Sherman County Agriculture

High and dry on the Columbia Plateau, Sherman County’s most important crop is winter wheat. Of the County's 531,200 acres, 304,138 are tillable. Farms average 2,500 acres and the average yield is 42 bushels per acre.

Soft white wheat is most common and is used for pocket or flat breads, crackers, cake, pastries and noodles.

Moisture-laden spring winds from the Pacific Ocean and a summer fallow system of farming permit dry land wheat and barley production. A crop is raised only once in two years; every other year the land lies fallow

gathering moisture for the next crop.

Grain is trucked from the harvest field to cooperative elevators and to barge and rail shipping facilities on the Columbia river (left) at Biggs for transport to Portland.

Supplementary farm income comes from beef cattle, which graze the 223,000 pasturable acres of native grasses on early summer rangelands and the wheat stubble in the fall. Some farm families have small numbers of horses, hogs and sheep. Fee hunting and guided fishing and hunting are growing enterprises.