On the plains of western Kansas, where more than 70,000 cows are milked daily, attracting a processing plant to this region of the state is a priority for Gov. Sam Brownback.

“A cheese factory would be a powerful tool for long-term economic growth in rural Kansas,” said Brownback spokeswoman Sherriene Jones-Sontag. “It is a priority. It would mean good jobs and more revenue for decades.”

It is a change from 20 years ago, when the first large-scale dairy was built in Hamilton County and future development of the fledgling industry was just dreams.

These days, however, a few dozen industrial-strength dairies dot Kansas where crops like wheat and corn once grew — operations that stretch across a mile section.

Now as Brownback and his Cabinet search ways to grow the rural countryside, attracting a viable industry like a milk-processing plant to southwest Kansas has become one of their top focuses.

Already things are happening. Grant County Economic Development Director Leslie Mangels said a foreign investor is interested in building a dry milk-processing plant in the U.S. The dried milk would be used in his cheese factories in Europe.

Ulysses is in the running with Michigan and South Dakota for the 60-employee plant, she said. Consultants visited Ulysses two weeks ago. Mangels said she could learn the final decision any day.

The same investor looked at Kansas in 2004, but at that time, the state didn’t have enough milk production, Mangels said.

“With the milk supply and the progressive nature of Grant County, we are prime for some kind” of facility, Mangels said, noting state officials with the Kansas Department of Agriculture and Kansas Department of Commerce have been instrumental in the process. “We’re ready, we’re here, we have the infrastructure.”

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Stops were made at Sandhill Farms near Haviland and Woolfolk Ranch at Protection. Kevin and Vera Schultz, owners of Sandhill Farms, gave the group an inside look into their breeding program, which consists of Polled Hereford genetics. Kent and Tyler Woolfolk explained how they manage salt cedar trees on their pastures to improve grazing.

Ted Boersma, co-owner of Forget-Me-Not Dairy near Cimarron, told the group during a tour of the milking parlor the facility produces 12 to 13 truckloads of milk per day. The class visited Empire Calf Ranch LLC, near Satanta, which feeds all its calves by hand for up to 90 days using 24,000 bottles per day. The importance of managing risk in the cattle feeding business was highlighted during a stop at Beefland Feedyard near Garden City.

The group also participated in a Beef Quality Assurance injection site demonstration and visited the National Beef Packing Plant in Dodge City.

For more information visit www.kla.org.

Gov. Sam Brownback held an economic summit in Manhattan, Kan., on June 9 to highlight the importance of the animal health sector to Kansas and the surrounding region. The animal health corridor, which runs from Columbia, Mo., to Manhattan, Kan., is quickly becoming a global center for the animal health industry.

Brownback pointed to the success Kansas has experienced in attracting large dairy farms to southwest Kansas and said this success could be duplicated with the animal health industry.

“I think we have the same potential with animal health,” Brownback said. “We have a global industry that is already located here and the chance for us to go to Australia, South Africa, and European-based companies and say if you re-locate here you can expand your business footprint. The best global assets are based right here in Kansas.”

At the heart of the expansion of the animal health industry in Kansas is the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility that is being constructed in Manhattan, Kan.

“I think we still don’t grasp what NBAF will do for this region,” said Ernst Heinen, vice president of research and development for Bayer Animal Health.

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“A strong Kansas dairy industry is key to helping us reach our goals of increasing personal income, creating private sector jobs and strengthening our rural communities as well as growing overall agricultural production in our state,” said Governor Brownback. “I’m delighted by the strength and vitality of dairy farms in Kansas, and I’m proud to mark June 2011 as Kansas Dairy Month.”

Governor Sam Brownback presenting a dairy month proclamation to Kansas Livestock Association Dairy Committee Chairman and Royal Farms Dairy partner Kyle Averhoff.

Governor Brownback presented the Dairy Month proclamation to dairy industry representatives at a celebration at Royal Farms Dairy outside of Garden City Thursday.

“As dairy producers, we’re proud of the contributions we make to the Kansas economy and our part in delivering consumers wholesome, healthy, abundant supplies of milk products,” said Kansas Livestock Association Dairy Committee Chairman Kyle Averhoff, a partner in Royal Farms Dairy.

In addition to supporting the current dairy industry, Governor Brownback and Kansas Secretary of Agriculture Dale Rodman spoke about the opportunities for dairy industry expansion in Kansas.

