Mielke Market Weekly

This column was written for the market- Skim milk powder production amount- jected at $19, up 30 cents. Cheese, butter, nonfat dry ing week ending Dec. 10. ed to 58.3 million pounds, down 4.9 mil- milk and whey price forecasts for 2022 were raised Preliminary data had October milk output at 18.5 billion pounds, down 0.5 percent from October 2020. The latest Dairy Products report shows where the milk went … or didn’t. lion pounds or 7.7 percent from September and down 5 million pounds or 7.9 percent below a year ago. Year-todate, skim milk powder, at 467.7 million pounds, is down 19.3 percent from 2020. on lower expected milk supplies, according to the WASDE. This month’s corn supply and use outlook was unchanged from last month. The projected seasonaverage farm price remains at $5.45 per bushel.

Cheese output totaled 1.147 billion n Soybean supply and use projections were also pounds, up 1.1 percent from September MIELKE MARKET The U.S. Department of Agriculture unchanged. Based on a review of EPA’s proposed and 0.9 percent above October 2020. Year- WEEKLY lowered its estimate for both 2021 and rule for 2020-22 renewable fuel obligation targets, to-date output hit 11.3 billion pounds, up 3.1 percent from the same period in By Lee Mielke 2022 milk production in the latest World Agricultural Supply and Demand soybean oil used for biofuel was unchanged at 11 billion pounds. Season-average soybean and soybean MARKETING2020. Wisconsin produced 288.7 million pounds of the October total, up 0.3 percent from September but 2.7 percent below a Estimates report for the sixth month in a row — again citing lower expected dairy cow numbers and slower growth in milk per cow. oil price forecasts were unchanged at $12.10 per bushel and 65 cents per pound, respectively. The soybean meal price forecast was increased $5 to $330 per short ton. year ago. California output, at 205.6 million pounds, There were 48,200 dairy cows that were sent to was up 2.1 percent from September and 2.7 percent The global market holds good promise slaughter Thanksgiving week, down 11,000 from the above a year ago. Idaho produced 85.1 million and the Dec. 3 Dairy and Food Market previous week but 3,000 head or 6.6 percent above a pounds, up 2.1 percent from September but 0.9 per- Analyst cites the lack of global milk year ago. cent below a year ago. Italian-style cheese totaled 489.8 million pounds, up 0.8 percent from September and 3.5 percent above a year ago. American-type cheese, at 457.5 million pounds, was up 2 percent from September but 0.6 percent below a year ago. Mozzarella totaled 377.8 million pounds, up 1.7 percent from a year ago. supplies and the potential market share gains from American exporters. Shipping delays are also improving. n Butter and milkfat pushed the Dec. 7 Global Dairy Trade auction higher, rising for the fourth consecutive event. The weighted average was up 1.4 percent following the 1.9 percent advance Nov. 16 and 4.3 percent on Nov. 2. Cheddar, the cheese traded at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, totaled 320.7 million pounds. This is up 12.2 million pounds or 4 percent from September, but 4.7 million pounds or 1.4 percent below a year ago. Year-to-date, cheddar stands at 3.3 billion pounds, up 3.3 percent from 2020. Butter again led the gains, up 4.6 percent, following the 3.5 percent rise on Nov. 16 and 4.7 percent on Nov. 2. Anhydrous milkfat was up 3 percent after gaining 1.3 percent on Nov. 16 and 4.2 percent Nov. 2. Skim milk powder was up 1.3 percent after a 1.4 percent rise, and whole milk powder inched up 0.6 percent after jumping 1.9 percent last time. GDT

Churns gave us 159.4 million pounds of butter, up cheddar was up 1 percent after jumping 2.2 percent 16 million pounds or 11.2 percent from September, in the last event. but 2.6 million pounds or 1.6 percent below a year ago, as less milk was produced in the month and more went to the vat than the churn. Year-to-date butter output stands at 1.7 billion pounds, down 2.2 percent from 2020. StoneX Dairy Group says the GDT 80 percent butterfat butter price equates to $2.5627 per pound U.S., up 11.4 cents, after gaining 8.2 cents last time and 10.6 cents the time before that. CME butter closed Dec. 10 at a bargain $2.1225. GDT Cheddar,

