ENTERPRISE — In a year when farmers are hurting because of the drought, related businesses also are feeling the heat as producers are struggling to harvest the meager crops that shippers such as Farm Supply take to market.

“It’s a year like no other,” co-owner Craig Willis said. “The harvest this year, as near as we can tell, is about 65% of normal in Umatilla County. It’s just getting going here (in Wallowa County), but I’m sure it’ll be affected here also.”

Farm Supply not only ships grain to market, but hauls fuel, chips, fertilizer, logs, cattle and nearly every commodity grown in the Northwest. The company, which Willis owns and operates with his wife, Candi, ships throughout Oregon, Idaho, Washington, Utah and Northern California.

“We haul ag commodities everywhere,” Craig said.

“If it fits, it ships,” quipped daughter Kylie.

Craig is even seeing ranchers shipping their livestock early, moving them from summer to winter pasture earlier or to feedlots.

“Normally, we don’t haul a lot of cattle this time of year, but this year ranchers are getting them off of pasture or moving to different pastures” because of the drought, he said. “We’re doing a lot of cattle shuffling.”

In addition to Craig and Candi Willis, Kylie helps out in the office and her husband, Klint, drives truck part time and takes care of the cows, while Craig and Candi’s son, Skyler, and his wife, Amber, take care of most of the farming.

Farm Supply has about 55 employees, 50 of whom are drivers of their 50 trucks. Most of the others are mechanics who keep the trucks operating, as do some mechanics the company contracts with.

“We are thankful for the employees we have and couldn’t provide great service without them,” Candi said.

The Willises have owned the business since 2004. Craig went to work there in 1977, but the company dates to 1938.

“It’s an old, old company,” Craig said. “I used to drive a lot. I drove every day for 32 years before I bought the company, and then I continued to drive and dispatch trucks as we built the company until about 2010.”

“Now he just has to be within phone range because he’s on the phone all the time,” Candi said.

The Willises both are Wallowa County natives.

“Our families go back generations here,” Craig said.

The company has three locations. In addition to Enterprise, there are outlets in La Grande and in Lewiston, Idaho, where a fleet of 12 trucks are kept busy.

In fact, Lewiston is one of the more popular destinations for Wallowa County commodities, since the city on the Snake River gives the otherwise landlocked Idaho a seaport.

While they also ship to Tri-Cities, Washington, “Lewiston is way closer,” Craig said.

“For us, it made more sense to drive the bushels to a port closer to the ocean and that’d net the farmer more money for the same freight,” he said.

But farmers here are going to be hurting once they get their drought-stricken crops to market.

“Yields are bad over (in Umatilla County), but the dryland here is just a catastrophe,” Craig said. “The irrigated ground here I think will be down, but not like the dryland. Even irrigated hay, the yields are down.”

That’s both because of limited water and heat.

“You just can’t get over your ground fast enough to keep from being pinched by the heat,” he said.

Owners: Craig and Candi Willis

Where: 319 Golf Course Road, Enterprise

Hours: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Phone: 541-426-5915

Email: farmsupply@eoni.com