Swan Lake Valley is a patchwork of farm fields and grazing land about 20 minutes from Klamath Falls. The slopes of the surrounding juniper-scattered hills rise sharply from the valley floor, brown against the green of hay and alfalfa below.

About 5,500 acres of the valley is part of Edgewood Ranch. Lauren Jespersen’s family has been on this land since the 1970s, farming about half of it and making pellet livestock feed. But like many farm families, the Jespersens are trying to ensure their futures by doing more with their land.

“It’s hard to make a living in agriculture anymore unless you are an extremely large operation,” Jespersen says. Like a growing number of farmers on the sunny, windy eastern …