Turner Family History

Page 3 (of 4)

[ Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 ]

We continued to expand until at one time we had four bands, but soon dropped back to 3,000 head as that amount fit our feed situation better. I found myself buying hay at $6 to $8 per ton. We had to have some permanent range, and so we bought several sections of homesteads adjoining two sections from Frank Hill and his father and others until we have about 6,000 acres. Also we had a grazing permit joining, which we acquired a deed to and have it fenced; and are now using it for cattle as we sold the sheep in 1942.

Now, about irrigating…the pumping plants on the Snake River were having a hard time in the early 1920’s. There were eight different districts involved from 750 acres to 25,000 acres, so we joined together to try and get a gravity project on the Owyhee River. We got lots of support from businessmen in the small towns that would be helped with more land under water.

The government ran surveys and came up with 140,000 acre project, provided we continued to pump some from the Snake River. The government set aside enough power from the generating plant at Anderson Ranch Dam on the Boise River to run the pumps on the Owyhee Project. In 1926 we signed contracts to participate on this basis. The contract was let and construction was started in 1928 on the dam and diversion tunnel as well as canals and diversion laterals. The main canal is 100 miles long and tails out at the Slides.

The work was slow as the Big Depression made the money slow in coming. I remember some of the last laterals on the tail-end were built with C.C. labor. We did get some relief from the government in the form of electric power delivered from the dam at Emmett. The first water we got through the ditches came in 1936 at no cost whatever for one year. Now we have all the water we need and one of the best systems of delivery.

I can remember when there were no dams on the Snake River watershed…only stream flow to depend on. Most summers the rivers got pretty low. This stored water actually keeps the river flow at a higher level during the summer months.

The year 1936 was a year to remember for Turner Bros. Besides getting more irrigation water, we completed fencing our rangeland; 14 miles of new fence built by Herb Thomas under contract labor at $75 per mile. We furnished the posts, which we hired Thomas Hubbard of New Meadows to cut and haul to our home ranch at a cost of 15 cents each. We used all the old wire from around the homesteads and extra new wire cost us $3 per 80 yard spool. The same wire now is listed at $30 per spool. Also we bought the first rubber-tired tractor, an F12 Farm-all, with cultivator and mower attachments for $1,250. We still have the tractor on retirement, saving it as a museum piece.

The big jump was a field hay baler. We had lots of trouble getting loose hay out of the fields in the muddy times of spring breakup, so decided to try and concentrate the hay on the feed yards in the summer months. This was a case baler and made bales that weighed 125 pounds. It took four men to operate it as it was a hand-tied rig. This was the first field baler the Case people had sold between Salt Lake and Portland. This sure caused a lot of controversy around the country, both pro and con. People thought we were crazy to bale hay if it was to be fed on the ranch. We thought the same until we found out it paid off in handling it at lambing time. Also, it eliminated all moldy hay, which was very detrimental to pregnant ewes.

The first year we used the baler there were a lot of people watching us at work. The next year, it took one man to answer questions about costs, advantages of baling and on and on. Well, we were satisfied that we gained by baling as we saved by not having the hay stacked in the middle of a muddy field. Also, it stopped the mold problem.

One other machine we pioneered in this part of the country was a field ensilage harvester. This was in 1929. We were using a corn binder to cut the corn in the field. It made bundles (very heavy) which had to be loaded onto wagons and then unloaded into a stationary chopper and blown into the upright silo. This was a man-killing job, and once a man had gone through a corn harvest, he didn’t want any more of it.

I wrote to the International and John Deere people inquiring if they had a field harvester. The John Deere people said such a machine wasn’t practical, but International people said they had acquired a patent on such a harvester made by a farmer in Ohio and were marketing one in a small way. They also sent us some pictures and literature on it. I took the pamphlets to the International dealer in Weiser and placed an order for one. It took us two years to get a machine. The company said it was the first one sold west of the Rockies; and as this country wasn’t considered a corn state, they were hesitant to ship it out. We were pleased with it. Now we use a self-propelled Fox field chopper to harvest both our hay and corn.

Continued on Page 4 (of 4)

[ Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 ]

From Kathryn Turner Baker