AMI Informs Canadian House of Commons of Food Safety Progress

American Meat Institute Executive Vice President James Hodges recently testified before the Canadian House of Commons Subcommittee on Food Safety saying the meat and poultry industry has made great food safety progress in recent years and continues to do so. Hodges told the subcommittee that illnesses related to consumption of meat and poultry have declined - about one-billion meals being consumed every day in the U.S. without incident.

Hodges said the U.S. and Canadian meat and poultry industries support and use a strong federal inspection system - but notes only the industry can produce safe food. He says there's no certainty food products are free from all risks - but that progress has and is being made. Hodges also noted that the industry has been a supporter of a preventative approach - petitioning USDA to mandate HACCP plans in meat and poultry plants - which has helped enhance meat and poultry safety.

U.S. data show the industry has reduced the occurrence of E. coli O157:H7 in ground beef by 45-percent to less than one-half-percent since 2000 - and that of Listeria in ready-to-eat meat and poultry products by 74-percent to less than point-four-percent. The illnesses associated with these pathogens have also declined since 2000 - with those caused by E. coli down by 40-percent and listeriosis down by 10-percent.

Creating Opportunities for U.S. Feed Grains in China

To gain a better understanding of the U.S. swine production system - Chinese swine industry professionals are in the U.S. for training courses, seminars and farm consultations. The U.S. Grains Council is sponsoring the team. According to USGC Technical Program Manager in China Jason Yan - low efficiency has been identified as one of the major constraints to the development of production capabilities on many farms in China. The more efficient the Chinese hog industry - the more productive it will become - allowing farmers to expand to higher levels of commercial scale. That - Yan notes - creates opportunities for U.S. feed grains and co-products in China.

The team spent Thursday and Friday at Purdue University to discuss swine welfare, growth and nutritional impacts on pork quality. The team is attending a short course on swine health and disease control at Kansas State University and will then attend the World Pork Expo in Des Moines.

Benefits of Biotech Touted in International Study

The British research firm PG Economics has released a study that touts the economic and environmental benefits of raising biotech crops. Thanks to agricultural biotechnology - the study found farmers in 25 countries are seeing increased yields, improved productivity and higher revenues. In fact - the report shows farmers have experienced a gain of 44.1-billion dollars over the 12 year period since technology was introduced to the market. What’s more - the study found farmers are using less pesticides on biotech crops - and biotech crops are reducing tillage - removing the equivalent of eight-billion pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Rob Korff - Chairman of the National Corn Growers Association’s Biotech Working Group - says it’s great to see the expanding awareness worldwide of the benefits of biotechnology. He says the ability to aggressively expand yields, cut greenhouse gases, feed a growing work and keep food coming from family farms is a terrific contribution.

More than 13-million farmers in 25 countries are using biotechnology. In the U.S. - corn growers were already planting nearly half their acres with biotech seed in 2004. That number had climbed to 80-percent in 2008.

Senate Ag Committee Hearing on Derivatives Set

The Senate Agriculture Committee has set a hearing to further explore needed regulatory reform of derivative markets. The open session, Thursday, June 4th, will address what can be done to regulate these markets in order to provide a solid foundation on which to rebuild the nation’s economy and prevent another financial collapse in the future. The full witness list is being developed.

Leading economists have attributed the recent downturn of the U.S. economy in part to the failure of derivatives markets. This past January, Senate Ag Committee Chairman Tom Harkin introduced legislation to bring all over-the-counter futures trading onto regulated exchanges. This action would, Harkin said, would bring transparency and accountability to these financial transactions and to strengthen our financial markets. This hearing will continue his effort to move this legislation forward.

USDA Releases Livestock Income Figures

USDA’s National Agriculture Statistics Service reports that gross income from cattle and calves, hogs and pigs and sheep and lambs during 2008 totaled 65.2 billion dollars. That figure is down 1 percent from 2007. Gross income decreased 3 percent for cattle and calves; and 5 percent for sheep and lambs. At the same time the gross income for hogs and pigs was up 9 percent.

Cash receipts from marketings of cattle and calves decreased 3 percent from 49.8 billion dollars in 2007 to 48.2 billion in 2008. Marketings totaled 54.2 billion pounds, down 1 percent from 2007.

Cash receipts from hogs and pigs totaled 16.1-billion dollars during 2008, up 9 percent from 2007. Marketings totaled 32.7 billion pounds, up 8 percent from 2007.

Cash receipts from marketings of sheep and lambs in 2008 were 451 million dollars, down 5 percent from 2007. Marketings decreased 6 percent to 526 million pounds.

Annual Milk Production Reported

NASS reports that milk production during 2008 increased 2.3 percent to 190-billion pounds. The rate per cow, at 20,396 pounds, was 192 pounds above 2007. The annual average number of milk cows on farms was 9.32 million head, up 126-thousand head from 2007.

Cash receipts from marketings of milk during 2008 totaled 34.8 billion dollars, 1.9 percent lower than 2007. Producer returns averaged 18.41 per hundredweight, 4.2 percent below 2007. Marketings totaled 189 billion pounds, 2.4 percent above 2007.

An estimated 1.08 billion pounds of milk were used on farms where produced, 1.0 percent less than 2007. Calves were fed 88 percent of this milk, with the remainder consumed in producer households.

NASS Releases Annual Poultry Numbers

When it comes to the poultry and egg industry the National Agriculture Statistics Service reports the combined value of production from broilers, eggs, turkeys, and the value of sales from chickens in 2008 was 35.9 billion dollars, up 11 percent from the 32.2 billion in 2007. Of the combined total, 64 percent was from broilers, 23 percent from eggs, 12 percent from turkeys, and less than 1 percent from chickens.

