Friday July 17 Ag News

Assistance for Livestock Producers for Losses Due to Extreme Heat

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) State Executive Director Dan Steinkruger reminds Nebraska livestock producers that FSA provides assistance for livestock losses above normal mortality due to an adverse weather condition through the Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP). Adverse weather events include losses due to floods, blizzards, disease, wildfires, extreme heat, and extreme cold.

"Producers have been reporting death losses due to the recent high temperatures and high humidity levels," said Steinkruger. "These losses may qualify as an eligible LIP loss due to extreme heat. Documentation is required for both normal mortality and adverse weather event losses."

The criteria for extreme heat for Nebraska requires a minimum of two consecutive days where the Temperature Humidity Index (THI) has reached an index score of 79 for at least one hour each day. The THI score indicates a "danger" level where death loss could be expected even with appropriate management actions and decisions. Information on determining the THI can be found in the University of Nebraska NebGuide G1409 titled "Managing Feedlot Heat Stress."

The application process for LIP is a two-step process. Applicants must first file a notice of loss with FSA, the earlier of 30 calendar days of when the loss of livestock was apparent or 30 calendar days after the end of the calendar year in which the loss of livestock occurred. Livestock that dies within 60 days of the qualifying event may be considered eligible for loss benefits.

After filing a notice of loss, producers can file the application for payment. The application for payment must be filed no later than 30 calendar days after the end of the calendar year in which the loss of the livestock occurred. Supporting documentation is required with the application for payment for both normal mortality and adverse weather losses.

The LIP national payment rate for eligible livestock owners is based on 75 percent of the average fair market value of the livestock.

According to Steinkruger, "The requirement for supporting documentation for 2015 and future years is more restrictive than the requirement for 2012, 2013, and 2014 losses. Documentation for losses for 2012, 2013, and 2014 were less restrictive because the program was implemented retroactively."

Verifiable documentation of livestock death losses, including normal mortality losses, must be provided. Verifiable records include but are not limited to, rendering truck receipts or certificates, veterinary records, records assembled for tax purposes, private insurance documents, written contracts, bank or other loan documents, and purchase records, etc.

If an applicant cannot provide verifiable documentation for both normal mortality and adverse weather event losses, then the applicant may provide reliable records as proof of death in conjunction with verifiable beginning and ending inventory records. Types of reliable records include contemporaneous producer records existing at the time of the event, pictures with a date, and brand inspection records, etc.

A third party certification may be used as proof of death in conjunction with verifiable beginning and ending inventories if verifiable and/or reliable records for proof of death are not available.

Producers who have suffered a loss due to extreme heat and/or another eligible adverse weather event should contact their local FSA Office.



SUMMER HEAT AND FORAGE GROWTH
Bruce Anderson, Nebraska Extension Forage Specialist

               Summer heat hit us hard the past couple weeks.  How do these high temperatures affect different types of forage plants?

               When it suddenly turns ‘hooey boy’ hot – you know, 90 plus degrees and humidity so thick you can almost see it – cool-season plants suffer along with you and me.  Alfalfa and clovers, bromegrass, orchardgrass, fescues, needlegrasses, and wheatgrasses all struggle during hot weather.

               Do you remember – before air conditioning – how drained you used to feel after spending a night when the temperature never dropped below 80?  The same thing happens to cool-season forages, resulting in very slow growth, lower forage quality as plants burn up the good nutrients, and limited recovery of root reserves after defoliation.  And if it also is dry these conditions can even become deadly.

               Warm-season grasses are just the opposite.  Millet, sudangrass, sorghums, and our native bluestems, gramas, switchgrass, and other warm-season grasses thrive when the temperature is around 90 degrees.  Their metabolism runs at peak efficiency when it is hot so they grow rapidly while maintaining reasonable forage quality and good root growth.

               Of course, this all assumes these plants have adequate moisture.  Once they dry up, these grasses will overheat too, just like cool-season grasses do at lower temperatures.

