Friday, April 1, 2022
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Chlorpyrifos
Continued from Page 1
from the 9th Circuit to act on chlorpyri-
fos. The court never ordered the agency
to ban the chemical, but made clear its
preference.
The 9th Circuit’s last decision, issued
in April 2021, was written by Jed Rakoff,
a U.S. district judge for Southern New
York, who was a visiting judge on a three-
judge panel that heard advocacy groups
argue for a ban.
EPA’s delays “exposed a generation
of American children to unsafe levels of
chlorpyrifos,” wrote Rakoff, who gave the
agency 60 days to ban or modify chlorpy-
rifos’ uses. A dissenting judge said the
deadline likely made a ban inevitable.
The new lawsuit shifts the issue to an
appeals court that covers Arkansas, Iowa,
Minnesota, Missouri, Minnesota, North
Dakota and South Dakota.
OTHER PLAINTIFFS
The other farm groups in the chlorpyrifos
lawsuit are:
ciation, Missouri Soybean Association;
American Crystal Sugar Co., American Soybean
Association, American Sugarbeet Growers Asso-
ciation, Cherry Marketing Institute, Florida Fruit
and Vegetable Association;
National Association of Wheat Growers, National
Cotton Council of America, Nebraska Soybean
Association, North Dakota Soybean Growers
Association, Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers
Association;
Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association,
Iowa Soybean Association, Minn-Dak Farmers
Cooperative, Minnesota Soybean Growers Asso-
South Dakota Soybean Association, Southern
Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative and United
States Beet Sugar Association.
Anderson: Through the years, farm improved its genetic lines, reputation
Continued from Page 1
Reed knew from an early
age that he wanted to farm,
but he had to start from
scratch because his dad had
also married young and was
only 40 when Reed was
20 — nowhere near ready
to retire and pass on his
property.
The young couple started
small. They bought 150
ewes, rented and leased land
and lived in a single-wide
mobile home.
As pieces of land near
them went up for sale, they
bought what they could.
The couple had three
boys. The eldest died of can-
cer in 2000. The younger
two became part of the fam-
ily business.
Reed recalls building
fences with Robyn, their
diapered boys slung in baby
backpacks.
“It’s the life they grew up
with,” he said.
In the early days, the farm
handled its own distribution.
Travis Anderson, 33,
the youngest son, said he
remembers many days as a
teenager waking up at 5 a.m.
to make van deliveries
“before distribution centers
gave us the blink of an eye.”
Through the years, the
farm improved its genetic
lines and reputation, but
there was an important
aspect of the industry that
they had little control over:
processing.
The family estimates that
the number of sheep in Ore-
gon’s Willamette Valley fell
from more than 500,000
in 1927 to about 70,000 in
2010, and with that decline
came processor consolida-
tion, meaning fewer harvest
options for sheep producers.
“We were kind of faced
with a dilemma,” said Reed
Anderson.
Around 2011, the family
began toying with the idea of
creating its own processing
facility, which would give it
more stability, price control
and ability to expand.
In 2012, with “all the
money (they) could scratch
up” and backing from
Northwest Farm Credit Ser-
vices, they took a $2.5 mil-
lion risk to build a plant:
Kalapooia Valley Grass-Fed
Processing.
Running a vertically
integrated business, Reed
Anderson said, is “a whole
new way of thinking.”
The Kalapooia plant
To anyone who’s been
inside meat plants, the thing
that immediately stands out
about the Kalapooia plant is
how clean and orderly it is.
“It’s just about having a
sense of pride. When peo-
ple come to a clean facil-
ity, they want to come back.
We wanted people to come
back,” said Travis Ander-
son, 33.
The Kalapooia facility
is a USDA-inspected plant,
meaning a USDA inspec-
tor must be on the premises
during production.
Getting the plant running
was no small feat. Travis
Anderson said it makes him
chuckle to hear people talk
about starting processing
plants as though it’s easy. In
reality, he said, it involved
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press
A ewe with her two lambs in the Anderson lambing barn.
Lamb and goat carcasses at Kalapooia Valley Grass-Fed
Processing.
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press
Reed Anderson at one of the properties his family leas-
es for their sheep.
An employee at Kalapooia Valley Grass-Fed Processing
puts packaged meat in boxes.
years of work, certifications
and investments.
The 15,000-square-foot
plant currently harvests
and processes about 25,000
lambs and goats, plus 6,000
head of cattle annually. Har-
vest is normally once a
week, 550 to 600 head in a
day.
