April 13, 2018
CapitalPress.com
9
New leaders emerge from REAL Oregon
First-ever class
in the books
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
Just two weeks after com-
pleting the first Resource
Education and Agricultural
Leadership Program, other-
wise known as REAL Ore-
gon, Matt Mattioda was able
to put his newly refined skills
to the test.
Mattioda, who works as
the chief forester for Miller
Timber Services in Philo-
math, Ore., was informed by
a client that Oregon Treasurer
Tobias Read was interested in
touring a project site to better
understand how trees are har-
vested on the landscape.
“I had a chance to show
him what we’re doing,” Mat-
tioda said of the visit. “If we
don’t reach out and engage
folks ... then whatever comes
our way, we’re just going to
have to deal with it.”
Thanks to REAL Oregon,
Mattioda said he is comfort-
able advocating for his in-
dustry to a high-ranking state
official. The program was
Brazilian
firm acquires
control of
National Beef
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Brazil’s Marfrig Global
Foods has reached an agree-
ment to acquire 51 percent of
National Beef Packing Co. for
$959 million, the company
announced on Monday.
National Beef is the
fourth-largest beef processor
in the U.S., and the acquisition
will make Marfrig the world’s
second-largest beef processor,
with anticipated consolidated
sales of $13 billion.
“The acquisition of Na-
tional Beef represents the
realization of a unique oppor-
tunity,” Martín Secco, CEO
of Marfrig, said in a press re-
lease.
“With the transaction,
we will have operations in
the world’s two largest beef
markets, will gain access to
extremely sophisticated con-
sumer countries and will be
able to grow while maintain-
ing rigorous financial disci-
pline,” he said.
The acquisition consol-
idates Marfrig’s strong po-
sition in the beef industry,
which is the Marfrig’s original
core business. A leader in the
U.S. beef industry, National
Beef exports to 40 countries,
including Japan, a market cur-
rently closed to beef exports
from Brazil.
The transaction will be fi-
nanced by a loan from Rabo-
bank.
Founded in 1992, Nation-
al Beef reported sales of $7.3
billion in 2017 and, since
2011, has been controlled
by Leucadia National Corp.,
which currently holds a 79
percent interest.
National Beef has a
slaughter capacity of 12,000
head of cattle per day and is
headquartered in Kansas City.
It has two slaughterhouses,
in Dodge City and Liberal,
Kan., and accounts for about
13 percent of total U.S. cattle
slaughter capacity.
Once the transaction clos-
es, Leucadia will transfer
control to Marfrig and remain
a minority shareholder in Na-
tional Beef with a 31 percent
interest. U.S. Premium Beef,
an association of 2,100 U.S.
producers, will hold a 15 per-
cent interest. Other sharehold-
ers hold 3 percent interest.
Leucadia and the other in-
vestors have agreed not to sell
their shares of National Beef
for at least five years.
The key executives of Na-
tional Beef, including CEO
Tim Klein, will continue to
manage and remain at the
company.
The board of managers of
National Beef will consist of
nine members, of which five
will be nominated by Marfrig,
two by Leucadia and two by
the other minority members.
Courtesy of Greg Addington/REAL Oregon
The first REAL Oregon class meets at an orchard in southern Oregon.
conceived by businesses to
engage natural resources pro-
fessionals in career and lead-
ership training — everything
from government relations
and conflict resolution to pub-
lic speaking and presentation.
Over the course of five
months, Mattioda and 29
others attended two-day
sessions around the state,
each with a local focus.
The first class graduated
March 8, which included
10 agricultural producers,
three forestry workers, four
government employees and
13 people from natural re-
source support industries.
In addition to leadership
training, Mattioda said REAL
Oregon provided an oppor-
tunity to network and build
bridges across industries.
“I have really grown to ap-
preciate what other folks do
in natural resources, whether
you’re a rancher or a farm-
er,” Mattioda said. “We’re all
in this together. Even if some
folks have differences in opin-
ion, let’s rally around and fo-
cus on those things we have in
common.”
REAL Oregon was estab-
lished in 2017 and is similar
to programs in 34 other states
around the country, including
neighboring Washington and
Idaho. Greg Addington, pro-
gram director, said the ses-
sions are meant to break peo-
ple out of their “silos,” and
understand the bigger picture
for natural resources.
