The Art of Roguing

Roguing: the manual removal of off-types or weeds that ensures a higher quality crop. My layman definition: the days where the farm equipment is put away and the young, able bodied farm crew gathers together to walk fields pulling rogue plants. We’re on the hunt for patches of thistles, wild oats, and the occasional off type. This is an activity my coworkers and I get to enjoy in late summer, during the window before the wild oat heads shatter but after they’ve grown higher than the wheat canopy.

I’m from a family with no farming or ranching in its background. My mom is a college advisor and my dad is an ag loan officer, so I can’t share a story about the hard work my grandpa put into starting a farm and how his legacy is now mine to carry on. However, I’m fortunate to live in a place like Wallowa County, where a number of these farms are located, including one I work for, Cornerstone Farms. The family operation is three generations deep with Tim Melville beginning the farm with the goal of being stewards of the land. I’m simply a farmhand for them during the summer months, meaning I have little experience with shop maintenance and operating equipment. This also means I never got the experience of riding in a combine as a little girl nor the family obsession of tracking the weather. Although I don’t have a long history in agriculture, I have witnessed a glimpse of the work, dedication, and passion that it takes to run a successful farm, and I am very thankful for it.

Roguing is not typically considered an enjoyable job; it may not be the hardest job, nor the most glorified, and definitely constitutes a tiny fragment of the overall process, but it does something meaningful beyond getting a field to pass certification. When our crew walks tight lines through a field, we check in with each other. We talk, and laugh, and joke, and pull weeds with tender fingertips, until the wheat all looks the same. Then there are times we get to make wide passes and all I have is the peace of a warm summer day when the wheat heads sway in the wind, and my mind wanders with the beautiful Wallowa Mountains that rise up at the edge of the valley. These moments are enjoyed, as it’s a pause from the irrigation season and the calm before the harvest storm. Although roguing isn’t the most glorious job, it’s one that I enjoy.

So I’m grateful for the wheat industry. I’m grateful for the opportunity and the livelihood it provides. I’m grateful for the farm I work for and the people I work with. I’m grateful for the experiences and the odd jobs like roguing because they reveal aspects of wheat production: the comradery of friends and family and time to think. I’m grateful because in my own small way, it allows me to be a part of the legacy that is the wheat industry.

2026 Scholarship Essay: Owyhee Harguess