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About Capital press. (Salem, OR) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 6, 2019)
Friday, December 6, 2019 DAIRY MARKETS Lee Mielke Butter price slips below $2 By LEE MIELKE For Capital Press C ME butter fell below $2 per pound in the Thanksgiv- ing holiday shortened week while the other products strengthened. The 40-pound Ched- dar blocks closed Wednes- day at $1.9625 per pound, 12 cents higher on the week and 60.25 cents above a year ago. The 500-pound Ched- dar barrels saw a Wednesday close at $2.2475 per pound, up 6.25 cents on the week and 93.25 cents above a year ago. Seven cars of block traded hands in the three days of trading, 49 in the month of November, down from 63 in October. Only 2 cars of barrel sold last week, with 16 for the month, down from 66 in October. The blocks lost 3 cents Monday but gained back a penny and a half Tues- day, hitting $1.9475, as trad- ers absorbed the morning’s GDT. The barrels gained a penny Monday and inched a half-cent higher Tues- day, climbing to $2.2625, an inverted 31.5 cents above the blocks. Midwestern cheesemak- ers say the short holiday week saw continued weak- ness in ordering. “Expec- tations were not strong, as market tones are creat- ing a hesitant buyer senti- ment,” says DMN. Extra holiday milk was running as low as $5 under Class. Spot milk was available, but there were still some premi- ums being reported. Some cheesemakers suggest this is their first year seeing pre- miums on spot milk on Thanksgiving week. Mar- ket tones are creating anx- iety among contacts in the region. Some are hopeful for late season Super Bowl related buying activity but “Generally, the market tone is not on terra firma.” Western contacts report that spot cheese sales are a bit slower to materialize as most customers have enough stocks and are not looking to purchase more. The recent declines in CME prices are reinforcing the wait-and-see approach. Retail sales are at seasonal levels and contrac- tual negotiations for 2020 are what end users/buyers are working on. A lot of milk continues to move to the cheese vats. There’s sufficient stocks of blocks and barrels in ware- houses but barrel stocks are becoming more avail- able compared to previous weeks. CME butter finished the week and month at $1.9975 per pound, down 2.75 cents on the week, first time it’s been below $2 since Nov. 15, 2016, and is 24.5 cents below a year ago. Nine cars were sold last week, 58 on the month, down from 115 in October. Butter’s meltdown con- tinued Monday, dropping 2.75 cents, and did it again Tuesday, falling to $1.9425, lowest CME price since Nov. 9, 2016. Butter makers say there were a lot of spot cream loads being offered Thanks- giving Week. Fall stores of bulk butter have been pulled down pretty briskly, according to plant manag- ers. Regional contacts say lower prices may be timely and may spur more buying following holiday demand peaks. Western butter makers report strong demand for print butter. Thanksgiving sales were solid and retail- ers appear eager to reor- der for the next holiday push. Cream supplies are plentiful and inexpensive, resulting in active butter production. CapitalPress.com 9 Dairy industry moving toward designer cows By CAROL RYAN DUMAS Capital Press Technologies such as sexed semen and genetic testing were once an expensive niche for elite cattle, but they are quickly becoming a necessary tool for success, accord- ing to a new report by Rabobank. Rapid advances in breeding tech- nologies and genetics are changing the way dairy producers run their businesses and design their herds, Ben Laine, dairy analyst and author of the report, said. Sexed semen has become com- monplace in the dairy industry, but dairy producers are also using genetics to design their dairy herds, he said. Genomic testing in dairy began in 2009 on elite animals, costing about $200 per test. But the cost has fallen to a range of $30 to $50. Blood or hair follicle samples are taken shortly after birth, and lab results are available in a matter of days. “Producers using genetic test- ing are able to determine a heifer’s genetic potential early in life, before it enters the milking herd,” he said. Replacement costs are the third-highest cost on a dairy, and Capital Press Photo Illustration genetic testing is shifting the mind- set from a tendency to keep every heifer, he said. “Instead, with the additional data, producers can focus more on maintaining the optimal size of their milking herd and maintaining only the best animals in that herd,” he said. Dairy producers are also pairing genetic testing with sexed semen, which increases