Capital Press Announces 2005 Award Winner

Walla Walla Ranch Earns Stewardship Award

Capital Press, October 12, 2005

By Peggy Steward, Washington State Staff Writer

A fourth-generation Walla Walla ranching family has received a special stewardship award from a group that seeks to keep farming profitable and the environment healthy.

Thundering Hooves and the Huesby family were presented with the 2005 Vim Wright Stewardship Award at a special dinner organized by the Seattle nonprofit group Farming and the Environment on Oct. 2 in Ellensburg, Wash.

“The Huesbys are blazing a trail to a new way of ranching that not only respects the land, water and animals,” said Read Smith, a Palouse wheat farmer and Farming and the environment board member. Smith said the Huesbys are also strengthening ties between urban and rural communities in Washington through marketing and public education activities.

The Huesby family includes Gordon and Lois Huesby, Joel and Cynthia Huesby, Bryann and Jenny Huesby and Keith and Clarice (Huesby) Swanson. Joel Huesby said his family was grateful and humbled by the award. He called it a “validation of our efforts so far and the efforts of other sustainable farmers like us.”

Before 1994, the Huesbys grew conventional wheat and other commodity crops. Realizing that their practices weren’t sustainable, the family transformed their farm into a livestock operation that uses natural production methods.

Today the Huesbys raise grass-fed beef, free-range chickens, turkeys, lamb, pork and meat goats. Cattle are pasture-raised and pasture-finished on certified organic land, using high-intensity rotational grazing.

They use no hormones on their animals and avoid antibiotics.

The family also breeds and incubates the only known strain of Wishard’s Unimproved Standard Bronze turkeys, a breed that retains some characteristics of wild turkeys.

Animals are selected for genetics that match the environment, Joel Huesby said.

The Huesbys direct-market their meat products at farmers’ markets and at drop-off points in the Puget Sound region.

Two years ago, the family vertically integrated when they bought a store in Walla Walla to sell their products at retail. Thundering Hooves meat is also featured in upscale Walla Walla restaurants.

To enhance marketing efforts, the Huesbys have developed a comprehensive website that describes their ranching practices and their products. Planned for the future is an on-farm U.S. Department of Agriculture-inspected slaughter facility and online sales of Thundering Hooves products.

Removing the middleman has helped boost margins, Joel said. Working closer with the consumer has also helped the family see and fix gaps in their operation, he said.

The Huesbys are an excellent example of family farmers who are caring for the land, said Jeff Voltz, executive director for Farming and the Environment.

“They’re hitting on all cylinders,” Voltz said. “They are able to sustain four families on 400 acres.”

The Huesbys are also committed to teaching others about sustainable agriculture, Voltz said. The family has opened their farm to visitors and taught students from grade school to college-level at the farm.

Joel Huesby is involved in several farming organizations, including Tilth Producers, the Walla Walla Farmers’ Market, the Safe Food Safe Work organization in Walla Walla and the Washington State Department of Agriculture’s Small Farms and Direct Marketing board.

Runner-up for the 2005 Vim Wright Stewardship Award was Nash’s Organic Produce in Sequim, Wash. Other finalists were Bellewood Acres Orchard in Lynden and Mother Flight Farm in Conway.

In its second year, the award program is named for the late Vim Wright, a well-known conservation leader who worked to help farmers, ranchers and environmentalists set aside their differences and join forces to protect both family farms and natural resources.

For more information about Thundering Hooves, visit www.thunderinghooves.net or at Farming and the Environment's Stewardship Farmers Market.

Peggy Steward is based in Ellensburg, Wash.