Agriculture News
Companies bid for struggling Alaskan meat plant
Meatingplace (registration required) | Posted on December 4, 2016Two meat companies have put in bids to buy financially strapped Mt. McKinley Meat and Sausage, the only USDA-inspected meat plant in southcentral Alaska. Mike’s quality Meats of Palmer, Alaska, and Mt. McKinely Meat Co-op of Delta Junction, Alaska, responded to the state’s latest request for proposals (RFP) to lease or purchase the long struggling plant.
California’s new water conservation plan focuses on cities
Capital Press | Posted on December 4, 2016California officials crafting a new conservation plan for the state’s dry future drew criticism from environmentalists on Thursday for failing to require more cutbacks of farmers, who use 80 percent of the water consumed by people. Gov. Jerry Brown ordered up the state plans for improving long-term conservation in May, when he lifted a statewide mandate put in place at the height of California’s drought for 25-percent water conservation by cities and towns. Ben Chou, a water-policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council, criticized state planners for not mandating any new water-savings by farm water districts.
Weed, predator funding on chopping block at ODA
Capital Press | Posted on December 4, 2016Funding for weed biocontrol and predator control is on the chopping block at the Oregon Department of Agriculture as the state prepares for a budget shortfall. The agency plans to eliminate state funding for USDA’s Wildlife Services program, which kills coyotes and other predators that prey on livestock. The move would save more than $460,000.
4 takeaways from USDA's 2016 Farm Sector Income Forecast
Ag Web | Posted on December 2, 2016Here are several notable highlights from the report: 1. Overall cash receipts are expected to decline in 2016, but this decline is not universal across all commodities. Turkeys, rhe, cotton, miscellaneous oil crops and tobacco could see increases of more than 10%. 2. Direct government farm program payments could rise by $2.1 billion in 2016, a 19.1% increase from a year ago. 3. Total farm sector equity is down $79.9 billion, or 3.1%, in 2016. The bulk of this can be attributed to falling real estate values (down $12.0 billion); inventory value of crops, animals and purchased inputs (down $17.4 billion); 4. Production expenses were a mixed bag in 2016. Several categories increased from last year, including feed purchases, labor, pesticides and property taxes/fees. This was more than offset by decreases in other categories, including livestock/poultry purchases, fertilizer, seed, net rent, interest and fuel/oil.
Protesting agriculture becoming a professional sport
National Hog Farmer | Posted on December 1, 2016adly, it seems the fewer who farm, the louder the opposition against this noblest profession has become. As eloquently said by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in his 1956 address at Bradley University in Peoria, Ill.: “Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.” Critics are easy to find in this world. They are a dime a dozen and probably the one thing that remains constant throughout the history of time. Agriculture practices have always been an open arena for assessment, criticism and regulation. We have the freedom to voice our opinion and honestly, I am thankful for those who fought for that freedom, allowing us to speak freely. Healthy discussion with both sides of the argument presented can result in progressive results. Nevertheless, I have to ask at what point in America’s history has it become quite the sport to protest agriculture. We have seemed to have turned a corner. New technologies, innovations and expansion are met with inflexibility and simple “NO”. After all, is it not easy to just say “NO” to change?
Cage-Free Layers: How Far Will the Pendulum Swing?
The Poultry Site | Posted on December 1, 2016Consumer demand is pushing the pendulum toward cage-free egg production, but just how far that pendulum will swing remains to be seen. For hens, the trend toward cage-free housing certainly has some benefits. If you’ve ever been in a cage-free poultry operation, you can observe birds exhibiting many of the same natural activities you’d expect to see wild birds demonstrate — short flights, dust bathing, wing flapping, running around and grooming, to name a few. The birds appear happy. Nevertheless, there are risks that come with this more open environment — the same risks that many years ago prompted producers to move hens from the floor into cages. Moving hens out of cages could also have a negative impact on food safety, the environment and on producer and consumer costs. Should production costs and the cost of eggs increase significantly and the economy doesn’t improve, more consumers may opt for the cheapest egg available rather than the more expensive cage-free egg, and that could slow down cage-free market growth. Consumers with more disposable income who favor cage-free eggs may continue to buy cage-free eggs, never mind the cost. We don’t know yet if the consumer demand will be affected by the environmental impact of the additional grains needed for the hens, the additional land needed for housing and grain production, and the additional carbon footprint. We’ll have to stay tuned to find out. What I think the industry has learned from the experience so far is that we have to respond to the needs of the consumer. all deserve the option to buy the egg that fits their beliefs and their budget.
