16 CapitalPress.com
January 8, 2016
Dairy/Livestock
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Well-managed grazing
improves wildlife habitat
By DOUG WARNOCK
While visiting a museum of
natural history recently, I saw a
statement in a display there in-
dicating that farming and live-
stock grazing had diminished
wildlife habitat.
This is one of those all-en-
compassing statements that is
not necessarily true. Just be-
cause crops are being produced
and livestock being raised
doesn’t mean that wildlife hab-
itat is being harmed or reduced.
Agricultural activities can be
used to improve wildlife habi-
tat. Whether habitat is impacted
positively or negatively depends
on the management practiced by
the humans in charge.
A holistic approach to land
management will include ac-
tions to ensure that wildlife hab-
itat is sustained and enhanced.
There are a number of peer-re-
viewed research projects that
illustrate this. The Fleecer Co-
ordinated Grazing Program con-
ducted in Montana shows the
EHQH¿WV RI FROODERUDWLYH PDQ-
agement for both elk and cattle.
The Fleecer project was con-
ducted on both public and pri-
vate land, including 9,920 acres
of U.S. Forest Service property,
4,160 acres of Montana Depart-
ment of Fish, Wildlife and Parks
property and 2,490 acres of pri-
Greener
Pastures
By BRET YAGER
By LEE MIELKE
Doug Warnock
For the Capital Press
vate land. A coordinated grazing
plan was developed for the land,
which included 12 total pastures
under the three ownerships.
Cattle were rotated among the
pastures and seasons, using a
rest-rotation approach to condi-
tion the forage for the elk.
Results of this project:
• Elk numbers increased by
300 head, a 37.5 percent in-
crease, due to the improved for-
age quantity and quality.
• Cattle grazing was en-
hanced.
• Monitoring data indicated
that rangeland and soil condi-
tions improved.
• Including all ownerships al-
lowed the entire winter elk range
to be managed as a single unit.
The Bridge Creek Wildlife
Management Area in North-
eastern Oregon was the site of
a planned grazing study, whose
purpose was to enhance winter
elk forage. It resulted in a ten-
fold — 1,000 percent — increase
in elk use over a 10-year period.
Concurrent with the upward
trend in elk use was an increase
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improvement in ecological con-
dition.
2-4/#7
For the Capital Press
slaughter unit
Dairy prices end Mobile
designed for Hawaii
year on ‘up’ note meat producers
Santa made a second visit to
Chicago last week as dairy pric-
es ended 2015 on an “up” note.
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the New Year holiday-shortened
week at $1.5075 per pound, up
5 3/4-cents on the day, up 10
1/4-cents on the week, but 6
1/4-cents below a year ago. The
blocks inched up a half-cent
Monday on a sale, as traders an-
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Trade auction of the New Year
Tuesday, but they dropped 2
1/4-cents Tuesday, to $1.49 per
pound.
The Cheddar barrels ended
the year at $1.53, up a nickel on
the day, up a dime on the week,
a penny below a year ago, and
an atypical 2 1/4-cents above the
blocks. Nine cars of each traded
hands last week.
The Barrels backed down a
penny on an offer Monday and
lost 4 cents Tuesday, slipping to
$1.48.
Cheese production is sched-
uled very heavily at most Mid-
west plants, according to Dairy
Market News. Spot milk is read-
ily available at $3 to $8 under
class and “Cheese is a preferred
use for the extra milk not needed
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“Consumer demand has been
good, but the higher volumes of
production during many recent
months have overwhelmed de-
mand, with less help from ex-
ports than had been hoped for,”
DMN reported.
The CME butter price end-
ed 2015 at $2.08 per pound, up
a penny and a half on the day,
up 4 1/4-cents on the week and
5 1/4-cents above a year ago.
Twelve cars were sold last week
at the CME.
The spot price dropped 4
cents Monday, with 11 cars trad-
ing hands, but was unchanged
Tuesday at $2.04.
FC Stone’s Dave Kurza-
wski wrote in his Dec. 28 Early
Morning Update that “Concerns
with the California drought and
dietary shifts have underpinned
(butter) prices and likely raised
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Cash Grade A nonfat dry milk
Dairy
Markets
West Hawaii Today
WAIMEA, Hawaii (AP)
— Not many decades ago, the
Goliath sugar industry crashed
closed Thursday at 75 1/2-cents on the Big Island, helping bring
per pound, down a half-cent on a fundamental shift to what resi-
the week and 24 1/2-cents be- dents consider sustainable.
The loss of the cane indus-
low a year ago. Thirteen cars ex-
changed hands in the last week of try pointed to the weaknesses
inherent in big agriculture, but
2015 at the CME.
The powder inched up a also highlighted new farming
quarter-cent Monday but gave possibilities as swaths of land
back a penny and a quarter Tues- opened up. Small, diverse oper-
day, slipping to 74 1/2-cents per DWLRQVEHJDQWRÀRXULVK²IURP
orange and coffee orchards to
pound.
tomato farms. Meat also began
GDT auction
to be farmed in new ways.
prices slip
While fruit and vegetable
7KH¿UVW*OREDO'DLU\7UDGH growers have found ready mar-
auction of 2016 reversed gears kets, a lack of inspected meat
after two sessions of gain. The production facilities made the sale
weighted average for all prod- of small-scale, locally produced
ucts offered Tuesday dropped meat cuts almost impossible.
