News Update
July 23, 2010

U.S. Cattle on Feed Up 3%

Cattle and calves on feed for slaughter market in the United States for feedlots with capacity of 1,000 or more head totaled 10.1 million head on July 1, 2010. The inventory was 3% above July 1, 2009, figures. The inventory included 6.25 million steers and steer calves, up 4% from the previous year. This group accounted for 62% of the total inventory. Heifers and heifer calves accounted for 3.77 million head, up 1% from 2009 figures.

Placements in feedlots during June totaled 1.63 million, 17% above 2009 figures. Net placements were 1.57 million head. During June, placements of cattle and calves weighing less than 600 pounds (lb.) were 440,000, 600-699 lb. were 300,000, 700-799 lb. were 408,000, and 800 lb. and greater were 480,000.

Marketings of fed cattle during June totaled 2.00 million, slightly above 2009 figures.

Other disappearance totaled 55,000 during June, 4% below 2009 figures.

Cattle on feed July 1, 2010, from all feedlots in the United States totaled 12.0 million, up 3% from the 11.6 million on July 1, 2009. Cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 or more head accounted for 84% of the total cattle on feed on July 1, 2010, down slightly from July 1, 2009, figures.

— Release by USDA.

Cattlemen’s Association Watches for “Death” Tax Legislation

Death and taxes are sure things, but if the Independent Cattlemen’s Association of Texas (ICA) has its way, the pain of “death taxes” will be lessened. The ICA, Texas’ association dedicated to cow-calf producers, is keeping a close watch for a promised legislative amendment that would provide relief on estate, or “death,” taxes that are due to be reintroduced in 2011. Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) in mid-July announced their proposal to reform the estate tax structure.

“Currently, in 2010, there are no estate taxes, but unless pre-emptive action is taken, heirs will carry a heavy tax burden starting in 2011,” said Bill Hyman, ICA executive director. “Heirs will pay a 55% federal tax on estates valued at more than $1 million.”

“Imagine giving the government more than half of what has taken a lifetime to build,” said ICA President Rosalee Coleman of George West. “In today’s economy, it doesn’t take much to have a million dollars in assets, most of which are not in cash. A homeowner who has savings, stocks, bonds or investments; a small business owner with equipment and inventory; a farmer with a few outbuildings, machinery, home and truck; or a rancher with some acreage, cows and facilities — all of these could be worth more than $1 million. In death, heirs not only lose a loved one, but unless they have cash on hand to pay estate taxes, they also could lose the family home, land or business.”

“We are watching with hope after Senators Lincoln and Kyl issued a statement in mid-July, saying their plan would raise the estate exemption threshold to $5 million over 10 years. Furthermore, they propose setting the estate tax rate permanently at 35%,” Hyman said. “We urge voters to contact their legislators to support an overhaul of the estate tax system.”

According to Senator Lincoln’s office, the proposed amendment to H.R. 5297, the Business Lending Bill, is being drafted and will be introduced soon. Information and updates will be posted on Senator Lincoln’s and Kyl’s websites, at www.lincoln.senate.gov and www.kyl.senate.gov, respectively.

“An entire repeal of the estate tax would be most beneficial, but a lower estate tax rate and a higher exemption may be the best we can hope for, as Congress only has a month to take action on this legislation,” Coleman said.

— Release by ICA.

Cargill Serving Up “Steak Art”

Cargill’s Sterling Silver Premium Meats brand is partnering with celebrity chef Michael Giletto at the Kenmore Live Studio to present “Steak Art: The Culinary Palate Exhibit.”

The culinary show, already boasting more than 65,000 online fans, will stream live on Kenmore’s Facebook page (facebook.com/Kenmore) from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Aug. 6, from their kitchen studio in downtown Chicago.

The two-hour segment will feature a live studio audience, a cooking demonstration with Chef Giletto and additional art-related entertainment. Chef Giletto will show the audience how to create three dishes using one cut of meat.

Chef Giletto has made numerous television appearances on such shows as the Food Network’s Iron Chef, Chopped and Ultimate Recipe Showdown. He has also received national recognition from the Pork Board and the National Beef Council.

