Inlation:
Continued from Page 11
“The cost of everything has gone up,” said
Todd Nash, a Wallowa County rancher and
president of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Associ-
ation. “It is going to be a really challenging
year for guys that have cattle and raise hay
with those escalating costs. Others may have
to go out and purchase hay.”
Hay and grain prices have seen an increase,
but Nash said cattle prices have not enjoyed
the same bump. He said many ranchers have
already been running as lean as they can for
several years and are making tough choices
on their feed for their most productive cattle.
Nash said one solution is to try to extend
grazing season, but that can be a challenge in
Wallowa County and other areas where snow
can arrive early in the fall at higher elevations.
Commodity prices can help ease
producers’ concerns
Despite high prices for fuel, fertilizer
and other petroleum products, some local
farmers and ranchers remain cautiously
optimistic.
“As long as wheat prices stay up, I’m OK
| 21
with high inputs,” said Tim Leber, a wheat
and cattle rancher from Umapine. “Where I
get nervous is if wheat crashes, while we’re
stuck with high inputs, as happened in 2008
to 2010.”
In 2008, soft white wheat prices were
almost as high as 2022. The recent surge is
still holding up. Soft white wheat at Portland
averaged $11.21 per bushel on June 22, up
from $8.50 a year earlier.
Wheat pulled back from its May high
nationally, however. Wheat futures peaked at
$13.49 at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange
on May 17, then fell to $9.51 on June 24, by
which time harvest had begun in Kansas.
During the pandemic, live cattle prices
crashed from $1.27 per pound on the CME on
Jan. 6, 2020, to 86 cents on April 20. They
then climbed to $1.44 on April 18, 2022,
before pulling back to $1.32 on May 23. They
reached $1.38 on June 13, but fell to $1.36 on
the 22nd. The price of livestock feed of course
has gone up with grain.
Leber top-dressed fertilizer on his fi elds
this year, to take advantage of the spring
rains. A further jump in wheat price as India
banned export of the staple cereal, due to its
heat wave, helped.
Leber noted that major wheat exporter
Ukraine is managing to plant, despite the war.
“Even with the ports closed, they’ll fi nd a
way to get it out,” he predicted.
Still, looking ahead to his likely fertilizer
bill in the fall is worrisome.
“We’re paying 50 cents per pound more
than last fall, but that’s as of now,” he said
during an interview in May. “Fertilizer could
keep going up.”
Supply chain challenges
Production costs isn’t the only thing plagu-
ing farmers and ranchers this year.
Equipment breaking is a part of their
everyday life, but the supply chain issues that
began with the pandemic are still evident.
Getting needed parts to fi x breaks is no guar-
antee and neither is obtaining new equipment.
“I talked to a guy that ordered a new trac-
tor and he has been waiting a year and a half
for it,” Nash said. “They are telling him it
could be another half of a year before he gets
the tractor.”
Mark Butterfi eld, chairman of the Wal-
lowa County Hay Growers, pre-buys his fuel
and fertilizer so he has avoided a signifi cant
economic sting, but said it was still expensive.
Butterfi eld grows alfalfa, timothy grass
and wheat and knows that one of his big-
gest costs will be transporting his product to
Boardman before it is sent to Japan.
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Butterfi eld said he has been able to get the
parts he needs — particularly for the baler —
to keep his operation running, but he knows
that will only last so long.
“We have all learned to pre-buy and keep
our parts shelves fi lled,” he said. “Eventually
we will have to refi ll them.”
It’s not only parts that are in short supply,
said Clair Pickard, a cattle rancher in Keating
Valley east of Baker City.
Finding someone to install those parts —
or fi gure out a way to get a busted machine
running again — can be a fruitless search, he
said.
“We don’t have any mechanics to work on
this equipment,” Pickard said.
Walenta said shipments of supplies and
parts that used to take a few days to arrive are
now taking weeks or months to get to farms
and ranches.
Some companies are now adding a gas
surcharge to the bill, which is an additional
cost that farmers and ranchers have to absorb,
he said.
Weishaar said he is keeping more parts on
hand than usual because of shipment times.
Weishaar said many farm equipment
manufacturers are back ordered and new
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