“Kansas has a reputation as an agriculture-friendly state where the dairy industry can grow and prosper,” said Governor Brownback. “It’s an industry we support and want to expand as we look towards the future.”

“We are committed to encouraging the growth and expansion of diaries and supporting industries in Kansas,” said Secretary Rodman. “We have the feed and land resources as well as a state government committed to supporting the hard work of dairy farmers instead of regulating them out of business.”

The dairy industry is committed to animal welfare and environmental stewardship. Dairy farmers take care of their cows by providing a nutritious diet, good medical care and healthy living conditions. Dairy farmers also care for their environment they live and work in. For example, at Royal Farms Dairy, water is reused numerous times for cleaning and cooling and ultimately pumped to an irrigation system to water the nearby corn fields. Additionally, manure produced is utilized as a natural fertilizer for crops.

“As we recognize June as Dairy Month, let’s pay tribute to the hardworking and dedicated dairy farmers as well as the dairy cows, remarkable animals that can consume feed items not edible by humans and convert them into milk, often considered nature’s mostly nearly perfect food,” said Kansas Dairy Association Executive Director Mike Bodenhausen.

The Republican candidate for governor said that dairies and cheese production facilities were an agricultural business area of growth the state should pursue.

“A Brownback Administration will roll out the welcome mat for dairies to come or expand in Kansas,” he said. “Many of the advantages that have led feedlot operations to our state apply equally to dairy production.”

Brownback said he would review the state’s regulations to determine how the state could help attract and grow such businesses.

“We need a major cheese processing plant in Kansas to expand market opportunities for our milk,” Brownback said.

From Kansas.com

Foster has been an active member and contributor to the Kansas dairy industry for over 30 years. Co-managing more than 1,000 acres of land with her husband, Foster and her family currently oversee 300 head of cattle and over 600 acres of crops. She has been involved in a variety of dairy organizations including Dairy Farmers of America, the Kansas Dairy Association and the National Dairy Board which she was an active member of for seven years. Foster graduated from Kansas State University with a bachelor’s in dairy production.

Harris works for Jackson Dairy in Hutchinson where, as the quality assurance manager, she is responsible for regulatory inspections along with assuring food safety and quality. In support of the Global Food Safety Initiative, Harris is certified by the Safe Quality Food Institute. Harris’ years of experience in both the quality assurance and research and development divisions of Jackson Dairy make her a valuable representative for Kansas dairy processors.

The Kansas Dairy Marketing Advisory Board consists of five appointed members who work closely with the Department of Agriculture to study and evaluate the need for establishing a statewide milk marketing order.

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“Many consumers know about milk’s calcium benefits, but most are unaware that dairy foods deliver eight other dietary nutrients considered ‘essential’ by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA),” says Stephanie Cundith, a registered dietitian with the Midwest Dairy Council. “National Nutrition Month is the perfect time for Americans to learn more about essential nutrients in foods and their irreplaceable health benefits. It is important to get essential nutrients from the foods we eat because the human body can’t manufacture them in sufficient quantities to meet daily needs.”

Consumers know they need to eat healthy, but often focus strictly on counting calories. “Monitoring calorie intake is not enough; it also is important to ensure the foods you consume are nutrient-rich,” says Cundith. Consuming three dairy servings every day provides exceptional nutritional value, including significant amounts of vitamin D, protein, potassium and vitamin B12. From repairing muscle tissue to maintaining healthy red blood cells, the nutrients found in dairy foods work together to help support optimal health.

Dairy’s Unique Nutrient Package

Americans Aren’t Getting Adequate Nutrients

The 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, published by the USDA and Department of Health and Human Services, report many adults, adolescents and children fall short on several of the essential nutrients needed for healthy body functioning. The Guidelines recommend three servings of fat-free or low-fat dairy products each day. However, Americans only eat about half of this amount. “Meeting the recommended three servings per day of milk, cheese and yogurt is easy,” says Cundith, “My family starts the day with a bowl of whole grain cereal and milk, and we love fruit and yogurt as a snack.” A Cundith family favorite for dinner is pulled pork soft tacos sprinkled with Colby Jack cheese.

This recipe and the whole story of dairy’s unique nutrient package can be found at dairymakessense.com.

ABOUT MIDWEST DAIRY COUNCIL

Midwest Dairy Council is the nutrition education division of Midwest Dairy Association. The Council’s mission is to promote a healthy diet through nutrition education and the use of dairy products to consumers, health professionals and teachers. Midwest Dairy Council is funded by check-off dollars from dairy farmers in a nine-state region that includes: Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. For more information, visit www.midwestdairy.com or www.dairymakessense.com.