Yogurt output totaled 375 million pounds, down 3 at $2.3676, was up 2.6 cents after gains of 4.8 cents percent from a year ago. on Nov. 16 and 28.7 cents on Nov. 2. Dec. 10’s CME Dry whey totaled 78.2 million pounds, up 8 million pounds or 11.4 percent from September, and 3.1 million pounds or 4 percent above a year ago. Year-todate, dry whey was at 768.9 million pounds, down 4 percent from a year ago. Stocks fell to 58.1 million block cheddar was at $1.8650. GDT skim milk powder averaged $1.6877 per pound, up from $1.6676. Whole milk powder averaged $1.8178 per pound, up from $1.8086. CME Grade A nonfat dry milk closed Dec. 10 at $1.6250 per pound. pounds, down 5.2 million or 8.2 percent from n September and 11 million pounds or 15.9 percent below those a year ago. See MIELKE, pg. 17

Less milk meant less powder. Nonfat dry milk output totaled 124.7 million pounds, up 5.5 million pounds or 4.6 percent from September, but down 16.6 million or 11.7 percent below a year ago. Powder year-to-date totaled 1.7 billion pounds, up 3.9 percent. Stocks fell to 221.8 million pounds, down 42.5 million pounds or 16.1 percent from September and were down 13.7 million pounds or 5.9 percent below those a year ago. 2021 variety crop trial results available ST. PAUL — The Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station and the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences have published the 2021 Minnesota Field Crop Trials. Crops included in this year’s trial include alfalfa,

2021 production and marketings were estimated at 226.2 and 225.2 billion pounds respectively, down 200 million pounds on production from last month’s estimates and 100 million pounds lower on marketings. If realized, 2021 production would still be up 3 billion pounds or 1.3 percent from 2020. 2022 production and marketings were estimated at 227.7 and 226.6 billion pounds respectively, down 400 million pounds on both. If realized, 2022 production would be up 1.5 billion pounds or 0.7 percent from 2021.

Butter, cheese, and whey price forecasts for 2021 were raised from last month based on current prices and strength in demand. The nonfat dry milk price forecast was unchanged.

The 2021 Class III milk price forecast was raised on higher cheese and whey prices and projected to average $17.05 per hundredweight, up a dime from last month’s estimate and compares to $18.16 in 2020 and $16.96 in 2019. The 2022 average was put at $18.15, up 40 cents from what was expected last month.

The 2021 Class IV forecast was raised on the higher butter price and should average $16.05, up a nickel from last month and compares to $13.49 in 2020 and $16.30 in 2019. The 2022 average was probarley, canola, corn grain, corn silage, oat, soybean, spring wheat, winter rye, and winter wheat. Results can be found at varietytrials.umn.edu/2021.

This article was submitted by the University of Minnesota. v

Camp Algona was one of the 155 base camps for prisoners of war around the United States. Camp Algona had 34 branch camps in Minnesota (20), Iowa (10), and the Dakotas (4). The prisoners were used to replace the men who were overseas fighting. They worked on farms, in canning factories, and lumber camps. Following the Geneva Convention, they were paid 10 cents an hour (80 cents a day). Being an officer, Kaib was not required to work; but when he arrived he was physically unable anyway, suffering from a gastric ulcer. Kaib was an architect by trade, and a good artist. As Christmas 1944 approached, Kaib dealt with his loneliness By RICHARD SIEMERS The Land Correspondent (he had a wife and daughter back in Germany) by building nativity scene figures out of the loamy soil. God moves in mysterious ways, and Marv Chickering thinks that can be seen in a nativity scene which annually draws 1,500 people to Algona, Iowa each December. It was built by Eduard Kaib and five other German prisoners of war and donated to the community at the war’s conclusion. He dried them on the stove and painted them. He set up the 12-foot scene in the mess hall with a Christmas tree to help lift the spirits of other prisoners. The Camp Commander, Lt. Col. Arthur Lobdell, was impressed and encouraged Kaib to build a larger one for the following Christmas.

During World War II, over 400,000 prisoners of war were housed in the United States — most of them German — and many of them captured in North Africa. Non-commissioned officer Eduard Kaib was never near North Africa. He was wounded at the battle of Stalingrad. He was taken to a hospital in France and nursed back to health, then sent to a holding camp in Italy before being transported to the United States and sent to Algona, Iowa.

What are the odds, mused Chickering, that this particular German prisoner, captured in Russia, would end up in Algona? Because “without him, we have no story,” Chickering said.

