STATE
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, February 9, 2022
Cattle numbers fall sharply in U.S.
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
SALEM — The number of beef
and dairy cattle and calves in the U.S.
on Jan. 1 declined about 1.9 million
head year over year to 91.9 million.
“As expected, cattle numbers are
down pretty much in every category,”
said Derrell Peel, extension livestock
marketing specialist with Oklahoma
State University.
“We expected tighter numbers,
and they were every bit of that and
more,” he said.
Some categories are down even
more than expected. The beef cow
herd is down 2.3%, and beef replace-
ment heifers are down 3.3%, Peel
said.
That leaves limited prospects for
herd rebuilding, he said.
“I think producers would like to
keep heifers, they just can’t,” he said.
Drought impacted heifer retention
last year, and “we don’t know what
this year is going to hold for us,” he
added.
Impacts were expected in drought-
stricken states, and the biggest
January 1 U.S. cattle inventory
Class
All cattle and calves*
2021
2022
(1,000 head)
93,789.5
91,901.6
Beef cows, heifers that have calved
30,843.6
30,125.1
-2.3
5,803.1
5,611.5
-3.3
Replacement heifers expected to calve 3,509.6
3,411.5
-2.8
Replacement beef heifers
percent change
-2.0
All cattle on feed
14,667.4
14,692.6
0.2
Calf crop
35,495.5
35,085.4
-1.2
Source: USDA-NASS *beef and dairy
decrease in beef cows — in percent-
age decline and absolute numbers —
was in South Dakota, Peel said.
Cow numbers there declined 11%
and 189,000 head. Montana’s beef cow
numbers were down significantly, as
expected, about 6% and 90,000 head,
he said.
Texas also had a pretty big decline
— down 3% and 160,000 head — but
not all of it was due to drought, Peel
said.
Colorado’s beef cows were down
another 3% after having liquidated a
lot last year, and Nebraska’s cow herd
declined 3%. Declines were also seen
in the Southwest.
Beef cow slaughter was up 9% year
over year in 2021 largely because of
the drought, he said.
“That clearly indicates liquidation,”
he said.
That level of cow slaughter rep-
resents 11.55% of the beef cow herd,
Peel said.
“I would expect that to be under
11% if we weren’t liquidating,” he
said.
Drought is going to play a critical
role, and cows will have to be liqui-
dated at an even bigger number than
last year, he said.
The Jan. 1 cattle on feed inventory
was up just 0.2%, the 2021 calf crop
was down 1.2% and the estimated
feeder cattle supply is down 2.6%.
“We’ve reached a point now where
there’s just not enough feeders in the
pipeline” to keep feedlots full, Peel
said.
Feedlot numbers should go down
noticeably in the next two to four
months, he said.
The tighter cattle numbers are bull-
ish for prices, he said.
“It’s going to help support prices
because the numbers are even smaller
than expected. We already expected
higher prices, so it’s certainly going to
support that,” Peel said.
Fed cattle prices broke loose late
last year, rising substantially. There
won’t be enough cattle to keep feedlots
full, and there won’t be the bottlenecks
in processing, he said.
That’s all favorable for cattle prices,
but feed costs are going to be a factor
for feedlots and cow-calf producers.
Cow-calf producers are also going to
be dealing with drought, he said.
When permanent is not permanent
New status of OHA
school mask rule is not
what it may seem to be
By DICK MASON
The Observer
LA GRANDE — The Oregon
Health Authority’s adoption of perma-
nent rules last month requiring masks
to be worn in schools is creating con-
fusion and causing some people to be
unduly worried.
Mark Mulvihill, superintendent of
the InterMountain Education Service
District, whose service area includes
Union County, said some people mis-
takenly assume that the adoption of the
permanent rules means students will be
required to continue wearing masks after
the pandemic is over. Mulvihill said this
will be far from the case. OHA intends
to rescind the mandate, he said, once the
pandemic is over. Mulvihill said the word
“permanent” in this case is misleading.
“It is a question of semantics,” he
said.
