PIERRE — Gov. Dennis Dau-gaard recently proclaimed this fifthmonth of 2012 as May BeefMonth—a great time to recognizethe huge contribution that the beefindustry makes to the state ofSouth Dakota.

In making the proclamation, theexecutive director of the SouthDakota Beef Industry Council(SDBIC) says the governor is hon-oring cattle producers and all ofthe allied industries that play arole in bringing beef to the platesof consumers in the state — andworldwide.

“It is important that SouthDakotans recognize the valuable

contributions the beef cattle indus-try makes to our state,” explainsFrederick. “This proclamation is a45-year-old tradition that recog-nizes one of the state’s most im-portant economic sectors.”

In fact, says Frederick, SouthDakota’s number one industry,agriculture, has a $21 billion-eco-nomic impact on the state’s econ-omy, and the beef industrycontributes $2.8 billion to thattotal — the largest segment.

“We appreciate the governor’srecognition of the beef industryand its more than 15,000 cattle pro-ducers who not only contributeeconomically to our state but are

good stewards of their land, utiliz-ing environmental practices thatwill ensure their ranches and farmswill be productive for future gener-ations,” says Frederick.

The SDBIC will be celebratingBeef Month with a number of beefpromotion events throughout themonth across the state. Frederickalso encourages South Dakotans to

simply enjoy a beef burger or steakthis month as they begin the tradi-tional grilling season.

“As you put that ground beefburger or steak on the grill,” saysFrederick, “just remember thethousands of producers in ourstate who are dedicated to produc-ing a safe, nutritious and deliciousproduct.”

BY TIFFANY HSU AND RICARDO LOPEZ© 2012, The Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — Pink slime. Early death.Mad cow.

In the span of just a few weeks, the beef in-dustry was hit by a string of crises thisspring, resulting in the loss of hundreds ofmillions of dollars and hundreds of jobs.

But it could have been worse.The industry, which had $79 billion in

sales in the U.S. last year, was lucky that themost potentially damaging of the disastersturned out to be, so far, extremely limited inscope. And there are signs that the industry,despite stumbling in some of its public re-sponse, has learned to better handle suchmatters.

The latest series of problems began inMarch with a double hit. There was a Harvardstudy that determined that eating beef couldcontribute to premature death. But it was thescandal over “pink slime” that was muchmore damaging.

The ammonium hydroxide-treated groundbeef product — formally known in the indus-try as lean, finely textured beef — has beenaround for decades. But when worries aboutthe stuff suddenly erupted on social media,the industry was caught off guard.

Before companies could mount a strongdefense, unappetizing images of pulverizedmeat and stories focusing on the ammoniumhydroxide treatment spread around theworld on Twitter and Facebook.

Beef historian and author Maureen Oglesaid the industry should have responded byrunning polished advertisements featuringranchers touting their American heritage.There should have been billboards proclaim-ing the safety of products and executivesshould have been sent to major talk shows,she said.

Instead, because “the beef industry is acollection of not-very-well-connected sub-in-dustries,” Ogle said, there were some newsreleases and some promises of better label-ing but not much of a united front.

“They did exactly what they always do,which is really not much of anything,” shesaid. “Frankly, they’re going to get killed fromnow on because of social media. It can domore damage in a day than old media used tobe able to do in a month.”

School cafeterias, food chains and super-markets quickly disavowed the ground beefproduct. Some meat companies went bank-rupt or suspended production.

A study from two Iowa State Universityeconomics professors found that the pinkslime controversy probably would affectmore than 2,000 jobs in the industry and be-yond.

In March, ground beef sales slipped to 37.7million pounds, the smallest amount in adecade and an 11 percent slide from the pre-vious month, according to the U.S. Depart-ment of Agriculture.

And as if the Harvard study and pink slimeweren’t enough, April brought an even morefrightening discovery: mad cow disease.

The brain-wasting illness, officially calledbovine spongiform encephalopathy, infectednearly 24,000 cows during an epidemic inBritain in the early 1990s and also played apart in more than 150 human deaths there.North America dealt with several scares inthe last decade.

