Cellars, also near Moses Lake.

The business is owned by Alan and Dorothy DeHart. Alan said the business was started last year by their children.

Dry Falls Cellars produced 700 cases of wine last year and the business plans to produce 24 tons of grapes this year, which are bought from vineyards on the Wahluke Slope.

Bill Englar of Dry Falls Cellars showed a map of Washington state's American Vitacultural Areas.

The group saw different parts of the operation, including a malalactic room where fermentation occurs in imported French Oak barrels. The barrels cost $1,000 each.

The last stop of the day was back at the chamber office for more wine tasting offered by the Royal Slope-based Laurence Cellars/Gard Vintners.

Josh Laurence said he owns the business with his dad John Laurence and uncle Sandy Laurence.

Laurence Cellars offered the group samples of a 2006 dry Riesling, a Don Isidro red wine and a Syrah, Josh said.

Josh said the business was started in 2006 and he thought the tour was a good way to get their name out to others.

"We're very new at it," he noted.

The business grew grapes for other businesses and later stared making wine itself with the help of a resident winemaker, Josh explained.

After the tour, participant Char McDowell of Total Employment and Management said she enjoyed visiting the Angus ranch the most.

"First of all, I didn't realize we had a certified Angus ranch that was marketing products to consumers," she said in part. "They've been able to merge both (farming and business) and lead such a successful enterprising business."

She also pointed out the wine tours were very enlightening, as they're off the well-beaten path.

Amanda Mathews of Legacy Construction said she enjoyed "pretty much every aspect" of the tour. She also liked talking to different business owners and learning more about operations, she noted.

"Especially with the beef. Who knew what went into the production of our beef?" Mathews said.