Legislation Update

The National Pork Producers Council reported today:

HOUSE POSTPONES ACTION ON AGRICULTURAL APPROPRIATIONS BILL

The House this week began considering the fiscal 2015 funding bill for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies, but postponed a final vote on it so that Republicans can sort out their leadership issues in the wake of Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s decision to step down from his post after losing his primary election for the Virginia 7th Congressional District seat. The legislation includes $20.9 billion in discretionary money, which is equal to the fiscal 2014 level, and $121.3 billion for mandatory spending for federal food programs. NPPC helped secure in the House Appropriations Committee-approved bill language that prohibits USDA from implementing certain burdensome provisions included in the 2008 Farm Bill related to the buying and selling of livestock under the Grain Inspection and Packers and Stockyards Act. Additionally, Rep. Tom Latham, R-Iowa, requested and was able to include funding for research on porcine endemic diarrhea virus (PEDv) funding to better understand the transmission of the disease. NPPC is thankful of Rep. Latham and Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., for the inclusion of these important funds.

LIVESTOCK HAULERS RECEIVE ONE-YEAR EXEMPTION FROM DOT ‘HOURS OF SERVICE’ RULE

The U.S. Department of Transportation last Friday granted truck drivers hauling livestock and poultry a one-year exemption from an hours-of-service rule that took effect last July 1. The regulation requires truck drivers to take a 30-minute rest break after eight hours of service. For drivers transporting livestock and poultry, the hours of service included loading and unloading animals. NPPC hailed the move as a victory for animal welfare, as summer temperatures can cause livestock health problems, particularly for pigs, which do not sweat. NPPC is also appreciative of Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx for recognizing the importance of the issue for livestock farmers and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack for his efforts to secure the exemption. Click here to read the rule.

HOUSE COMMITTEE HOLDS HEARING AFTER COMMENT EXTENSION GRANTED

NPPC Chief Environmental Counsel Michael Formica drafted a petition signed by 72 other agricultural groups in support of an extension. Under EPA’s proposal, the agency would redefine the term “waters of the United States” to include intermittent and ephemeral streams, and expand jurisdiction into farm fields and farm drainage. This would significantly impact agricultural operations, requiring permits and giving activists and regulators authority to dictate farm production practices. Prior to issuing these extensions, NPPC hosted EPA representatives at the World Pork Expo to meet with the NPPC Board of Directors and learn firsthand about farming. EPA visited farms in North Central Iowa to better understand farmers’ concerns regarding the apparent impact of these proposals and the need to work together with farmers to clarify EPA’s intent and minimize the unintended impacts on farmers and ranchers who have worked their families land for generations.

SMALL BUSINESS EXPENSING LEGISLATION APPROVED

The House Thursday approved on a 277-144 vote H.R. 4457, the “America’s Small Business Tax Relief Act of 2014,” which would permanently extend the tax code’s small business expensing provision – Section 179 – at a level of $500,000. Since 2003, Congress increased the amount of investment that small businesses can expense from $25,000 to $500,000. Legislation expanding and/or extending the provision was enacted eight times, but the expensing limits were temporary, and, beginning in 2014, the amount reverted to $25,000. NPPC joined dozens of other agricultural and business organizations in urging House lawmakers to approve the tax legislation. In a June 9 letter to bill sponsors Reps. Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, and Ron Kind, D-Wis., the groups said permanent extension of Section 179 would increase investment and jobs, reduce tax complexity and paperwork and alleviate uncertainty for business owners, farmers and ranchers.

SENATE AGRICULTURE COMMITTEE HOLDS HEARING ON CHILD NUTRITION PROGRAMS

The Senate Agriculture Committee Thursday held a hearing titled “A National Priority: The Importance of Child Nutrition Programs to our Nation’s Health, Much of the discussion focused on the military turning away recruits and discharging service members because of poor health (known as the “Too Fat to Fight” epidemic) as well as on how reduced school lunch programs help students perform better in school. Witnesses included U.S. Air Force (Ret.) General Richard Hawley; National Parent Teacher Association President Otha Thornton; Dr. Stephen R. Cook, associate professor at the University of Rochester Medical Center School of Medicine and Dentistry; and Francis Scott Key Middle School Principal Yolanda Stanislaus. Click here to read testimonies and watch the hearing. Congress is in the beginning stages of reauthorizing the national school lunch program, and NPPC continues to promote pork as a lean healthy protein that should continue to be included in school lunches.