To complete the artistic theme of the evening, jazz musicians will play and local artists will interpret the event on canvas.

— by Rita Jane Gabbett for Meatingplace.com.

Show-Me-Select Owners Add Heifer Sale for Four-State Region at Saint Joseph, Mo., Stockyards

Owners of Show-Me-Select replacement heifers will add a sale this year, an increase to seven. Producers in northwest Missouri are starting a sale at Saint Joseph, Mo., to attract buyers from the four-state region. 

That new sale will be at the end of the season, Dec. 18, at the Saint Joseph Stockyards, said Jim Humphrey, sale coordinator and University of Missouri (MU) Extension regional livestock specialist at Savannah, Mo. The heifers will be bred to calve next spring.

The sales offer heifers from herds enrolled in the MU Extension educational program for intense management of heifers to improve breeding ease, survivability and quality genetics.

The program is the only statewide heifer development program in the United States. It grew from two pilot programs in southwest and northeast Missouri in 1997, after David Patterson came to MU from the University of Kentucky. Now sales are held for replacements in both spring-calving and fall-calving beef herds.

The heifers are sold with expected calving dates and a guarantee to be bred for 30 days beyond the sale date. All heifers are inspected on arrival at the sale barn by graders from the Missouri Department of Agriculture to assure that they meet quality standards.

The sale dates were announced earlier than usual in a display at the national meeting of the Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) hosted in Columbia, Mo., earlier this year.

To date, heifers have been sold to buyers from 17 states. In Missouri, buyers represent almost every county except for the metropolitan and Bootheel counties.

The sale locations, dates and regional coordinators are:

Southwest: Friday, Nov. 19, 7 p.m., Joplin Regional Stockyards, Carthage, Mo., Eldon Cole, Mount Vernon, colee@missouri.edu, 417-466-3102.

West Central: Saturday, Nov. 27, 11 a.m., Kingsville Livestock Auction, Kingsville, Mo., David Hoffman, Harrisonville, hoffmand@missouri.edu, 816-380-8460.

North Central/Northwest: Saturday, Dec. 4, 1 p.m., Green City Livestock Market, Green City, Mo.; Chris Zumbrunnen, Milan, Mo., zumbrunnenc@missouri.edu, 660-265-4541.

Southeast: Saturday, Dec. 4, 1 p.m., Fruitland Livestock Auction, Fruitland, Mo., Roger Eakins, Jackson, Mo., eakinsr@missouri.edu, 573-243-3581.

Northeast: Saturday, Dec. 11, 12:30 p.m., F&T Livestock Market, Palmyra, Mo., Al Kennett, New London, Mo., kennetta@missouri.edu, 573-985-3911.

South Central: Saturday, Dec. 11, 1 p.m., Wright County Livestock Auction, Mountain Grove, Mo., Ted Cunningham, Salem, Mo., cunninghamtc@missouri.edu, 573-729-3196.

Northwest/North Central: Saturday, Dec. 18, 12:30 p.m., St. Joseph Stockyards, St. Joseph, Mo., Jim Humphrey, Savannah, Mo., humphreyjr@missouri.edu, 816-324-3147.

The sales are conducted by local committees of participating farmers. The statewide program is organized by the not-for-profit corporation Show-Me-Select Replacement Heifers.

Information on the individual sales will be posted online before sale dates at http://agebb.missouri.edu/select/.

Only Show-Me-Select (SMS) heifers enrolled in the program are eligible to wear the black and gold SMS-logo ear tags.

— Release by Judy Burton for University of Missouri Cooperative Media Group.

Silage and Forage Workshop set for July 28 in Farwell

The Texas AgriLife Extension Service office in Parmer County will conduct a free silage and forage workshop starting at 10 a.m. July 28 in the Farwell Community Center. The program is a cooperative effort between AgriLife Extension and New Mexico State University at Clovis.

Speakers will be Monti Vandiver, AgriLife Extension integrated pest management agent for Parmer and Bailey counties, and Mark Marsalis, Extension agronomy specialist at New Mexico State University.