Researchers at Kansas State University recently completed a study of the factors that impact dairy profitability. Not surprisingly, they found a wide range of profitability among farms. But milk price was not the most significant determinant for profitability. It was total milk produced per cow.

The researchers say that the correlation between profitability and milk price over time is not particularly strong because of the influence that cost has on profit. “When analyzing why some producers are more profitable than others, milk production is a much stronger indicator or profit differences than is price or cost,” say study authors, especially when it comes to small or mid-sized dairy farms

Therefore, while big-picture factors, like milk prices, are important, producers’ individual management skills are more important for long-term business survival.

Read the full report.

Source: Kansas State University

Jan. 7, 2010—The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has approved a passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID tag for cattle tracking that will be used in conjunction with the agency’s Animal Identification Number (AIN) system. To gain USDA approval for is eTattoo RFID tag, Kansas startup Eriginate, owned by animal-tracking technology firm Herdstar, submitted data regarding the tag, along with a 14-page application. The EPC Gen 2 tag can now be sold in the United States to members of the cattle industry as part of the AIN system, and will compete with existing low-frequency (LF) button tags currently employed by ranchers and cattle auction companies to help track the movements and health of cattle.

The USDA’s National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is a voluntary program intended to allow the tracking of specific animals by assigning each animal a unique AIN. The goal of NAIS is to be able to quickly access a record of every location where a particular animal has lived, in the event that contaminated meat or a sick animal is detected. Each registered animal is assigned a 15-digit identification number. The first three digits—840—represent the country code of the United States, while the final 12 make up the unique number assigned to the animal. The tags used by NAIS participants need not include RFID technology, but could simply display the number printed on the front of a plastic ID tag or button. However, many are employing RFID-enabled tags to track the cattle as they move through the supply chain, typically with a handheld interrogator.

There are 105 million cattle in the United States, with approximately 10 manufacturers of RFID tags currently providing low-frequency RFID AIN button tags, according to Neil Hammerschmidt, NAIS coordinator with the USDA APHIS Veterinary Services. Those manufacturers, he says, have sold approximately 6.5 million AIN tags with or without RFID capabilities over the past three years. Hammerschmidt estimates that 4 million of these tags may currently be in use, mostly in cattle (though other animals, such as horses, sheep or pigs, can also be tagged), representing about 5 percent of all American cattle.

In April 2008, the USDA issued a seven-point plan to help it achieve its goal of enrolling 70 percent of all cattle into the NAIS program by the end of 2009 (see USDA Pushes Plan to Move NAIS Forward).

The reason UHF technology has not been included in the NAIS system before, Hammerschmidt says, is that RFID tag vendors had not produced a UHF tag for use with the AIN system—that is, with the 15-digit ID number. “We are technology-neutral,” he says of the USDA, as long as the technology complies with a recognized ISO standard. The eTattoo tag complies with ISO standard 18000-6C, and it has enough memory to store other information in addition to the 15-digit number, though it is presently intended only to store the AIN.

The eTattoo tag fills a need in the cattle industry for a tag with a long read range, says Doran Junek, a member of Eriginate’s board of directors. The existing LF button ear tags have a read range of 4 to 12 inches, and can be read with either a handheld interrogator or a fixed reader if cattle move down a narrow chute in close proximity to that device. Interrogators can also be utilized in the dairy industry, capturing reads of the animals’ tags as they are being milked. Moreover, USDA veterinarians use handheld readers to capture a tag’s unique ID number as an animal receives a vaccination.

However, Hammerschmidt notes, some cattle owners and operators have requested technology with a longer read range. Junek, himself a cattle rancher, says the LF tags are simply inadequate if they require operators to slow the speed of moving cattle, or if readers are unable to capture ID numbers at all, because the animals are not close enough or pass by too quickly. Many cattle owners and operators are reticent to participate in the AIN program, he indicates, simply because they believe low-frequency tags do not work effectively. Junek describes the scenario of a Kansas cattle market at which approximately 7,000 head of cattle are moved daily. Capturing the ID number on each LF tag is impractical, he explains, since it takes about 10 seconds per animal to read each individual tag with a handheld interrogator. At that rate, with 360 reads per hour with no delays, the market could still not process its cattle in one day. “Low-frequency works in small herds and for small projects,” Junek states, but large operations that move thousands of cattle daily require a UHF tag.

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