Oct. 11, 2007
Beef Flavor Counts More Than Tenderness
There’s been a lot of talk about tenderness in the beef industry lately. Tenderness markers have been identified and bulls are marketed with much fanfare surrounding this single trait. So tenderness must be king with the consumer, right?
Not so fast, says Mark Miller, San Antonio Live Stock Show distinguished professor of meat science at Texas Tech University.
“Beef can fail due to flavor, too,” he says. “Once there’s enough tenderness across the industry, then we have to focus on the flavor.”
Recent Texas Tech University research shows that 1,440 consumers actually placed more value on flavor than on tenderness. The grand summary says flavor held 59% of the importance in determining if a cut of beef met the participant’s satisfaction level. Tenderness came in second at 25%, followed by juiciness.
“They varied a little, but flavor and tenderness were the most important in every demographic,” he says. The research compared USDA Choice and USDA Select in three markets: the Washington D.C./Boston, Mass., area; Lubbock, Texas; and Phoenix, Ariz. It also tested several groups of people, categorized by income, gender, age and education.
You might think consumers with limited income are easier to please. Not so, the study found. “People in the low-income group determine satisfaction based on these same factors,” Miller says. “All beef consumers can tell beef palatability in the same way.”
Miller says results of a 2005 National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) survey indicate that around 90% of all beef meets the “acceptable” level for tenderness. That’s determined by Warner-Bratzler shear force (WBSF); beef cuts that require more than 4.9 kilograms, or 10.8 lb., of force to shear are a problem for most consumers.
“When 90% of the beef in the U.S. meets tenderness thresholds, flavor is going to become the most important driver,” he says. Although more research needs to be done on what factors influence beef’s taste, Miller has an idea where to start.
“We know marbling has a big effect on flavor,” he says. “A higher degree of marbling increases the flavor,” he says.
The Texas Tech take-home point, Miller says, is that consumers don’t just want tender beef; they want tasty, tender beef. The industry must maintain its focus on assuring tenderness while facing the fact that it must add more focus on marbling.
As USDA waits out the 60 days before its final rule normalizing cattle trade with Canada takes effect, the agency says it's soliciting Mexico for similar concessions with regard to U.S. beef breeding cattle and beef products from older animals.
"We've already started the process [of establishing dates for talks with Mexico]," Chuck Lambert, USDA's deputy under secretary for marketing and regulatory programs, told Meatingplace.com during an interview in Washington.
Mexico is the largest market for U.S. beef products, importing more than 370,000 metric tons of beef with a value exceeding $1 billion in 2006. However, Mexico's border has been closed to breeding cattle and beef products from animals older than 30 months of age since the first U.S. case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy occurred in 2003.
"Our objective is to have them do everything for us that we have done for Canada," Lambert said. (See U.S. reopens border to older Canadian cattle on Meatingplace.com, Sept. 14, 2007.)
USDA's rule also clears the way for Mexico to import Canadian breeding cattle. Mexico has long sought to purchase Canadian breeding cattle and have them trans-shipped across the United States. However, doing so before the United States opened its border to Canada could have jeopardized Mexico's exports of feeder cattle back into the United States, Lambert explained.
Meanwhile, in the interest of harmonizing trade relations, Mexico has largely blocked U.S. breeder stock while it's been unable to import Canadian breeders.
"We will continue to have discussions with Mexico as the Canadian rule becomes effective in terms of harmonizing there as well," Lambert said.
All this should be good news for U.S. breeders, particularly in southern border states such as Texas. One such breeder points out that an influx of improved genetics from the United States to Mexico translates into increased feed efficiency and quality grades in the feeder cattle that Mexico exports right back across the border to the tune of about one million head a year.
In another small step towards expanding the list of countries lifting restrictions on U.S. beef and cattle imports, USDA announced that Panama has agreed to import U.S. cattle of all ages.
Panama stopped importing live U.S. cattle after bovine spongiform encephalopathy was detected in an imported Canadian cow in December 2003. Panama has already reopened its border to cattle products from the United States.
While still a small importer, Panama's U.S. cattle imports had increased dramatically in 2003, when it imported 482 cattle valued at $909,000 compared to 59 cattle valued at $127,000 imported in 2002, USDA spokeswoman Karen Eggert told Meatingplace.com.
Panama's decision follows a similar one by Costa Rica earlier this month. (See Costa Rica will allow imports of cattle over 30 months of age on Meatingplace.com, Sept. 6, 2007.)
