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Kato must be behind this........ LOL

HAY MAKER

Well-known member
Canada gives South Korea a deadline to open their borders
Monday, March 23, 2009, 4:34 PM

by Bob Meyer

Canada has drawn the line with South Korea; reopen the border to Canadian beef or else. South Korea has banned Canadian beef ever since BSE was first found in Canada in 2003 and the Canadians say that is enough. Ag Minister Gerry Ritz flew to Seoul to deliver the message personally so "nothing was lost in translation.” Ritz told Reuters if the South Koreans want to remain honorable in the eyes of the world they must live up to WTO requirements. They have given the Koreans until the end of March to work this out or Canada will initiate WTO challenge procedures plus Ritz says there will be no Free Trade Agreement between the two countries until the beef issue is resolved.
 

HAY MAKER

Well-known member
CARRINGTON, N.D. — North Dakota’s beef cattle industry is going to get a big shot in the arm if a proposed packing plant, which would be the largest in the Northern Plains, gets funded and built. FK Partners of South Korea is raising funds now to build the plant, which would have the ability to process 500 to 750 head of cattle a day.

The North Dakota Feeder Council recently hosted a meeting in Bismarck, N.D., at which FK Partners’ president, Jack Kim, spoke to about 60 cattle feeders.

“There was what I would call complete support for the idea of a packing plant,” feeder council member Vern Anderson says.

FK Partners’ president, Jack Kim, says he is “ready to move on the project,” and North Dakota’s Agricultural Products Utilization Commission has allocated $150,000 to have a months-long feasibility study conducted.

“They have a request for proposals out now and they’re getting cost estimates from different consulting firms,” says Tim Petry, livestock economist for the North Dakota State University Extension Service.

Once the firm is chosen, the feasibility study likely would take several months to complete.

“There are a lot of things that go into a study, but that’s the right way to do it,” he says.

Transporting savings

Without access to sufficient in-state slaughter capacity, North Dakota feedlots have been sending their fed cattle to out-of-state packers.

“For most commercial feedlots, they have to go several hundred miles into Nebraska to the market for fed cattle,” Petry says.

Last summer, with the higher fuel costs, producers were paying about $60 a head just to get their fed cattle to market, he says.

“From a transportation standpoint alone, it would be a huge savings,” he says.

The number of packing plants in North Dakota has been declining, having experienced limited success.

“We had a packing plant in West Fargo that was just a cull-cow plant. We lost that 10 years ago, and we used to have a cow kill plant in Williston,” Petry says.

But the proposed plant already would have a built-in, committed customer base in South Korea. The new plant would ship about 60 percent of its North Dakota beef products to South Korea. The remainder likely would be sold in the U.S., China and Japan.

More feeders

In addition, Petry suspects that having such a packing plant here would encourage more feeding. Anderson agrees.

“The only request from Jack Kim . . . is that the North Dakota feeders feed more cattle so he could buy more fed cattle,” Anderson says. “We’ll have to ramp up production.”

North Dakota finishes 80,000 to 100,000 head now, he says, adding that producers may have to double that.

“It’s feasible,” he says. “Many of these feeders that were at the meeting indicated their willingness to double their size, add more pens and more people and so forth.”

North Dakota raises 250,000 to 300,000 head of cattle, Anderson says.

“The finishing segment of that is another 100 days on feed, so it isn’t like we’re starting from weaning and going all the way,” he says. “That’s part of where the feeder council . . . and other feeders come into play. That’s part of where NDSU can participate in this with our feedlot schools and feedlot research. We’ve proven the viability of feeding cattle in North Dakota.”

A North Dakota edge

A competitive advantage lies in the cost of feeding cattle in North Dakota compared with other states.

“Because corn costs less in North Dakota every day of the year, by 50 cents a bushel or more, that gives us an advantage,” Petry says. “Chopped alfalfa hay in Kansas is close to $150 a ton, and here, we get forage for $50 a ton. It’s a small portion of the diet, but we can afford to feed a little more forage and a little lower energy, which stabilizes intake during weather cycles.”

To Petry, Anderson and several beef feeders, bringing a large packing plant into North Dakota makes a lot of sense.

“They’re our cattle. We have done a lifetime of work improving the genetics,” Anderson says. “Why don’t we feed them here and capture value from those superior genetics?”
 
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