Sharp Tail Ranch a Heglar, Idaho Century Farm

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Sharp Tail Ranch Story

History of and Current Activities at the Sharp Tail and Sage Chicken Ranch in Heglar, Idaho Our Grandfather Albert (Bert) Farwell came to Heglar from Flat Creek (just south of Cassville), Missouri in circa 1913 to homestead a 300 acre tract on the south side of North Heglar Canyon road. At first he lived in a tent, a shack, and then built a small farmhouse. He married Wanda Strother from Springfield, Missouri a few years later and they had 2 boys and 3 girls. The family worked hard and successfully struggled through the great depression. The girls followed their mother’s footsteps and became school teachers; the boys followed their father’s and became farmers. Grandpa cleared the land with a grubbing hoe and cultivated it with primitive horse and mule drawn equipment which gradually became more sophisticated over the years. He made the transition to mechanized equipment in the late 1930's but was never really comfortable with it like he was with his livestock. By this time grandpa had grown his farm to about 1,100 acres. With the end of WWII William, the oldest son and our uncle, had leased and purchased some farmland for himself and settled in on the Curl homestead located about 3-4 miles north of grandpa’s original homestead. When our father, Max, returned from the war in 1945 he partnered with grandpa and started farming grandpa’s land. Grandpa left Heglar in the early 1950's and retired to Burley and enjoyed the rest of his life checking on the farm, fishing, and running every red stop light Burley had. During the early years crops were wheat and barley, of course, but they would plant rye around the edges of the fields as it produced abundant straw needed for the animals. The usual barnyard animals were present in small numbers for food and milk. A garden and orchard was kept for fruit and vegetables. No one starved and no one got fat. Our mother taught us everything there is to know about butchering and dressing chickens among many other survival things. Back in 1946 when she married dad and moved in she found there was a 75 yard dash up to the outhouse, the plumbing was a well pump 30 yards from the front door, she heated hot water on a wood stove, and had to maneuver around grandpa and grandma in a very small house. But she had a “new fangled” gadget, a washing machine powered by a gasoline engine with a kick starter. We can remember her using a scrub board also. Our sisters and us boys grew up on grandpa’s homestead until we moved 1 and ½ miles up North Heglar Canyon road and into the Schlect place dad had purchased some time in 1960. By that time he had acquired 800 acres of his own land in addition to what he rented from Grandpa. Meanwhile our Uncle William had acquired and rented about 2500 acres mostly located near the Curl place where he lived with his wife, Irene. His brother would “loan” him a kid for help when he needed it because he didn't have any. We still remember with some nostalgia, those days on the farm, plowing, weeding, seeding, and harvesting. We also felt pretty macho running heavy equipment and watching over the cultivation of those fields, however at that time we didn't know what macho was. It was a beautiful sight to see grain fields mature into breeze blown waves; first green, then gold. About three decades ago with no incentive for the sons to remain on the farm, both our father and uncle put everything but about 40 acres (which is leased to a neighbor for grain production) in the new Conservation Reserve Program. The early stages of CRP (farming the government) were depressing because all we could grow was grass, shrubs, brush, and weeds. It was like our values were up ended. No more summer fallow, no green, and no gold. We finally bought uncle William and aunt Irene’s farm in 1996. They were motivated by age and health and some fondness towards us, because they actually let us buy them out. Our father passed away and that farm became a worry for our mother so she sold to us. We think she was also fond of us. We started wondering what we would do with this farm besides pay our mortgages and collect government rents. In 2004 we purchased grandpa’s old homestead from our brother Douglas and with that purchase the Sage Chicken Ranch, by 2013 will be a continuous family operation for more than a century. We had hedged a bit for the possibility of having to cultivate it again someday, but as the native grasses and brush have returned bringing back some of the native wild animals we have pretty much decided to do our best to keep it in the CRP. We wanted improve the native habitat as a way to enjoy our partnership with each other, better understand and enjoy relationships with our government partners, give something back to the community, and have the satisfaction of leaving this land in much better shape than we found it. We have come to think the real value of this