A6
STATE
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, October 27, 2021
R-CALF pushes Hazelnut harvest beats the heat
back on contract
library bill
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
WASHINGTON, D.C. —
While other cattle and farm
groups are supporting House
legislation aimed at better
transparency in the fed cattle
markets, R-CALF USA says
the bill doesn’t address the
core problem in the industry
— a lack of competition in
the meatpacking industry.
The Contract Library Act
of 2021, H.R. 5609, was
introduced on Wednesday by
Reps. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D.,
and Henry Cuellar, D-Texas,
with 16 cosponsors. It would
establish a contract library
at USDA to track and report
terms of alternative market-
ing agreements for fed cattle
purchases by meatpackers.
The bill is a response to
calls by cattle producers to
increase the transparency
of those agreements used to
purchase cattle that aren’t
purchased in the negotiated
cash market, where the price
is determined through buy-
er-seller interaction on the
day of sale.
R-CALF’s board of direc-
tors reviewed the bill and
determined it doesn’t address
the competition-disrupting
leverage the highly concen-
trated beef packers now hold
over the cattle market.
“The problem with our
broken market is not that we
don’t know the details of the
contracts that confer market
leverage to the packers,” said
Eric Nelson, R-CALF direc-
tor and an Iowa cattle feeder.
“The problem is there
are too many contracts and
because of that, our price
discovery market is being
destroyed,” he said.
The 50/14 bill, S.949,
introduced by Sens. Chuck
Grassley, R-Iowa, and Jon
Tester, D-Mont., addresses
this problem by increasing
the volume in the price dis-
covery market and decreas-
ing the volume of contracted
cattle, he said.
That bill would require
large packers to purchase
50% of their cattle through
cash markets and require the
cattle be harvested within 14
days.
“I want to continue sell-
ing cattle in the price discov-
ery market, but only if Con-
gress preserves it will I have
that chance,” Nelson said.
“Putting a contract library
ahead of taking action to pre-
serve our price discovery
market sends a signal that
more contracts are good and
more producers should try to
access them. This is not what
is needed,” Nelson said.
Bill Bullard, R-Calf CEO,
said his group is also con-
cerned with the new cattle
procurement methods now in
use that do not specifically fit
within the categories estab-
lished in the contract library
bill, such as agreements
involving
packer-owned
cattle.
“We’ll continue our
assessment of the contract
library bill, but we first have
to restore genuine competi-
tion to the cattle market that is
not returning the cost of pro-
duction to our cattle-produc-
ing member,” he said.
The North American Meat
Institute is asking members of
Congress to pause the legisla-
tion and include packers in
the conversation, since pack-
ers would bear the burden of
the government mandate.
“More time is needed to
consider how the bill will
affect livestock producers,
feedlot operators and pack-
ers and processors, said Julie
Anna Potts, Meat Institute’s
president and CEO.
“There is already robust
price discovery provided by
beef packers on a daily basis.
We urge members of Con-
gress to slow down and to
first do no harm,” she said.
The Meat Institute and
its members will work with
the Congress to address any
unintended consequences,
she said.
SALEM — Freshly har-
vested hazelnuts arrive by the
truckload at Chapin Dehy-
drating LLC, where they
are washed and dried for
packaging.
Bruce Chapin, who runs
the receiving station north of
Salem, is so far pleased with
what he sees. He anticipates
the crop will be roughly on par
with last year’s record haul of
61,000 tons, despite challeng-
ing conditions that have kept
Willamette Valley growers on
their toes.
“We had a very dry sum-
mer,” Chapin said. “As a result,
we’re seeing smaller nuts com-
ing in here.”
In addition to the heat and
drought, a major ice storm in
February severely damaged
some orchards, with branches
or, in some cases, whole trees
breaking under pressure.
A shortage of workers at
the USDA National Agricul-
tural Statistics Service means
the industry did not receive its
annual crop forecast, but hazel-
nut growers say they are seeing
Courtesy of Tim Aman
Wooden totes are filled with hazelnuts recently harvested at
Aman Bros. LLC in Mt. Angel.
decent yields and good quality
after weathering a difficult year.
“I think we were basically
flush or maybe even up a bit,”
said Tim Aman, of Aman Bros.
LLC, which farms 180 acres of
hazelnuts near Mt. Angel, Ore.
Aman said the February ice
storm devastated their older
orchards, snapping branches off
the upper two-thirds of the trees.
Instead of harvesting 3,000 to
5,000 pounds per acre, yields
were 1,000 pounds per acre.
“It was like a bomb went
off,” he said. “When you get
an inch of ice that builds up
on both sides of the branch,
there’s nothing that can with-
stand that.”
Younger orchards, how-
ever, were not nearly as dam-
aged. Varieties such as Jeffer-
son and McDonald continue
to increase production as they
come into full maturity, mak-
ing up for losses elsewhere on
the farm, Aman said.
Oregon produces nearly all
U.S. hazelnuts, with acreage
more than doubling over the
last decade to approximately
80,000 acres.
Aman said their orchards
were less affected by drought,
since the trees are irrigated.
For dryland growers like
Jay Price, the effects of drought
were more pronounced.
Price, who farms about
20 acres in Oregon’s Yam-
hill County, said the lack of
rain means nut size is down
from last year. He is also con-
cerned the “heat dome” in June
that brought temperatures as
high as 117 degrees may stunt
the growth of some younger
orchards.
“It would have been a tough
year to have a new planting, I
think, if you didn’t have irriga-
tion,” Price said.
