Wednesday Sept 13 Ag News

Ricketts Signs Pork Agreement During Japan Trade Mission

Today, Governor Pete Ricketts participated in a signing ceremony at Sagami Restaurant in Tokyo, Japan on behalf of Nebraska’s pork producers.  During the ceremony, representatives from Smithfield Foods International Group and Sagami Chain Co. Ltd. signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) designed to expand the business relationship between the two parties.  This expansion will result in the sourcing of pork products by Sagami from Smithfield’s processing plant in Crete, Nebraska.

“Japan is Nebraska’s largest export market for pork products,” said Governor Ricketts. “Having a high-end restaurant chain such as Sagami and a well-respected pork processor such as Smithfield recommit to their business relationship is a positive sign for Nebraska’s pork producers.  We will continue our efforts to increase the sales of our value-added products to bring more opportunities for our farm and ranch families who help grow our state’s number one industry.”

The Sagami Chain has more than 170 restaurants located across Japan.  They specialize in deep-fried pork cutlets.  A year ago, Sagami CEO Toshiyuki Kamada visited Nebraska to tour the Smithfield facility in Crete.

“Last year’s visit from Mr. Kamada was important because it gave him the opportunity to see first-hand that Nebraska can produce high-quality pork that his restaurants require,” said Nebraska Department of Agriculture Assistant Director Mat Habrock.  “Nebraska’s pig industry is expanding rapidly.  Getting the stamp of approval from restaurant chains such as Sagami will go a long way in assisting us in increasing pork exports.”

Habrock is part of the Nebraska delegation in Japan led by Governor Ricketts.  Earlier in the week, the Governor attended the Midwest U.S. Japan Association annual meeting.  The group has since been traveling to various locations in the country to expand business and investment opportunities for Nebraska.

“Nebraska pork is a perfect fit for customers in Japan not only because of the quality aspects of the pork but our production standards from animal and land stewardship meet the expectations of the Japanese consumer.  It is refreshing to see Sagami to take a pragmatic approach to trade, and do what is best for their customers,” said Trent Loos, Nebraska delegation representative for the National Pork Producers.



Greater Fremont Development Council Appoints New Director

The Greater Fremont Development Council (GFDC), an active partner in the Greater Omaha Chamber Economic Development Partnership, has appointed Garry Clark as its next Executive Director. He will be responsible for the promotion of economic development activities in Greater Fremont effective Sept. 18.

"I was intrigued by the potential to combine my energy and knowledge with that of the GFDC team and local business leaders," Clark said. "I am eager to engage and do my part to build new programs and explore opportunities that will help to retain existing industries and promote the expansion of our workforce."

Prior to this appointment, Clark served as Nebraska Opportunity Fund Manager for the Nebraska Investment Finance Authority. His body of economic development work spans from West Point, NE (Executive Director of Cuming County Economic Development) to Washington, D.C. (Executive Director of North Capitol Main Street, Inc.) to Bowie, Maryland (Economic Development Specialist).

"My background provides a great mix of local, urban and rural economic development expertise along with a very clear understanding of the legislative process and economic development resources within the state of Nebraska," Clark said. "I feel confident my experience will help me be the catalyst needed to achieve direct, sustainable economic development in this next chapter."

Clark will be responsible for coordinating GFDC's program of work as he focuses on expanding current business and industry in Greater Fremont.

"With a string of recent economic successes under our belts, we've built up some great momentum. Now, under Garry's leadership, we know the Greater Fremont area will continue the march forward as one of Nebraska's leading economic centers," said Bill Vobejda, president of the GFDC Board.

Clark will work closely with the GFDC Board and the broader Greater Omaha Chamber Economic Development Partnership to strengthen the competitiveness of GFDC within the local, state and global economy.

Randy Thelen, the Greater Omaha Chamber's Senior Vice President of Economic Development, said, "Garry has an energy, an enthusiasm and a vision for Greater Fremont that -- when coupled with his economic development expertise -- will make him an incredible asset for the region and our Partnership."

A three-time All-American and member of the Dana College Athletic Hall of Fame, Clark holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Dana and a Master of Science in Urban Studies (Public Administration) from University of Nebraska Omaha.



