Washington

Wolves Are Not Going Away: Ranchers Push for Practical Management Tools

Thu, 04 Dec 2025 15:08:47 GMT

Ranchers repeatedly stress they are not advocating extermination of the wolves, but workable management solutions.

“We’re trying to be conservationists,” says Luke Morgan, Lightning Bolt Cattle Co. general manager. “Wolves are here to stay. We’ve got to have some tools to make it more holistic for people, wolves and the rest of the animals.”

Morgan manages 2,500 mother cows on multiple locations in Oregon and Washington utilizing both public and private lands. He says the split listing of wolves in Oregon is frustrating: “A line down the middle … federally listed on one side and not on the other … makes zero sense.”

Read more about the challenges rancher are facing with wolves:
Nightly Battles and Big Losses: Ranchers Demand Reform as Wolves Continue to Wreak Havoc

Rick Roberti, California Cattlemen’s Association president and a cattle rancher in Sierra Valley, adds: “We don’t want to get rid of all the wolves. We just want them managed in a way we don’t suffer so many losses — for them to return to their natural habitat.”

Cattle producer Amy Anderson Fitzpatrick says her family has been dealing with wolves since 2011. Her family raises cattle in southern Oregon during the grazing season (May to December), then move the herd to winter in Northern California. The base ranch, called Rancheria Ranch, is in the mountains of Oregon and is a mix of owned land and permitted grazing.

Fitzpatrick explains state and federal laws severely limit ranchers’ ability to defend their livestock; only nonlethal hazing is allowed, and requests to remove or euthanize problematic wolves have been denied.

Here are two requests from the producers dealing with wolves:

1. Coexistence management tools.

This would allow flexible, rapid deployment of nonlethal and, when needed, targeted lethal tools to address habituated wolves near people and livestock.

“They have zero fear of humans,” Morgan says. “If we could instill a little fear, push them back into wilderness areas and keep them more of a wild animal.”

He suggests seasonal, expedited permits and field-response teams during calving; prioritize high-risk allotments and pastures.

Fitzpatrick adds: “Our wolves are not scared of us, because why should they be?”

2. Notification and data transparency for risk management.

Roberti requests for more notification and data sharing regarding wolves. He says with collared wolves, agencies can tell ranchers when wolves enter their property, but he says: “We’ve been getting the reports after the kill.”

He would also like to know how many wolves there are and would like to see a deer survey done.

“If there’s not enough prey, you’re pretty much saying they’re going to eat cattle,” Roberti says.

Fitzpatrick expresses frustration with public perception and how the pro-wolf sentiment on social media downplays or ignores ranchers’ struggles with the predators.

Despite the ongoing hardships, Fitzpatrick says her family remains committed to ranching while calling for a level playing field that would allow effective protection of their livelihood.

Paul Roen, a Sierra County rancher, adds unified, more flexible regulations and continued collaboration between local, state and federal agencies is needed. He advocates for policy reform, increased documentation and knowledge-sharing to better equip rural communities to manage the realities of coexisting with wolves.

Roberti summarizes that sensible management policies will allow both wolves and ranchers to coexist, but he stresses that unless balance is restored and ranchers’ voices are heard, both the rural way of life and broader ecosystem could face severe consequences.

Your Next Read: Nightly Battles and Big Losses: Ranchers Demand Reform as Wolves Continue to Wreak Havoc

Nightly Battles and Big Losses: Ranchers Demand Reform as Wolves Continue to Wreak Havoc

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 18:42:52 GMT

It’s hard to fathom: 92 confirmed or probable kills of cattle by three wolves during one season (April to October 2025) in the Sierra Valley. For ranchers, it’s more than economical loss — the emotional toll of dealing with wolves targeting their livestock and livelihoods is real.

Reintroduction and management of wolves in Sierra County, Calif., has led to significant challenges. The community, led by officials such as Paul Roen, has been actively pushing for updated management protocols, enhanced deterrence measures and better support from state and federal agencies to address the escalating wolf-livestock conflict.

Roen, a Sierra County supervisor (similar to a county commissioner) and rancher, explains it’s more than a livestock issue; it is a human safety issue.

“These wolves were not bothered by humans whatsoever. I mean, they were not acting like wild animals at all,” he says in reference to the wolves killing cattle earlier this year.

Rick Roberti, California Cattlemen’s Association president and a cattle rancher in Sierra Valley, adds: “For every confirmed kill you find, there’s probably four to six others. The wolves had gotten so used to eating cattle they didn’t hardly even look at a deer if they could find one.”

