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The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) decision to allow JBS to
purchase Smithfield, while pursuing a case to stop its merger with
National Beef, was the week’s big news. Meanwhile, the industry's
reaction was subdued as everyone tried to determine its actual meaning.
-- Click on headline to read the rest of this
story by Troy Marshall
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When I first saw the story about how Switzerland had passed
legislation that detailed how fish and animals are to be treated, I
questioned if there was much value in mentioning that they outlawed live
bait and catch-and-release fishing, as well. The legislation even spells
out how goldfish can be disposed of (no more burials at sea by flushing
them down the toilet).
-- Click on headline to read the rest of this
story by Troy Marshall
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There are a million dollars out there in your pastures right now!
You may smirk and say to yourself, “This guy is either looking in the
wrong pasture, or he just smoked something growing in one of the
pastures.”
I'm not saying those million dollars are there right now, at least not
in your banker's eyes. But certainly there are many opportunities out
there, and we just have to keep our eyes open for them.
I love talking to the truly successful in our business; almost without
exception, they grew, expanded or significantly moved their operation
forward in times that were widely seen as being extremely poor. That’s
the time to really exploit opportunities because they increase in
frequency.
There is one saying I’ve found to be incredibly valuable and timely
for today. That is: “don’t waste your time worrying twice.”
I can't tell you that the recent federal infusion of money will
jumpstart the capital markets and the economy will quickly rebound. I
can't tell you the results of the upcoming election. Nor can I tell you
what the price of 700-lb. steers will be the second week of January. But
I can tell you there isn’t much to be gained by worrying over
something that hasn't occurred or over which we have no impact.
I'm not saying we shouldn't anticipate and adjust to conditions, but
worry and fear often prevent us from looking for opportunity and to the
future. Rather, they force us to look back and concentrate on the
problems.
Last week, as we were contemplating an upcoming cow sale, I realized
that much of my time was being spent worrying about the fallout from
Curly Calf, the financial market collapse, the downtrend in the cattle
market, etc. What a waste.
I'm not saying that being proactive and focusing on the things I can
truly address are goals I achieve 100% of the time. I can't even say
that the outcome will be dramatically different, but I do know that my
odds have greatly improved.
When I start to count my blessings – healthy, well-adjusted kids, good
friends, a roof over my head, living in this country with every
opportunity to achieve just about any dream I can concoct – it’s
hard to ignore the realization that waking up with anxiety instead of
gratitude is more than counterproductive; it’s simply illogical.
If you aren’t excited about the prospects and opportunities in the
cattle industry over the next six months, then perhaps you haven't taken
a step back and really looked at things. We create the future. Is yours
full of hope and excitement or worry and fear?
Troy Marshall
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With just 11 days left before the election, there are more than 80
Congressional races that are considered competitive at this time. This
is a very large number this close to the election. Members of the House
Ag Committee considered to be in competitive races at this time include:
John Barrow (D-GA), Nancy Boyda (D-KS), Sam Graves (R-MO), Robin Hayes
(R-NC), Steve Kagen (D-WI), Nick Lampson (D-TX), Jim Marshall (D-GA),
Tim Mahoney (D-FL), Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO), and Tim Walberg (R-MI).
-- P. Scott Shearer, Washington, D.C.
correspondent
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“BVDV Variability: Impact on Virulence, Host Range and Control”
is the theme of the 4th U.S. BVDV Symposium set for Jan. 25-27, 2009 at
the Four Points Hotel by Sheraton Phoenix North, Phoenix, AZ. The
meeting is directly ahead of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
Annual Convention.
The symposium on bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) is open to
producers, researchers and practicing, technical services and Extension
veterinarians interested in the latest info on BVDV epidemiology,
pathogenesis prevention and control.
“This meeting will bring together internationally recognized basic and
applied BVDV researchers to discuss the latest in epidemiology, disease
and control research,” says conference organizer Christopher Chase,
DVM. “In addition, veterinarians and producers will speak on their
experience with successful BVDV control programs. This makes this
meeting special because we have the marriage of basic knowledge and the
practical approaches that work.”
New statewide testing and control programs will be discussed. “In
addition, this meeting will discuss the role of wildlife as a potential
point source which is important as we begin developing eradication
schemes,” Chase adds. The intensive two-day sessions and poster
session will feature the most current BVDV info by noted experts.
For more on registration, lodging and the complete agenda, visit www.ars.usda.gov/News/docs.htm?docid=10851.
-- Chris Chase, DVM, PhD
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The U.S. average price for regular gasoline slipped below $3/gal.
for the first time since Feb. 11, settling at $2.914 for the week ending
Oct. 21. Meanwhile, the price of diesel plunged 17.7¢ to $3.482, the
lowest price since Feb. 18.
