Official laboratories in Canada and the United Kingdom have confirmed USDA's diagnosis of atypical BSE in a cow tested and discovered in Tulare County, California, the department's Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) said this week. At the same time, APHIS said investigation of feed records at the primary dairy - the one on which the cow lived - show no violations of the federal BSE feed rule, and audits of all feed suppliers show them to be in compliance with the federal rule banning the feeding of mammalian proteins to bovine animals. The two California dairies quarantined after the discovery have been released from those quarantines following inventory and records reviews. All progeny of the BSE cow have been located and tested, with none testing positive for BSE, APHIS said. The department continues to trace 10-12 animals which resided on the primary farm while the BSE cow was alive and for which records exist to allow them to be traced. All other "cohorts" of the BSE cow are dead or have been eliminated from tracing.

Stabenow, Roberts File Revised Farm Bill for Floor Action Next Month -- A new 1,009-page version of the Senate Agriculture Committee's approved 2012 Farm Bill was introduced this week by the committee's chair, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D, MI), and the ranking member, Sen. Pat Roberts (R, KS). The bill reflects modifications negotiated since the committee markup, and is part of preparations for floor action in early June. The bill contains "adjustments" to the crop insurance section that would require farmers who sign up for new supplemental insurance coverage to pay a 10% deductible, a move designed in part to preserve the much-promoted $23-billion savings by inserting an "offset" to other costs. There's also new language benefitting midwestern popcorn producers and a new "terminal lakes program" for desert areas, a move important to Nevada and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, NV).  

 

The battle between North and South and among commodity groups continues, with southern rice and peanut producers contending the Senate bill continues to favor northern producers by pegging benefits to some form of crop insurance, a product southerners don't use as much as their Midwest colleagues. Roberts said the negotiations continue and there could be a major floor amendment to shift the commodity title coverage to satisfy southern producer groups. Stabenow this week continued to defend the Senate bill even as she continues to "negotiate with southern interests." She said her bill is the more "market-oriented" approach to protecting producer income, explaining her bill protects farmers when revenues drop, not when House-favored target prices kick in. She also argued that for years, southern crops - mainly cotton, rice and peanuts - received disproportionately higher federal farm program support rates than did corn, wheat and soybean producers, justified by higher production costs. Over in the House, ag leaders acknowledged their target for cost savings is now about $34 billion over 10 years, compared with the Senate's $23 billion in savings. Part of that additional savings will come from deeper cuts to nutrition programs than in the Senate, a move Lucas said will balance cuts in farm programs with cuts in food stamps and a move Stabenow opposes. A copy of the revised bill can be found at www.ag.senate.gov/issues/farm-bill.

 

NMPF Disputes Critics: Consumer Price, Export Impact of Supply Proposal is Negligible -- It's an effective policy, says the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) of its supply management scheme in the Senate Farm Bill, and a program that will have "little impact" on consumer prices or exporters. NMPF was referring to its margin protection program and the more controversial "market stabilization" program that critics say is nothing less than federal production/supply management. The House Agriculture Committee asked for an analysis of the so-called Dairy Security Act, and Dr. Scott Brown of the University of Missouri reported the revised dairy support programs under consideration protect farmers economically from low margins based on feed costs, reverse those low margins more quickly and do not "adversely impact consumer prices or exports of U.S. dairy products." Brown analyzed prospective milk production from 2012-2022, and estimated under the NMPF proposal, milk production would only be about one-tenth of 1% less than what would occur if NMPF proposal is not part of the Farm Bill, with the program only kicking in on average about 7.5% of the time studied or 10 months out of the 11-year analysis.  

 

Biofuels Industry Pushing Hard on House to Retain Energy Title Programs -- Saying the Senate got it right, the biofuels industry this week called on the House Agriculture Committee to retain USDA energy programs slated to expire at the end of the fiscal year. The problem is a budget formula issue: If the programs are allowed to expire, the House committee would have to find cuts in other programs to pay for them as they'd no longer be part of the Farm Bill baseline. The Senate Farm Bill carries about $800 million in mandatory funding for energy programs, offset by cuts elsewhere in farm programs. The programs provide loan guarantees, loans, and grants for bioenergy projects, and analysts told the House ag panel these programs will pay for themselves over time. At the last House ag subcommittee hearing held late last week, the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) told the panel that the nation's first commercial cellulosic ethanol plant - made possible by a loan from USDA's biorefinery assistance program - is only "weeks away" from starting operation in Florida, with the feedstock being crop waste and other non-edible plant matter, including corn stalks and wood chips. Another witness said the Biomass Crop Assistance program allowed him to put 225 farmers under contract to raise switchgrass as a feedstock for a bioenergy project. The industry also asked that USDA be allowed to fund programs from concept through viability. Some subcommittee members cautioned, however, that projects dependent on federal funding may never reach commercial viability.