Roen and Roberti both stress the wolves have no fear of humans, with frequent sightings near homes and barns.

The severity of the attacks led Roen and other local officials to declare a state of emergency, drawing statewide and media attention. Despite the efforts of ranchers and local authorities — including constant night patrols, protective measures and deployment of technology like drones — wolf predation persisted. The community also engaged with state and federal resources, including a Strike Force sent by California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) to document the losses and explore possible intervention .

The program, designed to prevent livestock attacks on ranching properties in the heavily impacted Sierra Valley, deployed more than 18,000 staff hours across 114 days, engaging in 95 hazing events that helped to prevent an even greater loss in cattle deaths.

Eighteen Sierra Valley ranches enrolled in the program. CDFW staff also assisted ranches in evaluating the use of wolf-deterring fladry and ensuring livestock carcasses are correctly disposed to avoid attracting scavenging wolves. Additionally, the program helped facilitate depredation investigations, enabling ranchers to access compensation through CDFW’s Wolf-Livestock Compensation Program .

Following the unprecedented level of livestock attacks across the Sierra Valley, CDFW, in coordination with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), took the step of lethally removing four gray wolves from the Beyem Seyo pack.

“This action follows months of intensive non-lethal management efforts to reduce livestock loss and is grounded in the best available science and understanding of wolf biology,” according to the press release.

Roen says progress dealing with the wolf issue came with federal involvement and local law enforcement support. He says when the sheriff got involved , people woke up in Sacramento.

Read more about how sheriff departments from seven California counties united to oppose environmental polices they believe threaten ranchers and farmers.

Not Just California

The gray wolf is on the federal endangered species list except in the Northern Rocky Mountain region of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, the eastern one-third of Oregon, Washington and north-central Utah. In Minnesota, the gray wolf is considered threatened. Because of these protections, killing a wolf in the states where it’s protected is illegal, even if it’s seen killing livestock.

Luke Morgan, Lightning Bolt Cattle Company general manager, has been dealing with wolves since 2011 when they first came to Oregon. Morgan manages 2,500 mother cows on multiple locations in Oregon and Washington using both public and private lands.

A pack of wolves that live on one of the Lightning Bolt ranches in western Oregon have been causing havoc the past couple years. According to Morgan, the wolves killed more than 25 head of livestock from mid-October to mid-November.

He says the wolves prey the weak-minded: “Whatever can’t take the pressure … the ones that will break and run.”

(CDFW)

Cattle producer Amy Anderson Fitzpatrick says her family has also been dealing with wolves since 2011. They raise cattle in southern Oregon during the grazing season (May to December), then move the herd to winter in Northern California. The base ranch, called Rancheria Ranch, is in the mountains of Oregon and is a mix of owned land and permitted grazing. The operation includes commercial cow herd plus some yearlings.

Since 2019, Fitzpatrick says at least 24 cattle deaths have been attributed to wolves, though actual losses are likely higher due to unconfirmed cases in the rugged terrain.

“I have learned far more about wolves and their behavior than I could ever imagine. Wolves kill for food, yes, but they also kill to hone their skills, teach their young and for fun. We have witnessed wolves literally bumping livestock bedded down to get them up and running to chase them,” Fitzpatrick says. “We’ve been dealing with it for about 14 years. … The earlier pack, the Rogue Pack, would hit Fort Klamath hard in the summer months when there was an abundance of yearling cattle, then in the fall they’d come over the hill to Rancheria and hit us. Now we deal with what is known as this Grouse Ridge Pack, which seems to just like to hang out at the ranch and hit our permit country in the summertime.”

Fitzpatrick says they previously anticipated up to five losses per year from cattle turned out on the range as a cost of doing business. With the increase in wolf population, the ranch tallied between 35 and 40 mostly weaned calves during the 2024 season.

The Rogue Pack would kill livestock as sport and not consume the animals. However, the current, larger pack tends to consume more carcasses, further complicating verification.

In Wisconsin over the past 12 months, wolf attacks on livestock have increased. According to the state’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR), there have been 62 livestock depredation incidents in 2025 — 45 killed and 17 confirmed harassments — all of which are either livestock or pets. That’s nearly double the number of incidents reported just three years ago.

According to the Wisconsin Farm Bureau : “Wisconsin’s wolf population has rebounded from extinction to an undeniable conservation success. But lately, it feels more like a horror story than a success story.”

