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CapitalPress.com
Friday, May 27, 2022
Dairy
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Nygren crowned Oregon Dairy Princess Ambassador
By SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN
Capital Press
SALEM — Krisarah Nygren,
19, was crowned the 2022-23 Ore-
gon Dairy Princess Ambassador on
May 21.
Oregon Dairy Women, a non-
profi t volunteer organization, has
run the Dairy Princess Ambassa-
dor program since 1959 to advo-
cate for the state’s dairy industry.
The Dairy Princess Ambassador’s
role is to travel around Oregon giv-
ing presentations about the dairy
industry and nutritional benefi ts of
dairy at schools, fairs and commu-
nity events.
Nygren was crowned this year’s
Princess Ambassador in part because
of her “phenomenal public speaking
skills,” according to Oregon Dairy
Women.
“Krisarah (Nygren) is a really
well-rounded individual,” said Jes-
sica Jansen, president of Oregon
Dairy Women. “She has great skills
Courtesy of Katelyn Nicole Photo
Left, Krisarah Nygren, 19, 2022-
2023 Oregon Dairy Princess
Ambassador. Right, Mariana
Llamas, 19, Alternate Oregon
Dairy Princess Ambassador.
in public speaking and advocacy
work.”
Jansen said she’s confi dent
Nygren will be an excellent educator
and representative for the industry.
Nygren, however, wasn’t always
confi dent in public speaking.
“Growing up, I had very severe
social anxiety,” said Nygren.
Then, during her freshman year
of high school, Nygren joined
her school’s FFA program, which
proved transformational, igniting
in her both a love for public speak-
ing and a passion for agriculture.
Nygren competed in FFA’s Dairy
Cattle Evaluation and Milk Qual-
ity and Product Evaluation Career
Development events.
“(FFA) absolutely fl ipped a
switch in me,” she said.
Nygren wasn’t raised on a farm.
She had always been interested in
agriculture — “I felt like I should
have grown up on a farm,” she says
— but it wasn’t until she joined FFA
that she had the opportunity to pur-
sue that interest. Jansen, of Ore-
gon Dairy Women, said the fact that
Nygren wasn’t born into agriculture
but developed a love for it as a teen-
ager made her a unique candidate.
“Some people think you have to
be from a dairy farm or dairy fam-
ily to be a dairy princess,” she said.
“But we need a wide breadth of peo-
ple who are advocating for dairy.”
Nygren graduated from Santiam
Christian High School in 2021 and
is now dual-enrolled at Linn Ben-
ton Community College and Ore-
gon State University. She will enter
her sophomore year this fall with a
major in agricultural sciences and
double minors in political science
and agricultural education.
Nygren said she aspires to advo-
cate for agriculture in policymaking.
She referenced Rep. Shelly Boshart
Davis, R-Albany, as an example of
someone she would like to emulate
who shapes policies and advocates
for rural communities.
Upon being crowned, Nygren
received an educational scholar-
ship. Representing Linn and Ben-
ton counties, Nygren was one of fi ve
county dairy princess ambassadors
vying for the state title.
“I think it was one of the most
competitive contests we’ve had —
such a high caliber of women com-
peting,” said Jansen, of Oregon
Dairy Women.
Representing Tillamook County,
Miriana Llamas — pronounced
“Yahmas” — was named Alternate
Dairy Princess Ambassador and will
assist in promotional events during
2022-23.
Llamas grew up tagging along
with her dad, the head herdsman vet-
erinarian for Misty Meadow Dairy.
Llamas is now a student at Ore-
gon State University pursuing a
joint degree in agricultural sciences
and agricultural and food business
management with a minor in agri-
cultural education. Her goal is to
become a high school agriculture
teacher.
Llamas’ fi rst language is Spanish,
and she said she’s excited to give
presentations to Hispanic students.
“I think that demographic has
never been reached through this pro-
gram, and that is my biggest goal
and that is what I’m most excited
about,” she said.
Shipping problems continue to plague
U.S. dairy; some ports make progress
Oregon DEQ fi nes Tillamook
digester for air quality violations
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
The U.S. dairy industry lost an esti-
mated $1.5 billion in sales last year because
of shipping problems clogging U.S. ports
— and the headaches continue.
“Shipping has become a major chal-
lenge, unlike anything we have seen in the
past 20 years,” said Gabriel Sevilla, vice
president of sales and marketing for Pro-
liant Dairy Ingredients, headquartered in
Ankeny, Iowa.
The days of expediently fi lling and ship-
ping an order are gone. Each transaction
has to be handled at least 20 times before it
reaches the customer, and Proliant needs a
lead time of six weeks, he said during the
latest “Dairy Livestream” podcast.
“Port congestion and rail congestion has
been a major, major problem, and not only
in the U.S. but internationally,” he said.
The ports of Singapore and Hong Kong
were highly congested, and the Port of
Manila — which is one of Proliant’s major
destinations — was so congested that ship-
ping lines canceled all or most of their
shipments there, he said.
As a result, the agricultural trans-ship-
ment ports at Singapore and Hong Kong
redirected barges that Manila could accom-
modate to other, more profi table locations,
he said.
“The shipping lines did not want their
ships having to wait around a month or two
to be unloaded in the port of Manila,” he
said.
