Baker City herald., April 21, 2022, Page 43, Image 43

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“THE CONCERN LEVEL IS HIGH. THIS COULD BE WORSE
THAN LAST YEAR. AND LAST YEAR WAS THE WORST
I’VE EVER SEEN.”
— Mark Ward, Baker Valley farmer
Pat Voigt delivers a load of hay to
hungry cattle on his Prairie City
ranch on Friday, March 11, 2022.
Bennett Hall/EO Media Group
Drought:
Continued from Page 11
March certainly didn’t improve the situa-
tion in any substantial way.
Rainfall was well below average for the
third straight month at the Baker City Airport.
Wallowa County
Drought concerns, even with the snow-
pack in Wallowa County below normal and
coming off a dry 2021, are tempered, and
there is hope the spring and summer ahead
won’t result in a repeat of last year.
“For me, personally, that’s not terribly
concerning,” said Kevin Melville with Cor-
nerstone Farms in Wallowa County when
talking about the area snowpack being about
85% of normal on March 9. “That’s not what
I consider bad. If I was down in the Klamath
Basin I’d be a lot more concerned.”
Snow amounts being somewhat below
average aren’t as big of a worry largely
because of the impact spring rains tend to
have on the region.
Should those rains not come, then con-
cern will be much higher.
“For us, at least in the upper valley, we’re
just really dependent on those rains,” Mel-
ville said. “But I do know, I’ve been talking
to some farmers up in the Palouse, and
they’re concerned. Some areas are facing
more of a concern.”
Dan Butterfi eld with Butterfi eld Farms,
which grows dark northern spring wheat and
two types of hay, had a similar sentiment.
“I would say we’re a little early to tell,
because March can be our biggest snow
month,” he said during a March 9 interview.
“If we have a decent March we’ll probably
be up above average. I do think the rest of
the state may be in trouble.”
March didn’t deliver the snow that But-
terfi eld was hoping for, however.
The month was drier than usual, and
the snowpack, as a percentage of average,
declined from the start of March to its end.
Grant County
Last summer’s record-setting drought
was hard on Pat Voigt, whose family has a
Simmental cow-calf operation with about
650 mother cows near Prairie City.
“Personally, as a landowner, it really hit
me in the pocketbook,” he said. “I had to
buy 650 ton of hay last year.”
The extra feed cost him about $100,000,
Voigt said, “but that’s ranching.”
To keep feed costs down, Voigt did what
a lot of other cattle producers did last year:
He sold off some of his herd so he’d have
fewer animals to feed over the winter.
It also positions him better to weather
what he fears is likely to be another dry sea-
son with less than adequate forage for his
cattle.
“We only kept half the replacement heif-
ers we normally keep. ... just in anticipation
of another poor hay year,” Voigt said.
“It’s going to get tough this year if
there’s another drought because these basins
around us are totally depleted,” he added.
“Hay prices are really high right now, and
I think they’re going to get worse through
this summer.”
Voigt, who serves as chairman of the
Grant County Soil and Water Conserva-
tion District, says many of the cattle produc-
ers he talks to share his concerns about the
coming year.
“I think a lot of them are (in the same
boat),” he said. “When there’s no spring
grass, everybody’s in a hurt in a hurry.”
Voigt said a good working relationship
with his credit union helps him deal with the
unexpected fi nancial vagaries that inevita-
bly come up from time to time. Last year, for
instance, he was able to postpone his pay-
ments until he got his calves sold. What he
won’t do, he said, is take out a big loan to
cover drought-related expenses.
“Like I say, that’s ranching,” Voigt said.
“The way we operate is whatever you make,
that’s what you’ve got to run on next year.”