Silage continues to be a very valuable commodity for Parmer and surrounding counties,” said Benji Henderson, AgriLife Extension agent in Parmer County. “It’s an integral part of many of the feed rations used at dairies and feedyards in our area, so the crop continues to be a major commodity produced by many area farmers.”

Henderson said the workshop will include information on pest management and the production of sorghum, corn and small-grain silage.

One Texas Department of Agriculture continuing education unit in the general category will be available for private applicator license holders.

The meeting will conclude with a noon meal sponsored by Southwest Ag Services.

For more information call Henderson at 806-481-3619.

— Release by Steve Byrns for AgNews at TAMU.

More Weigh in on the GIPSA Proposed Rule …

56 Groups Urge GIPSA Not to Extend Comment Period in Proposed Competition Rule 
Fifty-six farm, ranch, consumer and rural organizations sent a joint letter July 19 to J. Dudley Butler, administrator, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA). The letter urges Butler to “deny any requests for an extension of time beyond the original 60-day public comment period established in the proposed rule, ‘Implementation of Regulations Required Under Title XI of the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008; Conduct in Violation of the Act” (Proposed Rule).’ ”

The joint letter states, in part:

“If granted, such an extension of the public comment period would unduly delay implementation of the specific reforms mandated by Congress in the 2008 Farm Bill. In addition, any delay would facilitate the continuation of inappropriate market behavior by dominant market participants in the cattle, swine, sheep and poultry industries. It is our strong conviction that GIPSA must continue to work expeditiously, and without delay, to timely promulgate a final rule after the August 23 public comment deadline for the Proposed Rule. This, we believe, is critical so that we can begin the process of returning to independent livestock and poultry producers a properly functioning, competitive marketplace.

“We firmly believe the 60-day public comment period established in the 17-page Proposed Rule provides ample time to fully assess and evaluate the succinct provisions contained therein. We further believe the provisions contained in the Proposed Rule are tremendously important to the goal of reestablishing equity between disaggregated U.S. livestock and poultry producers and the highly concentrated meatpacking industries.” 

R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard said the joint letter demonstrates widespread support for GIPSA’s proposed rule.

“Rural America has waited for decades for GIPSA to begin meaningful enforcement of the nearly 90-year-old Packers and Stockyards Act established to protect independent farmers and ranchers from unfair and deceptive practices by market-dominating meatpackers,” he said. “This proposed rule is an essential first step in restoring lost competition.”

— Adapted from a news release provided by R-CALF USA.

Statement from NCBA Vice President of Government Affairs Colin Woodall on Livestock Subcommittee Hearing on Farm Bill, GIPSA

“We’re glad to see Congress bringing attention to this serious issue. As evidenced in the bipartisan comments made in yesterday’s (June 20) hearing, USDA has defied the intent of Congress and moved forward on the most sweeping changes to the Packers and Stockyards Act in nearly 100 years — all while making little initial effort to seek feedback from the livestock and poultry industry.

“While USDA officials stressed this is only a ‘proposed rule’ and industry will have the opportunity to provide comments, they have yet to answer our requests to extend the comment period. No matter where you stand on the issue, everyone would benefit from additional time to analyze and provide feedback on this extremely complex rule.

“Even though the proposed regulation targets packers, it’s the producer that will ultimately be hurt. The requirement to report and justify contractual purchases from producers, while being measured on ‘fairness,’ could result in packers responding to the regulation through ‘risk avoidance’ by stopping marketing agreements with producers.

“Marketing agreements have been the foundation for producer financing and producer profitability for more than 60% of beef marketed. Without these agreements, all cattle could be valued on the average, regardless of quality, resulting in a generic market and generic product. History has proven that generic products do not meet consumer demand. Without consumer demand, prices to producers fall.

“The rule poses serious privacy concerns and provides no guarantee that producer’s private information would not be exposed to the general public, including competitors. The rule also places all producers in jeopardy of litigation by their competitors or the government. Opening the cattle markets to trial lawyers is not in the best interest of the marketplace, and we do not support litigation as a means of securing producer profitability.”