The value of broilers produced during 2008 was 23.1 billion dollars, up 7 percent from 2007. The value of all egg production in 2008 was 8.23 billion, up 22 percent from the 6.72 billion in 2007. The value of turkeys produced during 2008 was 4.48 billion, up 13 percent from the 3.95 billion the previous year. And the value of sales from chickens (excluding broilers) in 2008 was 61.8 million dollars, up 20 percent from the 51.5 million a year ago.

OIE Reclassifies Japan

A resolution formally adopted by the World Organization for Animal Health reclassifies Japan as a controlled-risk country for bovine spongiform encephalopathy. OIE Officials say the OIE made the decision to upgrade Japan’s BSE status at a general session earlier this week.

Japan mandates that beef from domestic cattle aged 21 months and older be tested for BSE, while it limits imports of beef to that derived from cattle aged 20 months or younger. The ruling technically would allow Japan to ship a wider array of product abroad.

Tokyo intends to press several countries including Russia and Mexico to import more Japanese beef. Meanwhile, the decision might give the United States, also a controlled-risk country, leverage in its efforts to persuade Japan to allow imports of beef from older cattle.

Key Found to Phosphorus Movement

Phosphorus can fuel excessive growth of algae and other plant matter in freshwater ecosystems. But, scientists for the Agricultural Research Service have discovered a key to mitigating the amount of phosphorus that can accumulate in water percolating through the soil. They say solid dairy manure is better than commercial fertilizer. And liquid dairy manure is worse. These findings could help farmers in the semiarid western United States protect local watersheds from agricultural pollutants.

The scientists also observed that liquid manure and solid manure differed significantly in their carbon compound makeup, which may contribute to the resulting variations in the manure leachates. Other factors may also play a part in the dynamics of phosphorus leaching, including microbial activity and metal content in the soil and the ability of clay particles in the soil to attract and hold onto phosphorus.

The work was done at the ARS Northwest Irrigation and Soils research laboratory in Kimberly, Idaho.

Benefits of No-Till Shown Through Field Study

With the push for biofuels nationwide - farmers may be encouraged to plant corn where environmentally friendly grasses are currently grown. That doesn’t mean they can’t sequester soil carbon and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A recent study by Ron Follett - a scientist with USDA’s Ag Research Service - is one of the most comprehensive studies conducted so far that addresses the effects of replacing native grasses with corn. The results show the benefits of no-till when making the switch from bromegrass to corn.

The research team found yield rates were decreased because of extended drought conditions - but the total amount of carbon stayed the same. Follett’s team collected soil samples at three depths to analyze the amount of soil carbon at each depth. According to USDA - the rates of loss of soil organic carbon previously sequestered in the top two depths by the bromegrass were offset by similar rates of increase in newly sequestered carbon from the corn.

There are currently 35-million acres of bromegrass and other plants grown nationwide in exchange for 1.8-billion dollars per year as part of USDA's Conservation Reserve Program.

Dairy Receives Boost Through Export Incentives

Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced allocations under USDA's Dairy Export Incentive Program for the July 2008 through June 30, 2009 period, as allowed under the rules of the World Trade Organization. The program helps U.S. dairy exporters meet prevailing world prices and encourages the development of international export markets in areas where U.S. dairy products are not competitive due to subsidized dairy products from other countries.

The allocations of 68,201 metric tons of nonfat dry milk; 21,097 metric tons of butterfat; 3,030 metric tons of various cheeses and 34 metric tons of other dairy products, as well as individual product and country allocations will be made available through Invitations for Offers. Country and region quantities may be limited by the invitation.

In making the announcement, Secretary Vilsack blamed the erosion of the U.S. dairy industry’s international market shares, in part, due to the reintroduction of direct export subsidies by the European Union earlier this year. Meanwhile, Senate Ag Committee Chairman Tom Harkin applauded the Administrations move and said; - these allocations will help address this issue.

Increased Production Goals in Morocco Opens Doors for U.S. Grain

The U.S. Grains Council sees a great opportunity for America's corn growers in Morocco. With the announcement of an incentive program to establish 20 to 30 large beef feedlots and ten modern meat processing facilities designed to increase domestic beef production by 80-percent by 2020 - the Grains Council believes additional commodity purchases will increase returns to 60.5-million dollars each year by 2011.

The Council jump-started beef production in Morocco five years ago with the introduction of COPAG. Two years later - the Council introduced U.S. distiller's dried grains with solubles and corn gluten feed to the Moroccan marketplace. As a result - COPAG established a 10-thousand head feedlot and another four feedlots and three large dairies have been built - or are in the process of being built. With that - demand for corn and its co-products has spiked. USGC Director in the Mediterranean and Africa Kurt Shultz says the Moroccan Feed Millers Association's adoption of the Council's plan to develop the ruminant feed market has increased corn consumption by 165-thousand tons - or 6.5-million bushels - from 2003 to 2007. Projections call for 465-thousand tons of corn, sorghum and co-product sales by 2011.

Glyphosate Tolerant Cotton Ready

Cotton growers in the southwest region of the United States can expect to have available two high-yielding, high-quality cotton seed varieties that are tolerant to the herbicide glyphosate. USDA has granted approval for the GlyTol cotton technology developed by Bayer CropScience. The USDA's decision follows approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and marks another milestone towards the first commercialization of GlyTol cotton.

Monty Christian, Director of Global Cotton Marketing at Bayer CropScience says the plan is to spend the 2009 season familiarizing U.S. growers with the features, advantages and benefits of the new technology and the varieties in which it will be offered at launch. Varieties suited to other U.S. cotton-growing regions are expected to be introduced in the coming years.

The launch of GlyTol technology in the United States was originally planned for the 2009 season. However, because of a number of factors, including the narrowing planting window in the U.S. southwest and the timing of USDA's approval, commercial launch is now planned for 2010.