A gallon of gasoline was down by 23.7¢ for the week nationwide, and
9.1¢ above last year’s price at this time and the lowest since Oct.
29, 2007. Prices were sharply lower in all regions, falling 28.5¢ on
the East Coast ($2.938), 22.3¢ in the Midwest ($2.769), 25.6¢ in the
Gulf Coast ($2.734), 22.8¢ in the Rocky Mountains ($3.04), and 14.6¢
on the West Coast ($3.275). California slipped 11.5¢ to $3.355.
Diesel also was down steeply in all regions. The East Coast chopped
15.6¢ to $3.553, the Midwest 19.4¢ to $3.447, the Gulf Coast 17.8¢ to
$3.453, the Rocky Mountains 14.2¢ to $3.555, and the West Coast 18.9¢
to $3.433. California was down by 19.6¢ to $3.46.
-- Energy Information Administration
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Reuters has released video of a series of tunnels that link Egypt to
Gaza and are used exclusively for smuggling live cattle. The cattle from
Ireland and Australia arrive in Egypt on cattle boats and are then
walked at night through a series of tunnels from Egypt into Gaza for
butchering. A series of 800 tunnels have been constructed to circumvent
the Israeli blockade for products ranging from cattle to car parts,
petrol and building materials.
-- Muriel Elizabeth Hayes,
Argentina
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 Beef producers can’t be everywhere…
While you’re busy at home, your beef checkoff dollars are helping
build beef demand throughout the world. Chefs from Mexico to Moscow are
learning more about U.S. beef through checkoff-supported training.
It’s one reason why exports are up 39 percent. Check out your checkoff
— and learn more about seminars for Russian chefs.
www.beefboard.org/foreign/checforeignmarketing.asp
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Agriculture is caught in the web of uncertainty being created by the
financial crisis of 2008, says a Purdue University expert, and the
cattle industry is no exception as both domestic and foreign demand is
related to consumer incomes.
-- Click on headline to read the rest of this
Purdue University release
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In a letter this week to USDA Secretary Ed Schafer from the National
Cattlemen’s Beef Association and co-signed by 28 state and national
cattle organizations, cattlemen responded strongly to comments that USDA
should further subsidize ethanol producers caught in a price squeeze
from high corn prices.
Speaking in Des Moines last Friday, Schafer indicted that USDA plans to
extend rural development loans to ethanol plants that purchased corn at
higher prices at the beginning of the year. “There’s going to have
to be some credit applied to companies to buy some lower-priced corn to
blend with their higher-priced corn,” Schafer said.
Cattlemen, however, disagreed. “Business decisions of individual
enterprises to take on unreasonable risk or expand beyond their means
should not be rewarded,” the letter says. “The U.S. economy’s
recent financial instability is not isolated to only the ethanol
industry, and we categorically disagree with the notion that they are
somehow more important than the rest of ag. It is not the responsibility
of the tax payers to shield investors from the consequences of
overbuilding an industry or poor risk management practices.”
The cattle organizations pointed out that ethanol production is
particularly significant to the cattle industry because of its impact on
feed grain prices. “For two years, producers have seen their operating
costs dramatically increase due to government support of the corn-based
ethanol industry and from January to June 2008, U.S. cattle feeders lost
a record $1.5 billion in equity as a direct result. These costs are now
contributing to lower calf and feeder cattle prices.”
-- Burt Rutherford
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The Beef Checkoff is now offering an MBA – a Masters of Beef
Advocacy Program. Being launched this fall, the program is an e-learning
opportunity aimed at helping producers become effective spokespersons
for their industry.
The program consists of six, one-hour core courses for the 2009 fiscal
year: beef safety, beef nutrition, animal care, environmental
stewardship, modern beef production and the beef checkoff.
“Many producers have been approached by their local church, school,
FFA, 4-H or Kiwanis club to speak about beef," says Cattlemen’s Beef
Board (CBB) member Daryl Berlier Owen, cow-calf producer and feeder from
Amarillo, TX. “This checkoff-funded program will help producers get
involved and active in promoting their industry by telling the story
about beef.”
Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska and Texas will kick off a pilot program this fall,
with a nationwide introduction planned for later.
Producers wanting more info should contact Daren Williams at dwilliams@beef.org,
303-850-3346 or their state beef council.
-- Cattlemen’s Beef Board news release
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The world’s largest buyers of beef, chicken and apples, McDonalds
Corp., is looking good for the third quarter, as sales increased by 7.1%
and profits by 9%. Sales were up in Europe (2.2 million more burgers
were sold in the UK in September 2008 than September 2007), and
especially good in Asia and Africa. The firm sold off its Latin American
enterprises earlier this year.