Read more about how ranchers say they are willing to deal with wolves if they will return to their natural habitat:
Wolves Are Not Going Away: Ranchers Push for Practical Management Tools

(Paul Roen)

Financial Loss is Real

Herd-level effects beyond death loss include lower conception rates, 50 lb. to 75 lb. weaning weight declines and cow herd fear. Wolves have changed cattle behavior significantly.

Fitzpatrick says the presence of wolves has caused observable stress and aggression in the cattle, leading to behavioral changes, abortions and decreased weaning weights.

“Wolves actively harass resting cattle, preventing them from relaxing or thriving,” she says.

Morgan says herd experience more vulnerability during calving season. He points out calves and protective dams are high-risk with wolf attacks leading to increasing accidental calf deaths and stress-related herd disruptions.

Research by Tina Saitone, a University of California-Davis professor and cooperative Extension specialist in livestock and rangeland economics, found one wolf can cause up to $162,000 in annual financial loss .

Compensation is Available But Falls Short

Compensation frameworks exist but often lack speed and scope and require confirmations that are often unfeasible. Morgan says there’s not even close to enough funds in the pool to cover all the losses.

“There is money appropriated in California, but we’re just having a hard time getting it,” Roberti adds. “Most have been waiting since April.”

All four producers say depredations are significantly undercounted compared with real losses due to terrain, investigation lags and evidence requirements. A shared frustration is the fact if an animal is nearly completely consumed, the investigators can’t find the evidence it was a wolf attack and thus, it does not count as a wolf depredation.

Emotional Toll is Substantial

For cattle producers impacted by wolves, it’s more than the financial toll; it’s the human factor, the stress incurred.

“Financial-wise, it’s huge. It’s astronomical, if you really dig into it, but the mental capacity it takes from us and the people who work for us is huge,” Morgan says. “The emotional toll we have to go through just watching and observing cattle, and we spend every day we possibly can trying to keep these animals alive.

“There’s nothing pretty about the way [wolves] kill animals,” he continues. “For us to go out and find them or have to deal with that, it’s huge emotionally.”

Fitzpatrick explains the losses due to wolves have deeply affected her dad.

“My dad is 81 years old, and I have never seen him so depressed,” she explains. “He’s not the same; he’s lost the fight. It’s like we’ve lost. How do you put a price tag on that?”

Dealing with wolves it is a safety issue as well, Roberti adds. As producers stay up all night checking on and protecting their cattle. Fitzpatrick agrees, summarizing the stressful steps she takes to check cattle, noting she now avoids certain tasks due to the increased risks to herself and her dogs.

Documenting the events in Sierra County, Roen says he hopes their experiences can be used as a road map for others. He plans to share plans, forms and training materials with ranchers facing similar threats.

“We created different plans and trainings we will allow everybody to plagiarize,” he says.

Your Next Read:
Wolves Are Not Going Away: Ranchers Push for Practical Management Tools

The Cost of Coexistence With Wolves

Washington Grower Shares How To Scale Regenerative Farming

Wed, 04 Dec 2024 13:30:00 GMT

By Deborah Huso

Austin Allred’s family has been farming the Royal Slope region of Washington state between Seattle and Spokane for three generations. He and his two brothers, Derek and Tyson, farm a combined 6,000 acres. They grow potatoes, cherry and apple trees and produce honey, while also running 10,000 beef cattle and milking about 6,000 dairy cows. The family also recently added a worm farm and a beef processing facility.

Like many producers with combined operations, Royal Family Farms focuses on finding a purpose for every acre and every byproduct. In fact, the Allreds have been practicing regenerative farming before it really had its own term.

“My dad was no-tilling before it was billed as regenerative,” Allred explains. “He was doing it to reduce diesel usage. He was also very conscientious about planting woodstock in corners of fields.”

Allred and his siblings took the same approach as they expanded the farm operations.

“I accelerated and defined [what Dad was doing] and put some strategy to it,” Allred says, with the goals of building organic matter in the soil, sequestering carbon and cleaning wastewater.

Royal Family Farms

(Royal Family Farms)

Extended Crop Rotations and Grazing
Allred recognizes the kind of stress agricultural production can put on the land, hence the many inputs required in traditional farming. But Royal Family Farms has demonstrated that not only do regenerative practices work, but one can accomplish them at scale.

“Anytime you’re growing a crop that a human can digest, you’re going to put a lot of pressure on soil,” Allred says. “It’s really hard to do a total no-till strategy. You can’t plant weeds with your wheat.”

Allred says potatoes are the least regenerative crop the farm grows, but says they counteract it by working cattle into a long crop rotation for added soil fertilization.

