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8 CapitalPress.com February 26, 2016 Grandin cautions about cattle leg conformation issues Industry improving on welfare, expert says Online http://www.grandin.com/ By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press SPOKANE — The cattle industry needs to start looking at leg conformation issues, an animal welfare and handling expert says. Temple Grandin, profes- sor of animal science at Col- orado State University, spoke about animal behavior and other livestock issues Feb. 20 as part of a lecture series at Whitworth University. Grandin cautioned against breeding for some traits con- sidered desirable that can cre- ate problems in other areas. For example, conformation issues can mean some bulls have dificulty walking, Gran- din said. Grandin and grad- uate student Marcy Franks wrote an article for Beef mag- azine advising ranchers to in- spect the legs and feet of ani- Matthew Weaver/Capital Press Colorado State University animal science professor Temple Grandin looks to an audience member for a question Feb. 20 during her presentation at Whitworth University in Spokane. mals they are considering for breeding. Franks and Grandin surveyed photos on bull se- men websites to determine the percentage that showed the animal’s legs and feet. “This is one the industry needs to head off at the pass,” Grandin said. “I’m scared that there is leg conformation issues linked to some desirable car- cass traits. All I can say about using genomic power tools: Be careful. Power tools are great, but that circular saw can hack off my hand a lot quicker than a handsaw would.” Grandin said cattle han- dling has “greatly” improved since the 1980s, but the in- dustry is doing a poor job of informing the public about the advances. One of Grandin’s students, Ruth Woiwode, conducted a survey of 28 large feedyards several years ago in Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska, scor- ing such handling variables as animals falling down or bellering, getting caught in the squeeze chutes or electric prod use. “The prod score was around 5.5 percent,” Grandin said. “In the bad old days, the electric prod score would have been 500 percent. Ev- ery single animal, multiple times.” More ranchers and meat-packing plants are inter- ested in low-stress and quiet handling of cattle, Grandin said. “When I see an animal welfare problem now at a large slaughter plant, it’s something that’s going to have to be ixed at the farm,” she said. “A certain segment of the dairy industry is doing a fabulous job, (but) there’s other segments that still let a cow get half-dead and emaci- ated before they bring it in.” The problem lies with a minority of producers, Gran- din said. “But it’s not a tiny minori- ty like a half of a percent,” she said. Grandin trains people to conduct slaughter plant au- House puts payments for cougar depredations in budget proposal By DON JENKINS Capital Press OLYMPIA — A House spending proposal would com- pensate livestock owners who lose cattle, sheep or horses to cougars. The payments are allowed under state law but only if lawmakers earmark the money. The Washington Depart- ment of Fish and Wildlife al- ready provides payments for livestock killed by wolves. A similar compensation plan for cougar depredations has been unfunded. “The cougar issue has been a head-scratcher for a number of years,” Washington Cattle- men’s Association Executive Vice President Jack Field said. “This is huge.” The Democratic-led House included $50,000 for cougar depredations in a budget pro- posal they released Tuesday. The Republican-led Senate has yet to present its proposal. The spending plan lawmakers pass this year will adjust the two- year budget they approved last year. The House also proposes to increase funding to prevent wolf attacks on livestock. “The Legislature is trying to provide assistance to folks impacted adversely” by pred- ators, Field said. “We’ve had good meetings on both sides, Don Jenkins/Capital Press House Appropriations Commit- tee Chairman Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish, speaks at a press conference Feb. 22 in Olympia about the House DemocratsP spending plan. the House and the Senate.” Cougar attacks on livestock are reported far more frequent- ly to WDFW than wolf depre- dations. Most recently, cougars killed two sheep in Garield County and three goats in Klickitat County on Feb. 12, according to WDFW. State law authorizes WDFW to pay up to $10,000 per claim, but only if law- makers supply the money. The 2013-15 budget included funding, but the 2015-17 bud- get passed last year does not. WDFW wolf policy lead Donny Martorello said the de- partment supports compensat- ing livestock owners for cou- gar depredations. He said it’s been frustrating for ranchers to have compensation hinge on whether WDFW determines their livestock were killed by a cougar or wolf. House Agriculture Com- mittee Chairman Brian Blake, D-Aberdeen, said payments have been caught up in the overall controversy about con- trolling cougar populations. “It’s been a battle,” he said. Paula Swedeen, who rep- resents Conservation North- west on WDFW’s wolf advi- sory group, said it was fair to compensate ranchers for live- stock lost to cougars. “We deinitely support compensation for cougar dep- redations,” she said. “Cougar depredations cause issues for producers. If we’re going to compensate for wolves, we should compensate for cou- gars.” The House budget proposal also includes: • $300,000 for preventing wolf depredations. WDFW has an ongoing program to split costs with ranchers on protective measures such as range riders, lights, alarms and ribbons. • $8.8 million to replace fences and replant pastures damaged by wildires. From this, $300,000 would go to control weeds and re-vegetate ire-damaged land in hard-hit Okanogan County. Joyce Capital, Inc. In agriculture, nothing is certain. Your interest rate should be. We offer competitive interest rates for your agricultural financing needs: • Term agricultural loans (purchases & refinances) • FSA Preferred Lender • Amortizations up to 25 years CONTACT: Kevin Arrien, or Joe Lodge at