October 7, 2016
CapitalPress.com
19
Cow-calf returns continue to plummet
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Cow-calf producers are facing their
lowest returns since 2009 after two
years of record-high returns.
While returns can vary widely by
operation, the Livestock Marketing
Information Center estimates per-cow
returns on cost of production, includ-
ing pasture rents, will drop to about
$15 this year.
That’s a decrease of about $285 per
cow from last year and an even more
dramatic decrease of about $515 per
cow from 2015.
LMIC estimates the cost per cow at
$806.25 and returns at $821.22.
Every operation has different re-
sources and costs, and margins can
vary greatly. Year-over-year changes
in LMIC’s calculated returns are more
insightful than the speciic numeric
levels, said Jessica Sampson, agricul-
ture economist with LMIC.
The price of calves is a key factor
in this year’s equation, and those pric-
es have been dropping signiicantly all
year, she said.
For example, prices on 750-pound
steer calves at Oklahoma City last
week were $140 a hundredweight,
compared with $193 a year ago. LMIC
is forecasting fourth-quarter calf pric-
es to be down 25 percent from a year
ago, she said.
After record-high prices in 2014
and the irst half of 2015, calf prices
fell in August of last year. They recov-
ered slightly, but they’ve been falling
all year, she said.
“The hard part this year was they
got a lot lower a lot faster than people
expected,” she said.
The simple answer to the fall in
prices is more available animals. Re-
cord prices across the cattle and beef
sectors in 2014 and 2015 encouraged
producers to hold back cows and heif-
ers. That resulted in a 3.5 percent year-
over-year increase in total cattle inven-
tories on Jan. 1, she said.
A bigger cattle supply, lower fed
cattle prices and losses at feedlots are
all inluencing calf prices, she said.
Production costs were down in
2016 due to cheaper feed and fuel and
a slight decrease in pasture rents, but
they didn’t offset lower calf prices, she
said.
John Nalivka, owner of Sterling
Marketing in Vale, Ore., said he’s a lit-
tle surprised LMIC thinks returns are
going to be so low.
“We’ve seen a pretty signiicant
drop in prices, but it’s not that bad,” he
said.
In general, he expects returns to run
$100 to $125 per cow, he said.
His calculations don’t include pas-
ture rental costs, and that’s probably the
key difference between his estimates
and LMIC’s.
But Western producers had a lot of
grass this year and likely didn’t rent as
much pasture, he said.
With total cattle inventories expect-
ed to be up again by 2.5 to 3.5 percent
on Jan. 1, LMIC isn’t expecting an in-
crease in calf prices in 2017. In fact,
they could go slightly lower, Sampson
said.
While Nalivka pegs the increase
at 2 percent, he thinks returns will be
down again next year — to about $50
per cow.
Beef production will be up 5 percent
both this year and next. Pork will be up
about 1.5 percent and poultry will be up
about 3 percent this year and next, and
there’s already some pushback in retail
beef prices from consumers, he said.
Food Producers of Idaho to end Ag Pavilion
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
BOISE — Food Producers
of Idaho has announced it is
ending a long-standing pro-
gram involving agricultural
organizations that coopera-
tively staff educational booths
at two Idaho fairs.
Rick Waitley, executive
director of Food Producers,
said the program, called the
Agricultural Pavilion, has
been a “tremendous success”
since its inception 22 years
ago at the Western Idaho Fair
in Boise, but the organization
wants to invest its resources
into new areas.
Members made the de-
cision to end the program
during a Sept. 28 meeting and
subsequently sent out letters
alerting groups that partici-
pated in the Ag Pavilion of the
decision.
“We’re looking for oth-
er opportunities — several
things that might be good
things for us to look at,” Wait-
ley said, adding the organiza-
tion might participate in four
or ive smaller venues.
Agricultural groups that
participate in Food Produc-
ers meet regularly during the
legislative session, and less
frequently during the rest of
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
Tom and Terry Riemenapp learn about farming and Idaho agriculture Aug. 23 in the Agriculture
Pavilion at the Western Idaho Fair in Boise. Food Producers of Idaho recently decided to discontinue
hosting the Agricultural Pavilion.
the year, to discuss issues of
importance to their industry.
The Ag Pavilion includes
several booths from agricul-
tural groups — 51 groups had
booths in the most recent pa-
vilion — in a common area
focused on educating visitors
about Idaho agriculture. It
also includes games and ac-
tivities for children.
The second pavilion ini-
tially alternated between the
Twin Falls County Fair and
the Eastern Idaho State Fair
in Blackfoot but pulled out
of Eastern Idaho. It has re-
mained a ixture for the past
decade in Twin Falls, where
Farm Bureau and Food Pro-
ducers inanced construction
of a permanent building to
host it.
“We feel the investment
we’ve made in these two
fairs has been very valuable,”
Waitley said. “At the same
time, because of the invest-
ment we’ve made, we maybe
haven’t explored some other
things.”
