2018 World Dairy Expo Explores Next Frontier

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Sporting a theme this year of “The Next Frontier,” World Dairy Expo is in full swing right now in Madison, Wisconsin.

Communications Specialist Katie Schmitt says there are almost 900 companies exhibiting at the expo this year. “Our trade show is really a great place for farmers to find that new technology and do some research,” says Schmitt, who says the theme of the show is about what is next on the horizon for the dairy industry. “It is looking into what is in dairy’s future, whether it’s in the genetic side of our show world or in the technology of the trade show.”

On the show ring floor, some breed champions have already been crowned, including the Grand Champion Ayrshire, Ruth, exhibited by Palmrya Farm-Evan Creek of Hagerstown, Md., who won the trophy for the second year.

Listen to Jamie’s interview with Katie from WDE18: Interview with Katie Schmitt, World Dairy Expo Communications

2018 World Dairy Expo Photo Album

Content Creation from World Dairy Expo is sponsored by Content Creation from the Farm Progress Show is sponsored by Alltech  Coverage of the Farm Progress Show is sponsored by Hubbard Feeds

Busting Myths About Mycotoxins

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Misconceptions about mycotoxins can cause problems for cattle producers.

One of the biggest myths out there is that most mycotoxin challenges are caused by weather. And while weather can play a role, it’s more often field agronomic practice and insect damage that are the larger culprits when it comes to mycotoxin development, according to Pat Crowley, on-farm specialist with Alltech
Crowley said monitoring plant health is the key to keeping mycotoxin levels in an acceptable range.

“Evaluate plant health. It all starts with plant health. We want a healthy plant just like we want a healthy cow or a healthy child. If we have a healthy plant, it’s more resistant to challenges out in the field,” he said.

Crowley said this year’s unique weather patterns will likely make the crop more vulnerable to mycotoxin challenges.

“This weather pattern – I haven’t really seen anything like it. It’s extremely unique and this is going to be possibly catastrophic to what we’re going to see for crops and crop damage with the rainfall and the stage of maturity that it’s in,” he said.

Crowley encouraged farmers to scout fields for possible spots or molds and use resources like mycotoxin testing available at KnowMycotoxins.com/FreeTest. He said any Alltech representative can also provide more information about mycotoxin testing.

Listen to Jamie’s interview with Pat here: Interview with Pat Crowley, Alltech

2018 World Dairy Expo Photo Album

President Says USMCA is Victory for Farmers

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Out with NAFTA and in with USMCA, the initials for the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement.

“This new deal is an especially great victory for our farmers,” said President Donald Trump as he announced the agreement this morning. “The deal includes a substantial increase in our farmers’ opportunities to export American wheat, poultry, eggs and dairy – including milk, butter, cheese, yogurt and ice cream.”

Under the agreement, Canada will eliminate its “Class 7” program that allows low-priced dairy ingredients to undersell American dairy products.

Audio – President Trump announces USMCA benefits for agriculture

Agricultural organizations are praising the agreement, particularly the dairy industry groups. American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) president Zippy Duvall says the USMCA includes “new provisions to provide science-based trading standards, timely review of products produced through biotechnology and gene editing and new provisions on geographic indications.” Even the National Farmers Union, which tends to be critical of most trade deals, called the agreement encouraging. “While this agreement is certainly no cure-all, it is hopefully a start to repairing our trade relationships around the world, to restoring our reputation as a reliable trading partner, and to resolving longstanding issues with discrimination against U.S. wheat,” said NFU president Roger Johnson.

Canadian officials agreed to sign the agreement late Sunday before the midnight deadline. It now goes to Congress for review.

Animal Ag Bites 10/1

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  • The Animal Agriculture Alliance is extending the deadline for students to sign up for its College Aggies Online scholarship competition due to popular demand. Undergraduate students, graduate students and collegiate clubs can sign up through October 10 at https://collegeaggies.animalagalliance.org.
  • Fuel Up to Play 60 and Chelan Fresh are increasing student access to more nutritious food choices, including dairy, in schools. Chelan Fresh, one of Washington state’s largest suppliers of apples and pears and the nation’s largest provider of fresh cherries, will provide portable breakfast/salad bar carts to 15 Fuel Up to Play 60 schools in 11 states. Fuel Up to Play 60 is the nation’s leading in-school wellness program created by America’s dairy farmers through their dairy checkoff and the National Football League, with support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
  • The Public Lands Council held its Annual Meeting and 50th Anniversary Celebration in Park City, Utah, where it set policy priorities for the upcoming year, elected new officers, and celebrated the organization’s historic milestone. Bob Skinner, a fifth-generation cow-calf producer from Oregon, was elected as the new PLC President during the annual meeting.