It also follows the U.S. decision to open its borders to older Canadian cattle. (See
U.S. reopens border to older Canadian cattle on Meatingplace.com, Sept. 14, 2007.)
Reducing restrictions on U.S. beef exports to such key markets as South Korea and Japan, however, has proven a tougher task. Negotiations with both countries continue.
WASHINGTON: Cattle tracking system still languishing four years later
07 Oct. 07
The Clarion Ledger (Mississippi)
Philip Brasher
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071007/BIZ/710070334/1005
WASHINGTON--Days after the United States recorded its first case of mad cow disease, then-Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman promised, according to this story, to speed development of a system for tracking the nation's livestock.
The idea was to enable investigators to trace the whereabouts and history of any animal within 48 hours of a disease outbreak.
Nearly four years later, that system is still on paper.
And the revised plan the Bush administration is due to release soon seems to bear less resemblance to the system about which Veneman was talking.
The chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., was cited as saying he has given up on the program until a new administration is sworn into power in 2009, adding, "We have our head in the sand if we think we can get by without having one."
QUESTIONING AG DEPT.
Chris Waldrop, who follows food safety issues for the Consumer Federation of America, was quoted as saying the ID program "doesn't seem salvageable." He added that the Agriculture Department has "mishandled it and Congress is fed up with them, producers are fed up with them and consumers are fed up with them."
USDA wavered between making the program mandatory or voluntary - talk of requiring producers to participate no longer exists - and was too slow to put down rumors such as the ID system would allow the government to spy on producers, Waldrop says.
The story goes on to say that Bruce Knight, the USDA undersecretary who's in charge of the animal ID project, will soon release a new plan for the project that is likely to scale back the program's original scope, which was to enable investigators to track every movement of an animal from birth to slaughter.
Knight was cited as saying he's moving to a "bookend approach" that will focus on tracking the animals at the most critical points, such as the farm of birth, import and export facilities, and packing plants.
USDA also is looking at incorporating into the system the ID numbers assigned to cattle through existing disease eradication programs.
Many cattle producers were never enthusiastic about the program for a variety of reasons, including the cost of ear tags and a fear of being sued for tainted meat.
Dear Mr. President.. -- A coalition of US farm groups has sent a letter to President Bush voicing its concern about the Doha Round of the World Trade Organization. This group says the current agricultural trade text limits domestic support for US agriculture without firm market access commitments from trading partners. The letter was signed by the American Farm Bureau Federation, American Soybean Association, American Sugar Alliance, National Association of Wheat Growers, National Barley Growers Association, US Canola Association, National Milk Producers Federation and others.
Canadian Response -- According to a Canadian cattle marketer, there will not be an influx of cattle when the border is expected to open in mid-November. "We just don't have the cattle numbers there right now to make any kind of a major impact; we're actually kind of short on cattle right now," said Ken Empey Jr., who is with KMP Global Sales and Marketing in Ontario, Canada. While at World Dairy Expo, Empey said Canadian prices are similar to those now seen in the United States. High transportation costs will be another deterrent. Empey is optimistic the border will open, but that hope is tempered by the threat of litigation that could stall the border opening. "There's always been those sort of stoppages; we're getting our hopes up, but were not getting them up too high until the actual 19th of November comes and the first few loads of cattle go across."
NMPF Working to Keep the Border Closed -- In mid-November, the border will open to Canadian cattle, including older animals and breeding stock. National Milk Producers Federation spokesman Chris Galen says his group has communicated their concerns to USDA and the Bush Administration. "We think they really low-balled the economic impact on milk prices; the addition of 50,000 heifers a year could have serious negative consequences for milk prices," said Galen, "The USDA is not overly concerned about that, but we are; we're not ruling out any options on what could happen between now at November 18th." Those options could include congressional intervention or litigation. So far, R-CALF USA has been leading the legal challenges against USDA on the border dispute. RRFN asked Galen if NMPF would cooperate with R-CALF in the courts. "I don't want to speculate too much on what might happen in the next six weeks, but we haven't ruled anything out."
EU may boost milk production say reports
By Neil Merrett
20/09/2007- As a dwindling milk supply continues to bite into the profits of European dairy processors, the European Commision hinted this week that it may consider raising quotas on production to relieve the industry's woes.
Adverse weather conditions in key have create markets like Australia as well as growing demand from emerging economies in markets like China and Eastern Europe are putting the squeeze on the industry's margins.