“If 20% of the ground is in potatoes, that land doesn’t come back online for another six to seven years. And during those years, we do a lot of composting,” he says. “Other years we do cover cropping and planting multispecies crops to grow microbial activity.”

Allred grazes his beef cattle on the cover crops, which provides feed while simultaneously adding more soil amendments, such as nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P).

Upcycling Everything
Nothing goes to waste at Royal Family Farms. The Allreds work with all the processors who clean and box their apples and turn their potatoes into French fries to retrieve all of the products that don’t qualify for human consumption to be upcycled into protein, as Allred explains it, providing food for their cattle in the form of potato culls or damaged fruit or nutrient-rich compost for their fields. Meanwhile any wood chips produced when the Allreds retire a cherry or apple orchard is either turned into cattle bedding, used for the worm farm or processed into biochar, a carbon-rich byproduct.

The Allreds’ interest in biochar, a charcoal-like substance derived from organic waste, developed out of a desire to bring more carbon into agricultural systems. And for the past few months, Royal Family Farms has used four machines to burn wood chips into charcoal that, when mixed with compost, recharges carbon in the soil.

“As farmers, we are selling off carbon, whether it’s beef, milk or cherries,” Allred says. “Seventy to 80% of retired apple, cherry and pear trees in Washington were getting burned at the end of their effective life. Biochar was a way to bring in more carbon and upcycle and compost it.”

“We try to upcycle every byproduct into something of value,” Allred says. “Eventually it all becomes a soil amendment. It’s only a loss if we let that carbon into the air.”

Reusing Wastewater With Worms
Water is a critical part of any farming operation, and Royal Family Farms sought out a better way to
filter wastewater from their dairy operations and reuse it. What was their regenerative solution? Worms.

“We started investing in what is now the biggest worm farm in the world about eight years ago,” Allred says.

Working with a company called BioFiltro headquartered in Santiago, Chile, the Allreds’ worm farm includes eight acres of what looks like 5'-deep swimming pools. These pools are able to serve as the home for about 50 million worms at any one time.

“Wood chips make up the medium they live in, and that’s also the filter for the dirty water,” Allred explains. “The dairy is designed to flow to a low spot, where we have two 5,000-gallon vacuums that bring the wastewater to the worms.”

The worms digest the wastewater, removing heavy metals and other contaminants. The waste matter the worms produce is rich in microbials, and the Allreds take the worm castings and mix them with compost to produce nutrient-dense soil.

Royal Family Farms

(Royal Family Farms)

Eliminating Waste and Need for Inputs
Allred says engaging in regenerative practices large-scale required careful consideration of how everything could work together.

“We started integrating vegetable, fruit, protein and bees to get to the next generation of regeneration,” he explains. Allred points out that the digestive systems of cattle along with biochar create compost. “It’s all about upcycling ‘waste’ products.”

The result of instituting these practices is dramatically reduced reliance on inputs.

“This year we used no phosphorus and potassium and had equal to or greater yields without it,” Allred remarks. “And across the board, we have better quality.”

He adds the farm’s greatest payout is not having to input synthetics.

“The more natural systems we have in play, the more nutrients we keep in the loop, the less we have to go get inputs,” he says.

Allred acknowledges farmers can filter water through mechanical or chemical systems, but says natural systems are typically cheaper to implement.

“Natural investments are always going to have a long-term return on investment,” Allred says. “The problem is producers often don’t have the margin to always be investing in long-term ROI.”

Royal Family Farms’ regenerative farming practices offer payoffs 10 to 15 years out, Allred estimates.

“We’ve bridged that gap with carbon credits and vertically integrating to pick up those margins,” he says.

This year Royal Family Farms is starting to see its regenerative operations pay off in a big way.

“We purchased 90% less phosphorus and potassium [K] than we have in the past and significantly less nitrogen,” Allred says. “We’re working on nitrogen for the next five years because ruminants make P and K.”

“Regenerative farming starts to gobble up the biggest expenses any farm is going to pay — your fertilizer bill and your chemical bill,” he says. “On the cattle side, your feed bill is your biggest expense. Regenerative farming gives you higher-quality, local food.”

No one knows better than you that the future of your farm depends on balancing practices and profits that sustain your land, resources and family . The stakes are evolving based on weather patterns, technology, market demand and more. What actions are you taking to remain resilient?

