10 CapitalPress.com
Subscribe to our weekly dairy or livestock email
newsletter at CapitalPress.com/newsletters
May 5, 2017
Dairy/Livestock
Trump’s boost to China trade encourages U.S. beef industry
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
The prospect of resuming
U.S. exports to the $2.6 bil-
lion Chinese beef import mar-
ket after a 13-year hiatus is
cause for excitement, but no
one’s getting too giddy yet,
U.S. industry observers say.
President Donald Trump
championed the U.S. beef in-
dustry’s interest in restoring
access to China during his
recent summit with Chinese
President Xi Jinping.
China officially lifted its
U.S. beef import ban last
September, but no trade has
yet taken place. The ban had
been in place since Decem-
ber 2003, when the first U.S.
case of bovine spongiform
encephalitis was discovered.
“We’re still unable to send
beef into the Chinese market
because we still face tech-
nical barriers to trade,” said
Alex Brandon/Associated Press File
President Donald Trump, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping
walk together after their April 7 meeting at Mar-a-Lago in Palm
Beach, Fla. The two leaders agreed on a list of action items that
includes negotiations to expedite the export of U.S. beef to China.
Kent Baucus, director of in-
ternational trade and market
access for the National Cat-
tlemen’s Beef Association.
Resumption of Chinese
beef imports was one of the
action items identified during
the Trump-Xi summit to be
addressed during the next
100 days. U.S. and Chinese
officials will be working on a
path forward to resolve some
of the technical barriers, in-
cluding traceability, he said.
ISDA delivers more flood-related violations
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Three more southern Ida-
ho dairies have been issued
state notices of violations after
unprecedented heavy snowfall
and freezing temperatures fol-
lowed by warm weather and
rain that caused flooding.
The Idaho State Depart-
ment of Agriculture has given
Capital Press notices of viola-
tions it recently sent to dairy-
men.
Eagle Ridge Dairy of Kuna
faces a penalty of $10,000 for
the Feb. 6 unauthorized release
of wastewater off the property
into a culvert and eventually
into a neighboring field, due to
a failure to properly maintain
its environmental management
system.
ISDA’s investigation report
states runoff from the dairy
was the result of a breach in
one of the dairy’s compost yard
containments receiving run-on
from surrounding fields.
It also states the dairy didn’t
divert or pump the water into its
lagoons to mitigate the impact
of the run-on.
Veenstra Dairy of Hager-
man faces a $10,000 penalty
for an unauthorized release
on Feb. 13, stemming from a
break in an earthen lagoon that
caused wastewater to flow off
the property and into fields and
irrigation ditches and continue
into West Canal and Tupper
Springs.
The runoff was further con-
taminated by waste the dairy
had applied to one of its fields
but hadn’t incorporated into the
soil. The runoff flowed into an
irrigation retention pond on the
property, but excessive erosion
around tree roots created a large
hole in the bank of the pond that
allowed effluent to flow off the
property.
Sousa Dairy of Buhl is
facing a $4,000 penalty for an
unauthorized release on Dec.
10 for wastewater flowing off
the property, into a culvert and
onto neighboring fields. The in-
vestigation report doesn’t state
an event contributing to the re-
lease.
Capital Press last month
reported that ISDA issued a
$70,000 civil penalty to 4 Bros.
Dairy of Shoshone for seven
unauthorized releases of waste-
water off the property and into
the Milner Gooding Canal from
Feb 20 to Feb. 23.
ISDA’s investigation report
states the owners reported the
discharges and said the dairy’s
containment was overwhelmed
by run-on from neighboring
fields after protection berms
were breached.
Every operation has had
different circumstances and a
different strategy to mitigate
winter-weather and flood situa-
tions, and ISDA evaluates each
on a case-by-case basis, said
Chanel Tewalt, ISDA chief of
operations/communications.
“While the ISDA has com-
pleted several recent investiga-
tions, it is still early in the en-
forcement process on many of
these cases,” she said.
Many of the open inves-
tigations were precipitated
by winter weather, but ISDA
also conducts annual investi-
gations on all confined animal
feeding operations and inves-
tigates complaints, she said.
The U.S. Meat Export
Federation is always encour-
aged when market access for
U.S. beef is discussed at the
highest levels of government,
said Joe Schuele, USMEF
vice president of communi-
cations.
“The key will be for the
two sides to come to agree-
ment on the technical re-
quirements for U.S. beef that
will be eligible for export to
China,” he said.
Until those requirements
and the percentage of U.S.
beef that will be eligible are
known, it’s difficult to make
any projections for beef ex-
ports to China, he said.
But there’s a tremendous
amount of opportunity, Bau-
cus said.
China is home to one-fifth
of the world’s population and
a middle class that’s larger
than the entire U.S. popula-
tion. It has become a major
importer of beef from other
nations, he said.
Beef industry analysts are
also weighing in on the pros-
pects.
