“Agriculture is not at the table (at the global debate on climate change that will occur this fall in Copenhagen),” said moderator Carole Brookins, former U.S. representative to the World Bank. “How do we make agriculture part of the solution?”

Livestock is very vulnerable to climate change, said Dr. Frank M. Mitloehner, air quality extension specialist at the University of California-Davis. During a recent hot summer, 30,000 dairy cows died in California in one week, and one of the state’s largest dairy herds saw productivity fall by one third. California is the largest U.S. milk producing state. Livestock is affected by the variability in climate, he said.

Livestock contribution debated

Mitloehner added that the recently published figure which stated that livestock is responsible for 18% of global warming is “very controversial and cannot be applied regionally.” For example, he said, the bulk of the 18% is due to deforestation in developing countries, while livestock in developed countries are only a small contributor to global warming. He noted that in the United States forested land has actually increased in recent years. Furthermore, he said that methane production from cows has decreased dramatically since the 1940s due to increases in productivity.

Mitloehner is critical of consumers who want safe technologies banned that increase livestock efficiency, such as rBST for cows. In addition, organic systems may contribute more to global warming, Mitloehner said. He continued saying that through the increasing use of methane digesters, methane can be captured and used to make electricity and natural gas.

Professor Alan Buckwell, director of the Land and Business Association of the United Kingdom, said that agriculture is hurt by climate change. Specifically, he said, climate change above 2% creates heat stress for plants and animals and spreads diseases for both. He also said that it’s a “gigantic challenge,” but agriculture has to learn how to reduce its production of methane and nitrous oxide, which contribute to greenhouse gases. It’s a very complex issue, he said, and “we do not have good measurement tools.”

In addition, Buckwell and other panel members said, it’s very difficult to control the behavior of millions of independent farmers. Right now, he said, “Agriculture is not part of the solution, and we better face that.”

Poor most affected

One piece of the solution is to boost efficiency of plants, which results in fewer emissions, said Dr. Jerry Hatfield, director of the USDA-ARS National Soil Tilth Laboratory in Ames, Iowa. He added, however, that making plants more resistant to climate change “doesn’t get quite the press.”
 
Particularly affected by climate change will be the world’s poor, which are disproportionately concentrated in Africa. “By 2080 it’s a terrible picture for the world’s poor,” said Frank Tugwell, president and CEO of Winrock International. Many areas of Africa will “not be very inhabitable,” he said, which presents “a catastrophic picture.” One of the major problems in reversing climate change trends, he said, is that democratic societies are not very good at dealing with long-term problems.
 
Michael Walsh, executive vice president, the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), said that despite a dire picture, positive developments are taking place within agriculture. For example, 20 million acres in the U.S. and Canada have enrolled in the CCX, in which farmers agree to management practices that sequester carbon in the soil in exchange for payments. “There is reason for optimism,” he stated. Walsh added that in time, it may be possible that agriculture may be 5% part of the solution, and that as much as 20% of net ag income may come from programs such as those offered by the CCX. Livestock producers may also participate in CCX programs by reducing methane output.

Disagreement over no-till

“We won’t take ag emissions to zero, but we can improve,” Hatfield said. Farmers can “drastically change” nitrogen emissions, he added. Some panelists were concerned, however, that at the same time farmers in developed nations reduce their emissions, farmers in developing nations may increase them by adopting more efficient production practices with more fertilizer and other inputs. Some said that through proper development, farmers in developing nations may be able to concentrate production on the highest-producing soils, thus reducing their carbon footprint. The panelists also debated whether or not reduced tillage and no-till actually reduces or increases carbon emissions. Europe does not allow farmers to receive credit for carbon sequestration for no-till because of the view that it may increase carbon emissions. Some panelists, however, took the strong view that no-till reduces a farmer’s carbon footprint.
 
Panelists also debated whether incentives will be enough to change the behavior of millions of farmers or whether mandatory incentives will be necessary. “It’s better to produce incentives,” Tugwell said, while Buckwell countered with: “I don’t think we know enough about incentives.”