 

Nearly 70 House Members Call for Specialty Crop Protections -- A letter this week to House Agriculture Committee Chair Frank Lucas (R, OK) and Ranking Member Collin Peterson (D, MN) from 66 House members calls on the ag panel leaders to ensure that "full and fair consideration" is given to fruit and vegetable growers need for enhanced research, pest management and trade assistance. The Senate version of the Farm Bill essentially preserves all existing specialty crop provisions of the current law, and with Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D, MI), chair of the Senate committee, from a specialty crop state, these provisions are expected to survive and could expand once the Farm Bill reaches conference committee reconciliation.

 

Sen. James Inhofe (R, OK), ranking member of the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee, this week moved to limit or end military spending on renewable energy and biofuels. Inhofe said the Administration's "green agenda" is allocating too much money to alternative energy, money that could better be spent on other defense projects. He pledged to offer several floor amendments to a defense authorization bill to thwart the so-called "green agenda". The Senate move is similar to a House action that would exempt the Department of Defense (DOD) from Administration requirements to purchase alternative fuels under the so-called energy independence act and would limit the amount of money available to DOD to buy bioenergy. Inhofe said the federal government has spent $86.4 billion on global warming activities since 2008, citing a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report.

The 2012 California Animal Nutrition Conference (CANC) was held May 16 & 17 at the Radisson Hotel & Conference Center in Fresno, California.

 

CANC is one of the largest animal nutrition conferences in the US and attracts over 300 participants from both industry and academia. The two-day program featured twenty speakers from across the country. Wednesday's Technical Symposium was sponsored by Adisseo USA Inc. The Keynote speaker was Jolene Brown, "It's a Jungle Out There - Blazing New Trails for Agriculture". Jolene's presentation was educational, humorous, and inspirational. The Wednesday evening social hour and Barbeque at Fresno State was once again a huge success.

 

The newly initiated Platinum Sponsorship represents a $500 scholarship award to a worthy poster presenter as well as a $500 sponsorship for the CANC conference. In our inaugural year the following nine companies were Platinum Sponsors: A.L. Gilbert Company, Arm & Hammer Animal Nutrition, DeGroot Dairy Consulting, LLC, Mycogen Seeds, Novus International, Inc., Penny Newman Grain, Inc., Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., Prince Agri Products, Inc. and Westway Feed Products. This year's $1500 Scholarship winner was Nadia Swanepoel from the University of California, Davis. Nadia presented her paper to the CANC Conference on Wednesday afternoon. This year's poster presentation winners were as follows:

 

1st Place - $1250 - Qian Wang, University of California, Davis; 2nd Place - $1000 - Grace Cun, University of California, Davis; 3rd Place - $750 - Sara Place, University of California, Davis. Also, the following students received $500 scholarships for participating in the poster competition: Sara Place, University of California, Davis, Jamie Balducci, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo; Kira Hydock, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park; Bryn Jones, CSU, Fresno; Courtney Moskios, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park; Sarah Shane, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park; and Jill Soderstrom, University of California, Davis. Congratulations to all the poster presenters and a huge thank you to the Platinum Sponsors for supporting this important event at CANC. Please see attached picture of the CANC poster presenters.

 

 

Congratulations to this year's Meritorious Service Award winner, Dr. William A. Dudley-Cash. Dr. Cash was Chairman of the CANC Steering Committee in 1985.

 

I would be remiss as the CANC Coordinator if I did not mention the passing of Dr. Franklin Parks. Dr. Parks will be forever remembered as one of the founding fathers of CANC. CANC's success today can be directly attributed to Dr. Parks. He will be missed.

 

Thank you to the many CANC Sponsors and to the CANC Steering Committee for their support and dedication to ensuring the success of this year's program.

 

OF THE CGFA MEMBERSHIP DRIVE 

 

1st Place 4 tickets to a San Francisco Giants Game 

2nd Place 2 tickets to a Los Angeles Dodgers Game 

3rd Place $100 Gift Certificate to Bass Pro Shops 

Late this week the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) issued regulatory guidance on its definition of a tank vehicle. A year ago FMCSA said a "tank vehicle" is a vehicle moving cargoes of bulk (greater than 119 gallons) tanks that were permanently or temporarily attached to the vehicles chassis and with an aggregate capacity of more than 1,000 gallons. The guidance issued this week says that definition does not include intermediate bulk containers, and any tank that is properly secured in a vehicle should be considered "attached to the chassis" regardless of how it's secured. Finally, the guidance says that bulk tanks that are manifested as empty or as residue do not count toward the 1,000-gal. threshold to be a tank vehicle. The clarification and guidance was the result of an American Trucking Assn. (ATA) petition. Details can be found by going to www.dot.gov and searching FMCSA.

USDA announced this week it has accepted 3.9 million acres for enrollment in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) general sign-up just completed.  The department received during the five-week extended signup 48,000 offers on more than 4.5 million acres.  Since President Obama was elected, USDA has enrolled nearly 12 million acres into the program, bringing the current total number of acres enrolled to 29.6 million.  The cap on CRP is 32 million acres.  This enrollment, USDA said, will allow the department to continue targeting CRP acres through continuous sign-up programs, such as the one announced earlier this year on highly erodible land, grasslands and wetlands. The two new continuous sign up initiatives will target an additional 1.75 million acres.