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7A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2015 Team of sheep shearers has only one speed — fast Dusty McCord can shear 400 sheep in a day By JAN JACKSON For the Capital Press JUNCTION CITY — If it takes you longer than 1 minute and 20 seconds to shear a sheep, your chances of beating Dusty McCord are nil. McCord and his fellow shearing team mem- bers decided to stage an impromptu eight-hour shearing contest last month as they started on DÀRFNRISRXQGFURVVEUHHGODPEVEHORQJ ing to Wall 3 Ranch in the southern coastal Or- egon town of Langlois. The winner hands-down was 26-year-old McCord, who sheared 400 sheep in 8 hours. He was followed by Mike Cowdrey with 260 sheep, Chris Mayorga with 245, Woody Bab- cock with 206 and Morgan McKenzie with 185. It’s not a world record for McCord, but his team thinks it might be U.S. record. “We just thought it would be fun so we did it,” McCord said of the last-minute contest. They started at 8 a.m., took 30-minute breaks every 2 hours, took an hour off for lunch, and sheared until 6 p.m. “I was excited and nervous all through it and got tired a few times but I didn’t slow down,” he said. “I didn’t let myself think about the other guys, just raced the clock.” McCord, who was born and raised in Mon- roe, learned to shear from his father and grand- father. “I watched my dad and grandpa shear and it looked like fun to me,” McCord said. “I got them to show me how to do it and started shearing for hire in 2008. I love it. I get to com- pete with my friends every day and have fun traveling on top of it.” He’s gone to New Zealand a couple of times, but mostly travels around Oregon, Idaho and Washington shearing sheep. 2I¿FLDO VKHHSVKHDULQJ FRQWHVWV DUH KHOG regularly in Ireland, the United Kingdom, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. While speed and skill are key, International Sheep Shearing Association judges also check the quality of work and animal welfare. Mike Cowdrey, a third-generation shearer who claims an over-age-55 record of 260 sheep sheared in a day, participated in the contest. “My son shears, and my dad was still shear- ing 100 sheep a day when he was 74, so I can’t let up,” Cowdrey said. “After Dusty hit 400 sheep in eight hours, we spent three days on the Internet trying to see if he broke a record. Jan Jackson/For the Capital Press Dusty McCord sheared 400 lambs in eight hours to win his team’s sheep-shearing contest. ‘I watched my dad and grandpa shear and it looked like fun to me. I got them to show me how to do it and started shearing for hire in 2008. I love it. I get to compete with my friends every day and have fun traveling on top of it.’ Dusty McCord 26-year-old sheep shearer New Zealand has the world records tied up, but we think Dusty holds it for the U.S.” The team works together through the sea- son. “Mike and I both have shearing trailers and it depends on the job which one we use,” Mc- Cord said. “It also doesn’t matter which team member gets the call, we pick up the phone and call the rest of them. We get paid by the head so the harder we work, the more money we make. For me it is like a drug addiction, except we’re only addicted to competing with ourselves. It is great to get to do this every day with your friends.” Dusty McCord, top left, is shown with his his shearing team members. At the top right is Chuck McBeth; Mike Cowdrey is at the far left; and sitting are Kenny McBeth, left, and Chris Mayorga. They sheared 1,296 sheep in a single day. Jan Jackson/For the Capital Press :K\GRHV¿UHZRRGFRVWVR much? Fracking’s part of it By RIK STEVENS Associated Press CONCORD, N.H. — North- easterners who are digging deeper LQWRWKHLUSRFNHWVWRSD\IRU¿UH wood this season can add a new scapegoat to the roster of usual market forces: fracking. Yep, a timber industry rep- resentative in New Hampshire said those hydraulic fracturing well sites in Pennsylvania’s Mar- cellus Shale formation to suck natural gas out of the ground are using construction “mats” made of hardwood logs — think of the corduroy roads seen in sepia-toned photographs from the 1800s — to get heavy equipment over mucky ground, wetlands or soft soils. That increased demand has FUHSWGRZQWKHFKLPQH\LQWR¿UH places. Prices in parts of New En- gland are averaging $325 a cord and can even push past $400 for a seasoned, delivered load. That’s anywhere from $50 to $75 more a cord than last year — or an in- crease of 18 to 23 percent. Jasen Stock, executive di- rector of the New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association, said it’s not just fracking sites that are hogging the logs. Pipelines and transmission wires — real- ly any large-scale construction project — have in the past three years ramped