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Ambassador Yeutter to Speak at USGC Annual Meeting 
The Honorable Clayton Yeutter, former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, is scheduled to speak at the U.S. Grains Council’s 50th Annual Board of Delegates Meeting next month.

The meeting, to be held July 18-21, 2010, will celebrate the Council’s 50 years of international market development for U.S. corn, barley, sorghum and their co-products.

Ambassador Yeutter’s affiliation with the Council began in the 1960s when he returned to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and became involved in international affairs.

“I was impressed that [the Council] had already established a number of offices and had excellent people doing a superb job of getting the recipient companies interested in feed grains; not an easy task at the time,” Ambassador Yeutter said.

Given Ambassador Yeutter’s experience, not only as Ag Secretary but as a U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), he is aware of the importance of the promotion of agricultural exports, given the large scale of global competition.

“The United States has been a free trade competitor in markets around the world,” he said. “While the United States had to work harder to be successful, promotion programs, like those enacted by the Council, were ultimately the key to success.”

Ambassador Yeutter practices in the international trade and food and agriculture areas at Hogan and Hartson law firm in Washington, D.C.

Ambassador Yeutter served as the USTR from 1985-88, and while there led the American team in negotiating the historic U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement, the precursor to the North American Free Trade Agreement. He also helped launch the most ambitious trade negotiation in history, the 100-nation Uruguay Round, which culminated in the creation of the World Trade Organization.

From South Dakota to Manitoba, Hog Producers Observe US DDGS Production Process 
As hog producers from Manitoba, Canada, traveled to Des Moines, Iowa, for the World Pork Expo June 8-12, they visited a South Dakota ethanol plant along the way. There they had a firsthand look at the distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) production process. Importing 800,000 tons of DDGS last year, Canada remains the United States’ second-largest market for the ethanol co-product; in particular, hog producers from Manitoba represent a significant percentage of DDGS imported from the United States.

Manitoba hog producers are feeding DDGS at recommended levels but have had questions regarding its quality, consistency, toxin and nutrient content, according to U.S. Grains Council Consultant Neil Campbell of Gowans Feed Consulting. In an effort to increase confidence in the product, the Council arranged for the visiting group to tour Council member Glacial Lakes Energy LLC, in Watertown, S.D.

“The tour group was very impressed with the plant’s quality control procedures and had further discussions regarding flowability aspects of the product, which is of some concern with on-farm feed manufacturers,” said Gowans’ consultant Clarence Froese who escorted the team. “Many of the 4,200 members of the Glacial Lakes cooperative are livestock producers who deliver corn and utilize the resulting DDGS in their own operations. The company is very sensitive to quality control measures that ensure a quality product for feeding to both swine and cattle.”

The Watertown plant processes about 110,000 bushels of corn per day with a similar capacity at their Mina, S.D., plant. About 20 percent of the resulting DDGS produced by the company are exported for use in Canada.

Gary Duffy of the South Dakota Corn Growers Association said he was thrilled to hear a group of Manitoba producers visited the Glacial Lakes Energy plant since the Canadian market is an important one for South Dakota. “Investment in DDGS programs is essential because of the hog producers in Canada,” he said. “And due to South Dakota’s geographic location, it’s also important we have the ability to easily transport the product to our Canadian customers. The interstate passing right by Watertown serves as a mainline for getting DDGS into Canada,” he said.

As for the Canadian group’s recent tour of Glacial Lakes Energy, Duffy said their visit reinforced what South Dakota producers already know about U.S. DDGS. “As South Dakota producers, we use the product ourselves,” he said. “We are very familiar with the quality of DDGS and happy to hear producers from Canada had the chance to see this for themselves while in South Dakota.”

Written by Jodi Kiely, USGC Contributing Writer

Dominican Brewery Strengthens Bonds with U.S. Barley Producers 
As global malt supplies tighten, many overseas breweries search for ways to manage their price risks when purchasing malt. As a result, some breweries have shown an increased interest in malting barley production contracts with U.S. producers. The Cerveceria Nacional Dominicana (CND) Brewery from the Dominican Republic is one such company.

CND approached the U.S. Grains Council for assistance in exploring the possibility of starting a program for contractual production of malting barley with U.S. producers; hoping that such a program would help the brewery better manage production costs. Recognizing the opportunity to strengthen the relationship between CND and U.S. barley farmers, particularly in light of a competitive malt market, the Council organized a visit by CND representatives to the United States last week. With cooperation from the North Dakota Barley Council (NDBC) and the Montana Wheat and Barley Committee, the U.S. Grains Council hosted three CND representatives who met with barley farmers.