PREDICTING CATTLE DIETS
Bruce Anderson, NE Extension Forage Specialist

               What do grazing cattle prefer to eat.  If you can accurately predict what your cows will select, you’re doing better than me.

               Last week I turned the cows and calves grazing my pastures into a new paddock.  Well, not actually new since they had grazed it earlier in the year, but it had been nearly eight weeks since they were last in there.  It’s a paddock that is well dominated by big bluestem with lots of indiangrass, too.  Those two warm-season grasses probably contribute about eighty percent of the growth in that paddock.  There also are modest amounts of alfalfa, red clover, smooth bromegrass, and bluegrass.

               The forage was quite lush and leafy with only occasional seedstalks of bluestem and indiangrass because the earlier grazing had topped off the stems as they were developing.  It looked really desirable to me, at least if I was a cow.  And as the animals entered they readily sampled a little bit of everything and seemed pretty content.  At least it was better than the brome-alfalfa they just finished.

               Anyway, as they moved around sampling the buffet, all of a sudden they just stopped and started grazing vigorously in one spot.  I walked over, and guess what they were eating eagerly – field bindweed!  It was a spot where mineral had been placed previously and the other plants had been grazed or trampled really short so the bindweed thrived.

               I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised because I often see the cows eat bindweed wherever it appears in my pastures so I don’t consider it a problem weed.  But it shows how sometimes our traditional thinking can mislead us into missing out on opportunities.  I could have spent time and money spraying out that bindweed, something that the cows like.

               It makes me wonder – what else have I missed?  How about you?



Cattlemen Release Second Video in Tax Reform Campaign

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association today released the second video in its monthlong media campaign to promote comprehensive tax reform. The first video, which was posted on Sept. 6, was viewed more than 109,000 times on Facebook and reached more than 200,000 people.

NCBA’s second video in the campaign features Jay Wolf, a third-generation Nebraska rancher, who discusses the time, energy, and financial cost he’s forced to spend on estate planning due to the death tax.

“You’d think in operating a business like this, the most important decisions would be strategic decisions about buying or selling cattle or buying and selling land,” Wolf says while sitting in his pickup truck surrounded by his cattle. “Instead the most important decisions I’ve made have been estate-planning decisions, and they have impacted our ability to maintain our operation more than anything else – and that doesn’t really seem right.”

Wolf also discussed how the death tax is fundamentally unfair and burdensome because it forces family ranchers to pay tax and estate-planning costs in cash based upon an appraised value of their land, which they’ve already paid property taxes on for decades.

“The value of the land has changed dramatically, especially in the last few years,” Wolf explained. “Now our income hasn’t necessarily changed… and it becomes difficult to face a tax on something like that. It’s not a cash asset but if you’ve got a big estate tax on it, it’s out of proportion to its earning ability, and it can be just devastating.”

NCBA last week kicked off the media and advertising campaign that is shining a spotlight on how various federal tax provisions impact America’s cattle and beef producers, particularly the death tax, and is building support in Washington for comprehensive tax reform that will make the tax code more fair for producers. The campaign is centered around a new website, CattlemenForTaxReform.com, and will run through September.

Over the coming weeks, NCBA will roll out several other promoted videos and infographics on social media that will feature profiles of ranchers and other members of the cattle-production community and their priorities for tax reform. The campaign will also connect grassroots ranchers and producers with their elected officials on Capitol Hill as tax-reform legislation is considered this autumn.



Bioheat to Improve Heating Emissions in Downstate New York

New Yorkers in downstate counties will soon benefit from cleaner air due to the increased use of Bioheat® fuel in heating oil.  Legislation signed today by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo requires Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester counties to follow New York City’s lead by blending at least five percent biodiesel (B5) into all home heating oil sold by July 1, 2018.

“New York has long been a leader in recognizing the environmental, public health and economic benefits of biodiesel, not only in transportation applications but in the heating oil market as well,” said National Biodiesel Board CEO Donnell Rehagen.  “We commend Governor Cuomo for signing this important bill that will provide cleaner air for more New Yorkers by improving emissions from heating oil.  Increasing the use of Bioheat® in the nation’s largest heating oil market also supports local jobs in the clean energy sector.”