HOUSE WAYS AND MEANS TRADE SUBCOMMITTEE HOLDS AGRICULTURE TRADE HEARING

The House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade Wednesday held a hearing titled “Advancing the U.S. Trade Agenda: Benefits of Expanding U.S. Agriculture Trade and Eliminating Barriers to U.S. Exports.” In his opening remarks, Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., voiced his concern that Japan was not being held to the standards that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a 12-nation free trade agreement (FTA) of Pacific Rim countries, set out to meet. “If any countries insist on retaining tariffs, then we must complete the negotiations without them and allow them to rejoin when they can commit to full tariff elimination,” said Chairman Nunes. Japan continues to demand certain products, including pork, be excluded from tariff elimination. In addition to being the largest value market for U.S. pork exports ($1.89 billion in 2013), Japan is the fourth largest market for the rest of U.S. agriculture, which shipped $12.1 billion of food and agricultural products to the island nation in 2013. A final TPP agreement that does not eliminate all tariffs and non-tariff barriers on U.S. pork products will negatively affect U.S. pork exports for the next 20 years, meaning billions of dollars less in U.S. pork sales and tens of thousands fewer U.S. jobs. For NPPC to support a final TPP agreement, Japan needs to eliminate all tariff and non-tariff barriers on U.S. pork and pork products NPPC expressed its concerns to the subcommittee in written testimony. To read testimonies from the hearing, click here.

DR. GAMBLE PARTICIPATES IN CODEX WORKING GROUP

Dr. Ray Gamble, president ex officio of the International Commission on Trichinellosis, traveled to Tokyo, Japan, May 28-30 to participate in meetings as part of the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene’s physical working group tasked with drafting a document on parasites in food. Dr. Gamble provided invaluable expertise to the US Delegation which was led by the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). Currently, some trade partners such as the European Union and South Africa impose unnecessary trichinae mitigation steps on the United States’ pork industry. According to Dr. Gamble’s studies, there is virtually no risk for trichinae in the United States. A Codex document that creates counterproductive international standards on parasites would be burdensome on the U.S. pork industry. NPPC looks forward to working with FSIS as this document develops.

NPB’S LARSEN TRAVELS TO FINLAND

Steve Larsen, National Pork Board’s Director of Pork Safety, traveled to Kirkkonummi, Finland, June 4-6 to participate in an informal scientific colloquium of researchers/university academics, industry and government officials to hear how countries use Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points (HACCP) and their issues. The committee is planning to propose a new work item aimed at updating the Codex Alimentarius’s General Principles of Food Hygiene, more specifically its Annex on HACCP. The group of HAACP experts will draft a discussion paper on if there is a need to make revisions and will present their findings at the next CCFH meeting this November.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:35:26-07:00June 14th, 2014|

Ranchers Concerned About Invasion of Medusahead Weed on Foothill Rangeland

Source: Jeannette E. Warnert

One of the worst rangeland weeds in the West is aptly named after a monster in Greek mythology that has writhing snakes instead of hair.

Medusahead, an unwelcome transplant from Europe, is anathema to the cattle living off rangeland grass. The weed’s three-inch-long bristles poke and sometimes injure the animals’ mouths and eyes.

The weed is also low-quality forage for livestock. When medusahead takes over rangeland, it reduces the forage value by 80 percent.

When Fadzayi Mashiri, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Mariposa, Merced and Madera counties, was appointed in 2013, she became the first natural resources and rangeland expert to hold the position since the retirement of Wain Johnson more than a decade before.

She polled local ranchers to determine their most pressing problems. They said weed management, and in particular, medusahead.

Medusahead is relatively easy to identify on the range. It has distinctive stiff awns and a seed head that does not break apart as seeds mature. Patches of medusahead are obvious when spring turns into summer.

“Medusahead stays green after most of the annual grasses have dried off,” Mashiri said.

Medusahead has high silica content, making it unpalatable to cattle. The silica also protects the plant from decomposition, so a thick thatch builds up on the rangeland, suppressing more desirable species, but not the germination of the next year’s medusahead seedlings.

Over the years, UC scientists have discovered a number of medusahead control strategies:

Corral cows on medusahead before the plant heads out or employ sheep to graze medusahead patches. It’s not sheep’s favorite forage either, but they will eat if left with no other option.
Prescribed burning in late spring or early summer. However, this strategy poses air quality and liability issues.
Apply nitrogen fertilizer to medusahead to improve palatability before it flowers, which is showing promise for controlling the weed and boosting the value of infested rangeland.
Chemical control.