To combat the economic downturn, McDonald’s has looked at reducing its
portion size rather than its prices. Coffee sales have tripled, with
clients going for the cheap coffee as opposed to the more expensive in
the likes of Starbucks.
-- Muriel Elizabeth Hayes,
Argentina
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The 19th Annual Environmental Stewardship Award has opened its
nomination season for 2009. Regional and national award winners are
honored for their commitment to protecting the environment and improving
fish and wildlife habitats while operating profitable cattle operations.
Nominations can be submitted by any organization, group or individual on
behalf of a U.S. cattle producer. In the past, nominations have been
submitted by diverse organizations including The Nature Conservancy,
wildlife organizations, the Society for Range Management, universities,
government agencies and livestock organizations.
Feb. 25 is the nomination deadline. For more info, go to www.environmentalstewardship.org.
-- National Cattlemen’s Foundation release
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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will establish its first
office in China before year’s end as part of a broader plan to assure
the safety of imports. FDA Commissioner Andrew Von Eschenbach says the
plan is to place more than 60 food and drug regulators worldwide over
the next year, with particular focus on India, Latin America and the
Middle East.
After opening its initial office in Beijing, FDA expects to post eight
U.S. staffers in China next year, with outposts in Shanghai and
Guangzhou. The agency also plans to send 10 employees to India.
Permanent outposts mark a break from the agency’s current practice of
sending inspectors abroad on individual assignments.
-- Southwest Meat Association
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East Coast Ethanol LLC has announced plans to construct
110-million-gal./year ethanol plants in Jesup, GA, Campellton, FL,
Chester, SC, and Seaboard, NC.
Combined, the four plants will use 150-200 million bu. of corn annually.
The company hopes to buy some of the corn in the grain-deficit
Southeast, but will likely purchase and ship most of their stock from
the Midwest.
Construction of the four plants is expected to begin in the spring of
2009. Construction time for each facility is estimated to be 18-22
months. Total cost of construction of the four plants is estimated to
top $870 million and is expected to generate over $400 million annually
to the local economies in the four states. Nearly 70% of the seed
investors in East Coast Ethanol LLC are farmers or in the ag
industry.
Based on current output, when the four plants are in full production,
ECE would be the sixth-largest ethanol producer in the U.S. and the
largest in the Southeast.
-- Southeast Farm Press
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The House Ag Committee held a hearing to review the role of credit
derivatives in the U.S. economy. The hearing examined the role of credit
derivatives, and credit default swaps, and the role they may have played
in the series of recent failures and government takeovers of financial
institutions. Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN), chairman of the committee,
said, “There is an estimated $55 trillion in credit default swaps
somewhere out there, but no one knows for sure if any of these swaps
offset each other, exactly who is on the hook for these swaps, who is
trading with who and on what terms; and worst of all, no one has any
idea who is solvent and who is upside down. The first step we need to
take is to shed some light on just how the unwinding of these
obligations will take place.”
-- P. Scott Shearer, Washington, D.C.
correspondent
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Why do we vaccinate cattle? Of course, the reason is to attempt to
prevent disease. However, if our timing is wrong, we can actually make
the conditions worse.
-- Click on headline to read the rest of this
story by Dave Sjeklocha, Haskell County Animal Hospital, Sublette, KS;
620-675-8180
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Canada and Mexico have reached an agreement to remove the temporary
restrictions on Alberta breeding cattle. Mexico imposed the temporary
ban in August, following the discovery of BSE in a six-year-old beef cow
from Alberta. With the agreement lifting the temporary ban, trade in all
breeding cattle born after Jan. 1, 1999 has resumed.
-- Canadian Food Inspection Agency release
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After four years of testing electronic ear tags, New Zealand is
about to embark on its “Go Live” system, which would complete its
traceability program and make it the most advanced in the world. Animals
will now have all movements tracked electronically, with the government
underwriting the cost of NZ$7 million/year.
The system will be used initially on cattle and be mandatory by 2011;
the focus will then shift to sheep where it will become mandatory by
2012. New Zealand exports about $750 million in beef to South Korea,
Japan and Taiwan annually.
-- Muriel Elizabeth Hayes,
Argentina
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A recent study of wild horses in New Zealand concluded that
broodmares that are healthiest at the time of conception are more likely
to have colts.
The study conducted by researchers Elissa Cameron and Wayne Linklater
found a striking correlation between the change in a mare's condition
and the sex of her foal. In mares gaining weight at conception, 80% had
a colt, while only 3% losing weight gave birth to a colt. The
researchers hypothesize that strong mares will produce strong foals, and
a strong colt would be able to spread the mare's bloodlines more than a
strong filly.
Cameron believes it is the change in the mother's condition that might
determine the foal’s sex. She hopes one day this can be applied to the
breeding management of domestic horses, but the mechanism that might be
causing this relationship isn't yet understood.
