By now you have seen or heard the news about a Texas feed mill inadvertently shipping products that contained meat and bone meal. You have also seen the response to the story. Even though, no bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), (commonly referred to as ‘mad cow disease’) has been found in any cattle in the US, or the cattle quarantined in Texas, the public and the media had a knee-jerk reaction. And that action and the accompanying press coverage was bad for Texas and the feed industry in general. To be very blunt, if you are handling meat and/or bone meal or any other products that should not be fed to ruminants, please make sure you are following the FDA guidelines to the letter. Your livelihood and your future, as well as everyone else involved with animal agriculture in Wisconsin, depend on it.

Now for the good news. Since the introduction of the BSE regulation in 1997, Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) has inspected over 350 of the approximately 400 feed mills in the state that are required to comply with the BSE regulation. The Wisconsin feed industry has had a compliance rate of 98% with the regulation. This is well over the national compliance rate of 78% reported last month. Wisconsin feed manufacturers are to be commended for having been pro-active in dealing with the BSE issue and deserve a big ‘Thank you’ because of their cumulative actions.

But, we cannot get complacent. The American Feed Industry Assn. has called for voluntary measures for the withdrawal of ruminant-derived meat and bone meal from feed plants that make beef and dairy rations. The intent is to prevent carryover and cross-contamination and to demonstrate good faith to both consumers and the FDA. Hopefully, this action will make it unnecessary for the FDA to pursue further regs. We cannot emphasize it enough, the Wisconsin feed industry supports full compliance with the FDA regulations and is committed to keeping the US food supply safe and free of BSE. If you have any questions, please call the WASA office and we’ll get you brought up to speed, pronto.

The WASA Board of Directors had three seats (two regional representatives and the Feed Industry representative) up for election this year and the votes have been counted. Thank you to all of you who voted and to all our candidates. The newly elected members of the Board of Directors, along with information about them, are listed below.

Bob directs the grain, transportation, feed sales and custom farming operations for the Hillsboro Co-op. The 125 employees of the Hillsboro Co-op service six communities and the residents of five counties. Bob is a graduate of UW-Madison and has served in agribusiness since 1983.

Paul is currently the Assistant General Manager, which covers responsibilities as Credit Manager and Grain Merchandiser/Department Manager. Valders Cooperative is a full service ag co-op with locations in Valders and Mishicot. The co-op handles cropping inputs, grain, petroleum, retail stores and is part of C.P. Feeds, LLC. He has managed credit for 11 years and grain merchandising for 17 years. He is a graduate of UW Rivers Falls and is married with three children, ages 15, 11, and 5. He is also currently a member of the Membership Committee.

Rod is President and owner of Melrose Farm Service, Inc. Melrose Farm Service has five locations that handle feed, fertilizer, custom applications, seed, and grain. Rod has been involved in the feed business since he graduated from college in 1974. Rod and his wife, Barb, have two children, Kirsten and David. Rod is presently chair of the WASA Feed Committee.

In addition, the new board met and elected officers for the coming year. They are: Bo DeLong of The DeLong Co., President; Rod Draeger of Melrose Farm Service, Vice President; and Bob O’Donnell, of Forage Genetics, Inc., Secretary/Treasurer.

Or so it sometimes seems lately. An organizational meeting of the Wisconsin Ethanol Producers Assn. (WEPA) was held in Madison last week. The initial membership consists of six different groups pursuing the construction and operation of ethanol projects throughout the state. The various members of the new organization are very serious and determined regarding their individual projects. Hopefully the Wisconsin image of ‘always a bridesmaid, never a bride’ in terms of the building of ethanol plants will be changed. Several plants have been proposed in the past decade, but nothing has ever really gotten any ground broken until now. The potential sites represented by the group include Monroe, LaCrosse, Oshkosh, Columbus, Menomonie and Stanley.

With the passage last year of the state ethanol production subsidy, serious interest in Wisconsin–produced ethanol was awakened. The program calls for a maximum of $3.0 mln. to be paid out each year for a maximum of five years pro rata to all Wisconsin ethanol producers making over 10 mln. gallons per year. Potentially, one ethanol producer could take the whole ‘nut’ by themselves. But, currently, no one in the state yet qualifies for the subsidy, but that’s the brass ring this group of six, and potential others, are looking to catch. We’re not talking about anything happening overnight though. If ground were broken today, a ‘greenfield’ ethanol plant would take about 14 or so months to construct and become operational. However, the former Heileman brewery at LaCrosse could, with additional distilling equipment, be producing product in six months or so, simply because so much of the infrastructure already exists for them.

If all the six plants are constructed as planned, initial cumulative annual corn usage could approach 60 million bushels. Obviously, that would have an effect on usage of, and the flow of Wisconsin corn. And that’s not all. While all of these plants are intended to use corn as their prime starch source, there are other groups looking at the possibility of using whey or potatoes as an alternative primary starch source. Ethanol has great potential in Wisconsin, now if we can all ‘get to the altar.’

The National Corn Growers Association, along with its Wisconsin chapter, have approved resolutions, which call on biotech seed companies to withhold from public sale any seed variety that is unapproved for all uses in all major US export markets. In addition, the Illinois Secretary of Agriculture recently sent a letter to all seed dealers in Illinois asking for voluntary compliance with this same initiative. (As of the publication of this edition of News & Views, the WASA Board of Directors has not taken an official stand on this issue.)

Because of the importance of this issue and at the request of WASA members, we are providing a list of varieties currently unapproved in the European Union (EU). The list is current as of November 1, 2000. The list is provided as an insert.

The WASA Convention was a big success. Now for the details. We had a record attendance of over 300 participants and a knockout program line-up. The locale wasn’t too shabby either, at the new convention center of the Kalahari Resort. (If you weren’t able to make the Convention, the Kalahari is a real head-turner with a showpiece 70,000-sq. ft. indoor waterpark.)

It would be tough to chose the highlight of the program, but watching the attorneys engage in point and counter-point on the indirect vitamin settlement has to be right up there for both informative and entertainment value. (Incidentally, as a reminder, videotapes of that portion of the program are offered for sale for $10 postpaid.) The entire program was a success because of the trade show exhibitors, the generous sponsors and, because of you, the WASA member. The response was so great to the location and the facility, we have booked the Kalahari again for next year. We were able to get the same room rate and a slightly larger room block.

We heard numerous comments from attendees from out-of-state, who commented they "sure didn’t get this quality of a program or a location back home." We will work to continue to make the WASA Convention and Trade Show, maybe not the biggest, but sure right up there among the best.

WASA annually provides four $1,000 scholarships to Wisconsin students. The criteria for consideration are the following:

• be a Wisconsin resident,
• have completed one year of study in an agricultural discipline at a Wisconsin university, college or vocational/technical school,
• have a minimum of a 3.0 cumulative grade point average on a scale of 4.0, and
• can demonstrate in written form qualities of leadership, academic ability and financial need.

Why should you concern yourself with this? Because it is entirely free advertising and promotion for your business! Besides, it promotes young people’s education in our industry. All you have to do is copy the enclosed form and leave it on your counter and/or mention it to any customers who may have an eligible child. If an applicant is awarded a scholarship who received their application from you, you can have a picture taken awarding the money in your local paper. It makes you look good, gets you free good publicity and doesn’t cost you a dime. And all you have to do is have the applications on your counter. Not a bad deal for you.