International animal welfare symposium at Michigan State

The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC) are hosting an International Educational Symposium on Animal Welfare this Sunday through Wednesday, November 8-11. Dr. Ron DeHaven, CEO with AVMA says international veterinary experts, animal scientists, political figures and leaders of humane and welfare organizations from around the world will address animal welfare in all its complexities.

The symposium, at Michigan State University, will explore how informed animal welfare decisions are made taking into account the latest science, ethical considerations and societal values. “There are few issues closer to the hearts of veterinarians than animal welfare,” says DeHaven. The ultimate goal of the symposium “It’s about improving the quality of life for all animals, our pets, our livestock, laboratory animals, animals of all kind everywhere in the world.”

AUDIO: Dr. Ron DeHaven talks about the symposium 1:50

NE ag groups criticize proposed budget cuts

In Nebraska, the legislature’s appropriations committee is heard testimony Friday on proposed cuts to the Department of Agriculture’s budget.  The legislature is meeting in special session to deal with the state’s 334 million dollar budget shortfall.

One of the proposals is to take money from special cash funds coordinated by the Bureau of Animal Industries.  Some of those funds are used to deal with emergency disease outbreaks in livestock.  In his testimony, Nebraska Pork Producers Association executive director Larry Sitzman criticized the proposal.

“You’ve all heard of H1N1,” Sitzman said. “Not if, but when, H1N1 hits a swine farm in this state, who is going to be able to respond if you take the cash funds from BAI—and they don’t have inspectors to go out and test, certify, verify and institute movement control?”

And Sitzman said that could lead to even bigger problems for the state’s livestock industry.

“What happens if we have a major foreign animal (disease) outbreak in this state and we cannot have the people or funds to respond to it,” he said. “I’ll tell you what will happen—we will lose state certification, our packers will be in dire trouble, and we will lose foreign markets.”

Sitzman said raiding the special cash funds would cause additional fees to be levied.  “Now I’ve heard a lot of talk in the past few weeks about ‘no new taxes’,” he said. “(If) you take these funds that have been developed and paid specifically in fees by individuals for these respective cash funds, you’re taking new taxes out of them and putting them into the general fund.”

Sitzman also served as Nebraska director of agriculture from 1991 to 1999.

 AUDIO: Excerpts from Larry Sitzman’s testimony (1 min MP3)

Terry James of the Nebraska Radio Network also contributed to this story.

Another nice week for dairy markets

Overall, it was a pretty good week for dairy markets, cash barrels gained 4.5 cents to end at $1.525 and blocks gained a nickel to close at $1.56 on Friday.

Butter continues to strengthen gaining 7.5 cents on Friday, 9 cents for the week to close at $1.50 per pound. Daily Dairy Report notes the CME price has gone up 25.75 cents in the last three weeks. Butter makers and handlers report strong orders while cream is being pulled away for other uses ahead of the Holidays and fat tests are running 1 to 2 points lower than last year. Over the past six years, butter use increased 36 percent in the last three months of the year with November having the highest disappearance rate.

Dairy Market News reports milk production in California and Arizona continues to run below year-ago levels and several more herds will leave production under CWT in the coming weeks. That declining milk production is having a big impact on powder since the West does most of the drying.

The temporary three-month increase in the base support prices for cheese and nonfat dry milk expired on October 31st putting support back to $1.13 for blocks, $1.10 for barrels and 80 cents for nonfat dry milk. One note of interest, when the temporary increase was announced back in July, the fear was Commodity Credit would end up buying a lot of cheese and powder…it didn’t happen.

Pipeline shortages averted despite harvest delays

Even though harvest weather has improved dramatically over the past week, the string of delays prior to this week has been unprecedented. That’s generated questions about shortages for grain end users.

“The real answer to that is that we’ve managed to creep along and harvest some crop as we’ve moved along particularly with regard to soybeans and corn,” says Jerry Norton, a grains analyst with USDA, in an interview provided by the agency.

AUDIO: Jerry Norton (1 min. MP3)

So far, there have been no significant shortages, according to Norton.

“With corn, we came into the year with some fairly good carry-in, so that’s helped ease the problem in the pipelines,” says Norton. “You have seen, though, that there’s some tightness in the pipelines, because we’ve had fairly strong cash prices relative to futures; a good basis for producers out there.”

Norton says there have been effects seen from higher market prices.

“We’ve seen some weakness in our export demand, particularly for corn and wheat,” he says, “which has slowed the need to move as much grain as we might sometimes move to the market.”

The better harvest weather, predicted to extend into the next several days, should pump more grain into the pipeline, although lingering maturity issues persist in some areas.

“Soybeans just a week or two ago were having trouble reaching maturity in some of these areas and hopefully this warmer, at least dryer weather will help to add to the maturity advances,” says Norton.

“With the weather looking better this week, it’s a good sign.”

