MARKET NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

v      The US Supreme Court ruled that California can’t enforce a state law that required slaughterhouse operators to immediately euthanize animals that were unable to stand or walk.  In a unanimous opinion, the Supreme Court said the California law was preempted by the Federal Meat Inspection Act, which imposes different requirements on slaughterhouses.

v      National Beef Packing reported net income for its fiscal first quarter ended November 26^th of $14.08 million versus $52.06 million the year earlier.  US Premium Beef, National’s majority owner in the quarter, reported net income of $8.9 million versus $35.4 million a year earlier.  Meanwhile, USPB gets $609.8 million in cash from Leucadia National Corporation, National’s new majority owner.  Leucadia assumed 79% ownership December 30^th.  Leucadia agreed to pay USPB $646.8 million.  After the cash payout, the remaining $37 million was deposited in an escrow account to satisfy potential indemnification claims from Leucadia under the purchase agreement.  As part of the deal with Leucadia, USPB entered into an agreement with National to facilitate the delivery of 735,385 cattle annually, subject to a plus or minus 10% adjustment.  The agreement will remain in effect for five years.

v      Total pork stocks in cold storage at the end of December were reported at 481.7 million pounds, up 1.3% from a year ago.  Pork stocks dropped 13.4 million pounds from December, compared to a five-year average decline of 3.3 million pounds.  A sharp drawdown in ham stocks led to the decline.  Beef stocks were estimated at 451.2 million pounds, up 1.4% from last year.  Total chicken stocks were reported at 629.1 million pounds, 78.4% of the previous year.

v      USDA’s monthly Chicken and Eggs report estimated that 50.885 million hens were producing broiler-type hatching eggs as of January 1^st, down 7.3% from a year earlier.  The November 1^st inventory was 50.103 million hens, which marked the smallest broiler-type breeder flock in almost 14 years.

Grains

v      BASF Plant Science, the plant biotechnology unit of German company BASF SE, announced it will move its headquarters to the US and cut 140 jobs in Europe.  The company cited resistance to plant biotechnology from the majority of European consumers, farmers, and politicians as the reason for the move.  The company said it will concentrate on the attractive markets for biotechnology in North and South America and the growth markets in Asia.  BASF Science will move its headquarters to Raleigh, North Carolina, from Limburgerhof, Germany.

v      Richardson International Ltd said it will buy Great Northern Grain’s grain handling and crop input facility in Nampa, Alberta.  The acquisition will be Richardson’s fourth in Alberta’s Peace River region in the last two years.  The Nampa facility has storage capacity for 17,300 tons of grain, a cleaning line for wheat and canola, and storage space for crop inputs.  Richardson said it will add another 14,000 tons of grain storage this spring.

v      The US government offered a $232.5 million loan guarantee toward construction of a commercial scale bio-refinery in Oregon.  Zeachem Boardman Biorefinery LLC expects to have the plant, with an overall cost of $390.5 million and an annual capacity of 25 million gallons a year, in operation by late 2014.  Roughly half of the output will be biofuels and the rest will be bio-based chemicals such as acetic acid and ethyl acetate.  70% of the biomass for the ZeaChem facility will come from poplar trees and 30% will be agriculture residue such as wheat straw and corn stover.

v      Fiberight LLC, an Iowa company, will receive a $25 million guaranteed loan to build a cellulosic ethanol plant.  Fiberight LLC has plans to build a 55,000-square-foot, $59.5 million plant on the site of an old corn-based ethanol plant in Blairstown, Iowa.  The company plans to convert municipal solid waste and other industrial pulps into advanced biofuels.  Fiberight expects to produce about 3.6 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year.  Fiberight has partnered with international enzymes company Novozymes to hone the production process.