Friday, July 29, 2022
CapitalPress.com 5
Idaho’s barley production Drought continues drain on cattle inventory
expected to jump 43%
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
July 1 U.S. cattle inventory
Capital Press
ter yields than last year.”
Newdale-based grower
Dwight Little said that in his
area, irrigated barley looks
good and dryland barley is
starting to show stress. Dry-
land growers typically seed
less densely so fewer plants
compete for water and nutri-
ents per unit of ground.
A heatwave arrived
in early to mid-July, the
impacts of which are yet
to be determined, he said.
Meanwhile, wind is mak-
ing it tougher to irrigate
effi ciently.
Little is cautiously
optimistic.
“It’s not in the bin yet,”
he said.
Wilder said last year’s
production fell to a 10-year
low due to drought and
unusually high early-sum-
mer heat. Yields in 2020 hit
a record high.
NASS said Idaho pro-
duced 37% of the nation’s
barley last year. The state
Department of Agricul-
ture says more than 75% of
production is malt. Several
major brewing companies
operate in the state.
Idaho, Montana and
North Dakota lead the U.S.
in barley production.
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
Idaho barley production
will be substantially higher
this year, USDA’s National
Agricultural Statistics Ser-
vice estimates.
The agency in a July
12 report forecast produc-
tion at 62.2 million bush-
els, up 43% from last year.
Harvested area is expected
to rise by 70,000 acres to
560,000, up nearly 14.3%.
Yield is expected to be 111
bushels per acre, up 22
bushels or 24.7%.
NASS on March 31
estimated a 2% drop in
planted acres from 2021.
Snow accumulation stalled
in much of this year’s fi rst
quarter. Reservoir levels
were low following the pre-
vious season’s drought and
heavy irrigation usage.
April, May and part of
June brought unusually wet,
cold conditions.
“Grains like barley
love cool, wet conditions
during the spring,” said
Laura Wilder, Idaho Barley
Commission administra-
tor. “Growers have planted
more barley, and we are
expecting signifi cantly bet-
The July inventory of all
beef and dairy cattle and
calves in the U.S. was 98.8
million on July 1, down 2%
from last year. That followed
a 1.3% decline a year earlier.
The number of beef cows
was down 2.4% after posting
a 2% decline for July 1, 2021,
and the count on beef replace-
ment heifers was down
3.5% after a 2.3% decline
a year earlier, according to
USDA’s mid-year inventory
report.
While the industry has
been in general liquidation
about four years, drought has
driven liquidation in the past
two, said Derrell Peel, exten-
sion livestock marketing spe-
cialist at Oklahoma State
University.
“The drought is making
us liquidate more than we
intended to,” he said.
In 2020, drought was pri-
marily in the Southern Rock-
ies, specifi cally Colorado,
and the Southwest.
“Then in 2021, the
drought became much more
widespread in the North-
ern Plains and contributed to
beef cow culling. It’s kind of
moved out of the Northern
Plains to the Southern and
Class
All cattle and calves*
2021
2022
(Million head)
100.8
98.8
percent change
-2.0
Beef cow, heifers that have calved
31.1
30.3
-2.4
Replacement beef heifers
4.3
4.1
-3.5
Cattle on feed
13.4
13.4
0
Feeder cattle outside feedlots**
36.7
35.7
-2.7
Calf Crop
35.1
34.6
-1.4
*also includes dairy animals and bulls
** other heifers, steers over 500 pounds and calves under 500 pounds
Source: USDA-NASS *beef and dairy
Central Plains, and it’s still
very bad in the Southwest,”
he said.
Now it’s deepened into
the Southern Plains and into
the Midwest, he said.
The percent of pasture
and range rated poor to very
poor is 85% in Texas, 58%
in Nebraska and 55% in Ari-
zona, according to the latest
USDA crop progress report.
Cattle
numbers
are
quickly shrinking now.
They’ll be even smaller in
about a year and a half as
cow-calf producers save
heifers to rebuild, he said.
Eventually, that will be
bullish for cattle prices. In
the short run, the industry
is putting more beef on the
table, he said.
“Cattle numbers have
been getting lower since
2018, but it hasn’t really
showed up in feedlots,” he
said.
Calves are going into
feedlots early, and heifers
that would normally be held
for replacements continue to
go into feedlots, he said.
“We’re still putting heif-
ers in feedlots instead of
holding them out in the coun-
try,” he said.
The number of heifers,
beef and dairy, in feedlots
on July 1 was up 2.9% year
over year, and the industry is
going to continue to slaugh-
ter more heifers for the next
two to three months at a min-
imum, he said.
Heifer slaughter is up
Carol Ryan Dumas/Capital Press File
Beef cattle are going into
feedlots early as drought
forces ranchers to shrink
their herds.
