January 13, 2017
CapitalPress.com
Subscribe to our weekly dairy or livestock email
newsletter at CapitalPress.com/newsletters
Dairy/Livestock
Mexican veterinarians sue Idaho dairy
Not yet served
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Six Mexican veterinarians
are suing an Idaho dairy for
human trafficking, racketeer-
ing and breach of contract, al-
leging they were fraudulently
recruited to work as animal
scientists but were instead
forced to work as low-wage
general laborers.
The plaintiffs claim they
were unlawfully lured to the
U.S., arriving in late 2014,
with false promises of profes-
sional-level employment but
instead were assigned such
duties as milking and moving
cows and cleaning cow pens.
The lawsuit against Funk
Dairy of Murtaugh, south-
east of Twin Falls, also names
Shoesole Farms of nearby
Hansen; David Funk, owner
of both farms; dairy manager
Curtis Giles; attorney Jeremy
Pittard, who arranged the vet-
erinarians’ visas; and 10 yet-
to-be-named individuals or
entities “legally responsible
in some manner.”
It was filed Jan. 3 in U.S.
District Court in Boise.
The lawsuit alleges crimi-
nal conspiracy to bring Mex-
ican nationals to the U.S. il-
legally for purposes of forced
labor. It places Giles at the
center of an alleged conspira-
cy to evade U.S. immigration
laws to fraudulently acquire
general laborers under tempo-
rary professional visas.
Plaintiffs Cesar Marti-
Capital Press File
Holstein dairy cows are seen in this photo. Six Mexican veterinar-
ians have sued an Idaho dairy farm alleging their were promised
professional work but were assigned menial jobs.
nez-Rodriguez, Dalia Padil-
la-Lopez, Mayra Munoz-Lara,
Brenda Gastelum-Sierra, Les-
lie Ortiz-Garcia and Ricardo
Neri-Camacho allege Giles
told them Funk Dairy wanted
them to “develop, implement
and oversee effective animal
reproduction, nutrition, ani-
mal health and related dairy
programs with the university
studies they had received.”
Allegations listed
They claim defendants
had no intention of providing
professional work, threatened
them with deportation and ex-
ploited their fear, unfamiliarity
with the American legal sys-
tem, inability to speak English
and their immigration status,
according to the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs are all li-
censed veterinarians in their
mid to late 20s and most
were recent graduates, seek-
ing more experience in their
field, professional work and a
chance to receive higher pay
than they would in Mexico,
said their attorney, Edgar Ivan
Aguilasocho of Bakersfield,
Calif.
They were promised
work as professionals, but
were defrauded and co-
erced into working as gen-
eral laborers at the dairy, he
alleged.
“Very early on, they regis-
tered their concerns both with
the management at the dairy
and the recruiter in Mexico,
and those complaints fell on
deaf ears,” he said.
Dairy manager Giles said
the dairy had not been notified
of any lawsuit against it but of-
fered the following statement:
“We care for our employees
and do our best to ensure they
are well taken care of in all as-
pects of their employment.”
Pittard, a public defense
and immigration attorney in
Burley, also said he had not yet
been served.
He said Funk was not a cli-
ent before approaching him to
look into visas to bring in an-
imal scientists to work on the
dairy and he helped with the
process to make sure they got
the proper visas to enter the
country lawfully and legally.
“This is all coming out of
left field. All I did was help
some guys get visas and that’s
about it,” he said.
The dairy has a good repu-
tation and is run by good peo-
ple, he said.
“What’s frustrating about
this whole thing is they’re try-
ing to get a legal workforce,
and this comes out,” he said.
Pittard said he assumes the
lawsuit stems from disgruntled
workers who weren’t expect-
ing dairy work to be so hard
and trying to get something out
of it, as well as an out-of-state
law firm looking for big mon-
ey, he said.
“It blows me away just
what’s alleged and how
they’re trying to tie me into it,”
he said.
The plaintiffs, who were
recruited through three uni-
versities in Mexico, also al-
lege Giles promised to provide
transportation to Idaho, trans-
portation to and from work and
living accommodations.
