Tyson: Will Ship Beef to Japan in Days

Tyson: Will Ship Beef to Japan in Days

Associated Press News / MSN Money

SPRINGDALE, Ark. (AP) – Tyson Foods Inc., the world’s largest meat producer, will begin shipping beef to Japan within several days now that the Asian country has lifted its ban on U.S. beef, a company spokesman said Thursday.

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Nebraska beef producers praise Japanese trade deal

Nebraska beef producers praise Japanese trade deal

JOSH FUNK, AP Business Writer

Grand Island Independent

OMAHA, Neb. — Nebraska beef producers and officials praised Japan’s decision Thursday to resume importing U.S. beef because it will be good for the industry and the state.

But the additional restrictions Japan has imposed on beef imports — that the beef must come from cows less than 20 months old and no spinal material can be included — remain a source of irritation for beef producers.

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Dark day for white meat?

Dark day for white meat?

Listen to this story

American Public Radio

Today Japan announced it’s letting US beef back into the country. But while US cattlemen cheer the news, American chicken and pork farmers are less excited. Dan Grech explains.

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Farms feel the heat

Farms feel the heat

By Kati Burns

The Times-Journal (AL)

Drought has spread through Alabama, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has designated DeKalb County as a primary disaster area.

All qualified farm operators in the designated areas are eligible for low-interest emergency loans from USDA’s Farm Service Agency.

Though the crops of most local farmers have been damaged by heat and lack of moisture, poultry, livestock and hay fields have also suffered.

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Creekstone pressing forward with BSE testing lawsuit against USDA

Creekstone pressing forward with BSE testing lawsuit against USDA

Brownfield Network
by Peter Shinn

Audio related to this story

Just because Japan has partially re-opened its market to U.S. beef doesn’t mean Creekstone Farms Premium Beef is dropping its lawsuit against USDA. That lawsuit aims to force the Agency to allow Creekstone to voluntarily test 100% of its beef production for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

Creekstone CEO John Stewart said he’s happy about the Japanese announcement, but still wants to test all of Creekstone’s cattle for BSE. “We are committed still, after the market’s open, to getting the green light from USDA to privately test. And as you know, we have this working through the court system now,” Stewart said.

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US safeguards vastly cut BSE risk to people -study

US safeguards vastly cut BSE risk to people -study

Medline Plus, National Institutes of Health

Reuters Health Information

By Christopher Doering

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. government virtually eliminated the threat of mad cow disease to consumers by requiring the removal of brains, spinal cords and other high risk items from older cattle, the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis said on Tuesday.

Two consumer groups applauded the progress but said the Agriculture Department was unwilling to take the more stringent steps suggested by an international advisory panel, such as banning high-risk materials from cattle 12 months or older from food and feed use.

Mad cow disease is a fatal, brain-wasting disease believed to be spread by contaminated feed. People can contract a human version of the disease by eating tainted meats. With only three cases of mad cow found in the country, USDA says the risk of mad cow is very low.

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Will USDA Water Down Organic Standards?

Will USDA Water Down Organic Standards?

Supermarketguru.com

The United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service has an idea … let’s change the regulations to allow some eight substances that are now prohibited for use in organic beef production. Why do they want to do this? We can only surmise that with organic producers concerned about being able to meet supply demands that these will allow more companies to offer “organic” beef. However, the bigger issue is whether allowing these substances dilutes the long-term growth of the organic beef industry, the end product itself and produces even more consumer confusion about what organic is and is not.

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Drought cutting into local hay output

Drought cutting into local hay output

By JUNE THOMPSON

The Daily News (TX)

Times are bad and getting worse for area cattle producers.

Drought conditions, high interest rates and high energy costs are hurting hay production and having a negative effect on area cattle ranchers, according to information received from the Rusk County Extension Office.

Rusk County hay producers are experiencing a second year of drought conditions during the second growing season. The Overton weather station located at the Texas Agricultural Research and Extension Center reporting slightly more than eight-tenths of an inch of rain recorded in June. Normal rainfall average is more than three inches for the month.

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Home, away from home on the range …

Home, away from home on the range …

Vandals released 20 of Robert Tercha’s steers a week ago. Only 3 have been recovered.

By Manuel Gamiz Jr. Of The Morning Call (PA)

Longswamp Township crop farmer Robert J. Tercha said he won’t be happy until his cows, uh, steers come home.

It’s been a week since someone opened a barnyard gate at Tercha’s farm on Mertz Road, freeing 20 Black Angus steers he and his wife planned to sell. So far, only three are back, and the longer the 17 others roam, the more likely they won’t come home, Tercha said Thursday.

”It is consuming every waking minute of my life,” said Tercha, who had 30 steers on his 250-acre farm near Mertztown. ”It is really wearing us down.”

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Rancher champions rotational grazing

Rancher champions rotational grazing

BEN SHOUSE

Argus Leader (SD)

HAYTI, S.D. – They don’t call them “cowboys” much anymore in eastern South Dakota, but ranchers still are an adventurous bunch.

Some even are willing to risk a little of their profit on unconventional methods to benefit grasslands, water and scenery.

“There is something satisfying in getting a glimpse of maybe what was in the past,” Rick Smith of Hayti told a group of fellow cow-calf producers while standing on a hill in a 92-acre field he converted from corn and soybeans to mostly native grass and prairie flowers.

“This is one of the ones that I don’t care if I don’t make a dime.”

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Fuel Prices Put Family Farms in Jeopardy

Fuel Prices Put Family Farms in Jeopardy

WVNS TV (WV)

The price of off-road diesel has increased about a dollar per gallon in the last year – this has put one family under unexpected financial pressure.

Story by Nate Quick Email | Bio

Hovering at about $2.43/gallon the price of off-road diesel is up nearly a dollar from this time last year. With expenses already tight, this puts many family farmers at risk.

Ben and Byron Tuckwiller and their father Sam Tuckwiller own the Triple T Angus Farm just outside of Lewisburg. They say profits have suffered due to the fuel increase.

Ben Tuckwiller says there are three major reasons why the price hikes have hurt his farm financially. First, all machines on the farm run off diesel. That’s how they mow the hay, harvest and plant the corn, and feed the livestock.

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