July 10, 2015
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13
Dairy/Livestock
Ranchers like outlook for cattle prices
By CRAIG REED
For the Capital Press
DELL, Mont. — Ranchers
might not be expecting the
beef market to reach the highs
of 2014, but they like what
they see at this time in 2015.
“The market is in good
shape,” said Jim Hagendarth,
a co-owner of Hagenbarth
Livestock that runs cattle
in southwest Montana and
southeast Idaho. “The market
probably won’t attain the lev-
els that it did last year when
it was exceptional, but things
are looking very good.”
Ed Wolfe, another south-
west Montana rancher, said
he’s looking forward to the
market being “favorable.”
“I don’t look for it to go
up much, I don’t look for it to
go down much,” said Wolfe,
who has been in the ranching
business for over 50 years.
“Ranching has been fairly
steady.”
Bill Hoyt, a past Oregon
Cattlemen’s Association pres-
ident, said while beef prices in
June weren’t quite as high as
a year ago, they were substan-
Craig Reed/For the Capital Press
Wily Wolfe vaccinates a calf during a branding day on the Wolfe Ranch near Dell, Mont., in late May.
Wily Wolfe and her husband, Ed Wolfe, run a black Angus cow-calf operation in southwestern Montana.
tially better than in the years
prior to 2014. Hoyt runs cat-
tle in both Douglas and Lane
counties in western Oregon.
Stacy Davies, the gener-
al manager of the Roaring
Springs Ranch in southeastern
Oregon, was also optimistic
about the market.
“These are very profitable
times for the cow-calf and
yearling sectors,” said Davies,
who has cattle in both Oregon
and near Sterling, Colo.
The ranchers explained
prices are staying up because
despite the national cow herd
slightly edging up to 89.9
million as of Jan. 1, 2015,
according to the National Cat-
tlemen’s Beef Association,
that number is still the lowest
since the early 1950s. Subse-
quently, the domestic beef
supply is at an all-time low
while consumer demand for
the protein product remains
strong.
According to the USDA
National Agricultural Sta-
tistical Service, Oregon
had 1.3 million cattle as of
Jan. 1, slightly up from the
1.28 million a year earlier,
Idaho had 2.3 million as of
Jan. 1, up from 2.24 million a
year before, and Washington
had 1.15 million, up from 1.11
million. California, with 5.15
million cattle as of Jan. 1, and
Montana with 2.5 million saw
slight declines in their herd
totals compared to the prior
year.
To the east in the Great
Plains states of Texas, Okla-
homa and Kansas a prolonged
drought prior to last fall re-
sulted in herd shrinkage. Rain
during the past year has now
given those states the most
potential for herd expansion.
Rains that fell in May in
many U.S. western regions
were a blessing, according to
the ranchers. Davies said the
average rainfall in Sterling,
Colo., is 16 inches and that
area received that many inch-
es in May alone. He said the
grass on Colorado’s east side
“is so good.”
“They have more grass
than ever before,” he said.
On Roaring Springs’ home
ranch in Oregon, 3 inches of
rain fell in May. Idaho and
Montana ranches also re-
ceived those May rains.
“It looked disastrous
around the first of May, then
both Montana and Idaho got
some tremendous rains,” Ha-
gendarth said of the water that
quickly helped pastures and
hay fields grow. The rancher
added that he expected good
pasture to be at a premium
during the forecasted hot and
dry summer.
There was little to no
snowpack so the May rain
was much needed.
While pasture sprouted
with the May rains, many
Northwest ranchers figure
irrigation water will be in
short supply in many areas.
If so, they know second and
third cuttings of hay will be
jeopardized. There could be a
short supply of hay and a high
demand, pushing the price
up. As always, rain showers
through the summer and fall
to green up pastures would
ease the demand for hay.
“You’re always concerned
about hay costs,” Hoyt said.
“It just depends on what the
weather does.”
Drought happens: Proper planning, management helps ranchers
By DOUG WARNOCK
For the Capital Press
A
gricultural producers
in the Pacific North-
west are used to en-
countering a drought every
few years and, occasionally,
several years in a row. How
producers deal with drought,
reducing its impact, differs
with the individual.
A person’s approach will
depend on the crop or prod-
uct, where they are located
and many other factors. Ex-
perienced graziers have de-
veloped their own ways to
handle drought, but the less
experienced will be looking
for wisdom from their peers.
