June 16, 2017
CapitalPress.com
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Rising
prices, trade
prospects
buoy
cattlemen
By KATY NESBITT
For the Capital Press
PENDLETON, Ore. —
Spirits were high at the Ore-
gon Cattlemen’s Association
spring quarterly meeting in
Pendleton at the beginning of
June with hope of rising beef
prices and improved trade
agreements.
The meeting, held May
31-June 2 at the Wild Horse
Casino, had twice the at-
tendance as the Cattlemen’s
spring quarterly meeting in
Sunriver, said Jerome Rosa,
Cattlemen’s executive direc-
tor, with about 150 in atten-
dance.
“Everyone was really hap-
py with the discussions and
the positive tone,” Rosa said.
Colin Woodall, vice presi-
dent of government affairs for
the National Cattlemen’s Beef
Association spoke Thursday
about favorable develop-
ments on the federal level.
Rosa said, “There is great
optimism going on in D.C. for
the cattle industry.”
Much of that optimism
centered on trade negotiations
the Trump administration be-
gan with China in May that
could benefit the U.S. cattle
industry by opening up a mar-
ket closed since 2003.
Another rallying point for
the cattlemen was the culmi-
nation of lengthy conversa-
tions surrounding a proposal
to sue the U.S. Fish and Wild-
life Service for not complet-
ing its environmental assess-
ment to remove endangered
species protection of the gray
wolf in the lower 48 states.
Before the meeting ended a
vote was taken to proceed
with litigation, Rosa said.
This winter and spring’s
precipitation was a boon to
Oregon cattlemen, another
reason Rosa credited for the
meeting’s upbeat tone.
“We’ve had a really good
water year, the grass is green
and there is a lot of feed out
there.”
Hosting the meeting on the
east side of the Cascades gave
the Cattlemen an opportunity
to introduce Alexis Taylor,
the recently appointed direc-
tor of Oregon Department of
Agriculture, to the divergent
terrain and climate of East-
ern Oregon. After she spoke
to the Cattlemen Wednesday,
Curtis Martin, a Baker Coun-
ty rancher and chairman of
the group’s water resources
committee, took Taylor and
two of her staff members on
a tour of Eastern Oregon that
included visiting irrigation
reservoirs, a solar powered
trough system and pressur-
ized pipelines that run with-
out electricity.
“We wanted to show
her all the complexities
of how we manage wa-
ter on the east side of the
state,” Martin said.
Martin said he showed
Taylor and her staff examples
of rotational grazing and how
cattlemen are taking a holis-
tic approach to sage steppe
ecosystem management —
such as enhancing the wet-
ter areas of the desert where
vegetation stays green longer
than the rest of the range to
improve sage grouse habitat.
“We wanted her to come
and see how different this
side of Oregon is, walk the
ground and see the natural
resource we manage to make
ourselves economically via-
ble and sustainable,” Martin
said.
One of the wildlife topics
discussed at the cattlemen’s
meeting that is affecting pro-
ducers around the state is
crops and haystack damage
caused by deer and elk. Bill
Moore lives in southern Bak-
er County and represents the
cattlemen in wildlife stake-
holder meetings.
“We’ve had collaborative
meetings with Oregon De-
partment of Fish and Wildlife
and Oregon Hunters Associ-
ation and we are just a long
ways apart,” Moore said.
11
Dairy/Livestock
Export picture brightens for U.S. dairy
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Lower milk production in
other exporting countries and
higher world prices for dairy
products — which make U.S.
products more competitive —
are giving U.S. exporters bet-
ter leverage in world markets.
U.S. dairy exports in April
topped year-ago levels for the
11th consecutive month, with
gains in most product catego-
ries and to most major desti-
nations, according to the lat-
est U.S. Dairy Export Council
report.
Exporters shipped 162,441
tons of milk powder, cheese,
butterfat, whey and lactose in
April, up 12 percent from a
year ago. Those sales totaled
$461 million, up 23 percent
from April 2016.
