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8 CapitalPress.com Subscribe to our weekly California email newsletter at CapitalPress.com/newsletters California Red Bluff Bull Sale prices down amid slow recovery from drought By TIM HEARDEN Capital Press RED BLUFF, Calif. — The bull auction here on Jan. 28 fell significantly below last year’s receipts but still man- aged to crack the $1 million mark in total sales for the sev- enth straight year. In all, the 288 bulls that went through the Don Smith Pavilion at the 76th annual Red Bluff Bull and Gelding Sale brought in $1.1 million — an average of $3,822.40 per bull. That fell short of the near- ly $1.49 million that bidders shelled out for 305 bulls last year, when winning bids aver- aged $4,816. Consigners interviewed before the sale began had hoped that the winter’s rains would boost prices as ranches began to consider rebuilding their herds after a four-year drought, but they knew the re- covery — if there is to be one — is still early. “It’s down a little,” Randy Beeman of Cardy Ranches Tim Hearden/Capital Press Jamie Mickelson cleans up a bull consigned by Santa Rosa, Calif.-based Sonoma Mountain Herefords at the Red Bluff Bull and Gelding Sale. The bull auction Jan. 28 capped five days of activities at the Red Bluff, Calif., fairgrounds. in Turlock, Calif., said of the cattle market. “Hopefully it’ll be a decent average.” Wayde Henderson of Sonoma Mountain Herefords in Santa Rosa, Calif., went in with higher hopes. The ranch had six bulls in the sale. “It’s coming back,” he said of the market. “We’re doing better since the drought is not February 3, 2017 as bad as it was a couple of years ago.” The top-priced bull was a Hereford presented by Y Cross Herefords in Bonanza, Ore., which sold for $10,500 to BK Ranches in Montague, Calif. Cardey Ranches had the runner-up bull in terms of price, selling a Charolais to Gary Silva of Herald, Calif., for $8,500. This was the bull auction’s second straight decline in to- tal receipts after the 2015 sale netted a record $1.56 million for 238 bulls. The bull sale was the last of four livestock auctions held last week in Red Bluff. The bidding began with the ninth annual online feeder and re- placement heifer sale on Jan. 26, where about 75 lots were sold. Lot prices in the Western Video Market-hosted sale topped out at $143 per hun- dredweight for weaned heifers and $173 per hundredweight for weaned steers, down dra- matically from last year’s $234 and $252, respectively. The 2015 sale topped out at $287 and $299, respectively. The 69 geldings auctioned off on Jan. 27 generated $682,750, down only slightly from the $755,250 brought in last year for 104 horses. This year’s average sale price of $9,895 fell just below last year’s $10,070 per horse. The high-selling horse in 2017 was bought for $39,000 by Peter Baldwin of Makawao, Hawaii, and four other geldings sold for $20,000 or above. The Jan. 27 sale of 14 cattle dogs fetched a total of $85,750, an average of $6,125 per dog. The top dog sold for $20,000 to El Rancho de Ca- sey in Jarrell, Texas. 5-7/#4N Citrus industry encouraged by stay in Argentine lemon rule By TIM HEARDEN Capital Press Citrus industry leaders in California plan to use a routine 60-day stay on pending fed- eral regulations to persuade President Donald Trump’s administration to think twice about allow- ing Argentine lemons back into the United States. California Joel Nelsen Citrus Mu- tual officials were to meet in Washington, D.C., with USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service administrator Kevin Shea and members of Congress to voice concerns about the lem- ons’ potential impacts on the Golden State’s citrus industry. The meetings Jan. 30- Feb. 3 follow a letter that Citrus Mutual president Joel Nelsen sent to Vice President Mike Pence and members of Trump’s transition team ask- ing for a delay in the lemon rule, which President Barack Obama’s administration final- ized in December. California and Arizona cit- rus growers had chafed over the decision to allow lemons from Argentina that meet cer- tain conditions after a 15-year ban because of disease and pest concerns. “We’re not going to stop Argentine lemons from com- ing in,” Nelsen said. However, industry leaders hope the talks lead to stricter controls or even a new public comment period, he said. “We’re obligated now ... to express to the new administra- tion why this has to go back to the drawing board,” he said. The USDA won’t speculate on what the next steps will be, an agency spokesman told the Capital Press on Jan. 25. Allowing Argentine lemons to return would be a lengthy process that would involve several layers of verification, according to USDA. APHIS and Argentina’s National Plant Protection Or- ganization, known by the ini- tials SENASA for its name in Spanish, were to finalize a work plan that details the con- ditions Argentina must meet for every U.S.-bound ship- ment, she said. The two agencies also agreed to verify six months of fruit fly data, and APHIS was to also verify that packing houses met safeguarding re- quirements, she said. However, the USDA an- nounced Jan. 22 that the lem- on rule would be included in Trump’s 60-day stay on pending regulations, a move that new presidents frequently make to review the last-minute rules imposed by the previous administration. “I think there’s an oppor- tunity for us to explain to the new administration how and why the proposal as it’s writ- ten creates vulnerabilities for the California citrus industry,” Nelsen said. Citrus Mutual and the U.S. Citrus Science Council argue the risk is unacceptable con- sidering that the California cit- rus industry is already fighting the Asian citrus psyllid and the deadly tree disease huanglong- bing. Further, Nelsen said a new public comment period should have been allowed because language in the final rule ac- knowledged for the first time there could be economic con- sequences for California pack- ing houses. The volume of lemons grown in California and Arizo- na is 497,350 metric tons an- nually valued at $647 million, according to USDA. Lem- ons from Mexico and Chile currently dominate the U.S. import market, shipping an average of 46,376 metric tons annually, the agency reports.
