January 15, 2016
CapitalPress.com
7
Farmer announces expansion Coeur d’Alene haystack
of brewery in Boardman
arson under investigation
200-ton stack
completely
destroyed,
inspector says
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
By his own description,
Eastern Oregon farmer Craig
Coleman doesn’t like to get
bored. So in addition to grow-
ing blueberries, hay, field corn
and cut flowers — not to men-
tion renting ground to a potato
farmer – he and several part-
ners decided to open a brew-
ery in Boardman.
“Why not?” he said. “The
way I look at things is, if we
can do one, why not do 10?”
Ordnance Brewing, named
for the ghost town across the
highway from the defunct
Umatilla Chemical Depot
that once housed the dead-
ly agents used in chemical
weapons, opened for business
around Halloween 2014 and
this month announced a major
expansion.
The brewery, in the Port
of Morrow, will jump pro-
duction from seven barrels
per brewing cycle to 50. For
perspective, one barrel equals
31 gallons. The company now
produces two or three brews
per week, head brewer Lo-
gan Mayfield said. Production
eventually will increase to
six or eight brews per day, he
said.
The company will focus on
producing four types of beer
in cans and bottles: A Rye Pale
Ale; an India Pale Ale called
FMJ, for Full Metal Jacket;
Rivercrest Kolsch, a Ger-
man-style light lager; and an
English-style ale called “Old
Craig,” named after Coleman,
the farmer. Ordnance will
make seasonal beers as well.
Mayfield, the brewer, jokingly
described some of the compa-
ny’s offerings as “lawnmower
beer,” meaning the type you’d
drink after yard work.
“I believe we have a very
solid product,” said Coleman.
“Is it the greatest beer in the
world? Probably not, but we
make good beer.”
Coleman is Ordnance’s
manager; other partners keep
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Courtesy of Ordnance Brewing
The Oregon brewery’s Kolsch, a lighter German-style lager, will be
among its offerings as a result of a major expansion.
Courtesy of Ordnance Brewing
Head brewer Logan Mayfield
oversees a production expansion
at Ordnance Brewing in Board-
man, Ore. The managing partner
is area farmer Craig Coleman.
the books, own the brewery
building, oversee taphouses
that serve the company’s beer
and have other roles. Cole-
man hired Mayfield, origi-
nally from Ashland, to do the
brewing.
Coleman
previously
farmed with his extended fam-
ily in the Willamette Valley,
but moved to Eastern Oregon
to do something different.
“It was time for a change,”
he said. “The business was
maturing and it’s not as fun as
when your hair is on fire.”
He and partners first
opened a couple taphouses
that served beer, then decid-
ed to up their game and make
beer themselves.
Ordnance uses some of
Coleman’s blueberries in one
of its beers, and buys hops
from the Willamette Val-
ley and barley from Idaho.
Coleman and Mayfield said
they’re looking to use more
local ingredients as the busi-
ness develops.
In its promotional mate-
rial, Ordnance describes it-
self as “smack dab in a beer
desert,” with very few other
breweries operating between
Hood River and Pendleton.
An industry group, Oregon
Craft Beer, said the state had
234 breweries in 72 cities as
of July 2015. Of those, 91 are
in the Portland area, which
some in the industry have tak-
en to calling “Beervana.”
Fire and police officials are
investigating as arson the fire
that destroyed an alfalfa hay-
stack and damaged another in
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
The fire was reported at
about 5:15 a.m. Jan. 10, said
Bobby Gonder, fire inspector
for the City of Coeur d’Alene
Fire Department and a certi-
fied fire investigator. The in-
vestigation is continuing.
Evidence indicates “hu-
man-caused arson,” Gonder
said.
One 200-ton haystack is
destroyed. Gonder said the
farmer estimated the damage
at about $38,000.
A second haystack was
not “lit off,” but police found
evidence of attempts to set it
on fire, Gonder said. Smoke
damaged the second stack.
“We won’t know until the
fire is completely out and we
can start tearing that stack
apart to see how deep that
smoke damage goes,” Gonder
said.