In spring 2014, Mashiri conducted a demonstration field trial in Mariposa County of medusahead control with the herbicide Milestone, which was developed by Dow AgroSciences mainly to control broadleaf weeds like yellow starthistle.

The trial followed rangeland weed control research done by scientists including Joe DiTomaso, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis. DiTomaso found that the density of medusahead in treated areas declined and concluded that Milestone prevents medusahead seedlings from thriving.

Unfortunately, Milestone treatment of large rangeland areas is expensive.

“But if the value of forage declines, the productivity of livestock is compromised,” Mashiri said. “When you look at it that way, the chemical treatment might be useful.”

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:35:27-07:00June 10th, 2014|

Crystal Creamery of Modesto Launches Campaign Against Theft of Milk Crates

Source: John Holland; Fresno Bee

A Modesto-based dairy company has had enough of milk crate theft, which costs the U.S. industry an estimated $80 million a year.

Crystal Creamery, formerly known as Foster Farms Dairy, is working with law enforcement, grocers and other partners to combat the problem.

They are focusing mainly on large-scale thieves who try to sell the ground-up plastic to recyclers, although it’s also illegal to take a single crate for use as a toolbox or storage container.

“Milk crates have always disappeared, but in the last two or three years, the rate of disappearance is greater,” said Elliot Begoun, vice president of sales and marketing at Crystal.

He said the thefts have increased with the rising value of scrap plastic, which is based in part on the price of the petroleum used to make virgin plastic.

Begoun talked about the problem during an interview Tuesday at the Kansas Avenue headquarters of the company, still owned by the Foster family, which also is in the poultry business.

On a typical day, Crystal trucks haul about 60,000 crates filled with milk, sour cream and cottage cheese to grocery stores and food service customers from Bakersfield to the Oregon border. The drivers are supposed to bring back crates from previous deliveries, but they can be stolen if not secured at the customers’ locations, Begoun said.

Each time that happens, Crystal loses about $4, which is hard to take in an industry with tight profit margins, he said. Nationwide each year about 20 million crates are stolen, according to the International Dairy Foods Association.

Crystal is working with grocers on improved security, as well as with food banks, which sometimes get donations of dairy products in the crates.

The company also approached Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson. He said Tuesday that the crime is driven mainly by addicts looking for recycling income they can spend on drugs, similar to metal theft.

Christianson said he was surprised that the scrap value of plastic has risen so much. He noted other such commodities that are being stolen, such as used grease from restaurants, which rendering companies buy.

“Milk crates are no different,” the sheriff said. “It’s a material that can be recycled.”

Christianson said he is asking detectives to look into where the stolen crates are being ground up and recycled. They’re molded to include a warning against unauthorized use, and their distinctive appearance makes it hard to sell them intact.

The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries warns member companies against accepting materials “that are clearly marked as property belonging to an entity other than the seller, such as beer kegs, milk crates and other marked materials.”

Crystal also is asking the public to resist the temptation to take a small number of crates for personal use. Begoun and Larry Diggory, director of food operations at the plant, said they have seen them used in retail displays, on the back of motorcycles and on plumbers’ trucks.

“What we’re trying to do is to create an awareness with the public that it’s theft and it’s a cost of business,” Begoun said.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:35:27-07:00June 10th, 2014|

Governor Brown Issues Proclamation Declaring Real California Milk Month

Source: CDFA

Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. issued a proclamation declaring June 2014 as “Real California Milk Month” in the State of California.

The text of the proclamation is below:

PROCLAMATION

California prides itself on its vibrant agricultural sector, of which the dairy industry forms a key part. Our dairy farms contribute in innumerable ways to the state’s economic prosperity.

California’s dairy farmers’ hard work has made them leaders in the field. Their leadership has resulted in the annual production of over 40 billion pounds of milk, accounting for about twenty-one percent of the nation’s entire supply.

The landscape, economy, health, and nutrition of California would not be the same without our dairy farms. I urge all Californians to take time to appreciate the privilege of living in one of the world’s great dairy-producing regions, and to support our industry by buying milk and other dairy products from our Golden State.

NOW THEREFORE I, EDMUND G. BROWN JR., Governor of the State of California, do hereby proclaim June 2014, as “Real California Milk Month.”

IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of California to be affixed this 29th day of May 2014.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:35:29-07:00June 3rd, 2014|

2013-14 Recipients of the UC ANR Distinguished Service Awards

Sources: Pamela Kan-Rice, ANR Assistant Director, News and Information Outreach; Kathy Keatley Garvey, Communications specialist (including photo credit)

This week, Barbara Allen-Diaz, vice president of UC ANR, announced the 2013-14 recipients of the ANR Distinguished Service Awards (DSA) which are given biennially for outstanding contributions to the teaching, research and public service mission of the Division of Agriculture and Natural resources.

Allen-Diaz thanked the DSA recipients for providing excellent service to the people of California.

Awards were given in six areas:

Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen in front of the apiary at the Harry H. Laidlaw J. Honey Bee Research Facility (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garbey)

Outstanding Extension – Eric Mussen, UC Cooperative Extension apiculturist in the Department of Entomology and Nematology at UC Davis for bees.

Outstanding Research – Mark Battany, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties for viticulture.

Outstanding New Academic – David Doll, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Merced County for nut crops

Outstanding Team – Ken Tate, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis, and Rob Atwill, director of Veterinary Medicine Extension at UC Davis, are the recipients of the Outstanding Team Award. Since 1994, Tate and Atwill have collaborated on a series of projects assessing the potential risk to rangeland surface-water quality and human health from livestock associated pollutants.

Outstanding Leader – Pamela Geisel, former director of the statewide UC Master Gardener Program. Although Pam retired recently,since this nomination package was very strong, I believe it’s appropriate and important to give Pam this much-deserved award.

Outstanding Staff – Michael Yang, UCCE agricultural assistant in Fresno County for small farms.

Each of the recipients will receive $2,000 and a certificate, except for the team award recipients, who will receive individual certificates and share $5,000.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:35:30-07:00May 25th, 2014|

Rescued Calf Gets New High-Tech Prosthetics

Source: Michael Graczyk; Associated Press

Photo: Pat Sullivan – AP Photo

Hot and tired from a three-hour drive inside a trailer behind a pickup truck, the 600-pound English Charolais calf was content to lay on the grass behind a south Houston building while a team of technicians worked on its hind legs.

When the calf known as Hero heard its name called, the 15-month-old gingerly got up, unsteadily rocked a bit, then waddled away, tail wagging, eyes wide and tongue licking. It headed across a patch of concrete toward an appetizing snack of green shrubbery a few yards away.

Hero became what may be the nation’s only double-amputee calf with prosthetics on Wednesday when fitted for a new pair of high-tech devices attached to its back legs.

“I’m so proud,” Hero’s caretaker, Kitty Martin, exclaimed. “Look at you!”

It’s the latest step in a year-long effort that has taken Martin and the animal from Virginia, where she rescued it last year from an Augusta County farm where it succumbed to frostbite that claimed its hooves, to Texas.

Animal surgeons at Texas A&M University treated Hero for several months and affixed the initial prosthetics that the calf now had outgrown.

“This is our first cow,” Erin O’Brien, an orthotist and prosthetist for Hanger Inc., an Austin-based national firm that makes prosthetic limbs. She was among a team of about eight people working on the project for about two weeks.

“We did a lot of study of photos and video of cows just regular walking to see what it looks like and see if we can mimic that biomechanically,” O’Brien said. “It’s unusual, yes, but an opportunity.”

Surgeons at Texas A&M accepted Martin’s initial pleas for help, removing about two inches of bone to enable them to create a pad of tissue that would allow for prosthetics.

“Until I worked on him, I hadn’t ever done it before. And I’d not heard of (prosthetics) before in a bovine,” said Ashlee Watts, an equine orthopedic surgeon at the school.

Martin figures she has spent nearly $40,000 to save the calf.

“I don’t know how to explain it,” she said. “I’m an animal rescuer. And he had everything against him.”

Hero’s hooves are custom made of urethane and titanium, the connecting components are titanium and carbon fiber and the sockets that attach to his legs are carbon fiber and acrylic resin.

Martin and O’Brien declined to discuss the cost, but estimated that similar devices for humans go for between $4,000 and $8,000 apiece.

Hero’s sockets are painted with black and white cow spots. “Holstein legs,” O’Brien laughed.

“We like to customize legs to the person’s personality,” she said.

Martin, 53, a former veterinary technician and retired truck driver originally from Dalhart, in the Texas Panhandle, is moving with her husband from Greenville, Virginia, to Cameron in Central Texas.

She’s hoping Hero, who could grow to 1,500 pounds, can be a therapy animal for wounded veterans and special needs children.

“It makes my day,” Martin said. “He’s got a very bright future right now.”

