Letters To The Editor

Editor:

After carefully evaluating over 200 pages of reports from the USDA concerning the increased demand for corn for “biofuels,” it certainly becomes increasingly clear to me that the passage of “The Federal Milk Marketing Improvement Act of 2009,” (S.1645), often called “The Specter-Casey Dairy Bill,” is essential for the survival of our dairy farmers.

Recently, one of our U.S. senators obtained several reports from USDA concerning “biofuels.” These reports illustrate some of the reasons for the higher grain prices that dairy farmers and other livestock producers have been struggling to pay.

Editor:

While reading the article in the Ag Briefs, “Feedlots Greener than Grass-Fed?” (Feb. 20) I was amazed that anyone would even consider such a thing. A grazing beef cow might produce slightly more so-called “greenhouse gas,” but they are harvesting their own feed! No fossil fuels are being burned to plant their managed perennial pastures (properly managed pastures don’t ever need replanting). The only feed harvested by machinery is enough hay for the winter.

Some beef grazers can even eliminate that by stockpiling. No spraying chemicals or cultivating is necessary. No silo blowers, no unloaders, no TMR mixers, plus the cows haul most of their own manure! Tremendous amounts of fuel are saved, thus grass farming is extremely eco-friendly. Grazing cattle don’t need the hoof trimmer, and scarcely ever, the vet — preventing still more fuel emissions.

Editor:

I am retired from the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine to a beef cattle farm. This letter is in response to a letter in your Feb. 20 issue from several animal ag groups, highly critical of Katie Couric’s program on CBS about the use of antibiotics in animal feeds.

The CBS program is criticized as one-sided, and the letter says there’s no evidence linking antibiotic use in animals to the emergence of antibiotic resistant bacteria that are such a problem in our hospitals.

In making that claim, the authors had to pretend that the contribution of Dr. Ellen Silbergeld in the CBS program was not there, So who is one-sided? Presumably her contribution was ignored because of her stance that antibiotics should not be fed to livestock because that practice does indeed contribute to the development of resistant microbes. She is professor of public health at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, eminently qualified to speak on this issue, and certainly not to be ignored. She has amassed evidence that bacteria transmit genetic information enabling similar and different bacterial types to become resistant to more than one antibiotic at a time. Her position is widely supported by clinicians who deal with life threatening infections.

Bob Stallman
American Farm Bureau Federation

The American Farm Bureau Federation is extremely disappointed at the changes to the H-2A program temporary worker program announced Feb. 12 by the Labor Department. The new program will be the most difficult ever for agricultural employers to administer. It also comes at a critical time of economic uncertainty and undoes a number of improvements implemented by the department only a year ago.

There continues to be a labor shortage in U.S. agriculture and agricultural employers need an efficient, affordable temporary worker program to help put food on Americans’ tables. Even with the slower economy, farm labor remains physically demanding, periodic, all-weather work and it is often impossible for farmers and ranchers to find the workers they need.

ITHACA, N.Y. — A recent EPA announcement that corn-based ethanol achieves a 21-percent greenhouse gas reduction compared to gasoline is based on false accounting assumptions and could actually lead to more fossil fuel consumption, according to Cornell University economists whose research will be released in March in the journal Applied Economics Perspectives and Policy.

Harry de Gorter and David R. Just, professors of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell, note that the EPA’s calculations assume, for example, that every gallon of ethanol produced will result in a gallon of gasoline that will not be burned.

Editor’s note: The following is a letter sent to Sean McManus, president of CBS News and Sports, following a recent news report on antibiotic use in animal agriculture. The letter was signed by the American Association of Bovine Practitioners, American Association of Swine Veterinarians, American Farm Bureau Federation, American Feed Industry Association, American Meat Institute, Association of Veterinary Biologics Companies, Association of Veterinarians in Turkey Production, Livestock Marketing Association, National Aquaculture Association, National Chicken Council, National Pork Producers Council, National Institute for Animal Agriculture, National Renderers Association and National Turkey Federation.

CAMP HILL, Pa. — Pennsylvania Farm Bureau (PFB) is urging Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation to ask the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) for postponement of proposed farm vehicle restrictions and requirements targeted at Pennsylvania’s farms. The regulations could go into effect soon after March 1, 2010.
“The proposed regulations defy common sense. They will be unworkable, costly and unnecessary burdens on farm operations,” said PFB President Carl T. Shaffer. “It’s also frustrating and unfair that Pennsylvania seems to be the only state where such radical measures are proposed.”

Editor:
This letter is to let those whom it may concern know what I think of the decision by the board of directors at National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) to send $100,000 of CWT (in cash) to Haiti relief.
I’d like to remind them of the purpose of our CWT money “to keep milk production in line with demand, which should lead to profitable milk prices.” That’s it! They owe this focused pursuit to the thousands of farmers who trust them with their milk check deductions every month.
Although my heart goes out to the people of Haiti, it is not appropriate that the administrators at CWT took the liberty of sending farmers’ cash (not product) to any charity. Their job is to help keep farmers fiscally sound so that we may make that kind of personal decision. If anyone at NMPF feels compelled to help the people of Haiti (or any other charity), I suggest they send their own, personal money. Or, go there in person and give of their time and their energy. Our money is not their money. If the board of directors at CWT can’t tell the difference, they should seek other employment.

Editor:

The letter you printed in the Jan 16 issue, “Antibiotic Story Shows Reporting Bias,” is filled with as much misinformation as Kay Johnson Smith complains about.

Does she really believe that antibiotic use in ag is carefully monitored, or that steroids and many other contaminants, such as formaldehyde, are monitored at all? She apparently doesn’t have the vaguest notion what really goes on.

Does she believe that the vets really know or even care what goes on?

Does she know that some animals are fed “laced” feed twice a day, which is shipped to the farm by the way, in large plastic buckets? There is no doubt that more than 50 percent of all meds manufactured in this country is for animal use, though she disputes this as well.

Editor:

On Jan. 21, a dairy farmer from Copake, N.Y. shot and killed 51 of his milking cows and then turned the gun on himself. I am sad, and I am mad. I believe that the blood of that farmer is on the hands of every congressman and senator in this country.

The police said that he was having personal issues, but you can bet the farm that these “personal issues” had to do with the price of milk that farmers have received for the past year and the inability or unwillingness of our elected officials to get anything done to stop this highway robbery.

Yes, we did just receive a DELAP government payment of 32 cents per hundredweight on milk produced last year, but it did nothing to make up for the $8 to $10 per hundredweight that we lost all year.