Promises made?
They allege he also prom-
ised an opportunity to earn
higher than their $10-an-hour
wage after an undetermined
period and promised a $2,000
bonus, one week of paid va-
cation and cost of travel to
Mexico after one year of em-
ployment.
The plaintiffs claim none
of those promises material-
ized and they worked as gen-
eral laborers 9 to 14 hours a
day, six days a week in “high-
ly unhygienic” working and
eating areas and were not
provided adequate protective
gear or bathroom facilities.
One of the veterinarians
left within the first year, and
the five others were terminat-
ed after one year, despite hav-
ing been offered three years
of employment, Aguilasocho
said.
It is still unclear why they
were terminated, he said.
The plaintiffs are seeking
unspecified monetary and pu-
nitive damages.
“More than anything, they
want to make sure this doesn’t
happen to anyone else recruit-
ed for work in the U.S.,” Agu-
ilasocho said.
USDA moves to dismiss
HSUS pork trademark lawsuit
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
USDA filed a motion last
week in U.S. District Court
to dismiss a years-old lawsuit
the Humane Society of the
United States filed against
the agency for approving
the 2006 sale of the Nation-
al Pork Producers Council’s
“Other White Meat” trade-
marks to the National Pork
Board.
HSUS — joined in the
lawsuit by an Iowa farmer
and Iowa Citizens for Com-
munity Improvement — filed
the lawsuit in 2012 alleging
misappropriation of pork
checkoff funding, claiming
the trademarks were overval-
ued and seeking to have the
$35 million sale rescinded.
In its motion, USDA ar-
gues the lawsuit lacks merit,
the plaintiffs failed to estab-
lish standing or show they
were harmed by the sale and
the trademarks provided sig-
nificant value to the pork in-
dustry — well above the sale
price. The agency also argues
the lawsuit is barred by the
six-year statute of limitations.
“We’re certainly pleased
that USDA has done this, but
quite frankly it should have
done it a long time ago,” said
Dave Warner, NPPC director
of communications.
USDA’s previous han-
dling of the lawsuit, in which
it entered into settlement
talks with HSUS in Decem-
ber 2015 before arguing the
case, rankled pork producers.
NPPC members responded
by approving a resolution in
March 2016 calling on USDA
to uphold the sale and defend
the checkoff, he said.
At that time, a spokesman
for the Department of Justice
told Capital Press the litiga-
tion had been stayed pending
USDA’s review of the Pork
Board’s contract for the pur-
chase of the trademarks and
that there were no ongoing
settlement discussions with
any party during USDA’s in-
dependent review.
The joint stipulation re-
questing the stay was filed
in court Dec. 23, 2015, and
granted Jan. 6, 2016, with US-
DA’s decision on its approval
of the contract following the
review due by the beginning
of May 2016.
USDA initially defended
the sale, filing a motion to
dismiss in January 2013. The
District Court for the District
of Columbia dismissed the
case for lack of standing in
September 2013, but in Au-
gust 2015 a U.S. Court of Ap-
peals ruled the Iowa farmer
does have standing and rein-
stated the case.
The appeals court only
ruled that the farmer had
standing; the merits of the
case hadn’t been argued when
USDA entered into settlement
talks, Warner said. “No one
even knows if he’s a hog pro-
ducer or paid into the check-
off.”
The first thing government
lawyers should have done is
argue that the plaintiffs don’t
have standing. Rather than
that happening, USDA en-
tered into settlement talks, he
said.
“Pork producers were
ticked off,” he said.
Courtesy of Whatcom Family Farmers
Lummi Nation Chairman Timothy Ballew II, left, and Mitch Moorlag of Edaleen Dairy talk during a sign-
ing ceremony forming the Portage Bay Partnership on Jan. 5 at the Lummi reservation in Whatcom
County, Wash. Dairies pledged to work with the tribe to manage manure, while the tribe promised to
hold back on suing over contaminated shellfish beds.
Washington dairies and
Lummi tribe sign accord
Sides avert court
battle in agreement
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Seven northwest Washing-
ton dairies have pledged to
step up efforts to keep manure
from spoiling Lummi Nation
shellfish beds, while the tribe
has agreed to pull back on
plans to sue.
