Washington ranchers raise funds for Japan
Washington Ag Today March 28, 2011 Washington ranchers raised over 18-thousand dollars last week to make sure food gets to the victims of the March 11th earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The donation was generated by several ranchers who placed bids on one yearling heifer in a rollover auction at the annual Washington Cattlemen’s Association Bull Test Sale held in Eltopia. Centerville rancher Jim Sizemore and his family donated the heifer. Sizemore says, “Ranchers know better than anyone how to be neighborly. We always help each other out when there is a need. We consider Japan our neighbor, so when the disaster hit their country, we wanted to find a way to help.” The funds are being contributed to the Japan Relief Program administered by the United States Meat Export Federation. It’s president is Phil Seng. Seng: “We are going to be working with existing Japanese companies and distribution centers as far as meals and meat products. We see this as more of a long term sustained effort throughout the whole summer. We will be able to do some good but also be able to move some product and be able to help the Japanese when they most need it.” The Washington Cattle Feeders Association also donated 25-hundred dollars during last week’s auction. Meanwhile, the U.S. Export Federation’s Seng says the prefectures most impacted in Japan produce about 12 percent of Japan’s beef, 16 percent of its pork and about 15 percent of the poultry. Seng: “And all those operations have been severely impacted. So we see there is going to be a shortage obviously when you take that much out of production in Japan. There is going to be a need to bring in more meat products and so the outlook I think looks promising as far as exports and meeting our forecasts and possibly even exceeding our forecasts for Japan.” I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on Northwest Aginfo Net.