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:35:31-07:00May 22nd, 2014|

Meat Price Trends Point to Increase in Poultry Sales

By: Ching Lee; Ag Alert

The Memorial Day weekend usually kicks off the summer grilling season, and Bill Mattos, president of the California Poultry Federation, said he expects shoppers will look more to chicken and other poultry products this year as less expensive protein alternatives to beef and pork.

“The barbecue season is a big time for chicken,” he said. “We think prices will probably go up for chicken, but not at all like we’re seeing in beef and pork.”

With the U.S. cattle herd at its lowest in more than 60 years—made worse in recent years by drought-related downsizing—and the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus lowering U.S. pork production, market analysts say poultry meats are poised to fill that market gap.

The bright outlook for poultry producers is expected to continue into 2015, as U.S. beef production is forecast to drop by nearly 6 percent this year, while pork production will also fall by as much as 7 percent, according to the Rabobank Food and Agribusiness Research and Advisory division.

William Sawyer, an analyst with Rabobank, said although overall U.S. meat consumption has declined in recent years—even before the recession—chicken consumption has stayed relatively stable and is now growing.

“That’s been largely driven by the fact that beef prices have risen significantly more than chicken has,” he said.

With the price of ground beef eclipsing that of chicken breast, Sawyer noted that fast-food restaurants such as McDonald’s are taking advantage of poultry’s lower price points by offering more new menu items featuring chicken.

Given how expensive it is to raise cattle compared to chicken in terms of feed cost, Sawyer said he expects chicken will continue to gain market share.

“Once consumers have the appetite for value, which is what we’ve seen in the growth in the chicken sector, it’s unlikely that beef is going to regain that per-capita consumption that it’s lost in the last seven or eight years,” he added.

Sawyer said consumers who buy specialty products such as organic, free-range or antibiotic-free are much less sensitive to price changes anyway, so producers who raise birds for these markets are not as impacted by current price trends in the conventional market.

Although USDA projects U.S. pork production will bounce back from the PED virus next year with a growth of 2.9 percent, beef production is expected to continue to decline, as ranchers retain their heifers in an effort to expand their herds.

That means meat prices will likely remain strong—and with lower corn prices, poultry producers will still have incentive to increase production, Sawyer said.

In addition, U.S. chicken exports, which take up 20 percent of total production, are expected to continue to grow, particularly to Mexico, and that will also help to support higher chicken prices, Sawyer said.

“So the outlook is very positive and very profitable,” he added.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:35:31-07:00May 21st, 2014|

Secretary Ross Joins Elementary School Students to Experience Mobile Dairy Classroom

Source: Tammy Anderson-Wise, CEO Dairy Council of California

Earlier this month, CDFA Secretary Karen Ross joined students at Sacramento’s Pacific Elementary School for a visit from the Mobile Dairy Classroom, where an instructor shared fun facts like: cows have built-in fly swatters, and milk is warm when it comes out of the udder.

As the original farm to school program in California, Mobile Dairy Classroom has brought a bit of the dairy farm to schools across the state since the 1930s.

To help children better appreciate where their milk and milk products come from, the free assemblies provided by the Dairy Council of California teach children about agriculture and cows, healthy eating from all five food groups, and how to lead healthy, active lifestyles.

Mobile Dairy Classroom assemblies augment the Dairy Council of California’s classroom nutrition education lessons that are also free to schools as part of the dairy industry’s commitment to community health.

With six Mobile Dairy Classroom units across California, 400,000 students each year have the chance to make a personal connection with a cow and a calf, and better understand where their milk comes from.

Furthermore, the assemblies allow for a better appreciation for the role of the dairy farmer and milk processor in providing healthy food and why milk and milk products are an essential part of an overall balanced diet with foods from all five food groups.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-10-18T16:10:11-07:00May 20th, 2014|

Severe Drought Now Covers 100% of the State

Mark Svoboda, National Drought Mitigation Center, reports that all of California is now depicted as being in severe drought (D2) or worse this week, with the D3/D4 areas remaining unchanged. A heat wave is settling in that will only serve to exacerbate and accelerate drought impact concerns across the state. Increased water demand and risk of fire will ramp up as the heat does, and the state’s agricultural industry continues to suffer. The current drought map is included below.

A cursory review of drought impacts includes:

Groundwater: CDFA reports the state’s groundwater resources are at historically low levels. Fifty percent of the 5,400 wells assessed have dropped since 2008 to points lower than they in the previous century. San Joaquin Valley levels fell more than 100 feet below previous historic lows, while Sacramento Valley, Sonoma Valley and Los Angeles basin levels fell up to 50 feet. Note that the analysis was done in the spring when groundwater levels are usually at their highest.

