Fallout from Ohio HSUS Deal

Cindy Zimmerman

Two days after it was announced, the consensus in the animal agriculture world seems to be that Ohio farm groups made a “deal with the devil” in the agreement with the Humane Society of the United States to drop its animal rights ballot initiative in the state.

Initially, the HSUS watchdog website HumaneWatch was jubilant about the agreement and called it a victory. Upon further research, however, editor David Martosko changed his mind, finding that the “devil was in the details” of the deal.

animal agThe Animal Agriculture Alliance puts it succinctly in a press release. “The only group to benefit from this agreement is HSUS,” they say. “This “compromise” is only the beginning. HSUS CEO Wayne Pacelle has indicated that the agreement is “not legally binding,” meaning that while HSUS will not be pursuing a ballot initiative this fall, the future is still uncertain.”

Many individual farmers and ranchers feel the same way, as well as pet breeders and others who feel they were “thrown under the bus” in the agreement. Time will tell, but an old Irish proverb says “the devil never grants long leases” so we are likely to find out sooner rather than later if this was a deal that Ohio agriculture will live to regret.

Animal Activists

Alltech Pleased With Dairy Symposium Success

Chuck Zimmerman

Alltech Dairy Solutions SymposiumThe Dairy Solutions Symposium, sponsored by Alltech has come to an end. The theme of the conference was Rumen Health: A 360 Degree Analysis. I think we did look at the subject from just about every angle possible.

I started my coverage of the conference with a preview interview with Sylvie Andrieu, European Ruminant Technical Manager, Alltech. So what better way than to wrap it up in the same way?

Sylvie says it was a wonderful symposium, especially the discussion opportunities and interaction between people from a large number of countries. She also notes how interesting it was that some of the researcher presenters questioned the SARA concept and think that it should perhaps be renamed. It was clear that what is called SARA is more diverse than was thought. I concur with Sylvie that the feedback I heard from attendees has been very positive. Hopefully this means the symposium goals were achieved.

For complete coverage of the symposium please visit World Dairy Diary.

Sylvie Andrieu Closing Interview

Dairy Solutions Symposium 2010 Photo Album

Alltech, Audio, Dairy

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • The 5th annual North Carolina Leadership Award in Industrial Biotechnology was presented to BASF Plant Science LP during the World Congress for Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing.
  • Soybean growers in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin now have a new fungicide option to treat Sclerotinia stem rot: Proline fungicide from Bayer CropScience.
  • World Ag Expo has officially launched its search for the newest and most innovative products for 2011 World Ag Expo. For the sixth year, a panel of World Ag Expo Top-10 judges will select 10 new products to highlight at the expo, scheduled for Feb. 8-10, 2011.
  • The U.S. Soybean Federation announces two new state affiliates — the Minnesota Soybean Federation and the Oklahoma Soybean Federation. The USSF Board of Directors also announces recently elected new officers.
    Zimfo Bytes

    Dairy Solutions Symposium Via Alltech Continues

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Alltech Dairy Solutions SymposiumThe Dairy Solutions Symposium, sponsored by Alltech, is not only technical presentations on rumen health but an opportunity to network with fellow dairy industry professionals and have some fun. Our gala dinner last night took place at the DierenPark Amersfoort, a very nice zoo. We ate very near the elephant exhibit. I sat with participants from Brazil and Poland and we had a great time.

    Today is the final day of the symposium. I’ll continue posting interviews on various topic over on World Dairy Diary so head over there if you want more specific information from the presenters and participants.

    Dairy Solutions Symposium 2010 Photo Album

    Alltech, Dairy, International

    Eating Rural Home Grown In China

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Zachary Larson, Borlaug Summer Intern, is on location at Nanjing Agricultural University and providing us with updates this summer of his trip. Here’s his latest. You can also find a photo album he’s got started here: Borlaug Summer Intern Photo Album. The internship is being sponsored by the Iowa State University Plant Sciences Institute.

    It has been been two weeks since I last sat down and wrote a blog post and these last 2-3 weeks have had their share of incredible, awkward, and sometimes down right boring moments.

    A short time ago I had the enlightening experience of traveling to a rural village in Southern Jiangsu Province that was the hometown of my Teacher (Xing Laoshi). This village, and its people, have been here for a long time, and as far as its history goes, it has changed little until recently (1980s). As for the village itself, there is a main road that stretches through a central shopping district, and smaller roads extending out fro m this main road. At about half a mile down one of these roads, the road gave away to a series of small fields, and from there on lay a small series of houses together, and more fields.

    The houses and road makeup themselves make one suspect that this area has changed little in the past decades, but more and more, the entire area is ringed by different series of factories, and so despite some buildings having stood for centuries, the area around the village has quickly changed and shows the incredible development of Jiangsu Province.Read More

    Education, International, University

    Georgia Peanuts named best in America

    Melissa Sandfort

    Georgia peanuts have been named the best peanuts in America through an online poll – The Great American Peanut Debate. The poll was conducted by Congressional Quarterly Roll Call in Washington, D.C. as part of the 49th Annual Congressional Baseball Game. Georgia received first place with 43% of the total votes.

    “Peanuts and baseball have been part of America’s national past-time for years,” says Armond Morris, chairman of the Georgia Peanut Commission. “Georgia farmers are honored that consumers voted Georgia as the state growing the best peanuts in America.”

