Commentary
There is a new campaign underway to petition the IRS to investigate alleged under-reported lobbying activities of the Humane Society of the United States. There is an underway to coordinate thousands of letters and e-mails to policy makers requesting that HSUS be revoked of its tax-exempt status due to excessive lobbying at both the state and federal levels.
Construction of a large scale dairy facility in Jo Daviess County will continue after Circuit Judge Kevin Ward ruled last week that the dairy will not be a nuisance to the surrounding community and the environment.
California dairyman AJ Bos relocated to Northwestern Illinois because of the market for milk and plentiful feed. He’s a welcome sight for Illinois corn growers.
“4,500 cows are probably going to use about 4,500 acres of corn to feed those dairy cows annually,” said Nic Anderson, business developer for the Illinois Livestock Development Group, during an interview with Brownfield Tuesday.
Nic Anderson
Bos will improve the local grain market and will help the state’s dairy deficit, according to Anderson. He added that the case should also encourage others who are eyeing Illinois for relocation.
“And I think he sets that example for others that if somebody wants to challenge on how we do business, we sure have to do it the right way, but it’s pretty tough to go after somebody after there’s a precedence like this that’s been set,” said Anderson.
Bos hopes to be milking cows by this summer and to have his milking herd up to 4,500 cows by early 2011.
The court case was filed by the not-for-profit group, Helping Others Maintain Environmental Standards (HOMES).
The court case tested the authority of the Livestock Management Facilities Act, which spells out regulations pertaining to siting and operating a livestock farm in Illinois.
A petition subjecting large scale dog breeders to further regulation in Missouri is getting attention beyond the K-9 community. Missouri Cattlemen’s Executive Vice-President Jeff Windett says the state’s livestock growers are paying close attention to the petition, approved Monday by the Missouri Secretary of States Office for circulation.
“The language is very similar to what they’ve put on the ballot in other states targeting animal agriculture, so it’s something that concerns us very much,” Windett told Brownfield Tuesday.
Missouri Cattlemen’s Executive Vice-President Jeff Windett
The petition, which needs nearly 100,000 signatures, calls for a ballot measure prohibiting an owner from having more than fifty female dogs for breeding. Windett says the Missouri Ag Department’s licensing and inspection provisions for dog breeders are adequate without additional laws.
Where cattlemen are concerned, Windett cites standards that are in place for raising livestock.
“We’ve already got a Beef Quality Assurance program in place and within those national guidelines is a code of ethics and a statement of principle that producers should and do take care of their animals in a very humane way,” said Windett.
One of the options being considered is to establish a Missouri Livestock Standards Board similar to what was done in Ohio, however Windett says nothing has been decided in that regard.
Soybeans were higher on fairly light fund and commercial buying. The fundamentals continue to look solid in the near term but South America’s crop is developing well. Still, with the nearby supply tight and demand for U.S. beans strong, contracts were able to find traction after a lower open, shrugging off a rally in the dollar and mixed trade in crude oil. In any event, trade is kind of slow ahead of New Years and the January 12 USDA crop production estimate. Soybean meal was modestly higher following the lead of beans and oil was modestly lower on profit taking.
Corn was narrowly mixed on a lack of fresh news and consolidation. There’s still a considerable amount of U.S. corn left in the fields and a significant portion may go unharvested; with crop reports done for the year, the next USDA assessment of the crop is out January 12. Still, the nearby domestic supply is large and demand is just about neutral, keeping buying interest limited. Ethanol futures were mostly steady.
The wheat complex was lower on technical selling, profit taking after Monday’s gains and the firm dollar. When the dollar goes up, wheat does tend to go down. The fundamentals are very negative with a large supply and poor demand for U.S. wheat. Wheat’s been ignoring those fundamentals for the most part, but with the dollar up, trade volume light and Monday’s gains overdone, wheat was due for a correction. European wheat was mixed on the generally bearish tone in the world wheat market against early index fund interest; March Paris was down .2% and March London was flat.
North Carolina is the 4th and most recent state where pigs have been identified with the H1N1 flu virus. The North Carolina Department of Agriculture says the USDA lab in Ames, Iowa has confirmed the virus in samples taken from pigs at two North Carolina farms. A private veterinarian suspected the illness and has monitored the health of the pigs which have fully recovered. The paper says North Carolina ag officials believe the pigs caught the virus from people at both farms. Officials say they are reassuring the public that it’s safe to eat pork from swine that have been previously infected and have recovered from any influenza viruses.
The department says H1N1 has been confirmed in animals in 10 states; including pigs in Minnesota, Indiana and Illinois; cats in Iowa, Oregon and Pennsylvania; ferrets in Oregon; turkeys in Virginia; a dog in New York and a cheetah in California – in each case, the animals apparently caught the virus from humans.