Animal Ag Bites 9/24

carrie muehlingAgWired Animal, Animal Bites, Beef, Dairy, Poultry

  • Louie DeBoer recently joined the Vita Plus Columbus team as a dairy specialist. Based in Columbus, Wisconsin, DeBoer will provide nutrition and management expertise to help dairy producers reach their production goals.
  • USPOULTRY and the USPOULTRY Foundation announce the completion of a funded research project at the University of Georgia in Athens, Ga., in which researchers created a new rapid method to develop infectious bronchitis vaccines. The research was made possible in part by an endowing Foundation gift from Fieldale Farms and is part of the Association’s comprehensive research program encompassing all phases of poultry and egg production and processing.
  • Attendee registration and general housing for the 2019 International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE) is now open. For more information and to register for the 2019 IPPE, visit www.ippexpo.org.
  • Michigan Milk Producers Association, a dairy farmer-owned cooperative and dairy producer serving more than 1,700 farmers in the Midwest, plans to add a new 7,500-square-foot processing area to its existing facility. The project is expected to generate a total investment of $24 million and create 11 jobs. Michigan was chosen over a competing site in Indiana.
  • The 7th Annual World Food Championships, presented by Walmart, is preparing for its 2018 main event in November. In a few short months, over 1,500 chefs and home cooks from 41 states and 14 countries will meet at The Wharf in Orange Beach, Alabama to battle it out for more than $350,000 in cash and prizes.
  • A talent in poetry will win one cattleman or woman a trip to the 2019 Cattle Industry Convention & NCBA Trade Show in New Orleans, La., Jan. 30–Feb. 1, 2019. The Cowboy Poetry Contest, being coordinated by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and sponsored by IMI Global, is accepting entries until Oct. 19, 2018. For more information and to enter, go to www.ncba.org, then click on conventions and events/Cattle Industry Convention & NCBA Trade Show.

Bayer Announces Care4Cattle Grant Winners

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During a panel discussion on animal health at the Bayer Future of Farming Dialogue this week, Bayer announced the winners of its new Care4Cattle grant initiative program.

In March 2018, Bayer launched the initiative in collaboration with the World Farmers’ Organisation (WFO) to recognize and support innovative-thinking livestock professionals who have created new ways of advancing beef and dairy cattle well-being on the farm.

The initiative received over 100 entries across 37 countries and the winners selected to jointly receive the EUR 30,000 Care4Cattle grant funding were from Australia, Brazil and the United Kingdom.

Dr. Dominique van der Saag from Australia was selected for her research into novel ways in which calves could self-administer analgesia after standard husbandry procedures which can often cause animals stress both during and after.

Brazil Professor Mateus Paranhos da Costa’s study into the effects different weaning methods can have on the well-being of beef calves, was the second project granted funding by the Care4Cattle initiative.

The third winning submission was from The Cattle Lameness Academy in the United Kingdom to create a modular training platform using videos, where they can support farmers in dealing with the rising threat of lameness.

In this interview, Dr. Almut Hoffmann, Head of Farm Animal Products Marketing at Bayer Animal Health, talks about the program and the three winners – Interview with Dr. Almut Hoffmann, Bayer Animal Health

Bayer Future of Farming Dialogue 2018 Photo Album

2019 National Ag Day Announced

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The Agriculture Council of America (ACA) will host the 46th anniversary of National Agriculture Day on March 19, 2019. This year’s theme is “Agriculture: Food for Life.”

Major events happening in conjunction with National Ag Day will include a program at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. and a Taste of Agriculture Celebration in the nation’s capitol.

These events honor National Agriculture Day and mark a nationwide effort to tell the true story of American agriculture and remind citizens that agriculture is a part of all of us. A number of agricultural associations, corporations, students and government organizations involved in agriculture are expected to participate.

National Ag Day is organized by the Agriculture Council of America. The ACA is a nonprofit organization composed of leaders in the agricultural, food and fiber community, dedicating its efforts to increasing the public’s awareness of agriculture’s role in modern society.

The National Ag Day program encourages every American to:

· Understand how food and fiber products are produced
· Appreciate the role agriculture plays in providing safe, abundant and affordable products
· Value the essential role of agriculture in maintaining a strong economy
· Acknowledge and consider career opportunities in the agriculture, food and fiber industry

In addition to the events in Washington, DC on March 19, the ACA will once again feature the Ag Day Essay Contest. The winning essay will be presented on National Ag Day.

Visit www.agday.org for more information on National Ag Day in 2019.

