June 26 Hogs & Pigs Report + Ag News

NEBRASKA HOG INVENTORY UP 7 PERCENT

Nebraska inventory of all hogs and pigs on June 1, 2015, was 3.20 million head, according to the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. This was up 7 percent from June 1, 2014, and up 3 percent from March 1, 2015.

Breeding hog inventory, at 410,000 head, was up 5 percent from June 1, 2014, but down 2 percent from last quarter. Market hog inventory, at 2.79 million head, was up 7 percent from last year, and up 4 percent from last quarter.

The March May 2015 Nebraska pig crop, at 1.90 million head, was up 7 percent from 2014.  Sows farrowed during the period totaled 170,000 head, unchanged from last year. The average pigs saved per litter was a record high 11.20 for the March - May period, compared to 10.50 last year.

Nebraska hog producers intend to farrow 175,000 sows during the June – August 2015 quarter, unchanged from the actual farrowings during the same period a year ago. Intended farrowings for September – November 2015 are 175,000 sows, down 3 percent from the actual farrowings during the same period the previous year.



Iowa Hogs & Pigs 2nd Highest on Record

On June 1, 2015, there were 21.0 million hogs and pigs on Iowa farms, according to the latest USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service – Hogs and Pigs report. This is the second highest inventory since records began in 1870, behind only December 2014’s inventory of 21.3 million. The June 1 inventory was up 2 percent from March and up 10 percent from last June’s 19.1 million head.

The March-May quarterly pig crop was 5.25 million head, down 2 percent from the previous quarter, but 5 percent above last year. A total of 495,000 sows farrowed during this quarter. The average pigs saved per litter was 10.60 for the March-May quarter.

As of June 1, producers planned to farrow 490,000 head of sows and gilts in the June-August quarter and 490,000 head during the September-November quarter.



United States Hog Inventory Up 9 Percent

United States inventory of all hogs and pigs on June 1, 2015 was 66.9 million head. This was up 9 percent from June 1, 2014, and up slightly from March 1, 2015.

Breeding inventory, at 5.93 million head, was up 1 percent from last year, but down 1 percent from the previous quarter.  Market hog inventory, at 61.0 million head, was up 9 percent from last year, and up 1 percent from last quarter.

Total Inventory - (1,000 hd - % June '14)
Illinois ............:        4,600         107 
Indiana ...........:        3,600         103 
Minnesota ......:        8,050         105 
Missouri .........:        2,900         118
North Carolina :        8,000         105 

The March-May 2015 pig crop, at 29.6 million head, was up 8 percent from 2014. Sows farrowed during this period totaled 2.85 million head, up 1 percent from 2014. The sows farrowed during this quarter represented 48 percent of the breeding herd. The average pigs saved per litter was a record high 10.37 for the March-May period, compared to 9.78 last year. Pigs saved per litter by size of operation ranged from 8.00 for operations with 1-99 hogs and pigs to 10.40 for operations with more than 5,000 hogs and pigs.

United States hog producers intend to have 2.91 million sows farrow during the June-August 2015 quarter, down 3 percent from the actual farrowings during the same period in 2014, but up 1 percent from 2013. Intended farrowings for September-November 2015, at 2.87 million sows, are down
4 percent from 2014, but up 3 percent from 2013.

The total number of hogs under contract owned by operations with over 5,000 head, but raised by contractees, accounted for 46 percent of the total United States hog inventory, down from 48 percent last year.



NEBRASKA AG LAND VALUES DECLINE 2 PERCENT

The 2015 state average for Nebraska agricultural land values declined 2 percent from 2014, according to the final results of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Farm Real Estate Market Survey.

The statewide all-land average value for the year ending Feb. 1 averaged $3,250 per acre, down $65 per acre from 2014.

Land used for irrigated and dryland crop production showed the greatest percentage decline. This change was driven by a decrease in crop prices.

Hayland and grassland values, meanwhile, were up significantly from 2014. Record cattle prices fueled the increase.

The changes in land values were also reflected in cash rental rates. Cropland rental rates declined in all areas, while pasture rates were up across the state.

The 2015 Nebraska Farm Real Estate Market Survey covers Feb. 1, 2014, to Feb.1 1, 2015. Over 100 agricultural land market experts provided their insights. The full report is available at http://agecon.unl.edu/realestate.



HPAI DEPOPULATION PROCESS IN NORTHEAST NEBRASKA COMPLETE

Nebraska Department of Agriculture (NDA) Director Greg Ibach today announced that the depopulation of birds with, or exposed to, highly pathogenic H5N2 avian influenza (HPAI) in Dixon County is now complete.

