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Court requires CAFOs to report air emissions

Meatingplace (free registration required) | Posted on April 13, 2017

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has thrown out a 2008 final rule issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that had exempted concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) from reporting when large quantities of hazardous materials such as ammonia and hydrogen sulfide are released into the air from animal waste. EPA had reasoned that such reports were unnecessary because a federal response was “impractical and unlikely,” the appeals court noted in its ruling.


NIFA Announces $2.4 Million to Relieve Veterinary Shortages

Bovine Vet Online | Posted on April 11, 2017

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) today announced $2.4 million in available funding to relieve veterinarian shortage situations and support veterinary services. Funding is made through NIFA's Veterinary Services Grant Program (VSGP), authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill. 


China agrees again to allow U.S. beef, ending ban since 2003

Meatingplace (free registration required) | Posted on April 11, 2017

China has agreed once more to allow U.S. beef exports to that country, ending a ban in effect since 2003. The deal was struck over the weekend between President Donald Trump and China President Xi Jinping.  The opportunity for U.S. beef exporters could be significant. Global AgriTrends calculates the greater China region (China, Hong Kong, Vietnam) as a $7 billion dollar market, according to Stephens Inc. analyst Farha Aslam.In a note to investors, Aslam cautioned, however, that China has twice before agreed to grant market access to U.S. beef but regulatory hurdles have prevented any real trade to materialize.


Activist report finds humane slaughter enforcement lacking

Meatingplace (free registration required) | Posted on April 10, 2017

A new report from the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) concludes that the level of enforcement of the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act varies dramatically by state, and says repeat violators are a major problem. Overall, humane slaughter enforcement remains low in comparison with other aspects of food safety enforcement, states the report, which is titled, “Humane Slaughter Update: Federal and State Oversight of the Welfare of Meat Animals at Slaughter.” AWI assigns a grade, from A to F, to each of the 27 state-operated meat inspection programs, based on how well they enforce the federal humane slaughter law. Louisiana stands at the bottom of the rankings due to its failure to take any enforcement action for inhumane slaughter in over 12 years, according to the report.


Current Tax Breaks Defended

DTN | Posted on April 10, 2017

Witnesses at a House Agriculture Committee hearing on opportunities for tax reform in rural America declined Wednesday to take a position on the proposed border adjustability tax while saying that a range of current farm and ranch tax breaks should remain in place. Patricia Wolff, senior director for congressional relations at the American Farm Bureau Federation, said that the Farm Bureau has not taken a position on the border adjustability tax because it has positives and negatives, and it has not been put on paper yet."Until we know what the proposal is, it is hard to say the impact it will have on our industry. We need to see how it is structured, how it is written before taking a position," Wolff said under questioning.Wolff noted that the border adjustability tax would tax a product when it is consumed rather than when it is produced. That would mean products being exported would not be taxed, but imports -- including fertilizer and fuel -- would be taxed.Doug Claussen, a certified public accountant with KCoe Isom, LLP, a firm that serves farmers in the Great Plains and California, said that the benefit of not taxing the exported product would go directly to the exporter, and it would be hard for people in agriculture to determine the benefit unless they farm near the border and export directly. A producer in Kansas whose wheat goes to the elevator and from there to the Gulf of Mexico would have a hard time seeing the benefit


Destructive weed threatens U.S. corn fields

Reuters | Posted on April 10, 2017

A U.S. government program designed to convert farmland to wildlife habitat has triggered the spread of a fast-growing weed that threatens to strangle crops in America's rural heartland.The weed is hard to kill and, if left unchecked, destroys as much as 91 percent of corn on infested land, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). It is spreading across Iowa, which accounts for nearly a fifth of U.S. corn production and in 2016 exported more than $1 billion of corn and soy.The federal Conservation Reserve Program pays farmers to remove land from production to improve water quality, prevent soil erosion and protect endangered species.The destructive weed - Palmer amaranth – has spread through seed sold to farmers in the conservation program, according to Iowa's top weeds scientist, Bob Hartzler, and the conservation group Pheasants Forever."We are very confident that some of these seed mixes were contaminated," Hartzler said.Hartzler, an Iowa State University agronomy professor, said one seller was Allendan Seed Company, the state's largest producer of local grass and wildflower seeds for conservation land. Palmer amaranth first arrived in Iowa in 2013 but exploded across the state last year, spreading from 5 to 48 of the state's 99 counties, according to Iowa State University. In at least 35 of those counties, the weed was found on land in the conservation program.


