Animal Ag Bites 7/29

carrie muehlingAgWired Animal, Animal Bites

  • The Manure Challenge, organized by Yield Lab Institute with guidance from the World Wildlife Fund, Newtrient, and the Dairy Farmers of America, brings together the expertise of many eminent public, for profit, and non-for-profit leaders from a wide variety of backgrounds to support interest and investment in the manure management sector. The following organizations have joined the effort as sponsors: Cargill, The Maschhoffs, and WeWork FoodLabs.
  • The National Pork Board named Jerry Flint as vice president of engagement and outreach effective August 1, 2019.
  • Fuel Up to Play 60, a program created by the dairy checkoff and National Football League to improve health and wellness in schools across the country, celebrated its 10-year anniversary at its annual student ambassador summit, July 16-19 in Cleveland. Mark Leitner, executive vice president of Dairy Management Inc., which manages the national dairy checkoff, has led Fuel Up to Play 60 since its inception. He said expectations that were set during the program’s early days have been exceeded.
  • Mycotoxins can have a devastating effect on poultry, livestock and swine production. During wet years, like the one we are having this year, the possibility of mycotoxins from mold and fungi growth in grain products and storage bins is even greater. The solution to protecting animals from the threat of mycotoxins is using all-natural FloBond™ from Brookside Agra.
  • Cargill is launching BeefUp Sustainability, an initiative committed to achieving a 30% greenhouse gas intensity reduction across its North American beef supply chain by 2030.
  • Brightmark Energy, a San Francisco-based waste and energy development company, announced that it has purchased an anaerobic digester northwest of Madison, Wisconsin that will convert 90,000 gallons per day of dairy waste from three local farms into biogas and other useful products.
  • Ralco announced that Dr. Kevin Touchette has joined the company in the role of Senior Swine Nutritionist.
  • For almost a year, the Pork Checkoff has taken a leading role in collaborating with multiple government and industry partners to protect the United States from African swine fever (ASF). Primary partners in this effort include the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Pork Producers Council, the North American Meat Institute, the American Association of Swine Veterinarians and the Swine Health Information Center. When it comes to working on feed biosecurity issues specifically, the American Feed Industry Association has also been essential to the effort. By combining their resources, these organizations and others have been able to achieve a comprehensive response to ASF that has helped to harden the defenses of the domestic swine industry against this costly foreign animal disease and others like it.