               As you graze or hay, be aware of the stress weather is putting on your forage.  When it’s too hot, allow plants to recover for a longer time before next use.  And don’t expect high feed values or good animal gains when the goodies are burned right out of the plants.

               Proper expectations and management adjustments can limit the stress from stressful weather.



Largest-ever USMEF Latin American Product Showcase Held in Costa Rica

The fifth edition of the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) Latin American Product Showcase, held July 15-16 in San Jose, Costa Rica, was the largest and most productive to date, as 44 USMEF member companies exhibited red meat products for more than 90 buyers from 16 countries in the region. Since its inception in 2011, the Nebraska Beef Council and Illinois Soybean Association have provided financial support for the showcase. Support for this year’s event was also provided by the Beef Checkoff Program, the Pork Checkoff and the USDA Market Access Program (MAP).

“We had an outstanding turnout of buyers this year, from Chile all the way to the eastern Caribbean,” noted Gerardo Rodriguez, USMEF director of trade development for Central American and the Dominican Republic. “And the interest from exhibitors grows stronger every year, as this event now has a very well-established reputation for generating new contacts that help USMEF members expand their presence throughout Latin America.”

Rod Gray, a rancher from Harrison, Nebraska, and member of the Nebraska Beef Council Board of Directors, was also pleased to see that the showcase continues to grow. Gray was especially impressed with the strong demand for high-quality beef in Latin America.

“Until I began coming to this event, I tended to think of Latin America as a destination for variety meat and lower-end muscle cuts,” he explained. “But there are plenty of buyers here showing strong interest in high-quality beef. That’s gratifying to me, because I try to produce a high-quality product with my breeding program, and I see that product making its way into these markets.”

Beatrice, Nebraska, pork producer Brian Zimmerman, who chairs the National Pork Board’s International Trade Committee, said this event offers the U.S. pork industry an excellent venue for pursuing export growth opportunities in Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean.

“If I had to sum up this showcase is one word, I would say ‘optimistic,’” Zimmerman said. “Everyone is upbeat, and the event has tremendous energy. I thought the level of activity was very good last year in Peru, but it was nothing like what I’m seeing here in Costa Rica.”

In addition to the main exhibition, this year’s event offered ample time for one-on-one meetings between U.S. exporters and prospective buyers. An educational aspect was also added this year, allowing representatives from the packaging, transportation and storage, and processing equipment sectors to address some of the unique challenges involved in supplying meat to Latin American markets.

“Our exhibit space sold out in record time this year,” Rodriguez explained. “But the reason the Latin American Product Showcase continues to be larger and more successful every year is that it is so much more than just a trade show. Both buyers and exporters have an opportunity to gain knowledge about the region and to find new ways to expand their businesses and enhance their profitability.”

Exporters were eager to capitalize on the opportunities presented at the showcase, including first-time attendee Mark Cooper, executive vice president of Iowa-based Pine Ridge Farms, which produces high-quality, value-added fresh and frozen pork products.

“For a small company like ours, it would take years – even an entire career – to cover the kind of ground we were able to in a short period of time here,” Cooper said. “The research, travel and expense involved in making this many contacts on our own would be huge, so this has been a fantastic event for us.”

These sentiments were echoed by Doraine Barr, who manages Latin American sales for Dallas-based Mercer Meat Company. Barr was participating in her fourth USMEF Latin American Product Showcase.

“Within two weeks of this event, we usually begin receiving orders from the new buyers who were in attendance,” Barr said. “When we participated in the very first one in Panama City in 2011, our business in the region increased 70 percent. We are very happy to see the showcase grow more and more each year, attracting high-level buyers who are truly the decision-makers for their companies.”

After a slow start in 2015, U.S. pork exports to the Central-South America region have gained strength in recent months. Through May, exports totaled 51,257 metric tons (mt), which was steady with last year’s pace, valued at $132.8 million (down 3 percent from a year ago). Driven by a strong performance in the Dominican Republic, exports to the Caribbean totaled 18,024 mt (up 5 percent) valued at $43.7 million (down 3 percent).

