Wisconsin ethanol plant sale still not settled?

The sale of the Renew Energy ethanol plant in Jefferson, Wisconsin is back in the news. The bankruptcy sale of the plant in December was disputed when Iowa-based All Fuels and Energy claimed they had bid more than the declared winning bid submitted by Texas-based Valero Energy. All Fuels sought to halt the sale but their claim was rejected and Valero’s $72 million bid prevailed.

All Fuels says they still want the plant and offered Valero $82 million in January, Valero countered with a $100 million price tag and All Fuels agreed. Valero says the discussion was casual and they never really had a deal. Spokesman Bill Day tells the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Valero plans to close on its purchase of Renew soon and operate the plant.

A closer look at organic production

USDA has released the results of their first-ever survey of organic farms in the country.

The survey counted 14,540 U.S. farms and ranches that were either USDA certified organic or were exempt from certification because their sales totaled less than $5,000. The farms utilized 4.1 million acres of land, of which 1.6 million acres were harvested cropland and 1.8 million acres were pasture or rangeland.

While there were organic farms or ranches in all 50 states, nearly 20 percent of the operations, 2,714, were in California. Wisconsin was a distant second with 1,222 farms. California also led the nation in organic sales, with $1.15 billion, 36 percent of all U.S. sales. Nationwide, 2008 organic sales totaled $3.16 billion, including $1.94 billion in crops sales and $1.22 billion in sales of livestock, poultry and their products.

Most U.S. organic producers sold their products locally, with 44 percent of sales taking place less than 100 miles from the farm. Nearly 83 percent of organic sales were to wholesale channels. Just over 10 percent of sales were direct to retail operations like supermarkets and 7 percent of sales were direct to consumers through farm stands, farmers’ markets, community supported agriculture and other arrangements.

The survey also found more than 78 percent of the organic producers plan to maintain or increase organic production over the next five years.

The full report is available here:

IL ag groups to solicit public’s view of farmers

Leading Illinois ag groups are working with a public relations and a research firm to determine how the public views farmers. Illinois Farm Bureau says they want to find out what the public perception of the farmer is so they can communicate more effectively with non-farmers.

Illinois Farm Bureau says project is in the early stages but the results will be made public for all commodity groups to use.

Illinois Farm Bureau

MU soybean scientist honored by AAAS

The world’s largest scientific society has honored a University of Missouri soybean scientist with a fellowship. The American Association of the Advancement of Science (AAAS), which publishes the journal Science, elected Henry Nguyen director of the National Center for Soybean Biotechnology at M-U. It honored Nguyen for his “distinguished research contributions in plant genetics and genomics” and in drought tolerance research.

Nguyen was also recently chosen as a visiting professor of biotechnology at the Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City (VNU), in Vietnam.  The University of Missouri and VNU have an agreement to cooperate on education and research.

A Great Lakes Asian carp summit

The Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality says she will sit down with governors of the Great Lakes states to talk about the Asian carp. In response to a request from Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm and Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, Nancy Sutley said she would “like to suggest a meeting during the first week of February, either in the Midwest or in Washington D.C., with you and your fellow Great Lakes Governors or your designees, to discuss the strategy to combat the spread of Asian carp and ensure coordination and the most effective response across all levels of government to respond to this threat.”

Earlier this week the U.S. Supreme Court refused to take up a request by Governors Granholm, Doyle and others to close a couple of shipping canals in Chicago in an effort to keep the Asian carp out of Lake Michigan. The City of Chicago, State of Illinois and the White House opposed the idea.

Asian carp are voracious eaters and fears are they will destroy the food supply for native fish in the Great Lakes.

Green diesel plant to be built in Wisconsin

Flambeau River Biofuels has executed a letter of intent to engineer, procure and construct the largest second-generation “green diesel” plant in the United States. The $250 million facility will be part of an existing pulp and paper mill in Park Falls, Wisconsin. It will use a patented process to convert 1,000 dry tons per day of woody biomass from bark, sawdust, wood and forest residue into heat, steam and electricity for the paper mill. This will make the Flambeau River Paper Mill the first in North America to run on fossil-free energy. The process will also create green diesel fuel and wax for the domestic market.

Green diesel is renewable sulfur-free diesel made from forest and agricultural by-products and can be used as a blending agent for trucking and aviation fuel. Green wax can replace petroleum-based waxes used in candles and for waterproofing cardboard.

Partial funding for the project comes from a U.S. Department of Energy grant. The facility should be fully operational by 2013.

Tyson reaches chicken labeling settlement

Tyson Foods has reached a settlement in its “Raised without antibiotics” class action lawsuit. The case originated when Tyson labeled and sold chicken as “Raised without antibiotics”. Competitors Perdue Farms and Sanderson Farms brought suit charging Tyson was using ionophores which are classified as antibiotics by USDA even though, as Tyson claims, they do not contribute to antibiotic resistance in humans.