Though the Andersons
primarily built the plant
to process their animals
— they raise thousands of
sheep and about 250 head of
cattle annually — they also
co-pack for other brands,
including Carman Ranch
and Painted Hills Natural
Grass-Fed Beef. The Ander-
sons raise enough animals
for the plant to be self-sus-
taining, but co-packing pro-
vides additional volume.
Over time, the Andersons
have added coolers, freezers
and a rollstock packaging
machine that automatically
vacuum-seals meat.
In the near future, the
family plans to look into
what grant money is avail-
able from USDA to support
the plant’s long-term needs;
Reed said the plant needs
more skilled meat-cutting
employees, for example.
The family members say
they try to be sustainable,
running a water-reclamation
program that reuses water in
pastures after it’s recycled
through the plant’s sanita-
tion program.
The most important
aspect of the plant, the
Andersons say, is its focus
on humane handling.
“That’s the key to every-
thing,” said Travis.
Because most of the
Andersons’ sheep are pas-
tured within approximately
20 miles of the plant, the
short travel distance reduces
stress on animals.
It also has economic ben-
efits: Meat from relaxed ani-
mals tastes better. Accord-
sumer in 1912. Then lamb
got a bad rap during World
War II, when returning ser-
vicemen wanted nothing to
do with it after years of eat-
ing canned mutton.
By 2011, the average
American consumed 0.6
pound of lamb yearly.
Lamb resurged during
COVID, with home chefs
and adventurous millennial
eaters driving demand. Per
capita consumption in 2020
was 1.1 pounds.
It didn’t slow down.
According to Peter Camino,
chairman of the Lamb
Board, per capita lamb con-
sumption in 2021 was 1.36
pounds.
That’s still niche com-
pared to other proteins —
the average American eats
60 pounds of beef, 100
pounds of chicken and 50
pounds of pork annually —
but sheep producers are still
excited.
Prices, too, are strong.
According to a March 2022
American Sheep Indus-
try Association report, the
sheep and lamb industry
saw prices reach “historic
levels” in 2021. Feeder and
slaughter lamb prices hit a
record high with price gains
of more than 40%.
Reed Anderson esti-
mated the family’s prod-
ucts are in about 60 retail
stores, and the farm sells to
restaurants through about 12
distributors.
The Andersons say their
success has largely been
tied to growing consumer
demand for lamb that is
local, humanely handled and
grass-fed.
ing to a 2020 study in the
Asian-Australian
Journal
of Animal Sciences, ani-
mal stress and dehydration
prior to slaughter negatively
affect the flavor and tender-
ness of meat.
“Our lambs have plenty
of water and a short trip,”
said Reed Anderson.
Prior to building the
plant, Reed Anderson talked
with Temple Grandin, a
prominent animal behavior-
ist and Colorado State Uni-
versity professor, on how
best to design the facility.
Based on Grandin’s
advice, the family created a
curved corral chute animals
walk through when they’re
headed toward the kill floor.
The shape of the chute tricks
animals into thinking they’re
headed back to pasture, min-
imizing their stress.
Anderson Ranches is a
Certified Humane program,
involving a third-party audit
of the operation.
Markets
The Andersons sell
into retail and wholesale
markets.
Pre-COVID, 70% of the
ranch’s lamb went to food-
service and 30% to retail.
Now, it’s the reverse.
“When COVID first hit,
everyone overnight was
devastated by the loss of
foodservice and dining, and
Anderson Ranches was no
different. They were heav-
ily invested in fine dining,”
said Wortman, of the Lamb
Board. “But they were so
resilient and they pivoted
quickly.”
As processors rerouted
lamb to retail, something
unexpected happened: Sales
went up.
According to USDA’s
Economic Research Ser-
vice, the highest lamb con-
sumption in the past 100
years was 5 pounds per con-
The farm
The Anderson farm is a
quilt of properties pieced
together over decades: green
pastures, blue hills, flocks of
grazing sheep. It looks like a
postcard.
But behind the idyllic pic-
ture lies dirt-under-the-fin-
gernails hard work.
Jake Anderson, 35, Reed
and Robyn’s son, is respon-
sible for the farm side of the
business.
According to Jake, the
family has about 3,000
ewes, sold about 50 rams as
breeding stock last year and
had between 3,500 to 4,000
lambs born this spring. The
farm also buys feeder lambs.