The two main categories
driving the increase are nonfat
dry milk/skim milk powders
and whey, said Alan Levitt,
USDEC market analyst.
The top market was Mex-
ico, which imported $103.2
U.S. dairy exports, April
Product
Nonfat dry milk/
skim milk powder*
Whole milk powder*
Cheese
Butterfat
Total whey
Lactose
Milk protein concentrate
Aggregate
Milk/cream (liters)
Total value † ($ millions)
Exports (metric tons)
2016
2017
Percent
change
51,131
55,555
8.7%
1,904
21,171
1,314
39,086
28,180
2,083
144,868
7,218
$374.5
2,181
26,876
1,706
43,294
30,854
1,975
162,441
8,519
$460.7
14.5
27
30
10.8
9.5
-5.2
12.1
18
23
*USDA data adjusted to reflect shipments to Mexico misclassified as WMP.
† Total value includes fluid milk/cream and additional products to those listed.
Source: USDA, U.S. Dairy Export Council
million in U.S. dairy prod-
ucts in April, up 9 percent
from a year earlier. Southeast
Asia followed, with sales 23
percent higher to $68.3 mil-
lion. Sales to Canada grew 2
percent to $53.1 million, and
sales to China were up 91 per-
cent to $47.7 million.
Some of the large increas-
es are due to weak compara-
Capital Press graphic
bles in 2016, Levitt said.
“We’re still not back up to
where we were in 2014 when
sales peaked,” he said.
U.S. cheese exports have
picked up lately, increasing 15
percent from January through
April, and that’s certainly
a positive. Fluid milk ship-
ments are up 14 percent in the
same time period, he said.
Total exports, excluding
milk and cream, were up 13
percent in volume to 624,339
metric tons and 18 percent in
value to $1.8 billion from Jan-
uary through April.
Part of the reason for the
gains is that world prices in-
creased in the second half of
2016, and U.S. prices have
become more competitive.
Those increased prices are
due to significant reductions
in milk production in other
countries. In the fourth quar-
ter of 2016, milk production
was down 3.4 percent in the
EU, 7.6 percent in Australia
and 4.3 percent in New Zea-
land, Levitt said.
“So our competitors hav-
en’t had as much (product) to
sell. The U.S. is the only ex-
porter increasing production
over the last year and a half,”
he said.
U.S. milk production was
up 2.5 percent in the last quar-
ter of 2016, he said.
World prices have been
relatively soft the last two to
three years due to a higher
global milk supply and buyers
had been lulled into not buy-
ing ahead. But the EU didn’t
have the spring flush in milk
production it was hoping for,
which led to a “feeding fren-
zy” in the last month or two
— particularly for butterfat,
which pulled up prices for ev-
erything, he said.
He doesn’t know how sus-
tainable current world pric-
es are, however, and thinks
they’ll pull back by the third
quarter, he said.
Looking ahead for the
U.S., “pricing relationships
can determine who gets
what,” he said.
World butter prices are
record high, but U.S. butter
mostly goes to domestic de-
mand. U.S. cheese prices are
competitive relative to every-
one else because Oceania and
EU prices keep moving up.
And the U.S. is in good shape
in regard to whey and milk
powders, he said.
“I think we’re going to
have a pretty good year,” he
said.
U.S. meat exports slower
but still solid in April
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, left, and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue speak about farm
and natural resource issues June 2 at Boise State University. Ranchers who met privately with them
say they are encouraged that public land will be better managed.
Idaho ranchers say they’re
impressed with Perdue, Zinke
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Idaho cattle producers say
they are optimistic the Trump
administration will get federal
agencies back on track for sus-
tainable land management after
meeting with USDA Secretary
Sonny Perdue and Interior
Secretary Ryan Zinke late last
week.
“The message I walked
away with is that both are inter-
ested in managing public land
better. There might be more
actual management than in the
last few years,” said Tucker
Shaw, incoming Idaho Cat-
tle Association president and
a purebred cow-calf operator
near Caldwell.