Tyson was ordered to remove the claim in April of 2008. The suit by Perdue and Sanderson was settled but a wave of consumer suits followed which were then consolidated into the class action.

Under the $5 million agreement filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore this week, Tyson will pay $600,000 in administrative costs and $4.4 million in payments of up to $50 to people who purchased Tyson chicken, fresh or frozen, whole or breaded pieces, Cornish hens or deli, between specified dates in 2007 and 2009. There are three levels of reimbursement in the deal.

If Tyson does not pay out the entire $5 million, they must make up the difference by donating food products to food banks.

We are paying less at the grocery store

It costs even less at the grocery store these days. The American Farm Bureau reports retail food prices decreased for the fifth consecutive quarter and are significantly lower than a year ago. AFBF says the total cost of the 16 items in their Market Basket Survey which can be used to prepare a meal was $42.90, down $3.13 from the third-quarter of 2009 and $7.31 below a year ago.

Compared to the third quarter, prices were lower deli ham, bacon, sirloin tip roast, boneless chicken breasts, shredded cheese, flour, potatoes, apples, orange juice, bagged salad and vegetable oil. Quarterly prices were a little higher for milk, eggs, white bread and ground chuck. Toasted oat cereal was unchanged.

All items were cheaper than a year ago with 20-percent-or-larger declines in milk, vegetable oil, chicken breasts, cheddar cheese and potatoes.

AFBF says Americans today spend just under 10 percent of their disposable annual income for food, the lowest average of any country in the world. Meanwhile, the farmer’s share of that food dollar continues to decline from roughly 33 percent in the mid-1970’s to 19 percent today. In other words, of the $42.90 spent on the Market Basket items, the farmer gets $8.15.

Some interesting notes on retail milk sales. The AFBF found the average price for a gallon of whole milk was about 25 percent cheaper in gallon containers compared to half-gallon containers. The average price for a half-gallon of rBST-free milk was about 55 percent higher than a half-gallon of regular milk. The average price for a half-gallon of organic milk was about 80 percent higher than the price for a half-gallon of regular milk.

Consumers also paid about 80 percent more for “cage-free” eggs compared to regular eggs.

NE dairy loses roof and cows from blizzard

A Madison County, Nebraska dairy farm lost several cows when a barn roof collapsed early Christmas morning.  That according to a report in the Norfolk Daily News.

Mike Henn of Henn House Dairy at Battle Creek says the roof on his loafing barn gave in under heavy snow, killing several cows and trapping others.  He says workers tried to four hours to rescue the trapped animals, but some had to be destroyed.

Henn is currently milking about 850 cows.  He wouldn’t give specifics about his cow losses, but to make matters worse, the dairy also had to dump about 18-thousand gallons of milk. The milk truck could not make it to the farm because roads were blocked by massive snow drifts.

Soldiers love receiving Iowa beef sticks

She’s known as the “Beef Stick Lady”.  

Her name is Dee Ann Paulsrud of Danbury in west-central Iowa. From their farmhouse kitchen, Dee Ann and her husband, Ted, run “Beef’ n Up the Troops,” a project that ships free Iowa-made beef sticks to U.S. soldiers serving overseas.

Since starting the project three years ago, Paulsrud says they have sent 76-thousand beef sticks to troops serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and other overseas military bases.  The beef sticks are produced by Triple T Specialty Meats in Ackley, Iowa.

Dee Ann says it’s all made possible by the generous donations they receive.

“From private individuals, churches, 4-H clubs, FFA’s, Farm Bureau, cattlemen groups, church lady groups—oh my goodness, I could go on and on,” says Paulsrud.

Dee Ann donates her time to the project as well. 

“I volunteer my time and it’s with honor and joy,” she says. “I do not have anyone currently serving in my immediate family.  However, my husband did—my oldest son did—and my dad was a survivor of World War II.  I did this out of honor and respect for my dad.”

Paulsrud says they receive a lot of help from other people as well, including the 185^th Air Refueling Wing out of Sioux City, Iowa, which transports the beef sticks overseas.   

And the rewards—Dee Ann says she gets numerous cards and thank-you notes from soldiers, including a recent letter from a soldier from Clear Lake, Iowa.  “He sent me a picture of the soldiers on Thanksgiving Day.  Some of them had received the beef sticks—and he wrote ‘the support from home is one of the reasons we take pride in the mission that our country has placed in front of us—and we would be honored to be able to return the favor you have done for us’,” Paulsrud says. “This is what really gets me—here I am trying to send them beef sticks to help them, and now they want to help me back.  That just really is amazing.”

As long as the donations keep coming, Dee Ann says they will continue sending the beef sticks to the troops.  Donations can be sent to Beef’n Up the Troops, 4980 320^th Street, Danbury, IA, 51019-8505.  Dee Ann can be reached at 712-883-2249.

As a side note—for her efforts, Dee Ann was recently honored with the 2009 Iowa Farm Bureau Woman in Agriculture Award.

 AUDIO: Dee Ann Paulsrud

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