up the appetite for the perfect mat log: a hardwood trunk, 16 to 20 feet long and 8 to 10 inches in diameter. As a result, the cost of cord- wood on the stump (that is, live trees) went from $10 in 2012 in northern New Hampshire to $15 this year, Stock said. “If you’re putting in a power line or gas line over wetlands or soft soil, they use thousands and thousands of these mats, and they’re made of hardwood logs,” 6WRFNVDLG³,I\RX¶UHLQWKH¿UH wood business, that’s your sweet spot. That’s the log you want.” About 2.5 million households Adamson jiu-jitsu team members strike gold The Daily Astorian Robert F. Bukaty/AP Photo Clever stacking of firewood on the front porch of Terri and Bob Tomchak’s cozy home in Bridg- ton, Maine, allows them to enjoy the view from their living room window. The couple burns about four cords of firewood each winter. Some consumers who may have switched over to wood over the past several years as heating oil prices ratcheted up are feeling a little buyer’s remorse but continue to keep the woodpiles stocked even as prices push over $400 a cord. The Adamson Brothers jiu-jitsu team, Riberio Jiu-Jitsu, returned from the Seattle International Open with three local gold medal winners, in the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation event held Oct. 24 at Everett Community College. Winning gold were: Michelle Johnson (compet- ing in the White Belt/adult/female/super heavy divi- sion); Jason Lambert (Purple/master2/male/heavy); and Nik Gift (Brown/adult/male/middle). Jason Lambert won bronze (Open Absolute Male); Tim Cox did not place (Purple/master1/male/ feather). Team-wise, Gracie Barra Academy took top hon- ors with 237 points, followed by Atos Jiu-Jitsu (188) and Riberio (157). The team is coached by Nate Adamson. The International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation is a for-profit company SCOREBOARD PREP SCHEDULE in the U.S. burned wood to keep warm in 2013, just 2.1 percent of total households but up from the 1.7 percent that stoked stoves in 2005, according to the U.S. census. 7KH SHUFHQWDJHV JHW VLJQL¿FDQWO\ higher in more heavily forested New England states like Vermont (16.3 percent), Maine (12.7) and New Hampshire (7.7), as well as WKH 3DFL¿F 1RUWKZHVW LQFOXGLQJ Idaho (7.8) and Oregon (7.1). While New England shivered and shoveled through the winter whomping of 2014-15, the Pacif- ic Northwest stayed mild, mean- ing more supply and steadier pric- es this year. If the National Weather Service’s forecast of a warm- er-than-average winter in New England holds up, that could mean fewer logs burned this winter, more robust stockpiles of seasoned wood come springtime and potentially lower prices next year. But it won’t help consumers who’ve already locked in their supplies this fall. Other uses — pulp and paper mills still value hardwood and pel- let producers and biomass plants also nibble on stockpiles — have also given loggers more markets. “There’s only so much wood around,” said Jonathan Clark, own- er of Treehugger Farms in Westmo- reland, New Hampshire. The price for his kiln-dried cord went up $10 this season, to $360. Demand, he said, has stayed the same. “Our calls started early this year and have continued steady,” he said. “Even now, we’re getting people who are having trouble getting their wood in.” When oil prices started to bub- ble up, more people in the forest states saw wood as a desirable, lo- cally sourced, cleaner and cheap- er alternative. But even as heating oil prices tanked this year, wood got more expensive. In Maine, where seasoned ¿UHZRRGLVVHOOLQJIRUDERXW a cord or more, many customers DUHEX\LQJOHVV¿UHZRRGEHFDXVH of heating oil prices around $2 a gallon. A few are even ditching ¿UHZRRGDOWRJHWKHU “In a year where oil spikes, we MXVWFDQ¶WFUDQNWKH¿UHZRRGRXW fast enough. But this just isn’t one of those years,” said Jeff Lemon from Four Seasons Firewood in Searsmont, Maine. Some of the continued de- mand is likely coming from people who converted to wood- stoves and are sticking with it. In 3ODLQ¿HOG 9HUPRQW 'RQQ\ 2V man will heat his farmhouse with about six cords of wood this year at a cost of $230 each. Vermonters SDLGDFRUG¿YH\HDUVDJR TODAY Football — South Umpqua at Astoria, 6:30 p.m.; Warrenton at Portland Christian, 7 p.m.; Ver- nonia at Knappa, 7 p.m.; Twin Valley at Naselle, 7 p.m. SATURDAY Cross Country — OSAA State Meet, Lane CC, Eugene, TBA FOOTBALL Standings Cowapa League League Overall Scappoose 5-0 7-1 Banks Astoria Tillamook Seaside Valley Catholic 4-1 3-2 2-3 1-4 0-5 7-1 5-3 3-5 3-5 1-7 Lewis & Clark League Clatskanie 2-0 3-5 Rainier 2-0 3-5 Portland Chr 0-2 2-6 Warrenton 0-2 3-5 Northwest League Vernonia 2-0 8-0 Nestucca 2-1 3-3 Knappa 1-1 3-4 Gaston 0-3 1-6 Visit us online at DailyAstorian.com
