Agriculture News
U.S. meat exports slower but still solid in April
Capital Press | Posted on June 12, 2017U.S. exports of beef and pork moderated in April from March but were still significantly higher year over year, according to the U.S. Meat Export Federation. At 99,786 metric tons, valued at $550.4 million, beef exports were down 5.2 percent in volume and 6.4 percent in value from March. But they were up 13 percent in volume and 14 percent in value from April 2016.Pork exports, at 203,864 metric tons, were valued at $517.5 million and were down 10.9 percent in volume and 11.8 percent in value from record-breaking levels in March. But they set a record for April in volume, up 8 percent from a year ago, and were up 11 percent in value from April 2016.
California Takes Action: agricultural solutions to climate change
National Sustainable Ag Coalition | Posted on June 12, 2017California is an example of a state where climate change action has helped fuel the state’s recovery from the Great Recession. In 2006, California passed the country’s most comprehensive climate change law, adopting ambitious greenhouse gas reduction measures. But instead of lagging behind, California surged ahead thanks in large part to our action on climate change mitigation. Since those laws went into affect, the state’s GDP growth has significantly outpaced the national average, and California now leads the country in job growth. There is no doubt that we owe a more than a small measure of this success to the state’s embrace of a new clean energy economy. California’s farmers have played an important role in our state’s climate change adaptation and mitigation successes. As US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Sonny Perdue has suggested in many of his recent remarks, farmers have always adapted to new challenges. Climate change, however, requires a level of adaptation few have experienced before. Whether it’s more frequent floods, extreme droughts, new pests and disease, wildfire, heat waves or loss of winter chill hours, climate change requires a new way of doing business. And it requires doing all we can, now, to avoid the worst impacts.Many California farmers and ranchers are responding to climate change. Our state’s farms and ranches produce more renewable energy, mainly solar, than farms in any other state. We also have new climate change and agriculture programs aimed at providing the financial and technical assistance farmers need to make the transition to a way of growing that not only reduces greenhouse gas emissions and sequesters carbon, but also builds resilience in the face of greater weather extremes.
Disaster Assistance: From "not a penny" to new and improved
National Sustainable Ag Coalition | Posted on June 12, 2017Last week, the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Economic Research Service (ERS) released a new report indicating that changes to the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) made in the 2014 Farm Bill have been well-received by farmers and have led to a doubling of NAP applications – from 66,000 in 2014 to 138,000 in 2015. While this is great news for farmers and for NAP, there are still thousands of farmers that don’t have access to federal risk management support. The upcoming 2018 Farm Bill provides an opportunity for Congress to continue to improve NAP so that the program is more effective, efficient, and better serves historically underserved farmer groups (e.g., beginning, specialty crop, highly diversified, and organic farmers). As part of our farm bill work, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) has developed several proposals to continue improving NAP by expanding access and addressing some of the growing pains the program has experienced following its increased popularity.Because the federal crop insurance program does not adequately address the needs of all farmers, it is important that NAP be able to fill the coverage gap; by expanding farmers’ risk management options we can protect family farm livelihoods, as well as create a more secure and stable food supply.
New dairy effort undeniably interesting
Capital Press | Posted on June 12, 2017Called Undeniably Dairy, the website and campaign combine facts and features about all things dairy.Up to this point, the industry’s efforts to set the record straight have met with varying degrees of success.A new effort aims at improving that record.It’s called Undeniably Dairy and combines some new features and others that have been around for awhile that are upbeat and non-defensive. Some are informative, and others are just for fun. They avoid the air of self-righteousness and, in sum, portray dairy farms as the fascinating places they are.For example, a news story last winter mentioned that Skittles are fed to dairy cows. A video featuring dairy farmer Laura Daniels on the Undeniably Dairy website offers a complete and science-based explanation that leaves viewers with only one question, whether cows like Skittles or Gummy Worms best.FYI, the sugar in the candy is fed to cows in small portions in their winter rations to help them digest their feed.
OH:Local activists’ ag claims lack any merit
Toledo Blade | Posted on June 12, 2017An Ohio Department of Agriculture spokesman has disputed an activist group’s claim that the state agency has for 15 years lacked legal authority to issue or enforce permits for more than 200 livestock facilities large enough to be classified as concentrated animal feeding operations. “ODA’s priority has and will continue to be to operate a thorough and reasonable permitting program that protects Ohio’s natural resources while allowing agriculture to remain productive,” spokesman Brett B. Gates said.He said the department will continue to exercise its permitting authority, as designated by state and federal law. He called assertions made by Toledo-based Advocates for a Clean Lake Erie “just a repeat of previous statements and litigation, which was ultimately dismissed by the U.S. District Court for being ‘completely devoid of merit.’”