Dairies also will compen-
sate the tribe with nearly $1.2
million for beds closed by
bacteria since 2014 in Portage
Bay in Whatcom County.
Over the next several
months, the tribe and dair-
ies will try to out work wa-
ter-quality improvement plans
for the farms.
The agreement gives the
seven dairies a reprieve from
costly litigation and a fo-
rum to improve long-term
relations with the tribe, said
Ferndale dairyman Rich Ap-
pel, who helped negotiate the
accord.
“We’ve never had what I
call a working relationship,
where we can negotiate and
come to an agreement and get
things settled,” Appel said.
“This takes some risk off the
table now and maybe more
later.”
The Nooksack River car-
ries bacteria from many urban
and rural sources into the bay,
according to state and coun-
ty officials. There are dozens
of dairies in the watershed,
but the seven that signed the
agreement forming the Por-
tage Bay Partnership were
under the most scrutiny by the
tribe.
The tribe retained Eugene,
Ore., lawyer Charlie Tebbutt,
the lead attorney in a suit filed
against the Cow Palace Dairy
and several other Yakima Val-
ley dairies. A settlement last
year cost the dairies millions
of dollars.
The tribe preferred to work
with the Whatcom Coun-
ty dairies as fellow farm-
ers, Lummi Indian Business
Council policy analyst Jeffrey
James said.
“Our intention wasn’t to
put small businesses out of
business,” he said. “We want
to build a better relationship.
We’re both harvesters.”
The memorandum, signed
by the tribe and dairies at the
Lummi reservation, capped
15 months of negotiations.
Appel credited the tribe’s
chairman, Timothy Ballew II,
with intervening last fall to
move forward stalled negoti-
ations.
Ballew and three members
of the tribe’s business council
sat down with four farmers to
work out the agreement, with-
out lawyers.
Idaho livestock research facility back in spotlight
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
The University of Idaho is
leading an effort to establish
a state-of-the-art livestock re-
search facility, a project pro-
posed a decade ago but side-
lined by the recession.
The university has com-
missioned a consulting team
to perform a feasibility study.
The results of that study are
due mid-January and will dic-
tate how the project moves
forward.
Commitment to the facili-
ty “never actually went away.
We were on a long hold,” said
John Foltz, the university’s
special assistant to the pres-
ident for agricultural initia-
tives.
The project gained re-
newed vigor with the arrival
of Chuck Staben, the univer-
sity’s newest president, who
took office in March 2014.
Because agriculture is so im-
portant to Idaho and the state
has risen to the third-largest
milk producer in the nation,
he recognized the importance
of the facility and the need to
support the industry and help
with the challenges, Foltz
said.
Idaho’s dairy industry
has experienced phenomenal
growth, and the land-grant
university hasn’t kept up, he
said.
The research center has
gone through several name
changes and mission state-
ments along a path to fruition
to arrive at the current initia-
tive for the Center for Agri-
culture, Food and the Envi-
ronment (CAFE).
15
A large part of its focus
will be on dairy production
and everything surrounding it.
Numerous lawsuits involving
manure management, includ-
ing those in the Yakima Valley
of Washington state, have fu-
eled interest in research aimed
at sustainability, he said.
Manure management, nu-
trient management and add-
ing value to byproducts while
addressing long-term water
issues are some of the big
challenges facing the industry
and issues the research facili-
ty will be modeled to address,
he said.
A full blueprint has not
yet been drawn, but prelimi-
nary plans are for a 1,500- to
2,000-cow dairy with appro-
priate acreage to house a live-
stock/crop operation, he said.
“All of this depends on
how successful we are in the
financial package,” he said.
The current proposal is for
a $45 million project, with
$15 million each coming from
the state, the university and
the industry.
“That’s our goal. Whether
or not we realize that … re-
mains to be seen,” he said.
But key lawmakers are
ready to go to bat for the proj-
ect this legislative session, the
governor has indicated sup-
port and university officials
have called it a key priority,
he said.