    During the annual congressional baseball game on June 29, U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., Congressmen Jim Marshall, D-Ga. and Jack Kingston, R-Ga., accepted the trophy at Nationals Park on behalf of Georgia’s peanut farm families.

    There were 13,097 votes cast in the online poll and Georgia received 43% of the votes with Virginia in a close second at 41% of the votes.

    Uncategorized

    Healthy Rumen Is A Dairy Solution

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Alltech Dairy Solutions SymposiumThe Dairy Solutions Symposium, sponsored by Alltech, was opened by Prof. Wouter Hendriks, Wageningen University, The Netherlands. There are 250 attendees at this year’s event being held at Utrecht University. It’s a good thing there aren’t more because that’s capacity seating in the auditorium where our presentations are taking place.

    The overall topic for the Symposium is rumen health in dairy cows. I spoke with Wouter just before we got started. He says that the good rumen health will result in lowered methane emissions and greater animal welfare and this conference will focus on innovations and research being done to accomplish this.

    Prof. Wouter Hendriks Interview

    Dairy Solutions Symposium 2010 Photo Album

    Alltech, Audio, Dairy, International

    HSUS Drops Ballot Initiative in Ohio

    Cindy Zimmerman

    The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has reached an agreement with Ohio Governor Ted Strickland and state agricultural leaders to drop a proposed animal rights ballot initiative.

    OH HSUSAt a hastily called press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Governor Stickland stood with Ohio Farm Bureau executive vice president Jack Fisher and HSUS CEO Wayne Pacelle to make the announcement, which amounts to a truce between the aggressive animal rights group and Ohio’s animal agriculture industry. “This agreement represents a joint effort to find common ground,” said Strickland. “What we have concluded is something that is good for Ohio agriculture and will be good for animal welfare in our state.”

    Under the agreement, HSUS will work with the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board and has received some concessions from the animal agriculture industry in exchange. Those concessions include a ban on veal crates by 2017; a ban on new gestation crates in the state after Dec. 31, 2010 and a 15 year phase out period; and a moratorium on permits for new battery cage confinement facilities for laying hens. The agreement also includes restrictions on cockfighting, “puppy mills” and exotic animals.

    Fisher thanked the rest of the Ohio agriculture industry for working together on the compromise. “We came to the table to represent all of us in Ohio the best way that we could,” Fisher said. “We think it recognizes the wishes of our voters last fall in that the Ohio Livestock Care Standards board will be able to fulfill its mission. We also think it brings some certainty to the business climate for our Ohio farmers. Not in total – but this is the best we could do for all of us.”

    Pacelle had the longest opening statement for the press conference, in which he thanked all the commodity groups for “good faith discussions.” “We want animal welfare, but we live in the real world,” Pacelle said, noting that they had the 500,000 signatures needed to put the initiative on the ballot this fall. Interestingly, only HSUS had a press release on its website about the announcement by the time the press conference was underway. Even after it was over, neither the governor’s office nor Ohio Farm Bureau had yet posted a release.

    UPDATE: Releases were posted by both Ohio governor and Ohio Farm Bureau later yesterday evening.

    Listen to or download opening statements from all here: Ohio HSUS Agreement Press Conference

    Animal Activists, Audio

    USDA Planted Acres Report Lowers Corn

    Cindy Zimmerman

    USDAUSDA’s new planted acreage report out this morning says corn acres are two percent higher than last year, but that is down a point from the March report with more acres are going to soybeans.

    Corn planted area for all purposes in 2010 is estimated at 87.9 million acres, up 2 percent from last year. Acreage is up in Illinois, Kansas, Indiana, Missouri and Ohio; but down significantly in Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. Soybean planted area for 2010 is estimated at a record high 78.9 million acres, up 2 percent from last year.

    MGEXThe Minneapolis Grain Exchange (MGEX) held a conference call on the report this morning, featuring commentary by Joe Victor of Allendale, Inc., who expressed surprise at the decrease from the March report in corn acres. “This is the first time that we’ve seen fewer corn acres in the June planted acreage report versus the March, but it’s also the second largest number of corn acres planted,” Victor said.

    Allendale IncVictor says the stocks report, with corn up 1 percent at 4.31 billion bushels and usage at 3.38 billion, was also a surprise. “That’s the first time that we can ever put a 3 in front of total usage, that is a record amount of usage, March through May,” said Victor. The previous record was 2007-2008 at 2.83 billion bushels.

    Listen to Joe Victor’s MGEX conference call here. The audio can also be found on the MGEX website.
    MGEX Conference Call with Joe Victor

    Audio, Corn, Soybean, USDA

    Utrecht, Netherlands is Bike City

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Hello from Utrecht, Netherlands where I’ll be attending the 2010 Dairy Solutions Symposium, sponsored by Alltech. Just got in this morning and after a short nap went for a walk. I’ve never seen so many bicycles. They’re everywhere and just about every kind you can think of. This is a biking town no doubt.

    For lunch I had a really good brie sandwich. I’m attending a dairy conference after all. I figure I’ll be eating pretty well the next couple days so it was strategic thinking to start out on the light side. Hopefully I’ll get to sample more of the cheeses made here in this region. I’ve just started a photo album for this event and have some photos from my walk in it: Dairy Solutions Symposium 2010 Photo Album

    This evening I’ll be attending a dinner for speakers and others involved with the Symposium and we’ll get started officially tomorrow morning. Most of my coverage will be appearing on World Dairy Diary.

    Alltech, Dairy, International