A year ago President Obama announced that he wanted to double U.S. exports by the year 2014. With final 2010 U.S. agricultural export estimates in, it looks like agriculture, and especially dairy, is doing its part, according to Dairy Profit Weekly editor Dave Natzke in Friday’s DairyLine.

He reported that USDA’s annual ag trade report (released Feb. 11) showed U.S. agricultural exports reached an all-time high of nearly $116 billion in calendar year 2010, surpassing the previous high of $115 billion, set in 2008.
Agricultural exports increased both in volume and value, and in bulk commodities and consumer-oriented products, he said, and, looking back at 2010, China became the largest market for U.S. ag products, taking 15 percent of all exports.

It was also a very strong year for U.S. dairy exports. The value of 2010 exports was estimated at about $3.8 billion, up 64 percent from a year ago, nearly equaling 2008’s record high, Natzke said.

In contrast, U.S. dairy product imports totaled about $2.6 billion, up just 4 percent from a year ago, and 17 percent less than 2008. Adding up exports and imports resulted in a $1.2 billion dairy trade surplus, compared to a $218 million trade deficit in 2009, Natzke reported, and the U.S. exported about 13 percent of its total dairy solids production in 2010, compared to importing less than 3 percent. The U.S. also surpassed Australia as the world’s third-largest supplier in 2010, behind the European Union and New Zealand.”

“The good news doesn’t stop with dairy products,” Natzke said. “U.S. dairy farmers exported nearly 37,600 female dairy cattle in 2010. That’s almost equal to the total number of cattle exported in the previous three years, combined.”
Animal health problems in Korea may also boost U.S. dairy exports in 2011, according to Natzke. Foot-and-mouth disease, discovered in South Korea last November, has resulted in the slaughter of about 36,000 dairy cows in that Asian country and, to avoid a milk shortage and skyrocketing dairy product prices, South Korea said it will temporarily lift import tariffs on powdered milk. The Korean market, the U.S. sixth-largest dairy export market in 2010, could also be opened further if a U.S./Korean free trade agreement is approved by Congress.

Proposed budget cuts pose serious threat to ag
In politics; President Obama released his proposed budget this week to the chagrin of many. National Milk’s Chris Galen called it a “painful one,” in Thursday’s broadcast, recalling that the November elections “turned on the U.S. government getting too big and how should it be cut and now comes the brass tacks,” he said, “Where people have to decide what really is the appropriate size of the federal government and how big should the cuts be.”

Republicans laid down their cards, he said, and now the President offered his budget and “there’s going to be some significant changes if this gets adopted.”
“The irony here,” Galen said, “is that we’re in a stop gap funding measure right now in the current fiscal year because they haven’t finalized the budget even though we’re more than four months into the fiscal year. Now they’re talking about fiscal year 2012 without wrapping up a lot of spending decisions for 2011.”

Farm programs would be cut by about $2.5 billion in the President’s budget, Galen said, but over a 10 year period. The main way that would be accomplished is by capping the amount of farm program payments that people can get, based on their adjusted gross income. That was actually proposed earlier, Galen said, but didn’t go anywhere.

“This is just an opening gambit,” Galen concluded. “There’s going to be a real big political battle between the House and the Senate, between the Republicans and the Democrats, between the White House and the Congress and I think this will be one of the biggest battles this year because everyone realizes that government is getting rather large, something should be done about it, but exactly what, that’s what needs to be decided.”

Ag groups announce program to fight childhood obesity
A special phone-in news conference was held Feb. 4 to announce dairy’s participation in a private-public partnership committed to child health and wellness. Participants included Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Dr. David Satcher, former U.S. Surgeon General, Tom Gallagher, CEO of the National Dairy Council and DMI, Paula Meabon, Pennsylvania dairy producer and DMI board member, and Alexis Glick, CEO of the Gen YOUth Foundation.

DMI’s David Pelzer reported in Monday’s “DMI Update” that the focus is on the schools and the partnership includes USDA, the National Football League, other governmental departments, and Gen YOUth, a new non-profit organization to fight childhood obesity.

Pelzer said it’s a “multi-organizational and powerful partnership with the arms of the federal government to improve nutrition and physical activity in schools and improve children’s health.” He said it encourages kids to consume more nutrient rich foods, including low-fat and fat-free dairy products, as well as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.

Last but not least, the program encourages 60 minutes of physical activity each day. For more information, log on to the Gen YOUth website at www.genyouthfoundation.org

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Lee Mielke may write to him in care of this publication.