Policy Updates: July 20, 2017

Thu, 22 Sep 2022 02:58:09 GMT

— White House announces more USDA top position nominees... Last night, the White House announced the nominations of Indiana Agriculture Director Ted McKinney to become undersecretary for trade and foreign agricultural affairs, and Sam Clovis to be undersecretary for research, education and economics, both names previously mentioned as likely for the position. McKinney spent most of his career working with Dow AgroSciences and Elanco, a subsidiary of Eli Lilly. Clovis served as chief policy adviser on the Trump campaign and has been working as a senior White House adviser at USDA since President Trump took office.

USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue comments. In a statement, Perdue said Clovis, an Air Force veteran, “was one of the first people through the door at USDA in January and has become a trusted advisor and steady hand as we continue to work for the people of agriculture. He looks at every problem with a critical eye, relying on sound science and data, and will be the facilitator and integrator we need.”

For the trade post, Perdue said, “I have always said that I want someone who wakes up every morning asking how we can sell more American agricultural products in foreign markets. Ted McKinney is that person.”

Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey is the likely nominee as undersecretary for farm and conservation programs.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) comments on the nominees. The ranking member of the Senate Ag Committee said, “While Steve Censky and Ted McKinney stand out as experienced candidates to serve in USDA leadership roles, I have strong concerns that Sam Clovis is not qualified to be USDA Undersecretary of Research, Education, and Economics, which dually serves as the Department’s Chief Scientist. This nominee seems to lack the necessary agricultural science and research qualifications that are required by the Farm Bill. I also have many questions about his troubling views on climate change and providing public investment in crop insurance and education. “Over the past six months, there have been too many vacant leadership positions at the USDA. Our farmers, ranchers, and rural communities deserve strong and experienced leaders at the Department to make sure their voices are heard in this administration. I intend to take a close look at each nominee to ensure they are up for the task.”

Meanwhile, the Senate Ag Committee plans to schedule a confirmation hearing on deputy secretary-nominee Stephen Censky once it goes through “all the proper protocols,” said press secretary Meghan Cline. Trump announced on July 14 the nomination of Censky, who has been CEO of the American Soybean Association for the last 21 years.

Perdue also named a former House staffer to run USDA’s nutrition agency. Brandon Lipps, who helped implement $8.6 billion in food stamp cuts in the 2014 Farm Bill, is the new administrator of USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), which oversees food stamps, school lunch and other public nutrition programs. Perdue announced the appointment of Lipps and two senior nutrition officials a day ahead of a trip today to a summer meal site for school-aged children. Lipps was previously a lawyer for the House Agriculture Committee. “While there, he led the nutrition policy team in developing the first reforms to, and fiscal savings from, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps) since the welfare reforms of 1996,” said USDA. Since July 2014, Lipps has been chief of staff for the chancellor of the Texas Tech University system.

Maggie Lyons will be chief of staff and Kailee Tkacz will be policy advisor for Lipps, said Perdue. Previously, Lyons was a lobbyist for the National Grocers Association and Tkacz worked for the Corn Refiners Association.

— White House unveils infrastructure council... President Trump is forming a council to advise his administration on the best ways to improve the nation’s infrastructure. The council will be run out of the Commerce Department and will include 15 members from various segments of the economy. While agriculture is not yet represented, the executive order says more sectors could be added.

The council’s charge: “study the scope and effectiveness of, and make findings and recommendations to the president regarding, federal government funding, support, and delivery of infrastructure projects in several sectors, including surface transportation, aviation, ports and waterways, water resources, renewable energy generation, electricity transmission, broadband, pipelines, and other such sectors as determined by the council.”

The panel would be dissolved at the end of 2018 unless Trump extends it. Or it will disappear no more than 60 days after it offers a report on its conclusions to Trump.

— NAFTA 2.0 talks to begin Aug. 16. The initial round of negotiations among the U.S., Canada and Mexico to reopen NAFTA will take place Aug. 16-20 in Washington, D.C., the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said Wednesday. John Melle, the assistant U.S. trade representative for the Western Hemisphere and a USTR veteran, will serve as the US’ chief negotiator. Melle, who joined USTR in 1988, has for decades overseen trade policy in the North American region.

Meanwhile, a Reuters report quoted Mexican officials saying the three countries had agreed to hold seven rounds of negotiations at three-week intervals — a timeline that, assuming talks were concluded by the end of the seventh round, would allow officials to complete Mexico’s stated goal of early 2018, before its presidential elections are well underway. The report also said the location of talks would alternate among the three countries, and that the second round is set for Mexico.

Melle’s counterpart in Mexico City — Undersecretary for Foreign Trade Juan Carlos Baker — will be at the helm for Mexico throughout the negotiations, and will also be working closely with Mexican Economy Secretary Ildefonso Guajardo.

