family background/ Mark is a sixth-generation farmer from The Dalles. He is married to Audrey Hinatsu and is the son of Kim and Greg Johnson.
age/ 29
hometown/ The Dalles, Oregon
crops/ Cherries
role/ Field operator
business/ The Dalles Irrigation District
What were your first moments on the farm?
I’ve been part of cherry harvest for as long as I can remember. My mom likes to say that she’d come get me up in the morning and I’d already be outside sitting on the forklift with my dad or putting bin tags on.
I remember doing the bin tags, and it was my first harvest job when I was a little kid. Swamping the cherry buckets was hard work, but it was fun. Changing the water with our hand lines was a big job, too.
Why study business?
I’ve been working on my associate’s degree in business. My dad went to college in agriculture at Washington State University, and that’s what I was planning during high school. But when talking with him, he said that if he did it again, he’d get a business degree instead.
His opinion is that agriculture is something you can learn on the farm. You can learn how to grow cherries from people around you and from just doing it. But running a successful business is the hardest part in today’s agriculture.
Tell me about your career path.
After I started college, our family leased the farm to Orchard View, and I began doing irrigation work for them. I did that for one season and then went straight into harvest.
A few seasons after that, I was the assistant manager planning out the orchards, irrigation systems, the planting of baby trees, all the spacing and varieties.
That was what I did for probably five years at Orchard View. And then, once I started working for Mike Omeg, I was doing more data analysis, experimental blocks, different varieties and different types of fruit.
My job was learning what would grow in our area and doing random projects that would pop up that they needed somebody to get done on that particular day. I did a little bit of everything during that time.
What are you doing now?
Now I’m working with the irrigation district. When I was with the farm, I planned the irrigation and I’d work with the irrigation district. While on the farm, I’d plan the spacing of the sprinklers, what sprinklers we were going to use, that kind of stuff.
Since coming over to work for the water district, I’ve got to plan for everything leading up to the farms. I need to worry about the pressure to the turnout, to the distribution point, and then get the correct pressure regulator and make sure it’s set right, so that we don’t blow the farm’s irrigation system.
I also need to get this information to the grower, because we can only run so much water at a time. Getting that information to the grower in a way that’s useful so they can properly irrigate their system is important.
What advice do you have for other young growers?
Find a mentor. Find somebody who’s out there and has done the work. They can teach you, and they want to see young people in farming. They don’t want to see big, giant corporations come in and take over the farm. So, just find a mentor.
The other thing is don’t be afraid to get dirty. Do all the dirty jobs, because you’ll know if you really want to do it or not.
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