Ongoing reforms of the EU's common agricultural policy (CAP) is another of the factors attributed to the tightened supply as farmers in the bloc are increasingly being moved away from uneconomic crops.
Though these reforms are set to be reviewed over the next few years, EU agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel has suggested she may open debate earlier on the issue if required, press reports have said.
"I'm not stubborn," she was quoted assaying by the Reuters news agency at an informal meeting of EU farm ministers. "If there's a huge demand for discussing this before 2009 because of the high prices, then let's discuss what solution we can find."
By removing or loosening the restrictions on the amount of milk individual nations can produce, fears by processors over supply could
However, such a move would be a reversal of general European policy to remove protection in the market, to comply with ongoing talks between the EU and the World Trade Organization (WTO) over trade.
In June, the policy of subsidising milk exports from the bloc's producers was scrapped for the first ever time since their inception, due to strong prices of milk on the commodities market.
SEPT. 14, 2007
USDA HARMONIZES CATTLE TRADE WITH CANADA IN LINE WITH INTERNATIONAL ANIMAL HEALTH STANDARDS
WASHINGTON, Sept. 14, 2007—The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) today announced that it will expand the list of allowable imports from countries recognized as presenting a minimal risk of introducing bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) into the United States. Currently, Canada is the only minimal-risk country designated by the United States.
"This rule is firmly based in science and ensures that we continue to protect the U.S. against BSE," said Bruce Knight, under secretary for marketing and regulatory programs. "It also is consistent with our commitment to promote fair trade practices and further normalizes trade with countries that institute the appropriate safeguards to prevent the spread of BSE."
This rule makes final a proposed rule published in the Jan. 9, 2007 Federal Register.
It also builds upon and expands the rule published by APHIS in January 2005 that allowed the importation of certain live ruminants and ruminant products, including cattle under 30 months of age for slaughter from countries recognized as minimal risk. The final rule announced today allows for the importation from Canada of:
Live cattle and other bovines (i.e., bison) for any use (including breeding) born on or after, March 1, 1999, which APHIS has determined to be the date of effective enforcement of Canada's ruminant-to-ruminant feed ban;
Blood and blood products derived from bovines, collected under certain conditions; and
Casings and part of the small intestine derived from bovines.
The January 2005 final rule, the first MRR rule, allowed the importation of Canadian bovine meat and meat products of any age. Subsequent to the publication of the final rule in January 2005, USDA delayed the applicability of those provisions of that final rule that dealt with meat and meat products from animals 30 months of age or older. With this final rule published today, that temporary delay in applicability is lifted and importation of these meat and meat products now can occur.
As part of its BSE rulemaking process, APHIS conducted a thorough risk assessment following guidelines put forth by the World Organization for Animal Health, or OIE, that evaluated the entire risk pathway, including mitigations in place both in Canada and the United States. The assessment also included evaluating the likelihood of BSE introduction via imports, the likelihood of animal exposure in the U.S. if this were to occur and the subsequent consequences. The assessment found that the risk of BSE establishment in the United States as a result of the imports announced today and those announced in January 2005 is negligible. APHIS considered new information related to the risk assessment, including Canada's identification of animals born after the date of the feed ban to evaluate the potential impact and determined that the original assessment was sufficiently robust that new data did not change the conclusions of the assessment. The risk assessment underwent a thorough, independent peer review in which all of the reviewers concurred with APHIS' risk assessment. The reviewers agreed that APHIS followed OIE guidelines and standards and acknowledged the scientific rigor of the assessment.
Additionally, APHIS encouraged the public to participate in the decision-making process by providing feedback through the submission of public comments. The public comment period on the proposed rule opened Jan. 9, 2007 and closed on March 12, 2007.
There are a series of interlocking safeguards in place to protect animal health from BSE transmission. These longstanding safeguards include the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's ruminant-to-ruminant feed ban, import controls, aggressive disease surveillance and U.S. slaughter practices.
Moreover, human health in the United States also is protected by another system of interlocking safeguards that ensure the safety of U.S. beef. The most important of these safeguards is the ban on specified risk materials from the food supply. Canada has similar safeguards in place.
The final rule is scheduled for publication in the Sept. 18, 2007 Federal Register and becomes effective Nov. 19, 2007. Additional information is available at www.aphis.usda.gov.
Release No. 0247.07
Contact:
Karen Eggert (202) 734-7280
Andrea McNally (202) 690-4178
SEPT. 4, 2007
Role and Impact of Renewed Canada-US Trade in Dairy Heifers and Dairy Breeding Stock is released by the George Morris Centre of Guelph, and Informa Economics, and in short does not indicate a that there will not be a stampede and drastic increase in prices or volume. Many thanks to the office of the CLGA for passing this along.