Canada has appointed veteran trade negotiator Steve Verheul to head the team for Ottawa, according to Canadian media reports.

The meeting timeline came after the Trump administration outlined key goals that include improving access for U.S. goods exported to Canada and Mexico. That White House also wants much stronger labor standards in a new NAFTA an outcome that could raise labor costs in Mexico and change the economic measures manufacturers have used in shifting factory work from the U.S. to Mexico. That also could bring transportation issues to the table. Federal regulators have allowed a handful of Mexican truckers to continue to operate in the U.S. since a controversial test program called for under NAFTA ended in 2014, and some trucking companies and the Teamsters union may raise new objections to the provision.

Former U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said potential stumbling blocks to a deal include politics in Mexico and Canada or if the Trump administration insists on provisions that would be unacceptable to the other countries, according to comments July 19 on CNBC’s Squawk Box. “And in that circumstance, there is always a risk that President Trump goes back to the idea of withdrawing from NAFTA altogether,” he said. Froman wondered whether Trump trade officials had thought through potential difficulties in winning congressional approval of a new NAFTA. “I’m not sure there is a lot of enthusiasm in Congress for having a vote on NAFTA in the near future,” he said.

The Trump administration wants to go further than the Obama administration in several areas, Froman said. Regarding trade remedies, the Trump administration is seeking tools that can help restrict imports from Canada and Mexico more easily, he said. The objectives also show that reducing the trade deficit in goods is a central objective for the U.S., he said. “They don’t say how they are going to do that,” he said. The U.S. has a trade surplus in services and four out of five Americans work in the services sector, he said.

— OMB to unveil regulatory and deregulatory actions. The White House Office of Management and Budget this morning will release a compendium showing it has withdrawn or postponed many Obama-era regulations. “Government is using muscles it hasn’t used in a really long time, exposing and removing redundant and unnecessary regulation,” OMB Director Mick Mulvaney said in a statement. The “Unified Agenda” adds “deregulatory actions” to its name and details the Trump administration has shelved about 860 regulatory actions, either withdrawing them or moving them from “active status.”

— Steel issues forge limited U.S.-China meeting results. A spirited discord over how much China should reduce its excess steel production capacity dominated the first meeting of the U.S.-China Comprehensive Economic Dialogue on Wednesday, apparently blocking progress on other issues. China nixed U.S. pressure to agree to specific cuts in production capacity and U.S. officials did not move to other issues. Both countries canceled press conferences planned for the afternoon. The confab produced just one result: China’s acknowledgement “of our shared objective to reduce the trade deficit, which both sides will work cooperatively to achieve,” according to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’ joint statement.

Still awaited is a U.S. report led by Ross regarding a national security investigation that could lead to trade restrictions on steel imports, via Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. The report on whether steel imports pose a national security risk is the subject of a major and lingering debate within the Trump administration over the scope and nature of any trade action to be recommended to the president.

Market impact: Steel stocks rose across the board yesterday.

— John McCain diagnosed with brain cancer... Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), 80, has a brain tumor and may undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatment. The tumor was diagnosed after the longtime senator and war hero underwent surgery to remove a blood clot above his left eye at the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix. “Subsequent tissue pathology revealed that a primary brain tumor known as a glioblastoma was associated with the blood clot,” the Mayo Clinic said in a statement. A glioblastoma is a fast-growing tumor. His office would not put any timetable on his return to the Senate.

On Monday, McCain issued a statement from Arizona calling for going back to the drawing board on health care and for a bipartisan committee process to move forward.

McCain has represented Arizona for more than three decades and was the 2008 Republican presidential nominee.

— Fiscal 2018 budget resolution sent to House floor. Republicans pushed a fiscal 2018 budget resolution through the House Budget Committee late Wednesday, 22-14, on a party-line vote, advancing an effort with President Donald Trump to lower tax rates while boosting defense and cutting domestic spending. The budget still faces hurdles from some conservatives, which could mean changes before it can be passed on the House floor. Democrats are expected to oppose it. The timetable for House consideration is uncertain and could be delayed until after the August recess.

The budget plan proposes a defense discretionary spending limit of $621.5 billion, $73 billion above the statutory cap. The budget lowers the nondefense discretionary limit to $511 billion, $5 billion below the cap. It would allow up to $75 billion in war funding for the military and $12 billion for the State Department and other civilian agencies.