January-May beef exports to Central-South America totaled 14,067 mt (down 12 percent) valued at $64.7 million (down 4 percent). Exports to the Caribbean totaled 10,153 mt valued at $71.1 million – up 5 percent and 18 percent, respectively, from the same period last year.

U.S. exports also benefit from preferential duties in many countries in the region, through the CAFTA-DR, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Panama Free Trade Agreements.



Iowa Family Honored for Stewardship Efforts
 
Glenn and Bev Rowe, owners of Rowe Ranch in Lorimor, Iowa, were selected as one of seven regional honorees of the Environmental Stewardship Award Program (ESAP). The award, announced during the 2015 Cattle Industry Summer Conference, recognizes the outstanding stewardship practices employed on the ranch. This year’s regional winners will compete for the national award, which will be announced during the 25th anniversary celebration in January 2016.

ESAP is sponsored by Dow AgroSciences, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) and the National Cattlemen’s Foundation, and is presented to farmers and ranchers who demonstrate a commitment to protecting the farm and ranch land in their care.

“When we bought the land in 1997, most of it was overrun with thistles, locust and cedar trees with very little grass on it. What grass there was, was fescue and other less-desirable forage,” said Glenn Rowe. “Part of it had been farmed for a year, had soybean stubble which didn’t amount to too much and it actually made it a little easier to put new seed in. But, it was a challenge every day.”

The Rowes have partnered with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service on no less than seven projects including rotational grazing, rural water pipeline installation, reseeding and fertilizing after soil testing, internal fencing of paddocks, installing water heavy-use fabric at crossings, and stream bank stabilizations. They maintain at least 23 paddocks, with the largest being 24 acres. Herds are rotated at least weekly and as often as weather conditions dictate. Cows quickly become accustomed to being moved and usually are waiting at the gate to be rotated.

“Our rotational grazing has been a tremendous benefit to the forage production of this part of the country because of it helps us better manage and distribute the grazing pattern of the cattle across the whole pasture,” said Rowe.

Glenn and Bev have transformed nearly their entire property, planting hundreds of trees around their home and dedicating 40 acres of ground to serve as a wildlife refuge planted to trees. Much of their land is managed as grazing land, but about 250 acres is utilized to plant no-till corn and soybeans, which the cattle graze in the fall after harvest. The Rowes have also fenced cattle out of farm ponds and added wide buffer zones to filter water that flows into creeks on the property.

“Our goal is to retain as much of the water on the land as we can and keep it as long as we can before it runs off. If our forage has the opportunity to absorb those nutrients from the water, that helps our forages and it helps the water downstream,” said Rowe. “Hopefully that improves the quality of the water before it leaves our land.”



NPPC CEO Recognized For Animal Research Support

Neil Dierks, CEO of the National Pork Producers Council, this week was given the Distinguished Support of Animal Science Award from the American Society of Animal Science (ASAS) at its joint annual meeting with the American Dairy Science Association in Orlando, Fla.

The ASAS supports the careers of scientists and animal producers in the United States and internationally, fostering the discovery, sharing and application of scientific knowledge on the responsible use of animals to enhance human life and well-being.

Dierks received the honor for his strong support for increasing agricultural research and education. Among other efforts, ASAS cited Dierks’s involvement in planning, developing and executing a legislative initiative by farm organizations to increase state appropriations for the Iowa State University College of Agriculture at a time when federal funds for the Land Grant System were stagnant. That effort secured over a five-year period more than $10 million annually in new funding for the college.

The NPPC leader also staffed the first pork industry research review, identifying and cataloging swine and pork research efforts being conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service and Land Grant universities. The work led to formal pork industry policies supporting increased resources for swine and pork research and more formal interaction among producers, USDA administrators and scientists.

