News Update

News Update
April 14, 2008

Cattle Buyers’ Summits Set for Montana, Tennessee and Nebraska

Designed for anyone who markets cattle, Cattle Buyers’ Summits are schedule for May 15 in Billings, Mont.; May 22 in Chattanooga, Tenn.; and July 11 in Kearney, Neb.

“These programs are intended for anyone who trades feeder cattle, fed cattle and market cows and bulls,” says Clint Peck, director of the Montana Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) program. “Cattle buyers are a very important segment of our industry and it’s our responsibility to keep them in the loop about what we’re doing in BQA programming.”

A portion of each summit includes a roundtable breakout session to allow participants to better understand the BQA program and offers suggestions about how to make BQA better fit the needs of the industry’s cattle marketing segment.

As more feedyards, ranchers, truckers and others in the industry become BQA-certified and adhere to BQA principles and practices, Peck says it’s important that everyone in the beef production and marketing chain know what BQA is all about. Cattle buyers from across the country are being sent special invitations to attend the summits.

The list of speakers includes Jim Warren, 101 Livestock, Aromas, Calif.; Emmitt Rawls, University of Tennessee; Kristen Larson, Prewitt & Co., Sidney, Mont.; Gary Smith, Colorado State University; Jim Robb, Livestock Marketing Information Center, Lakewood, Colo.; Andy Kellom, Verified Beef, Bozeman, Mont.; John Paterson, Montana State University; and Eric Moore, Schering-Plough Animal Health.

BQA is funded in part by The Beef Checkoff to address preharvest production practices that help increase beef demand and improve consumer confidence in the beef industry. As a strong supporter of BQA, Schering-Plough Animal Health is a joint sponsor of the Cattle Buyers’ Summits.

There is no registration fee for the summit, but seating is limited. Anyone who wants to attend should RSVP to Mo Harbac, Montana Beef Network, P.O. Box 17922, Bozeman, MT 59717, call 406-994-4323 or e-mail mharbac@montana.edu.

For more information go to www.mtbqa.org or visit www.beefboard.org.

— release provided by The Cattlemen’s Beef Board

Researchers Exploring Ways to Convert Manure Gas into Fertilizer

Many farmers are looking to manure application for their fertility needs as a way of combating high commercial fertilizer costs. New strides in technology may soon make it possible to capture and recycle gas emissions from livestock waste as an additional source of natural fertilizer, while at the same time improving the environment.

Ohio State University (OSU) air quality and bioenergy researchers, along with researchers from the University of Minnesota, have received a $599,836 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Research Initiative grant to study the feasibility of capturing and recycling ammonia emissions from manure in poultry and swine operations using a new type of wet scrubber (pollution control) technology, and then reapplying the fertilizer on the farm.

“Large amounts of ammonia emissions from animal feeding operations have caused significant environmental and health concerns. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimated in 2002 that 2.4 million tons of ammonia were emitted into the air,” said project director Lingying Zhao, an OSU Extension specialist in agricultural air quality and bioenvironmental control. “Meanwhile, soaring natural gas prices have raised questions about the future availability and affordability of nitrogen (N) fertilizer for farming. This project is intended to offer animal producers an innovative tool to reduce air emission impact on the environment while generating an alternative product to commercial nitrogen fertilizer.”

The grant supports four main objectives:

to develop a wet scrubber for trapping ammonia emissions from typical animal manure storage such as deep pits, manure composting facilities or covered manure storage facilities;
to evaluate the performance, maintenance and costs of wet scrubbers on commercial farms to assess their practicality and economic feasibility;
to explore processes to convert the ammonia captured in the wet scrubber into nitrogen fertilizer; and
to educate producers and livestock and poultry professionals on the technology.

Zhao, who also holds an Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center appointment, said that wet scrubber technology is not new, but the type of wet scrubber being used for the purposes of the research is. Most effective wet scrubbers used to remove gaseous pollutants are known as packed towers, in which air pollutant vapors are absorbed by liquids over the surface of packing material.

“Packed towers, however, cause significant pressure drop and energy consumption and don’t operate well with agricultural ventilation fans, which normally move large amounts of air at lower pressures,” Zhao said. “They are used in Europe for smaller farm operations, but when you are talking about large animal facilities with many fans, the cost to install the packed-type wet scrubber does not make the technology feasible.”