Animal Ag Bites 9/17

carrie muehlingAgWired Animal, Animal Bites, Beef, Dairy

CODE FOR ANIMAL AG BITES

  • The National Dairy Council New Product Competition seeks the next innovative dairy product from college students across the United States and Canada. Deadline for submissions is Jan. 14. For more information, visit USDairy.com/NewProductCompetition or contact Rohit Kapoor at NDC (rohit.kapoor@dairy.org).
  • A team of 18 interns will gain first-hand experience and be able to interact with leaders of every segment of the cattle and beef industry at the 2019 Cattle Industry Convention and NCBA Trade Show in New Orleans. Students must be able to work Jan. 27-Feb. 1, 2019. The deadline to apply is Oct. 10, 2018. For more information, contact Grace Webb at gwebb@beef.org.
  • The American Feed Industry Association announced Kirk Bowman as its 2018 Liquid Feed Hall of Fame inductee.
  • The American Feed Industry Association has opened registration for its online feed manufacturing course, conducted in partnership with Kansas State University, Oct. 29-Nov. 30.
  • Dairy Farmers of America products and brands recently earned 18 awards at the 2018 World Dairy Expo Championship Dairy Product contest, including a sweep of the Mozzarella category. For the full 2018 Dairy Product Contest results visit, wdpa.net/championship-contest
  • The Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board will invest about $40.5 million into programs of beef promotion, research, consumer information, industry information, foreign marketing and producer communications during fiscal 2019, subject to USDA approval.
  • The recent discovery in an Egyptian tomb of a 3,000-year-old cheese contaminated with Brucella melitensis provided historic evidence of a disease still endemic across much of the developing world. It is a challenge that the US $30m Brucellosis Vaccine Prize competition is seeking to address. The competition remains open to new applications from animal health innovators across industry and academia via the competition website www.brucellosisvaccine.org. Full details and competition rules are also available on the website.

Farmers for Free Trade Expands Coalition

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Over 80 of the nation’s leading trade associations representing thousands of businesses and workers today announced the formation of Americans for Free Trade a multi-industry coalition aimed at opposing tariffs and highlighting the benefits of international trade to the U.S. economy. This new coalition will immediately join Farmers for Free Trade, the coalition backed by the nation’s largest ag commodity groups, in a multi-million dollar national campaign called Tariffs Hurt the Heartland. The campaign will focus on telling the stories of the American businesses, farmers, workers and families harmed by tariffs through town-hall style events, grassroots outreach to Congress and the administration, social media, rapid response and digital advertising.

The campaign includes a geographically searchable map (TariffsHurt.com) that allows users to find stories of job losses, deferred investments, higher prices and other negative consequences for farmers and businesses in communities across the country impacted by tariffs.

“This campaign will show how tariffs are squeezing the average American family and community from every direction,” Farmers for Free Executive Director Trade Brian Kuehl said during a telephone press announcement today. “If you are in Des Moines, Iowa or Harrisburg, Pennsylvania it’s not just that tariffs are dropping the value of corn, soy or pork. Increasingly it’s that the price of buying a dishwasher has gone up, or that a local business has put off expansion because of the price of steel or aluminum. By joining with leading retailers, manufactures and services organizations, Farmers for Free Trade will play a big role in showing the comprehensive damage the trade war is having on American communities.”

Kristen Duncanson, a 3rd generation farmer from Minnesota, was among those who spoke during the press conference to tell her story about how tariffs are hurting her community. “Right now my husband and I figured we are losing about 18-20 dollars per pig at market time,” she said.

Listen to comments here from moderator Matt McAlvanah, David French with National Retailer Federation, Farmers for Free Executive Director Trade Brian Kuehl, and Minnesota farmer Kristen Duncanson –
Americans/Farmers for Free Trade press conference

Agencies to Hold Meeting on Lab Grown Fake Meat

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will hold a joint meeting next month, Oct. 23-24, to discuss the use of cell culture technology to develop products derived from livestock and poultry – better known to producers as lab-grown fake meat.

The joint public meeting, hosted by the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service and the FDA, will focus on the potential hazards, oversight considerations, and labeling of cell cultured food products derived from livestock and poultry.The first day of the meeting will focus primarily on the potential hazards that need to be controlled for the safe production of animal cell cultured food products and oversight considerations by regulatory agencies. The second day of the meeting will focus on labeling considerations.

Danielle Beck, Director of Government Affairs for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), says they are encouraged by USDA involvement in the discussion.

“Consumers depend on a regulatory system that ensures their food is safe and accurately labeled. That is why it is encouraging to finally see USDA involvement on the issue of regulating lab-grown fake meat,” said Beck. “USDA’s stringent food safety inspection processes and robust labeling protections make the agency the best choice for leading oversight of these new products. NCBA looks forward to participating in the public meeting and will continue to advocate for USDA’s primary oversight role.”

Representatives of industry, consumer groups and other stakeholders are invited to participate in the meeting. Attendees are encouraged to pre-register to attend the meeting. Pre-registration is available at the Meetings and Events page on the FSIS website.