"It appears that glucose may play a role as we manipulated glucose
levels in mice and got a shift in sex ratio," Cameron says. "However,
the relationship is complicated, especially if it’s driven by glucose
levels since glucose is pretty well regulated by insulin."
-- TheHorse.com
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One of the last three remaining privately owned meat companies in
Argentina was sold this week to a firm of Russian meat traders, making
95% of the Argentine beef industry now in foreign ownership.
Argentine Beef Packers SA (ABP) sold its main beef plants at Yaguanna
along with two farms and a 7,000-head cattle feedlot to Agropodia SA,
Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires. The deal was said to be US$46.2 million for
the 51%. Agropodia acquired 49% of the company in September 2007; the
new deal gives them 100% control of the company and assets.
Yaguanna boasts the biggest and fastest kill line in the Southern
Hemisphere, with capacity of 350 cattle/hour, It specializes in
manufacturing cows for the Russian market and contract kills 8,000
cattle/week for local wholesalers. The plant is set on 44 hectares
including 10 hectares of cattle pens.
-- Muriel Elizabeth Hayes,
Argentina
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USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has inked
a partnership deal with four tribal organizations for National Animal
Identification System (NAIS) education and outreach. The organizations
include the Intertribal Agriculture Council (IAC), Indian Nations
Conservation Alliance (INCA), Intertribal Council of Nevada and the
Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation.
"We are proud to partner with Indian Country to provide valuable
education and outreach on how to participate in NAIS," says Bruce
Knight, under secretary for marketing and regulatory programs. "I’m
excited for tribal producers and Tribes to coordinate with APHIS
partners, to help ensure our Nation's food safety."
For more info, go to: www.aphis.usda.gov/newsroom/content/2008/10/naiscatribe.shtml.
As of Oct. 20, a total of 487,670 premises have been registered under
NAIS, about 34% of all U.S. premises with livestock. A total of 13
states have registered more than 50% of premises. See the latest
statistics at: animalid.aphis.usda.gov/nais/naislibrary/documents/plans_reports/NAIS_Prem_%20Stat_%20Report.pdf.
-- USDA releases
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Ruling last week on the 20+-year dispute, the World Trade
Organization (WTO) strode the proverbial fence like Morris the cat. The
international trade body ruled that the European Union (EU) can continue
its ban on imports of beef from Canada and the U.S. produced with
growth-promotant products, and that Canada and the U.S. can continue to
impose trade sanctions on the EU for exercising that trade barrier.
The decision had both the EU and the U.S. claiming victory. EU trade
spokesman Peter Power said the ruling indicated there was no scientific
basis for questioning the legality of the 27-nation EU import ban,
according to Lean Trimmings newsletter.
Meanwhile, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association welcomed the
decision, saying it “validates the additional duties the U.S. imposes
on certain EU products in order to balance the trade disparity caused by
the EU ban on hormone-treated beef.” NCBA president Andy Groseta said
the ban is “scientifically unjustified and fails to satisfy the
requirements of the WTO agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary
Measures.”
-- Joe Roybal
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A slew of youth activities designed to provide education, leadership
and networking opportunities for America’s next generation of beef
producers will be held at the 2009 National Cattlemen’s Beef
Association (NCBA) Cattle Industry Convention and Tradeshow. This year,
the Farm Credit System Foundation (FCSF) will sponsor events.
FCSF is a non-profit corporation supported annually by donations from
Farm Credit System (FCS) institutions and by more than 1,000 individuals
affiliated with FCS.
Activities range from a cattle-judging contest, a junior quiz bow, a
team marketing competition and a public speaking contest. Contests
provide team and individual competition and accommodate youth as young
as nine years of age through young adults in college. Check each
individual contest for age eligibility and rules. Events will take place
during the 2009 Cattle Industry Convention and Tradeshow, set for Jan.
28-31 in Phoenix, AZ. Learn more at www.beefusa.org/convNCBA-PACPEFYouthActivities.aspx.
-- AgPR news release distribution service
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A test to identify carriers of the human form of BSE could be
available within 18 months, scientists say, which raises the ethical
dilemma of offering people a test for an untreatable disease that may
never lead to full-blown symptoms during an individual's lifetime, the
UK’s Daily Mail reports.
The number of Brits diagnosed with variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease
(vCJD) totals 167 since 1990, with the majority having died.
With four of the infected suspected of having become infected via
donated blood, the article says such a test might be used to screen
patients in order to protect health staff during surgeries. It could
also be used as a screening measure for blood donors to prevent
contamination of the blood supply.
But use of such a test also could lead to fewer blood donors, as a
result of fears they may be diagnosed with a latent form of an incurable
disease, as well as worries over its accuracy.
-- The Daily Mail
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