According to Ibach, a total of 4.9 million laying hens and pullets were humanely depopulated and composted at five farms owned and operated by the same producer in Dixon County.  Four of those farms had confirmed cases of HPAI, while the producer voluntarily depopulated the birds at the fifth farm in an effort to contain the spread of the virus within their operation.  A backyard flock with epidemiological connections to the five farms, and located within the 6.2 mile quarantine zone established by NDA, also tested positive for the virus.  Fewer than 100 mixed fowl were depopulated and buried on that property. 

“I feel the depopulation process ran as smoothly as it did because of the working relationship and cooperation we received from local, state and federal agencies,” Ibach said. “I personally want to thank our staff for their hard work, dedication and long hours they put in to help prevent further spread of the virus. I also want to thank those within several key organizations who played a critical part in the response.”

Ibach said Governor Pete Ricketts signed an emergency declaration, and that gave the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency, Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, Nebraska State Patrol, Nebraska Department of Roads and the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services additional flexibility to play vital roles in assisting NDA. He also said county emergency management teams were instrumental in daily operations in both Dixon and Knox counties.

“Our federal partners at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) were also a critical component to the success of the depopulation and now the cleaning and disinfection efforts,” Ibach said. “I’d like to thank each of these partners for their support and contributions to addressing this disease.”

With the depopulation process completed, the work of cleaning and disinfecting each building and the equipment found in those buildings can begin in earnest.  According to Ibach, USDA contracted crews have arrived in Dixon County to facilitate and oversee those cleanup efforts.  Upon successful completion of the cleaning and disinfection process, environmental tests will be conducted to ensure the presence of the virus has been eliminated.  Once that testing is successfully complete, the producer will be able to repopulate its operation.

NDA staff will be returning to regular duties, while an individual specializing in composting protocol will remain on site in Dixon County to monitor the compost piles daily to ensure proper temperature levels are being maintained to effectively eliminate the virus.  The compost piles will remain in place at the affected properties until regulatory officials confirm the process has eliminated the virus from the compost material.  Once the virus has been successfully eliminated the compost can be utilized for its nutrient value.  

As part of NDA’s ongoing surveillance work, a total of 48 farms with poultry that are located within a 6.2 mile radius of the affected farms remain under quarantine.  Those flocks have all undergone one round of avian influenza testing with no further cases of the virus detected.  Those flocks will undergo another round of testing in July, and if the virus is not detected at that time, NDA will begin the quarantine release process for those farms.

“While we are cautiously optimistic that the virus has been contained at this time, I continue to urge all poultry operations – big and small – to continue to exercise the strictest of biosecurity measures on their farms,” Ibach said.  “We must all work together to prevent the spread of the HPAI virus in Nebraska.”



UPDATE ON IOWA AVIAN INFLUENZA RESPONSE

The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said there have been no new probable cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in the state this week and the last positive flock was detected on June 16.

Infected turkey flocks have been depopulated and are currently being composted.  Clean and disinfection is taking place.  Environmental samplings of all sites will take place to confirm successful cleaning and disinfecting before restocking.  IDALS and USDA officials have been meeting with affected farmers regularly to share information and answer questions.

All the commercial laying and pullet facilities have been depopulated and cleaning and disinfection of facilities is ongoing.  Disposal of affected birds has been completed except for the layer site announced last week.  That site had been doing on-site burial of affected birds, but due to the recent wet weather, burial has been stopped.  The birds are now being placed in bio-secure boxes and will be disposed of via incineration or at the landfill in Southwest Iowa.  Disposal of other materials from affected sites is ongoing.

To-date, over 1000 bio-secure boxes have been disposed of via incineration or at one of the two currently approved landfills.  Approximately 250 are still in need of disposal.  U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) contractor Clean Harbors is moving the materials.  All trucks are cleaned and disinfected before the leave an infected premise and before leaving a disposal site.

USDA has more than 2300 staff and contractors helping respond to the avian influenza situation in Iowa.  A USDA Incident Management Team (IMT) has been operating out of Ames and overseeing USDA’s activities.

More than 300 state employees have also participated in the disaster response at some point. The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Iowa Department of Public Health (in conjunction with local public health officials), Iowa Department of Human Services, Iowa Department of Transportation, Iowa Department of Corrections, Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals, and Iowa National Guard have all supported the response effort to this disease. 



USDA Seeks Partner Proposals to Protect and Restore Critical Wetlands in Nebraska

Natural Resources Conservation Service State Conservationist Craig Derickson announced today the availability of $17.5 million in financial and technical assistance nationwide to help eligible conservation partners voluntarily protect, restore and enhance critical wetlands on private and tribal agricultural lands.