With Singapore and Hong Kong con-
gested, the company has rerouted some of
its shipments to other ports in China. But
Shanghai has been in lockdown for over a
month because of COVID-19, and 600 to
700 ships there are waiting to be unloaded,
he said.
There’s also been issues with weather
and port and rail strikes that have caused
the company to reroute, he said.
“Any little thing that happens makes
everything very, very complicated in the
supply chain,” he said.
TILLAMOOK, Ore. —
The Oregon Department of
Environmental Quality has
fi ned a manure digester in Til-
lamook $20,369 for air qual-
ity violations that occurred
between Jan. 1, 2019 and
Nov. 9, 2021.
DEQ issued the fi ne April
12 against Farm Power Tilla-
mook LLC, alleging the com-
pany failed to consistently
operate a combustion fl are
at its facility on McCormick
Loop Drive, allowing meth-
ane gas to be released into the
atmosphere.
Farm Power operates
digesters in western Wash-
ington and Oregon, taking
cow manure from local dair-
ies and converting it into elec-
tricity. Anaerobic digestion
works by heating the waste
to about 100 degrees, which
releases methane. The gas is
captured and used to power a
generator.
When the generator is
down for maintenance or pro-
ducing more biogas than it
can safely process, excess
Associated Press File
Terminal 18 at the Port of Seattle. Port
congestion continues to be a problem
for the export dairy industry.
Port congestion is a global phenome-
non. It’s not limited to the U.S. East Coast
and West Coast, said Andrew Hwang, man-
ager of business development and interna-
tional marketing for the Port of Oakland.
“So just getting your cargo onto a ves-
sel doesn’t mean that you’re not going to
see problems when that vessel arrives at its
destination,” he said.
Recently, about 29 vessels were wait-
ing to get into the Long Beach, Calif.,
complex, the lowest number since maybe
December 2020, he said.
“Any respite that we have is welcome. It
allows the terminals to catch up,” he said.
On May 19, four ships were waiting to
get into the Port of Oakland, Calif.
“It means that our labor has been pro-
cessing the vessels as fast as they can. It
means that there is some fl uidity in the net-
work,” he said.
People are picking up their containers
but not as quickly as hoped. Some termi-
nals are above 90% capacity, he said.
What remains to be seen is what hap-
pens when China reopens. Shanghai is tar-
geting June 1 to be open fully, assuming
there are no further setbacks, he said.
emissions are vented through
a combustion fl are that burns
off harmful air pollutants.
However, DEQ identifi ed
13,402 periods when the Til-
lamook digester’s fl are was
not working when it should
have been.
Each 15-minute inter-
val added up to an equivalent
of 141 days, or 13.5% of the
digester’s total operating time.
According to DEQ’s fi nd-
ings, operators disregarded
warning signals that indicated
the fl are was malfunction-
ing and did not keep records
of when the malfunctions
occurred or what was done to
fi x them.
On Feb. 7, 2022, the com-
pany sent a letter to DEQ
stating it intends to build
a shield around the fl are
to prevent it from failing
to light or being blown out
by wind, and had retrained
operators to respond to text
message warnings con-
nected to the fl are.
Milk output down 1.0% in April
By LEE MIELKE
For the Capital Press
.S. milk produc-
tion continued to lag
that of a year ago in
April, the sixth month in a
row to do so, as cow num-
bers and output per cow
paused.
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The Agriculture Depart-
ment’s latest preliminary
data shows April output at
19.15 billion pounds, down
1.0% from April 2021, and
follows a revised 0.4% drop
in March. April output in
the top 24 producing states
totaled 18.3 billion pounds,
down 0.9%. Only fi ve of
the top 24 producing states
showed an increase in milk
output.
Revisions raised the orig-
inal 50 State March esti-
mate by 23 million pounds
to 19.7 billion, 0.4% below
a year ago, instead of the
0.5% originally reported.
Farmers added 13,000
cows to the milking string
in February, and 22,000 in
March, following a 7,000
head revision, hitting 9.4
million head. The April
count was unchanged from
March, but was 98,000 head
below a year ago.
April output per cow
averaged 2,037 pounds,
unchanged from April 2021.
California output totaled
3.6 billion pounds, down
0.6% from a year ago
despite having 2,000 addi-
tional cows in the string.
Output per cow was down
15 pounds.
Wisconsin was down
0.1%. Cow numbers were
JEWETT
DAIRY
MARKETS
Lee
Mielke
down 1,000 while output
per cow was unchanged.
Idaho was again
unchanged across the board.
Michigan was down
3.4% on 17,000 fewer cows,
though output per cow was
up 10 pounds. Minnesota
was down 1.4% on a 9,000
cow loss, though output
per cow was up 10 pounds.
New Mexico was down
12.9% on 41,000 fewer
cows and a 15-pound loss
per cow.
New York was off 0.8%
on 6,000 fewer cows. Output
per cow was up 5 pounds.
Oregon was up 2.7% on
a 20-pound gain per cow
and 2,000 more cows.
Pennsylvania was down
2.2%, on 8,000 fewer cows
and a 10-pound drop per
cow.
Texas remained the
nation’s No. 3 producer and
put 4.7% more milk in the
tank than a year ago, thanks
to 23,000 more cows and a
20-pound gain per cow.
Washington state was
down 5.4% on 12,000 fewer
cows and a 20-pound drop
per cow.
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A technician for Farm Power Northwest gives a tour of
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