North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says he’s confident Congress will act early in the new year to extend the tax incentive for soy biodiesel.
“We’re obviously encouraged by comments from congressional leaders that it’s their intention to take this matter—the tax extenders—up by the end of next month,” Vilsack says, “which will hopefully be in time that there isn’t any significant disruption in the market.”
Some industry analysts predict many biodiesel plants will be forced to shut down when that tax incentive expires on December 31st.
At a news conference in Des Moines Monday, Vilsack also talked about a new Obama administration report on biofuels to be released in January. He says it’s a collaboration between USDA, EPA and Energy.
“Within the Obama administration, the president tasked myself, (Energy) Secretary (Stephen) Chu and (EPA) administrator (Lisa) Jackson to put together a task force report on biofuels generally, which we will probably be issuing next month,” he says, “(outlining) ways in which we can be an even better partner with the industry than we’ve been.”
And Vilsack hinted the report will put more emphasis on advanced biofuels. “I think we’re going to see a significant emphasis on biofuels, on second and third generation feedstocks—this is an exciting opportunity for America.”
For example, Vilsack says, he recently visited a facility in southern Virginia where the manure from a dairy operation was being converted into ethanol. And he took the opportunity to slip in a plug for cap and trade.
“And then the byproduct of that process is a thing called BioChar, which can be applied as a fertilizer—non-petroleum based fertilizer—to certain crop ground,” says Vilsack, “and that in turn could potentially qualify for offsets under any kind of Clean Energy legislation.”
Earlier in the day Monday, Vilsack visited a Des Moines grocery store where he discussed the important role of good nutrition in the overall health care debate. He says the USDA will launch a “Health Initiatives Program” in 2010, whereby states will be able to apply for 20 million dollars in federal grants to test projects that get consumers to buy more fruits and vegetables.
If you think the snow is deep in Iowa, you’re right.
According to Iowa state climatogist Harry Hillaker, December 2009 will likely be the second snowiest December on Iowa’s record books. The statewide average snowfall of 22-point-two inches ranks only behind the 25-point-five inches recorded in December of 2000.
It could also be the second wettest December on record in Iowa. The statewide average precipitation this month stands at two-point-six inches, second only to the three-point-four inches of precip received in December of 1982.
Western Iowa has been the most impacted by December’s two winter storms. In fact, in the west central division, it’s been the snowiest month ever. This month’s total of 24-point-eight inches of snow in west central Iowa breaks the old calendar month record of 23-point-two inches set in January of 1932.
Under intense public pressure, Taiwan’s parliament is taking steps to reinstate that country’s partial ban on U.S. beef. That according to a Reuters report.
In late October, Taiwan said it would reopen its markets to U.S. bone-in beef and cow offal, ending a six-year import ban that was in place over fears of BSE in beef. However, that decision has created a public furor, despite repeated government assurances that U.S. beef is safe.
In response, Taiwan’s parliament is seeking to amend a food sanitation law to ban imports of minced beef, cow offal and beef from cattle above 30 months of age. Taiwanese legislators will vote on the issue early next year.
Taiwan first issued the ban on all U.S. beef in December 2003, but opened its markets to boneless U.S. beef in 2006. It kept the ban on bone-in beef such as ribs and T-bones.
Heavy snow in parts of the Midwest could cause as much as 100 million bushels of corn to be lost. The according to analysts interviewed by Reuters.
As much as 25 inches of snow fell in parts of the Dakotas—two states were the corn harvest was running far behind. Other states where the corn harvest was still not done—Nebraska, Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois—were also affected.
Citigroup analyst Terry Reilly says the crop could be down 100 million bushels from the current USDA estimate because of the combination of problems related to the late harvest and the winter storms. Joe Victor with the research and consulting firm Allendale figures, of the 620 million bushels left in the field, about ten percent—or 60 million bushels—could be lost.
The U.S. corn crop is still expected to be the second largest on record, behind only 2007’s record crop of 13.038 billion bushels.
That weekend recall of beef by an Oklahoma meat processor, because of E. coli concerns, has prompted a call for meat labeling changes.
The latest recall followed a determination by USDA of an association between blade tenderized meat and illnesses in six states. According to report on meatingplace.com, Representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut wants to have labels that identify meat that has been mechanically tenderized. She says that USDA has known about the risks associated with mechanically tenderized meat since 1999.
DeLauro is calling on USDA to move quickly to require labeling to clearly identify those types of beef and pork products. She contends with proper labeling, consumers would know about the processing and be sure they’re cooking meat to the appropriate temperature.
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