A12
NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Drought
Continued from Page A1
turn some of his cattle onto a
fi eld he typically cuts hay from
— in eff ect, the animals eating
grass that he would normally
cut and bale to keep them fed
months in the future.
“Then we had lower hay
production,” Sheehy said.
“That hurts because we have
to buy hay for winter. The hay
price right now, because of the
drought, is so expensive.”
Darren Hansen of Lazy H
Cattle in Cove, noted that there
is less hay to cut, due to scant
rainfall that trimmed yields.
“One of the farmers in the
valley, he has the same amount
of acres in hay crops, and is
down in the normal tonnage he
normally does,” Hansen said.
And yet, because of a lack
of forage in fi elds, ranchers not
only had to feed hay for longer
in the spring, but are starting fall
feeding earlier.
“Some of those guys are
feeding right now,” Hanse said
in early October.
Sheehy has seen this, as well.
“Already some of our neigh-
bors are feeding hay to their live-
stock,” he said. “They’re getting
to where there is no real way to
get out on this process.”
A shortage of forage on
summer pastures has in many
instances led to lighter calves,
which are worth less.
“The calves are about 20-30
pounds lighter than they should
be,” Hansen said.
Nash noted the same eff ect.
“(In) a really dry year, you’re
going to have some cows that
come in on a low body condi-
tion score,” he said. “To put that
weight back on is really expen-
sive, and nearly impossible with
just general hay products.”
Circle back to Hansen,
who said that among his light-
er-than-normal animals are his
breeding cows. The impact here,
he said, is that when it comes
time to breed for next year’s
calves, some of the pregnancies
won’t be successful.
“The cows are not near as
fl eshy as they should be,” he
said. “I’m going to have way
more open cows than I normally
do. If you have a cow that is not
in good shape, (then) her body
is not fl eshy enough to get bred.
That will hurt my bottom line
next year.”
Hansen also operates a cat-
tle trucking business, which has
shown a diff erent, heartbreaking
decision ranchers are having to
make.
“We’re trucking cat-
tle to slaughter that are bred,
because nobody has the hay
or the grass to feed them,” he
said, noting this action likely
will aff ect the entire cattle
supply chain. “We are tak-
ing production animals out of
the production line and put-
ting them in the food chain
blance of a drought next year
it’s going to have an impact on
people’s ability to raise livestock
here.”
We’re just all praying for
rain this fall, winter and spring,”
Hansen said, “or it will be twice
as bad as it was this year.”
Nash said everyone he talks
hopes “that we don’t go through
this again.”
Baker County
Dean Defrees waited for the
grass to grow to its customary
green, lush carpet, brushing the
bellies of his cattle.
And then he waited some
more.
enough,” Defrees said.
For the fi rst nine months of
2021, precipitation at the Baker
City Airport totaled 3.58 inches.
That’s just 48% of average for
the period.
May, which has an average
rainfall of 1.42 inches at the air-
port, the most of any month,
brought just 0.57 of an inch this
year.
June, which usually ranks
as the second-wettest, was even
worse, with just 0.21 — 83%
below average.
During the fi rst nine months
of the year, only one month was
wetter than average at the Baker
Wednesday, November 3, 2021
to hold onto most of their ani-
mals should be in a position to
take advantage of higher prices
in 2022.
The Thomas Angus Ranch
registered the most Angus beef
cattle in Oregon with the Amer-
ican Angus Association during
the fi scal year that ended Sept.
30, 2021, according to Mark
McCully, CEO for the Ameri-
can Angus Association.
Thomas said the current
drought “is the worst that I’ve
experienced.”
He said hay production on
his ranch was down an esti-
mated 10% to 20% this year.
“I THINK PEOPLE HAVE REACHED THAT POINT THAT THEY’RE
WONDERING HOW THEY ARE GOING TO GET THROUGH THE WINTER,
AND HAVING TO MAKE SOME REALLY TOUGH DECISIONS.”
Wallowa County rancher Todd Nash
because there is no way to
feed them.”
Hansen said he already had
hauled around 300 bred cows to
slaughter for other ranchers who
otherwise may see those ani-
mals starve or lose the calf.
Nash expressed his view on
that reality.
“I think people have reached
that point that they’re wonder-
ing how they are going to get
through the winter, and having
to make some really tough deci-
sions,” he said. “And this comes
on the heels of quite a few bad
years.”
Sheehy noted that ranch-
ers, including himself, are cull-
ing their herds more than normal
this fall because of a lack of feed
and the higher tab for hay they
are able to fi nd.
“We’ll be culling heavy, and
probably change some of our
practices,” he said, noting that
he doesn’t yet know what those
numbers will be. “Maybe not
keep as many heifers back.”
Sheehy’s view is that even if
winter brings a bountiful snow-
pack, and spring rains result in
a heavy forage crop in 2022,
the eff ects of this year’s drought
could be felt for a while.
“That’s the way I look at it.
It’s not just one thing. It’s not
(just) a dry year. It’s the con-
vergence of things here that are
really hurting the industry,” he
said. “If we have even a sem-
But the grass, deprived of
even the occasional rains which
are all that can reasonably be
expected in arid Northeastern
Oregon, failed to respond.