The Andersons raise
their sheep on open ranges
and pastures with unlim-
ited grazing. They mainly
raise Dorsets and Suffolks,
English breeds tailored to
their microclimate. A few
times, Jake has imported
genetics from Australia and
England.
Reed Anderson said the
family breeds sheep for
three main traits: hardiness
on pasture, good maternal
traits and animals that pro-
duce large racks, loins and
legs — high-value cuts.
The family has inno-
vated in many ways: doing
multi-species grazing with
cattle and sheep, installing
French drain tiles in water-
logged fields and running
sheep on annual ryegrass
during the cold months,
whose seed the family later
harvests as a secondary
income source.
That’s what Jake loves
most about farming: the
variety.
“It’s something differ-
ent every single day. You’re
not stuck in the same place
doing the same thing,” Jake
said.
But the farm also faces
difficulties.
“Labor is a huge chal-
lenge,”
said
Robyn
Anderson.
Reed agreed, saying the
pending overtime pay rule
for workers will be hard on
farm businesses.
The Andersons are also
grappling with rising costs,
especially for fuel and fer-
tilizer. Although lamb prices
are high, input costs are also
high, so they say profit mar-
gins are static.
One of the greatest diffi-
culties is predatory pressure.
On average, the farm loses
3% to 4% of its sheep annu-
ally to predators, including
eagles, coyotes and cougars,
although losses have been as
high as 20%.
The day the Capital Press
visited, the family spot-
ted a cougar on one of their
ranges via a trail camera.
Reed Anderson said Ore-
gon’s rules around hunt-
ing cougars have sometimes
made it difficult to protect
livestock.
Despite challenges, how-
ever, Reed said he loves
farming and wants to help
young farmers succeed.
A legacy
Jake Anderson said he
thinks what makes the fam-
ily business work is that
each family member has
a role and space to work
independently.
Reed said that was part of
his parenting style and busi-
ness strategy.
“I’m not a micro-man-
ager,” he said. “I didn’t
chew my boys out. They got
their independence.”
Reed and Robyn say
they’ve enjoyed watching
their kids and grandkids
grow up on the farm.
The Andersons have also
helped others outside their
family circle.
A young sheep ranch-
ing couple in Southern Ore-
gon, Woody Babcock and
his wife Cora Wahl, say the
Andersons helped them get
off their feet.
Babcock recalls meeting
Reed Anderson at a country
music festival years ago and
offering him a plate of his
mom’s cookies in exchange
for advice on how to run a
successful sheep business.
“That plate of cookies
got me further than anything
else in life,” Babcock joked.
“The Andersons have been
a huge inspiration to me.
From my perspective, it’s a
really big team effort.”
As the Andersons gear up
for another Easter, they say
they’re excited about their
industry with young farmers
at the helm.
“But I’m not ready to
stop,” said Reed Anderson.
“I’ll be 63 in May, but I don’t
feel 63. I’m still ambitious.”
Grazing: ‘Economic harm never outweighs irreparable environmental harm’
Continued from Page 1
“There are a lot of other
places the cattle can go,” said
Mac Lacy, attorney for the envi-
ronmental groups during oral
arguments March 28. “The per-
mittees, we believe, have greatly
overstated the harm they may
suffer.”
Grazing in the 13 pastures
must end to allow for research
into its impacts on sage grouse
habitat, which has already been
delayed to the detriment of that
species and the environment, he
said.
“Economic harm never out-
weighs irreparable environmen-
tal harm,” Lacy said.
The environmental plaintiffs
would suffer “severe” hardship
from continued grazing, but the
impact on BLM would be min-
imal while the affected ranch-
ers have been on notice for years
that livestock would be barred
from the pastures for research,
he said.
“It’s hard to accept the per-
mittees were somehow caught
by surprise,” Lacy said, noting
that the plan to stop grazing was
enacted seven years ago, while
the ranchers were formally noti-
fied two years ago.
Attorneys for the BLM and
Cahill Ranches, which inter-
vened in the lawsuit, argued that
a temporary restraining order
isn’t justified because livestock
grazing won’t cause irrepara-
ble harm to sage grouse popu-
lations, the environment or the
nonprofits.
Barring livestock would be
an “extraordinary remedy” that
would be far more detrimental to
the ranch than any harms to the
environmental plaintiffs if graz-
ing continues another year, the
defendants argued.
“At core, the plaintiffs’ argu-
ment is one of impatience rather
than harm,” said Arwyn Car-
roll, attorney for BLM. “They
have not identified any data that
would be lost or not collected if
the closures don’t happen this
season.”