With the sue-and-settle
atmosphere surrounding the
federal Bureau of Land Man-
agement and the U.S. Forest
Service, agency employees
haven’t been willing to “go out
on a limb very far” on creative
ways to manage land, he said.
The BLM is in the Interi-
or Department, and the Forest
Service is in the USDA.
Fears of getting sued have
led to problems and are part
of the reason wildfires have
increased significantly in size
and intensity, he said. Forest
Service lands aren’t being man-
aged or logged or cleared of
diseased timber, and BLM land
isn’t being grazed. That’s led to
fuel loads that feed catastrophic
wildfires, he said.
The key message from
both Zinke and Purdue was in-
creased collaboration between
the agencies because there are a
lot of crossover issues, such as
endangered species and wild-
fire mitigation, he said.
“I don’t believe it’s just talk.
I get the feeling they’re very
sincere about managing lands
and working with farmers and
ranchers,” he said.
But they’ve got a lot of
work to do and a lot of chal-
lenges getting their people in
place with the opposition party
trying to drag them in a differ-
ent direction, he said.
They both have similar
views that fall in line with the
entire Trump administration’s
intention to be active and ag-
gressively manage, he said.
“They are interested in man-
aging things rather than sitting
back and letting nature take its
course,” he said.
An ICA press release fol-
lowing the meeting focused on
the agencies’ focus on collabo-
ration.
It quoted Zinke as saying,
“Collaboration needs to include
all stakeholders at the begin-
ning to mitigate lawsuits at the
end.”
Zinke said the Department
of the Interior will no longer
make decisions to skirt lawsuits
but will make the best decisions
and deal with the lawsuits that
come, ICA reported.
Perdue echoed that message,
saying one of the first priorities
is to improve and strengthen
interagency relationships and
change the way the agencies do
business, ICA reported.
“It was an amazing experi-
ence to be in a small setting with
those two people,” Shaw said.
Both were down-to-earth
and personable, he said.
ICA President Jerald Ray-
mond was unable to attend the
meeting but said, “It’s really
wonderful to have people in top
leadership positions who under-
stand our industry and our busi-
ness.”
“We’re extremely optimistic
about working with this admin-
istration to keep livestock pro-
duction viable,” he said.
U.S. exports of beef and
pork moderated in April from
March but were still signifi-
cantly higher year over year,
according to the U.S. Meat Ex-
port Federation.
At 99,786 metric tons, val-
ued at $550.4 million, beef ex-
ports were down 5.2 percent in
volume and 6.4 percent in val-
ue from March. But they were
up 13 percent in volume and
14 percent in value from April
2016.
Pork exports, at 203,864
metric tons, were valued at
$517.5 million and were down
10.9 percent in volume and
11.8 percent in value from re-
cord-breaking levels in March.
But they set a record for April
in volume, up 8 percent from a
year ago, and were up 11 per-
cent in value from April 2016.
“While April was a very
solid month for U.S. red meat
exports, we remain in an ex-
tremely competitive situation
across the world and must stay
aggressive with our market-
ing efforts,” said Philip Seng,
USMEF president and CEO,
in a press release accompany-
ing the latest export data from
USDA.
Beef exports in April ac-
counted for 13.6 percent of
U.S. production at an export
value of $283.52 per head of
slaughtered fed cattle. That
value is up 12 percent from a
year ago and the highest yet
this year.
Pork exports in April ac-
counted for 28.4 percent of to-
tal U.S. pork production at an
export value of $55.39, up 11
percent from the value a year
ago.
“It is especially gratifying to
see our per-head return grow-
ing in 2017, even as slaughter
numbers are on the rise. But
this is also not lost on our com-
petitors, who will quickly fill
the void if we do not defend our
market share,” Seng said.
Japan continued to be the
bright star for U.S. beef trade,
driven by surging imports of
U.S. chilled beef. U.S. market
share grew to 52 percent of Ja-
pan’s chilled imports January
File photo
Philip Seng, president and
CEO of the U.S. Meat Export
Federation
through April, up from 39 per-
cent a year earlier.
