Bull Tour 2021

By Tom Peterson

North Central Livestock Association President Jerod Warnock ranches near Madras and close to Bakeoven. His family has been on the ranch since the 1980s. Warnock and his Border Collies will work cattle this year at the Bull Tour.

The North Central Livestock Association is gearing up for its 2021 Bull Tour, which will focus on ranches in the Wamic and Tygh Valley area on Friday, April 16.

New North Central President Jerod Warnock said the traveling event has morphed some since it started decades ago. Warnock works outside of Maupin near Bakeoven on the family ranch, which he grew up on. 

“We move around to different ranches and see how ranchers are doing things and the new things they have implemented,” the 31-year-old said. “Different sponsors are on-site detailing information such as food supplements or latest machinery.”

This year the Tour will be focused at the Wasco County Fairgrounds, with several demonstrations, including team branding and demonstrations of how to best use dogs in moving cattle.  

“I think it is going to be a blast,” said Kyle Fields, who works on the Fields Ranch near Wasco. “People can learn something to help them ranch or farm, and it will be good to have everybody together. People are itching to see each other.” Fields was recently elected the North Central Livestock Association vice president.

 Warnock agreed that the tour was kind of a display of unique and best uses of natural resources when it comes to ranching and farming. Moving cattle from pasture to pasture, eliminating juniper to improve the watershed. “There’s never a best one,” Warnock said, noting ranches and practices vary depending on geography and terrain. “There’s no one size that fits all.”

“That’s what makes it interesting, all the different approaches,” he said. 

The tour will kick off at 9 a.m. at the Wasco County Fairgrounds in Tygh Valley and then move onto ranch tours before returning. Warnock said he and his Border Collies will working stock in the arena of the Fairgrounds. And all-new for 2021, is the action-packed Team Branding. Teams made up of four will brand from the ground as well as from their horses.

Fields, who raises feeder stock in registered Angus and SimAngus, on a ranch near Scappoose, said his work was his passion and the Tour was a great way to keep in touch with others in the same trade.

File photo of past Bull Tour - Credit Condon Chamber of Commerce and my personal favorite K’Lynn Lane.

“Getting to work with both farmers and ranchers, there is nothing else I would rather be doing. I care about the cattle industry and the people in the community running cattle. It’s a passion of mine.” 

North Central’s Breanna Wimber said she was excited for this year’s tour. 

“Once again you can expect a day jammed packed with tours, vendor engagement, amazing lunch and dinner, and various industry speakers,” she said. “We encourage people to bring a friend and invite new people. This annual event is always an amazing look inside the farms and ranches our beautiful region has to offer.” 

Tickets are $45 pre-purchased or $50 day of the event. Or buy 10 tickets for $400. 

For more information, call: 

Amy McNamee at 541- 325-2121

Breanna Wimber 541-806-3209 

Click here for their Facebook page.

Please Watch the Facebook for Additional Information and Ranch Branding Entry Info. 

Dufur School Flips The Switch

Dufur School Teacher Ty Wenzel has some real go-getters.

The economics and math teacher said she has several seniors that have either completed or are close to getting their work complete in her online Economics class.

“Some finished in a week,” she said on Thursday afternoon.

All ON-TRACK SENIORS WILL GRADUATE

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced earlier this week that high school seniors will graduate if they were on track to pass their classes before the statewide school closure. All students who were on track will receive a passing grade and, under Brown's order, cannot be penalized by public Oregon universities for changes to their education during the closure.

Students who were not on track to graduate will be subject to local guidelines, according the Corvallis Gazette-Times. Local districts are to work with those students to find "creative ways" to allow them a path to graduation. Those measures can be taken up through Aug. 31. Students who complete those local requirements by that time will still be considered a part of the class of 2020, the story said.

FAST AND FURIOUS

“It’s been fast and furious over the last couple of weeks to get things going in the right direction,” said Dufur Superintendent Jack Henderson. “Teachers have done a nice job of pulling the best product together and putting it forward in this unique situation.”

Dufur had a rolling start and staff his been amazing at pulling off reading lessons via YouTube, for example, he said. Students are being served far ahead of the April 13th launch date.

GETTING ONLINE

“This was a big week of getting online and getting kids going,” Wenzel said, noting she has been helping students figure out passwords as well as Algebra.

Wenzel said explaining how to solve math problems is not simple online. She often will work a problem out on paper, take a photo of it and send it to the student who is struggling to derive the answer.

She has also been using a mix of tech tools to connect with and teach students during the past week. She is using Zoom video conferencing, emails and Khan Academy – an online resource with study materials, videos, quizzes and tests – to teach her students.

Students also were able to check out computers from the school if they needed them. And bus drivers have been handing out paper homework packets to students as they drop off lunches.

During a Zoom meeting this week, “most of her students showed up,” Wenzel said, noting others were either working or babysitting. She is connecting with absent students in separate one-on-one online communications. In addition, she also continues to instruct students on college credit class, Algebra 2.

“You miss the kids and being there and doing what you like to do,” she said. “It does not feel like teaching. You ask them to go watch videos and do these assignments.”

The Dufur first-grade teachers Marcy Bales and Sue Kelly used a Zoom video conference to do a show-and-tell.

“What a great idea,” Wenzel said.