Cargill Closure & Pot Farming Questions

Cargill Closure & Pot Farming Questions plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

On February 1st Cargill will shut down their Plainview, Texas facility. Shayle Shagam, USDA livestock analyst, talks about some of the factors leading to the closing of the plant.

SHAGAM: The U.S. has been in liquidation mode for cattle for a number of years now. The pool of cattle upon which can be drawn has been diminishing over time and as these supplies tighten to maintain the level of slaughter implied by the number of meat packing plants , packers were having to bid against each other rather aggressively for this diminished pool of cattle. And we’ve seen very poor to negative margins for a number of the packers. In this particular instance it’s apparent that Cargill made the decision that they were going to shutter this plant simply because from their standpoint they couldn’t justify paying the kind of prices for the cattle they had to pay.

Well as you know during the November elections recreational use of marijuana was legalized in both Washington and Colorado but a lot of unanswered questions remain. One of the biggest is the fact that under federal law, marijuana use is illegal. State agencies are currently trying to work out the answers to some of these questions but no one really knows what form this whole idea will emerge as.

Now with today’s Food Forethought, here’s Lacy Gray.

When even National Weather Service meteorologists admit having a lack of confidence in their forecast for the next 90 days you know something’s up. The Climate Prediction Center of the National Weather Service released its forecast covering February, March, and April last week and if anyone was hoping for a clear picture on what to expect precipitation wise they now know that it’s still anyone’s guess. The absence of either a El Nino or La Nina weather pattern this winter even has the experts scratching their heads and unable to make a definitive forecast. Basically, weather is and will remain in a neutral holding pattern. In their words, “we have an equal chance of having above normal temperatures or below normal temperatures”. The NWS does offer a glimmer of hope though for some precipitation for the drought suffering Mid-West and Eastern Corn Belt. Here in the Pacific Northwest there are still indicators that it will remain drier than normal with below normal temperatures. The NWS experts do point out though that neutral years can run the gamut, and that some of the strongest storms, whether that’s rain, snow, or wind, have surfaced in neutral years.

Thanks Lacy. That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.