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5A Saturday, June 29, 2013 – Daily News Agriculture farm & ranch Washington trip continues I forgot to mention the want to be off the mountain piles of rocks we noticed at by Nov. 15 with the cattle. the edge of the corn fields, They start gathering Sept. 15 but the and the rock picker range is open, removing the and they will smooth, round gather all fall. basalt rocks left The cows are from the Missoula wintered on Floods in the fields. the home When we left the ranch, but will Grand Coulee Dam have 18" snow Visitors Center on on ground. the Western LiveLocal catstock Journal tour tlemen and catof Eastern Washtlewomen were ington, we were Jean invited for the headed to Omak. evening. Good Our destination to visit with was Sunny Jean and" Okanogan Angus Buz" Berney, Ranch. Craig and Mary K. Vejraska are long- when we enjoyed sirloin time friends from previous steaks, baked potatoes, toss WLJ tours, seeing them at green salad, grilled buttered NCBA conventions, and French bread and fresh Mary K. was American strawberry or blueberry Angus Auxiliary regional short cake with delicious Hogue 2011 Riesling and director. We were greeted with Cabernet Sauvignon wines. The next morning Mary hors d' oeuvres and drinks after driving up a lane lined K. and Craig continued to with heifers on one side, be excellent hosts with cows and calves on other in breakfast at the Omak Elks green pastures, and were Lodge. I laughed when Craig announced we were introduced to the family. The ranch borders the not having scrambled eggs Okanogan River, and they for once on the tour. It was run 6 pivots from the pump savory biscuits and gravy. There were Angus on the river. Ranch was started in 1956, and now posters on the walls, and on have 4,000 acres deeded the tables were facts about range land and 600 irrigated Okanogan County with acres growing corn silage, samples of WA ag products: hay and barley with a 200 lavender bags, honey bears, day growing season at 860 mints, applets, cotlets, potato chips, beef jerky, beef ft. elevation. There are 750 mother recipes and beautiful cows, of which 500 are reg- Granny Smith and Gala istered. They also graze on apples from the Apple 200,000 acres tribal lands Commission for us to take. Before breakfast we had and 50,000 acres USFS. Feet and legs are important an opportunity to walk on since it is 2 miles to water, the steep hillside where the and they are 40 miles from suicide riders plunge down the Canadian border. They to the river and swim their figure 35 to 40 acres per horses across, then race into pair. They have an annual the fairgrounds during bull sale the second Thurs- Omak's annual Stampede. We visited the Double R day of March. The winters are open, but Ranch, Loomis, owned by Barton Courtesy photo The cows and calves were leaving when the Western Livestock Journal tour visited Sunny Okanogan Angus Ranch, Omak, Wash. Notice the large rocks on the ranch. AgriBeef Co. and the Rebholtz family since 2007, after driving northward. You could see an old water trestle on the hillside, and apple orchards among the sage brush on the hills. We were 10 or 12 miles from Canada. We met the ranch manager Kent Clark, and Jason Baker, from the meat division at Toppenish packing plant. A video was shown that explained the ranch motto "Own from birth to consumer plate" and "It takes an average of 34 months from breeding to steak on the plate." They also have three feed lots, with 380,000 head fed a year. They have 1,300 mother cows including 300 registered Angus. The commercial cows are on State Forest grounds, and they never leave the ranch since horses are used to move them. 13,000 deeded acres and 55,000 acres of State and Federal land for grazing. Hay is fed four months of the year since it is 1200' elevation here. They raise some hay and purchase from outside sources. They calve on the crested wheat land, sagebrush and rocks starting Feb. 1 and end by May. They sell their Angus bulls as two years old without pushing them to weigh heavy. Weigh 650 lbs at weaning, 1,000 lbs as yearling. The bull customers turn out in May and don't gather until Nov. Double R Ranch tries to buy their bull customers calves, giving a rebate on purchase price of 10% of bull cost. This way they can tell how the breeding program is doing on carcass results. The heifers are bred to Wagyu bulls for a small calf at birth. A calf will weigh 40 to 50 lbs at birth. The Wagyu calves are fed at American Falls feed lot. In the future they hope to feed 40,000 to 50,000 Wagyu cross animals, because the beef is very flavorful (and grades prime or high choice). They lease the Wagyu bulls to ranchers and sign a contract to buy the calves, with a 20 cent (a pound) premium. The Wagyu are fed 500 days, about 28 months, since they have less than 2 lbs a day gain. We saw 10 Wagyu bulls in a pen, and as someone said "A Wagyu bull makes a Jersey bull look good." All the registered cows and 1st calf heifers are bred AI (artificial insemination). 550 of the commercial cows are in a test for Genex, it is a sire test for best genetics. 