To learn more about the proposed rule and its impacts on cattle producers, visit our blog at www.beltwaybeef.com. For more information on the hearing, click here.

— Statement provided by NCBA.

AMI Says News Reports Paint Picture of Heated Hearing on GIPSA Rule

News reports about a House Agriculture Committee hearing June 20 depict heated exchanges between lawmakers and USDA officials, who were challenged repeatedly about the reasoning behind GIPSA’s proposed rule that would dramatically affect how livestock and poultry are marketed.

The proposed rule, published in June, has a 60-day comment period. However, USDA Undersecretary for Marketing Programs Edward Avalos and GIPSA Administrator Dudley Butler faced a unanimous call from lawmakers to extend the comment period.

DTN Reporter Chris Clayton blogged about the hearing, writing that the rules themselves were in jeopardy and that the comment period would most certainly be extended. According to Clayton, the hearing “became a searing bi-partisan criticism of the livestock rules proposed last month” by GIPSA

According to a blog post by Des Moines Register Reporter Phil Brasher, Rep. David Scott (D-GA) said officials went well beyond what Congress intended. “Walter Minnick of Iowa called the regulations ‘silly.’ Rep. Jim Costa, (D-CA) said the rules would be a ‘lawyers’ field day.’ The chairman of the full committee, Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson, (D-MN), worried that the rules would make it harder to continue branded marketing arrangements between farmers and processors,” Brasher wrote.

Feedstuffs writer Sally Schuff said the USDA officials were “blasted” and quoted Rep. Scott’s comment to Avalos and Butler: “For you and the department to arbitrarily go against the wishes and intent of Congress is serious. The least — the least — you can do is to extend the comment period. To move ahead would be the worst thing that we could do for the industry and for America.”

And National Journal writer Jerry Hagstrom’s story “Proposed Livestock Marketing Rule Draws Fire In House” reported that former Agriculture Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte, (R-VA) said Congress might need to block implementation of the rule.

— News release from American Meat Institute.

Meanwhile, the Organization for Competitive Markets Says It’s a Stall Tactic

Meanwhile, describing itself as a nonprofit organization devoted to market fairness for agriculture and consumer food products, the Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) urged USDA to deny requests to extend the comment period. It took direct aim at the AMI stance, calling AMI a lobbying organization of the major meat processing corporations of the United States.

“The issues involved in these proposed rules are not new to AMI. They assuredly don’t need six months to study them. Their views have been known for years; they’re simply stalling,” said OCM president Randy Stevenson.

OCM’s Senior Economics Fellow Robert Taylor and General Counsel David Domina agreed that more time to study the rules is not necessary. “For AMI to invoke ‘equity’ as a reason to delay action is like the fox invoking hunger to be left guarding the henhouse,” Taylor said.

Domina said regulations, which can be read at http://archive.gipsa.usda.gov/rulemaking/fr10/06-22-10.pdf, are designed to balance market power. “The rules do not change the statutory law at all,” he said, calling the suggestion to triple the comment period irresponsible. “During the extended comment time, AMI’s packer members will slaughter 12 million cattle, 35 million hogs, and 1.5 billion chickens. American livestock producers will get less and consumers will pay more as market power is wielded against both of them.”

Fred Stokes, OCM executive director, encouraged producers to read the proposal, noting they are not complicated, lengthy or even surprising. The new proposals are four pages long, he explained in an OCM release. They are explained with examples and a historical description of the problems the new articles address. These are written in language intended for lay people. The rules, themselves, can be read, at pages 13-17 of http://archive.gipsa.usda.gov/rulemaking/ FR10/06-22-10.pdf. Thirteen pages of explanation precede the rules.

Technically, these are proposed Regulations, i.e., they will become part of the Code of Federal Regulations when adopted. As written, the proposed Regs consist of about 4,000 words. These include specific contract language required to be included in contracts to assure producers are informed, and definitions of terms, according to the OCM release.

— Adapted from an OCM news release.

— Compiled by Shauna Rose Hermel, editor, Angus Productions Inc.