For more information, please visit Pig International.

Stockpiling is planned to begin when the price per kilogram of live pigs remains at between 5.5 and 6 times the price of a kilogram of corn for four consecutive weeks. A state-owned storage facility is currently being built.

China’s pork industry is facing a glut, as the number of live pigs increased 8.5% compared with last year, to a total of 449 million head in March 2009, according to government statistics. Meanwhile, the wholesale price of pork fell to 14.49 yuan per kilo on May 10, a drop of over 22% compared to the beginning of this year.

China’s Sichuan province announced its own frozen pork stockpile plan earlier this month, reported the Chengdu-based West China City Daily newspaper.

In January six ministries jointly announced a plan to increase restrictions on pork imports.

China’s customs statistics showed that pork imports to Guangdong province decreased to 28,000 metric tons during the first quarter of 2009, a drop of 48.4% compared with the same period last year.

For more information, please visit WATT.

The region is on alert, with El Salvador appearing to have taken the most decisive measures so far. President Antonio Saca has declared a state of emergency. The decree permits the Ministry of Health to request funds from the treasury to obtain medications and make whatever other expenditures it deems necessary to prevent and treat. 

Saca said he had ordered the treasury to stand ready to make the disbursements and also to provide personnel to observe people entering the country for signs of the disease. Also, pork imports from the U.S., Mexico and Canada have been suspended.

Interrupting commercial flows is a sensitive measure, so Agriculture Minister Mario Salaverria quickly went public to announce, “It is a temporary measure. We must have clarity where and how this problem originated, how this virus is transmitted to humans. It is a precautionary measure we have taken.” 

He explained that it was not El Salvador’s idea, and it was not alone in doing it. He said it was a joint decision of agriculture ministers of the isthmus at an April 24 meeting.

El Salvador normally imports about 69,000 kg of pork a month from the U.S. and Mexico. Salaverria said that supplies on hand were sufficient to avoid shortages and that domestically grown pigs are constantly monitored and are disease free.

Nicaragua also suspended pork and pig imports but very quickly reinstated pork products other than live pigs, even though, according to an official, Nicaragua does not import live pigs from Mexico. 

The region’s health ministers met in Managua on April 28 to agree on an emergency plan. The ministers decided upon health decrees like the one Saca issued, as well as monitoring and mass prevention campaigns.

They also contributed to a regional-impact analysis, given the particular vulnerabilities occasioned by poverty and scarce resources. Prevention campaigning involved the media in region-wide messages with recommendations and instructions for personal and collective hygienic practices, and explanations of facts concerning the disease.

In Costa Rica there were two confirmed cases of H1N1, both had arrived by air from Mexico. 
]]> http://pigfeeds.wordpress.com/2009/05/18/central-america-responds-to-flu-threat/feed/ 0 pigfeeds http://pigfeeds.wordpress.com/2009/05/08/safe-to-eat-pork-says-usda-cdc/ http://pigfeeds.wordpress.com/2009/05/08/safe-to-eat-pork-says-usda-cdc/#comments Fri, 08 May 2009 14:23:14 +0000 pigfeeds http://pigfeeds.wordpress.com/?p=64 ]]> The US Department of Agriculture and Centers for Disease Control said it is safe to eat pork.

USDA secretary Tom Vilsack said swine flu can’t be contracted from eating pork as the virus is not transmitted through food.

About 65 people in the US, 1,300 in Mexico, and people in Canada, Europe, Asia-Pacific countries and the Middle East have been infected by the hybrid influenza.

The US National Pork Board, too, has asked producers to increase biosecurity protocol in their farms.

Meanwhile, the World Organization for Animal Health stressed the flu should not be called “swine flu” as it contained avian and human components, according to a Reuters report. Also, there are no reports of pig being infected with it.

