You're invited to join the Umatilla Soil and Water Conservation District for the public 2025 Annual Meeting on Tuesday, November 18. The evening will be a time to celebrate the District's conservation accomplishments through the last year over a delicious tri-tip dinner. The event is free for community members to attend!

The District will also be sharing the stage with presentations from three industry-leading guest speakers about future technologies for farming and ranching: Vence, Halter, and Rainmaker. Please RSVP at the bottom of this page. 

Tuesday, November 18 at 5:00 p.m.

Pendleton Convention Center,  1601 Westgate Pendleton, OR 97801

RSVP Here

Guest Speakers

Vence

Vence’s revolutionary system of animal guidance collars and base stations allows producers to easily identify, track, and monitor livestock and precisely manage grazing from a tablet or computer.

Nathaniel Slinkert is territory manager within the Pacific and Great Basin states for Vence. He also manages Vence’s research accounts, working with various organizations to explore new use cases for virtual fencing and to facilitate outreach through university extension programs.

Halter

Halter is a virtual fencing system that allows ranchers to contain, move, and precisely track their cattle through GPS-enabled collars and a mobile app. It’s helping producers across the West with labor, material costs and grazing efficiency—actively being used on more than 500,000 cows and counting.

Garrett Haffey studied Ecological Science at CSU Chico and worked in the branded beef and pork space before joining Halter. He’s now based in Central Oregon, raising small herd of pack-goats and blending hands-on livestock work with an ecological perspective.

Rainmaker

Rainmaker’s mission is to use proven and reliable technologies to combat water scarcity and create more beauty and abundance in the natural world, and is committed to helping the public understand the truth about what cloud seeding can and cannot do.

Max Jones is the Director of Water Policy at Rainmaker Technology Corporation, where he develops innovative strategies to mitigate the impacts of severe drought and balance the needs of irrigators, utilities, and the environment.

Northeast Oregon Water Association

NOWA is dedicated to securing a sustainable water supply that meets the long-term needs of agriculture and local communities, ensuring resilience and reliability in Eastern Oregon. With water allocation challenges and persistent drought threatening the region’s $2+ billion economy and way of life, NOWA works to develop long-term solutions that balance economic stability, environmental stewardship, and the well-being of future generations.

J.R. Cook is Founder and Director of the Northeast Oregon Water Association (NOWA), a non-profit corporation established to protect and enhance the value-added natural resource-based economy in northeastern Oregon.