“USDA has leveraged partnerships to accomplish a great deal on America’s wetlands over the past two decades,” Derickson said. “This year’s funding will help strengthen these partnerships and achieve greater wetland acreage in Nebraska and throughout the nation.”

Proposal funding will be provided through the Wetland Reserve Enhancement Partnership (WREP), a special enrollment option under the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program’s Wetland Reserve Easement component. It is administered by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Proposals must be submitted to NRCS state offices by July 31, 2015.

Under WREP, states, local units of governments, non-governmental organizations and American Indian tribes collaborate with USDA through cooperative and partnership agreements. These partners work with willing tribal and private landowners who voluntarily enroll eligible land into easements to protect, restore and enhance wetlands on their property. WREP was created through the 2014 Farm Bill and was formerly known as the Wetlands Reserve Enhancement Program.

According to Derickson, Nebraska has had success with restoring wetlands in partnership agreements through WREP.

“NRCS has worked with several partners, including the Rainwater Basin Joint Venture, Nebraska Environmental Trust, Nebraska Association of Resources Districts and Nebraska Game and Parks, to develop WREP projects in Nebraska.

“For example, from 2010 to 2013 NRCS had a WREP project in the rainwater basin wetland area in central Nebraska where 840 acres were enrolled in long-term conservation easements. This project helped restore habitat for thousands of ducks and geese that will use the restored wetlands each year during their annual migration. These sites also protect habitat for the threatened and endangered whooping crane,” Derickson said.

Wetland reserve easements allow landowners to successfully enhance and protect habitat for wildlife on their lands, reduce impacts from flooding, recharge groundwater and provide outdoor recreational and educational opportunities. The voluntary nature of NRCS' easement programs allows effective integration of wetland restoration on working landscapes, providing benefits to farmers and ranchers who enroll in the program, as well as benefits to the local and rural communities where the wetlands exist.

Projects can range from individual to watershed-wide to ecosystem-wide.  Under a similar program in the 2008 Farm Bill, NRCS and its partners entered into 272 easements that enrolled more than 44,020 acres of wetlands from 2009 through 2013. The new collaborative WREP will build on those successes by providing the financial and technical assistance necessary for states, non-governmental organizations and tribes to leverage resources to restore and protect wetlands and wildlife habitat.

Through WREP, NRCS will sign multi-year agreements with partners to leverage resources, including funding, to achieve maximum wetland restoration, protection and enhancement and to create optimum wildlife habitat on enrolled acres. WREP partners are required to contribute a funding match for financial or technical assistance. These partners work directly with eligible landowners interested in enrolling their agricultural land into conservation wetland easements.

Today’s announcement builds on the roughly $332 million USDA has announced this year to protect and restore agricultural working lands, grasslands and wetlands.  Collectively, NRCS’ easement programs help productive farm, ranch and tribal lands remain in agriculture and protect the nation's critical wetlands and grasslands, home to diverse wildlife and plant species. Under the former Wetlands Reserve Program, private landowners, tribes and entities such as land trusts and conservation organizations enrolled 2.7 million acres through 14,500 agreements for a total NRCS and partner investment of $4.3 billion in financial and technical assistance.



AGRICULTURE APPROPRIATIONS AMENDMENTS WOULD NIX SUSTAINABILITY LANGUAGE
(from National Pork Producers Council newsletter)

Amendments in House bills to fund the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services would prevent language on sustainability from being included in the final 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. In February, the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee released a report claiming that a plant-based diet is better for the environment than an animal-based one. (The committee also recommended less consumption of red and processed meat.) NPPC supports the riders, pointing out that the advisory committee had no mandate and no expertise to address sustainability. The amendments would limit the dietary guidelines, which are being written by USDA and HHS, to “matters of diet and nutrient intake.”

U.S., SOUTH AFRICA CONTINUE DISCUSSION ON OPENING SOUTH AFRICAN MARKET TO PORK
Officials from the United States and South Africa met again this week to discuss opening the South African market to U.S. pork exports. NPPC has been working closely with U.S. and South African government officials to gain market access.  The United States is at a significant disadvantage in exporting pork to South Africa’s large and growing market because that nation accepts pork from key competitors Brazil, Canada and the European Union. While the Sub-Saharan country prohibits U.S. pork, it is a beneficiary of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), which provides beneficiary countries with duty-free access for certain products going to the U.S. market. Legislation to reauthorize these preference programs, passed in both the House and Senate, and await approval from President Obama.

