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Super Bulldogs
While promoting beef at Super Bulldog Weekend on the Mississippi State campus, MSU Beef Team members provided games for kids of all ages.
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Beef Production Economics Workshop
On the first night of the MSU Extension Service's Cattle Production Economics Workshop, held at EE Ranches, Dr. John Anderson outlined partial budgets to help producers make better management decisions.
The workshop was interactive and producers answered questions anonymously by using a remote electronic answer pad. Dr. Justin Rhinehart compiled the answers and used them in enterprise budgets that gave the participants an idea of the average economic situation for that group. |
Easter Egg Hunt
The Mississippi Beef Council participated on the annual Easter Egg Hunt at the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum. A crowd of over 1500 attended the event. | |
| Columbia Trade Agreement Stalled Indefinately
After President Bush sent the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement to Congress last Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi answered back with a proposal to change Trade Promotion Authority rules by removing the 90-day timeline for mandatory consideration of the trade pact. The House on Thursday, in a vote of 224-194, passed the proposal, which removes any timeframe for consideration of this agreement.
"NCBA supported Trade Promotion Authority for President Clinton and President Bush, and we will support it for whichever candidate occupies the Oval Office in 2009," NCBA President Andy Groseta said. "TPA isn't supposed to be about delaying or avoiding votes on specific trade agreements. It's about taking action in a timely fashion, to give our nation the tools it needs to negotiate and implement agreements effectively."
NCBA remains firm in its commitment to the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement and believes it is one of the best-negotiated free trade agreements for U.S. beef to date. The agreement will provide immediate duty-free access to U.S. prime and choice beef and will remove all other tariffs on beef products over 15 years. Once fully implemented, the Colombian market has potential to equal roughly $10-$20 million a year for the U.S. beef industry.
"Based on yesterday's vote, we are deeply concerned about potential repercussions from our international trading partners," Groseta said. "NCBA has long urged our international trading partners to honor their commitments. What then does it say to the international community if we are willing to betray the trust of our trading partners and change the rules of Trade Promotion Authority in the eleventh hour?". |
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Emergency Funding to Eradicate TB
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the availability of $16.8 million in emergency funding to continue efforts to eradicate bovine tuberculosis in California, Michigan and Minnesota. The emergency funding will be used to depopulate known tuberculosis-affected cattle herds, which is crucial to prevent the spread of the disease and to indemnify producers. The funding will also be used for enhanced surveillance, not only to identify herds but also to determine the source of infection. |
U.S., Korea Resume Trade Talks
A delegation of U.S. trade negotiators, lead by Ellen Terpstra, deputy under secretary for farm and foreign agricultural services, is in Seoul, Korea to resume beef trade talks with the South Korean government. Talks on this issue have been stalled since October when an agreement could not be reached regarding import standards.
The United States has said the U.S.-Korea free trade agreement, which was signed in June 2007, will not be considered until the beef issue is resolved and the Korean market is fully open to U.S. beef and beef products.
The resumption of these talks comes just one week before the new South Korean President Lee Myung-bak is scheduled to make his first visit to the United States since his inauguration on February 25. He will visit with President Bush at Camp David April 17-18. |
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Montana Rancher Testifies
Montana Rancher and NCBA member Randy Smith, of Glen, Mont., testified in opposition to Senate Bill 1870, the Clean Water Restoration Act, during the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing Wednesday, April 9. S.1870 proposes to strike the word "navigable" from the Clean Water Act's (CWA) definition of "waters of the United States," which would greatly expand the reach of the CWA.
"NCBA and the Montana Stockgrowers Association do not agree that this bill 'restores' Congressional intent regarding the extent of federal jurisdiction over waters," Smith said. "Instead, this bill ignores Congressional intent and greatly expands federal jurisdiction far beyond anything Congress imagined at the time of enactment."
Smith warned that broad expansion of the CWA would impose a significant financial burden on the nation's farmers and ranchers and harm their private property rights, while doing little to improve the environment.
"It is one thing to regulate navigable waters and wetlands that have a 'significant nexus' to those waters because they have true environmental value," Smith told the committee. "It is another thing to regulate every wet area, or potentially wet area, simply because it is wet, regardless of the fact that those areas provide very little if any environmental value. To think that a rancher would be forced to get a Section 404 permit whenever a cow stepped in a dry wash or a puddle is nothing less than shocking."
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NCBA Submits Comments
NCBA submitted on Monday, April 7, comments to the EPA regarding the Clean Water Act CAFO Supplemental Proposed Rule, which would allow CAFOs to voluntarily certify that they do not discharge or that they do not intend to discharge. NCBA generally supports the concepts contained in the supplemental proposed rulemaking. In particular, we are supportive and appreciate the EPA proposal to include the "narrative approach" with respect to rates of application as a term of a CAFO's nutrient management plan.
The comments also bring to attention several points of concern NCBA has with the supplemental rule. First, we are skeptical about whether producers would be willing to go through the very complex certification process if they would still be subject to liability for any rare and unexpected discharge that may occur. Second, we emphasize the importance of the producer's ability to utilize the phosphorus index or State-approved method as a tool to determine whether to land apply manure or process wastewater at nitrogen or phosphorus application rates. Finally, NCBA urges EPA to extend the compliance deadline to two years after the states have completed their regulatory process incorporating new EPA requirements that will be in the final rule.
"We appreciate the fact that the EPA is working to address some of our concerns, but they still have a ways to go," NCBA Chief Environment Counsel Tamara Thies said. "We are hopeful that more will be addressed in the final rule, which we expect to be released later this summer." | |
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Market Highlights
Friday, April 11, 2008
At press time, an active fed cattle trade was underway in the North. Dressed trade was $3 to $4 higher at $142 and live trade ranged from $87 to $88.50, up $0.50 to $2 compared to last week. Trade in the South had not developed, but a light volume had been noted in Kansas at $87 live and $142 dressed. Feeder cattle values mixed from $2 to $3 higher to $2 lower and stocker values were mostly $1 to $3 lower. Market cow values were mixed from $1 higher to $2 lower. Boxed beef values were sharply higher with better movement this week. Through Thursday, Choice gained $4.27 at $141.94 and Select was up $4.16 at $141.16. |
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Cattle Feeding Econonmics
Dr. John Anderson provided this illustration of a senario facing many feeders.
A feeder steer placed in the feedlot last October/November weighing 750 pounds at a delivered price of $110 with a total cost of gain (feed and non-feed costs) of $0.80 would break even at $98 (assuming a 1,250 pound sale weight). At $86, that animal loses $150/head. Viewed another way, that hypothetical feeder calf placed at 750 pounds for $110 and sold at 1,250 would have to have fed for a $0.50/lb total cost of gain in order to break even at $86. This is a grim situation for cattle feeders. It is hard to imagine anyone who has closed out fed cattle in the last couple of weeks having any enthusiasm for going back in. |
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Calendar of Events
April
15 Kemper CCA
17 Tishomingo CCA
21 Pike CCA
24 Marshall CCA
26 Tanner Farms Sale
May
3 Gelbvieh Field Day,
Grenada
3 Angus Assoc.
Sale, Raymond
8, 9 NCBA Region II, Columbus, GA |
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Attend the 17th annual Making Tracks Wax Leadership Camp
sponsored by Mississippi State University, MississippiCattlemen's Foundation, and The Wax Company. | |