“CND was in North Dakota seeking factual information on how the U.S. barley supply chain operates in their effort to further assess the potential for utilization of North Dakota barley,” said Jim Broten, NDBC chairman. Broten and Steve Edwardson, NDBC executive administrator, provided the visiting team with an overview of barley production and price trends in the state and outlined how farmers select crop enterprises. Such discussions were aimed at helping CND better predict what its future malt supply out of the United States may look like.

“It’s important for them to understand that farming is a business and that barley must compete for acreage with other crop enterprises,” Broten said.

While in North Dakota, CND representatives also visited Broten’s farming operation where they evaluated barley in the field and gained a better understanding of barley enterprise management at the farm level.

CND currently uses 44,000 metric tons (1.7 million bushels) of malting barley annually, primarily from the United States, and has expressed an interest in contracting between 20 and 40 percent of their malting barley needs with U.S. producers. The company operates two breweries and produces the Dominican Republic’s leading beer brand, Presidente, which holds more than 95 percent of the country’s market share.

Edwardson said the team expressed their gratitude to both Montana and North Dakota barley growers for helping them gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for the vital role U.S. barley producers have in ensuring they get the best barley possible.

Written by Jodi Kiely, USGC Contributing Writer

COUNCIL NEWS

Register for the Council’s 50th Anniversary Meeting 
Registration for the Council’s 50th Annual Board of Delegates Meeting is now available on the Council’s website, www.grains.org.  

Join the Council July 18-21, 2010, for a meeting packed full of world renowned speakers.
- Ambassador Carolina Barco, Colombian Ambassador to the United States
- Ambassador Islam A. Siddiqui, Chief Agriculture Negotiator for the Office of the USTR
- Dr. Joseph Glauber, Chief Economist for U.S. Department of Agriculture
- Mr. Hanvar Li, Managing Director and Chief Analyst of Shanghai JC Intelligence Co. Ltd.
- The Honorable Daniel R. Pearson, Vice Chairman of the U.S. International Trade Commission
- The Honorable James Miller, USDA Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services
- Mr. Richard Fritz, Executive Director for the Food and Agriculture Export Alliance
- The Honorable Clayton Yeutter, former Secretary of Agriculture

Contact Valerie Smiley, USGC manager of membership, at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , for more information.

Register for the USGC International Distillers Grains Workshop held in Southeast Asia
The U.S. Grains Council, in partnership with USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), is sponsoring a DDGS seminar and trade conference in Southeast Asia July 29-Aug. 11, 2010. The Council extends an invitation to U.S. DDGS exporters and producers to attend this seminar to initiate face-to-face introductions with foreign end-users and importers.

The Southeast Asia Road Show will focus on DDGS promotion in the growing poultry (broiler, layer, duck) feed sector. Participants will visit four markets: the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, where seminars, technical workshops and one-on-one consultations will be held. The program in Kuala Lumpur will be a part of the SEA Feed Quality Conference. The target audience includes local traders, independent feed milling companies, integrators and large poultry producers with on-farm mixing capabilities. The program will serve as a platform for information exchange as well as buyer and seller interaction.

The Council will assist members with hotel arrangements, but travel and hotel costs will be the responsibility of the participant. The Council and FAS will pay for the seminars, marketing materials and translators.

If interested in attending, please contact Kimberly Karst at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  or 202-326-0637.

COUNCIL ACTIVITY CALENDAR

June 20-25: A team of feed millers and end-users from Mexico, both poultry and swine, will travel to Texas and Kansas to meet directly with traders and elevators that source and deliver shuttle trains of grain sorghum on a monthly basis. For more information, contact Gina Tumbarello, USGC manager of international operations for Rest of the World, at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

June 20-26: The Council will organize two one-day workshops together with small trade shows by the U.S. DDGS suppliers in China. Mr. Tomas Elvir, Gavilon, and Dr. Jerry Shurson, of the University of Minnesota, will provide presentations on the current U.S. DDGS supply and demand outlook, world market for DDGS and logistical issues. Local Chinese buyers and end-users of U.S. DDGS will discuss their own results in increasing use in their formulations. USGC members that are U.S. DDGS suppliers/exporters will be invited to these workshops. For more information, contact Kimberly Karst, USGC manager of international operations for Asia, at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

June 27-July 2: The Council, in cooperation with the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, will organize a team of the Japanese experts involved in the food, feed and environmental approvals of biotech corn events in Japan to travel to the United States. The team will meet with U.S. government regulators, and academic officials in the United States, as well as U.S. corn farmers and companies involved in the production, distribution and export of U.S. corn to Japan. The team will then organize a conference in their scientific society to provide a diverse audience with views and discussions on the existing and potential benefits of biotechnology as well as the acceptance issues. The Council and the scientific society to collaborate with the biotech advocacy organizations, research organizations, and/or corn processing, feed and livestock industries and others in Japan to organize, promote, and coordinate the program. For more information, contact Rebecca Fecitt, USGC director of biotechnology programs, at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .