Preparing for H1N1 & Milk Price Movement
Preparing for H1N1 & Milk Price Movement plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.
Some new reports from USDA on dairy product production and prices are showing perhaps an improving trend for producers. Shayle Shagam, USDA livestock analyst, saying milk production is finally beginning to head down, but declines are small.
SHAGAM: We are beginning to see a decline in milk production. Cow numbers have been below a year earlier since March but milk per cow has been increasing steadily which has offset some of those gains and really what we are seeing in terms of milk production, year over we’ve only actually been down the past 2 months and by generally a relative small amount.
Vaccinations for the H1N1 virus are set start arriving this week and there are several groups slated for the first round including health care workers, children, pregnant women and people with underlying medical conditions up to the age of 64. Officials remind you that you should wash your hands and try to refrain from touching your mouth & nose if you have been exposed to someone with the virus.
Now with today’s Food Forethought, here’s Lacy Gray.
In the battle over California’s Proposition 2 a Modesto egg producer is staking 3.2 million in a “put up or shut up” wager that the “enriched colony system” they’re building, the same system approved by the European Union’s strictly enforced animal welfare codes, will pass muster with the Humane Society of the United States. As it stands it’s a very risky bet indeed. Like “Mikey” in the “Life Cereal” commercials of the 1970’s the Humane Society doesn’t like anything set before them when it comes to farm groups and animal welfare. If given the chance, the Humane Society would probably take up issue with most nesting fowl in the wild due to the fact that bird nests would not meet their high standards for animal comfort and safety, not to mention privacy. Hopefully if worse comes to worse and this dispute does land in a criminal court any judge and jury will have the common sense to dismiss any charges of animal welfare violations, and J.S. West & Co., the egg producer placing this wager won’t end up with egg on their face.
Thanks Lacy. That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