“The rapid growth in Chi-
nese beef imports recently
provides significant export
market potential for U.S.
beef,” Derrell Peel, Oklaho-
ma State University livestock
marketing specialist, said in
this week’s Cow/Calf Corner
newsletter.
Chinese beef imports are
projected at 950,000 met-
ric tons, up 17 percent from
2016, and will exceed 12 per-
cent of total global beef im-
ports, he said.
Short-term prospects for
the U.S. are likely to be mod-
est, however, as U.S. beef
establishes market share and
official shipments displace
unofficial shipments already
reaching China through Hong
Kong and Vietnam, he said.
Josh Maples, an ag econo-
mist at Mississippi State Uni-
versity, agrees a lot of work
will be needed to establish
market share.
While there is enormous
potential for growth in Chi-
nese beef consumption —
forecast at 12.7 pounds per
person in 2017, compared
to 56.2 pounds in the U.S.
— that growth is likely to
be throttled by household
income, he said in the Live-
stock Marketing Information
Center’s latest In The Cattle
Markets report.
In addition, China’s im-
ports are mainly grass-fed
beef and U.S. production is
overwhelmingly grain-fed, he
said.
They and other analysts
also point out that traceabili-
ty and the use of growth pro-
motants are two of the issues
that will have to be negotiated
before trade starts.
Idaho dairy industry to host
global nutrition conference
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
United Dairymen of Ida-
ho will bring dairy nutrition
to the world stage when it
co-hosts a conference on
the links between economic
growth in developing coun-
tries and access to dairy-con-
taining supplements on May
10 and 11 in Boise.
“Dairy Nutrition: An En-
gine for Economic Growth
— The First 1,000 Days and
Beyond” is designed to in-
form the aid community about
the science-based benefits
of dairy nutrients for use in
programs aimed at reducing
stunting and malnutrition in
infants and children.
Co-hosted by the U.S.
Dairy Export Council, it will
focus on the role of both pre-
natal and postnatal dairy nu-
trition and its impact on eco-
nomic development.
It will also fulfill UDI’s
mission to in-
spire trust in
dairy farming
and dairy prod-
ucts and build
demand around
the world, said
Karianne
Karianne Fal-
Fallow
low, CEO of the
organization.
Not only do dairymen take
pride in producing a nutritious
product for the world, “they
are investors in the U.S. Dairy
Export Council and have long
invested in research in dairy
benefits in human health,” she
said.
The conference is fo-
cused on preventing stunt-
ing and malnutrition in the
first 1,000 days of a child’s
life, and dairy is a source of
high-quality protein crucial
in preventing those maladies,
she said.
Breast milk is recom-
mended by international
health organizations for in-
fants up to six months of age,
but dairy protein offers an ex-
cellent alternative when that’s
not possible, she said.
It also provides a higher
rate of recovery from stunting
and malnutrition than alterna-
tive proteins, she said.
The conference will also
explore the benefits of dairy
protein for mothers-to-be in
preventing low-weight births,
stunting that often begins in
utero and faltering intrauter-
ine growth.
The agenda includes
speakers involved in global
food and nutrition issues, re-
search and economic devel-
opment.
Attendees will come from
across the country and around
the world, representing aca-
demia, public health and edu-
cation agencies, non-govern-
ment food-aid organizations,
dairy product developers and
processors and more, Fallow
said.
Dairy
Markets
Lee Mielke
Cheese prices
weaken;
inventory builds
By LEE MIELKE
For the Capital Press
C
18-4\#04N
ME block cheddar
closed the last day
of trading in April at
$1.48 per pound, down 6
1/2-cents on the week but 11
cents above a year ago.
The barrels finished at
$1.4175, down a penny on the
week, a half-cent above a year
ago, and narrowed the spread
to 6 1/4-cents.
The cheese was unchanged
Monday, as traders anticipat-
ed Tuesday morning’s Glob-
al Dairy Trade auction. The
blocks were steady Tuesday
but the barrels inched a quar-
ter-cent lower, to $1.4150.
Fresh cheese is in tight sup-
ply, according to the April 21
Dairy and Food Market Ana-
lyst, and “blocks less than 30
days old are the ones that trade
at the CME. Cheese invento-
ries are huge, but much of this
product can’t come to the ex-
change.”
Dairy Market News says
the cheese market tone is “un-
certain” and production for the
most part continues to match
abundant milk supplies.
Butter finished Friday
at $2.1050 per pound, up
1 1/2-cents on the week but
1 1/2-cents below a year ago.
Twenty cars traded hands last
week.
The butter gave up
1 1/4-cents Monday but was
up 2 1/4 cents Tuesday, to
$2.1150.
Cream remains available
for churns in the Central re-
gion but Class II producers
continue to show increased
interest in cream. Butter de-
mand is steady to slightly
strong but inventory is steady
to building.