Click here for the Report. ( email from Greg )
Aug. 31, 2007
By Wayne ArnoldINTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE
*In a growing world, milk is the new oil*
By Wayne Arnold
Published: August 31, 2007
HAMILTON, New Zealand: After years of saving, Geoff Irwin finallyscraped up enough money to buy his parents' dairy farm near here in2003. Now his parents have retired to a house nearby and Irwin, 45, runs the farm with its 300 cows.
It is hard work, 12 hours a day, but already it looks as though it has paid off: Just four years later, the farm is worth more than twice what he paid for it. Prices for dairy farms in New Zealand are soaring along with dairy incomes, thanks to a global milk boom.
"It feels really good," Irwin said. "It feels like we're going to be earning and be rewarded the way we should."
Driven by a combination of climate change, trade policies and competition for cattle feed from biofuel producers, global milk prices have doubled over the past two years. In parts of the United States, milk is more expensive than gasoline. There are reports of cows being stolen on Wisconsin dairy farms.
"There's a world shortage of milk," said Philip Goode, manager of international policy at Dairy Australia in Canberra.
But the biggest force driving up milk prices is the same one that has driven up prices for conventional commodities like iron ore and copper: a roaring global economy. Rising incomes, from China and India to Latin America and the Middle East, are lifting millions of people out of poverty and into the middle class.
It turns out that, along with zippy cars and flat-panel TVs, milk is the mark of new money, a significant source of protein that factors into much of any affluent person's diet. Milk goes into infant formulas, chocolates, ice cream and cheese. Most baked goods contain butter, and coffee chains like Starbucks sell more milk than coffee.
Just meeting that demand, according to Alex Duncan, an economist at Fonterra, the dominant dairy cooperative in New Zealand and the world's largest dairy-exporting company, will require the addition each year of the equivalent of New Zealand's entire annual milk output.
That is a lot of milk. New Zealand is one of the world's largest milk producers, according to IFCN Dairy Research Center in Germany, but the largest exporter of dairy products. Some dairy economists doubt the world's heifers are up to the task, and say there is a possibility that the shortage of milk now being seen in parts of the world will spread.
Others say there are plenty of places where more milk can be produced if the price is right. One thing they agree on is that milk prices are likely to stay high and rise even higher.
"No one forecast this rapid shortage of milk," said Torsten Hemme, head of the IFCN center.
This is not good if you are in the market for milk. Pizza parlors and ice cream vendors are raising their prices. Starbucks has raised the price of its drinks. Raising the price of its candy bars didn't stop milk prices from pushing Hershey's profit down 96 percent in its latest financial year. Milk is also weighing on profits at Cadbury Schweppes and at Kraft Foods' cheese unit.
What is unusual, and somewhat confusing, about the milk boom compared with other booming commodities is that milk is not like oil: You can't stick it in barrels and stockpile it. It goes sour. Even in powder form, the most commoditized version, milk has a shelf life. As a result, only about 7 percent of all the milk produced globally is traded across borders. The rest is consumed in domestic markets, which are protected by geography and just as often by tariffs or subsidies.
Big buyers like chocolate makers and grocery stores buy their milk under long-term contracts, and so can smooth out sudden spikes or dips in prices. Thus, the full impact of the global shortage varies from country to country, and not all consumers are yet suffering the full impact.
But because of the local nature of the market, there is very little spare capacity. In the past, the world could always count on the United States and Europe to fill shortages by exporting some of their subsidized stockpiles of cheese, butter and milk powder. But the United States has drawn down its butter mountain and other stockpiles; the same is true of the European Union, which started cutting dairy subsidies in 1993 and will be finished this year. Rising dairy demand in the United States and among the EU's new members, moreover, is sucking up supplies. As a result, said Hemme, "This storage capacity is empty now."
Australia, a major exporter, is suffering a multi-year drought that has devastated its milk production by killing off the grass that milk cows eat. Many in Australia worry that, far from being a temporary problem, the drought is the result of global warming and that dairies will never be the same.
At the same time, rising demand for biofuels is pushing up the price of corn and other grains, which is what farmers in the United States, Europe, Canada and Japan use to feed their cows instead of grass. Rising feed costs are therefore helping to push milk prices even higher. Production is growing in emerging markets like China, but demand there is growing even faster. The average person in China now consumes more than 25 liters, or 6 gallons, of milk a year, up from 9 liters in 2000, according to IFCN. So while China is now one of the world's top milk producers, it is also the world's largest milk importer.
