DECEMBER  2004

Remembering 2004, Good milk prices—perplexing lawsuits
CWT to retire about 51,700 cows to stabilize farm-level prices
Are you paying for 100% organically bound selenium?

Murano named Vice Chancellor, Dean of Agriculture at Texas A&M
Erath County welcomes new Extension Agent
Helping central Texas dairies benefit the whole industry
 

As 2004 comes to a close, dairy producers can be thankful for some events that have helped the industry survive the not-so-good times during the year. Fortunately, milk prices improved in early spring, setting record highs in May with the Class III price topping the charts at $20.58 cwt. Although prices haven't been nearly that high since then, it's averaged over $15 cwt. through October with November and December prices projected to go up. The rising of milk prices and stabilization in the market is due in part to inclement weather conditions producing above-average rainfall amounts along with the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) CWT program. The CWT program, in existence for the past two years, provides a retirement herd plan that eliminates dairy cows from the market.

The one discouraging affair that has plagued area producers in 2004 is the lawsuits filed by the City of Waco against North Bosque River dairymen. The notice of intent to file suit against ten dairy producers under the Clean Water Act in February was the beginning of a series of events that is yet to be resolved. Although two producers were dropped from the notices of intent shortly thereafter, the threat was carried out in actual suits against the remaining eight producers on April 29. On June 1, six more dairies were added to the list making a total of 14 dairies in the suit. This action by Waco not only stunned the dairy industry as a whole, but also state and federal agencies, organizations, area businesses and residents.

While dairy producers and industry organizations scrambled to hire attorneys to enlist a legal defense against Waco's allegations, the disturbing situation was somewhat enlightened by two area businessmen who stepped up to the plate to offer their help. Harold Fritts of Gorman Milling Company and Harry Bradberry of Bradberry's Best and KCUB Radio Station, rallied the public to participate in fundraising efforts for the producers. Several fundraisers were held at area businesses that succeeded in raising a total of nearly $100,000. In more recent events, the Greater Southwest Milk Marketing Agency through the Texas Association of Dairymen (TAD) has moved forward with financial assistance for the dairymen to help in their defense.

In the past few months, strides have been made by some producers to reach individual settlements with Waco. In September, the Broumley Dairy suit was settled when city officials found that an ongoing pilot program at the dairy would sufficiently help to reduce pollution. The dairy is undergoing a methane digester project that involves several government and public partners. The methane produced from the digester will be used to generate electricity and dairy waste will be converted to compost.

Also in September, Steve and Paul Byl, owners and operators of Dutch Cowboy Dairy near Dublin, settled out of the Waco suit when they agreed to certain provisions that include testing and proper management of dairy waste at their facility.

Two dairy producers who no longer operate dairies in the North Bosque River watershed have additionally been dismissed from the suit. The former Erath County dairy operators are Ber Lengers, who recently moved his operation to Comanche County and Harry DeWit, who moved his operation to Friona a few years ago. DeWit informed Waco officials he would not be back in the watershed to operate.

Joost Smulders, who is expected to move out of the county to west Texas this month, has also been dismissed from the suit. Smulders was operating three dairies in Erath County.

Although not in the same lawsuit, Ervin Koblentz, owner of a dairy calf operation near Dublin, reached a settlement with Waco that ended an ongoing battle that has plagued his operation for the past few years. The City of Waco initially filed suit against Koblentz after he was granted a wastewater permit for his calf feedlot by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). Waco argued that the TCEQ could not continue to issue such permits and registrations while water quality was substandard in the North Bosque River watershed.

Currently, the remaining parties involved in the Waco lawsuits are undergoing a discovery period with a tentative trial schedule set for May or June, 2005.

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Cooperatives Working Together (CWT), the farmer-led economic self-help effort for America's dairy producers, announced that it has accepted 378 bids from farmers seeking to retire their milking herds, representing approximately 51,700 cows.  Those retirements will remove 931 million pounds of milk, or 0.55% of the nation's supply, helping to stabilize farm-level prices.

CWT's first Herd Retirement program was implemented in the fall of 2003, when 299 bids, representing 608 million pounds of milk, were accepted.  A total of 732 bids were submitted last month as part of the second Herd Retirement program, meaning CWT will accept 52% of the bids sent in this fall.

Jerry Kozak, President and CEO of the National Milk Producers Federation, which is operating CWT, said that just like last year's program, the 2004 Herd Retirement effort will surpass CWT's initial goals for this year.