Dispute over ag director appointment in Michigan

The chairman of the Michigan Agriculture Commission has resigned; Jim Bynum says he disagrees with some recent decisions. Last month, Governor Jennifer Granholm issued an executive order removing appointment of the state agriculture director from the 5-member Commission and giving it to the Governor. She also took the appointment of the Natural Resources Director from the Natural Resources Commission. The Michigan State Legislature has until December 7th to reject the Governor’s move.

The situation is of particular interest in Wisconsin where efforts are underway to reverse similar moves made by then-Governor Tommy Thompson in the mid-1990s. Legislation is now headed to Governor Jim Doyle’s desk to give the appointment of the DNR Secretary back to the DNR board. Doyle does not support the change.

Corn and beans lower on harvest pressure: November 6, 2009

Soybeans hit new one month lows on harvest pressure, technical selling and spillover from crude oil. Forecasts for harvest activity in the Midwest continue to look good well into the coming week, prompting that removal of risk premium. Most of the Delta is not expected to receive rain associated with Tropical Storm Ida, which made landfall in Nicaragua Thursday. Also, traders are getting ready for updated USDA supply, demand and production estimates due out Tuesday at 7:30 AM Central. Losses were limited by the lower dollar and a purchase of 356,000 tons of 2009/10 U.S. beans by China. Soybean meal and oil were lower, following beans and picking up additional pressure from commercial and feed demand concerns.

Corn was lower on technical selling, harvest pressure and spillover from beans and crude oil. The Dow Jones Industrial Average may have managed to close out the week over 10,000 points, but the trade was most certainly concerned about the 26-year highs in unemployment reported prior to the open. Unemployment has moved up to 10.2% following the loss of 190,000 jobs in October. Contracts closed around the lows of the session, but did manage to eke out small gains on the week. Corn of course is also keeping an eye on those non-threatening weather outlooks for next week. Yields are said to be improving and moisture content is moving lower in many areas thanks to warm, dry conditions. Ahead of next week’s production estimates, Deutsche Bank expects the USDA to lower its 2009 corn production projection.

The wheat complex ended the session near the day’s lows on technical selling and spillover from beans and corn. With corn and bean harvest activity increasing, soft red winter planting is picking up steam. The losses increased ahead of the close after key contracts broke what had been support. The fundamentals remain burdensome due to the very large available global supply and generally weak demand. European wheat was lower on spillover from the broader commodity market; January Paris was down .2% and May London lost .5%. Philippines bought 120,000 tons of Black Sea feed wheat and Israel purchased 45,000 tons of feed wheat, also of Black Sea origin. Rabobank Australia has left its 2009 Australian wheat production estimate at 22.8 million tons. India’s federal government reports that 5% of this year’s winter wheat crop has been planted. New Delhi wants to increase production 2% from 2008’s record of 80.58 million tons in order to meet shortfalls from the summer crops, which were smaller than expected due to poor monsoon rains.

Was “Issue 2″ successful?

Voters in Ohio passed “Issue 2” on Tuesday, an effort by livestock interests in the state to head-off further action by the Humane Society of the United States. HSUS has been successful in Florida, Arizona, California and other states in getting ballot initiatives to outlaw the use of gestation crates for sows, calf crates and battery cages for chickens. The Ohio measure creates a livestock care standards board but some question if the action will work and other states are watching. HSUS has already stated they do not think the measure goes far enough and will continue to seek a ballot initiative in Ohio.

Kevin Murphy has Food Chain Communications and works with food companies to help them get their message to consumers. He says if the Ohio measure is part of a larger, overall plan for agriculture, great! But if it is just a single, stop-gap effort, “The pursuer is not going away.” He says the ethical care of animals is a question that is continually going to be raised and “agriculture, as a whole, has got to come together, form a strategy and it has to be long-term.”

Murphy says farmers still have a great image with the American consumer and that is something agriculture needs to build upon. For starters, get back to calling them farmers, stop using words like producer, stop using words like industry. “Industry invokes an image of a nameless, faceless entity.” He says that is why opponents use those words. One of the biggest examples of words that create a negative image is “factory farm”; Murphy says even if you don’t like larger farms, people in agriculture should never use that term to describe them. Agriculture as a whole needs to look at this and ask themselves, “Is this the type of image we want to portray?” Whatever the size of the operation, farmers need to be able to explain to consumers “Why we are doing it…and you have to have a story beyond efficiency.”

AUDIO: Kevin Murphy talks about the image of animal agriculture 10:00

Several issues of concern to pork producers

The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) has plenty on its plate right now—dealing with the H1N1 situation as well as issues involving the environment, animal welfare, antibiotic use and food safety. 

Dr. Jen Greiner, director of science and technology with NPPC, says food safety reform is probably the most concerning issue right now.  She says if Congress goes too far with reform efforts, it could have the greatest negative impact on pork producers.