The vote reflected support from two members of the House Freedom Caucus — Reps. Dave Brat (R-Va.) and Mark Sanford (R-N.C.). However, votes for the package on the House floor are not as clear. Republicans can only afford to lose 22 Republicans and rumblings are that the number in opposition or at least not supporting the budget resolution could be double that level.

— Citing recusal, Trump says he wouldn’t have hired Sessions, according to a New York Times interview with President Donald Trump. Trump said on Wednesday that he never would have appointed Attorney General Jeff Sessions had he known Sessions would recuse himself from overseeing the Russia investigation that has dogged his presidency, calling the decision “very unfair to the president.” Link for details from the newspaper.

“Trump complained that Sessions’ decision ultimately led to the appointment of a special counsel that should not have happened,” according to the NYT. “‘Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else,” Trump said.

Sessions today said he plans to stay on in his current job, even after Trump’s harsh criticism. “I plan to continue to do so as long as that is appropriate,” Sessions said at a Department of Justice press conference.

In the interview, Trump also accused James B. Comey, the FBI director he fired in May, of trying to leverage a dossier of compromising material to keep his job. Trump criticized both the acting FBI director who has been filling in since Comey’s dismissal and the deputy attorney general who recommended it. And he took on Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel now leading the investigation into Russian meddling in last year’s election. Asked if Mueller’s investigation would cross a red line if it expanded to look at his family’s finances beyond any relationship to Russia, Trump said, “I would say yes.” He would not say what he would do about it. “I think that’s a violation. Look, this is about Russia.”

Meanwhile, reports have surfaced that former Trump campaign advisor Paul Manafort owed millions to pro-Russia interests. Financial records in the tax haven of Cyprus, where Paul Manafort had bank accounts, indicate that he had as much as $17 million in debt before he joined Donald Trump’s campaign last year. Link to New York Times account.

— Traces of fecal matter have been found in drinks at three of the world’s biggest fast food chains in the U.K. Investigators from the BBC consumer show, Watchdog, discovered the bacteria in ice served in drinks at McDonald’s, Burger King and KFC. Many of the samples were described as having “ssignificant” levels. Link to CNBC item.

— Self-driving vehicle regulation exemption. A U.S. House panel has approved a sweeping proposal by voice vote to allow automakers to deploy up to 100,000 self-driving vehicles without meeting existing auto safety standards and bar states from imposing driverless car rules. States could still set rules on registration, licensing, liability, insurance and safety inspections, but could not set self-driving car performance standards, under the proposal.

— Canada-U.S. softwood deal may come before NAFTA 2.0 talks. The lingering trade dispute over softwood lumber may be nearing a resolution, with Canada indicating it wants to settle the issue with the U.S. before the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement begins Aug. 16. “We’re going to continue to work very hard towards that,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said to reporters in Providence, Rhode Island. “I’m not going to speculate, but I will say this is an issue that Canadians and the American administration are taking very seriously, and there are constant back-and-forths on this issue.”

Canada is the world’s largest softwood lumber exporter and the U.S. is its biggest market. The U.S. lumber industry filed a petition asking for duties, alleging Canadian wood is heavily subsidized and imports were harming American mills and workers. The U.S. imposed punitive tariffs on Canadian shipments earlier this year.

Seattle Selected for Port Pop-Up to Ease Ag Supply Chain

Fri, 18 Mar 2022 22:07:18 GMT

USDA announced on Friday another ag commodity “pop-up” port will be opening to temporarily house ag containers for shipping.

The Northwest Seaport Alliance is partnering the USDA to bring the Port of Seattle a 49-acre pop-up site that will accept both dry and refrigerated agricultural products for temporary storage.

AgDay reports the Northwest Seaport Alliance saw a nearly 30-percent decline in the export of ag commodities in the last six months of last year, with the ratio of loaded versus empty container exports shifting to predominately empty containers since May of 2021.

A similar pop-up site launched at California’s Port of Oakland earlier this month, along with U.S. Department of Transportation partnership with the Port of Savannah in Georgia.

More on the Way

USDA says they will continue to seek opportunities to partner with additional ports or other intermodal container facilities to help American farmers and agricultural producers move their product to market.

“The pandemic revealed vulnerabilities across our supply system and as the economy has made an historic recovery, it has put additional strain on the supply chain,” Vilsack says. “The Biden-Harris Administration is calling out ocean carriers that are taking advantage of the situation to leverage undue profits and are treating U.S. agricultural companies and producers unacceptably.”

The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) praised the launch in a news release today, saying the site will help to “deliver relief” to agricultural exporters grappling with supply chain struggles. However, they feel this site is only one leg of the supply chain race.