Biodiesel was the first alternative fuel designated as an “Advanced Biofuel” by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and has been verified to reduce total greenhouse gas emissions by more than 50 percent compared to petroleum.

Assemblyman Steve Englebright and Senator Phil Boyle sponsored the legislation, which is supported by a broad range of industry and environmental advocates due to its environmental and public health benefits.

New York City, the largest municipal consumer of heating oil in the country, has already taken advantage of biodiesel's benefits by instituting a citywide 2 percent biodiesel requirement in 2012 that increases to 5 percent on October 1, 2017. Now the entire New York City Metropolitan Area, representing approximately 70 percent of the state’s heating oil market, will have a 5 percent biodiesel blending requirement.



Operating Committee Approves FY18 Plan of Work

The Cattlemen’s Beef  Promotion and Research Board will invest about $38 million into programs of beef promotion, research, consumer information, industry information, foreign marketing and producer communications during fiscal 2018, subject to USDA approval.

Brett MorrisIn action at the end of its September 12-13 meeting in Denver, the Operating Committee approved checkoff funding for a total of 14 “Authorization Requests” – or proposals – brought by seven contractors for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2017. The committee, which includes 10 producers from the Beef Board and 10 members from the Federation of State Beef Councils, also recommended full Beef Board approval of a budget amendment to reflect the split of funding between budget categories affected by their decisions.

The seven contractors had brought a total of $45 million worth of funding requests to the Operating Committee this week, $7 million more than what was available from the CBB budget.

“We showed up Tuesday morning ready to roll our sleeves up and get to work. We knew that we were going to have to make cuts of about $7 million,” said Beef Board Chairman Brett Morris, a cattle producer from Oklahoma.

“They are all good programs, and we hate for any of them to get cut, but with the amount of resources we had to work with, we had to make cuts,” Morris said. “I think the whole committee came through in agreement. Bottom line, we had a great task to accomplish, and we got there. I think the beef industry is in good shape because of it.” 

In the end, the Operating Committee approved proposals from seven national beef organizations for funding through the FY 18 Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board budget, as follows:
-    National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (five proposals for $27.3 million)
-    U.S. Meat Export Federation, a subcontractor to NCBA (one proposal for $7.4 million)
-    North American Meat Institute (four proposals for $1.35 million)
-    Cattlemen’s Beef Board (one proposal for $1.1 million)
-    American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture (one proposal for $435,131)
-    Meat Import Council of America (one proposal for $366,000)
-    National Livestock Producers Association (one proposal for $53,150)

Broken out by budget component, the Fiscal Year 2018 Plan of Work for the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board budget includes:
-    $10.1 million for promotion programs, including continuation of the checkoff’s consumer digital advertising program, as well as veal promotion
-    $8.9 million for research programs, focusing on a variety of critical issues, including pre- and post-harvest beef safety research, product quality research, human nutrition research and scientific affairs, market research, and beef and culinary innovations
-    $7.4 million for consumer information programs, including a Northeast public relations initiative; national consumer public relations, including nutrition-influencer relations and work with primary- and secondary-school curriculum directors nationwide to get accurate information about the beef industry into classrooms of today’s youth
-    $3.1 million for industry information programs, comprising dissemination of accurate information about the beef industry to counter misinformation from anti-beef groups and others, as well as funding for checkoff participation in a fifth annual national industrywide symposium focused on discussion and dissemination of information about antibiotic use
-    $7.4 million for foreign marketing and education in 80 countries in the following regions: ASEAN region, Caribbean, Central America/Dominican Republic, China/Hong Kong, Europe, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Middle East, Russia/Greater Russian Region, South America, Taiwan, and new markets
-    $1.1 million for producer communications, which includes investor outreach using national communications and direct communications to producers and importers about checkoff results; as well as development and utilization of information conduits, such as auction markets; maintenance of a seamless partnership with state beef council producer-communication efforts; and producer attitude research to determine producer attitudes about and desires of their checkoff program

"This was my third year on the Operating Committee and our decisions were a lot harder to make than they ever have been before,” said Stacy McClintock, a cow-calf producer from Kansas. “Everybody on the committee came together and we made some great decisions for the industry.”

