News Update
July 30, 2009

Cattle Futures Continue Struggle

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) August live cattle futures were down Wednesday 98 points and all other contracts posted a decline from Tuesday, according to the CME “Daily Livestock Report.”

Although feedlot inventories remain tight, demand is lackluster and complicated by a steady decline in grain prices and a more bearish outlook for feed costs in the short- to medium-term, according to the report.

Poor performance of U.S. beef exports in late June and early July will also likely negatively impact demand and the outlook for the fall beef market. Exports of fresh and frozen beef cuts for the week ending July 16 were 23% lower than a year ago based on shipped weight, thanks in part to disappointing sales in South Korea, the report noted.

Cattle Sold at Auction with Carbon Credits Represents New System for Food Production

Integrated Management Information, Inc. (IMI Global), a provider of verification solutions in the agricultural/livestock industry, today announced the first cattle sold at auction under the company’s new VerifiedGreen™ program — a verification system the company says is designed to reduce a ranch’s carbon footprint.

The cattle auction, which took place Monday on Superior Livestock Video in Winnemucca, Nev., featured animals assigned a specific number of carbon credits. Buyers of the cattle — typically feedyards — paid the owner, Mayfield Ranch of Hidalgo, N.M., one price for both the cattle purchased at auction and the carbon credits associated with the sustainable activities of the ranch.

Butch Mayfield, owner of Mayfield Ranch, said, “We are very excited to be participating in the carbon market with IMI Global and VerifiedGreen. It has been hard to determine the actual value of carbon credits, but this program ensures the benefit of our credits will stay in the beef industry and not be sold to benefit another industry. One group of the cattle we sold brought $1.36 per pound and topped the market that day, so we are very pleased with the results.”

The VerifiedGreen solution was developed by IMI Global to address sustainability programs such as the initiative recently introduced by Walmart, which will develop a Sustainability Product Index to encourage its suppliers to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and embrace environmentally sound production practices.

Under the VerifiedGreen program, farmers and ranchers who employ environmentally sustainable production processes can have their operations verified “green” by IMI Global’s auditors, making them eligible to market their animals with carbon credits attached.

The quantity of carbon credits attached to each calf is determined independently for each ranch based on the carbon sequestration rate of the land where the cattle were born and raised.  The company expects the program to “appeal to forward-thinking producers who are both environmentally conscious and looking for a unique method of capturing value from the carbon market.”

“The benefit of marketing carbon credits attached to cattle or other commodities is that it simplifies the process for farmers and ranchers,” said John Saunders, CEO of IMI Global. “Instead of having to develop new markets and customers for the credits they have to sell, farmers and ranchers can provide additional value to their current customers already buying the cattle. As cattle move through the production process, subsequent owners will be able to “bank” these credits and offset their own emissions. Eventually, consumers who buy the sustainably produced food products at retail will be the primary drivers pulling these products through the process."

VerifiedGreen encourages farmers and ranchers to adopt, maintain and/or enhance environmentally sustainable production processes with reduced carbon output. These practices can include a wide variety of initiatives ranging from improving grazing programs that foster CO2 sequestration and forage quality to wind and solar energy systems; to earth-friendly feed; to biodigesters that recover methane from manure to reduce emissions and produce electricity, heat and hot water for operations.  IMI Global’s role is to verify that its customers are implementing and sustaining such progressive practices, ensuring that the products they are producing are truly “green.” Visit www.IMIGlobal.com for additional information.

— Adapted from a release provided by IMI Global.

Deadline approaching for Stockmen’s disaster relief applications

Livestock producers have only a few more days to apply for disaster relief funds from the North Dakota Stockmen’s Association (NDSA) and the North Dakota Stockmen’s Foundation (NDSF). The organizations are distributing cash to folks whose fences, facilities and infrastructure were damaged or destroyed during winter 2008 through spring 2009. Applications must be postmarked by or before Aug. 1.

“The application form is only two pages long and is simple to fill out, so there’s still time to apply,” said NDSA and NDSF President Jack Reich, a Zap, N.D., rancher.

Forms are available at www.ndstockmen.org or by calling 701-223-2522.

Applicants will be asked to provide their contact information and to describe their operation; the impact of the 2009 winter and spring storms on it; an estimate of the damage to fences, facilities and other infrastructure; the repair that has been and that will need to be completed; and the assistance already received and that is anticipated to be received. Related receipts, photographs or other documentation to verify losses, as well as the name and phone number of an unrelated third-party who could attest to the losses, should also be included. Losses must have occurred between Nov. 1, 2008, and April 30, 2009.
Completed and signed applications should be sent to the North Dakota Stockmen's Foundation, 407 S. Second St., Bismarck, ND  58504, by Aug. 1 for consideration.

The applications will be reviewed by a special NDSF committee comprised of members from across the state. Assistance will be awarded based on need and available funds.

The disaster relief fund was established by the National Cattlemen’s Foundation (NCF) and built with the generous contributions of donors from seven states.

— Release provided by NDSA.

House Revising Failed Food Safety Bill

Yesterday the House of Representatives considered H.R. 2749, the “Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009” under suspension of the rules, which requires a two-thirds approval.  According to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), the bill did not receive two-thirds of the vote and, therefore, did not pass the House.

According to NCBA, original language in the bill needed to be strengthened to ensure the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would not be granted the authority to inspect livestock on farms nor additional authorities that are currently the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The House Committee agreed and added language exempting livestock from the “FDA-focused” bill.

Prior to failing the full House the bill was criticized for not addressing all concerns and needing some additional work on several of the provisions, NCBA reports. The bill is expected to now undergo revision and may resurface by the end of the week.