1,250 cows were carrying embryo's, since they had been implanting for the last three weeks. Then Jason Baker told us about the plant at Toppenish. The cattle are processed within six hours of arrival. USDA does basic inspection before slaughter, with a full time veterinarian on the grounds. Food safety is critical, and there are 10 federal agents on the grounds. They are concerned about pathogens, so a misting spray that is lightly chlorinated is sprayed on the live cattle to control dust. There are 23 different intervention processes throughout the slaughter process and 8 employees are concerned with food safety. Wherever a knife touches, food safety is the goal, and lactic or citric acid is used to kill off the pathogens. The animal on trolley (carcass) is identified, back to the feed lot or grower. It is id. by species, sex, region it came from. They take a snapshot of the eye and carcass. Now they can track age and natural carcass attributes. They employ 900 at the plant, and kill 1,475 a day, 7,000 head in a week, and 380,000 a year. 460 work in the fabrication room where they break down a carcass, box and store the meat. They do 33 carcass sorts, since Japan wants beef under 20 months of age, and there is cattle of Canadian origin and fed in US feedlots. They cannot comingle US beef with foreign beef in their ground beef. There is a value added room where they make corned beef, hot dogs, chubs and patties. They market all the beef under several different brands or labels. After walking up to the bull lot and looking at the bulls they will sell as 2 years old, we enjoyed a luncheon of smoked tri tip, garlic new red potatoes, Caesar salad, rolls and butter with caramel fudge brownies for dessert. Enroute back to Omak we saw a billboard "Beef, It's What's for Dinner" along the freeway, the Okanogan Cattlemen had sponsored. Farmers warn of high milk prices MILWAUKEE (AP) — Dairy farmers expressed frustration this week with Congress' failure to pass a farm bill, saying the uncertainty made it hard to do business and some could go under without changes to the federal milk program. Farmers also worried that if a current nine-month extension of the 2008 farm bill expires with no action, a 64-year-old law will kick in, sending milk prices spiraling. While that might provide short-term profits, they say, it'd hurt them in the long run because no one wants to buy milk at $6 a gallon. The U.S. House voted down a farm bill June 20, about a week after the Senate approved a different version. It was the second year in a row that the House failed to pass the every-fiveyears bill that sets funding for agriculture and food programs. Last year, it didn't even vote, prompting the passage in January of a slimmed-down extension of the 2008 law — largely to avoid milk prices sharply increasing. The Agricultural Act of 1949 sets a much higher price for government purchases of cheese, butter and other dairy products than the U.S. has seen in decades. Dr. Art Sutfin Large Animal Mobile Veterinary Practice (Still serving the North State) Cell: 530 227-1459 Office: 530 934-3801 The government cut the price in recent decades because if it didn't, more companies would sell to the government than to retailers, unless consumer prices rose to match. Farmers fear if the higher prices kick in on Jan. 1, milk and other diary prices will rise until consumers just stop buying their products. "I don't think that's good for anybody because we would destroy demand," said Pete Kappelman, a Wisconsin dairy farmer and board chairman of Land O'Lakes, a farmer-owned company that markets milk, eggs, butter and many other products. The farm bill failed in the House mainly because of disagreement over foodstamp funding and dairy program reforms farmers say are needed to keep them in business. The government currently pays dairy farmers when milk prices get too low. But the problem in recent years has been the high cost of feed due to the ethanol industry's demand for corn as well as the drought. Farmers say milk costs almost as much to produce as they can sell it for — and sometimes more. Kappelman, who has a RUNNINGS ROOFING Sheet Metal Roofing Residential Commercial • Composition • Shingle • Single Ply Membrane "No Job Too Steep" " No Job Too Flat" Serving Tehama County No Money 530-527-5789 530-209-5367 CA. LIC#829089 Down! FREE ESTIMATES Owner is on site on every job 450-cow farm in Manitowoc, Wis., worked on a national dairy industry committee that proposed a margin protection program that pays farmers when the price difference between milk and feed shrinks to a certain point. He also supports a market stabilization program that would require farmers to either reduce the amount of milk produced when prices drop too low or give up a portion of their margin protection payments. The U.S. Department of Agriculture would then use that money to buy and donate dairy products to food banks and help low-income families. The margin protection and market stabilization programs would be voluntary, but farmers couldn't participate in one without the other. The Senate passed a farm bill last week that included both the margin protection and market stabilization programs, but House Republicans voted to remove the market stabilization program. Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson, the senior Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, said a number of Democrats changed their vote to no at that point. DAILY NEWS RED BLUFF TEHAMA COUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U NTY S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Your "Local" Daily Newspaper Since 1885 To Subscribe CALL TODAY! 527-2151 FAX 527-3719 The Over 25 years of experience STOVE JUNCTION BBQ PELLETS DAILY NEWS PO BOX 220 545 DIAMOND AVE. RED BLUFF CA 96080 Website: redbluffdailynews.com The North State's premier supplier of stoves All makes and models. We perform dealer recommened Members Welcome 30K, 60K, 90K Now in Stock! 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