Business AgLife
B
Thursday, May 7, 2020
The Observer & Baker City Herald
Businesses respond to COVID-19 ‘In Their Own Words’
Local business owners say they don’t
know about federal programs to help them
J
By Phil Wright
EO Media Group
LA GRANDE — Sev-
eral local businesses
responding to a statewide
survey reported laying off
or reducing hours for most
or all of their employees
due to restrictions to curb
the spread of COVID-19.
The businesses also shared
recovering could take any-
where from four to 30
weeks.
The responses are part of
the Oregon State Chamber
of Commerce’s “In Their
Own Words” effort to col-
lect unfiltered and real
feedback from local busi-
nesses to help policymakers
understand what’s hap-
pening to local businesses
and adopt policies that help
with recovery, according to
the announcement from the
Union County Chamber of
Commerce.
Roughly 200 busi-
nesses and nonprofits
across Oregon in the span
of two days responded to
the survey, according to the
local chamber, to convey
how the COVID-19 crisis
has adversely affected their
operations.
Eight businesses in
Union County responded,
including a retail flooring
sales and installation com-
pany that also operates in
Enterprise and Baker City.
These local businesses
shared their challenges
accessing federal stimulus
dollars, negative effects to
their workforce and issues
they anticipate in reopening
when Gov. Kate Brown lifts
the “Stay Home, Stay Safe”
executive order.
The survey asks busi-
nesses multiple ques-
tions, including what
industry they are in, how
many employees they have
and what percentage of
employees are now on fur-
lough or laid off.
The survey also asks
business owners how long
they expect to take to
recover and for feedback on
related topics, such as what
information they need from
government agencies at all
levels to help in recovery
and what industries would
be important to focus on
first.
The survey results pro-
vide the responses without
naming the businesses but
include business type and
places of operation.
One La Grande restau-
rant/catering business
reported it had 25 workers
on March 1, and now 80%
are not working. The estab-
lishment also estimated
it would take 20 weeks
to recover and gave this
response to a question
asking for suggestions on
See, Respond/Page 3B
‘Great Potato Drive’ is win-win
Joseph farmer
provides 500
pounds of spuds a
week to help local
food banks
J
By Bill Bradshaw
Observer file photo
EO Media Group
ENTERPRISE — Wal-
lowa County residents
— and others — are con-
tinuing to fill the local food
bank coffers as Commu-
nity Connection strives
to help feed those in need
with donations of food and
money to buy it.
Monday, a local couple
gave a $500 check to Rich
Wandschneider, president
of the Rotary Club of Wal-
lowa County, to purchase
more potatoes for the Great
Potato Drive that benefits
the food bank said Randi
Jandt, Rotary spokesperson.
This is the sixth week
the club has purchased
potatoes for the food bank
for a total of 3,000 pounds.
“So we have another
week for the food bank,”
Jandt said.
She said in addition to
locals, donations have come
from as far away as Reno,
Nevada and Portland.
“People have donated as
much as $200 that way,” she
said.
Jandt said she recently
checked in with the La
Grande hub of the Oregon
Food Bank, from which the
local branch receives food,
and asked if the regional
hub still needed Wallowa
County potatoes.
“They are able to use
every potato,” she was told.
In addition to helping
Wallowa County, the
regional hub puts the pota-
toes in supplies it sends for
food boxes and Meals on
Wheels to 18 other regional
food pantries, Jandt said.
The local farm that has
benefited from the potato
drive is the organic Prairie
Creek Farm owned by Pat-
rick Thiel of Joseph. He still
has potatoes in storage from
last year’s crop.
Trevor Knowles, center, competes in steer wrestling
at the Chief Joseph Days Rodeo in 2017. The rodeo’s
board of directors remains hopeful the event will pro-
ceed as usual in late July in spite of the COVID-19 pan-
demic.
Chief Joseph Days
aims to ride this year
Rodeo generates 18-25% of the total
tourism revenue in Wallowa County
J
By Ellen Morris Bishop
EO Media Group
Photo by Bill Bradshaw/EO Media Group
Organic farmer Patrick Thiel shows a red-skinned Valery potato in October 2019 at his
farm near Joseph. The Valery is one of many he grows there and markets to high-end
Portland restaurants, as well as sells at local farmers markets. Thiel has been able to keep
his workers employed during the COVID-19 pandemic because of the willingness of the
local community to buy his produce and with a Paycheck Protection Program loan.
Jandt said she checked
with other county farms but
has found none with pro-
duce to spare.
“They’re not quite pro-
ducing enough,” she said.
“It’s still early in the
season.”
Thiel said he has been
providing about 500 pounds
of potatoes a week to the
food bank.
He said he has
Anoushka yellow, Reba
round white, Huckleberry
Gold, All-Blue and Spartan
Splash varieties the Rotary
Club buys at $1 a pound
for the food bank. The
Hurricane Creek Grange
in Joseph also has been
buying Thiel’s spuds to
donate, he said.
Although that’s far below
what he would normally
sell to the 35 high-end Port-
land-area restaurants that
were the mainstays of his
market before the pan-
demic — only two of them
still take his spuds — it’s
enough to keep him going
and, along with a Paycheck
Protection Program loan,
to keep a couple workers
employed.
He said he had to lay
off his workers for about
three weeks, but was able
to reemploy them and pur-
chase some seed after
taking out a loan on his
tractor while waiting for the
PPP loan to come through.
In the meantime, some
of his crop is rotting in the
warehouse.