“Neil has dedicated much of his career to advancing research and education efforts that aid the animal agriculture industry,” said ASAS CEO Meghan Wulster-Radcliffe. “His work has helped public- and private-sector scientists provide pork producers and others the knowledge they need to produce safe, nutritious, wholesome food while raising animals in a healthful, ethical way.”

Dierks joined NPPC in 1990, serving in a series of senior executive positions, including vice president for research and education; he became CEO in 2002. A graduate of Iowa State University, he serves on the board of directors of the U.S. Pork Center of Excellence, which works to facilitate cooperation and collaboration among and between universities, the pork industry and government to provide pork producers with research, education and information related to pork production and animal well-being.

Prior to working for NPPC, Dierks was special activities director for the Iowa Pork Producers Association and marketing director for the Iowa Corn Promotion Board.



SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE APPROVES AGRICULTURAL SPENDING BILL
(from NPPC Newsletter)

The Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday approved on a 28-2 vote a fiscal 2016 agricultural spending bill. The measure includes $143.8 billion in discretionary and mandatory funding, $24 billion below the president’s budget request and $3.7 billion below the fiscal 2015 enacted level. The bill funds agricultural and food programs and services, including food and medical product safety, animal and plant health programs, rural development and farm services, marketplace oversight and nutrition programs. Report language added to the bill would direct the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture Research Service (ARS) to ensure all federal animal research facilities are compliant with animal welfare standards equivalent to the Animal Welfare Act and to enter into an agreement with USDA’s Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service to conduct routine inspections of ARS facilities to ensure humane treatment of animals. The funding measure also includes an amendment offered by Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., that would prohibit the use of federal money for the inspection of horse slaughter facilities, keeping in place a ban backed by the Humane Society of the United States on processing horses for human consumption. Since such processing first was prohibited starting in 2007, the number of neglected and abandoned horses has increased significantly, according to a June 2011 U.S. Government Accountability Office report. A similar amendment last week failed to be added to the House version of the agricultural spending bill. Also unlike the House proposal, the Senate bill does not increase funding for combatting antimicrobial resistance or for addressing climate change.

MEASURE TO EASE CONGESTION AT U.S. PORTS PASSES KEY COMMITTEE
A bill to help address congestion at U.S. ports was included in transportation legislation approved this week by the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. The “Ports Performance Act,” which the Commerce panel passed in late June, would require the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics to collect metrics of port marine terminal productivity, which would serve as an early warning system for determining when ports stop operating normally and for when the federal government needs to step in to protect the economy. The ports measure was prompted by the recent work slowdowns at West Coast ports. The slowdowns, the result of a months-long labor dispute between the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), which represents companies that own West Coast ports, and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), which represents dock workers, cost the U.S. meat and poultry sectors hundreds of millions of dollars. NPPC joined more than 70 business and agricultural organizations on a July 15 letter urging the Commerce Committee to include the ports bill in the larger transportation legislation, which likely will be consolidated with a federal highway funding bill approved recently by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The comprehensive six-year transportation reauthorization measure now goes to the full Senate for consideration. The House this week approved a transportation bill that extends highway funding only until Dec. 18. Because of a number of factors, said the business and agricultural groups in their letter, “congestion has become commonplace at ports across the country. This congestion has resulted in slowdowns, bottlenecks and chokepoints that impact the efficient flow of cargo with far-reaching impacts.” 