Tests on cows in the U.S. had come backnegative for BSE since 2006. But last month,investigators discovered evidence of the dis-ease in a dead dairy cow in Central California.

The USDA maintained that the case was“atypical” and that the risk of the diseasespreading was low.

There was still some backlash, especiallyin the crucial foreign markets to which theU.S. exports about $5.4 billion in beef a year,

according to the U.S. Meat Export Federation.Two large retailers in South Korea quicklypulled American beef from their stores andIndonesia announced it would block beef im-ports.

In 2003, after the first mad cow scare inthe U.S., exports fell more than 70 percent.

“Long after the science had proven thatthe U.S. beef supply was safe, it took a long,long time to get beef back into some of thosecountries,” said Tom Talbot, past president ofthe California Cattlemen’s Association.

Negative reaction, however, quickly re-ceded when no more mad cow casesemerged. And because of its past experiencedealing with the disease, the industry was farbetter equipped to handle the situation thanit was with the surprise pink slime contro-versy.

“The beef industry and its associationsare finally catching up with the times, tryingto do their best to reach out to consumers byusing new tools,” said Mike Smith, specialprojects manager at Harris Ranch Beef Co. inSelma, Calif.

“The outreach is there, it’s growing, andwe’re hoping that it’ll be more and more ef-fective as we move forward.”

The California Beef Council got its viewsout through social media and other online

tools. Its home page declares, “Join the ‘I(heart) Beef’ discussion on Facebook, followthe California Beef Council on Twitter, watchour beef industry videos on YouTube, andview our pictures on Flickr.”

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Associationhad established its BSEInfo.org site to gets itsviews on the disease out to the public, and itencouraged its Twitter followers to “push fac-tual information out to the public.”

“Our strategy has and always will be todeal with sound science on these issues,”said the association’s communications chief,Daren Williams. “That’s the bottom line. Butwe’ve adjusted our strategy accordingly toadapt to whatever latest communications ve-hicle helps us get accurate information toconsumers the quickest.”

The next crisis might be brewing already.This week, California state Sen. Ted W. Lieu, aDemocrat, sent a letter to the USDA callingfor an investigation over a binding agentcalled transglutaminase, or “meat glue,” thathelps patch pieces of meat together.

So far, beef industry representatives saidthey haven’t heard much outcry on the topic.

“Controversies have been distorted andblown out of proportion,” Ogle said.

But “the meat industry,” she said, “needsto understand that this is the new normal.”

Saturday, 5.5.12ON THE WEB: www.yankton.net

NEWS DEPARTMENT: news@yankton.net4 PRESS DAKOTANneighbors

A prayer in it’s simplest definition, is merely a wish turned heavenward.

–Phillips Brooks

Riverview Reformed Church 1700 Burleigh St., Yankton, 665-9204 • www.riverviewreformed.org

AMERICAN TRUCK DRIVING ACADEMY is proud to announce that the first round of our students have successfully graduated and are moving into a new career as a truck driver! We would like to recognize the

following students for a job well done: Jim Ryan, Sam Langley, Chico Haught, Sandi Lineback, and Ethan Manning!

We would also like to send a big thanks to Marquardt Transportation for the use of one of their trucks and

trailers to train our students and Yankton Livestock for use of their grounds for our training yard! We appreciate all you have

both done for our school!

THANKS THANKS

Dry Weather May Impact Nitrogen ApplicationsBROOKINGS — Surface application of nitrogen fertilizer in late

fall and early spring is a typical practice in South Dakota, however,the dry conditions this season may be putting that nitrogen injeopardy, says SDSU Extension Soils Specialist, Ron Gelderman,during a recent iGrow Radio Network interview.

“With the weather being so very dry, warm and windy, and if wedidn’t get that third to a half an inch of precipitation on that ureato move it into the soil and protect it, fields could have experi-enced some significant loss,” Gelderman said.