The fire was still burning
the next day. The fire depart-
ment cordoned off the fire
with a chain-link fence.
“It collapsed inside it-
self, so the fire’s not going to
get out from where it’s at,”
Gonder said. “We still have
1.5- to 2-foot flame heights.”
Haystack arson cases are
rare in Coeur d’Alene. This
is Gonder’s first case in the
seven years he’s been an in-
vestigator.
Gonder advises farmers
to use surveillance cameras
around their haystacks, if pos-
sible.
“That helps us immense-
ly,” he said. “We can retrieve
Courtesy Coeur d’Alene Fire Department
A 200-ton haystack burns Jan. 10 in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Fire
investigators and police are seeking information from the public
about the arson, says investigator Bobby Gonder.
that video footage and we can
chase down those leads. If we
have it on video, somebody
actually putting an ignition
source to the hay, that’s arson
right there. That’s a felony.
This is such a small, tight-knit
community, somebody will
know something.”
The departments are ask-
ing the public for assistance in
the case.
“If anybody has any infor-
mation, no matter how good
or silly it may sound, or far-
fetched, please call,” Gonder
said. “We take every lead se-
riously. We will track down
every lead until we exhaust all
resources.”
To contact Gonder, call
208-769-2245.
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R-CALF calls for investigation of packers, traders
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
R-CALF USA is calling on
the Senate Judiciary Commit-
tee to investigate the collapse in
cattle prices last fall and poten-
tial antitrust and anticompetitive
conduct by dominant meatpack-
ers and certain traders.
Against widely held predic-
tions of strong cattle prices for
2015 by market analysts and
USDA, “cattle prices collapsed
farther and faster than during
any time in history” in the latter
part of 2015, the organization
wrote in its request.
In addition, the R-Calf as-
serts that unprecedented vola-
tility in the cattle futures market
rendered it useless for price dis-
covery, benefiting the dominant
meatpackers.
R-CALF cited a $41.35 per
hundredweight decline in the
five-market fed steer price in
December compared with the
first half of 2015, correlating
to a nearly $517 per head loss
at the feedlot. It also stated the
downward trajectory of cattle
prices in the latter part of 2015
can’t be correlated with market
fundamentals that included low-
er beef production and higher
retail beef demand in the first
three quarters of the year.
R-CALF’s nine-page request
to investigate 13 specific issues,
including whether there are
structural problems in the U.S.
cattle market that contributed to
the price collapse and whether
the meatpackers or other major
market participants engaged in
unlawful conduct that adverse-
ly influenced cattle futures and
cash markets.
R-CALF’s allegations put
the industry right back to where
it was five to six years ago when
the Grain Inspection, Packers &
Stockyards Administration did
a wholesale investigation of al-
leged anti-competitive practices,
said John Nalivka, meat indus-
try analyst and owner of Sterling
Marketing, Vale, Ore.
“This issue’s been decided
more than once,” with no ev-
idence of structure or pricing
harming competitive markets,
he said. He understands the frus-
tration. Prices fell hard last fall
and suddenly the market seemed
to be falling apart after analysts
had said prices should be strong,
he said.
But there was a lot at play.
Cattle weights were high, sup-
ply was increasing, demand was
slowing and there was a lot of
pork and chicken in the market,
he said.
“I don’t think packers were
to blame for that. Demand went
into a slump, and wholesale beef
prices also came down,” he said.
With record prices in 2014
and the first half of 2015, every-
body had “very high” expecta-
tions that market would contin-
ue, he said.
While beef production was
down year over year in the first
three quarters of 2015, it was
up about 1 percent in the fourth
quarter and demand slipped.
Packer margins averaged $42 a
head in the fourth quarter rang-
ing from a low of $10 to a high
of $115, he said.
Nalivka said the allegations
are largely based on the cash
market, but most cattle are
bought on a forward price for-
mula for branded product that
meets customers’ needs for
supply, timing and certain
specifications.
“If everybody thinks these
packers are pushing wheel bar-
rels of money to the bank, I’d
go buy Tyson stock,” he said.
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