U.S. Agricultural Exports to China Increased Rapidly Making China the Number One Market - See more at: http://www.choicesmagazine.org/choices-magazine/theme-articles/us-commodity-markets-respond-to-changes-in-chinas-ag-policies/us-agricultural-exports-to-
Choices magazine | Posted on June 12, 2017Since 2012, China has become the predominant market for U.S. agriculture exports, accounting for 16% of U.S. agriculture export value in 2016. The value of exports to China increased 25.6% per year from 2002 to 2013 and added $23.4 billion to the U.S. agricultural export market over this time period. Exports to China in 2014 and 2015 declined slightly but began to rebound in 2016. In 2016, the four largest export markets for U.S. agricultural commodities and products—China, Canada, Mexico, and Japan—accounted for 52% of U.S. agriculture export sales (USDA, 2017a). Strong growth in U.S. exports to China reflects significant changes in China’s domestic policies, which have created a more market-oriented economy with market-determined prices, and changing consumer preferences as incomes increased. China’s policies on trade, domestic agriculture, and food security have greatly affected trade with the United States. In China, strong income growth, increasing urbanization, an emerging middle class, and growing concerns about food safety have meant more diverse U.S. exports, including greater numbers of valued-added products. The greatest growth in U.S. exports to China has been in commodities that do not conflict with China’s domestic policies for maintaining self-sufficiency and are in short supply. The best example is soybeans, which are needed for China’s expanding livestock industry. Hides and skins also pose no threat to China’s local industry. Consumer demand is strong for new products, especially those perceived to be healthy and have passed U.S. food safety regulations, particularly among higher income households in urban areas. Dairy imports, for example, increased after China’s melamine food safety issue in 2008.
Lawsuit says dairy ads portray bovine growth hormone rbST as a six-eyed monster
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | Posted on June 12, 2017Arla Foods, a Europe-based cheesemaker with a plant in the Fox Valley, has been sued over a $30 million advertising campaign that — the plaintiff says — casts bovine growth hormone rbST in an unfavorable light. In a lawsuit filed recently in U.S. District Court in Green Bay, Eli Lilly Elanco US of Indianapolis alleges that Arla’s campaign perpetuates false claims that rbST — which promotes milk production in cows — is dangerous.Elanco markets rbST — recombinant bovine somatotropin — under the brand name Posilac. In its complaint, Elanco seeks an “immediate stop to a false and disparaging advertising campaign” by Arla Foods Inc. USA, based in New Jersey.“Arla’s assault on rbST’s safety is anything but subtle. In the 30-second television commercial that is the centerpiece of the campaign, Arla depicts rbST as an enormous, six-eyed monster with razor-sharp horns and electrified fur,” the lawsuit says.“Arla reinforces the core message, that rbST is dangerous, through an extensive, internet-based social media campaign that amplifies and repeats the commercial’s key images and messages,” the suit says.Arla says it is the fourth-largest dairy company in the world. In Wisconsin, it has a cheese plant in Kaukauna, near Appleton, that makes havarti, Gouda, Muenster and fontina products.Elanco says the ads depicting rbST as “weird stuff” and a six-eyed monster “intentionally frighten and mislead consumers" in an attempt to gain a competitive advantage.
Mexico to invest $30 million in Guatemalan milk plant
ABC news | Posted on June 12, 2017Mexico announced plans to invest $30 million in a Guatemalan milk plant, aiming to increase employment in its neighbor and reduce the outflow of migrants. The plant will be built in Escuintla, 31 miles (50 kilometers) outside of Guatemala City. A representative of Guatemala's foreign ministry told The Associated Press that the plant will generate at least 4,000 new jobs. Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales said cross-border commitment is particularly important for efficient trade and migration. Tens of thousands of Guatemalan immigrants cross the Mexican border each year in a bid to reach the United States.
The gamble of the farmers that raise our chicken
High Plains Publis Radio | Posted on June 9, 2017Tim Mueller has raised corn and soybeans on 530 acres near the city of Columbus, Nebraska, for decades, but today he is planning to take a big gamble.The big box retailer Costco is building a new chicken processing plant in Fremont, about an hour from Mueller’s farm. The company plans for the plant to slaughter 2 million birds per week. To raise all those chickens, the company is recruiting about 120 farmers to sign on as contract poultry farmers. Mueller wants in. But to do that, he plans to take out a massive $2 million loan to finance the construction of four chicken barns.As pork and poultry production grows in the U.S., this is an increasingly common arrangement. Farmers sign multi-million dollar deals to do business with big corporations. The company provides animals and feed. The farmer builds the barns and cares for the animals. It requires a major investment from the farmers who enter into the agreement and hope the investment will pay off.We walk out of Mueller’s home and down a gravel driveway about 50 yards to the corner of a cornfield speckled with young, green corn stalks. This plot of land is where he wants to build as many as 12 new chicken barns, with room for a total of 180,000 birds. That would require about $6 million of loans. Makes me a little more diversified, brings some extra income in,” says Mueller. “Every farmer needs extra income.”Mueller has never raised chickens, except for backyard birds. But like many farmers, the chance for steady income when grain prices are down, as they are now, has grabbed his attention. Also, he says, adding chickens would help two of his sons come back to the business.“Bringing the boys back to the farm is huge for me,” Mueller says. “I’m not a big enough farmer to where another family could farm and do corn and soybeans and survive. This way they can.”
Drought causing ranchers to sell cattle
The Bismarck Tribune | Posted on June 9, 2017With nearly 25 percent of the state in a moderate drought, cattle ranchers are selling more livestock. As a result, Kist Livestock Auction is seeing from 1,000 to 1,300 more heads going to sale than usual for this time of year, according to Matt Lachenmeier, a fieldman at the Mandan business.The drought conditions, coupled with a depleted hay supply from the tough winter, have left ranchers without feed and with little hope for a good hay crop this summer.“The conditions are pretty severe in much of the state,” said Julie Ellingson, executive vice president of the North Dakota Stockmen’s Association. “Hay crops look to be poor, or, in some cases, no crop.”Cattle being auctioned are from a widespread area and other sales barns in the state are seeing similar increases, according to Lachenmeier.According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, the state has had less-than-average precipitation during the past three months, with portions of central and south-central North Dakota receiving only 25 percent and 50 percent of normal precipitation during this period. Spring so far has been the seventh driest on record in Bismarck.