The full fiscal 2018 budget is $40.9 million. Separate from the authorization requests, other expenses funded include $221,000 for evaluation; $295,000 for program development; $450,000 for USDA oversight; and about $2 million for administration. The fiscal 2018 budget represents an increase of $124,700 or 0.3 percent from the $40.8 million FY17 budget.

Operating Committee Member and Federation Director Jerry Effertz of North Dakota might have summed up the committee’s hard work best in his final comment on the meeting: “I have never been as privileged to be a part of something as I am our grassroots checkoff decision-making system.”



Average Prices for All Fertilizers Continue to Decline

Average retail fertilizer prices continued to inch lower the first week of September 2017, according to fertilizer retailers surveyed by DTN.

All eight of the major fertilizers were lower compared to last month, though none were down by a significant amount.

DAP had an average price of $431 per ton, MAP $458/ton, potash $338/ton, urea $302/ton, 10-34-0 $418/ton, anhydrous $413/ton, UAN28 $215/ton and UAN32 $248/ton.

On a price per pound of nitrogen basis, the average urea price was at $0.33/lb.N, anhydrous $0.25/lb.N, UAN28 $0.38/lb.N and UAN32 $0.39/lb.N.

All but one retail fertilizer are lower compared to a year earlier. Three of the eight major fertilizers are double digits lower.

Anhydrous is now 18% lower from a year ago, while 10-34-0 is 13% less expensive and UAN32 is 10% lower. Urea is 7% less expensive, UAN28 is 6% lower, DAP is 3% less expensive and MAP is 1% lower. The one fertilizer higher compared to last year is potash, which is now 4% more expensive.



Taiwan Goodwill Mission Pledges To Purchase Five Million Tons Of U.S. Corn

Members of the 2017 Taiwan Agricultural Goodwill Mission pledged Wednesday to purchase 5 million metric tons (197 million bushels) of U.S. corn and 500,000 tons of U.S. distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) between 2018 and 2019. The commitment was made during a signing ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

The members of the Goodwill Mission also signed letters of intent to purchase soybeans and wheat. The biennial team is part of a long-term effort to strengthen economic ties between Taiwan and the United States.

“The U.S. Grains Council (USGC) has worked in Taiwan for more than four decades and has watched Taiwan grow into one of our largest customers,” said Deb Keller, USGC chairman and a corn farmer from Iowa. “The Goodwill Mission helps us maintain a healthy trading relationship with Taiwanese buyers and end-users by providing continued confidence in the U.S market.”

Prior to the official ceremonies, the corn representatives of the Goodwill Mission visited the farm of Chip Councell, USGC past chairman, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Councell participated in the Wednesday signing ceremony on behalf of the Council and U.S. corn producers, with Keller in Southeast Asia for a Council-sponsored regional trade summit. 

The Taiwanese delegation was also honored this week in Washington at a reception with government officials and representatives of the agriculture industry, sponsored jointly by the Council, U.S. Wheat Associates, the U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC), the North American Export Grain Association (NAEGA) and the National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA).

Following the events in D.C., corn members of the Goodwill Mission will travel to Iowa, Indiana and Missouri to sign letters of intent with those states' governors, tour farms and elevators and meet with local producers, agriculture groups and policymakers. 

Taiwan is an important market for U.S. agricultural products, particularly U.S. grains. Taiwan is the fifth largest market for U.S. corn. Thus far in the 2016/2017 marketing year (September-July) Taiwan has purchased 2.91 million tons (114.5 million bushels) of U.S. corn, the highest sales in the last seven marketing years. Taiwan also ranks as the third largest buyer of U.S. barley in 2016/2017.

The Goodwill Mission has been organized by Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) every other year since 1998 and allows Taiwanese participants to gain familiarity with U.S. coarse grains’ yield, production and quality. The Goodwill Mission also provides education on the advantages of U.S. coarse grains and co-products as well as reconfirms the commitment by the United States to serve as a long-term, reliable supplier for Taiwan.



