Business
AgLife
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Thursday, March 31, 2022
The Observer & Baker City Herald
No guarantee
for federal
tax refunds
within three
weeks
By DAVID LIGHTMAN
McClatchy Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — More people are
getting bigger federal tax refunds this year,
but not everyone will receive their refund
within the 21 days the Internal Revenue
Service promised.
The IRS in a statement last week said it
“cautions taxpayers not to rely on receiving
a refund by a certain date, especially when
making major purchases or paying bills.”
It explained that “some returns may
require additional review and may take
longer. Also, remember to take into con-
sideration the time it takes for a financial
institution to post the refund to an account
or to receive it by mail.”
The good news: Most people filing
returns electronically, with no errors and
no unusual circumstances, should see the
refund in their account within 21 days.
The IRS reported last week that as
of March 11, it had issued 45.3 million
refunds and taxpayers got an average
refund of $3,352. That’s up from $2,967
last year, when there were no child tax
credits or some other breaks in effect in
2021.
Claudia Stanley, a certified public
accountant in Fresno, California, said she
believed people are getting refunds in a
timely fashion this year.
“I’ve had a few clients comment back
to me that they got their refund and no
complaints so far of refunds not coming
through,” she said.
If there is a need to contact the IRS,
though, consumers are likely to still find
frustration. Erin Collins, the National
Taxpayer Advocate, reported last month
that callers to the IRS had a difficult time
reaching an agency employee.
She said the problem was a “toxic com-
bination” of inadequate staffing, COVID-
19-related problems, and new tasks
assigned to the agency, such as distributing
economic stimulus payments. Last year,
callers to the IRS’ toll free line reached an
employee 11% of the time, Collins said.
The IRS has been trying to hire more
people to help resolve the problem.
“Getting through to the IRS is still
challenging,” said Stanley. “I had a stack
of issues to resolve that kept mounting
through February as I couldn’t get through
even on the practitioner priority service
line. Finally, in early March I was able to
get through several times.”
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group
Sean Lerner, owner and operator of Eastern Wheelworks, works on the wheel of a customer’s mountain bike inside his shop in downtown La Grande on
Saturday, March 26, 2022.
A smooth ride
Eastern Wheelworks marks first year of
operation, draws long-distance customers
By DICK MASON /// The Observer
L
A GRANDE — The Eastern
Wheelworks bike shop
in La Grande marked the
anniversary of its first year of
operation on Saturday, March 26.
While no celebration was conducted, there is a lot
to celebrate.
Business is brisk at the shop, which specializes
in making customized hand-built wheels and main-
taining and rebuilding mountain bike suspension
systems. The services offered are proving so popular
that Eastern Wheelworks, 1211 Washington Ave., is
receiving mountain bike suspension parts to repair
and upgrade from as far away as California and
Western Washington.
See, Bikes/Page B2
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group
Sean Lerner, owner and operator of Eastern Wheelworks,
applies an adhesive repair tape to a customer’s bike rim at his
shop in downtown La Grande on Saturday, March 26, 2022.
See, Refunds/Page B2
Eastern Oregon farm turns to desert-adapted sheep to improve dairy business
By SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN
Capital Press
LEXINGTON — Farm
owner Terry Felda has
seen firsthand the value of
matching genetics to envi-
ronment: raising a breed
of dairy sheep adapted
to her region’s specific
microclimate.
Introducing genetics
from the Assaf breed into
her flock the past few years
has been transformational,
boosting productivity
and improving her farm’s
sustainability.
“We can already see the
difference,” said Felda, 59.
For more than a decade,
Felda ran her opera-
tion with standard Amer-
ican dairy sheep crosses:
Lacaune and East Friesian
breeds. The problem was
that these breeds need good
pasture and a temperate cli-
mate to thrive, and Felda’s
450-acre farm lies among
the dry, crumpled hills out-
side Lexington, in Eastern
Oregon’s semi-arid Morrow
County.
Felda’s ewes struggled
on ranges with limited
forage.
“I felt I had to put a lot
of feed and time into them
to get them to where I
wanted,” she said.
For years, she wanted
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press
Dairy sheep are milked at Tin Willows Sheep Dairy and Ranch outside Lexington, Morrow County.
to bring in genetics from
breeds better adapted to
arid climates, such as the
Awassi, native to Israel, or
the Assaf, a cross between
the Awassi and the German
East Friesian sheep.
The Assaf, according to
the Israel Dairy Board, is
prized for high milk pro-
duction and tolerance to
almost all climates. The
breed has spread across
Eurasia and today is the
most important dairy sheep
breed in Spain, according
to the Journal of Dairy
Science.
Felda was one of many
American farmers who
wanted Assaf genetics, but
for years, the U.S. blocked
importation over concerns
about scrapie, a disease that
affects sheep.
Finally, in 2017, after
years of negotiations with
the USDA, the Spanish
Department of Agricul-
ture and European Union
officials, the U.S. sheep
industry brought in Assaf
semen through a Univer-
sity of Wisconsin-Madison
project.
The Dairy Sheep Asso-
ciation of North America
secured some of the semen,
from which Felda got her
first batch for Tin Willows
Sheep Dairy and Ranch.
“To be able to finally get
(the genetics) was huge,”
Felda said.
In 2019, she introduced
the semen into her flock
through laparoscopic artifi-
cial insemination. In 2020,
she had her first cross-bred
50% Assaf lambs. In 2021,
she milked the crosses.
Felda said the Assaf-
crosses gain weight faster
and seem well-adapted to
handle heat, stress and min-
imal forage. The ewes also
produce more milk.
Before introducing
the new genetics, each
Lacaune-East Friesian dairy
sheep was fed and milked
twice a day but produced
only 300 to 400 pounds of
milk annually. Last year,
each 50% Assaf ewe was
fed and milked only once a
day but produced up to 500
pounds of milk annually.
Felda expects the num-
bers would be higher if she
milked twice daily, and
because last year’s milk
came from crosses, Felda
anticipates even higher pro-
duction in future years as
her ewes approach purebred
Assaf status.
Some farms in Felda’s
industry started on the
genetic improvement path
years before she did and are
seeing even larger gains,
with some ewes producing
1,000 pounds of milk
annually.
“I’m playing catch-up,”
she said.
She spoke over the
chorus of farm sounds
around her: chittering
guinea fowl, quacking
ducks, bleating lambs
and the occasional bark
of an Akbash livestock
guardian dog.
Felda said the combina-
tion of imported genetics
and new record-keeping
programs available to
farmers gives her renewed
hope for America’s dairy
sheep industry.
“It’s an exciting time
to be milking sheep right
now,” she said. “And it’s
been a long time coming.”