“I’ve probably lost
$25,000 to $30,000 of my
crop because of the shut-
down from not being able
to market them in a timely
fashion,” Thiel said.
But, he said, being
cut off from his usual
market is providing new
opportunities.
“It’s kind of creating a
new system by doing more
local marketing,” he said.
He’s also working to get
more of his crop into local
retail sales.
“I’ve worked on trying
to get more markets, but
that takes time,” he said.
“Under the circumstances,
everybody’s markets are
disrupted.”
Farming is never an easy
profession, he noted, adding
there always are problems
with markets, equipment
and financing a producer
must face. But he acknowl-
edged the support of the
community.
“Efforts by Randi
Jandt, the Hurricane Creek
Grange and the Rotary have
kept me going … but busi-
ness expenses don’t stop,”
he said.
Thiel recognized how
Wallowa County comes
together as a community to
take care of its own.
“I just think the commu-
nity is amazing, the kind-
ness and sacrifice for others
in people who live here,” he
said. “It’s been wonderful
to see.”
JOSEPH — Chief
Joseph Days has been
celebrated on the last
full weekend of July for
the past 74 years. If the
rodeo’s board of directors
has its way, this year will
mark 75.
“The community and
our sponsors have sup-
ported us generously
through all the years,”
said director Terry Jones.
“They count on Chief
Joseph Days economically.
It’s a mutual relationship.
Especially this year, we
want to support our spon-
sors and the community.”
Jones said the Chief
Joseph Days board will
make a final decision in
late June on whether to
hold the 75th rodeo this
See, Rodeo/Page 3B
New draft guidelines
posted for reopening
hair salons, restaurants
By Dick Hughes
For the Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — Hair, nail,
massage, tattoo and sim-
ilar salons might reopen
with strict requirements
to keep apart and follow
extensive hygiene pro-
cedures, according to
COVID-19 draft guide-
lines posted Tuesday
on Gov. Kate Brown’s
website.
Draft guidelines for
restaurants and bars also
have been updated to
delete the suggestion that
they collect patron infor-
mation for potential use
by public health officials
in tracing who came in
contact with an infected
individual.
That had drawn strong
opposition from eating and
drinking establishments.
“The idea of patrons
having to sign their name
or address if they’re
coming to eat at the
restaurant is very much
opposed by the restaura-
teurs,” Umatilla County
Commissioner George
See, Opening/Page 2B
Coronavirus outbreak causes cattle, beef prices to diverge
By Carol Ryan Dumas
Capital Press
SALEM — Cattle pro-
ducers and lawmakers have
been calling on the admin-
istration to expand its inves-
tigation of the wide dis-
parity between rising beef
prices and falling cattle
prices amid the coronavirus
pandemic.
Some producers also
urge a restructuring of
the meatpacking industry,
breaking up the largest
companies and requiring
them to purchase more
cattle through cash trade.
“An investigation into
packers for whatever reason
probably isn’t a bad idea,”
said Derrell Peel, an exten-
sion livestock marketing
specialist at Oklahoma
State University.
Given four meatpackers
account for more than
80% of the nation’s cattle
slaughter and processing,
it’s always good to have
oversight, he said. That’s
reason for worry about
market power above and
beyond supply and demand,
he said.
“We are careful of that in
this country,” he said.
However, they’ve been
investigated by govern-
ment and researched by
economists for years, and
no one’s found any undue
influence on cattle prices,
he said.
A large gap has emerged
between wholesale beef
prices and fed cattle prices
since the coronavirus out-
break, but it’s the way the
market works, he said.
“There’s nothing in these
prices that surprise me as
an economist,” he said.
Fed cattle prices are
derived from the value
above them on the supply
chain. Coronavirus has
caused a lot of extra costs
in processing and shipping,
which have driven fed cattle
prices down and wholesale
beef prices up, he said.
Processors are closed
or running at reduced
capacity, yet all their
expenses remain. They are
still paying employees —
even if they’re not working
— and paying bonuses
to those who are. They’re
also spending extra money
making workers safer.
Because of these added
expenses, the cost per unit
of beef product is much
higher, he said.
Just looking at the
margin between cattle
prices and wholesale beef
prices, people think proces-
sors are making “ungodly”
profits — but those margins
are basically meaningless
right now, he said.
“They’re not making
as much money as every-
body else thinks they are,”
he said.
The choice boxed beef
price on Friday was $377.45
per hundredweight, the
highest it’s ever been, but
normally 80% of beef sold
is priced four to six weeks
earlier. Beef production
last week was only 60%
of normal, and most was
already priced, he said.
There wasn’t much extra
beef available that wasn’t
forward priced and every-
body was scrambling to get
it, which bid up prices, he
said.
“Negotiated boxed beef
prices represented only a
small amount of trade. The
boxed beef revenue is not
nearly as high as the boxed
beef price would tell you,”
he said.
He also cautions pro-
EO Media Group file photo
Cattle graze west of Eden, Idaho. A livestock expert says
breaking up the four biggest beef processors would ulti-
mately result in lower cattle prices.
ducers about wanting
to break up the four big
packers — Cargill, JBS,
National Beef and Tyson.
They got that way because
of economics, and cost effi-
ciencies allow them to pay
more for cattle, he said.
Research has shown
their little bit of market
power can push cattle prices
down a little. But because
of the cost efficiencies they
have, they wind up paying
more for cattle. Cattle
prices would be lower if the
big packers were disman-
tled, he said.