Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington

George Wishon is a 5th generation rancher. My parents, Ted and Debbi Wishon, started their own operation in Colville WA and we also have a ranch in Paterson WA. We have a cow/calf commercial Hereford operation we summer in northeast Washington in primarily mountain meadows and forest land with about 400 mother cows. We also operate a trucking company and then we winter in Paterson WA on the Washington and Oregon line primarily on corn stocks, winter wheat and desert grass.

It’s a cow/calf operation we hold yearlings/sell calves at a year old. I am in the process of pursuing some different agricultural degrees. I have spent the last couple of years at Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton OR receiving associate degrees in agricultural livestock production and agricultural crops production. I am 21 years old, I enjoy ranching, I have been involved with R-CALF as long as I can remember and can really see a difference it makes in the industry trying to just have a competitive marketplace with some profitability involved.

The first issue I really saw was the Canadian cattle dumping in the early 2000’s. Country-of-origin labeling is a top issue now that I can see directly. Another subsequent issue is the mandatory RFID and how it relates to the global roundtable for sustainable production.