Vilsack: Canada intentionally choking off U.S. milk sales

Ag Daily | Posted on April 6, 2017

The National Milk Producers Federation, the U.S. Dairy Export Council, and the International Dairy Foods Association are asking the federal government, and governors in northern states, to take immediate action in response to Canada’s violation of its trade commitments to the United States. Because of the new “Class 7” pricing policy, which is expressly designed to disadvantage U.S. exports to Canada and globally, multiple dairy companies in Wisconsin and New York have been forced to inform many of their supplying farmers that the Canadian market for their exports has dried up. For some farmers, this means that the company processing their milk and shipping it up North can no longer accept it starting in May. This is a direct consequence of the country’s National Ingredients Strategy and new Class 7 milk pricing program. “Canada’s protectionist dairy policies are having precisely the effect Canada intended: cutting off U.S. dairy exports of ultra-filtered milk to Canada despite long-standing contracts with American companies,” said Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of NMPF. “American companies have invested in new equipment and asked dairy farmers to supply the milk to meet demand in the Canadian dairy market. This export access has suddenly disappeared, not because the market is gone, but because the Canadian government has reneged on its commitments.”“Our federal and state governments cannot abide by Canada’s disregard for its trade commitment to the United States and its intentional decision to pursue policies that are choking off sales of American-made milk to the detriment of U.S. dairy farmers,” said Tom Vilsack, president and CEO of USDEC. “It is deeply concerning that Canada has chosen to continue down a ‘beggar thy neighbor’ path of addressing its internal issues by forcing the U.S. dairy industry to bear the harmful consequences.” Vilsack noted that while farm families in the Northeast and Midwest are suffering the immediate consequences of the loss of Canadian markets, “thousands more will suffer if Canada persists in using its programs to distort the global milk powder markets so critical to tens of thousands of American dairy farmers.”


Defying Trump, Supreme Court will continue with WOTUS case

Utility Drive | Posted on April 5, 2017

The U.S. Supreme Court declined a request to stay litigation over the controversial Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule, which the White House asked for as it reconsiders the environmental regulations. Last month President Trump signed an executive order directing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider the controversial WOTUS rule, in which the Obama administration clarified federal jurisdiction over waterways and wetlands under the Clean Water Act of 1972.The question before the Supreme Court includes whether District or Circuit courts have jurisdiction over the rule. The White House had asked to hold the case in abeyance as it makes several major environmental policy moves.


Farmers to plant record low wheat acres, most soybeans ever

Weau.com | Posted on April 5, 2017

In its annual prospective plantings report released Friday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said wheat acres will be the lowest on record this year at 46.1 million acres and soybean planting will be at a record high of 89.5 million acres.  The United States has more than 1 billion bushels of surplus wheat in storage and the oversupply has driven wheat farmers in several states including Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio and South Dakota to shift previously planted wheat acres to soybeans.  "The big trend there is that wheat is grown in just about every continent around the world except Antarctica so those acres elsewhere have increased dramatically. The U.S. has lost production to the rest of the world," said Todd Hultman, a grain market analyst for DTN, an Omaha, Nebraska-based agriculture market data provider.


APHIS Announces Public Meetings on Animal Disease Traceability

USDA | Posted on April 5, 2017

The United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is announcing a series of public meetings to receive input on the current Animal Disease Traceability system.  The meetings will allow APHIS to hear from the public about the successes and challenges of the current ADT framework, specifically for traceability in cattle and bison.  They will also provide attendees an opportunity to brainstorm ideas about overcoming these challenges and finding ways to fill gaps in the existing system. These meetings will be held from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. in seven locations: 

  • April 11: Oklahoma City, OK, Tower Hotel Oklahoma City, 3233 Northwest Expressway
  • April 13: Riverdale, MD, USDA Center at Riverside, 4700 River Road
  • April 20: Nashville, TN, Renaissance Nashville Hotel, 611 Commerce Street
  • May 2: Bloomington, MN, Embassy Suites Minneapolis Airport, 7901 34th Avenue South
  • May 4: Denver, CO, Doubletree by Hilton Denver, 3203 Quebec Street
  • May 11: Rancho Cordova, CA, Sacramento Marriott Rancho Cordova, 11211 Point East Drive
  • May 24: Billings, MT, Hilton Garden Inn Billings, 2465 Grant Road 

If you plan to attend a meeting, please register in advance by visiting http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal-health/adt-meeting-registrations  Same-day registration will also be available at each meeting site. 


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