“It was a tough year, and
continues to be,” Defrees,
whose family has a cattle ranch
in Baker County’s Sumpter Val-
ley, said on Wednesday, Oct. 6.
The drought — most of
Northeastern Oregon is in
extreme drought, the sec-
ond-worst rating — stunted
growth of the grass that Defrees
depends on to fatten his cattle
herds during the summer and
into autumn.
He estimated that forage
production on the ranch, which
includes meadows and ponder-
osa pine forests, was down by
10% to 15% from a more typi-
cal year.
As a result, Defrees said, he
expects to have to start feed-
ing hay to the herd three to four
weeks earlier than usual.
Which means a bigger bill
for hay, since the Defrees Ranch
buys all its winter feed.
And because the drought and
record-setting heat this summer
had the same deleterious eff ects
on hay yields in many places
as on the grass on the Defrees
Ranch, he said hay prices are
higher than usual, which exacer-
bates the fi nancial toll.
“We had a couple timely
rains here, but not nearly
City Airport — and that outlier,
August, with 0.65 of an inch,
barely surpassed the average of
0.63.
Defrees said he considers
himself fortunate in that he has
a longtime relationship with his
hay supplier. His hay costs are
up 20% to 30%, he said.
“I know for others it’s higher
than that,” Defrees said.
Heat wasn’t the only prob-
lem for ranchers, and for hay
growers, this year, Defrees said.
The dilemma during the
spring of 2021 was cold
temperatures.
The chilly weather, by stunt-
ing grass growth, forced many
ranchers to feed hay to their cat-
tle further into spring than usual,
Defrees said.
That left little surplus hay
for sale later in the year, mean-
ing feed for this winter is even
more limited, and thus more
expensive.
Defrees said the prospect
of a longer winter feeding sea-
son, with more expensive hay,
prompted him to market some
cattle earlier than he would have
preferred.
That’s likely to be a com-
mon situation across the West,
said Rob Thomas of the Thomas
Angus Ranch in Baker Valley.
He expects a signifi cant liq-
uidation of herds this fall.
The upside, Thomas said,
is that ranchers who are able
“We have to hope and pray
for a very, very wet winter,”
Thomas said.
Grant County
The word for 2021 is
“unprecedented,” said Grant
County stockman Ken Holliday.
“I’ve seen other bad years in
my life ... but they pale in com-
parison to this year,” he said.
Holliday has a ranch
between John Day and Prairie
City as well as other holdings
scattered around Grant County,
where he runs more than 900 red
Angus and Hereford cross cows
and 140 bulls.
The key to getting through
a lean year like this one is to be
prepared, he said. Last spring,
when he saw signs that 2021
could be a historically dry
year, he started taking steps to
weather the storm.
Among other things, Hol-
liday invested in solar-pow-
ered pumps to coax water out
of springs that appeared to have
dried up. That spared him the
expense of having to haul water
to his herds.
“We got water where we
never had water before,” he said.
Holliday has also investing
in hay — not only for this year
but for next year as well, which
he fears could be as bad as 2021.
“I’m going to buy about
2,000 tons before it’s all over
with so when next year comes
along and we don’t get enough
hay, I’ll have enough to get
through,” he said.
Holliday’s advice to his fel-
low ranchers is to take steps now
to be ready for more challenging
years to come.
“You’ve got to optimize your
production on those meadows
and those old water rights,” he
said. “Go ahead and bite the bul-
let, even if you’ve got to borrow
money, and go ahead and buy
hay for an insurance policy.”
Assessing the beef market
Even though the price of beef
has climbed steeply at the super-
market, Nash said producers are
being squeezed by low prices
for their cattle due to consolida-
tion in the meatpacking industry
over the last fi ve years or so.
Nash noted that just four
companies — Tyson Foods,
Cargill, National Beef and JBS
— now process 85% of the cat-
tle raised in this country.
“They’ve managed to get a
captive supply of cattle where
they don’t have to negotiate
prices (with producers),” he
said.
All of those stresses have
forced many Oregon cattle pro-
ducers to take drastic measures,
Nash said, from culling more
older animals to selling parts or
even all of their herds.
“Some of them are hoping to
get back into it when this is all
over, and some have just given
up completely,” he said.
Amidst the twin challenges
of weather and market forces,
Nash shas been heartened by
the way some members of the
state’s agricultural commu-
nity have stepped up to help
their neighbors in need. And
he’s encouraged by the creative
approach some ranchers are tak-
ing by direct-marketing their
beef, which can result in lower
costs to consumers and higher
profi ts for producers by elimi-
nating the middleman.
Still, he’s concerned about
the future of cattle ranching in
Oregon.
“Survivors in this busi-
ness are survivors for a reason:
They’ve been innovative and
they’ve done some things to
keep costs low,” Nash said. “But
there’s only so much we can do
with effi ciencies. We’re going
to have to make some decisions
about whether we’re going to
stay in this business or not.”
FREE!
F
R E E !
BUY A FRAME AND GET A
PAIR OF SINGLE VISION
PLASTIC LENSES FOR
FREE!
UPGRADE TO A BIFOCAL
OR PROGRESSIVE LENS,
OR ADD COATINGS OR
TRANSITIONS, AND GET
UP TO $100 OFF.
SALE LASTS ALL
NOVEMBER
S261921-1