Growth in organic dairies tests supply of feed

“I have customers that are looking for six railcars a month of corn, and I can’t get that quantity coming from anywhere in the U.S.,” she said, adding that the harder-to-find, high-protein feed is coming from China and other countries because “it’s where you can get it.”

Imports from China have come under increasing scrutiny amid a series of scandals concerning tainted or unsafe food, medicines and other Chinese exports. Products that have been banned or turned away by U.S. inspectors include wheat gluten tainted with the chemical melamine that has been blamed for dog and cat deaths in North America, and monkfish that turned out to be toxic pufferfish.

Soybeans are among the highest protein crop for feed when ground into soymeal. The United States is the world’s largest producer of soybeans. China is fourth, but is a net importer as well, much of it coming from the U.S. in the form of genetically-modified soybeans.

Wilbur-Ellis in Portland imports about 120 tons of organic soymeal from China each month, or roughly enough to feed 2,000 cows. But Andrews stressed the feed is tested and certified organic.

“Every single load that we do is tested up to FDA regulations. Every single container that comes in is tested,” she said. “We don’t have any worries on that.”

Others raise questions about the viability of such tests when so many other unsafe products from China have slipped into the country.

“I think the concerns should be for real. You have to wonder what organic means in China. It’s certified, but how credible is the process there?” asked David Granatstein, Washington State University sustainable agriculture specialist.

In the Northwest, shipping feed from the Pacific Rim can cost about the same as hauling it by freight from the Midwest.

Jay Gordon, a dairy farmer and executive director of the Washington Dairy Federation, believes more feed crops need to be planted to meet local demand. He grows sunflower, canola, and safflower on 700 acres in western Washington’s Chehalis Valley to feed his 104 organic cows.

The price for conventional canola meal runs between $150 and $170 per ton, while organic prices can reach $480 per ton. Crop farmers should recognize the potential in organics, he said.

“There’s a lot of dairies that have decided they would not be in the business if not for organic,” Gordon said. “This is a nice niche that’s fit well for dairy farming. We just have to go talk to our crop farmers.”

Agriculture officials in Washington state have already taken notice. State officials held two seminars in the spring to encourage more farmers to become certified as organic growers, including Jim Arvidson, a hay grower in Sunnyside, Wash.

“You lose some production because of the lack of ability to use commercial fertilizer or maintain weeds the way I normally would,” Arvidson said. But at the same time, he said, “There’s probably a 25 percent, maybe 30 percent increase for the organic feed. It’s good.”

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