In other emerging markets, rising prices have prompted governments to step in to control prices. In Argentina, for example, the government has imposed a tax on dairy exports. India, the world's largest milk producer, this year banned exports of milk powder.
Rising milk prices are contributing to accelerating inflation worldwide, from Brazil to Australia, vexing policy makers and sparking allegations that there is more behind it than supply and demand. The authorities in South Africa are investing allegations of price-fixing in the country's milk market; in Germany they are looking into the rising prices of milk and butter; and the U.S. Congress has started an inquiry into alleged price-fixing in the nation's market for cheese.
But rising milk prices have not been an unmitigated boon for producers, not even in New Zealand. Payments to farmers here are on track to rise another 24 percent this year, putting an extra $76,000 into the average farmer's pocket. But rising exports, property prices and farm incomes have all contributed to rising inflation in New Zealand, prompting the central bank to push its benchmark interest rate up last month to 8.25 percent. That has helped push the New Zealand dollar to its highest point against the U.S. dollar in 22 years. As it rises, earnings from milk sold abroad decline when converted back into local currency. New Zealand's export boom has also created a labor shortage that is pushing up the cost of hiring farm hands.
Rising costs also hurt New Zealand's ability to increase production in response to rising demand. The country's sheep farmers, for example, are trying to convert to dairy, but there is a two-year waiting list for milking sheds, according to Peter Buckley, president of the Waikato Federated Farmers, which represents farmers in New Zealand's prime dairying area. Higher land costs are also making it more expensive to buy new pastures.
As a result, experts say the growing demand for milk will have to be met in countries like China and Argentina as higher prices trigger greater investment in lifting milk yields. India has announced plans to lift its ban on milk powder exports next month.
Some see the United States as another main source of additional milk supplies. International prices have now risen above the subsidized price of milk there, making it profitable for American dairies to export their milk. "There's a real opportunity for the U.S. to export without government support or subsidies," Goode said.
Hemme at IFCN estimates that both the U.S. Midwest and Europe could multiply their milk production. But it would take one or two years and require using more costly corn and grain. So even if milk supplies keep up with demand, the price will stay high.
"Even when prices start easing back, we don't expect them to go back to where they were," said Hayley Moynihan, a dairy analyst at Rabobank in New Zealand. "The cost of production and ongoing demand is going to see prices eventually settle at higher levels than they did in the past."
Aug. 20, 2007
Michail & Stas of “Kuzbassky Pischekombinat” of Siberia, Russia visit us and we show them around the Greater Toronto Area, on their way to Manitoba & Quebec. Our day started with a tour of Niagara Falls, and then we looked at a wonderful Holstein operation close to Toronto, Armstrong Manor, a super modern 250 cow milking facility who has impressive Genetics; and off to Medonte Highlands Polled Herefords to see some super Hereford Genetics; the National Hereford Bull Champion came from this pen last year. Many thanks to the folks for their time and congrats on some great operations, and thank you to Stas & Michail for the visit.
Aug. 14, 2007
COB hosts a group from Russia interested in developing high technology Beef production systems. Pictured here the Group, is at the BIO office receiving a presentation from Brian Pogue, of Beef Improvement Ontario. Brian’s presentation was an overall view of the Across Breed Comparative EPDs ( the only system in the World that has these technology ), and how these ABCs can be used to obtain the Project’s End Goal.
Brian showed the Group, the ease of understanding and how it is Breed neutral in it’s use, and indicated how accurate the ABCs are because they are generated against the actual data from Bull Test centres and herd information is Actually the Physical Contemporary Group, and not some imagined group made up for the purposes of calculation.
Greg Nolan of COB Agro Exports Ltd. made a presentation on the wholesale pricing of the carcasses, and Revenue Development. The Group, hosted by COB, is in the Toronto/Guelph area for one weeks time to develop a Beef Production System based upon Canadian technologies. BIO info all at www.biobeef.com
Brian Pogue makes a presentation to the Beef project Russian Group in the
BIO office.
Sergei, Greg Nolan of COB, Hansof, Igor & Josef in the BIO office - Aug.
