Katie Baltzor rides her side-by-side among the black angus cattle she raises near her home outside of Hines, Oregon.Anna King/NWPB hide caption HARNEY COUNTY, ORE.
- Late bloomin' rabbitbrush – wads of swaying ochre – stud the roadsides and steep eroded-basalt buttes rising up from the basin floor outside of Hines, Oregon.In a broad open field, horses munch standing hay as Katie Baltzor watches her black angus cattle on this fall day.We've ridden out here in a side-by-side vehicle – it's like an overgrown golf cart with a pickup bed in the back made for rough ranch work.All the animals are quiet.Happy.
With their heads down grazing."You see that horse, how he's got speckled colors?" said Baltzor with a smile in her voice."Looks like country gravy, I guess that's why they called him Gravy."Diesel prices remain near record highs, despite recent actions by President Trump as the mid-term elections get closer.The high prices are adding to pain for cattle ranchers in western states, who were already struggling with persistent drought.
And in Harney County, where bovines outnumber the people – by a lot - there's many mouths to feed.Sir Yukon Gold, or just Yukon – like the potato – is a 10-year-old palomino Quarterhorse gelding.
He's grazing with the other Baltzor geldings in a field south of Hines, Oregon.Anna King/NWPB hide caption "Fuel costs, parts costs, everything has gone up," Baltzor said.
"People say that prices have gone up, but calf prices (paid to ranchers) 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 �...