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Thursday, February 6, 2020
The Observer & Baker City Herald
Small-business & Ag
HAPPENINGS
Skip-Line under new ownership
LA GRANDE — La Grande-based
Skip-Line Inc., a leading manufacturer
of equipment and technology for the
pavement marking industry, has a new
owner.
Spec-Rite, a limited-liability transporta-
tion safety, data and software company
formed in 2018 in Adams Center, New York,
recently announced it purchased Skip-Line,
which turned 50 in 2019.
“This transaction will allow Spec-Rite
to deliver its pavement marking manage-
ment software to the highway markets
using Skip-Line’s family of products and
market reach,” according to the statement
from Spec-Rite. “The synergies from this
transaction will also accelerate ‘smart’
products to market from Skip-Line, which
improve the application and management
of pavement markings for human and
machine vision.”
The announcement also stated Skip-
Line will continue to operate from 10514
N McAlister Road, La Grande. Skip-Line
President Brian Kausler stated the move
allows the local business to better meet the
needs of customers.
“Skip-Line has developed so many great
relationships over the years, we can’t wait
to give our industry friends and partners
more tools to succeed in making roadways
safer,” according to Kausler.
Chinatopix via AP
A volunteer stands in front of a Communist Party fl ag as he takes the temperature of a scooter driver Monday at a roadside checkpoint
in Hangzhou in eastern China’s Zhejiang Province. China sent medical workers and equipment to a newly built hospital, infused cash
into fi nancial markets and further restricted people’s movement in sweeping new steps Monday to contain the coronavirus.
Virus impacting business
By Paul Wiseman
and Anne D’Innocenzio
The Associated Press
Free QuickBooks class held
Feb. 22
LA GRANDE — Locals can take a free
class on the accounting software package
QuickBooks.
Eastern Oregon University’s Small
Business Development Center is offering
the free introduction to QuickBooks on Sat-
urday, 10 a.m. to noon, in room 147 of the
Integrated Services Building, 607 Gekeler
Lane, La Grande.
The instructor is Diana Bautista, a senior
accounting student at Eastern Oregon
University. The class requires pre-registra-
tion by calling 541-962-1532 or emailing
eousbdc@gmail.com.
Farm Bureau celebrates
women’s contributions to
agriculture
SALEM — Oregon ranks fourth in the
nation for the number of farmers and
ranchers who are women, according to the
latest U.S. Census of Agriculture (2017),
reported in a press release from the Oregon
Farm Bureau.
There are 29,868 female farmers and
ranchers in Oregon, representing 44%
of the state’s agricultural community.
Nationally, 36% of all U.S. farmers and
ranchers are female, according to the
census.
To celebrate women’s contributions to
Oregon agriculture — and the impact of
public policy on all farm and ranch fami-
lies — the Oregon Farm Bureau Women’s
Advisory Council hosted a reception for
lawmakers and the general public at the
state capitol on Monday, the fi rst day of
the 2020 Oregon Legislative Short Ses-
sion.
“Farm Bureau members will be at the
capitol to remind lawmakers their deci-
sions directly impact our ability to grow
crops, raise animals, contribute to the
economy, and stay viable and sustainable
for the next generation,” OFB Women’s
Advisory Council Chair Janice Flegel,
who runs a cattle and hay ranch with
her family in Crook County, stated in the
release.
“Women play an essential role on Or-
egon’s farms and ranches in every capacity,
as owner-operators, as bookkeepers, as
mothers, and as advocates for agriculture in
the Legislature.”
WASHINGTON — Hyundai
Motors is suspending production
in South Korea, a sign that the
economic fallout from China’s
viral outbreak is spreading.
For other companies bracing
for losses from coronavirus, the
damage has so far been delayed,
thanks to a stroke of timing: The
outbreak hit just when Chinese
factories and many businesses
were closed anyway to let work-
ers travel home for the week-
long Lunar New Year holiday .
But the respite won’t last.
If much of industrial China
remains on lockdown for the
next few weeks, a very real pos-
sibility, Western retailers, auto
companies and manufacturers
that depend on Chinese imports
will start to run out of the goods
they depend on.
In order to meet deadlines for
summer goods, retail experts
say that Chinese factories would
need to start ramping up pro-
duction by March 15. If Chinese
factories were instead to remain
idle through May 1, it would
likely cripple retailers’ crucial
back-to-school and fall seasons.
“There’s complete uncer-
tainty,’’ said Steve Pasierb, CEO
of the Toy Industry Association.
“This could be huge if it goes on
for months.’’