Most of the irrigated pas-
tures must get by with less
Greener
Pastures
Doug Warnock
water this year due to much
smaller snowpacks. Range-
land managers are dealing
with both heat-stressed for-
age plants and smaller sup-
plies of livestock drinking
water.
Drought can be a one-two
punch in that it not only re-
duces the current year’s plant
growth, but also can result in
lower production the follow-
ing year. The way the forage
plants are managed during a
drought can affect the plants’
ability to thrive in subse-
quent years. Moisture stressed
plants will not recover from
grazing as well or as rapid-
ly as a healthy plant. That is
why it is critical to keep plant
tissue removal at more mod-
erate levels and protect the
plant’s crown. The crown is
the plant’s source of reserves
for recovery.
To avoid overuse and re-
duce plant stress, it may be
necessary to reduce the num-
ber of animals grazing the
pasture. Often producers will
reduce their herd or flock size
to reduce grazing pressure. It
is very important going into a
grazing season to reduce ani-
mal numbers as soon as one
is aware of potential drought.
Reductions made early can
help the operator get through
the drought without too many
other changes. Some produc-
ers seek alternative feeds to
replace reduced forage avail-
ability. These feeds are usual-
ly more abundant in irrigated
cropping areas, but these may
be less available due to short-
ened irrigation seasons.
By-products and crop res-
idues may be a source of feed
to help get livestock through
times of shorter grazing peri-
ods. Ruminants can make use
of products from grass seed
production, such as grass
straw and pelleted residues,
cereal straw, corn stalks, pea-
vine hay and others. Grass
hay, oat hay and off-quality
alfalfa are also useful when
fed properly. They are nor-
mally available at lower pric-
es than higher-quality hay.
When feeding any type
of hay or plant residue, it is
important to have the feed
tested to determine its qual-
ity and nutrient content. The
testing can be done at any
forage-testing laboratory for a
nominal fee. The information
provided allows the operator
to know what and how much
supplementation is needed to
provide a proper diet for the
animals.
Proper planning and man-
agement allows an operator
to better prepare for droughts.
In fact, the wise manager
will develop a grazing plan
at the beginning of each year
with three different scenari-
os: What will I do in case of
a wetter than normal year, a
normal year and a drier than
normal year? Once the mois-
ture situation is known, the
appropriate plan can be im-
plemented.
A well-developed grazing
plan helps the manager be
better prepared to deal with
drought and other manage-
ment challenges.
Doug Warnock, retired
from Washington State Uni-
versity Extension, lives on a
ranch in the Touchet River
Valley where he writes about
and teaches grazing manage-
ment. He can be contacted at
dwarnockgreenerpastures@
gmail.com.
Cash dairy prices mixed in active trading
For the Capital Press
C
ME cash cheese and
nonfat dry milk prices
headed south last week
as cheese in particular was
making its way to Chicago.
Butter moved higher but things
are changing this week.
The Cheddar blocks closed
the 4th of July holiday short-
ened week at $1.62 per pound,
down 2 cents on the week and
34 3/4-cents short of last year’s
level. They were unchanged
Monday but jumped 2 1/4-cents
Tuesday, to $1.6425 per pound.
Cheddar barrels closed
Thursday at $1.5825, down 4
1/4-cents on the week and 40
1/4-cents below a year ago.
They lost three-quarters of
a cent Monday but were un-
changed Tuesday, holding at
Dairy
Markets
Lee Mielke
$1.5750, a higher than normal
6 3/4-cents below the blocks.
Eleven cars of block traded
hands last week and 29 of bar-
rel, the seventh consecutive
week that barrel traded was at
double-digit levels.
Dairy Market News reports
that “strong cheese sales have
been normal in the Midwest for
some time and that is contrib-
uting to some manufacturers
playing more hardball in price
negotiations. DMN adds that
“profitability is looking good
this year for Midwest cheese
manufacturers as the halfway
point of the year is reached.
The overwhelming majority of
comments looking forward a
few months are confident about
selling however much cheese
a plant can make. Some plants
are reporting that components
are beginning to decline, not in
any alarming way, from recent
weeks, as is seasonally nor-
mal. In much of the region the
weather has been excellent for
cows.”
This has also led to a good
crop year, with second cutting
of hay alfalfa completed in
much of Wisconsin. Corn in
some areas was nearly shoul-
der high by the Fourth of July.
These factors are working to-
gether, in the opinion of cheese-
makers, to contribute to expect-
ed good milk production over
the next few months, according
to DMN.
28-2#14
By LEE MIELKE
28-2/#6