Prairie's Edge Dairy's 2nd Trident System Installed to Recover NPK Nutrients from Dairy Cow Manure

"Trident's nutrient recovery process for dairy manure is now installed at a second location at Prairie's Edge Dairy Farms," announced Kerry Doyle, CEO of Trident Processes LLC. "Trident's new cold manure process makes nutrient recovery viable for thousands more dairymen." Trident is the leading company in the US for nutrient recovery technology for agriculture with processes that enable dairy farms to manage their livestock manure more effectively.

"Our system turns a liability into assets," says Doyle. "The concentrated nutrients recovered are ready for precision land application or fertilizer production, and the water sent to the lagoons is clean enough to be irrigated directly through center pivots without clogging."

Prairie's Edge (formerly Fair Oaks Farms) is located on I-65 between Chicago and Indianapolis. The farm is known for its leading role in the industry implementing sustainable technologies and its managers continue to pursue and share their vision of sustainable agriculture.

This is the second Trident nutrient recovery system installed at Prairie's Edge Dairy. The first system was installed in April 2015 at Prairie's Edge's 14,000-cow site only a few miles away. It was one of the first successfully implemented wastewater treatment systems on a dairy farm in the US.

Carl Ramsey, Operations Manager at Prairie's Edge Farms, is tasked with managing all the manure for the farm and strongly advocates for advanced nutrient recovery. "Because Trident's system is fully automated our manure is now much easier to handle and manage. It separates the beneficial parts of manure and converts it all into usable byproducts. When you compare the components of milk and manure, it's clear that there is a lot of value in the manure too. Trident's system is allowing us to capitalize on that value, and at the same time reduces our operational costs."



Latest USDA Supply and Demand Estimates Lower U.S. Beef Production
Brian R. Williams, Assistant Extension Professor
Department of Agricultural Economics, Mississippi State University

The USDA released its monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) on Tuesday morning, which should prove to be neutral to slightly bullish. U.S. beef production for 2017 was lowered by 140 million pounds from 26.699 billion pounds to 26.559 billion pounds while 2018 production was lowered by 85 million pounds to 27.275 billion pounds. There are likely a few things driving this reduction in beef production. One driver is lower than expected fed cattle marketing as reflected in the last Cattle on Feed Report, although we know those cattle are still out there and will end up coming to market at some point in the future. For many of those cattle it is more of a matter of when they go to market rather than if the will go to market. Probably the biggest driver is reduced slaughter weights. Total slaughter numbers have been trending at or above last year's numbers most of the year, however slaughter weights have been trending well below year-ago levels. When those two are put together, the lower slaughter weights outweigh the increase in the number of head, leading to lower production numbers.

On the demand side, minimal changes were made. Exports remained the same as last month, as did ending stocks. However, per capita use for 2017 was lowered from 57.9 pounds per person to 57.6 pounds per person. Lower production with no changes in exports means that there is less beef per person available.

What impact will the WASDE have on the markets? So far, not much. While both feeder cattle and fed cattle futures are down on the day, there was little movement in the intraday prices around the time the report came out. In other words, traders were not surprised by what they saw in the report and outside factors are more important in driving the market at this point in time. Looking forward into the fall and winter, as feedlot profitability turns negative we may see an uptick in the slaughter weights relative to where we have been trending most of the year, which could boost production numbers again in future reports. A big part of the reason for the decline in slaughter weights over the last year was that positive feeding returns provided an incentive for feedlots to fill their pens and run more total cattle through while feeder for a shorter period of time. Now that profits are turning negative, that incentive is gone and instead feedlots will likely shift toward trying to squeeze as much gain out of each animal as possible. If that does indeed happen, look for the uptick in slaughter weights to shift total beef production higher in the coming months.



ACE hosts market development webinar
The American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) Senior Vice President, Ron Lamberty, hosted the third quarter webinar of ACE’s webinar series yesterday. The webinar covered the organization’s market development work and highlighted legislative and policy priorities that can make a difference in marketing higher ethanol blends, including a timely update on Reid vapor pressure (RVP) relief, as the RVP restriction for E15 ends this week on Friday.