14, 2007
Aug. 5, 2007
Genetic Import Company
COB Agro Exports Ltd. hosts Alex & Leo from from Agro Valex Moscow who own and operate a Genetic Import Company, specializing in Pork Genetics from Europe. Alex & Leo contacted the CLGA office and arranged for a visit to Toronto & Winnipeg, hoping to make contacts here in Canada for future opportunities in Pork, Beef & Dairy Genetics. A nice dinner at the Aberfoyle Mill hosted by Bev Spriel of the CLGA, Niagara Falls, Night life in Toronto, and some Dairy farm tours in Guelph highlighted the Ontario visit. They spent some very interesting days in the Province of Manitoba inspecting Pork operations and came back very impressed with all, including the Lobster at the Winnipeg Keg !!! So, we hauled them to the Keg at the Toronto airport on exit day and let them sample some more. They expressed their gratitude to all Canadians for such wonderful hospitality and to the CLGA for making the initial contacts. They will try to return for The Royal in November, from November 4 to 12, 2007. www.royalfair.org
AUG.1, 2007
The livestock traceability news for the second half of July
are:
pdf
1. ISO standard set for food traceability
-
A new international standard has been set for traceability along the food chain, setting out a complete system under which processors can get certification.
-
Cattle Identification: USDA Selects K-State To Lead Benefit-Cost Analysis Of NAIS WASHINGTON, July 16, 2007--The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service today announced the selection of Kansas State University to lead a multi-institutional benefit-cost analysis of the National Animal Identification System (NAIS).
-
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE - draft regulation Livestock Identification; Use of Alternative Numbering Systems. We are adopting as a final rule, with several changes, an interim rule that, among other things, amended the regulations to allow for the use of additional numbering systems for purposes of animal and premises identification.
-
U.S.: Lawmakers challenge mandatory premise ID The controversy over requiring 4-H and FFA participants to have their livestock entries enrolled in a mandatory premise program continues to grow as one state senator is rallying support in opposition to the proposal.
-
European Commission demands Italy drop law on poultry labelling Italy's compulsory law requiring poultry meat and related products to carry country-of-origin labelling has been deemed illegal by the European Commission.
-
Northern Ireland: UFU To Consider New Traceability Proposals The Ulster Farmers' Union says it will urgently and carefully consider new proposals for the identification, registration and movement of cattle, put forward this week by Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development.
-
Uruguay Increasing Herd's Traceability Uruguay's Animal Identification and Registry System (SIRA) has already identified 2.1 million cattle, 17% of the country's 12 million national herd, since it was implemented on 1 September 2006.
-
. MIXED VIEWS IN BRUSSELS ON BRAZIL BEEF BAN. THE Scottish and Irish farmers and representatives of the meat trade who lobbied the EU's council of farm ministers in Brussels yesterday, calling for an immediate end to all imports from Brazil, received minimal understanding of their concerns.
UPDATES/NEWS FROM:
Eric Aubin
Chief, Livestock Identification and Legislation Meat Division Canadian Food
Inspection Agency
Floor 3, Room 3020
1431 MERIVALE RD
OTTAWA ON K1A 0Y9
Telephone: (613) 221-5220; Fax: (613) 228-6618 aubine@inspection.gc.ca
July 25, 2007
The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture has recently decided
to build five dairy production bases nationwide in an effort to remove the
bottleneck in the supply of milk and guard against the entry of poor-quality
foreign cows.
They include dairy production bases in the skirt of metropolises,
northeastern China, northern China, northwestern China, and southern China.
Construction of milk source production bases has been listed among the
long-term development strategy of Chinas dairy industry.
The dairy production base in the suburbs of big cities refers to Beijing,
Tianjin and Shanghai, which are home to such big milk enterprises like
Sanyuan and Guangming and has a big dairy consumer market.
The northeastern base covers Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning and Inner
Mongolia Autonomous Region, which boast about three million cows on hand and
produce 30% of the country's total milk production. These four provinces and
regions have rich forage grass and feed resources, a climate fit for the
breeding of livestock and a low breeding cost. But the per-unit production
is not high there, leaving a great potential to be tapped.
The northern base covers Shanxi, Hebei, Henan and Shandong, where the
processing base is relative good but the breeds of cow need to be improved.
It will focus on building centralized raw materials industrial production
belt and exploring a new model of comprehensive utilization of resources.
The northwestern base covers Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Shaanxi and
Ningxia, where a small proportion of milk becomes commodity and the breeding
technology is relatively backward. It will focus on developing cattle
breeding zones and dairy farms of proper size.
The southern base covers Jiangsu, Fujian, Guangdong and Sichuan, where less
than one million cattle are on hand. But it has over five million buffalos
that can be improved to produce milk.
