News Update
September 11, 2015
Results Reflect Tough Climate
for U.S. Meat Exports
June export data, released by USDA and compiled by the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF), reflected a challenging first half of 2015 for U.S. pork, beef and lamb exports.
June pork exports totaled 174,554 metric tons (mt), down 4% from a year ago. With pork prices down significantly from last year’s high levels, June export value fell 22% year-over-year to $454 million. For the first half of 2015, pork exports were down 5% in volume (1.09 million mt) and 16% in value ($2.88 billion).
Beef export volume in June was down 8% from a year ago to 96,716 mt, while export value fell 9% to $578.9 million. This was the second consecutive month that export value fell below last year’s level, resulting in first-half value being steady with 2014’s pace at $3.26 billion. First-half volume was down 10% to 527,109 mt.
“We were aware that exports would be facing obstacles in 2015 and that keeping pace with last year’s record performance would be difficult,” said Philip Seng, USMEF president and CEO.
For more information, please view the full Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA article.
New Maps Shows Expansion of Wildland-Urban Interface
A new U.S. Forest Service report shows the continued expansion of housing development near forests, an area referred to as the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI), with direct implications for the cost of wildfire fighting. Increasing densities of people and infrastructure in the WUI makes wildfire management more complex and requires more firefighting assets to ensure an appropriate, safe and effective response, which in turn drives up the cost of fighting wildfires.
Expansion of the WUI has direct implications for wildfire management as more of the Forest Service’s resources are spent each year to provide the firefighters, aircraft and other assets necessary to protect lives, property and natural resources in the wildland urban interface regions. In addition, overall fire seasons have grown longer, and the frequency, size and severity of wildland fires has increased.
For more information, please view the full USDA release.
R-CALF USA Urges Updates to Price Reporting Act
On Sept. 10, R-CALF USA submitted a white paper to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry (Committee) urging them to update the soon-to-expire Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act (Act).
Originally passed in 1999, the Act was a response to the increasing concentration in livestock markets that resulted in fewer animals being sold in the price discovery market, also known as the cash or spot market. Increased market concentration brought with it new livestock procurement methods that significantly reduced marketplace transparency. Using new procurement methods, the concentrated packers in the 1990s began shifting large volumes of livestock away from the more public cash market and into more private marketing agreements, making actual sale prices difficult to discern.
The limited pricing information flowing from the concentrated packers placed farmers and ranchers who wanted to sell their livestock at a distinct disadvantage: The packers knew what the fair market value of livestock was at any given time, but livestock sellers did not.
To equalize this imbalance in market information, the Act requires packers to report prices paid for cattle twice daily along with other details of their cattle procurement transactions.
For more information, please view the full R-Calf release.
Good Neighbors
It’s part of “The Code of the West” … or the East, North or South, for that matter. Like hospitality, fair play, loyalty and respect for the land, most cattle folk rank neighborliness among their unwritten rules of personal conduct. While they tend to be of the independent and self-reliant sort, cattle producers usually see value in being on friendly terms with their neighbors.
We asked representatives of different kinds of cattle operations, located in different parts of the country, to explain what they think it takes to be a good neighbor. They graciously agreed to tell about their efforts to maintain neighborly relations with other area farmers and ranchers, as well as the nonagricultural people residing in their respective communities.
“We have wonderful neighbors,” states Abbie Nelson, whose family operates registered- and commercial-Angus cattle in increasingly suburban Sacramento County. Theirs is one of the few working ranches remaining in an area where most residents live on small acreages.
For more information, please view the full Angus Journal article online.
‘Meat Your Beef’ with Stew Leonard’s
On Aug. 11, the National Beef Checkoff Program partnered with the South Dakota Beef Industry Council (SDBIC) to host a “Meat Your Beef” immersion event at Walbridge Farms in Millbrook, N.Y., for the corporate staff and meat department of Stew Leonard’s, a regional retail chain based in Norwalk, Conn.
A tour of the Walbridge Farm provided participants with a unique opportunity to see a modern-day working beef farm in the region from pasture to plate. Walbridge finishes all of the calves born on the farm for later sale in its on-farm retail meat market. Walbridge also markets high-quality genetics through their sales of live cattle and embryos.
Walbridge is a 225-head registered-Angus farm owned by Doug and Cheryl Giles and their two sons. Doug Giles is a seventh-generation farmer and plans to keep the farm family-focused.
President and CEO of Stew Leonard’s, Stew Leonard Jr. says the event was a positive experience.
“We visit a lot of farms. We were really impressed with Doug and Cheryl at Walbridge Farms for their passion in raising great cattle,” he says. “The cattle are treated very well.”
For more information, please view the full Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA article.
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