Curtailments: CDFA reports curtailments in various watersheds, depending upon runoff conditions, water demand and the type of water rights. Water rights holders, including water agencies, farmers and other property owners, have been unable to receive their due water supplies. Junior water rights holders lose out first. Efforts are underway to save water for essential health and safety purposes, wildlife and habitat.

Food Assistance: The California Department of Social Services announced food assistance provisions to at least 24 counties with high unemployment rates and a high proportion of agricultural workers. Foodbanks struggle to supply provisions as the state grows less produce and sources provide lower produce donations.

Livestock Reductions: Many cattle and other livestock producers in California transported thousands of animals by truck to other states as they cannot wait out the stunted grass and depleted water sources. Reuters reported that up to 100,000 California cattle have left the state in just the past four months and producers are selling their cattle early.

Fruit and vegetable prices: rose 2 and 3 percent in 2013, respectively, per USDA, as low water supplies affected production. A similar price increase in 2014 is likely as more than three million acres out of the nine million acres of irrigated land in California receive no surface water, aside from rain.

Reduced production: USDA forecasts a 20 percent reduction in rice production and a 35 percent drop in cotton production in California this year as farmers leave fields fallow in response to very meager water allocations.

Photo credit: Robert Galbraith/Reuters

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:35:32-07:00May 17th, 2014|

Great-Grandmother Wins Dixon May Fair Hogcalling Contest

Great-Grandmother Wins the Hogcalling Contest with Determined Voice

DIXON–Great-grandmother Helen Lang, 89, of Cordelia won the 2014 Dixon May Fair Hogcalling Contest “hams down.”

Lang coaxed a hog over to her wheelchair with a firm and determined voice. The hog readily obeyed.

“My dad used to raise Hampshire pigs,” she said. “And now my great-grandchildren do.”

Lang, who has been attending the Dixon May for more than 50 years, this year decided to enter the 12th annual hogcalling contest. Three of her great-grandchildren did, too: Christopher Lang, 9, his brother, Gabriel Lang, 3, and their cousin, Xavier Copeland, 11. Christopher and Xavier, both members of the Suisun Valley 4-H Club, raised hogs for the fair. All three boys won awards in the hogcalling contest.

Emcee Donnie Huffman, president of the Friends of the Dixon May Fair and a former 4-H swine leader, urged the contestants to “bring home the bacon” and to get the hogs “hamward bound” and into “four-squeal drive.”

The judges scored the contestants on originality, creativity, audience appeal and hog response. The judges were Hendrick Crowell of Fairfield and Mary Harris of Vacaville, past presidents of the Dixon May Fair Board of Directors (Harris is also a current director); “Boss Hog” Nick Stacey of Dixon, the longest reigning hogcalling champion–eight years; and JoAnn Giannoni of Dixon, secretary of the Friends of the Dixon May Fair and one of the organizers.

Butler Amusements provided carnival tickets to the youth winners. The Dixon May Fair provided four tractor-pull tickets. Giannoni and co-coordinator Kathy Keatley Garvey provided pig-related prizes.

The contestants yelled everything from “Soo-eey” to “C’mon, piggy.” Contestant Mary Jane O’Neill, wearing a red rose in her hat, sang “The Days of Swine and Roses,” but the hog expressed no interest in trotting over to her.

The list of winners:

Adults, 18 and over:  Helen Lang of Cordelia, first; Brianna Boyd of Dixon, second; Silvia Forcier of Dixon, third; and Mary Jane O’Neill of Davis, fourth.

Ages 6 through 13:  Nathan Schittl, 7, of Vacaville, first; Xavier Copeland, 11, of Fairfield, second; Christopher Lang, 9, of Fairfield, third; and Morgan Green, 9, of Vallejo, fourth.

Ages 5 and under:

Chloe Granillo, 3, of Dixon, first; Garrison Cruz, Dixon, second; Vinny Sicca of Vacaville, third; and Gabriel Lang, 3, of Fairfield.

Among the Dixon 4-H’ers providing the hogs were Cody and Morgan Meitrott, Amanda Phillips, Hannah Harvey, and Elizabeth and A. J. Granillo. Harvey’s hog was earlier named the 4-H Grand Champion.

In the age group, 14 through 17, all who initially signed up “chickened out.”

The Dixon May Fair ended a four-day run on Sunday, May 11.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:35:33-07:00May 12th, 2014|

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