Zhao and her colleagues have been focusing on a spray-type of wet scrubber that operates by capturing gas in water/acid liquid droplets normally sprayed in the device. The ammonia gas is transferred to the liquid via air being passed through, and then recycled. Such wet scrubbers are generally used to collect dust particles and not gaseous pollutants, and are of lower efficiency than packed towers.

Researchers are working to improve on the technology and optimize the design to increase the scrubber’s efficiency. They developed a prototype of the scrubber in the lab, collecting 70% to 90% of ammonia emissions depending on the operating conditions, and are now interested in testing the prototype in the field.

“From our results in the lab, we see the potential the scrubber has on an animal farming operation,” Zhao said. “Scrubber technology is complex. What we want to do is create a small-scale scrubber applicable to a farm. If a composting facility generates approximately 100 tons of ammonia annually, and the scrubber is efficient, even at only 70% collection efficiency, 70 tons of ammonia can be collected and recycled for use on the farm.”

The three-year grant is part of USDA’s Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CREES) air quality competitive grants program. USDA has awarded $5 million to 11 universities to conduct air quality projects aimed at developing and evaluating emission control technologies.

— release provided by Ohio State University

High Wheat Prices Require Planning on Producer’s Part

For the first time in many years, things are working for wheat producers — the cost of production is being covered by the expected price with some left over, said a Texas AgriLife Extension Service specialist.

Depending on yields and how conditions hold up for the next month or so, Stan Bevers, AgriLife Extension economist in Vernon, said the breakeven on wheat to cover all costs this year is expected to be around $4.50 per bushel (bu.).

“We’re going to be able to do that this year,” he said. “Even if the price fell some more, we’re talking about making some decent money on the wheat crop.”

Speaking at the Rolling Plains Spring Field Day in Chillicothe, Texas, recently, Bevers said the problem will be with next year’s crop.

“This has been the most expensive wheat crop we have ever produced — until next year,” he said. With higher input prices due to fuel and fertilizer expected this fall, the breakeven for next year will be anywhere from $5.80 per bu. to $7 per bu., Bevers said. But the strong prices producers are seeing this year are not expected to hold up.

“I’m squeamish about going out there and hedging this far out, but we need to be thinking about what we need to be doing for next year,” he said.

Bevers said this year a “perfect storm” created the $10-per-bu. wheat situation. Contributing conditions included a reduction in national wheat acreage, two back-to-back droughts in major exporting countries, U.S. and world wheat stocks at extreme lows, a reduction in the value of the dollar, other crops competing for acreage and index funds pushing commodity prices artificially higher.

“The fact that we have a dollar that is so reduced in value right now benefits agriculture, but from an input cost, the coin is flipped,” he said. “Fuel and fertilizer costs from competitors and other countries are more expensive to us.”

Even with $10-per-bu. wheat, other countries are wanting more U.S. wheat because of the weak dollar, Bevers said, which continues to bring domestic supplies down.

“While wheat production is expected to be up about 4% — we expect to harvest about 58 million acres of wheat this year — exports are also up because of the value of the dollar,” he said. “They can buy a lot more wheat cheaper.”

Bevers said right now, it is anticipated the U.S. will have 242 million bu. of wheat in reserve prior to harvest — the lowest amount since WWII. Also, domestically, there is still massive competition for wheat acres, he said. Some acreage will go to corn, soybeans and potentially cotton.

The rest of the world will be planting more wheat later this year because they don’t want to pay $10 per bu. for the U.S. crop, Bevers said. Computing the 58 million acres of harvest expected with a 40-bu.-per-acre projected average, he said a little stronger dollar also could result in a reduction of exports.

“That could be the difference between $10 wheat and about $6 next year,” Bevers said.

As for the rest of this year, Bevers said he would repeat what he said last year: “Sell it across the scales and don’t look back.”

While the price moved higher following harvest last year, he said several things are different this year.

“With short U.S. and world wheat stocks, and corn and other crops adding support, we know the two combined should get us into the $10 range up to harvest,” Bevers said.

He said a best-case scenario would see July futures at $11 per bu. and the worst case would be about $8 per bu., both well above break-even price this year.