The Nezperce Prairie Grass Growers Association at its 2021 annual meeting presented the David Mosman NPGGA Hall of Fame Award to Nathan “Nate” Riggers, a producer in north-central Idaho.

The award “recognizes growers and leaders who have made a contribution to the success and advancement of the grass seed industry in Idaho,” Executive Director Benjamin Kelly said.

The association created the award last year to honor Mosman, who died in September 2019 at 58.

Mosman was a “thinker, innovator and strong leader in the industry,” Kelly said.

“He was a neighbor of ours,” Riggers said. Both had sons join their families’ farms around the same time.

Riggers said Mosman was instrumental in getting the state involved in regulating field burning, which since 2008 has been an state Department of Environmental Quality function. “It has been pretty successful.”

Riggers graduated from the University of Idaho College of Agriculture in 1987. He worked in the grain and seed industry — for Jacklin Seed, Stegner Grain and Reed Grain and Bean — before joining father Stan and brother Steven on the family farming operation in 1992.

Riggers and his wife, Christine, have three children: Katy, Jonathan and Christopher.

Christopher, 28, is a fifth-generation farmer.

“Christopher and his wife, Natalie, are partners in the farm,” Nate Riggers said.

The Riggers’ Clearwater Farms operate in the Nezperce-Craigmont area. The dryland farm produces turfgrass seed, winter wheat, canola, peas and lentils, chickpeas, and malting and food-grade barley.

Most of these commodities’ prices rebounded in the past six months after a roughly five-year lull, Riggers said.

“It’s getting fun again,” he said. “It’s always fun, but it’s more fun when there is good margin.”

Riggers said turfgrass seed markets — which were good for most of the past five years and tend to do well when the U.S. economy and dollar are strong — are declining.

He believes in crop diversification.

“When you always have a foot in each stream, you can always look at something positive,” he said.

Riggers said his great-grandfather homesteaded in 1895. Four descendant farms including Clearwater operate in close proximity.

He was president of NPGGA for 10 years. He now is on the Northwest Farm Credit Services Board of Directors and is a Leadership Idaho Agriculture graduate.

“As a grower, I appreciate Nate’s willingness to approach issues from a farmer’s perspective in leadership roles and his continued representation of our industry across the state of Idaho and in the Pacific Northwest,” NPGGA President Greg Branson said.