A Google image shows Easterday Dairy and some of the surrounding crop land.
Google image.
A troubled Morrow County farm is once again changing hands.
Washington’s Tri-City Herald reported Wednesday that Easterday Dairy sold more than hundreds of acres of land near Boardman to a California company.
The people behind the so-called mega dairy drew attention in 2021 when Tyson Foods filed a lawsuit alleging that owner Cody Easterday was charging the company for more than 200,000 head of cattle that didn’t exist. The revelation led to bankruptcy and criminal charges for Easterday, who pleaded guilty and is now serving time in federal prison.
But the property’s environmental history goes back much further than Easterday’s “ghost herd” scheme. The farm was known as Lost Valley Farm before the Easterday family bought it in 2019. Lost Valley owner Greg te Velde ran afoul of state regulations by improperly storing and handling manure. Te Velde declared bankruptcy in 2018 amid drug and gambling issues.
The property was eventually sold to the Easterdays, who also struggled to stay on the right side of state regulators. The Oregon Department of Agriculture handed down a notice of noncompliance that detailed dozens of violations related to fertilizer spills and irrigation runoff.
The farm’s history made it a target for environmental groups during both te Velde and Easterday’s ownerships, and helped spur them to support Senate Bill 85. Recently signed into law by Gov. Tina Kotek, the legislation tightens water permitting rules, requires farms to create a water quality plan and forbids farmers from using drinking water for their livestock without a permit or water right.
In a press release, national environmental group Food & Water Watch connected the Easterday sale to the passage of SB 85. The group claimed victory but demanded more action from the state.
“The final termination of this foolish proposal is a major win for Oregon’s communities, water and climate,” Food & Water Watch legal director Tarah Heinzen said in a statement. “But this eventuality should have come far sooner. Oregon agencies should have denied the permit outright. This years-long fiasco shows that Oregon’s environmental regulations are far too lax.”
SB 85 also had the support of Oregon Rural Action, a La Grande-based organization that has worked with Boardman-area families affected by nitrate pollution in their drinking water. The state has long attributed nitrate pollution to fertilizer and wastewater use from local farms and other sources.
Opposing the bill were industry groups like the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association and the Oregon Dairy Farmers Association.
In an email, Tami Kerr, the executive director of the dairy farmers association, declined to comment on the Easterday sale. But she did explain how she thinks the new law will affect her group’s constituents.
“SB 85 will require more administrative oversight and more reporting by dairy farmers,” she wrote. “That will add to their workload and is a definite expense. It’s already difficult to stay in business when milk prices are several dollars below the cost of production, labor costs continue to increase, and now we have additional regulations.”
A leader at another Morrow County farm — Threemile Canyon Farm — told the Northwest News Network that Oregon’s new rules would be onerous for smaller farms and the industry as a whole was being over regulated because of the actions of the now-defunct Lost Valley Farms.