"We set out with the intent of reducing milk supplies by 870 million pounds, and in fact, we will exceed that target by 7% without adding to the budget for the program.  We also exceeded our target for cow removals by nearly 2,700.  What's more, we will again honor our regional safeguard limits, meaning that no region of the country will suffer a disproportionate loss of milk supplies," Kozak said.

Under CWT's guidelines, safeguard thresholds have been established for five separate regions of the country, limiting the total milk withdrawals possible in each.  The limits are strictest in the Northeast, Southeast and Midwest, and looser in the Southwest and West.

The totals for each region in 2004 include:

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Are you paying for 100% organically bound selenium?

While inorganic selenium, of which the common forms are sodium selenite or selenate, has been used in animal feed supplements for several years, the use of organic selenium, approved last year by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) in dairy cattle diets, provides additional benefits that has captured the attention of producers and nutritionists.

With the use of organically bound high selenium yeast spreading rapidly to those who feel its benefits far outweigh any additional costs over the less expensive inorganic selenium, caution is exercised to make certain that producers are getting what they're paying for.

Paul Willis of Cypress Systems, Inc., producers of  Excell Yeast(tm) in Fresno California, says producers should be aware of the possible adulteration that may exist in the animal nutrition market and to make certain that if they are paying for organic selenium, that it is, in fact, what they are receiving. Even though the Feed Registry Definition allows for 2% free selenium, they should make certain that the product they are buying is certified #100% organically bound, with no free selenium.

 "If a customer is paying a premium to provide 100% organically bound selenium to their animals, he should make certain the product is certified to that standard and that it does not contain free inorganic selenium. The user should ask their supplier for a Certificate of Analysis (COA) on the product they are buying. The COA must be specific to a Production Lot Number and certify the selenium content, as well as no free selenium and full micro analysis.

Further protection for the customer includes random sampling. The product should be sampled by the customer and a blind sample sent to a qualified lab for confirming analysis as stated in the COA.

Historically, high selenium yeast was developed in 1980 as a source of natural food form of organically bound selenium, providing an alternative to the inorganic form of sodium selenite.  The yeast was selected because it fully replicated the process where plants grown in selenium rich soils take up the inorganic form of selenium and convert it to organic selenium which is stored in their cell structure. Yeast does the same thing but at a much higher level and at a very predictable and consistent level.

The yeast currently supplied by Cypress (SelenoExcell High Selenium Yeast) was initially used in the 80s in The Nutritional Prevention of Cancer Trial (NPC)  funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI).  The NPC was a "Gold Standard" double- blinded, placebo-controlled, clinical trial that studied the effects of selenium supplementation on skin cancer. The 14-year trial showed no effect on skin cancer but showed a 50%-63% reduction in lung, colon, and prostate cancer. The trial results. published in the prestigious Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) in December 1996, were stated as a "Landmark" trial because it redefined the use of nutritional agents in the prevention of cancer.

Following the 1996 JAMA publication the NCI expressed grave concern that since the early development of the high selenium yeast product, numerous product adulterations had risen. This was evident in several questionable forms of the product with various levels of unacceptable "Free Selenium". Since the foundational principal of the product was that the selenium present in the yeast was to be 100% organically bound, the NCI requested Cypress, prior to funding additional trials, to standardize the product and establish a product quality that warranted ongoing cancer prevention research. Cypress undertook the project and in 1999 signed a clinical trial agreement with the NCI for the use of SelenoExcell High Selenium Yeast in ongoing cancer prevention research.

In the same year, Cypress was selected by the National Institute of Health (NIH) as a model for standardizing a nutritional agent at their BERM 8 meetings in Washington DC. As a result of this agreement and product standardization Cypress is currently in a series of cancer prevention and health related trials in the area of prostate, lung, colon and breast cancer as well as continuing to assist in the research related to identifying the specific cancer prevention benefit of SelenoExcell.

Due to the history of product adulteration in the human nutrition market it is vital that the same quality standard and product standardization be applied to the use of High Selenium Yeast in the animal nutrition market. "As a yeast producer, there are numerous factors we look at in the production of the product but the most basic measure of product quality is that the all High Selenium Yeast must be certified as 100% Organically Bound, No Free Selenium. To sponsor a product definition for anything less (2% free selenium), clearly leaves room for product adulteration," Willis said.

"If high selenium yeast is properly produced in fermentation and washing the resulting product will exhibit "no free selenium" and provide the end user confidence that they are buying a consistent 100% organically bound form of selenium."

According to a recent article in Dairy Herd Management magazine, organic selenium, in the form of high selenium yeast, research studies has shown that these forms of selenium result in a higher concentration of selenium in the tissues of dairy cows than sodium selenite or selenate.

