By ED MERRIMAN

Baker City Herald

A meeting arranged by Gov. Ted Kulongoski between Beef Northwest and the United Farm Workers union failed to resolve a labor dispute Tuesday, leaving 120 ranchers facing an uncertain future.

andquot;We have met, but we have not reached agreement,andquot; said John Wilson, president of Beef Northwest, which is headquartered in North Powder and operates a feedlot in Boardman, where cattle from Country Natural Beef ranchers is finished.

andquot;We met in person with the powers that be with United Farm Workers. We met in the Capitol with some of the governor’s staff in Salem,andquot; Wilson said. andquot;No additional meetings are scheduled at this time, but there will be.

andquot;The parties are interested in an amicable resolution, and are continuing communications,andquot; Wilson said.

Until the dispute is resolved, the Whole Foods Market chain has requested that Country Natural Beef, whose members include 16 Baker County ranches, stop sending cattle to Beef Northwest’s feedlot in Boardman, according to Dan Probert, who oversees cattle placements for Country Natural Beef.

andquot;They asked us to stop placing cattle for them, but the beef from cattle already in the feedlot is still going to Whole Foods,andquot; Probert said, adding that Kate Lowery of Whole Foods Market announced the grocery chain’s position earlier this week.

Probert said Lowery also announced that Whole Foods, which is based on Texas, has asked the 70 Oregon ranchers and 50 ranchers in other western states that make up the Country Natural Beef family, to look into using other feedlots.

While Country Natural Beef has stopped placing cattle with the Beef Northwest feedlot specifically for Whole Foods, Probert said its members are continuing to raise cattle the natural way, without hormones or antibiotics, with cattle spending most of their lives at home on the range, grazing on grass until it’s time to send them to the Beef Northwest feedlot the only feedlot used by Country Natural Beef because it is set up to finish the cattle following the strict natural, humane guidelines and feeding requirements established by Country Natural Beef.

We are continuing with business as usual,andquot; Probert said. andquot;Any cattle CNB places is at Beef Northwest.andquot;

Wilson said the core issue in the labor dispute is how non-management employees at Beef Northwest vote on whether they want to be represented by the United Farm Workers union.

Wilson said earlier that the union has insisted on running the election, but Beef Northwest has insisted that the election be conducted by a neutral third party with workers casting secret ballots.

Probert said that while Country Natural Beef is not a party to the labor dispute, its members are affected due to the pressure the union put on Whole Foods to stop cattle placements at the Boardman feedlot.

andquot;The only thing we want here is for the workers to have a fair and neutral way to have their voices heard,andquot; Probert said.

During the 16 years that Country Natural Beef has been raising cattle for Whole Foods, the market chain has grown to become CNB’s largest customer, buying about 70 percent of CNB products, according to CNB founder Doc Hatfield of Brothers.

Hatfield said other major buyers of Country Natural Beef products, including Burgerville restaurants and the New Seasons markets, have announced that they are not imposing any restrictions on CNB as a result of the labor dispute between UFW and Beef Northwest.

While the stalemate over the union voting method has left Country Natural Beef ranchers wondering what the future holds, Wilson said he is more optimistic that a resolution can be reached now that both sides have agreed to continue talking with the goal of reaching an andquot;amicable agreement.andquot;

Don Foster is one of the 16 Baker County ranchers who raise cattle for Country Natural Beef.

In May, he and other members of the Country Natural Beef marketing co-op, visited Whole Foods stores in the San Francisco Bay area to promote their natural, hormone free- antibiotic-free beef products.

Foster said the trip was planned before Texas-based Whole Foods Markets put a hold on cattle placements earmarked for its stores with the Beef Northwest feedlot, pending a resolution to a labor dispute.

From time to time, Foster said, rancher members of Country Natural Beef participate in marketing trips around the country to meet and talk with customers, including the store buyers and the people who shop in the stores where their beef is sold.

During the San Francisco trip, Foster said he and other ranchers talked with customers about their ranches, their families and the ranching heritage and way of life, about the care they put into raising cattle the natural way, including the finishing process at the Beef Northwest feedlot.

They also gave out samples of roasts, steaks and other cuts of beef while they visited with customers at Bay-area Whole Foods Markets, Foster said.

andquot;We wouldn’t be in business without the customers, and they like to know where their beef is coming from,andquot; said Foster. andquot;There was 17 of us who went down and spent two days visiting with customers.andquot;

Doc Hatfield, who co-founded Country Natural Beef with his wife, Connie and 13 other ranchers 22 years ago, said Country Natural Beef has had a wonderful, mutually beneficial relationship with the Whole Foods Market chain for 16 years and is hoping that relationship will survive the labor dispute with the feedlot that finishes Country Natural Beef.

Connie Hatfield said she is hoping the labor dispute gets settled soon to minimize the impacts on ranching families who spend the extra money and extra time it takes to raise cattle the natural way.

Probert said the labor dispute and uncertainty about the future placements of cattle for the While Foods Market chain is one of several problems facing ranchers across Eastern Oregon.

Ranchers are also struggling to financially, with high fuel, fertilizer and pesticide costs, hay shortages and hay prices hitting $150 to $180 per ton, and a cold spring, that slowed grass growth in pastures and rangeland.

andquot;Now the bugs are moving in on the alfalfa, so they are spraying,andquot; Probert said.

High fuel prices have also boosted prices for feed corn and diverted much of the corn and other grain crops to ethanol fuel production, Probert said.

On top of those problems, Probert said the cold spring weather delayed planting of feed corn, raising the prospect of a short corn crop when the fall harvest season arrives.

Growers are just now planting corn because of the cold weather,andquot; Probert said, andquot;The corn should be a foot high by now.andquot;

With area reservoirs in Baker Country and across much of Eastern Oregon not filling up as previously anticipated, Probert said ranchers are also concerned about the looming prospects for another short water year.

andquot;By the last of July we could be out of water (in the Vale area and others),andquot; Probert said, adding that July is a critical time for watering feed corn.

andquot;If there’s not enough water, the corn won’t finish,andquot; Probert said.

All of those factors loom larger the longer Country Natural Beef ranchers have to hold onto their cattle this summer due to the labor dispute between UFW and Beef Northwest, Probert said.