STATE
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, March 16, 2022
A9
Stock sale draws buyers from all over
By SAMANTHA O’CONNER
Baker City Herald
by ranchers from Nebraska, then Vir-
ginia and North Dakota.
BAKER VALLEY — With sun-
shine bringing a bit of late winter
warmth to Baker Valley on Monday
morning, March 7, it was a perfect
day for the 43rd annual Harrell Here-
ford Ranch sale.
The lowing of cattle and the bray-
ing of horses was joined by the eager
chatter of ranchers from all over the
country as they mingled together,
examining the animals that would go
on the auction block.
The sale includes bulls, heifers
and, for the 24th straight year, Har-
rell-Mackenzie quarterhorses.
The aromas of fresh hay and
wood chips mingled with the smoky
scent of barbecued tri-tip greeted the
Harrells’ visitors. Laughter and com-
ments of “such a nice day” drifted
among the gates and barns as a cou-
ple hundred people enjoyed a lunch
prior to the sale.
Mingling among the distinctively
colored red-and-white Herefords,
Dan Forsea, a rancher from Richland,
was looking for a bull or two.
“They’ve got good quality cattle.
Keep getting better all the time,” For-
sea said of the Harrells’ off erings.
He has attended the Harrells’
annual spring auctions since they
started, saying he and his dad, Walt,
used to come together. Dan said his
father, who died on Jan. 16, 2020,
always enjoyed going to the auction.
“This is a good family, too,” Dan
said of the Harrells. “We’ve known
them for years and they’re just a
really good family. It’s always great
to come out here.”
Edna and Bob Harrell started
the Harrell Hereford Ranch along
Salmon Creek, northwest of Baker
City, in 1970. The family’s 80-acre
home ranch has expanded to include
several ranches and a herd of 400
Assessing the beef industry
Samantha O’Conner/Baker City Herald
The snowy Elkhorn Mountains provided a scenic backdrop for the Harrell Hereford Ranch’s 43rd annual spring sale on
Monday, March 7, 2022.
Samantha O’Conner/Baker City Herald
Ranchers have a look at some of the Herefords to go on the sale block Monday,
March 7, 2022, at the Harrell Hereford Ranch near Baker City.
registered Hereford cows, 400 black
baldy commercial cows, a 1,000-
head feedlot and 25 quarterhorse
broodmares.
The Harrells’ cattle run on 8,000
acres of native range.
Edna Harrell continues to help at
the ranch along with her son, Bob
Harrell Jr., his wife, Becky, and their
daughter, Lexie.
Bob Harrell Jr. was inducted into
the Hereford Hall of Fame in Kansas
City, Missouri, in October 2021.
A nationwide attraction
John Rusher from Westcliff e,
Colorado, was one of the many
ranchers who traveled a long dis-
tance to partake in the auction of
what he called “good, high-quality
Hereford bulls” and quarterhorses.
Landen Doyle traveled from Dal-
las, Texas, where his family owns the
Doyle Hereford Ranch. This was his
fi rst year visiting the Harrell Here-
ford Ranch.
“Always wanted to come up here
and look at this ranch. Finally got the
opportunity, came up here with my
dad on his birthday,” Doyle said.
Dan Cook, who traveled from
Idaho, attended last year’s auction as
well, which included both in-person
and online bidders.
Jerry and Inesse Parks of Aiden,
California, have been traveling to the
Harrell auction for a dozen years to
buy horses and bulls.
After mingling with the cattle and
fellow ranchers, exchanging stories
and laughing, everyone made their
way into the auction barn. Food and
beverages were available as country
music fi lled the air.
Then the fun began with Bob Har-
rell Jr.’s words of thanks to those
joining and those who helped with
the auction.
The auctioneer went off , words
fl ying, and the fi rst bulls were bought
The beef business has had its
ups and downs over the years, and
recently, prices haven’t helped much,
according to some ranchers attending
the Harrell sale.
“It’s pretty expensive right now
because of the hay. It’s pretty tough
to make a buck,” said Cook, from
Idaho.
Jerry Parks, from California, said
the cattle market has gone up a bit,
but it’s unpredictable.
“It’s up and down all the time,”
he said. “It seems like we never
get hardly enough out of our prod-
uct compared to what it gets after
it leaves us. We just keep plugging
along.”
Forsea said infl ation, which has
signifi cantly increased production
costs for ranchers who depend on
diesel and other petroleum products,
is making it tough for producers.
And like many ranchers, For-
sea is bothered by the dominance
in the meatpacking industry by four
large corporations. Building more
small, regional packing plants would
give ranchers more options for sell-
ing their cattle, and potentially boost
prices.
The Biden administration this
winter announced a campaign
to encourage the construction of
regional packing facilities.
“It’s aff ecting everybody,” Forsea
said of infl ation. “As far as the prices
in the supermarkets, the cattle/calf
man is seeing that diff erence. And
it’s packers and retailers and getting
it from one place to another, fuel, and
everything. But anyway, that’s why
we’re in it for the long haul because
eventually we might see a good year.
So it’s getting better. It’s a good way
of life.”
Lawmaker off ers to buy Vale newspaper
Malheur Enterprise
has been critical of
Rep. Greg Smith
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
East Oregonian, File
Les Zaitz works in 2018 at his newspaper, the Malheur Enterprise in Vale. He put the paper up for
sale in early 2022, and Rep. Greg. Smith, R-Heppner, a frequent subject of the Enterprise’s investi-
gative work, sent Zaitz an email off ering to buy the paper. Zaitz, however, is not selling to Smith.
Smith’s off er with the public.
