For the Powers family outside of Bickleton, Wash., family farming means that, literally. Mitchell and Taylor Powers and Mitchell’s parents, Lance and Susan, run the show with no hired help, although there could be a new supervisor on the scene — Renzie, Mitchell Powers’ 2-year-old son who is named after Powers’ great-great-grandfather.
“Grandpa still checks in on us, but he’s 89 years old, so he doesn’t help with any of the operations anymore,” Powers said. “Where we live, every farm around here is a family farm. Almost all of them I can think of have a long history of being in the same family, so where we live, without family farms, there’s no farms.”
The Powers family raises mostly spring wheat with some winter wheat; the family has farmed in the area since 1880. They also grow alfalfa for hay and run cattle. Unusually, for the drier regions of Eastern Washington, they don’t incorporate a fallow period as the soil in their area is generally too shallow to hold moisture.
The seeds of one of the family’s most enduring harvest tradition was planted in the early 1970s when Powers’ grandparents bought a farm that had an apple tree on it.
“We pick the apples off the tree and make a couple pans of apple bars, and then we have one in our lunch every day during harvest,” he explained.
In 2026, Powers and his father are facing the same challenges most Eastern Washington wheat farmers are: high input costs and low commodity prices. Because harvest is generally just him and his father, lines at the elevator or other unexpected things that holds one of them up can seriously slow their progress. They rely on their spouses for help in moving equipment around.
“A long time ago, everybody had lots of help, but really, since self-propelled combines, it’s pretty well always been a family operation,” Powers said. “There’s been a couple hired hands through the years, but mostly it’s just family.”
