Union County cattlemen raise nearly $13,000 for local scholarships and discuss upcoming legislation
By Garrett Christensen on Thursday, January 15th, 2026 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
UNION COUNTY – On the evening of Saturday, January 10, The Union County Cattlemen’s Association hosted their annual dinner and live auction at the Elgin Stampede Hall. During the social event, the cattlemen raised several thousand dollars for their local scholarship fund and spoke with both Senator Todd Nash and Representative Bobby Levy on the upcoming legislative short session.
According to Union County Commissioner and Union County Cattlemen’s Association President Jake Seavert, around sixty-five people were in attendance, with the live auction raising around $2,000 dollars towards the Union County Cattlemen’s Association scholarship fund. First organized around three years ago, this fund provides scholarship opportunities for local high school seniors planning on attending post-high school education or training in agriculture.
The auction funds were combined with further a 10-11 thousand dollars raised via other contributions, for a total fund of between 12-13 thousand dollars as of time of writing. According to Seavert, the majority of these additional funds were donated from proceeds during local livestock sales. The cattlemen work with Intermountain Livestock to allow a per-head donation, fixed percentage, or flat rate contribution at the sale barn to go toward the scholarship fund.
During the dinner, both Nash and Levy also gave updates on some of their priorities for the upcoming legislative short session. Some of Nash’s focuses include the meat labeling bill (which would require further sub labels for plant based or animal-based meat products), a bill allowing the construction of ADU/EDU dwellings on exclusive farm use land zoning, and also running the preg-check bill as a committee bill this year.
To clarify, the preg-check bill, which passed last year but was not signed by the governor, would allow certain non-veterinarians in the livestock industry to pre-check cattle for pregnancies.
Levy mentioned her focus would be on securing additional wildfire funding. House Bill 3940, which passed last year, authorized additional funding for wildfire fighting/prevention from a nicotine pouch tax and the state rainy day fund, but the actual funds won’t be allocated until 2027. In the meantime, Levy hopes to secure a further 9 million dollars for 2026 as a stopgap to allow the Oregon Department of Forestry to continue wildfire operations unimpeded.
Other updates during the meeting included recognizing Doctor Terry McCoy and his family as cattlemen of the year (including a unique metal sign award) and introducing ODFW’s new local wolf contact specialist, Gerad Mitchel. Going forward, Mitchel will work with livestock producers in Union, Baker, and Wallowa counties, with a focus on non-lethal deterrent efforts as well as handling any investigations of suspected wolf depredations.
Lastly, Seavert noted he’s trying to push more local livestock producers and cattlemen to be more actively engaged with the Cattlemen’s Association.
