SALEM — Oregon ranchers hope to forestall at least some of the maximum fee hikes proposed for the state’s brand inspection program, which faces a budget shortfall.

The state’s Department of Agriculture wants to raise the maximum brand inspection fee from $1 to $1.50 per head of cattle and increase several other fees for other program services.

Without adjusting its fee structure, the brand inspection program is “projected to go into the red” in the 2021-2023 biennium, said Lauren Henderson, ODA’s assistant director. The program needs another $700,000 per biennium to maintain its current service level.

While members of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association’s “clearly understand the value” of the program — which deters theft and improves traceability — the proposed fee hikes have left them with “sticker shock,” said Rodger Huffman, the group’s treasurer and former ODA brand inspection official.

“The livestock business has a lot of costs that are out of our control,” Huffman recently testified before the Senate Natural Resources and Wildfire Recovery Committee.

The OCA is instead urging lawmakers to raise the cap on brand inspection fees to $1.35, rather than $1.50, and leaving the $25 application fee and $100 renewal fee in place rather than doubling them. The group would accept other fee increases proposed by ODA.

“We’re in a commodity where we’re unable to pass those fees onto anyone else and the commodity has been in decline since 2015,” said Todd Nash, OCA’s president-elect.

Nash said he understood the brand inspection program is facing tough financial times but cited President John F. Kennedy’s observation that farmers buy at retail, sell at wholesale and pay the freight both ways.

“We just don’t have a way to capture it at this point,” he said of the fee increase proposal.

The economic situation is especially difficult for young ranchers and too many fee increases may discourage some from even participating in the program to the industry’s detriment, Nash said.

“I know some people who just don’t brand anymore,” he said. “If we have a disease outbreak, that’s what we have to trace back.”

The Oregon Farm Bureau is backing the OCA’s proposal, noting that natural resources agencies are asking for fee increases “across the board” during the economical fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Their cumulative impact on the sector will be substantial,” said Mary Anne Cooper, the organization’s vice president of public policy. “We think the Oregon Cattlemen’s compromise is more than fair.”

Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ashland, said the committee isn’t planning to vote on the fee increases anytime soon and urged ODA to discuss the compromise proposal with the livestock industry.

Henderson of ODA said the agency will analyze how the proposal would align with its financial needs. Though the brand inspection program handles about 1 million head of livestock a year, it fluctuates, he said.

“We can go back and use those numbers to see what that it looks like,” Henderson said.