NHF_WEEKLY PREVIEW_ A Penton Media Property May 22, 2009 If you want to view this on the web go to: http://enews.penton.com/enews/nationalhogfarmer/v/395 MARKET PREVIEW --Understanding the Measures of Pork Demand One of University of Missouri Professor Glenn Grimes' innovations in explaining markets to pork producers is the demand index -- a measure of year-to-year change in demand. The index is simple, elegant, theoretically correct and widely used. The beef industry even adopted the demand index as a monitoring device several years ago, with economists at Kansas Sate University providing the computations on a quarterly and annual basis. The index measures the movement of the demand curve for a commodity. Demand is not consumption -- it is the set of quantities that consumers are willing and able to purchase at alternative prices. A line like "D," in Figure 1, represents a demand curve or function. To measure the change in demand from D to D', Professor Grimes performs a few calculations. * First, he measures the percentage change in per capita consumption, here represented by (Q2-Q1)/Q2. It is a positive number in this diagram, but it could be negative. To view the full article go to: http://nationalhogfarmer.com/marketpreview/0522-understanding-measures-of-pork-demand PRODUCTION PREVIEW --AI Technicians' Impact on Farrowing Rate There are three main variables that impact the success of a mating/service -- the sow (gilt), semen quality and the capabilities of the person responsible for artificial insemination -- the AI technician. We will focus on the AI technician this week. Farrowing rate is one of the Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) used in the Swine Management Services' (SMS) database. It also has one of the flattest KPI bell curves (Chart 1) in the database. Because the AI technician is one third of the mating variables, we need to look into more detail at the different variables that affect the AI technician, such as: breeding experience, level of training, personality traits (patience, detailed and routine oriented, organized, laid back, good at documentation reviewing records, reliable, observant, etc.). To evaluate each AI technician, you need very detailed records, including sow/gilts identification, semen batch code or number, insemination technicians name or number, and time of insemination (military time). To view the full article go to: http://nationalhogfarmer.com/genetics-reproduction/0522-artificial-insemination-technicians-impact-on-farrowing-rate LEGISLATIVE PREVIEW --Climate Change Debate Continues The House Energy and Commerce Committee is expected to pass the climate change bill before it recesses this week for Memorial Day. The bill is to cut greenhouse gas emissions 17% by 2020 (from 2005 levels), implement a renewable electricity standard for states, and mandate various improvements in efficiency. The Republican members on the committee have stated their strong objections to the bill and have been offering numerous amendments. The bill will now be referred to eight other House committees, including the House Agriculture Committee, for consideration. The American Farm Bureau Federation, in a letter to members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, stated its opposition to the bill, noting it "ignores the complex needs of a very diverse U.S. agricultural industry." We are a long way from the finish line on this legislation in the House, let along the Senate. Indirect Land Use -- A bipartisan group of 44 congressmen introduced legislation, "The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) Improvement Act," to eliminate the requirement that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) consider indirect land use when calculating the greenhouse gas emissions associated with advanced biofuels. There is great concern of the negative effect indirect land use would have on the domestic biofuels industry. Congressman Collin Peterson (D-MN), chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, said, "The unreasonable restrictions placed on the biofuels industry in the 2007 Energy Bill were never debated by Congress, and I've spent the past two years trying to undo the damage that we're seeing now that EPA has published the proposed regulations that will make it impossible to meet the RFS. In order to ensure that a clean, homegrown biofuels industry will succeed in the United States, we need to have federal energy policies that are flexible, practical, and innovative." To view the full article go to: http://nationalhogfarmer.com/northamericanpreview/0522-climate-change-debate-continues NEWS FLASH --Pork Industry Repeats Support for Animal ID The pork industry still supports a mandatory national identification system, according to David Kempen, Poteet, TX, pork producer who spoke at a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) listening session held recently in Austin, TX. "Until animal identification is made mandatory and all premises are registered, it will never have the intended effects of improving the animal health infrastructure, aiding in the control and eradication of highly contagious foreign and domestic animal diseases and, ultimately, protecting the U.S. livestock industry, its producers, processors and hundreds of related businesses and more than a half million mostly rural jobs for Americans," he said. Speaking on behalf of the National Pork Producers Council and Texas Pork Producers Association, Kempen addressed these concerns about USDA's National Animal Identification System (NAIS): *The cost of the NAIS would be minimal and would far outweigh the cost of not having the ability to quickly identify, control and eradicate an animal disease. To view the full article go to: http://nationalhogfarmer.com/news/0521-pork-industry-supports-animal-ID PORK INDUSTRY CALENDAR June 2, 2009: Swine Handling & Transport Forum, Des Moines Marriott-Downtown, Des Moines, IA; sponsored by National Hog Farmer, National Pork Producers Council and National Pork Board. For details, go to www.pork.org (http://www.pork.org). June 3-5, 2009 World Pork Expo, Iowa State Fairgrounds, Des Moines, IA. For details go to: www.pork.org (http://www.pork.org). To view the full article go to: http://nationalhogfarmer.com/calendar/ ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER You are subscribed to this newsletter as #email# To subscribe to this newsletter go to: http://subscribe.nationalhogfarmer.com/?tc=NLSUB To unsubscribe from this newsletter go to: http://subscribe.nationalhogfarmer.com/?tc=NLSUB&cid=#message_id#&lid=#list_id#&email=#email# Send Comments & Questions Dale Miller, Editor, National Hog Farmer, mailto:dale.miller@penton.com Penton Media | 249 W. 17th Street | New York, NY 10011 Copyright 2009, Penton Media. All rights reserved. This article is protected by United States copyright and other intellectual property laws and may not be reproduced, rewritten, distributed, re-disseminated, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast, directly or indirectly, in any medium without the prior written permission of Penton Media.