North
Pow-
der School Dis-
trict Superintendent
Lance Dixon agrees
the word adds an ele-
ment of confusion.
“It is not really
Mendoza
permanent. It is only
permanent until they
repeal it,” he said.
The
state
adopted permanent
rules on Friday, Jan.
28, requiring masks
in school settings,
Mulvihill
replacing a tempo-
rary rule that was set to expire. Ore-
gon health and education officials
have required masks all school year
as one mitigation strategy aimed at
limiting the spread of COVID-19, so
that students can stay in school full
time.
And while recent policies around
contact tracing and COVID-19 expo-
sures have changed, masks will remain
required in school settings until the
rules are repealed.
As for when that might be, Oregon
education officials say it depends on
the course of COVID-19.
“The virus sets the timeline,” wrote
the Oregon Department of Education’s
Ready Schools, Safe Learners resil-
ience manager Kati Moseley in a mes-
sage to superintendents and school
leaders on Jan. 28.
“OHA can rescind the masking
requirements if it believes the rule or
parts of the rule are no longer neces-
sary to control COVID-19,” wrote
OHA officials in response to concerns
about what might trigger the repeal of
the rules.
Meanwhile, Mulvihill is encourag-
ing people to remain calm.
“Do not overreact,” he said. “By
no means will students still be wear-
ing masks when the pandemic is over.
Children will not be wearing masks
during cold season three years from
now.”
Mulvihill said Gov. Kate Brown’s
executive order calling for the mask-
ing mandate, which went into effect
before the school year started, has a
sunset date and cannot be renewed. He
said the OHA had only two options,
to let the executive order expire or
to give its rule permanent status.
The mask mandate was set to expire
Feb. 8.
La Grande School District Superin-
tendent George Mendoza said factors
that could lead to the mask mandate
being rescinded will involve not only
falling infection rates but also stron-
ger systems of support for COVID-19
issues and improving health care sys-
tems for the virus.
OHA officials have said COVID-
19 hospitalizations and deaths, trans-
mission data, vaccination rates and
guidance from the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention will all play a
role in decision-making when it comes
to mask requirements.
Dixon believes that as the COVID-
19 front improves, the pressure to let
school districts decide on mask man-
dates will increase.
“At some point they are going to
be getting a lot of pressure to return to
local control,” he said.
Oregon Public Broadcasting
reporter Elizabeth Miller contributed
to this report.
A11
Guard is
suspected
in prison
drug probe
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — An officer at
Eastern Oregon Correctional Insti-
tution, Pendleton, is under inves-
tigation for supplying drugs to
inmates.
Jesse Myer, Milton-Freewa-
ter police officer and a detective
with the Blue Mountain Enforce-
ment Narcotics Team, or BENT,
filed a search warrant affidavit
Jan. 28 in Umatilla County Circuit
Court explaining what set off the
investigation.
EOCI in late 2021 and early
2022 saw an increase in the num-
ber of adults in custody who
tested positive for drugs, specifi-
cally methamphetamine and mar-
ijuana, according to the affidavit.
The medium-security prison from
June to November had 20 inmates
test positive for various narcot-
ics. But in December, seven men
in custody tested positive, and five
were for marijuana. In January, the
number jumped to 25 inmates who
tested positive, most for meth and
marijuana.
The prison had shut down vis-
itation with inmates on Jan. 4 due
to coronavirus restrictions, accord-
ing to the affidavit, leaving EOCI
staff as the only way for drugs to
get inside.
One adult in custody, accord-
ing to Myer’s affidavit, provided
information that one corrections
officer was supplying meth and
marijuana products. Then a sec-
ond inmate came forward and
named the same officer. In early
January, a third inmate also named
the same officer as the drug sup-
plier, saying he saw the officer
exchange “balloons” containing
meth, cocaine and marijuana with
inmates.
A review of surveillance video,
the affidavit stated, confirmed the
transaction with the inmates.
The East Oregonian is not
identifying the officer at this
time because the investigation is
ongoing and there have been no
arrests.
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