the likelihood of a cow’s offspring being female to over 90%. “That allows the genetics of the most favorable cows to be main- tained in the milking herd,” he said. Heifers will generally receive sexed semen for their first preg- nancy due to their naturally high conception rates. Beef semen is then bred into the portion of the herd with lower genetic potential. Breeding all first-pregnancy animals with sexed semen could depend on the replacement/milk cow ratio on the farm and herd growth aspirations. But that could start to change among farms that have already made progress on their genetics and aren’t looking to expand, he said. Embryo transplant is also used to maintain favorable genetics in the milking herd. Newborn heifer calves have about 150,000 ova, but a dairy cow normally only has two to four calves over the course of its life. By harvesting and fertilizing the ova and transplanting the embryos, the genetics from a single cow can be passed to many more offspring. In addition, embryos can be trans- ferred to either dairy or beef cows to facilitate herd expansions with spe- cific traits, he said. As the cost of these technologies decreases and word spreads about their effectiveness, more producers will begin using them — and it will become critical to long-term suc- cess, he said. “Producers who are not adopt- ing these technologies will increas- ingly fall behind and see their effi- ciency lag compared to their peers,” he said. New manager hired to run Portland’s Alpenrose Dairy By GEORGE PLAVEN Capital Press PORTLAND — Alpenrose Dairy is under new leadership after the 128-year-old Portland institution was recently bought by a Seattle-area competitor. Smith Brothers Farms, which finalized a deal to purchase Alpenrose on Oct. 14, has hired Josh Reynolds as vice president and general manager of the historic dairy, tasked with over- seeing both day-to-day operations and strategic growth. Reynolds, 49, previously served as CEO of Ruby Jewel, another well- known Portland brand that makes premium ice cream. He also spent nearly 20 years with Gray & Co. — the country’s largest supplier of mara- schino cherries, with processing facil- ities in Oregon and Michigan — until it was acquired by Seneca Foods in 2015. In an interview with the Capital Press, Reynolds said Alpenrose will con- tinue to work with local farms while producing fluid milk, cottage cheese and sour cream at the dairy’s Southwest Josh Portland facilities. Reynolds “We want to be as close to the source as we can, and support Northwest agriculture that way,” Reynolds said. Founded in 1891 by Florian Cadonau, Alpenrose Dairy was owned and operated by four gener- ations of the Cadonau family until plans for a sale materialized earlier this year. The youngest generation of fam- ily owners — Carl Cadonau III, Tracey Cadonau McKinnon and Cary Cadonau, great-great grand- children of Florian Cadonau — attempted to block the sale to Smith Brothers Farms, but were unsuccess- ful in court. On Sept. 26, the Alpenrose Dairy Board of Directors voted to proceed with the sale. Terms have not been disclosed. The deal did not include 52 acres of community space, where Alpenrose has maintained three Lit- tle League baseball fields, a velo- drome track, 4-H Discovery Farm and replica frontier town named “Dairyville.” Public access to the commu- nity space remains unclear moving forward. As for the dairy itself, Reyn- olds said Alpenrose retained “a vast majority” of its 150 employees, and has no plans to downsize. “Downsizing is not fun. Grow- ing and expanding is fun,” Reyn- olds said. “That’s what I signed up to achieve.” During his two years at Ruby Jewel, Reynolds said he was able to help the ice cream company double its revenue and triple its distribution, expanding retail by adding a new shop and setting up mobile locations in venues such as the Moda Center and Oregon Zoo. It was then he became famil- iar with Smith Brothers Farms, and decided to take on a new challenge at Alpenrose. While demand for fluid milk is down, Reynolds said he is eyeing opportunities for new value-added products and markets, such as re-en- tering the ice cream business. For nearly 40 years, Alpenrose made Baskin-Robbins ice cream but parted ways in 2016. Alpenrose currently makes about 900 deliveries every week to custom- ers ranging from small coffee shops to larger grocery stores like New Sea- sons, Trader Joe’s and Fred Meyer. Dustin Highland, CEO of Smith Brothers Farms, said in an announcement that Reynolds will be “integral to the growth and con- tinued sustainability” of Alpenrose. TA K E T H E N E X T L E A P F O R W A R D JohnDeere.com 7 210 to 330 engine hp S157698-1