July 24, 2007
EU27 Retail Milk and Dairy product prices
DairyReporter.com is the world's premier website for the latest breaking news on every aspect of dairy processing & markets. This site is published by Decision News Media, a business-to-business publisher that supplies strategically relevant news directly to the desktops of decision-makers in the pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and food industries.
Headlines : Dairy prices are up to 60% different prices in many EU27 & EEA countries; Check out this web page from Decision News Media
http://dairyreporter.com/news/ng.asp?id=78204
************************************************************
* To subscribe FREE to DairyReporter.com e-newsletter, please click here http://DairyReporter.com/nl/verifemailpopup.asp?em=clga@clivegen.org&nl=DRw
* To view all FREE e-newsletters published by Decision News Media, please click here http://DairyReporter.com/nl/allNls.asp
* To view all issues of DairyReporter.com e-newsletters, please click here http://DairyReporter.com/nl/archives.asp
* Access all Decision News Media sites, please click here http://DairyReporter.com/nl/allsites.asp
July 23, 2007 Thomas Grupp, Director, Bavaria Fleckvieh, Munich, DD Indeed the dairy industry is facing a tremendous challenge at the moment. The milk price is going up because of a milk shortage internationally but on the other hand the industry is not willing to give an adequate share to the dairy farmers. In Canada the milk price per kg is about 54 €cents/kg. In US about 34 €cents, almost the same what farmers get here in Germany but our big dairies pay on the spot market at the moment about 42 €cents for the milk they get from their neighbour dairies. Quite interesting situation and I am sure it will last for the next 12 months.
The export of subsidized milk from the EU is zero and that’s the main reason that the milk price is going up. On the other hand in some parts of the world the demand for milk and milk products is increasing of about 5 – 10 % per year (China more than 10 %)
We already have a severe shortage of pregnant heifers in Europe as exports are skyhigh to Eastern Europe; adding more upward pressure to prices of cattle.
07/20/2007
McKittrick to Leave World Dairy Expo for Pastoral Job
Wisconsin Ag Connection
The general manager of World Dairy Expo in Madison is leaving his post just one month before this year's show. Tom McKittrick has submitted his resignation to WDE President Roger Ripley and the show's board. His last day will be August 31.
McKittrick has managed the internationally renowned World Dairy Expo for 19 years as it became the nation's premier dairy show. In a given year, the event will attract nearly 70,000 visitors from around the globe, along with 2,000 dairy animals and 700 commercial exhibitors.
According to The Capital Times, McKittrick will join the pastoral staff of a large non-denominational church in Cincinnati, OH, where he will work with individuals and small groups.
The WDE office also manages the Dane County Fair.
Meanwhile, the Expo's board of directors is expected to set up a search committee to find a replacement for McKittrick.
July 19 2007
USDA Updates Testing Regulations For US Cattle Exports | Farms.com The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is amending its livestock exportation regulations to eliminate tuberculosis and brucellosis testing requirements for certain U.S. cattle prior to export. Under this final rule, APHIS is eliminating the requirement for pre-export tuberculosis and brucellosis testing of certain cattle being exported to countries that do not require such testing. These actions relieve restrictions on certain exports of U.S. cattle to Canada for which testing is no longer necessary. Canadian animal health authorities have recognized our success in eradicating brucellosis, tuberculosis and other diseases by establishing the Restricted Feeder Cattle Program, which allows certain untested feeder cattle to be imported into Canada. To participate in this program, the feeder cattle must originate from a state that has been designated by APHIS as brucellosis and tuberculosis free. In addition, should other countries importing U.S. cattle suspend or remove their testing requirements, this rule will ensure that U.S. cattle exporters receive the full benefits of no longer being required to perform pre-
export tests. Date: Fri 13 Jul 2007 From: Martin Beer [edited] <martin.beer@fli.bund.de> New cases of BTV-8 infections in Germany
----------------------------------------
The National Reference Laboratory for Bluetongue disease at the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI) in Germany confirmed several new outbreaks of BTV in Germany. A total of 2 sheep and one cattle, all with clinical symptoms of bluetongue disease, had initially been tested positive for BTV in both cELISA and PCR in regional laboratories. Subsequently, the suspected cases were confirmed by the reference laboratory at the FLI, Isle of Riems.
The Ct-values of the real-time RT-PCRs using EDTA-blood as sample material were between 19 and 25, demonstrating a high viral load.
