The Northern Minnesota and Red River Valley areas are seeing exceptional weather for planting according to Pioneer Area Agronomist Zach Fore. Corn is currently 60-70% planted and a few areas have even started planting soybeans. The recent light rain was welcomed due to some places being dry and needing the moisture.
The undercover video released by the Humane Society of the United States in early April—the one it claimed was shot in Iowa egg barns—did not generate the kind of public outcry that the animal rights group was undoubtedly hoping for. At the Animal Agriculture Alliance summit, we discussed the aftermath of the egg video with Gene Gregory, president and CEO of United Egg Producers. He talks about a recently-completed third-party audit of one of the companies targeted in the video and discusses HSUS’ push for cage-free egg production.
Barrows and gilts in the Iowa/Minnesota direct trade are .24 lower at 82.43 on a carcass basis, the West is down .33 at 82.45, and the East is down .02 at 82.50. The Missouri direct base carcass meat price is steady at 77. Despite minimal Saturday kill plans, light country receipts in the late rounds this week probably means pork packers will start the week quite close to the knife on Monday. Late week pork processing margins appear to be rebounding thanks to a combination of lower hog costs and the rebounding of carcass value, thanks to stronger retail cuts and hams.
Cattle country is quiet on Friday and it looks like business is pretty much done for the week. Asking prices on the few cattle left on the show lists are around 99.00 plus in the South, and 160.00 plus in the North. Choice boxed beef is up .26 at 170.22, the select is up .09 at 167.11.
Feeder cattle receipts at Missouri auctions this week totaled 30,930 head. Compared to last week feeder steers less than 500 pounds sold steady to 5.00 to 7.00 higher. Feeder steers over 500 pounds and all weights of heifers sold steady to 3.00 higher. Markets regained losses from last week following the positive cattle on feed report that was released after the end of business last week. Feeder steers medium and large 1; 864 head averaging 576 pounds traded at 127.15, 568 heifers averaging 574 pounds brought 116.45 per hundredweight.
For updated market information throughout the day tune to your local Brownfield affiliate radio station.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has named Mark Stephenson to be the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Director of Dairy Policy Analysis. Stephenson has been on the faculty at Cornell University for 17 years working in applied research, Extension and teaching dairy markets and policy. Over the years, he has been involved in policy discussions with both USDA and Congress and his research was used when making modifications to product price formulas and Class I differentials.
Prior to Cornell, Stephenson was with the Department of Ag Economics at U.W. River Falls for three years. He will begin his new job on July 1st.
China will not close the door to U.S. dairy imports on May 1st. The U.S. Dairy Export Council says fast action by the U.S. Foreign Ag Service, Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service, Food & Drug Administration and the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office has convinced the Chinese to give the U.S. 30 more days to secure agreement on a new health certificate for food-grade dairy exports to China. Industry leaders also praised the Chinese government for its recognition of the need to allow trade to continue while resolution of this complex issue is addressed by technical staff.
On April 21 the Chinese General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) sent a letter to the U.S. government notifying them that due to the lack of an agreed-upon health certificate, China planned to no longer accept U.S. food-grade dairy products as of May 1. There had been no ongoing discussions related to an inadequacy of U.S. certification language prior to the notification.
USDEC, the International Dairy Foods Association and National Milk Producers Federation all say they will work closely with the U.S. government to ensure successful resolution of this issue over the course of the next month and urged attention to the need for careful coordination among the relevant U.S. agencies in order to secure agreement on new certificate language during this period.
There has been a lot of publicity about how farmers and ranchers can use social networking to help educate consumers about what they do and why they do it. But Andrea Hutchison of Chain Ranches, Canton, Oklahoma is taking a different approach. She is using a blog, Facebook (ExposeHSUS) and Twitter to communicate with her own peers, keeping them informed about the activities of the animal rights activists. Hutchison believes her fellow farmers and ranchers need to be more aware of the threats to their livelihoods posed by HSUS and other anti-livestock groups.
Randy Gordon is vice president of communications and government relations with the National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA). He says NGFA is currently focused on two pieces of legislation in Congress—one bill that would change the nation’s food/feed safety laws, and the other dealing with financial regulatory reform. We talked to Gordon during the Animal Agriculture Alliance summit in Arlington, Virginia.
Since 1987, the Ontario Farm Animal Council (OFAC) has been the voice of animal agriculture in the Canadian province of Ontario on issues such as animal care, food safety and the environment. When it comes to animal care, OFAC has been lauded for its proactive efforts in identifying and correcting situations that have the potential to result in negative publicity for Ontario’s livestock industry. In fact, some states in the U.S. are considering emulating OFAC “farmers helping farmers” approach. At the Animal Agriculture Alliance summit, we talked to OFAC executive director Crystal Mackay about OFAC and how it works.
Commentary
Good information from the Animal Agriculture Alliance Summit that wrapped up yesterday in Arlington, Virginia. Brownfield Ag news is proud to be a sponsor of the event.
Ken Anderson from the BF team was in Arlington for the meeting. He tells us that David Martosko, the director of research for the Center for Consumer Freedom and the editor of Humanewatch.org, the new web site that is taking on the Humane Society of the United States and other animal activist organizations spoke about his efforts to expose what he calls the “activists’ true agenda” and whether it will ultimately have an effect on consumer attitudes about groups such as HSUS. And, yes, he thinks the animal ag industry has a lot of work to do to get back in the game.
SO friends, arm yourselves with the truth – step up and speak up.
Across much of the U.S., last fall’s corn crop went into storage wet—and some of it had poor storage characteristics to start with because of the way the growing season played out. Charles Hurburgh is an Iowa State University agricultural and biosystems engineering professor who manages the Grain Quality Research Laboratory and the extension-based Iowa Grain Quality Initiative. Hurburgh says he’s seeing an increasing number of problems with mold deterioration in storage.
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