3.9% year to date over 2021,
and beef cow slaughter is up
14.1%., he said,
Two to four years out,
there’s going to be a tremen-
dous squeeze on cattle num-
bers, similar to 2014 when
cattle prices were unprece-
dented and record high, he
said.
The price of a 500-pound
feeder steer in Oklahoma
averaged $252 a hundred-
weight in 2014, with a peak
of more than $300 a hun-
dredweight. That price has
been running about $189 in
the past two or three weeks,
he said.
Prices are relatively high
and will continue to trend
upward, he said.
“I don’t know about prof-
itability because inputs are
really high,” he said.
Despite smaller cherry crop, Oregon producer touts ‘phenomenal’ quality
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
HOOD RIVER, Ore. —
With cherry harvest in full
swing across the Mid-Colum-
bia Valley, activity was buzz-
ing July 25 inside the packing
house at Hood River Cherry
Co.
Freshly picked cherries
arrived in 220-pound bins
from the orchard, where they
are unloaded onto a conveyor
and run through a hydro-
cooler, which uses near-freez-
ing water to slow down ripen-
ing and extend their shelf life.
From there, the conveyor
splits into three lanes past
rows of workers meticulously
sorting cherries by hand, cull-
ing shriveled, cracked or oth-
erwise damaged fruit. Cher-
ries that pass inspection
are then packed into boxes,
labeled and brought into cold
storage.
Kristoff Fowler, fi eld and
warehouse manager for Hood
River Cherry Co., said this
year’s crop is smaller than
average due to an untimely
snowstorm that blanketed
the region in April, disrupt-
ing pollination after trees had
already blossomed.
“Everything was at full
bloom, bees were fl ying, and
I woke up and it snowed 2
feet,” Fowler said. “Just a
freak weather event.”
According to the USDA
National Agricultural Statis-
tics Service, U.S. sweet cherry
production was forecast to
be 275,000 tons in June,
down 27% from 2021. That
includes a 19.5% decrease in
Oregon, from 46,000 tons to
37,000 tons.
The vast majority of cher-
ries grown in Oregon come
from the Mid-Columbia
area, including Wasco and
Hood River counties.
Though yield is undoubt-
edly down, Fowler said
what this year’s crop lacks
in volume it makes up for in
quality, which he described
as “phenomenal.” That’s
because the tree is putting
more energy into fewer
cherries, resulting in bigger,
sweeter, crunchier fruit.
“Instead
of
putting
energy into 300 cherries, it’s
doing maybe 150,” Fowler
said. “The size of the fruit is
just astronomical.”
Hood River Cherry Co.
was started by Fowler’s
parents, Brad and Katy,
in 1993. Today, they have
approximately 400 acres of
orchards in the Hood River
Valley, planted at varying
elevations from 1,100 feet to
nearly 3,000 feet.
Harvest in the lower ele-
vation orchards began July
15. As the season progresses,
fi eldworkers will make their
way to the higher elevation
orchards — such as Bear
Mountain, with its rolling
hills and panoramic views
of nearby Mount Hood.
It is here that Fowler said
the farm faces another chal-
lenge. While fewer cher-
ries on the trees does off er
exceptional quality, it also
means they ripen faster,
shortening the picking win-
dow by several days before
they spoil on the tree.
“Every orchard is timed
by variety,” Fowler said.
“Now all of that is getting
compressed, and it’s getting
harder to pull all the fruit off .”
To make matters more
urgent, a blistering heat
wave was in the forecast for
the week, with Hood River
expected to get fi ve con-
secutive days of triple-digit
temperatures.
Once the temperature
exceeds 90 degrees, Fowler
said they shut everything
down to protect their work-
ers. If they are going go get
all the fruit picked, he said
crews will have to start ear-
lier before it gets too hot.
“As soon as it gets day-
light, we get picking,”
Fowler said.
To protect the fruit against
extreme heat, Hood River
Cherry Co. also installed
overhead misters two years
ago in orchards with variet-
ies that are particularly sus-
ceptible to sunburn, includ-
ing Rainiers, Skeenas and
Lapins.
Fowler said the system is
capable of lowering the tem-
perature in orchards by 10
degrees, but must be used
with caution. It has to be hot
enough for the mist to evap-
orate before it touches the
fruit, otherwise the cher-
ries might absorb too much
water and their skins will
split.
“You can’t turn it
on unless it gets to 100
degrees,” he said. “Last
year, when we had our huge
heat wave, those overhead
(misters) really saved us.”
Even with a condensed
timetable, Fowler said cher-
ries are getting picked more
or less on schedule.
“You gotta be prepared
for anything,” he said.
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George Plaven/Capital Press
George Plaven/Capital Press
Workers inside the packing house at Hood River Cherry
Co. hand-sorting fruit and culling shriveled, split or oth-
erwise damaged cherries.
Skeena cherries nearly
ready for harvest at Hood
River Cherry Co.’s Bear
Mountain orchard.