If funded, the university
is looking at a five-year plan-
ning process.
The plan is to locate the
facility within 20 miles of the
College of Southern Idaho in
Twin Falls, but that will de-
pend on land availability.
It’s not been determined
whether an existing facility
will be purchased and retrofit-
ted or the project will be built
from the ground up, he said.
The plan is for the facil-
ity to function like an indus-
try-size dairy in Idaho, with
all the benefits and challenges
of a modern western dairy,
said Rick Naerebout, director
of operations for the Idaho
Dairymen’s Association.
There is no other research
facility on the scale of western
dairies or doing research in an
arid western climate, he said.
Key legislators are sup-
portive and seem optimistic
that a request for state funding
could be successful, he said.
“They like the concept and
the idea of bringing this back
to life … the feasibility study
will be key,” he said.
Dairy
Markets
Lee Mielke
Dairy
markets
seeking
direction
By LEE MIELKE
For the Capital Press
C
ash dairy prices started
the new year looking for
direction.
Cheddar block cheese
closed the first Friday of 2017
at $1.67 per pound, up a penny
on the holiday-shortened week
and 21 cents above a year ago.
The barrels closed at
$1.5750, down 2 1/2-cents on
the week and 3 1/2-cents above
a year ago.
Prices were unchanged
Monday, with four bids of bar-
rel at $1.5650 going unfilled.
The blocks jumped a nickel
Tuesday hitting $1.72, while
the barrels were up 5 1/2-cents,
to $1.63, 9 cents below the
blocks.
Milk remains available for
Midwestern cheese producers,
reports Dairy Market News, but
milk prices are beginning to in-
crease following the discounted
holiday influx.
Cheese demand, which was
slow the last week of 2016,
was better than expected New
Year’s Week.
Butter gave up 4 3/4-cents
last week, falling to $2.22 per
pound, but 18 1/2-cents above a
year ago. Twenty-one cars were
sold.
A rebound came Monday,
jumping 8 cents to $2.30, but
held there Tuesday.
Central butter production is
active due to the availability of
cream following the holidays.
With many schools reopening,
butter producers face readily
available cream from bottlers
and much of it is clearing to
churns. Retail butter demand is
seasonally slow, while food ser-
vice remains steady to slightly
slower. Inventories are steady
to building.
Cash Grade A nonfat dry
milk closed Friday at $1.0525
per pound, up 3 1/4-cents on
the week, the highest spot price
since March 4, 2015, and 31
cents above a year ago.
The powder dropped 3
1/2-cents Monday but inched
back a quarter-cent Tuesday to
$1.02.
Milk prices differ
Benchmark milk prices in
California and federal orders
ended 2016 in different direc-
tions. The Agriculture Depart-
ment announced the December
FO Class III price at $17.40 per
hundredweight, up 64 cents
from November, $2.96 above a
year ago, and the highest Class
III since December 2014. It is
81 cents above California’s
comparable Class 4b price. It
equates to $1.50 per gallon, up
from $1.44 in November and
$1.24 a year ago.
That put the 2016 Class III
average at $14.87, down from
$15.80 in 2015 and $22.34 in
2014, and the lowest annual av-
erage since 2010.
Monday’s Class III futures
portended a January Class III at
$16.62, February at $17.14, and
March at $17.29, with a peak of
$17.82 in September.
The December FO Class IV
price is $14.97, up $1.21 from
November but 55 cents below a
year ago. Its 12-month average
is $13.77, down from $14.35 in
2015 and $22.09 in 2014.
California’s
December
Class 4b cheese milk price
was $16.59 per cwt., down 86
cents from November but $3.69
above a year ago. The 2016
average is $14.27, down from
$14.47 in 2015 and $19.93
in 2014, and the lowest since
2010.
The 4b trailed the FO Class
III price by an average of 71.6
cents in 2016, ranging from a
high of $1.39 in May to a low
of 19 cents in June. But the No-
vember 4b price topped the FO
price by 69 cents for the first
time since December 2009.
The 2016 lag average is down
from $1.33 in 2015 and $2.41
in 2014.