‘AWARE’ ACT WOULD SHUT DOWN VALUABLE ANIMAL RESEARCH
The “Animal Welfare in Agricultural Research Endeavors” (AWARE) Act, H.R. 746, which would bring farm animals used in agricultural research at federal research facilities under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), could be tacked on to the fiscal 2016 agricultural funding bill now moving through the House Appropriations Committee. NPPC is urging panel members to oppose the measure, which could significantly limit valuable food-animal research.



Fuel Retailers counter EPA’s blend wall assumptions in RFS proposal
Station owners who offer ethanol blends above ten percent are gaining increased sales and higher customer counts, contrary to assumptions made by the EPA in its recent proposal that would reduce the amount of renewables required to be blended with gasoline in the United States. Retailers also point out that the addition of the products was simple and that none of the engine issues ethanol opponents had predicted have occurred.

Those were points frequently cited by the many retailers who gave testimony at an EPA Field Hearing yesterday in Kansas City, Kansas.

“We have seen our ethanol sales numbers increase as we educate the public on the higher ethanol blends,” said Scott Zaremba, Owner of Zarco USA, and the first retailer to offer E15 in the United States.  “Renewable blends make up 98% of my gasoline sales mix, Almost 30% of the fuel I sell is in renewable blends above 10%” noted Charlie Good, Owner of Good and Quick convenience store in Nevada, Iowa.

“The oil industry has spent a lot of time and money insisting to EPA that there is a “blend wall” that makes it impossible to sell more than ten percent ethanol,” said American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) Senior Vice President Ron Lamberty. “Yesterday, EPA heard from real marketers with real fuel stations whose renewable sales are well above ten percent. Hopefully their input will help EPA see that the rumors of E15’s impossibly have been greatly exaggerated,” said Lamberty.  Other stories of marketers who had success with higher blends can be found on www.Flexfuelforward.com, a website ACE designed for retailers, according to Lamberty.

Dave Sovereign, owner and operator of the Cresco Fast Stop, summarized the thoughts of many retailers, telling EPA, “When consumers have a choice, there is no blend wall.”

The public can also submit comments on the EPA’s proposed Renewable Fuel Standard by clicking on http://cqrcengage.com/ethanol/renewable_fuel_standard.



U.S. Refinery Capacity Reaches 18 Million b/d

U.S. operable atmospheric crude distillation (CDU) capacity increased by 0.2% in 2014, reaching 18.0 million barrels per calendar day (b/d) according to EIA's recently released annual Refinery Capacity Report.

This was the second consecutive year of modest capacity growth following the 2.9% increase in 2012 that resulted from the restart of East Coast refineries that had closed in 2011.

The capacities of secondary units that support heavy crude processing and production of ultra-low sulfur diesel and gasoline, including thermal cracking (coking), catalytic hydrocracking, and hydrotreating/desulfurization, also increased.

The refinery capacity reported for the start of 2015 includes expansions that were operable on January 1, but not necessarily operating. Capacity for those projects is listed as idle. Dakota Prairie Refining recently completed construction of one of the few new refineries built in the U.S. over the last 30 years.




Day 5, Kansas Wheat Harvest Report - June 25

Praise for the late season rains keeps pouring in from around the state. Industry experts had pegged them the “million bushel rains,” but it looks like they have added even more to this year’s crop.

Steve Thummel from the Plains Equity Exchange & Coop Union said that the harvest near Plains, in Meade County, is around 45% complete. Area farmers are seeing 20-30 bushels an acre for dryland wheat while irrigated wheat is yielding around 65 bushels an acre. Thummel reported variable test weights that are averaging around 58-59 pounds per bushel. He estimates that this is going to be a close to average year, something that coop employees weren’t confident in until after the late season rains.

Ron Suppes, a western Kansas wheat farmer, reported starting his harvest in northeast Finney County on Wednesday. Yields are better than expected, with Danby, a hard white wheat, yielding about 50 bushels per acre. His average test weight is 65.4 with a moisture range between 9 and 10 percent.

Blake Connely from the Southern Plains Coop in Lewis, Edwards County, is reporting an area average between 40-50 bushels an acre. He estimates the area’s harvest is around 60-65 percent complete. Connely also said that test weights in the area are variable, with fields that weren’t sprayed for disease weighing 55-58 pounds per bushel, while other fields are weighing in at 60-64 pounds per bushel.

Connely also reports that protein across the coop’s locations varies. The Greensburg location is seeing a 12 percent average protein content, while the areas around Lewis and Belpre are testing at 12.5-13 percent.

The 2015 Harvest Report is brought to you by Kansas Wheat Commission, Kansas Association of Wheat Growers and Kansas Grain and Feed Association.