Baker City herald., April 21, 2022, Page 35, Image 35

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“You don’t know how long it would take
to get parts,” he said.
Defrees said he’s also trying to be spare
with fuel, in deference to record-high prices,
but he noted that farmers and ranchers
can hardly avoid using vehicles that aren’t
exactly fuel-efficient.
Dan Butterfield, with Butterfield Farms
in Wallowa County, said he’s more con-
cerned about production costs than he is
about water supplies, even as the drought
continues to plague much of the West.
“Wallowa County usually takes pretty
good care of us,” Butterfield said. “The
water doesn’t bother me nearly as much as
the fuel prices and fertilizer costs.”
Both Butterfield and another Wallowa
County farmer, Kevin Melville with Cor-
nerstone Farms, said they have had to stock
up on fertilizer for their crops because they
are uncertain if the product will be avail-
able later in the season, and, as a result,
they are doing so at a much greater cost to
themselves.
Melville, who was doing maintenance
work on machinery during March, said in
addition to the increase in costs of chemicals
and fertilizers, the farm is being impacted
by delays in getting items to complete equip-
ment repairs.
“We’re working on machinery this time
of year. Most parts are available, but it
might take a month to get something where
(before) it might take two days,” he said,
adding there is a limit to the number of some
parts that can be purchased.
Melville said a nitrogen fertilizer Corner-
stone uses was purchased in abundance in
advance, largely because of the concern of
later availability.
“We bought one-third of our nitrogen
fertilizer needs last fall,” he said. “We knew
the prices were going up, and we had the
storage for it.”
Melville said fertilizer that sold for $250
per ton a year was up to $470 in the fall of
2021. On March 10, 2022, the price was
$770 per ton, he said.
For now, commodity prices are also
higher, which helps offset some of the costs
to the farmers. However, there is worry
about a decrease in prices — something that
is out of their control.
“With our higher inputs (now), that will
definitely be a concern,” Butterfield said.
Bill Bradshaw/EO Media Group
Kevin Melville, of Cornerstone Farms Joint Venture, checks the amount of salt that has accumulated in a line off a fertilizer storage tank at the
farm near Enterprise on Thursday, March 10, 2022. The Melvilles purchased a considerable quantity of fertilizer last fall, knowing the price
would drastically increase, but they also knew it was perilous to store it over the winter because salt can collect, so they watered it down.
Melville agreed.
“It’s always challenging when you have
a super-high-cost production year like this,
and then the prices do fall off,” he said.
Mark Bennett, a Baker County com-
missioner who also owns a cattle ranch in
the southern part of the county, near Unity,
described the combination of drought and
the rapid rise in production costs as a “per-
fect storm of crises hitting simultaneously.”
He said in early March that after placing
an order for fuel the price jumped 50 cents
per gallon once, and then again, before he
even received the fuel.
Don Wysocki, a soil scientist with the
Oregon State University Extension in Uma-
tilla County, said uncertainty about crop
prices exacerbates the challenge of rising
production costs.
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