“We urge the administration to build on today’s great news by expanding further to inland locations.” says Jim Mulhern, NMPF president. “We urge Congress to move forward swiftly with legislative solutions to the supply chain crunch by passing the Ocean Shipping Reform Act and advancing immigration reform to address the growing labor challenges facing our dairy farms and plants.

Bridge the Gap

Adjustments to truck-carrying capacity has been heavily debated as a solution to clogged ports.

White House Ports Czar John Porcari says he has an ongoing discussion with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration about increasing truck carrying capacity, as truck size and weight specifications are established at the state level, with federal oversight.

“This is not just a short-term issue related to the difficulties in exporting right now,” says Porcari. “This is a perennial issue that has be tackled in our infrastructure to accommodate those larger weights.”

Vilsack echoed Porcari saying ports and truck capacity are an “interesting” issue when considering the bipartisan infrastructure bill. He says as bridges and roads are repaired across the U.S., they can be strengthened to handle more weight and offer “greater resilience and efficiency in the long term.”

Read more from AgWeb:
> Will The USDA Pop-Up Site Solve the Clogged Ports Issue?
> John Phipps: It’s Not a Chain, It’s a Web

AB Livestock Buys Feedlot Entangled In Tyson Lawsuit

Fri, 05 Mar 2021 21:42:51 GMT

While Tyson Fresh Meats lawyers were filing a lawsuit on Monday (Jan. 25) against one of the packer’s largest cattle suppliers in Washington state, the ink was still drying on the sale of one of that supplier’s feedlots to one of Tyson’s competitors.

Easterday Ranches, Inc., has sold its “North Lot” in Franklin County, WA, to AB Livestock of Boise, Idaho, according to a report by Northwest News Network , a collaboration of public radio stations that broadcast in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. The sale was completed Jan. 22, 2021.

The 25,000-head feedlot sits on 1,500 acres with adjacent irrigated and dry farmland spanning multiple sections. It sold for $16 million dollars , according to the Franklin County Assessor’s Office.

AB Livestock is a division of Agri Beef Co, based in Boise. Agri Beef co-owns Washington Beef, a beef packer based in Toppenish, WA, with a daily slaughter capacity of 1,550 head. Last July, Agri Beef announced it would open a packing plant in Jerome, ID , that will process 500 head per day and operate as True West Beef.

The sale of the Easterday feedlot raises some issues the court will need to sort out, since Tyson has said it still has 54,000 cattle on feed with Easterday Ranches. It is unknown how many of Tyson’s cattle are in the North Lot, and how many could still be under Easterday’s watch in its other facility, a 35,000-head feedlot located near Kennewick.

In its court filing, Tyson asked for a court-appointed receiver to take control of Easterday Ranches. Court documents include a request for the current Easterday Ranches staff to turn over everything from keys to financial documents.

“We were not aware the sale was completed when we filed our requests with the court, however, the news does not change our position on the need for a court-appointed receiver to take control of the remaining assets of Easterday Ranches,” Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson said in an email.

Agri Beef is known for producing brands including Snake River Farms, Double R Ranch and St. Helens. The company says the acquisition plays a strategic role in its commitment and vision for growth.

“This acquisition provides AB Livestock the opportunity to increase its business with local Northwest suppliers, while reducing reliance on cattle supplies from Canada,” said Matt Buyers, President of AB Livestock in a press release. “It also dramatically reduces our overall carbon foot-print as it brings an additional source of fed-cattle supply much nearer to our Washington processing facility.”

Tyson filed its lawsuit in an attempt to recover assets “in the aftermath of a fraudulent scheme by Easterday Ranches” in which Tyson said it lost millions.

In a statement earlier this week, Tyson said, “Easterday falsified documents to obtain reimbursement by Tyson of more than $200 million in connection with some 200,000 cattle that did not exist. The president of Easterday Ranches admitted to the scheme and acknowledged the fraud was initiated to cover extensive commodities trading losses he had experienced.”

The lawsuit states Easterday “submitted false invoices to Plaintiff (Tyson) for reimbursement, identifying cattle that did not exist; has requested and received reimbursement from Plaintiff for feed that was not in fact purchased; has submitted fictitious inventory records to Plaintiff; and has otherwise schemed to defraud Plaintiff in a way that has caused Plaintiff losses in excess of $225 million.”

Related stories:

Tyson Sues Cattle Feeder Over ‘Fraudulent Scheme’

Agri Beef Plans New Idaho Packing Plant