Therefore, the laboratory data are indicative of recent BTV-infections. In all cases, including the 1st outbreak of BTV reported in June 2007 (ProMED Archive Number 20070613.1928), BTV serotype 8 was confirmed by using serotype specific PCR and sequence analysis.
The diseased sheep were detected in 2 herds in North Rhine-Westphalia, located close to the 1st BTV outbreak of the year
2007 in Germany confirmed on 6 June 2007. The diseased cattle was detected in Rhineland-Palatinate approximately 25 km [15.5 miles] from the border to North Rhine-Westphalia. All confirmed cases have been detected within the German BTV protection zone established in 2006.
Based on these 4 new BTV-8 outbreaks in different locations within the same region in 2007, it has to be concluded that BTV-8 has started to re-circulate within the ruminant population.
Dr. Bernd Hoffmann (Head, NRL Bluetongue) PD Dr. Martin Beer (Head, Institute of Diagnostic Virology) PD Dr. Franz Conraths, (Head, Institute of
Epidemiology) Prof. Dr. Thomas C. Mettenleiter (President, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Insel Riems, Germany)
--
PD Dr. Martin Beer
Head of the Institute of Diagnostic Virology FRIEDRICH-LOEFFLER-INSTITUT Boddenblick 5a
17493 Greifswald-Insel Riems
Germany
<Martin.Beer@fli.bund.de>
[ Note: This 1st-hand, authoritative notification is very much appreciated.
It will be interesting to obtain data on the breed of the affected sheep and about the species of culicoides vector involved in the renewed transmission of the virus in Germany. It will also be useful to hear about the availability of a BTV-8 vaccine. BT surveillance results from Belgium, France and the Netherlands are anticipated. - Mod.AS ]
No beef, no KORUS FTA, U.S. trade ambassador reiterates
By John Gregerson on 7/17/2007 for Meatingplace.com
She's said it once, and now U.S. trade ambassador Susan Schwab is saying it
again: Unless Korea fully normalizes beef trade with the United States, the U.S. government has not intention of proceeding with the proposed U.S.-South Korean free-trade pact.
"We made it clear all along - I personally made it clear, the President of the United States made it clear to the President of Korea - that unless and until they reopen their market in full to U.S. beef exports, we aren't even going to submit this FTA to Congress, because we know Congress just isn't going to act on it," Schwab told the radio station AgriTalk.
Schwab says she expects to see action from Korea by late September. "I want to see beef moving. I want more than commitments. I want it done," she said.
FDA still pondering.and pondering expanded BSE feed ban
By John Gregerson on 7/17/2007 for Meatingplace.com
It's been more than a year since FDA issued a proposal for an enhanced feed ban it says would reduce the risk of bovine spongiform encephalopathy by 90 percent, but the beef industry is still awaiting publication of a final rule.
"There is no estimated time frame for when a final rule will be published,"
FDA spokesman Michael Herndon told the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. "The agency is working to develop and issue a final rule as expeditiously as possible."
CIDRAP posed the question to Herndon after Canada broadened its BSE safeguards last week by banning the use of all specified risk materials for the disease from all animal feed, pet foods and fertilizer, thereby reducing the risk of infection by 99.8 percent.
Although FDA's proposed rule seeks to prohibit only the more highly infective brain and spinal cord from all animal feed, the agency is reportedly considering a more restrictive ban that would more closely mirror Canada's.
Food Sales to Cuba -- North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan has won Senate Appropriations Committee approval for provisions removing two roadblocks on farm sales to Cuba. The language eases travel restrictions and prevents the US Treasury Department from enforcing its payment-in-advance requirement for farm products sold to Cuba
Mar. 27, 2007
Agro Exports Pres Greg Nolan was invited to a reception & dinner hosted by The Honourable Chuck Strahl, Minister of Agriculture of Canada in honour of the visit to Canada by the Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, H. E. Alexei Gordeyez.
A large delegation from the Russian Federation attended a Summit in Ottawa hosted by CERPA on March 25, 26 & 27 focusing on Power, Natural Resources & Agriculture.
Greg Nolan-Agro Exports Ltd., Herb McLane Exec-VP of the CBBC, The Honourable Chuck Strahl, Nikolay Denim & Igor Anisimkin at the dinner hosted by The Minister.
Nikolay Demin, the Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation H.E. Alexei Gordeyez, Greg Nolan, Agro Ex & Igor Anisimkin at the dinner hosted by the Canadian Minister of Agriculture & Agri-Food, The Honourable Chuck Strahl.