Joyce Capital, Inc. Agricultural Loan Agents (208) 338-1560 • Boise, ID 9-4/#17 Water markets offer eficiency, analysts say By CAROL RYAN DUMAS Capital Press Photo submitted Richard Haney, A USDA Agricultural Research Service soil scientist in Temple, Texas, stands by a microwave plasma, which measures minerals at the molecular level. Haney has devised innovative soil testing methods, which have helped growers assess their soil organic matter and plant-available soil nutrients. Soil breakthrough helping growers By JOHN O’CONNELL Capital Press A Texas USDA scientist’s innovative approach to testing agricultural soils suggests U.S. producers have been applying too much fertilizer, especially nitrogen, to their crops. Richard Haney, a soil sci- entist with the USDA Agricul- tural Research Service’s Grass- land Soil and Water Research Laboratory in Temple, Texas, explained the test also gives producers insight into the effec- tiveness of their efforts to im- prove soil health. Haney’s methods have slow- ly been winning over converts among farmers and ranchers in recent years, and have been touted nationwide lately by USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. Parma, Idaho-based Western Laborato- ry has a contract with the Idaho agricultural company J.R. Sim- plot to improve the tool for use in high-cost production systems, hoping to develop it to measure other essential minerals beyond nitrogen and phosphate. Haney has devised the irst method to measure the amount of organic nitrogen and phos- phate in soil that will be avail- able for a plant to utilize. Haney explained that prior tests have missed plant-available organic phosphate and nitrogen, leading producers to overestimate the amount of supplemental fertiliz- er necessary to raise a crop. “It turns out all of these years we’ve been measuring one form of nitrogen, which is inorganic, and we’ve been miss- ing about half of what’s there,” said Haney, who has now test- ed more than 22,0000 U.S. soil samples. Haney explained a common test for inorganic soil carbon involves combusting a small soil sample and measuring the nitrous oxide formed by the process. His own method entails placing soil in water, separating the organic compounds from soil in a centrifuge and combust- ing only living material, thereby measuring only the organic ni- trogen available to soil-borne microbes for feeding plants. Though his soil test isn’t cal- ibrated to yield, Haney said he’s never heard from any farmer who cut back on fertilizer based on his test results and experi- enced a nutrient deiciency. “I can’t tell you the num- ber of farmers I get who are mad,” Haney said. “They’ve been over-fertilizing for their whole careers, and they feel like they’ve been duped.” Working as a master’s stu- dent with another USDA re- searcher, Alan Franzluebbers, in the mid-1990s, Haney was a part of the discovery that soil life could be measured by moisten- ing soil and recording the lush of carbon dioxide respiration emitted by the organisms. 9-7/#4x joe@arrien.biz 9-2/#18 dits using the North American Meat Institute’s guidelines. She’s also helped to develop clear guidelines. “If you write something like ‘Handle cattle properly,’ what does that mean?” she said. “You’ve got to have something that’s clear, like trafic rules.” Grandin recommended ag- riculture communicate better with younger generations of the public. Audiences tend to listen to values over science, she said, pointing to studies that indicate the public will listen more to a mother than a government sci- entist. Farmers or ranchers are more credible than food com- pany public relations represen- tatives, she said. She recommends farm- ers ensure the values they’re promoting are being upheld throughout the supply chain, with a third-party independent auditor. “Whatever you claim you’re doing out there on a farm or a slaughterhouse, make sure you’re actually do- ing,” she said. Agricultural producers are competing for water around the world, vying for the limit- ed resource that is also needed for a growing population, eco- nomic growth and ecosystem health. “All of those competing needs must be met, against a backdrop of increasing cli- mate variability. Proper allo- cation of existing resources is critical,” Rabobank analysts said in their new report, “Ag- ricultural Water — Free Flow- ing Markets Sustain Growth.” The challenge is in deter- mining what the proper allo- cation should be, along with incentivizing investments so eficiency technologies and supply-side infrastructure are not short-changed, they stat- ed. “Free markets have been shown to be a capable mech- anism for eficiently allocat- ing resources to their highest value use, including the allo- cation of capital investment,” they stated. Water markets are abso- lutely essential and inevitable in meeting future needs, said Vernon Crowder, Rabobank analyst and co-author of the report. According to the United Nations, the global popula- tion is expected to increase 25 percent by 2050, bringing a 60 percent increase in food demand and a 55 percent in- crease in water demand. In a “business-as-usual” sce- nario, the world is expected to have a 40 percent water deficit. But that’s not going to hap- pen; the global community is not going to starve people. It’s going to use the water better on higher dollar crops where it’s most effective. Markets help that happen, Crowder said. “Water markets don’t make new water, but they help us use it smarter and better,” he said. Markets have been used successfully in Australia and California to help agriculture weather drought, he said. Agriculture is in a para- doxical situation because it is both the vehicle to feed a growing population while being the largest user of de- veloped water, the analysts stated. It is important for agri- cultural leaders to be directly involved in the establishment of water markets to protect the long-term economic sus- tainability of the industry. Ob- viously, water districts should be involved but so should in- luential ag water users and trade organizations, Crowder said. “When it rains or snow falls, the resource belongs to everybody, theoretically,” he said.