Wuhan, the Chinese city
where the outbreak hit hardest,
is a center of automotive produc-
tion. It’s been closed off, along
with neighboring cities, isolating
more than 50 million people and
bringing factories to a standstill.
So far, U.S. automakers
haven’t had to curb production
for want of Chinese parts. But
David Closs, professor emeritus
at Michigan State University’s
Department of Supply Chain
Management, said the clock is
ticking.
“I would say it’s weeks at the
most,’’ Closs said. “One to two to
three weeks.’’
Hyundai said Tuesday that it
was suspending production in
South Korea “due to disruptions
in the supply of parts resulting
from the coronavirus outbreak
in China’’ and that it “was
seeking alternative suppliers in
other regions.’’
The partial shutdown of
Wuhan has already harmed the
production of TV display panels
and raised prices, according
to a report by research group
IHS Markit. The city has fi ve
factories making liquid crystal
displays, known as LCDs, and
organic light-emitting diodes,
known as OLEDs, both of which
are used for television and
laptop monitors. China accounts
for more than half of the global
production capacity for making
these display panels.
David Hsieh, an analyst at
IHS Markit, said in a report
that “these factories are fac-
ing shortages of both labor and
key components as a result of
mandates designed to limit the
contagion’s spread,” leading sup-
pliers to raise panel prices more
aggressively.
Phone-maker Motorola,
which has a facility in Wuhan,
said that so far, it expects little
impact because it has a fl exible
global supply chain and multiple
factories around the world. Its
priority has been the welfare
of local employees, Motorola,
which is owned by the Chinese
electronics giant Lenovo, said in
a statement.
Apple CEO Tim Cook told
analysts last week that the com-
pany’s contractors in China had
been forced to delay reopening
factories that closed for the Lu-
nar New Year holiday. Cook said
the company is seeking ways to
minimize supply disruptions.
Some of its suppliers are in
Hubei, the Chinese province at
the center of the outbreak. Most
of Apple’s iPhones and other
devices are made in China.
In the meantime, economists
are sharply downgrading the
outlook for China’s economy, the
world’s second-biggest. Tommy
Wu and Louis Kuijs of Oxford
Economics have slashed their
forecast for Chinese economic
growth this year from 6% to
5.4%. They expect most of the
damage to be infl icted in the
fi rst three months of 2020.
“But a more serious and long-
lasting impact cannot be ruled
See Virus / Page 2B
BLM, U.S. Forest Service announce fees
EO Media Group staff
WASHINGTON — The federal grazing
fee for 2020 will be $1.35 per animal unit
month for public lands under Bureau of
Land Management control and $1.35 per
head month for lands the U.S. Forest Service
controls. The 2019 public land grazing fee
was $1.35.
An AUM or HM — treated as equivalent
measures for fee purposes — is the use of
public lands by one cow and her calf, one
horse or fi ve sheep or goats for a month. A
congressional formula determined the newly
calculated grazing fee, which takes effect
March 1. The fee will apply to nearly 18,000
grazing permits and leases the BLM admin-
isters and nearly 6,250 permits adminis-
tered by the Forest Service.
Congress established the formula for cal-
culating the grazing fee in the 1978 Public
Rangelands Improvement Act. The formula
has remained in use under a 1986 presiden-
tial executive order that prohibits the graz-
ing fee from falling below $1.35 per AUM/
HM, and any increase or decrease cannot
exceed 25% of the previous year’s level.
The annual grazing fee is established us-
ing a 1966 base value of $1.23 per AUM/HM
for livestock grazing on public lands in West-
ern states. Three factors — private grazing
land lease rates, beef cattle prices and the
cost of livestock production — fi gure into the
calculation. In effect, the fee rises, falls or
stays the same based on market conditions.
The BLM and Forest Service work closely
with permittees to ensure public range-
lands remain healthy, productive working
landscapes. To better serve the American
public, the BLM has initiated development
of an Environmental Impact Statement to
consider proposed revisions to its grazing
regulations, with the goal of updating, mod-
907826-B
2106 Cove Ave.
La Grande
541.963.4969
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ernizing and streamlining existing grazing
regulations and providing greater fl exibility
for land and resource management. This ef-
fort will not affect the 2020 grazing fees.
Half of the grazing fees deposited into the
U.S. Treasury are returned to the Range
Betterment Fund for on-the-ground range
improvement projects. Portions of collected
fees are also returned to the states for use
in the counties where the fees were gener-
ated.
The grazing fee applies in 16 Western
states on public lands administered by the
BLM and the Forest Service. The states are:
Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas,
Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico,
North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South
Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
Permit holders and lessees may contact
their local BLM or Forest Service offi ce for
additional information.
Let us help you
sort out the
new tax law
changes.