June 10, 2016
CapitalPress.com
11
Dairy/Livestock
Subscribe to our weekly dairy or livestock email
newsletter at CapitalPress.com/newsletters
Beef industry opens its doors to consumers Meadow
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Online
Capital Press
http://wabeef.org/
PASCO, Wash. — No
question was too tough when
the Washington Beef Com-
mission took 30 consumers on
its annual tour of the industry,
from pasture to plate.
“All bets are off — this is a
completely transparent tour.
We’re going to show you ev-
erything,” said Patti Brum-
bach, commission executive
director. “There’s no ques-
tion that is out of line for
us, because it’s only through
that kind of openness that
you gain trust and support.”
The Explore Beef Expe-
rience tour included Trinity
Farms in Kittitas, Wash., a
beef plant in Pasco, Wash.,
and one of Easterday Farms’
feedlots about 100 miles
south of Spokane. The facil-
ity was built eight years ago
and accommodates 25,000
cattle, bringing them in from
ranches throughout the West
to Tyson Foods in Pasco.
“It’s part of the respon-
sibility we have producing
beef to educate not only the
consumers, but the people
serving it and buying it,”
in Seattle proximity-wise to
this kind of a process and
these types of facilities,”
said Jon Severson, president
of the Skillet Group. “It’s
right in our backyard. We
need to be better stewards of
the process and understand
it, so we can educate our
customers.”
Severson said the tour
helps answer concerns cre-
ated by movies and doc-
umentaries
about
beef
production.
“The best part is seeing
it and hearing that people
care,” he said. “We need to
be able to translate that and
then spell it back out to the
average customer who is
buying our hamburgers.”
The commission will of-
fer a specialized tour for a
U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services work-
ing group to reduce antibi-
otic resistance in human and
animal medicine later this
year, at a date to be deter-
mined, Brumbach said.
Capital Press
PASCO, Wash. — Feedlot
owner Cody Easterday told
participants in the Washington
Beef Commission’s Explore
Beef Experience tour that the
industry is squeezed between
consumers asking for all-nat-
ural products and environ-
mental regulations.
The feedlot uses hormonal
implants in its conventional
yard to improve cattle per-
formance and to maintain ac-
FHSWDEOHK\GURJHQVXO¿GHDQG
ammonia levels under state
environmental regulations, he
said.
“If we weren’t using im-
plants at this feedlot, we could
not operate under the Wash-
ington state guidelines of the
Clean Air Act,” he said. “The
implant makes the animal so
HI¿FLHQW EHFDXVH LW¶V WDNLQJ
Cash dairy prices rise but still lag behind last year’s mark
By LEE MIELKE
For the Capital Press
C
ME block Cheddar
closed the Memorial Day
holiday-shortened week
at $1.44 per pound, up 6 cents
on the week but 27 1/2-cents be-
low a year ago.
7KH EDUUHOV ¿QLVKHG DW
$1.4450, up a half-cent on the
week and 19 3/4-cents below a
year ago.
Sixteen cars of block traded
hands on the week and 17 of
barrel.
The blocks were up a penny
and a half Monday on an un-
¿OOHGELGEXWDVDOH7XHVGD\WRRN
them back a penny and a quarter,
to $1.4425. The barrels jumped
4 1/2-cents on a bid Monday but
a sale rolled them back a penny
and a half Tuesday, slipping to
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
The Meadow Gold Dairy
plant in Boise is voluntarily
Cody Easterday talks about receiving and preparing livestock on the Easterday Farms feedlot for Tyson
recalling Meadow Gold brand
Foods in Pasco, Wash., during the Washington Beef Commission’s Explore Beef Experience tour June 1.
Old Style Whipping Cream
and Meadow Gold DairyPure
said Cody Easterday, direc- answer for beef everyday,” their opinions about how
brand Whipping Cream and
tor of the feedlots for East- Brumbach said, including beef is produced and in-
+DOI DQG +DOI GXH WR LQVXI¿-
cient pasteurization.
erday Farms. “Hopefully we chefs, retailers, bloggers and crease their comfort level
“It is possible that patho-
get the message back to the food service distributors. with modern beef produc-
gens present in raw milk, in-
consumer. We want (them) “People who are handling tion,” Brumbach said.
cluding salmonella, campylo-
to know the great things our product, answering con-
“Anything you can learn
bacter, listeria, and/or E. coli,
we’re doing at the feedlot, sumer questions.”
is really helpful,” said Tim
may have survived and, if
how we’re handling cattle,
The commission conducts Voss, chef instructor with
ingested, could cause serious
taking care of cattle and pro- a pre-survey asking partic- the Hot Stove Society in Se-
or life-threatening issues,”
ducing great product. This ipants their level of knowl- attle. “I’ve been asking a lot
Meadow Gold stated in its re-
is a good conduit to getting edge about the industry and of questions along the way.
call notice.
that message across.”
about their concerns about It’s a very welcoming and
Distribution of the affected
The tour is designed to such things as environmental hospitable group.”
product was limited, involv-
tell the story of beef produc- impacts and animal welfare.