1.6 percent, following a 1.9
But that could all change now.
percent gain Dec. 15 and a 3.6
On Dec. 23, Paauilo rancher
percent gain in the Dec. 1 event. Mike Amado swung open the
Whole milk powder led the doors on a shiny new mobile
losses, down 4.4 percent, fol- slaughterhouse being stored
lowing a 1.8 percent gain Dec. at a farm in Waimea. The unit,
15. Skim milk powder was housed in a 36-foot trailer, is just
down 0.8 percent, after inching about ready to roll. Equipped
0.2 percent lower last time.
with electric winches and refrig-
The gains this time were led eration, a generator, water sup-
by lactose, up 11.4 percent, af- plies for two days and a stainless
ter rising 6.8 percent last time. steel processing room, the unit
Butter was next, up 6.7 percent, has almost everything needed to
after jumping 9 percent in the bring the slaughterhouse to the
last event. Cheddar cheese was herd — instead of the other way
up 3.5 percent, after inching 1.1 around.
percent higher last time.
Five years after island ranch-
FC Stone reports the aver- ers started talking about why the
age GDT butter price equated to facility is needed so that meat
about $1.5030 per pound U.S., can become part of the emerging
up from $1.4226 in the Dec. 15 GLYHUVL¿HGDJPRGHOWKH+DZDLL
event. Contrast that, however, Island Meat Cooperative is in
to CME butter, which closed the process of hiring a gener-
Tuesday at $2.04 per pound. al manager to run the mobile
GDT Cheddar cheese equated to slaughter unit. In January, two
about $1.3442 per pound U.S., head butchers and two assistant
up from $1.2955 last time, and butchers will also be trained to
compares to Tuesday’s CME operate the unit.
block Cheddar at $1.49.
Initial production set to be-
GDT skim milk powder, gin in April will be limited to
at 85.73 cents per pound U.S., USDA-inspected processing of
is down from 85.77 cents per animals into halves and quarters.
pound last time, and the whole Some hurdles remain before the
milk powder average, at $1.0023 unit can offer complete butcher-
per pound U.S., is down from ing, processing and packaging
$1.0453 per pound in the last at three planned sites around the
event. The CME Grade A nonfat island.
dry milk price closed Tuesday at
For Amado, Kohala farmers
74 1/2-cents per pound.
Carol and David Fuertes — and a
lot of others who support the en-
deavor — it’s about getting back
to something that’s been lost.
The Fuertes family is work-
ing up a business plan so that
the Hawi farm cooperative Palili
O Kohala can be the site of one
of the three satellite facilities
for processing and packaging
meats. The family raises cattle
and hogs they would like to pro-
cess and sell locally.
The Fuertes family would
also like to open a retail facili-
ty where north Hawaii residents
would have access to the best
of local beef, mutton, pork or
poultry.
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but we cannot buy meat unless
it’s from the big stores, and
that’s all imported,” said Carol
Lee Mielke
2-2/#4x
Laura Shimabuku/West Hawaii Today
via AP
This Dec. 23 photo shows the
new mobile slaughterhouse
that will be able to process
cattle, sheep, goats and hogs in
Waimea, Hawaii. Equipped with
electric winches and refrigera-
tion, a generator, water supplies
for two days and a stainless
steel processing room, the unit
has almost everything needed
to bring the slaughterhouse to
the herd.
Fuertes, who recalled old times
when the Hawi and Kapaau area
had two local butchers.
“We want to be able to bring
that back,” she said.
The mobile slaughterhouse
will be capable of processing
eight to 10 head of cattle per
day, 20 to 30 sheep or goats,
and 15 to 20 hogs. The cost to
the ranchers will be similar to
what they would pay if they
took their animals to the island’s
two inspected slaughterhouses
in Paauilo and Hilo. That’s part
of a pledge by the co-op that the
unit will offer an alternative to
existing facilities without trying
to undercut them, Amado said.
The co-op is also working
with Kona Raw Pet Food Co-
op, which is interested in buying
the non-edible products from
the slaughterhouse. Amado says
that’s just one example of how
the endeavor can help the island
get back to local food production
and distribution rather than being
prostrated to mainland corpora-
tions even bigger than big sugar.
“We’re trying to get back to
that old model of local butcher
shops,” said Amado. “We can
take a business like this and knit
it back into the community and
get back to a more sustainable
way of doing business.”
An initial $250,000 grant
from the state Department of
Agriculture served as seed
money for the unit. Another
$100,000 grant this year is help-
ing equip and staff the trailer.
An additional modular unit for
cutting and wrapping meat will
probably cost $200,000, Amado
said. The co-op is continuing to
seek state funds and would like
to base the cut-and-wrap facility
at the Natural Energy Laborato-
ry of Hawaii Authority, a good
place to publicly showcase the
unit and get cheap electricity.