High Cost Of Corn, Farm Bill Among Poultry Growers Concerns
HINTON — Time has snuck up on Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., or at least he feels it has when recalling the last time he met with a room full of Rockingham County poultry growers.
It was as lieutenant governor in spring 2004 when he met with local residents after it was announced that Pilgrim’s Pride was selling or shutting down its Hinton plant.
“There was a real sense of, ‘what do we do?’” Kaine said. “There was a lot of people that had a lot of anxiety about that announcement.”
That was 10 years ago, though it doesn’t feel like it, he said.
Perhaps that’s because time hasn’t done much to take away the anxiety growers feel.
The Pilgrim’s Pride plant on Rawley Pike now belongs to the Virginia Poultry Growers Cooperative, which Kaine visited to meet with representatives from local companies on Friday.
But there’s no shortage of issues still concerning the industry, Kaine learned.
The high price of corn, which is used to feed birds, is one of the top complaints. It’s a result of the federal ethanol mandate requiring that a higher percentage of the crop go toward ethanol production each year to reduce the nation’s dependency on oil for fuel — an objective that has been “absolutely devastating to the meat and poultry industry,” said Hobey Bauhan, president of the Virginia Poultry Federation.
Though bushels now cost in the $4.25 to $4.50 range — down from recent highs of $8 — it’s still a price that would normally have caused a “panic” before the mandate, Bauhan said. Historically, corn cost about $3 a bushel.
The higher cost means companies have to cut back on growers and hold off on investments, such as a multimillion dollar commitment the cooperative had planned, General Manager John King said.
George’s Inc. feels the same pinch, said Bob Kenney, the vice president of Virginia operations for the poultry firm.
“We’d like to invest and serve more in this area,” he said. “We’re still worried how short term [the lower corn price] is. ... It’s clearly affecting George’s decisions whether to grow the industry or not.”
Kaine offered some encouragement for companies, saying he thinks Congress will “move away” from corn and feed stock in the mandate, eyeing other means, such as algae and sludge, to create biofuels.
“Corn is a very inefficient way to [get] biofuel,” he said.
Another problem dates to Kaine’s time as governor: China’s still-standing ban on poultry exports from 2007. The ban came after a flock of turkeys tested positive for low-pathogenic avian flu antibodies, although the flock exhibited no signs of illness, despite the antibodies, and the state hasn’t had a similar incident since.
“That ban is having a direct impact on companies here,” Bauhan said. “It’s costing millions of dollars of lost opportunity.”
Jim Mason, the cooperative’s president, said China buys exports such as turkey tails and wing tips that other countries do not.
Bauhan is hopeful that a visit to Virginia last year from a Chinese delegation will lead to a lifting of the ban.
Farm Bill ‘Close’
Federal lawmakers were on break the past week. Kaine’s counterpart from Virginia, Democrat Sen. Mark Warner, visited Harrisonburg on Tuesday, but snowy weather canceled his planned stop at the Kiwanis Club to hear from constituents.
Still, Kaine, as he had hoped, heard plenty on Friday. The poultry industry’s issues with government — the nation’s guest worker program in immigration policy and the Environmental Protection Agency’s pollution runoff mandates were also discussed — lead to one overarching concern: uncertainty, growers and county officials said.
“You have to have some give and take,” said Pablo Cuevas, a member of the Rockingham County Board of Supervisors. “Unfortunately, in the last couple of years it looks like if, ‘I don’t get my way, I’ll take my bat and ball and go home.’”
Kaine, who says a deal is “close” on a five-year farm bill between the Senate and House of Representatives, was empathetic to that sentiment.
“One of the worst things we do in Washington is create uncertainty for you,” he said.