Joe Schuele, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s director of trade media, said that policies concerning ethanol and trade are likely to top the list of debate topics at this week’s NCBA annual convention in Nashville.
 
As the U.S. ethanol industry grows, its demand for corn rises proportionately, and the cost to cattle feeders rises. March Chicago Board of Trade corn prices closed Wednesday at $4.00 a bushel, up from $2.55 1/2 on Sept. 15, but off the Jan. 18 high close of $4.12 1/4.
 
Some state affiliates feel incentives that funnel corn into ethanol production have gone overboard or at least are out of date, Schuele said. There are concerns that there isn’t enough value being placed on other uses of corn such as feed for livestock.
 
Beef trade issues also are expected to be a major issue with convention attendees, Schuele said. Frustration over South Korea’s policies of zero tolerance for bone chips in shipments of boneless beef has been an effective trade barrier since the border was opened officially Sept. 8.  South Korea banned U.S. beef in December 2003 when the U.S. found its first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, better known as the dreaded “mad-cow disease.”  All U.S. beef shipments to South Korea have been rejected because of minute chips or cartilage fragments, and one later was confirmed to have had dioxin residues, as well.
 
There likely will be little to recommend a free-trade agreement with South Korea to NCBA convention attendees without an agreement on U.S. beef, Schuele said.
 
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service currently is accepting comments about a proposed rule that would open U.S. borders to cattle that are older than 30 months of age from countries that are deemed to be at minimal risk for BSE. This proposed policy already has sparked debate in cattle country as producers raise concerns about its implications for U.S. beef trade or U.S. herd health.
 
According to Schuele, the concern for most NCBA members isn’t so much that expanded trade would create any herd health or food safety problems, but some are concerned whether other countries are abiding by similar fair-trade principles or whether other trade partners will accept expanded trade if the U.S. allows older cattle, which are thought to have a greater risk of having BSE.
 
Whether this will help or hurt U.S. standing with other trade partners will be the question for NCBA conventioneers, Schuele said.