John Pitz, manager of
the Twin Falls County Fair,
vowed to maintain an agri-
cultural theme in the building
where the pavilion has been
hosted.
“I can work with Farm Bu-
reau and igure out what to put
in there that would be ag-re-
lated,” Pitz said.
Waitley estimated the an-
nual cost of organizing the Ag
Pavilion at $30,000, but said
Food Producers netted a near-
ly $10,000 average proit, af-
ter accounting for individual
booth fees and other revenue,
such as sales from a country
store in the pavilion. The pa-
vilion’s proits have enabled
Food Producers to hold the
line on dues, Waitley said.
However, Wyatt Prescott,
president of Food Producers
and former executive vice
president with Idaho Cattle
Association, said is was get-
ting tougher to ind volunteers
to staff the Ag Pavilion, which
required a lot of work to host.
“I don’t think anybody was
thrilled about being done with
it,” Prescott said.
Prescott anticipates Food
Producers will now increase
its focus on educating state
policymakers about agricul-
tural issues.
Mark Dufin, executive
director of Idaho Sugarbeet
Growers Association and
co-chairman of Food Produc-
ers’ subcommittee governing
Ag Pavilion, added, “Some-
times it’s good to change and
take a new approach to reach
some new people.”
Schools strive to offer healthful food that students like
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
TWIN FALLS, Idaho —
Most students in the Twin
Falls School District depend
on the National School Lunch
Program to deliver healthful,
satisfying meals — and the
district takes that responsibili-
ty seriously.
Three years ago, the dis-
trict debuted its revamped
school nutrition program with
the higher national standards
for child nutrition. It con-
tinues to focus on healthful
foods that children will eat,
said Lori Rieth, the district
food service supervisor.
“We believe nutrition
plays a crucial role in physical
and academic achievement,”
she said, kicking off an ad-
vance celebration of National
School Lunch week at Pillar
Falls Elementary School on
Monday.
The event included about
100 ifth-graders who were
thrilled with the extra-curric-
ular activity complete with
dairy snacks from United
Dairymen of Idaho, Chobani
and Glanbia Nutritionals.
Carol Ryan Dumas/Capital Press
Fifth-graders Camille Carter, left, and Avery Baldwin enjoy cheese
from Glanbia Nutritionals during an advance celebration of National
School Lunch Week at Pillar Falls Elementary School in Twin Falls,
Idaho, on Oct. 3. Jesus Mendoza, western regional administrator
for USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service, rear left, talks with Sen.
Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, in the background.
The celebration also in-
cluded a visit from Sen. Mike
Crapo, R-Idaho, USDA Re-
gional Administrator Jesus
Mendoza and Idaho Dairy
Council nutrition consultant
April Bruns.
With an enrollment of
9,900 in 16 schools, the dis-
trict serves 6,200 free or re-
duced-cost lunches a day
through the National School
Lunch Program, 2,550 break-
fasts through the School
Breakfast Program and 2,000
lunches through the Summer
Food Service Program, Rieth
said.
It’s important to provide
healthful meals the students
like, she said.
The district surveys the
children every year and gets
lot of feedback on such things
as their favorite and least-fa-
vorite foods and school offer-
ings and where they like to eat
around town.
“We do listen. We try to in-
corporate what we hear,” she
said.
Children’s tastes vary, but
the district changes recipes
and offerings if it sees trends
in the feedback. It’s added la-
vor through herbs to make up
for less salt in dishes and has
gotten creative with fruit to
appeal to children’s desire for
more deserts, she said.
“The School Lunch Pro-
gram is a long-term program
because we learned a long
time ago that young people
learn a lot better and do a lot
better if they’re well-fed,”
Crapo said.
Congress is working to
reauthorize and strengthen
the program, and that’s good
for children and Idaho, which
produces much of the food
used in the program, he said.
“A tremendous amount of
food is grown, prepared and
delivered for the National
School Program right here,”
he said.
That provides critical
nutrition to school children
and supports the communi-
ty, jobs and the economy, he
said.
Mendoza, of the USDA,
said the program focuses on
healthful meals with more
fruit and vegetables, whole
grains and dairy and encour-
ages local sourcing.
His favorite part of his
job with USDA’s Food and
Nutrition Service is visiting
schools to see what children
need and what they like, Men-
doza said..
Bruns
engaged
the
ifth-graders in a lively Q&A
on fueling their bodies with
good nutrition, including
three servings of dairy a day,
to help them learn and play
and the importance of daily
exercise.
Children spend 2,000
hours at school during the
year, so good nutrition and ac-
tive play time has to be a part
of the environment, she said.
Our freezers runneth over: Explaining the U.S. food surplus
By DAVID PITT
Associated Press
DES MOINES, Iowa —
Warehouses, distribution cen-
ters and grocery stores are
overlowing with some food
staples, such as milk, eggs
and frozen fruits and vegeta-
bles, the result of increased
production and decreased
exports.
Take dairy, for example:
With the most milk ever pro-
duced in the U.S. — about 24
billion gallons — that means
there are record amounts of
butter and cheese.
The glut of food means
lower prices for consumers.
Here’s a short explanation of
how the surplus came about
and where it all goes:
Why is there so much ex-
tra food?
Two years ago, high
prices for milk, pork, poul-
try and eggs encouraged
farmers to expand livestock
operations.
Plus, U.S. consumers were
opening their wallets and
trade partners were willing
to keep buying our products.
Add to that the cheap cost of
animal feed that encouraged
farmers to boost livestock’s
weight before taking them to
market.
But agriculture is a cy-
clical business: The rela-
tive high value of the dollar
makes U.S. products more
expensive to importers, so
they’ve slowed their buying.
Last year’s bird lu crisis also
caused many trade partners
to stop taking eggs and tur-
key and chicken meat, and
while production of eggs has
returned, demand isn’t fully
restored.
Those factors and others
have depressed demand, but
the cows keep pumping out
milk and veggies continue to
grow, resulting in a surplus of
certain types of food.
Where does it all go?
Step into the freezer. The
1.24 billion pounds of cheese
in refrigerated warehouses is
the highest for the month of
August since records began
in 1921, and includes nearly
770 million pounds of Amer-
ican cheese and 25.7 million
pounds of Swiss. Other stock-
piles include:
• 322 million pounds of
butter (up 52 percent from a
year ago).
• 1.52 billion pounds of
frozen fruit, including 377
million pounds of strawber-
ries and 313 million pounds
of blueberries.
• 1.31 billion pounds of
frozen poultry (chicken and
turkey), up 4 percent from a
year ago.
But not everything is being
stored. The USDA announced
in August it was buying 11
million pounds of cheese for
$20 million and sending it to
food banks and food pantries
through a government nutri-
tion assistance program.
Farm organizations also
are boosting their efforts to
improve U.S. exports and
move some of the glut out of
the country.
How long will prices stay
low?
Food prices depend on
factors beyond just supply,
such as weather and oil pric-
es. Given those unpredictable
factors, the USDA expects
supermarket prices overall to
rise between 1 and 2 percent
next year for beef, veal, pork,
eggs, poultry and fresh fruit.
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Washington State University
Provost Dan Bernardo’s ofice
is leading the search for a
new dean for the College of
Agricultural, Human and Natural
Resource Sciences.
WSU begins
search for
CAHNRS
dean
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Washington State Univer-
sity will soon begin its nation-
wide search for the next dean
of the College of Agricultural,
Human and Natural Resource
Sciences, a top university of-
icial says.
“We expect this position
to be highly desirable,” said
Dan Bernardo, WSU provost
and executive vice president.
“What has gone on in Wash-
ington State over the last
decade is very well-known
across the higher education
community, in terms of the
fundraising and relationships
with agricultural stakeholder
groups.”
Bernardo
was
the
CAHNRS dean from 2005 to
2013 before taking his current
position.
The current dean is Ron
Mittelhammer. He was ap-
pointed to a two-year term.
The new dean will have to
establish his or her own rela-
tionship with agriculture, Ber-
nardo said.
“A major portion of this
job is to engage what is a very
complex food and agriculture
industry,” he said. “This per-
son needs to be very active
engaging with agriculture, to
really deine the priorities in
terms of research and educa-
tion outcomes the industry
needs and desires.”
The industry will be repre-
sented on the search commit-
tee for the new dean.
“Obviously we’re not go-
ing to be able to have repre-
sentatives from every sector
of agriculture on this search
committee, but we do plan
to have an industry advisory
group,” Bernardo said.
The university will have
listening sessions for the in-
dustry and public forums with
inalists.
“We’re going to be asking
the industry what opportuni-
ties they see in the future to
engage in the college, what
are the challenges they see
in the research and education
arena and what are the char-
acteristics of a leader they
think are important,” Bernar-
do said. “There will be plenty
of opportunity for the industry
and the public to engage in the
process.”
Stakeholder feedback will
be used in writing WSU’s de-
scription of the job, Bernardo
said.
Bernardo hopes to have
someone slated to take over
as dean before the end of
the school year, with inter-
views likely next February or
March.
Based on his experience,
what is Bernardo’s advice for
the new dean?
“Assess the opportunities
and deine their own strategy
to accomplish the ends we
have in mind for the college,”
he said. “I don’t think the way
I did it is necessarily the way
somebody else would come
in, and I don’t think that my
formula is necessarily the for-
mula that’s required today.”
Bernardo said he advises
people to “do it their way and
use their own creativity.”
“Certainly I would tell (the
new dean) they should active-
ly engage with industry, that’s
really a given,” he said. “But
how they go about doing that
is certainly up to them.”