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Ranchers face uncertain winter and shifting pricesSTANFIELD, Ore. (AP)--The only thing certain about this winter for many Oregon ranchers is that beef prices are down and the cost of livestock feed is up, forcing them to make some tough choices. Terry and Debby Anderson's prized Simmental-Angus cows were hunkered down in drifts of snow in late December while tending to their calves, who curled up in piles of hay. The Anderson family has been ranching since the 1940s, and they are compassionate toward their animals. But like all other ranchers, they have been hit with the perfect economic storm of falling beef prices and rising production costs, particularly hay and corn. "It's been disastrous to commercial cattle operations today," Terry Anderson said of the cost of hay. Many farmers reduced their alfalfa acres in favor of corn to fuel the ethanol fuel boom, leading to a rise in the price of hay that was "completely out of reason." In Eastern Oregon, Terry Anderson said the average cow consumes 2 to 3 tons of hay in a winter. When ranchers were buying hay for the winter earlier this year, the price was, at best, $200 a ton. "That's $400 to $600 per calf that isn't even born yet, excluding additional maintenance and production costs," Terry Anderson said, including livestock vaccinations and pasture rent. "When something happens like this, it puts you in a position where it's virtually impossible to break even," he said. Gay Newman, a buyer for the Mesa, Wash.-based company English Hay, said the market for hay has dropped in the past few months for several reasons, but chiefly because of the strengthening of the dollar overseas. Newman said it is easy to forget with so much economic trouble at home that markets worldwide are also suffering and the dollar has actually grown stronger in comparison with other currencies. The result is that U.S. products are now slightly more expensive worldwide. In Japan, U.S. hay costs an additional $15 or $20 per ton to local buyers. The demand for hay has gone down with the recession because fewer people are buying beef, and the loss in demand for milk overseas means that dairymen are buying fewer tons of hay. "Some people are either selling their cattle or getting out of the industry," he said. 12/29/08 Date: 12/23/08
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