Some highlights of what the webinar covered include:
 ·    Legislative and policy priorities, including an update on Renewable Fuel Standard related issues and RVP relief;
 ·    Developing markets for higher ethanol blends and how others can play a role;
 ·    Assistance retailers need to start offering higher ethanol blends;
 ·    An update on flex fuel gas station projects;
 ·    And a tour of resources on ACE's FlexFuelForward.com and Retailer Roadmap websites.

“The strategy behind our FlexFuelForward.com website is that fuel marketers trust information they get from other marketers like themselves,” Lamberty said. “This matches what we have seen on our site; three of the most viewed pages are our featured retailers addressing common questions and concerns of other retailers.”

Lamberty added that the retailers he’s spoken with want others to start selling E15. “The more E15 retailers people see across the U.S., the more comfortable consumers become with the product and the more likely they’ll use it at whatever station they visit offering the fuel,” Lamberty said.

In addition to others joining the ranks, retailers want a variety of barriers to offering higher blends addressed, including regulatory burdens, the cost and availability of funds, available RIN-less E85, consistent identification of fuel blends, and RVP relief.

The webinar walked through ACE’s FlexFuelForward.com resources retailers can utilize to learn more about what it would take to overcome these obstacles and profitably offer higher ethanol blends to their customers. Lamberty pointed out that the site makes the business case for adding E15 in place of premium or diesel.

“Whether it’s a switch of products in the tank or a new installation, “the math” favors E15 over either of those fuels,” Lamberty said. “Almost 90 percent of the market can use E15, and while marketers consider premium or diesel, our website reminds them E15 generally costs less than E10 “regular” fuel, while those other fuels cost more.”



Calcium to Phosphorus Ratio in Pig Diets Established

The amount of digestible calcium included in pig diets has a direct impact on phosphorus digestibility, but the optimum ratio between the two minerals has not yet been found. In a recent study from the University of Illinois, scientists have established a first approximation of that ratio for 25 to 50 kilogram pigs.

"Because calcium is an inexpensive ingredient, the thinking was that we could add as much as we wanted. We discovered several years ago that may not be a good approach, because if you increase calcium in the diet, you reduce absorption of phosphorus," says Hans Stein, professor in the Department of Animal Sciences and the Division of Nutritional Sciences at U of I. "As phosphorus availability goes down, so does the pigs' growth performance. Feed intake, and therefore body weight gain and feed efficiency, goes down."

Stein and his collaborators formulated 20 corn-soybean meal-based diets, varying in calcium and phosphorus concentration, and fed them to 240 pigs over four weeks. Diets were formulated to contain 0.15, 0.31, 0.39, or 0.47 percent standardized total tract digestible (STTD) phosphorus and 0.13, 0.27, 0.42, 0.57, or 0.72 percent STTD calcium. These values represented 48 to 152 percent of the STTD phosphorus requirement and 27 to 173 percent of the total calcium requirement.

By the end of the four-week trial, the researchers were able to determine pig growth performance, in terms of average daily gain and gain to feed, as well as incorporation of the minerals into bone.

In a separate trial, 120 pigs were fed the same 20 diets for two weeks. For these animals, urine, fecal, and blood samples were analyzed for calcium and phosphorus concentrations.

"The results confirmed what we've seen before. If you feed too much calcium, in particular with low or marginal phosphorus in the diet, pig growth performance goes down," Stein says. "We still need to do more work to determine the optimum ratio between the two, but we have definitely confirmed that the ratio is very important."

Stein says most pig diets are currently formulated with marginal phosphorus, partly due to cost of the ingredient and partly because producers want to avoid having to mitigate excreted phosphorus in manure. But diets formulated with too much calcium or too little phosphorus could be reducing pig growth performance.

"If someone asked us today, we would say that to maximize average daily gain and gain to feed for 25 to 50 kg pigs, the ratio of STTD calcium to STTD phosphorus should be between 1.16:1 and 1.43:1. However, it is possible that we will have to change that ratio as we get more data. It is still very early," Stein says.

The article, "Requirements for digestible calcium by 25 to 50 kg pigs at different dietary concentrations of phosphorus as indicated by growth performance, bone ash concentration, and calcium and phosphorus balances," is published in the Journal of Animal Science. Stein's co-authors include J.C. Gonzalez-Vega, C.L. Walk, and M.R. Murphy.