land is not in crop production, but in the environmental enhancement. Be it reduced soil erosion due to wind and water or the return of wild birds and game or simply a place where someone can drive the road and find peace and beauty, this is the value of this farm. We don’t think it can produce enough grain to outweigh that and we hope the congress, the USDA, and others continue to support this vision well into the future. Here are the steps we have been taking and it’s a labor of love in progress: 1. We have partnered and contracted with the FSA and the NRCS to rehabilitate a total of five old culinary wells located in choice areas to provide water for wildlife with a total of seven water troughs. This project should be largely completed in May of this year. So far there are five wells operating. Of the five, one operating well needed no rehabilitation while two needed new pipe and pumps, and two others needed pulled, re-piped, pumped and powered. One of these is remote, on the Carter place and powered by a solar panel, the other on the Nix place had power trenched from overhead wires 100 yards away near the county road. We still need to trench water pipe and trough these two wells and we hope to finish that in May, weather and health permitting. The well on grandpa’s homestead provides water in a metal trough in the canyon above his old home site and has been in service for over a year. The well on the Schlect place provides water in a metal trough on the ridge of a canyon north of the house and has been in service for a year. The well on the Curl place supplies water to two large rubber tire troughs and it has been in service for over a year. We intend to landscape those sites with planting which complement the extra water. We all feel like real pioneers and have enjoyed grown our relationship with both the FSA and NRCS. 2. We have partnered with the Idaho Fish and Game and FSA to allow the IF&G to plant and experiment with a variety of native trees, forbs and shrubs on the Schlect, Neilson and home place to nurture and enhance the return of native birds and big game animals. These plantings started ten years ago. The success with the trees has been modest, but the other plantings have done fairly well and are thriving. This is still a work in progress. 3. In the past we partnered with the IF&G to allow hunters on the property through the Access Yes program. A sportsman could access to the property and we as land stewards required permission and imposed reasonable rules. We have been engaged with this program for 8 years now. We have found hunters, hikers, antler gatherers who ask and receive permission are generally very happy to play by the rules, they get great recreation and we get nice considerate people who watch out for us and the land. We had valued our relationship with IF&G and Access Yes participants, but we have decided to end our participation in the Access Yes program. Our collaboration with the Idaho Fish and Game has now ended in all respects. Their personnel had taken full advantage of their Access Yes program to the point they "elbowed out" others, never paid any rent for accommodations and utilities we provided them and treated me differently than my partner/brother because my primary residence is in another state. 4. In 2009 we had a metal salvager camp out, cut up and haul off loads of derelict trailer houses, combines, tractors, and vehicles of every kind. He took untold tons of scrap to the salvage yard in exchange for a complete clean up of old garbage dumps and salvage areas. He did a fantastic job. We still have a few junk piles and buildings to salvage aged lumber and roofing materials from, before those sites are cleaned up to our satisfaction. Already, we have seen changes. Mike has photographed elk and moose at the watering troughs along with already common mule deer and upland game birds. We have even had some mountain lions at the troughs. Growing up on that farm, we never saw moose or elk. However the Sharp-Tail Grouse population has decreased. Idaho Fish and Game biologists, over the past several years, have captured and relocated a large portion to other areas in the state. We think they have been stressed by IF&G activity, weather, fires and hunting. We have seen an increase in the partridge populations. We hope to increase populations of the Sage Grouse as we go along. On October 6, 2014 we were presented with a certificate signed by the Governor of Idaho recognizing the farm as an Idaho Century Farm being in the family continuously for 100 years, the first farm in Heglar to be so recognized. In 2016 my brother and I split the ranch as equally as we could. He took the northeast half of the upper farm and I took the southeast half. He took the eastern half of the lower farm (in Heglar Canyon) and I took the western half. My half is called Sharp Tail Ranch and he kept the name Sage Chicken Ranch. We still work together and share many of the day to day chores and responsibilities.