CME Trading & Wolf Kills

CME Trading & Wolf Kills plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

Once again the CME Group has announced another revision in their electronic grain trading hours. Overnight trade will run from 7 p.m. Central to 7:45 a.m. Day trade will resume at 8:30 a.m. and run until 1:15 p.m. Jim Bower of Bower Trading says they heard from a lot of people.

BOWER: We basically go from 21 hours down to what, 17 1/2 but for all practical purposes but I guess it’s more in line with the kind of the way that the public wants it. So they’re the customers so you’ve got to give the public what they want.

Idaho Fish and Game officials say hunters appear to be having less success hunting and trapping wolves in the Idaho backcountry than a season ago. Only 245 wolves were killed this season as opposed to 379 last year. Hunting and trapping in most zones across the state remain open through the end of March. Agency officials are encouraging hunters and trappers to focus on the hard-to-reach backcountry where success rates have been low. But they say wolves in those areas are less likely to have had encounters with hunters. The hunting and trapping of wolves in the northwest has a lot of opposition.

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

Students and the dairy industry would like to keep chocolate milk as a drink choice in schools, which means chocolate milk isn’t disappearing from school cafeterias without a fight. Several school districts have removed chocolate milk from their menus because of the extra sugar, claiming that it contributes to childhood obesity; even though flavored milk is allowed by new USDA dietary guidelines as long as it’s fat free. A petition from the International Dairy Foods Association and the National Milk Producers Federation to allow the use of artificial or non-nutritive sweeteners in milk and dairy products has been submitted to the Food and Drug Administration. There have been numerous studies that report children are more likely to take milk with their school meals, if the milk is flavored. Removing flavored milk from school menus has resulted in a large decline in milk consumption by students, reducing their intake of important nutrients such as calcium, vitamin D, and protein. What do you think? Should the dairy industry be allowed to use approved artificial or non-nutritive sweeteners in flavored milk? To view the petition and make a comment visit federalregister.gov.

Thanks Lacy. One final note The Kroger Bakery in Clackamas, Oregon is recalling select Wheat Bread products sold at the company's Fred Meyer Stores in the northwest and QFC stores in Oregon and Washington because these products may contain pieces of plastic. That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.