Through April, U.S. chilled
beef to Japan increased 48 per-
cent year over year to 45,295
metric tons valued at $320 mil-
lion, up 43 percent.
The heightened demand
indicates widespread accep-
tance and a growing range of
U.S. cuts available in both the
retail and food service sectors,
USMEF reported.
Total beef exports to Japan
in April increased 15 percent
year over year in volume to
23,540 metric tons and 17 per-
cent in value to $143.3 million.
Through April, U.S. beef ex-
ports to Japan are up 34 percent
in volume to 97,951 metric
tons and 35 percent in value to
$320 million.
Mexico continues to lead
the way for U.S. pork exports,
with April exports up 10 per-
cent year over year in volume
to 58,828 metric tons and up
12 percent in value to $104.7
million — marking the 12th
consecutive month of sales in
excess of $100 million.
Through April, U.S. pork
exports to Mexico were 24 per-
cent higher than a year earlier
in volume to 265,090 metric
tons and 34 percent higher in
value to $476.6 million.
U.S. lamb exports, however,
slumped in April with volume
down 23 percent to 493 metric
tons and value falling 19 per-
cent to $1.3 million. Through
April, those exports are down
25 percent year over year in
volume to 2,479 metric tons
but were up 3 percent in value
to $6.3 million.
Cheese prices slump; butter recovers with highest price since December 2015
By LEE MIELKE
For the Capital Press
D
airy prices slumped
the first full week of
June Dairy Month,
even on butter, as plenty of
product made its way to Chi-
cago. Traders awaited Fri-
day morning’s World Agri-
cultural Supply and Demand
Estimates report.
Cheddar block cheese
closed Friday at $1.63 per
pound, down 7 cents on the
week but still 15 1/2-cents
above a year ago. The blocks
were unchanged Monday
and Tuesday, with no activ-
ity.
The barrels finished Fri-
day at $1.4150, down 7
Dairy
Markets
Lee Mielke
1/2-cents, 9 1/2-cents below
a year ago, and still at a too-
high 21 1/2-cents below the
blocks.
Twelve cars of block
traded hands on the week
and 49 of barrel. The bar-
rels were also unchanged
Monday and Tuesday, de-
spite 11 cars being sold
Tuesday.
Milk availability for
Central cheesemakers was
mixed last week, according
to Dairy Market News. Some
reported continued abundant
supplies, others reported no-
ticeably fewer offers with
milk spots reported $2.50-$6
under class.
After weeks of generally
strong cheese sales, Mid-
west producers reported that
demand slackened after Me-
morial Day weekend. Inven-
tory reports vary. Some piz-
za cheese producers report
light inventories in recent
weeks, as strong demand has
dipped into stored cheese,
but the cheese market tone is
“uncertain.”
Western cheese output
is active and many facili-
ties are running at or near
full capacity due to readily
available milk. Domestic
retail demand remains good
and some manufacturers
are getting more inquiries
from export buyers, but this
business has yet to fully
develop. Contacts suggest
that the current block/barrel
price spread is “putting a lot
of price pressure on barrel
cheese producers.”
Cash butter made it to
$2.5250 June 6, then sput-
tered and closed Friday at
$2.4750, down a penny on
the week but 27 1/2-cents
above a year ago. Thir-
ty-seven cars traded hands
last week.
The butter price gained
3 1/2-cents Monday and shot
up 7 cents Tuesday, to $2.58,
the highest price since Dec.
9, 2015.
DMN says retail and food
service butter demand re-
mains steady to strong and
international interests have
increased.
Western butter output
is following typical sea-
sonal patterns. Retail but-
ter demand is strong but
contacts are watching ex-
tended weather forecasts
closely.
Grade A nonfat dry milk
fell to 90 3/4-cents per
pound Friday, down 4 cents
on the week but 7 3/4-cents
above a year ago, with 24 cars
finding new homes on the
week.
It gave up three-quarter
cents Monday and held there
Tuesday, at 90 cents.