MIDWEST STATES VOTE TO INVESTIGATE HSUS FUND-RAISING TACTICS
The Midwest Legislative Conference of the Council of State Governments this week approved a resolution encouraging the attorneys general of its 11 states to investigate the fundraising activities of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). The conference passed the resolution at its annual meeting in Bismarck, N.D., noting that the animal-right group’s materials are “full of dogs and cats, giving the impression that this is the primary focus of HSUS; however, only 1 percent of the money raised by HSUS is given to pet shelters (according to its tax returns) and HSUS runs no pet shelters and according to the HSUS President, only 20 percent of the organization’s budget goes to companion animal issues …”



Biofuel Trade Organizations Ask for Extension of Advanced Biofuel Tax Incentives

A group of biofuel trade organizations today sent a letter to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) encouraging extension of critical advanced biofuel tax incentives — the Second Generation Biofuel Producer Tax Credit, the Special Depreciation Allowance for Second Generation Biofuel Plant Property, the Biodiesel and Renewable Diesel Fuels Credit, and the Alternative Fuel and Alternative Fuel Mixture Excise Tax Credit. The trade groups signing the letter included the Advanced Ethanol Council, Advanced Biofuels Association, Algae Biomass Organization, Biotechnology Industry Organization, Growth Energy, National Biodiesel Board, and Renewable Fuels Association.

The letter reads, in part, “The advanced biofuels industry is at a critical stage in development. Last year, several new, commercial scale advanced biofuel facilities began operations and, despite a difficult financial market, the industry continues to make progress on dozens of additional projects. Advanced biofuel tax credits have moved these projects to commercial production by reducing the cost of production and by developing first-of-kind technologies to deploy the most innovative fuel in the world.

“As leaders in a critical innovation sector in the United States, we are well aware of the financial constraints facing this country. However, the United States’ global competitors are offering tax incentives for advanced biofuels and are attracting construction of new facilities. We encourage Congress to continue the development of these homegrown technologies and urge extension of these credits. Furthermore, domestic biofuel producers are competing with incumbent fossil energy industries who continue to enjoy tax incentives and other subsidies on a permanent basis.

“In the interest of energy security, job creation, global competitiveness, and forward-looking policy, we urge you to move quickly to extend expired advanced biofuel tax provisions for multiple years retroactive to January 1, 2015. We look forward to working with you on this important matter.”



Organic Alfalfa Seed Coating Helps Prevent Some Soil Diseases

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists have found that a natural seed coating can protect alfalfa against some soilborne diseases. Alfalfa is a $10 billion-a-year crop in the U.S., but producing it can be a challenge. Farmers in the Midwest often plant it early in the spring when the soil is cold and damp. That makes the seeds vulnerable to a number of soilborne diseases.

To minimize the damage, most alfalfa seeds are coated with a fungicidal treatment. But the treatment, mefenoxam, is ineffective against the pathogen causing Aphanomyces root rot (ARR), which is common to Midwestern soils.

Demand for organic alfalfa for organic dairy operations also is increasing, and alfalfa treated with a fungicide can't be labeled as organic. Many organic dairy farmers would like to expand but may face a roadblock due to a lack of available organic feed, according to Deborah Samac, a plant pathologist in the Agricultural Research Service's (ARS) Plant Science Research Unit in St. Paul, Minn.

Samac wanted to see if coating alfalfa seeds with a naturally occurring mineral would protect them from soil diseases, including ARR. The mineral, zeolite, comes from degraded volcanic rock, has antifungal activity, and qualifies as an organic soil treatment. Samac also wanted to assess zeolite's effects on the health of plant roots and beneficial soil microbes.

She and her colleagues grew plants with three different seed treatments and inoculated them with the types of pathogens that attack alfalfa roots. The seed treatments included a control with no fungicide, mefenoxam-treated seeds, and commercially available zeolite-coated seeds designed for organic alfalfa production. The plants were removed after 21 days and rated for disease symptoms on a 1-to-5 scale. They also repeated the process in soils collected from 12 Minnesota alfalfa fields to assess the treatment's effectiveness in soil naturally infested with pathogens.

The results showed that the mineral coating was as effective as mefenoxam in protecting seeds from most soil pathogens, but unlike mefenoxam, zeolite protected the seeds from ARR. It also did not inhibit production of healthy roots or beneficial microbes in the soil. The coated seeds need to be evaluated further, but the findings show they could prove useful in both conventional and organic alfalfa operations, Samac says. The results were published in the journal Plant Disease.