Typically, moisture moves the nitrogen down into the soil pro-file where it is protected from loss, but the lack of moisture mayhave allowed some of the nitrogen to volatize. Gelderman says asoil test can determine whether the nitrogen is still there, however,he recommends waiting to soil test, and to have the lab analyzethe sample for both nitrate and ammonium.

“We can’t assume that it’s all going to be lost. We think therecould be significant amounts remaining. Problem is that some of itmay still be in the urea form, and not too many labs can test forurea. So, what we’re suggesting is to soil sample later but still intime that we can fertilize these plants and still do some good,” hesaid.

Gelderman says winter wheat, which is at, or close to jointing,will need a nitrogen application soon if significant loss of the ap-plied urea occurred. Producers have more time before they needto test spring- planted grains and row crops. Gelderman says grow-ers may want to use a urease inhibitor with future surface urea ap-plications to increase the odds of getting some moisture.

For more information on this topic, visit iGrow.org. The iGrowRadio Network and SDSU Extension bring listeners an informativeshow each day. For more information on the iGrow Radio Network,or to listen to archived shows, visit www.igrow.org.

Word-Of-Mouth WarsBeef Industry Struggles To Keep Up With PR Crises

Daugaard Declares May As Beef Month In S.D.

PHOTO: METRO GRAPHICS

HURON — USDA Farm Serv-ice Agency (FSA) State Execu-tive Director Craig Schaunamanreminds producers that FSA of-fers specially-targeted farmownership and farm operatingloans to Socially Disadvantaged(SDA) applicants.

“FSA targets a portion of itsannual loan funds for sociallydisadvantaged farmers andranchers,” said Schaunaman.“Farming and ranching is a capi-tal intensive business and FSAis committed to helping produc-ers start and maintain theiragricultural operations.”

In fiscal year 2011, SouthDakota FSA dispersed $12.4 mil-lion in farm loans to sociallydisadvantaged producers.

USDA defines socially disad-vantaged applicants as a groupwhose members have been sub-jected to racial, ethnic, or gen-der prejudice because of theiridentity as members of thegroup without regard to theirindividual qualities. For farmloan program purposes, SDAgroups are women, AfricanAmericans, American Indiansand Alaskan Natives, Hispanicsand Asians and Pacific Is-landers.

SDA producers who cannotobtain commercial credit froma bank can apply for either FSAdirect loans or guaranteedloans. Direct loans are made toapplicants by FSA. Guaranteedloans are made by lending insti-tutions who arrange for FSA toguarantee the loan. FSA canguarantee up to 95 percent ofthe loss of principal and inter-est on a loan. The FSA guaran-tee allows lenders to makeagricultural credit available to

producers who do not meet thelender’s normal underwritingcriteria.

The direct and guaranteedloan program offers two typesof loans: farm ownership loansand farm operating loans.

Farm ownership loan fundsmay be used to purchase or en-large a farm or ranch, purchaseeasements or rights of wayneeded in the farm’s operation,build or improve buildings suchas a dwelling or barn, promotesoil and water conservationand development and pay clos-ing costs.

Farm operating loan fundsmay be used to purchase live-stock, poultry, farm equipment,fertilizer, and other materialsnecessary to operate a success-ful farm. Operating Loan fundscan also be used for family liv-ing expenses, refinancing debtsunder certain conditions, pay-ing salaries for hired farm la-borers, installing or improvingwater systems for home, live-stock or irrigation use andother similar improvements.

Repayment terms for directoperating loans depend on thecollateral securing the loan andusually run from one to sevenyears. Financing for direct farmownership loans cannot exceed40 years. Interest rates for di-rect loans are set periodicallyaccording to the government’scost of borrowing. Guaranteedloan terms and interest ratesare set by the lender.

For more information onFSA’s farm loan programs, con-tact your local FSA office or onthe web at www.fsa.usda.gov.

USDA Offers FarmLoans For Socially

Disadvantaged Producers

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