AR-News: Mad-cow likely to force higher rendering costs

[jim robertson]

Mad-cow likely to force higher rendering costs

By Shannon Dininny
The Associated Press


MABTON, Yakima County — Rocky Ross jubilantly swung his sport-utility 
vehicle into the Sunnyside Wildlife Area, certain he had caught his prey: 
illegal dumpers. His grin collapsed to a wry smile when the quarry turned 
out to be two reporters caught peering at a half-dozen dead calves.

The area, just three miles from the dairy farm where the nation's first case 
of mad-cow disease was discovered, has been turned into a dump site for dead 
animals — everything from goats, sheep and calves to cats and puppies.

Ross has managed the 10,538-acre wildlife area in this Yakima Valley town 
for more than two years, but the problem has gone on much longer. He 
attributes it to a few local farmers who lack respect for public lands and 
don't have the money to properly dispose of animals.

The problem had nothing to do with mad-cow disease — until now.

The Washington mad-cow case, ensuing international bans on U.S. beef 
products, and new regulations to prevent another incident raise questions 
about how dead farm animals should be disposed of, and whether the costs 
will rise too high for farmers.

"It's still a big unknown," said Tom Cook, president of the Alexandria, 
Va.-based National Renderers Association.

Farmers now are allowed to bury animals on their own property, dump them at 
licensed landfills or send them to rendering plants, where the carcasses are 
exposed to extreme heat and reduced to bone and tallow.

Renderers used to provide their services to farmers free of charge. Rising 
costs and declining value of the byproducts forced them to start charging, 
Cook said.

Recent events could drive those costs even higher.




The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Dec. 23 that a Washington state 
dairy cow had tested positive for mad-cow disease, or bovine spongiform 
encephalopathy (BSE).

More than 40 countries subsequently banned U.S. beef products, and 
Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman announced sweeping changes designed to 
ensure the safety of the meat supply.

Those changes include a push for a national animal-tracking system and a ban 
on slaughtering cows that cannot walk unaided, the same animals most likely 
to be tested for the disease.

Veneman said the changes may require that testing be focused on rendering 
plants instead of slaughterhouses.

But adding testing to the rendering plants' duties only adds to their costs 
at a time when their products are being turned away under the ban, Cook 
said.

Baker Commodities, a California-based rendering company that operates in 13 
states, lost $500,000 just by making its ships turn around after countries 
banned its products.

Farmers who have their dead animals rendered typically pay $25 to $55 for a 
full-size animal, said Ray Kelly, Baker's executive vice president. "Since 
BSE, it's probably going to go up."

As expected, the impacts are trickling down.

Dan Bulski's meat-processing company in Bozeman, Mont., pays about $35 per 
week to a rendering company to haul away carcasses.

"It's going to go up," Bulski said. "With the rendering companies, it's been 
a struggle for them to make it. Now, with this mad cow, there's going to be 
some more fallout."

Bulski couldn't say if the fallout includes illegal dumping. The vast 
majority of farmers and butchers follow the rules, he said, but he pointed 
out that many landfills reject animal waste.

In a 1,000-acre section of the Sunnyside Wildlife Area, the dumping has been 
going on for years. In his first winter on the job, Ross found 31 animal 
carcasses between December and February.

Farmers in Washington state can bury animals on the farm as long as they are 
buried with at least two feet of soil cover on top, 10 feet above the 
seasonal high of ground water and 100 feet away from wells or other surface 
waters.

Still, most choose the rendering process if they can afford it, said Art 
McEwen, an environmental-health specialist with the Yakima County Health 
Department.

Most also follow the rules, Ross said. Aluminum cans, beer bottles and paper 
far outnumber carcasses among the garbage dumped at the wildlife area, he 
said.

Ross almost laughs about catching the culprits.

"I'm not sure I want to," he said. "There's days I'm in pretty good humor, 
and there's days that I'm not."


Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company






"I hold flesh-food to be unsuited to our species."
Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."
Albert Einstein

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