April 1998
Barley Brewings
Library
Home
E-Mail
Back
Prairie Grains is the
official publication of
the Minnesota
Association of
Wheat Growers,
North Dakota Grain
Growers Association,
South Dakota Wheat,
Inc., and the
Minnesota Barley
Growers Association.
Effective July 1, the U.S. Feed Grains Council (USFGC) will be known as the U.S. Grains Council (USGC), according to Kenneth Hobbie, president and CEO of the 38-year-old international market development organization.
"There were a number of reasons we believed this name change was important," Hobbie said, "but the most compelling was that more and more of our international market development projects are focused on grain for industrial products and human consumption.
The name U.S. Feed Grains Council suggests that our efforts are limited to grain for livestock feed. In addition, the Council's membership includes grain processors and others who add value to the commodity crops, so the current name was perceived as limiting in that respect, too."
The choice of U.S. Grains Council as the new name for the organization resulted from a survey of the Council's international customers says Don Jacoby, vice president of Novartis Seeds and chairman of the Council's public relations committee.
Barley leaders appointed to trade advisory committee
USDA Secretary Dan Glickman and U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky recently appointed 155 agricultural experts to six advisory committees that provide technical expertise in shaping U.S. farm trade policy.
The advisory committees were established in 1974 when Congress established a private sector advisory committee system to ensure that U.S. trade policy and trade negotiation objectives adequately reflected U.S. commercial and economic interests. The committees meet on average three times a year, and committee members serve at their own expense. Serving on the Agricultural Technical Advisory Committee for Trade in Grains, Feed, and Oilseeds are Ken Hobbie, U.S. Feed Grains Council and Herb Karst, a Montana grower and president of the Natl. Barley Growers Assn.
China Hog Heaven for feed grains
China has the world's largest population- of hogs. For every hog the U.S. produces, the Chinese raise about seven. By 2002 China is expected to have nine pigs for every one in the U.S. Pork is the favorite meat of the Chinese.
However, only about 10% of hogs in China benefit from the kind of grains-based commercial diet that makes pigs more productive. Many live on table scraps or root for whatever they can find.
The USGC is guiding Chinese hog producers as they improve operations and increase productivity. It also educates the feedmillers who will need to buy more feed grains and manufacture more rations. By 2000, the Council's goal is to have 25% of hogs in China on commercial rations- an advance that would increase feed grains demand by 18 mmt.
STRONG FUTURE FOR U.S. FEEDGRAIN EXPORTS
The U.S. Feed Grains Council projects more than a billion tons of feed grain use by marketing year 2006-07, a solid advance from the 837 million metric tons in the early 1990s.
Despite the Asian financial troubles in recent months, long-term growth looks solid, at about a 1.6% gain in total usage per year. Currently, global coarse grain use is about 898 mmt annually. The USFGC sees this rising to over one billion tons by 2006/07.
Most of the needed gain in production must come from yield improvements, not acreage expansion. The Council sees only a thin expansion of acreage planted to feed grains during this planning horizon, less than 12 million acres, bringing total world feed grain acreage to 800 million acres by 2006.
After 1999, the USFGC sees stronger world demand accelerating faster than production gains, helped by a recovering demand base in Southeast Asia. Feed grain prices won't soar, but they'll recover to 1997 levels by 2006.
Bottom line: Slow and steady demand growth, based on real consumer buying and not state-stimulated demand. No runaway prices, just "moderately favorable," and well above the 1980s levels. (Pro Farmer) n