“It’s really just about
ing approximately 10,000
tion to “people who have to
“We dramatically change knowing how close we are
units of the affected product
distributed in four states in-
cluding Idaho, Oregon, Wy-
oming and Utah through nu-
merous retail outlets and food
ing nutritionist Bob Brandt
Easterday compared the to produce a pound in the con- service settings.
The company is notifying
told the group a six-pellet hor- conventional feedlot with the ventional yard and 8 pounds in
customers and retrieving the
monal implant is placed under company’s smaller natural the natural yard, he said.
the skin of the ear so it never feedlot, which uses no antibi-
“When you think about affected product, Meadow
enters the food chain. The im- otics or hormones. The com- sustainability, think about how Gold stated.
“During a routine records
plant allows cattle to absorb pany runs the natural feedlot much more fuel, labor, grain
protein and energy from the because suppliers ask for it and hay it takes to produce that review, we discovered that the
IHHGPRUHHI¿FLHQWO\UHGXFLQJ and pay enough to do it, he same pound of natural beef as product may have been un-
nitrogen excretion into the en- said.
it does to produce something der-processed. Meadow Gold
vironment by 20 to 25 percent,
“If you stand here and ask we can use implanted,” Easter- Dairy has ceased distribution
of the affected product and re-
Brandt said.
me, ‘Do you believe in feeding day told the group.
“If you eat a 4-ounce steak cattle naturally?’ Absolute-
Easterday said beef produc- covery is actively underway,”
from an implanted steer, you’ll ly not, it goes against every tion is the best it’s ever been. the company stated.
In a written statement to
get about 1.6 nanograms of es- single grain in my body to go Science and technology pro-
trogen, equivalent to about one back in time to produce food,” GXFH D VDIH HI¿FLHQW SURGXFW Capital Press, parent compa-
ny Dean Foods said the dis-
blade of grass on a football Easterday said. “When we are he said.
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
¿HOG´%UDQGWVDLG
not able to use science like (the
“At what point is the con- covery was made last week.
Easterday Farms consulting nu-
“We worked quickly to re-
He compared that to the hormonal implant), that ani- sumer going to step back and
tritionist Bob Brandt talks about 20,000 nanograms produced mal is going to produce about say, ‘By eating this natural trieve the product from shelves
the six-pellet hormonal implant
per day by a pre-adolescent 100 pounds less at the natural steak, I am willing to accept and alerted our customers. To
given to cows underneath the
boy; 150,000 nanograms pro- yard.”
that the footprint for making date, we have received no
skin of the ear at the feedlot
duced by a grown male or
Easterday estimated the this steak is going to be bigger reports of illnesses related
June 1 in Pasco, Wash.
170,000 nanograms by wom- natural operation requires 25 than it would if I would just to the affected product. As
en of child-bearing age. Birth to 40 percent more feed to pro- eat a conventional steak?’” always, our priority is to
that much less feed to produce control pills have 25,000 to duce one pound of beef than he asked. “At some point, that provide high-quality, safe
one pound of beef.”
50,000 nanograms of estrogen, with conventional production. message has to be brought products to consumers, and
Easterday Farms consult- Brandt said.
we’re working diligently
It takes 5.5 pounds of dry feed across.”
to identify and implement
solutions related to this in-
cident.”
The Idaho Department
of Agriculture’s Bureau
remains strong. Domestic de- ing factors to the upturn.
The spot price ticked up 4 of Dairying and the Food
PDQGLV¿UPEXW³ZLWKRXWUHOL-
&DVK EXWWHU ¿QLVKHG WKH FHQWV 0RQGD\ RQ DQ XQ¿OOHG and Drug Administration
Dairy
able export demand, inventories week at $2.10 per pound, up bid, to $2.14 per pound, but was have been notified of the
Markets
recall.
for almost all varieties of cheese 3 1/2-cents, highest spot price unchanged Tuesday.
Lee Mielke
ISDA has no com-
continue to trend upwards.”
since April 29 and 20 cents
Butter production is steady,
HighGround Dairy sug- above a year ago. Only three says DMN. Retail and food ser- ment on the recall, accord-
$1.4750, 3 1/4-cents above the gested rising grain markets and cars traded hands last week at vice demand is “consistent” but ing to a spokesman for the
agency.
blocks.
weather concerns are contribut- the CME.
cream remains plentiful.
Cheese vats are running at
or near full capacity in the Mid-
west, says Dairy Market News,
and forecasts are for full sched-
ules for June, as milk production
shows little to no sign of slow-
ing.
Midwest cheese stocks are
long despite strong sales and
“many participants believe it
is going to take much larger
growth in sales to alleviate in-
ventory pressures.” The market
undertone is mixed but interna-
tional interest is steady.
Western cheese output also
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Feedlot works to meet environmental, consumer demands
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Gold
recalls
cream
products
SAGE Fact #131
Before roads and railroads, steamboats served the
growing population along the Columbia River in
the late 19th Century. Early steamboats landed at
Castle Rock, a few miles west
of present-day Boardman
24-4/#6