Fuel costs, parts costs, everything has gone up. People say that prices have gone up, but calf prices have too. But calf prices still have not kept up with inflation – and so that’s what makes it tough for ranchers to keep in business. If everything else goes up and cattle prices don’t, you’re just spinning your wheels a bit – you better like what you do.
Katie Baltzor
Rancher Katie Baltzor surveys a landscape where late-blooming rabbitbrush sways against steep, eroded-basalt buttes near Hines, Oregon, riding a side-by-side vehicle among her Black Angus cattle. Persistent drought, soaring diesel prices, and summer wildfires are colliding on multiple fronts to create a tough season for livestock producers in Harney County, an area where cattle significantly outnumber human residents.
A Colliding Financial Storm in Harney County
For ranchers across southeast Oregon, near record-high diesel prices are compounding the financial toll left by severe drought and summer wildfires. These fuel costs are hovering near historic highs despite recent actions by President Trump as the midterm elections near.
Baltzor points out that while calf prices paid to producers have ticked upward, they simply have not kept pace with inflation.
Wildfires Strike Mountain Grazing Allotments Early
Destructive wildfires tore through the mountain ranges where Baltzor typically grazes her herds, stripping away vital forage weeks ahead of schedule.
Instead of bringing the cattle down from the high country during the second week of September, Baltzor and hired riders had to move through heavy smoke to extract their herds by late July. Neighboring ranches face even steeper hurdles; burned federal grazing allotments often remain closed to livestock for years, leaving producers to wonder where they will safely run cows next.
Drought Decimates Local Hay Meadows
Compounding the loss of mountain grass, the very drought that fueled the summer fires also withered local hay meadows.
Some fields received barely enough water to yield a light cutting, while others remained entirely dry and unharvested. Harvesting what little hay exists requires running tractors through multiple passes—cutting, windrowing for sun-drying, and finally baling—with each tank of diesel costing roughly $300.
Risky Strategies to Cut Punishing Fuel Expenses
Faced with punishing fuel expenses and the threat of fast-moving fires, Baltzor and her husband opted for “rakebunching,” a practice where tractor operators simply rake pasture hay into piles and leave them in the field.
While this minimizes tractor passes and saves on fuel bills, it leaves operations vulnerable to severe winter feed shortages if precipitation fails to materialize and irrigation water remains scarce.
Debt and Narrowing Operating Margins
To mitigate ongoing operational costs, the Baltzors have shifted toward gas-powered pickups. Yet every ranch in the high desert manages its own distinct financial break point depending on accumulated land, vehicle, and livestock loans.