Photos by Richard Siemers Eduard Kaib’s lifesize nativity scene in Algona, Iowa is made up of 65 figures – including 30 sheep. ON THE COVER: The holy family in the manger is guarded by volunteers in two-hour shifts throughout the month of December. There are 97 volunteers who manage the display which draws 1,500 viewers every year. A photo of Eduard Kaib hangs in the lobby.

Visitors to the Algona nativity enjoy counting how many sheep can be found in the display.

Kaib accepted the challenge. He and five friends worked on it when it fit their schedules. For the sheep, small logs were cut, legs were screwed on, and the form was covered with cement, textured to look like wool. For other figures, wooden frames with wire were covered with cement, then coated with plaster for a smooth surface which could be carved and painted. By December 1945, the nativity scene of one-half life-sized figures included the Holy Family, shepherds, magi, townspeople, an angel, camels, and a flock of 30 sheep — 65 figures in all.

“It’s a miracle in itself that

See NATIVITY SCENE, pg. 16

NATIVITY SCENE, from pg. 15

six men built this in less than a year,” Chickering said.

The scene was part of the 1945 Camp Christmas service, with carols sung in English and German.

During a tour some years ago, a woman told Chickering her remembrance of being at that service. When she was four years old, her family lived across the street from the family of the camp commander. On that Christmas evening, the Lobdells invited her family to come out to the service at the camp, which was not open to the public.

Chickering recalled her memory: “They were introduced to Kaib, and she was persuaded to sit on his lap. She was very frightened. And years later she was told that while she sat there he was crying his eyes out, thinking of his own daughter back in Germany.”

After Christmas the public was invited to view the creation, and Chickering said about 3,000 people from different states stopped at the camp during the next six weeks.

When Camp Algona was closed in February 1946 and the prisoners were returned to Europe, the community asked if they might keep the nativity scene. Kaib agreed with three conditions: that it never be sold; that it be open to visitors during the holiday season; and that they never charge admission for people to see it.

Prisoners helped move and reassemble it (the camels alone weigh 500 pounds) and it was set up in a building at the Kossuth County fairgrounds in Algona. The Junior Chamber of Commerce took responsibility, and when that organization disbanded, the Men’s Club of the United Methodist Church took over. Today it is the congregation that sponsors the nativity scene.

In 1963, a new building was constructed to house the nativity scene, and many upgrades to the scenery have taken place since — all provided by donations and volunteers. In 1968, Eduard Kaib brought his family to the United States to see where he had been and what he had built. While in Algona, he painted a mural of Bethlehem as background to the scene.

It takes 97 volunteers to have the display open every day during December. They each take a twohour shift “babysitting the baby Jesus,” as they refer to it.

Marv Chickering chairs the Nativity Scene Committee and continues to be moved by the stories and responses the scene elicits from visitors. One of his favorites happened just before it closed one of those years. “I always sign up for the last time slot — we close New Year’s Eve at Marv Chickering 6:00 p.m. — and just before closing in walked a WWII veteran with two great-granddaughters — around ages 7 and 10. He started sharing war stories, and I could tell that the girls were not enamored with this.”

Chickering suggested, as a diversion, that they go back into the nativity scene and count how many sheep there were. At that time there were 31 sheep. When they came out, he asked the oldest girl how many she had counted, and she said 32. He was puzzled and asked her how she came up with 32.

“Well, she said, there are 30 adult sheep, there is the lamb in the shepherd’s arms, and there is the Christ child, the Lamb of God.”

In a 1985 letter written to grade school children and displayed at the Camp Algona POW Museum in Algona, Kaib wrote: “I never intended to create a piece of art. The only intention when making the nativity scene was to help to bring the joy of Christmas to our camp. And you can imagine that I am very glad that the nativity scene … helps to heal the wounds of war.”

As it continues to bring wonder and healing to visitors, Chickering is convinced it was not just coincidence that an artistic German soldier was captured in Russia, sent to Algona, Iowa, had a camp commander who encouraged his work, and left the community a one-of-a-kind nativity scene which has inspired thousands through the years. He senses divine guidance that brought about a creation which continues to have an impact on people

The only thing that might top the Algona POW Nativity Scene is the wonder and mystery of the story it depicts.

Scheduled hours for visiting from Dec. 1-31 are Sundays and Christmas Day 12-8 p.m.; Monday through Saturday 2-8 p.m.; and New Year’s Eve 2-6 p.m. For appointments at other times, contact Marv Chickering at (515) 395-8373; or the First United Methodist Church office at (515) 295-7241. Find more information on location at https://www.pwcampalgona.org/nativity. v