A Conversation with Jeff & Sherri Hussey
Otis Creek Ranch Owners
Drewsey, Oregon
by
Ellen Waterston
Turning north off Highway 20, about 40 miles east of Burns, I pass through Drewsey, current population maybe 217. Located on the main stem of the Malheur River, it has a functioning post office, church, and elementary school (serving six students, give or take). Everything else—a boarded-up garage, store and tavern—suggests better times. But I’ve learned not to draw conclusions. Like so many rural outposts in southeastern Oregon, there’s more to Drewsey and the surrounding area than meets the eye. I continue on toward Otis Valley, navigating the long, lazy sweep of gravel miles leading up and out of the sleepy town, soon cresting a rise that opens to a show-stopping panorama: sage steppes, the Crowcamp Hills, creeks called out by aspen and willow, and jawlines of ridges outlined in ponderosa pine. In the distance I can just make out the silhouette of a tall entry gate marking my destination: Jeff and Sherri Hussey’s Otis Creek Ranch. When just about there, I catch sight of a lush green pasture polka-dotted by the couple’s Red Angus. The mother cows’ slick, claret coats and even configuration are testament to someone doing something right.
Jeff and Sherri meet me at the gated entrance to the ranch that features an impressive rendered-metal arch overhead depicting a cowboy and cowgirl kneeling, their horses behind them, reins dropped, and in the middle, a cross. The two, dressed for ranching business—jeans, barn jacket, a cap in Sherri’s case, a cowboy hat in Jeff’s—point me to a parking spot in front of their house. It sits long and low on a slight rise, shaded by trees and shrubs, edged by tidy flower gardens. The nearby corrals, barn, outbuildings and machine shed are equally well kempt. Even the clutch of border collies in the back of a four-wheeler, where they wait dutifully for their next instructions, are well-behaved. Now this, I think to myself, is a ranch that’s benefitting from a lot of attention, know-how, discipline and love.
After a tour and hours of engaging conversation, it is evident this couple’s cattle operation is an example, to use the current nomenclature, of regenerative or sustainable ranching. The Otis Creek Ranch is steeped in history and tradition and is also on a first name basis with reinvention and innovation. Jeff and Sherri know the area’s cultural and natural history and use that knowledge to inform current practices. They see present challenges as an invitation to ready themselves and future generations for the potential that lies ahead. When I ask how they accomplish this, Jeff credits their strong work ethic. “Every day we do our best to take care of everything we have,” he states. He emphasizes the need for a tight budget, proactive goal setting and strategic planning, clear benchmarks, a productive and committed team, and keeping a finger on the pulse of market trends and agricultural innovations. All this to sustain and augment the ranch’s primary enterprise: raising registered and commercial Red Angus. “What gets us up in the morning? Making money, family, love of what we do for a living, and concerns about the future.” But for Jeff and Sherri what comes before all these, binds them all together, makes everything else possible…well, the entry gate says it all. “It’s our faith. Our faith comes first,” says Jeff, “then family, then ranch. It’s what makes this ranch unique.”
If you listen carefully while walking the streets of Drewsey or exploring the rangelands and ridges surrounding Otis Valley, you’ll hear the echoes of history in the complaining hinges of weathered doors, in the wind whistling through torn screens, shivering through pine boughs, gliding across Beulah reservoir. They’ll tell you there was a time, long before white settlers arrived, the Drewsey area was prized by the Paiutes, who freely hunted deer, foraged for biscuit root, wild carrots and onions, and fished for salmon in what was later named the Malheur River. In those long-ago days, salmon still migrated from the Pacific Ocean up the Columbia and Snake Rivers and into the Malheur’s North Fork. Twentieth century dams in the Snake would change all that.