In an Ohio State research project reviewed by dairy nutritionist Bill Weiss, studies showed the level of selenium in the blood of organic-supplemented cows to be 10 percent to 20 percent higher than that of inorganic supplemented cows. Additional research shows the improved retention of the organic selenium can be an asset to the cow during the dry period. The more selenium the cow retains, the better her selenium status will be after calving. Because cows often need a boost after calving, the extra 20 percent retention may help her to get ready for the next lactation.

Calves benefit the most from organic selenium supplementation during the dry period. In an experiment at Ohio State University, preliminary results showed blood selenium levels to be substantially higher in newborn calves whose mothers were fed organic selenium. Colostrum from those cows contained  approximately twice as much selenium as colostrums from cows supplemented with inorganic selenium.

Organic selenium supplementation also has been known to increase the concentration of antibodies such as immunoglobulin (Ig) M in colostrums.

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U.S. Undersecretary of Agriculture Elsa Murano has been named to the joint positions of vice chancellor and dean of agriculture and life sciences at Texas A&M University and director of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, effective Jan. 3, 2005.

The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents formally appointed Murano to the key agricultural positions during a telephonic meeting November 4^th, after naming her as the sole finalist last month to succeed Dr. Ed Hiler, who is retiring.

"We are obviously pleased that Dr. Murano is returning to Texas A&M and will lead our agriculture program," noted Regents Chairman Lowry Mays. "We are confident she will effectively build on the program's strengths, providing the leadership that will further enhance its reputation for excellence in teaching, research and service at the state, national and international levels."

Prior to being appointed undersecretary for agriculture for food safety by President George W. Bush in 2001, Murano was a professor in the department of animal science at Texas A&M and holder of the Sadie Hatfield Professorship in Agriculture. She joined the Texas A&M faculty in 1995 and was director of the Texas A&M Institute for Food Science and Engineering-Center for Food Safety from 1997 until being named to the key USDA post.

At USDA, her responsibilities include oversight and direction for the management of the Food Safety and Inspection Service, which has an annual budget of $905 million and 10,000 employees.

"It has been a privilege and an honor to serve President Bush as his undersecretary for food safety at USDA, and in this way, to give back to my adopted country, which has given me so much," said Murano, who was born in Cuba. "The last three years have afforded me a tremendous opportunity to enhance food safety in this country. I can leave Washington knowing that we have made a significant difference in improving public health through the application of science in all policy decisions.

"At the same time, I am very excited to be coming back home to Texas, and to once again be part of the Texas A&M family. I am very much looking forward to the opportunities that lie ahead, and to working with the faculty, staff, students, and many stakeholders within Texas agriculture, which will ensure that our research, teaching, and extension programs excel, in total fulfillment of our mission as a land grant university," she added.

Murano's husband, Peter, also will return to Texas A&M as associate professor in the department of human nutrition and food science researching obesity and policy, she said. He currently is with USDA's Food and Nutrition Service.

Texas A&M President Robert M. Gates applauded the regents' decision, citing Murano's "stellar credentials" in the academic and governmental arenas. He pointed out that her appointment will add a new dimension to the university's emerging homeland security programs.

"We welcome Dr. Murano back to Texas A&M and look forward to working with her and benefiting from her varied experience in food safety and related areas," Gates said. "We have every confidence that she will provide both vision and insightful leadership as vice chancellor and dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences."

Dr. G. Kemble Bennett, vice chancellor and dean of engineering and search committee chair, said the panel performed an "exhaustive review of the country's finest agricultural leaders, and we fully support the appointment of Dr. Murano. She is an impressive individual with a strong background in both academia and the federal government, experiences that will serve her well in this important leadership position."

Murano was assistant professor in the department of microbiology, immunology and preventive medicine at Iowa State University from 1990 until her appointment to the Texas A&M faculty.

Her bachelor's degree in biological sciences is from Florida International University, awarded in 1981. Her master's in anaerobic microbiology and doctorate in food science and technology are from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1987 and 1990, respectively. While serving as a professor at Texas A&M and Iowa State, Murano was involved – as principal investigator or co-principal investigator –in research projects totaling more than $8.7 million, with most of them coming while she was at Texas A&M. She has been widely published, as author or co-author of seven books, book chapters or monographs, and scores of scholarly papers, abstracts and related endeavors.

Texas A&M's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and its related agencies rank among the largest and most respected agricultural teaching, research and extension programs in the nation

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Erath County welcomed new extension agent Robert Scott to the area on Dec. 1 at a reception at the extension office in Stephenville. Scott comes to the county from Big Lake, Texas, where he was Reagan County extension agent from 1995 until he accepted the Erath County agent's position. Before Reagan County, Scott was assistant county agent at Taylor County.

