50 YEARS AGO

from the Democrat-Herald

January 28, 1975

Bill Mattes, 23, has been hired part-time by the Baker Mental Health Clinic as services coordinator for the mentally retarded developmentally disabled.

25 YEARS AGO

from the Baker City Herald

January 28, 2000

Continued improvements in the Baker City Police Department and the incarceration of several active burglars in the community have been credited with producing a 36-percent drop in reported crimes over the past year.

Chief Jim Tomlinson highlighted the year’s statistics in his annual report to the Baker City Council Tuesday night.

10 YEARS AGO

from the Baker City Herald

January 28, 2015

Mining plays a major role in Baker County’s distant past, and its future might not be as bleak as the industry’s relatively moribund present suggests.

The prospect for a mining revival here and elsewhere in Eastern Oregon was a key theme during a five-hour summit that brought miners, legislators, economics and others to Baker City Tuesday afternoon.

About 100 people attended the free Eastern Oregon Mining and Aggregate Development Summit at the Baker County Events Center.

ONE YEAR AGO

from the Baker City Herald

Jan. 30, 2024

A new federal program for grading beef quality could add hundreds of dollars of value per head of cattle in Baker County and elsewhere.

The remote grading pilot program, which debuted this month, could be a major boon for ranchers and beef processors, said Curtis Martin, a North Powder rancher.

“This is a golden opportunity,” said Martin, a past president of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association and a director with the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association. “It levels the playing field.”

Patrick Robinette, a North Carolina rancher and chairman of the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association’s independent beef processing committee, called the pilot program “tremendous.”

Robinette visited Baker County last week, touring ranches and the Baker City Cattle Feeders feedlot northeast of Baker City.

Robinette said the pilot program, which Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Jan. 19 while attending the National Western Stock Show in Denver, has the potential to benefit not only ranchers and beef processors, but also seedstock operations that sell cattle for breeding, as well as feedlots.

“On average, a beef carcass that grades as USDA Prime is valued at hundreds of dollars more than an ungraded carcass, but costs for this voluntary USDA service often prevents smaller scale processors and the farmers and ranchers they serve from using this valuable marketing tool,” Vilsack said. “This remote grading pilot opens the door for additional packers and processors to receive grading and certification services allowing them to access new, better, and more diverse marketing opportunities.”

Beef-slaughtering facilities that are either federally or state licensed can have beef graded by uploading a cellphone photograph of an animal’s ribeye loin to a secure site where a USDA-certified grader will grade the meat and report results within 24 hours.

If the beef meets federal standards, the meat could be labeled and marketed as USDA prime, choice or select and could potentially be marketed through a certified meat program, such as certified Angus or Hereford, Robinette said.

Those labels could add $300 to $600 to the market value of a single animal, he said.

Robinette is a member of the USDA’s National Advisory Committee for Meat and Poultry Inspection.

The reason the pilot program is a “game changer,” Robinette said, is that until now, only large scale beef processors, which dominate the industry, have been able to afford hiring USDA graders.