Lessons of the Millennium Farm

Pulling out of the machine shed lot at Wittman Farms on a clear September morning, dry and dusty from harvest, Dick Wittman’s big gray pickup begins the climb up the gravel road atop McCormack Ridge. On either side, tawny fields of crop stubble slope down to abrupt canyon rims. In nearly every direction the views are distant and stunning, at times northeast to Moscow Mountain, east to the Clearwater Mountains, northwest to Lewiston and the dry cliffs above the Clearwater River, and straight ahead to timberline.

"You can almost live on the view up here," says Dick (B.S. ag economics ’71), the family farm’s president and general manager and proponent of a set of natural resource principles this farm embraces–multiple use, sus-tainability, and renewability.

Dick points out clipped fields of wheat, barley, canola, garbanzo beans, lentils, and peas and University of Idaho test plots of wheat and barley varieties. Cross-bred Hereford-Angus heifers forage in the stubble. A farm pond collects runoff that brings ducks to nest and deer to drink.

Ascending out of prime farmland and into more marginal ground, Dick points out bluegrass fields, then pure pasture, and finally, at about 3,400 feet of elevation, the road passes into the shade of a fragrant forest of ponderosa pine, Douglas-fir, grand fir, and larch with a floor of pasture grasses. "We’re always at odds with the strict foresters," Dick says. "We’re managing for pasture, too."

Farther still stands a rail fence encircling a clearing that contains a log lodge, bunkhouses, a cook house, and other staples of camp life. This is Camp Wittman, a natural resource and youth development camp managed cooperatively with the Valley Boys and Girls Clubs of Lewiston.

Last summer in Washington, D.C., the Wittmans received the Millenium Farm/Ranch Family Award from USDA agriculture secretary Dan Glickman. The outcome of a national search by the multi-agency Ag-Earth Partnership, the award recognizes Wittman Farms as a model of agricultural and forestry stewardship, public outreach, and sustainability.

Dick and three family partners run this farm. One unrelated employee, Tim McNamee, manages the cattle operation. "Everybody here serves a vital role," Dick says, wary of taking individual credit for a team effort.

Dick’s cousin Bob (B.S. bacteriology ’74) is in charge of crop production; his brother Mark is main mechanic. Todd, a cousin from yet another branch of the family, handles specialty crops and is the farm’s no-till expert. Altogether they manage about 7,200 acres of cropland and 6,500 of timber and pasture.

The partners tend to downplay their Millennium award, insisting that most farmers share their stewardship goals. But Bob concedes, "We’re innovative. We’re not afraid to step out of the box. Maybe in that respect we’re a little different."

Making them much more than a little different, the Wittmans direct seed 80 percent of their acreage, planting through the stubble of the previous crop rather than into plowed ground. Todd explains that direct seeding, unlike conventional tillage, actually builds the soil, and this year produced record-breaking yields of lentils and barley.

Direct seeding, plus the terraced fields, diversion ditches, and sediment ponds the Wittmans have installed, have cut by half the load of sediment entering the watershed of Lapwai Creek, a major tributary of the Clearwater River, according to Lynn Rasmussen of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.

The Wittmans also fence cattle out of streams and plant 6,000 seedlings a year in the aftermath of selective logging. In addition, they have installed a new waste control system for their cow-calf operation.

This is the third generation of Wittmans on the farm since their arrival in 1926. The current partners began their ownership transition in 1980 following an extensive transition planning process that left the farm in the hands of 3 of 25 cousins.

Bob returned to the farm after graduating from the UI and briefly considering a career in medicine. A man who loves to see young crops grow, he prefers springtime to harvest. A past chairman and current member of the Lewiston Grain Growers board, he also serves on the UI Extension Advisory Committee in Nez Perce County. He and his wife, Karen, have two sons enrolled at UI, in theatre arts and agricultural systems management.

Dick, a member and past chairman of the College of Agriculture Consulting Council and director of the Pacific Northwest Direct Seed Association, received an M.B.A. at the University of Utah in 1972 then spent 8 years with Farm Credit Services.

Flying all over the country for Farm Credit was "challenging and a great learning experience," Dick says. "But it wasn’t any kind of decent future for a family." He returned to the farm in 1980, set up a side business as a farm management and financial consultant, and with his wife, Dawn (B.S. music ’72), has raised five children, three of whom are attending the UI, in art education, sociology, and business.

While working for Farm Credit, Dick time and again had seen family farms fail "because they thought they were exempt from business principles." The Wittmans run their own family farm as a business and as a way of life, relying on written policies, plans, and clear accountability roles.

They keep a keen eye on their margins; manage their farm as an integrated whole that includes soil, water, crops, cattle, and personnel; and think to the next generation.

"If the goal of the family business is to have a way of life, financial security, and a profession to pass on to its heirs, it has every incentive to promote stewardship and sustainability," says Dick. "If not, it’s business suicide. There is every motivation to give the resources entrusted to us the best care that can be given."

—Diane Noel