In hindsight, Addington
said the first year could not
have gone any better.
“I think we’re on to some-
thing here,” he said. “There’s
a big need for it in the state.”
Addington, who owns a
consulting company in Klam-
ath Falls, Ore., and is the for-
mer executive director of the
Klamath Water Users Associ-
ation, said he already has a list
of more than 200 names rec-
ommended for future classes.
He is now working on the ap-
plications and curriculum for
the class of 2018-19.
Last year’s program
kicked off in November with
a trip to Ontario, Ore., where
participants learned about
production agriculture. The
group then traveled to New-
port in December for a ses-
sion on commercial fisheries;
Medford in January for tim-
ber; Salem in February for the
legislative session; and Pend-
leton and Boardman in March
for irrigated farming and live-
stock.
“The networking that oc-
curs with such a diverse group
of people is just awesome to
watch,” Addington said.
Megan Thompson, direc-
tor of field services for Cas-
cade Cherry Growers and
Sage Fruit Co. in The Dalles,
Ore., said the networking was
especially valuable for her.
“At some point, we’re all
fighting a very similar fight,”
Thompson said. “We all have
similar causes, and similar
drives, and we all need to
work together for those caus-
es.”
Thompson added the field
trips they took on location fur-
ther drove home the point.
“It was a great experi-
ence,” she said. “I think it’s
made 30 new advocates for
agriculture.”
More information about
REAL Oregon, including an
application form, is available
online at www.realoregon.
net. The program costs $5,000
per person, though half of the
funding is covered by busi-
ness sponsors.
State Wheat Commission announces $2 million gift to University of Idaho
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
BOISE — A $2 million
gift to the University of Ida-
ho from the Idaho Wheat
Commission will be used to
expand educational opportu-
nities focused on managing
agricultural market risks.
The $2 million will be
used to establish an endowed
chair of risk management at
UI’s College of Agricultural
and Life Sciences.
CALS and the College
of Business and Economics
collaborate on a capital man-
agement and trading program
that provides students the op-
portunity to learn about risk
management strategies using
money.
Students in the program
manage commodity margins
and trade in agricultural com-
modities and use a wide vari-
ety of tools, including futures
and options trading and the
use of securities markets to
counterbalance agricultural
risks.
The endowment will sig-
nificantly expand the scope
of the program, university
and commission officials said
during a press conference.
One of the most important
parts of any agricultural busi-
ness is the marketing of prod-
ucts, said Clark Hamilton, a
Ririe, Idaho, farmer and IWC
chairman.
“It’s money well-spent,”
he said about the endowment.
“I think this will come back
to (benefit) the farms and I
think it’s a great investment
for the future. It’s a big shot
in the arm for Idaho agricul-
ture.”
“It will give the wheat
growers of Idaho an addition-
al resource in the marketing
of their grain,” said IWC
Executive Director Blaine
Jacobson.
A UI news release said the
endowment will enable the
university to attract a chair
with “considerable depth of
experience in conducting re-
search related to agricultural
commodity and financial se-
curity markets on a global,
national and regional scale.”
“The endowed chair will
also provide outreach to com-
modity groups, agribusiness-
es, producers, financial insti-
tutions, market participants,
policy makers and others who
use active risk management
practices,” the release said.
The wheat commission
gift “is profound and will
have a lasting impact,” said
CALS Dean Michael Parrel-
la. “What they are doing is
literally transformational.”
Jacobson said the state’s
wheat growers should be
thanked because their assess-
ment dollars made the en-
dowment possible.
“That’s who really de-
serves the credit for this gift,”
he said.
The commission will
give UI $1 million now, and
the other $1 million will be
provided over the next five
years.
Jacobson said the gift is
being funded out of surplus
funds generated by the state’s
wheat assessment over the
past several years, and the
commission does not antici-
pate having to raise the grow-
er assessment to pay for it.
The endowment will not
affect the amount of mon-
ey the commission has in its
annual budgets in support of
research, market development
and information and commu-
nications, said Cathy Wilson,
the IWC’s director of research
collaboration.
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