News Update

November 17, 2015

U.S. Meat Exports
Disappointing in August

U.S. beef and pork exports struggled in August, remaining below year-ago levels, according to data released by USDA and compiled by the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF). August beef exports totaled 84,167 metric tons (mt), down 18% from a year ago. Beef export value was down 24% to $498 million, the lowest in 18 months. For the first eight months of 2015, exports were down 11% in volume to 703,231 mt and dropped 5% in value to $4.31 billion.

Beef export value per head of fed slaughter has averaged $286.51 this year, up $9.28 from the same period in 2014. Exports accounted for 13% of total production and 10% for muscle cuts, each down about one percentage point from the same period last year.

For U.S. pork, August exports totaled 160,719 mt, down 1% from a year ago, while export value fell 19% to $429.8 million — the lowest monthly value in more than four years. For January through August, exports were down 5% in volume to 1.41 million mt, while value was down 17% to $3.75 billion.

To read more, access the Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA article online.

— Adapted from an article by the U.S. Meat Export Federation.

Distinguish Yourself Among The Competition

Like the Angus breed, Harley-Davidson Motor Co. has Scottish roots. Both entities have gone through some rough patches before enjoying their current success. Ken Schmidt, former director of communications for the company, shared how the motorcycle brand turned itself around to kick off Angus University at the Angus Means Business National Convention & Trade Show Nov. 3-5, 2015, in Overland Park, Kan.

When he joined Harley-Davidson, the motorcycle company had the worst reputation, Schmidt said. The public thought only criminals, drug runners, ruffians, etc., rode Harleys. The media and Hollywood helped to perpetuate the stereotype. Schmidt granted that people have had Harley-Davidson tattooed on their bodies since World War II, so people knew about the brand, but they didn’t like the image.

He asked three main questions to evaluate a brand’s relevance: “What are people important to us saying about us? What do we want them to say? How do we get them to say it?”

Read more in the Newsroom at www.angusconvention.com.

— Adapted from a summary by Kasey Brown, Angus Media.

R-CALF USA Comments on Free Trade Agreements

In testimony before the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard stated the impacts of the Uruguay Round Agreements and the free trade agreements (FTAs) the United States has entered with 20 countries are negative for both the U.S. cattle industry and the U.S. sheep industry.

Earlier this year Congress passed the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015, also known as trade promotion authority (TPA) or fast track authority. The legislation requires the ITC to submit two reports to Congress on the impacts that trade agreements implemented under trade authorities procedures since 1984 have had on the U.S. economy. The first report to the House Committee on Ways and Means and the Senate Committee on Finance is due by June 29, 2016, and the second by June 29, 2020.

For more information, please view the full R-CALF news release online.

— Adapted from a release by R-CALF USA.

Fresh Produce for Low-Income Families

In an effort to increase the quantity of fresh, locally grown produce available to low income families in northern Nevada, the University of Nevada, Reno’s Desert Farming Initiative and Catholic Charities of Northern Nevada will soon break ground on a 2,600-square-foot hoop house that will produce vegetables year-round for the St. Vincent’s poverty programs and other services offered by Catholic Charities of Northern Nevada.

The new hoop house will be assembled this month at the Nevada Agricultural Experiment Station’s Main Station Field Laboratory in east Reno on McCarran Boulevard at Mill Street. This will be the first production hoop house built at that location.

“We are so excited to partner with Catholic Charities to build this hoop house and increase our opportunities for year-round production of fresh fruits and vegetables to the local community,” said Jennifer Ott, Desert Farming Initiative director.

For more information, please view the full release online.

— Adapted from a release by the University of Nevada, Reno.

New Agriculture Building on Texas A&M Campus

Texas A&M University’s West Campus in College Station is getting a little wilder with the start of a fourth building in the Agriculture and Life Sciences Complex on John Kimbrough Blvd. near Reed Arena.

Texas A&M University System officials celebrated breaking ground for the Wildlife, Fisheries and Ecological Sciences Building on Nov. 13. When finished in June 2017, the building will complete the modern, four-building complex, which includes the Agriculture and Life Sciences Building, the AgriLife Center, and the AgriLife Services Building. Those three buildings were completed in 2011-12.

The complex, which joins seven existing agriculture and life sciences buildings on the West Campus, are reminiscent of the original Main Campus of Texas A&M where agriculture formed the nucleus of structures around the East Gate, according to Mark Hussey, vice chancellor and dean of agriculture and life sciences.

For more information, please view the full release online.

— Adapted from a release by Kathleen Phillips, AgriLife Communications-Texas.

— Compiled by Paige Nelson, field editor, Angus Journal.