Escalating hostilities between the two cultures resulted in the formation of the Malheur Reservation in 1872, which included Drewsey. Paiutes were relegated to the newly minted reservation to be schooled in the ways of the white man, including farming. What followed was more loss of land, culture and lives. The Bannock War of 1878 erupted and, upon their defeat, the Bannocks and Paiutes were dispersed to reservations in Idaho and Washington. By 1882, the Malheur Reservation’s 2,285 square miles, situated in the fertile drainage basin of the South, Middle and North forks of the Malheur River, were restored to public domain. Land claims were quickly filed by farmers and ranchers. And a town was established. In 1883, an enterprising Abner Robbins built a store (in what is now Drewsey), and named the settlement Gouge Eye, in reference to a favorite frontier method of settling disputes at the time. Postal authorities didn’t approve, so the next name proposed was Drusy; however, when officially registered in 1884, for some reason Drewsey was entered in the books and it stuck. The boom continued and by the 1920s, the town and surrounds claimed an abundance of crops, livestock, two lumber mills and, in Drewsey, a handful of ancillary businesses, including a saloon named, guess what, Gouge Eye.
Then came the perfect storm that devastated Drewsey and impacted the entire area. First, both the railroad from Juntura and the new Central Oregon Highway bypassed Drewsey. Soon after, the Great Depression hit. One of the region’s main employers, Pacific Livestock Company, packed up and left. Then came the First World War, and then and then. But through all this, many of the grandchildren and great grandchildren of original ranchers managed to keep their holdings going and growing.
“Between us,” says Jeff, “Sherri and I have 100 years of ranching experience. We’re old school.” The Otis Creek Ranch includes three properties up and down the valley which the couple have acquired and combined. The headquarters has water rights dating back to the first homestead on the property in 1883. “Our water resources are solid,” says Jeff. Keeping up with daily ranching and farming demands is a multi-generational undertaking. The couple’s son Tyler, his wife, Kandice, and their growing family are integral to the operation. “The little ones,” says Jeff, “are taught from the time they can crawl to respect cows, horses, snakes and guns.” And there’s plenty to do off as well as on the ranch. “All the kids get a lot of social: family, school, church.” Sherri recalls fondly, “I got on a tractor at six. I’d hang on the back. Then I was finally old enough to help. So excited when I could.” Her enthusiasm and work ethic is not lost on their five children and 12 grandchildren. “There’s nothing like growing up on a ranch to teach responsibility and respect. It’s a good way of life,” she says.
When it comes to livestock management, the operation’s commitment to productivity and efficiency is evident. “We cull our cows for disposition,” explains Jeff. “I have to have a resourceful cow, not too big, not too small, not too aggressive. Red Angus keeps it simple. Aggressive eaters, aggressive protecting their babies but not toward people.” Jeff says the success of the ranch is reflected in the performance of their herds as measured by “frame, body scores, weaning weights and so on. You can’t starve a profit out of a cow. You have to take care of them. The less stress we put on our cows, the more money they make us. A running cow costs me money.” He adds with a smile, “Sometimes they run just for fun. Drives me nuts.” Sherri notes that corral etiquette, especially during brandings, is also important in reducing stress on their cattle. “We are very, very aware of how our cattle are treated.”
The Husseys are members of Beef CARE, an organization which, according to Sherri, advocates for everything from clean troughs and maintained vehicles to best practices in caring for land and livestock. “Those considerations are why the ranch can be sustainable,” she says. “This ranch, we are true environmentalists. The ranchers that don’t take care of things, I feel threatened by them. Makes us all look bad. We’re doing the work, paying attention, working our tail off…if it (grazing permits) gets taken away by the government because of a neighbor’s bad management, that’s hard.”
Compared to when his parents were ranching, with today’s technological advances, complex politics, and government rules and regulations, Jeff feels, “now work works your brain more.” Reflecting on what’s required to stay current he adds, “Each and every kid on the ranch needs to learn about politics. Finish it. Finish that job. Stay in the room. Not so much fight as hold ground.” He models that commitment, attending as many Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service meetings as he can, and serving on the board for Harney Soil and Water Conservation District. The couple also makes a point of getting to know participating conservation organizations, including the Oregon Desert Land Trust, The Nature Conservancy, and the Oregon Natural Desert Association (ONDA). Reflecting on a meeting with ONDA regarding range management, he muses, “It’s kind of like a fence. Otis Creek Ranch on one side, ONDA on the other. But we started talking, did it without hate, did it with lots of gates, and from a common love of place.” Jeff was recently on a panel with various land use representatives and asked what his goal was for the high desert in 50 years. He replied, “That my grandkids will be holding rodear in the same corner I’m working pairs right now. It would mean I did something to preserve our way of life and the high desert.”
Photos provided by Jeff and Sherri Hussey
Published June, 2024
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