The College of Agricultural Science’s Industry Tour was held during the weekend of April 21st. We travelled around the Columbia Gorge area in an Experience Oregon tour bus with minimal air conditioning and a total of 45 students and advisors. We also had the pleasure of having Karen Withers, an ER Jackman Board Member, accompany us on our adventure!

We departed from OSU’s Corvallis campus at 5am on Friday and headed straight for the Dalles to visit Mid Columbia Producers and their grain elevator. After our tour there, we headed to Pendleton to have a delicious lunch at Hamley’s Steakhouse with Northwest Farm Credit. We walked our full bellies off with a tour of the the Woolen Mills, Pendleton Undergrounds and the Pendleton Round-Up Fairgrounds before exhausting ourselves and heading back to the hotel.

We started up again on Saturday at 8am and headed straight for Boardman to Threemile Canyon Farms. We toured their 93,000 acre farmland for four hours before heading to our next destination: The Hermiston Experiment Station! After visiting with our OSU extension partners, we were hosted by the Hermiston FFA chapter for dinner at their high school!

Sunday morning began with a visit to the SAGE Center in Boardman where we celebrated one of our member’s 19th birthdays! Next, we stopped for lunch in the Dalles at their local delectable fast food restaurants. Our last stop, but certainly not least stop, was at Orchard View Farms. After touring the cherry orchard, we began the six hour trek back to Corvallis.

Though this year’s tour was smaller in relation to the amount of businesses we visited it certainly was still just as rich in new knowledge and experiences!

Thank you to everyone that supported our tour and those that continue to support our council year-round.