Ryan Flaherty, grower rela-
tions manager for Hazelnut
Growers of Oregon, a co-op
with more than 200 mem-
ber farmers, said harvest was
75-80% finished as of Oct. 20.
Overall, he said, crop quality
has been good with few cases
of mold, rancidity or insect
damage.
While the heat dome did
cause leaves to wilt and burn
on hazelnut trees, it did not nec-
essarily affect this year’s crop,
Flaherty said. As for 2022, that
remains to be seen.
“It just seems like those
trees shut down during that
intense heat,” he said, noting
that trees were still growing
new fruiting wood to set next
year’s crop.
Bend senator named GOP leader
GARY A. WARNER
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — Sen. Tim Knopp
of Bend was named the new
state Senate Republican leader
in a surprise announcement on
Friday, Oct. 22.
Sen. Fred Girod, R-Stayton,
the leader during the 2021 legis-
lative session, said he was step-
ping down immediately due to
unspecified health concerns.
“Republicans have a great
opportunity to showcase our
ideas and vision as a viable
alternative to decades of failed
Democratic leadership in Ore-
gon,” Knopp said in a state-
ment. “I look forward to serv-
ing this caucus to do just that.”
Knopp immediately steps
into the job leading the GOP
in the Senate, where Demo-
crats hold an 18-seat superma-
jority in the 30-member Senate.
He inherits a fractured group of
GOP lawmakers.
It was unclear Friday how
many of the senators voted on
Knopp’s elevation to minority
leader and how many who were
originally elected as Republi-
cans consider themselves part
of the caucus or independents.
Adding to the internal drama
is Sen. Dallas Heard, R-Rose-
burg, who was elected Oregon
Republican Party chair early
this year on a platform that
the party was not supportive
enough of ex-President Don-
ald Trump and needed to push
harder against Gov. Kate Brown
and anti-pandemic efforts like
mandatory mask-wearing, busi-
ness restrictions and promoting
vaccination.
During the 2021 session,
Heard was among a group of
lawmakers supporting a walk-
out over a controversial gun
control bill.
Girod, Knopp and other vet-
eran Republican lawmakers
opted to vocally oppose the leg-
islation, but not bring the Legis-
lature to a full stop by denying
the minimum 20-member quo-
rum to do any business, as had
occurred in earlier walkouts in
2019 and 2020.
Girod, whose home had
burned down during the Labor
Day fires in 2020, was the tar-
get of rage by bitter conserva-
tive activists who branded those
who want to stay in the Capi-
tol as “traitors.” Girod and Sen.
Bill Hansell, R-Athena, con-
firmed they were among sena-
tors who received death threats
that were reported to the Ore-
gon State Police. No arrests
were made.
Leading the Senate GOP
members is Knopp’s second
stint as a legislative leader. He
was House Majority Leader
during part of his three terms
representing Bend in the House
from 1999 to 2005.
Knopp did not seek re-elec-
tion in 2004 and was out of state
politics for seven years. In 2012
he successfully challenged
incumbent Sen. Chris Telfer,
R-Bend.
Knopp won about 60% of
the general election vote in
2012 and 2016. The rapid pop-
ulation increase in Deschutes
County and a large turnout of
Democrats seeking to defeat
Trump in 2020 led to Knopp’s
closest victory margin: 50.7%
over Democrat Eileen Kiely.
Legislators in Oregon serve
part-time. Knopp is execu-
tive vice president of the Cen-
tral Oregon Builders Associa-
tion and the executive director
of Building Partners for Afford-
able Housing.
Knopp has been an advo-
cate of reform to the Pub-
lic Employee Retirement Sys-
tem, which continues to run up
a multi-billion dollar deficit.
He was a leader of a success-
ful campaign to alter the Ore-
gon Constitution to include the
“kicker,” a flat-tax rebate that
kicks in when the state takes in
a certain amount of money over
what it had projected.
MT. VERNON
PRESBYTERIAN
Community Church
SUNDAY SERVICE..............9 am
SUNDAY SERVICE ...........9 am
541-932-4800
EVERYONE WELCOME
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Redeemer
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Come Worship with us at
Grace Chapel (EMC )
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Prairie City, Oregon
541 820-4437
2 Corinthians 5:17
Every Sunday in the L.C.
Community Center
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Contact Pastor Ed Studtmann at
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Sunday School (all ages)
9:30-10:30
Sunday Worship
10:45-12:00
John Day Valley
Mennonite
Church
Meeting every Sunday
at Mt. Vernon Grange Hall
Sunday School ...............................9:30 a.m.
Sunday Morning Worship ............10:50 a.m.
Pastor Leland Smucker
Everyone Welcome • 541-932-2861
(Corner of Second & Allen)
JOHN DAY
UNITED
METHODIST
CHURCH
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CHURCH OF THE
NAZARENE
Sunday School .......................... 9:30 am
Sunday Worship Service......... 10:45 am
Sunday Evening Service ...........6:00 pm
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SMALL GROUPS CALL FOR MORE INFO
627 SE Hillcrest, John Day
59357 Hwy 26 Mt. Vernon
1 st Sunday Worship/Communion ..................10am
3 rd Sunday Worship/Communion/Potluck ...4:30pm
2 nd , 4 th & 5 th Sunday Worship .........................10am
Sunday Bible Study .....................................8:45am
Celebration of Worship
For information: 541-575-2348
Midweek Service
FIRST CHRISTIAN
CHURCH
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Weekdays: Sonshine Christian School
Full Gospel- Come Grow With Us
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S263269-1