“We recognize that there are some things that are broken at FDA—they need to be fixed.  There are some things that we need to tweak at FSIS,” says Greiner, “so we are supportive of making food safety reforms that make sense for producers and don’t add costs to our bottom line, needlessly.”

Greiner says the Senate will take up food safety reform legislation in the next couple of weeks.  The House has already passed a food safety bill.

AUDIO: Dr. Jen Greiner (8 min MP3)

On another topic, Greiner says Nebraska, Missouri and Illinois appear to be the next three states being targeted by the Human Society of the United States (HSUS) for animal rights initiatives.  Larry Sitzman, executive director of the Nebraska Pork Producers Association, says Nebraska livestock groups are already discussing strategy.  He says Ohio’s successful Issue 2, establishing a livestock care standards board, is one of the approaches being considered.

“They did it with a constitutional amendment—and if you look at Nebraskans’ history of modifying their constitution with amendments, there’s not a lot of support for that,” Sitzman says. “So if we do something like that—I’m not sure how we would do it—through state legislation or some type of agreement with the Department of Agriculture handling some things.”

AUDIO: Larry Sitzman (3 min MP3)

Greiner and Sitzman made their comments at the Ag at the Crossroads conference in Lincoln, Nebraska on Thursday.

Northwest IA farmer happy with yields

Dry conditions were not a problem for most Midwestern farmers in 2009.  However, there was a pocket of northwest Iowa that turned dry in July and August.  Jim Stillman, who farms near Emmetsburg, Iowa, says it kept a very good corn crop from becoming a great one.

“We had the makings of a great harvest, but we were dry in July and most of August,” says Stillman. “I know there’s areas south of here that are turning out a lot higher yields, but we’re still real happy with ours—anywhere from 180 to 210 bushel corn.”

Stillman was also happy with his soybeans, which yielded in the 50’s.  But he says the dry weather took its toll there as well.  “We really could notice it in the soybeans—the pods at the top of the plant had down to one or two beans in those pods.”

As of Tuesday this week, Stillman had about 500 of his 1,400 acres of corn left to harvest.

AUDIO: Jim Stillman (1 min MP3)

Cash cattle trade limited on Friday

Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle contracts settled 10 to 135 points lower mainly on fund selling. Commercial and outside market pressure helped to depress prices.  December was down 135 at 85.00, and February was 95 points lower at 86.27. Boxed beef cutout values were weak on light to moderate demand and moderate to heavy offerings. Choice boxed beef was down .55 at 140.78, the select was .32 lower at 135.44.

Feeder cattle ended 40 to 110 points lower on profit taking, lower values in the live pit, and fund selling.  November was down 95 points at 94.65, and January was 110 lower at 96.07.

The weekly cattle slaughter was estimated at 629,000 head, 22,000 less than last week, but 5,000 more than last year. Negotiated cash trade was limited on light demand in all feeding regions on Friday afternoon. Not enough sales to establish an adequate market trend. On Thursday live sales sold from 87.00 to 87.50 in Kansas with dressed sales at 140.00. In Nebraska live sales sold from 85.00 to 86.00 and dressed sales at 134.00. In Colorado live sales sold at 85.00. In the Western Corn belt live sales sold at 84.00 and dressed sales at 134.00. Negotiated sales for the week were confirmed at 112,927 head through Friday afternoon. As of late afternoon no significant trade had been reported in Texas.

Missouri weekly feeder cattle receipts at auctions totaled 29,406 head. Compared to last week feeder steer calves trended steady to 3.00 lower, yearlings over 700 pounds were steady to 1.00 higher, heifer calves steady to 3.00 lower. Demand was moderate to good, and the supply was moderate. Feeder steers medium and large 1, 737 head weighing 571 pounds averaged 97.17, 706 heifers weighing 570 pounds brought 86.95 per hundredweight.

Barrows and gilts in the Iowa/Minnesota direct trade closed .90 lower at 52.92 on a carcass basis, the West was down .75 at 53.47, and the East was down .27 at 52.08. The Missouri direct base carcass meat price is steady from 47.00 to 50.00.  The weekly hog slaughter was estimated at 2,302,000 head, 8,000 more than last week but 3,000 less than last year. The Saturday kill is estimated to be 144,000 head. Monday’s market is predicted to be steady to weak.

Lean hogs settled 40 higher to 90 points lower. The weakness in the live cattle markets as well as the sluggishness of traders’ aggressiveness in stepping into the market ahead of the weekend contributed to the lackluster activity. December settled 90 points lower at 55.70, and February was down .62 at 62.85. Pork trading was slow with light demand and mostly moderate offerings. The pork carcass cutout value was down 1.03 at 58.63.

February pork bellies settled 130 points higher at 86.10 The main item of business in the belly pit was position squaring ahead of the weekend.

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