Declines total as follows:

• 4.5 million for wheat
• 1.3 million for sorghum
• 1 million for corn
• 658,000 for cotton
• 446,000 for sunflowers
• 410,000 for peanuts
• 154,000 for canola 

For wheat, 75% of the acreage reduction is for winter wheat, even though winter wheat seedings are 791,000 acres larger than reported in January. Intended acreage of soybeans included in the report is 306,000 more than planted in 2008. Intended acreage of all oilseed crops is 672,500 less and acreage of feed grains (corn, sorghum, barley, and oats) is 2.4 million less than planted in 2008.

The complete USDA report can be accessed here.

To read more about feed prices, please go to WATT.

Alkosel, the company’s premium source of bioavailable selenium, has been recognized safe and effective, and thereby registered for use as a mineral feed supplement. Monogastric specific probiotic bacteria Bactocell (Pediococcus acidilactici CNCM MA 18/5M) has been registered as a microbial biotic feed additive.

“President Obama understands that to remain globally competitive in the livestock business and to continue to produce safe, nutritious products from livestock requires the application of cutting-edge genetics and breeding programs,” Vilsack said. “Investing in good basic and applied research will help pinpoint genetic differences that result in superior animal products of the best quality for the consumer.”

Successful application of this research will reduce the number and severity of animal disease outbreaks and decrease dependence on the widespread use of antibiotics, said Vilsack.

For a list of universities receiving the grants, click here.

The U.S. ethanol industry generates an estimated 10-14 million metric tons of DDGS annually from the milling of corn grain that yields fermentable sugars for conversion into fuel alcohol. The majority of DDGS are fed to beef and dairy cattle.

But livestock producers also use DDGS to supplement the diet of older pigs. So Tom Weber, a physiologist at the ARS Swine Odor and Manure Management Research Unit in Ames, Iowa, partnered with research leader Brian Kerr and microbiologist Cherie Ziemer to study the effects of feeding DDGS to young pigs.

For their research on piglets, the team divided weanling pigs into four groups and fed them either a standard control diet or diets supplemented with DDGS, soybean hulls or citrus pulp. After one week, the researchers observed an increase in cytokine expression in the pigs’ small intestine, which they linked to DDGS consumption. Cytokines are chemical messengers that are essential for proper immune function.

This response reinforced findings of previous DDGS studies showing that pigs consuming diets supplemented with DDGS exhibited reduced levels of ileitis, a common inflammation of the small intestine.

Kerr and others have found that adult pigs can be fed with a corn and soy-meal feed that is up to 40% DDGS. However, piglets are given feed with a maximum DDG content of 7.5%, because their growth may be reduced when they consume too much fiber.

Read more about this research in the February 2009 issue of Agricultural Research magazine.

The largest destination for U.S. exports in 2008 continued to be Japan, reportedly accounting for over a quarter of all shipments. Mexico, China, Hong Kong and Russia also showed an increase in fresh and frozen pork year-on-year.

Imported pork, according to the European Market Survey, was less competitively priced compared with domestic pork in 2008. The weakening value of the U.S. dollar against the Euro resulted in imports from Denmark to the U.S. becoming less attractive.

Imports from Canada were 18% lower year-on-year. U.S. finishers imported 7% fewer pigs from Canada during 2008, reportedly as a result of unfavorable exchange rates early in the year, ongoing herd reductions in Canada, and uncertainty created by the U.S. country of origin labeling (COOL) requirements that went into effect September 30, 2008.

Total hog and pig numbers declined 2.2% to 66.7 million head. The inventory of breeding swine declined 2.4% to 6.1 million head, while market hog numbers were down 2.1% from last year at 60.6 million head.

In Iowa, market hog numbers were up 2.2% at 18.7 million head while sow numbers declined a percent to 1.1 million head. The decreased pig crop in the fourth quarter of 2008 and reduced imports from Canada have driven feeder pig inventories down more than 5%. With farrowing intentions down in the next six months, the retraction of the industry continues, say Lawrence and Ellis.