As a 1991 graduate of Tarleton State University (TSU), Scott said he is proud to be back in Stephenville in the role of county extension agent. He said he is especially happy about his new position since his wife, Wendy, who also graduated from TSU, recently was hired as the Parker County 4-H coordinator. Scott earned a master of science degree from Sul Ross University in 1997.

"You don't get many opportunities like this and we're very fortunate," Scott said. He is looking forward to learning about the area agriculture industry and the needs of producers.

He and Wendy have two children, Sterling 7, and Cooper 3. The Scotts are in the process of buying property near Morgan Mill where they hope to build a house.

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(By John Cowan, executive director of the Texas Association of Dairymen, www.milk4texas.org )

Is a partial glass of milk half empty or half full? It depends on your perspective, of course. The same can be said of the response by the Texas Association of Dairymen to the City of Waco's lawsuit against 13 Central Texas dairy producers over alleged water quality issues in Lake Waco.

 Some would say TAD has not done enough; others would say that TAD is concentrating too much on a small group of dairymen in one area of the state.

As executive director of the Texas Association of Dairymen, I want to explain what TAD is doing in regard to this lawsuit. More importantly, I want to clarify why our organization's actions should be supported by all dairy producers in Texas, regardless of their location, as well as residents of counties whose economies depend on the dairy industry.

 First, it's important to understand that TAD itself is not a party to the lawsuit. In spite of our very strong support for and desire to assist these dairy producers, TAD is being extremely cautious not to say or do anything that could detrimentally impact the legal defenses they are developing.

We can say, however, that our organization believes the lawsuit is the wrong approach to protecting water quality in Lake Waco watershed. Scientific studies have found that a number of sources, including the City of Waco itself, may be contributing to the growth of aquatic vegetation in Lake Waco.

TAD and its members are committed to water quality in Texas and strive to be good environmental stewards. Water quality has improved substantially in the Bosque watershed the last decade, thanks in part to the dairy industry's willingness to embrace new technologies and practices that make less of an impact on the environment.

 The City of Waco, however, points, the finger of blame solely at the dairy industry. TAD believes it must be actively involved in this attack not just against specific Central Texas dairy farmers, but against the industry as a whole.

 Therefore, TAD is providing some financial assistance to the 13 defendant dairies. So are producers across the southwest, through the Greater Southwest Milk Marketing Agency. The financial aid helps defray some - but certainly not all - of the expenses incurred by the individual dairy producers in preparing their defense.

The TAD board of directors sees this financial assistance as investment in the future of the state's dairy industry. The lawsuit raises legal issues that represent a substantial threat to our all dairies, whether they are located in Central Texas, East Texas, the Panhandle or elsewhere. Decisions in these cases could set precedents for harmful policies or requirements that have statewide, and perhaps national, ramifications on how we operate our dairy businesses.

The fallout from this lawsuit could curtail a producer's livelihood or even force them out of business. If that happens, local economies could be devastated.

 The loss of one 1,000-cow dairy farm from Texas would imply a loss of $1.35 million in total personal income, 61 dairy and dairy-related jobs and $113,238 in potential county taxes, according to a study by Tarleton State University.

The Texas Association of Dairymen's mission is to represent all our state's dairy cooperatives and to work for the interest and benefit of all Texas dairy farmers. The TAD board of directors believes that providing financial help and any other assistance we can to these dairymen in Central Texas falls under TAD's mission.

These 13 dairy farmers are shouldering legal bills, coping with stress and facing an uncertain future. They're doing it not only for themselves, but on behalf of all dairy producers in Texas.

They deserve the support and thanks of the entire dairy industry.

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12/22/2004 — Looks like our neighbors to the west in New Mexico have more in common with Erath County and Bosque River dairies than just milk.

As of Dec. 16, 2004, a coalition of environmental organizations filed "notices of intent" to sue five New Mexico dairies for alleged violations of the Clean Water Act that specifically includes failure to have a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit.

The coalition, comprised of the Sierra Club, Concerned Citizens for Clean Water and the National Wildlife Federation, intends to file the lawsuit under section 505 of the Clean Water Act against all five dairies in 60 days unless a settlement can be reached before then. The dairies sent notices are: Philmar Dairies and Bonestroo Dairies, Portales; Rio Vista Dairy, Roswell; County Line Dairies, Lake Arthur; and Tom Visser Dairy, Dexter

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The Texas Dairy Review
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Sherry Webb, Editor

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