Foreign Mosquitoes Invading U.S., Presenting New Health Threats

Being a stowaway is risky, but people don’t often think of stowaways posing a risk to the health of an entire nation. But since 1986, one professor at Colorado State University (CSU) has quietly kept a database of incidents of the worst kind of stowaways — mosquitoes — in an effort to ensure that new diseases don’t become a threat to the United States.

The database monitors invasions of mosquitoes, often the result of the tiny insect stowing away on imported goods. It may not sound like a significant job until one considers the perspective that mosquitoes infect one billion people and countless animals around the globe each year with diseases and cause millions of deaths. There are more than 3,000 varieties of mosquitoes in the world. Only about 150 of them are native to the United States, yet only a few species carry and transmit certain infectious diseases, and an invasion of non-native mosquitoes can open up a new population to an infectious disease that hasn’t been established in that area or country before.

“The introduction of a new variety of mosquito into any population of humans and animals can pose a significant health threat because they may introduce a new disease or strain of a disease,” said Chester Moore, an infectious disease researcher at CSU who maintains the database. “As disease vectors, mosquitoes have the ability to significantly change the health or health threats to a community — much as we’ve seen with the slow advancement of mosquito-transmitted West Nile virus (WNV) across the United States. Until 1999 when it was introduced into the United States, Americans thought of the disease as one found in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.”

It’s not hard for a mosquito to invade new territory in today’s global society. For example, about 10 years ago the Asian tiger mosquito — technically known as the Aedes albopictus — caught a ride on some lucky bamboo imported into the Los Angeles area and infested shipping ports and local florist shops. It’s not the first time the insect has invaded; since 1984, the Asian tiger also has been discovered in 25 states, including Colorado, Texas, Chicago, Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana, Nebraska and Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia. In 1994, it was documented in all counties of Georgia, Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee, and it’s now well established in the South. It carries an exceptional number of diseases for a mosquito species including Chikungunya fever, dengue fever, Saint Louis encephalitis, yellow fever, Cache Valley virus and West Nile virus, and dog heartworm.

Moore, a professor in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology at CSU began tracking the invasion of mosquitoes while working at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and brought the work with him when he began researching vector diseases at CSU in 2003. Moore is contacted when an official discovers and confirms a foreign mosquito in the United States. While most invaders don’t survive, some become established only in a small area, but their population can explode if the conditions change in their favor, as evidenced by the Asian tiger and the Aedes aegypti, the yellow fever mosquito. Several invading species, including the Asian tiger and the yellow fever mosquito, lay eggs that can survive winter conditions to hatch in the spring. These eggs also survive drying, which makes it easier for them to be carried around the world on tires, lucky bamboo and other plants and other surfaces.

The Aedes aegypti, which spreads yellow fever and dengue, or breakbone fever, was most likely the first stowaway to the Americas. It is native to Africa and scientists believe that it was brought to America through slave trade in the 1500s. In 1501, the Spanish crown authorized Nicolás de Ovando, at that time the governor of the Indies, to begin importing African slaves. From its initial introduction into the Caribbean, the yellow fever mosquito spread rapidly via the Spanish shipping routes, according to Moore. It quickly colonized Central and South America, Mexico and the coastal regions of the United States. At one point, it extended as far north as Philadelphia and Boston during the summers. Benjamin Rush, a physician and signer of the Declaration of Independence, described a dengue epidemic in Philadelphia in the late 1700s. Scientists now know it was transmitted by this mosquito. It remains an important mosquito, in terms of human and animal health, and is a focus of Moore’s monitoring work. Today it is mostly found only in the southern regions of the United States.

Another significant invader is the Ochlerotatus japonicus, which was first introduced into New Jersey and New York among scrap tires imported from Asia.

While less than 10 foreign varieties of mosquitoes have been documented in the United States since Moore started maintaining the database, he and others have noticed other invasions, and he now tracks ticks and other disease vectors moving into the country. Moore also tracks how mosquitoes indigenous to regions within the United States are expanding their territory.

“Several indigenous mosquito species are changing their distribution across the states if you look at patterns from the last 30 years,” Moore said. His database has documented several species on the move, becoming established in new areas. The species are moving in a different direction — some toward the south, some northward and some eastward.

The reason for the movement remains a mystery.

“If you look at old distribution maps from the 1950s and 1960s for the Culex coronator, you’ll see they once were only found in the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Now, they’ve moved across the Gulf States into Florida and the Carolinas — they’ve really moved around. I’ve been looking at the distribution to see if global warming has caused the changes, but we just had an e-mail from someone in the Minnesota who found a Canadian species of mosquito — so that species is moving south. We need to do a lot more work before we can answer questions about why mosquitoes are moving around so much.

“Increased international commerce and travel will likely lead to more introductions,” Moore said. “And there are multiple paths of introduction. The fact that a species is not an important vector in its native environment does not mean it will not be a vector in a new environment.”

It’s appropriate that, given the work in tracking foreign invasions of mosquitoes, Moore has a significant role in tracking the presence of West Nile virus in the community. He runs the laboratory at CSU that tests all mosquitoes gathered in Larimer County for the virus. Thousands of mosquitoes are caught around the city and the two known to carry WNV are sorted out and brought to Moore’s laboratory. Each week a newly captured batch is tested for the West Nile virus by lab technician Kamiey Price.

This year, Price and Moore have encountered a low number of WNV-positive mosquitoes, although that number will likely grow significantly with the warming weather and decline in rain. In spite of the recent rains, Moore anticipates that it will still be a year with a low level of transmission of the virus to people and animals because cooler weather slows down the development of the virus. Next year could be a different story, depending upon the weather conditions.

— Release provided by CSU.

— Compiled by Crystal Albers, associate editor, Angus Productions Inc.