“Let’s see what the com-
munity — and the state —
thinks of your idea of buying a
paper to shut it down,” he said.
“Thanks for the off er. We’ll be
in touch.”
Smith followed-up by clar-
ifying he would not shut the
Enterprise down if he bought
it.
“I already have staff in
place that would run the paper
quite well,” he wrote. “I never
said it would be shut down.”
In a response to a request
for comment, Smith provided a
written statement.
“The Malheur Enterprise,
a privately owned company,
publicly announced it was for
sale,” he said. “Gregory Smith
and Company, also a privately
owned company, made an off er
to purchase the Malheur Enter-
prise. Other than being pub-
licly ‘mocked’ by the seller,
no reply to our off er has been
received. Moreover, Greg-
ory Smith and Company has
not publicly stated its reason
for purchasing the paper. It is
unfortunate, some speculate to
the negative.”
Smith’s history with the
Enterprise
A two-time Pulitzer Prize
fi nalist with The Oregonian,
Zaitz, along with his family,
bought the Malheur Enterprise
in 2015.
Zaitz eventually took over
the paper’s editorial operations
and worked toward growing
the weekly’s presence. Zaitz
expanded the newsroom and
started collaborations with
national news organizations as
the Enterprise collected new
accolades and awards.
Today, Zaitz said the Enter-
prise is profi table and growing.
As he neared his 50th year in
the journalism business, Zaitz
said he decided to sell the
paper because he felt it was
the right time to hand over the
Enterprise to a new generation.
“We’re not going to sell
to anyone that shows up with
a check or a suitcase full of
$20 bills,” he said. “The Mal-
heur Enterprise is an essential
source of local news and is a
role model for local journal-
ism. So its import goes beyond
just reporting on Malheur
County. Its import is also help-
ing show newsrooms large
and small how to do eff ective
local journalism that generates
business success.”
When Smith made an off er
to buy the Enterprise, Zaitz
said he took it seriously.
Elected in 2000, Smith is
the longest-serving legislator
in the Oregon House of Rep-
resentatives. Although his dis-
trict’s lines have shifted sig-
nifi cantly over the years,
Smith always has repre-
sented a chunk of Northeast-
ern Oregon from his home in
Heppner.
But being a legislator is
only a part-time position.
His full-time work involves
him serving a number of eco-
reporting on him represented
criminal conduct,” he said.
”The sheriff looked into that
and essentially laughed him
out of Malheur County on that
allegation. He has publicly
ridiculed the Enterprise and
has made representations that
raise questions about whether
the Enterprise is paying its
taxes. This is a man who has
a pattern of taking aggressive
actions against the newspa-
per that is doing no more than
reporting on matters of public
importance.”
After Smith made his off er,
Zaitz followed through on his
promise and shared excerpts
from the exchange on the
Enterprise’s Facebook page
and asked readers what they
thought. As of the evening of
Thursday, March 10, nearly
70 people have commented on
the post. Almost all the com-
ments either opposed Smith
buying the paper, expressed
support for the Enterprise’s
current ownership or both.
Many questioned Smith’s
motivations.
Even if Smith doesn’t get
involved in the Vale media
business, he’ll continue to be
a prominent fi gure in East-
ern Oregon for the foresee-
able future. No one fi led
to contest Smith in either
the Republican primary or
the general election, all but
assuring him a 12th term in
Salem.
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VALE — Greg Smith’s
off er to buy the Malheur Enter-
prise came in a postscript.
An
email
exchange
between Smith and Les Zaitz,
the publisher and editor of the
small weekly newspaper in
Vale, over an editorial led to an
off er to take the Enterprise off
the market.
According to the email
chain obtained by the East Ore-
gonian, Zaitz wrote to inform
Smith, the state representative
for District 57 and the Malheur
County economic develop-
ment director, that he intended
to publish an editorial criti-
cal of Smith and asked him for
comment.
“I’m preparing an editorial
for next week about the Mal-
heur County Court’s manage-
ment of your company’s con-
tract,” he wrote. “You will, in
part, get a pass because you
can’t be blamed by taxpay-
ers for getting what you can
as easily as you can. But the
issue of your truth telling is
another matter. You lie. By
that, I mean you declare as
fact something you know to
be false.”
Smith responded by saying
he wouldn’t respond to “neg-
ative suppositions,” but also
added Malheur County resi-
dents were “begging” Zaitz to
sell his newspaper and that it
had no support.
“P.S. … if you need a
buyer for the paper, I’ll pay
$35,000 cash,” he wrote at the
end of the email. “No employ-
ees included.”
Later in the chain, Zaitz
told Smith he would share
nomic development posi-
tions throughout Oregon, both
within and outside his leg-
islative district. Some of his
titles include being the proj-
ect manager for the Colum-
bia Development Authority
in Boardman, the director of
the Eastern Oregon University
Small Business Development
Center in La Grande and the
economic development direc-
tor in Malheur County.
His status as an infl uen-
tial lawmaker who also is in
charge of raising money for
local projects and institutions
around the state has earned
him scrutiny in the media.
Willamette Week referred to
Smith as the “best compen-
sated lawmaker in Salem”
while also noting his actions
were “perfectly legal.”
The Enterprise also has
done reporting on the con-
nections between Smith’s per-
sonal business and his work in
the Legislature, in addition to
focusing on his work in Mal-
heur County, publishing sto-
ries on his contracts with the
county and his handling of
local economic development
projects.
Zaitz declined to provide
further details on the editorial
that prompted the exchange
with Smith before it was pub-
lished, but later summarized
the Enterprise’s various deal-
ings with Smith over the years.
“He complained that our
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