Faster growing broilers can still have good welfare
Watt Ag Net | Posted on December 1, 2016If the market for slow growing or heritage broiler breeds becomes something more than just a niche market, this would be a major step backwards for the poultry industry. The broiler industry has become a model of efficiency for animal agriculture and a large portion of the credit goes to poultry breeders who have provided producers with birds that grow faster using less feed for each successive generation. Along with the improved feed conversion and growth rates, broiler growers are also raising flocks with reduced mortality rates on the farm, less plant condemnation and better deboning yields. With this kind of steady performance improvement, what could be wrong? Some animal rights activist groups are pushing for broiler producers and chicken buyers to switch to slower growing breeds because they claim that the welfare of these birds is better than it is for modern broiler strains. Essentially, Simkhovich sees genetic selection exercised by poultry breeders over the last few decades as the root of the animal welfare and sustainability problem for the broiler industry. Slower-growing birds are seen as the solution for all of the industry’s problems, including maintaining flock health without the use of antibiotics. Fortunately for poultry producers, Simkhovich has it all wrong. Selective breeding isn’t the problem, it is a big part of the solution to issues that she has raised. Balanced genetic selection, where the parent stock of future generations is chosen based on welfare and meat quality traits along with feed efficiency, growth rate and yield characteristics, combined with improved husbandry will result in future generations of birds that can outperform slow growing and heritage breeds on objective welfare measurements.
Can you hear the corn grow? Yes
EurekAlert | Posted on December 1, 2016There's an old farmer's tale that says, "On a quiet night you can hear the corn grow." It may seem funny, but Douglas Cook at New York University and colleagues Roger Elmore and Justin McMechan, at the University of Nebraska, were able to use contact microphones to directly record the sounds of corn growing. Corn is the leading grain crop in the U.S. with more than 350 million metric tons harvested yearly. But a lack of understanding about the mechanics involved in wind-induced corn stalk failure has hindered further improvements in corn production. Crop scientists have been working on this problem for more than 100 years, albeit with only marginal success. Now, by applying mechanical engineering tools and techniques, a group of engineers and plant scientists led by Cook are making headway addressing this problem as well as discovering other issues related to plant growth and development.
States face decision as FSMA comes into implementation
CSG Midwest | Posted on December 1, 2016The law’s goal is to reduce the prevalence of foodborne illnesses by focusing more on prevention, rather than responding to outbreaks once they occur. (According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, close to 48 million Americans get sick every year from pathogens transmitted through food; nearly 128,000 people are hospitalized and more than 3,000 die.) To meet this objective, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s authority to regulate fruit and vegetable production has been greatly expanded. (The FSMA does not apply to meat, poultry and egg production; those industries are covered by other rules.) The 2010 law and subsequent FDA rules also impact food processors and transporters, as well as the animal-feed industry. From the farmer to the distributor, new accountability measures are in place. And for states, decisions will have to be made on whether to harmonize their own regulations on food safety with the FSMA, as well as how involved they want to be in areas such as producer education, inspection and compliance.
Does investment in sustainable farming pay off?
Phys.org | Posted on December 1, 2016Exploring the nascent field of sustainable farmland investment, a new report from the Yale Center for Business and the Environment found that innovative investment strategies focused on sustainable agriculture appear to deliver financial, environmental, and social returns. Authored by two Yale students, this report is an attempt to understand the provenance, strategies, key trends, value drivers, and structural challenges of investment in sustainable farming. (The authors adhere to the definition of sustainable food systems put forth by the Royal Society.) Sustainable farming currently offers two primary avenues for returns on investment. First, supporting farming efficiencies and improvements, particularly as they relate to ecosystem function, enhances asset performance. Second, there is growing consumer demand for natural and organic products, which command a price premium. Initial findings indicated that conversion to organic agriculture, water efficiency projects, and raising grass-fed beef were particularly promising investment targets.