Animal Ag Bites 7/6

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  • Alltech launches The Great Green Getaway. In partnership with KEENAN, maker of the “Green Machine” mixer wagon, the contest invites American dairy farmers to enter for the opportunity to win one of three travel-expense-paid trips for two to Ireland in March 2018, coinciding with St. Patrick’s Day.
  • The Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy® has announced its 6th annual U.S. Dairy Sustainability Award winners. The program recognizes dairy farms, businesses and partnerships whose practices improve the well-being of people, animals and the planet. From farm to table, transparency and ingenuity drive dairy forward, as demonstrated in the newly released 2016 Sustainability Report, which describes the Innovation Center’s strategic plan focused on social responsibility. Meet the 2017 winners here.
  • World Dairy Expo is now accepting entries for the 2017 Dairy Cattle Show, October 3-7, in Madison, Wis. Online and paper entry forms are due August 31 at 11:59 p.m. (CST). Late entries may be submitted online through September 10, and paper entries will be honored until the day of the show, both for an increased fee.
  • The Animal Ag Alliance’s College Aggies Online scholarship competition kicks off September 10 and is all about developing life-long advocates for agriculture. Last year, 344 participants and 35 clubs representing 36 different states generated more than 1,880 social media posts reaching 2.3 million people. They are also seeking sponsoring for this year’s compeition.

SMART Farmer Jennifer Houston

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This edition of the SMART Farmer podcast features Tennessee native Jennifer Houston, a livestock market owner and beef cattle industry leader, who talks about how the business of producing and marketing beef cattle has become smarter in recent years.

Houston is currently Vice President of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and serves on the board of the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance (USFRA). She is also the mother of Virginia Houston with the American Seed Trade Association, who was featured in an interview from the recent ASTA annual meeting.

SMART Farmer Podcast with Jennifer Houston, NCBA

Subscribe to the SMART Farmer podcast

Learn more about USFRA and SMART Farm

USDA & NCBA Celebrate U.S. Beef to China

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U.S. Secretary of Ag Sonny Perdue (center) is joined by Craig Uden (left), president of the NCBA, and Luan Richeng (right), of state-owned Chinese importer COFCO.

U.S. Secretary of Ag Sonny Perdue joined National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) President Craig Uden for a ceremonial “Cutting of the Prime Rib.” The Nebraska prime rib formally marked the return of U.S. beef to the Chinese market after a 13-year hiatus as part of the U.S.-China 100-Day Action Plan announced by the Trump Administration. The first shipment of U.S. beef arrived in China on June 19, 2017.

“Beef is a big deal in China and I’m convinced that when the Chinese people get a taste of U.S. beef, they’re going to want more of it. These products coming into China are safe, wholesome, and very delicious. This is also a good harbinger of the kind of relationship that can be developed. We hope there are other things we can cooperate on and we’re going to use U.S. beef as the forerunner,” said Perdue.

“Regaining access to the world’s largest market is a huge step in the right direction,” Uden said. “But we still have a lot of work to do, like negotiating a bilateral trade agreement with Japan that puts us on even ground with our competitors, and ensuring that the renegotiation of NAFTA doesn’t mess up the great deal we’ve had with our consumers in Canada and Mexico for years.”

Quarterly Hogs & Pigs Report

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The Pork Checkoff hosted the USDA’s Quarterly Hogs and Pigs Report on Thursday, June 29, 2017. This quarterly teleconference featured three agricultural economists and their reactions to the report.

Panelists included:
Dr. Lee Schulz, Extension Livestock Economist, Iowa State University
Dr. Scott Brown, Assistant Extension Professor, University of Missouri-Columbia
Joe Kerns, President, Kerns & Associates, Ames, IA

Reports seemed to follow in line with pre-report estimates. Dr. Brown said the stability when it came to sow numbers was maybe a sign of a plateau, yet still growing relative to a year ago.

Listen to the complete audio report here: USDA’s Quarterly Hogs and Pigs Report

Animal Ag Bites 6/29

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  • Alltech will host a webinar Friday, June 30, 2017 at 2:00 p.m. ET featuring Dr. Corale Dorn, a vet from South Dakota, on calf care and development, calf diseases and how to identify different types, & a new look at preventative care and how dairy producers can incorporate it in their operation.
  • Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) is offering Future Service Scholarships to support future cattle veterinarians graduating from the Iowa State University (ISU) College of Veterinary Medicine. The final amount of the scholarship is determined by BI vet and producer customers submitting box tops from Pyramid® 5 and Pyramid® 5 + Presponse® SQ product boxes.
  • Nutriad launched its NutriTrace minerals, a line of organic minerals, developed by using state-of-the-art technology, which offers the industry new ideas on mineral nutrition.
  • Nutreco has completed the acquisition of Hi-Pro Feeds. As part of the integration, Nutreco’s combined animal nutrition businesses in North America, consisting of Shur-Gain, Landmark and Hi-Pro Feeds, will now trade under the name Trouw Nutrition.

The BEEFabulous App

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Need beef recipes? The California Beef Council has you covered.

Does this sound familiar? You’re in the grocery store and you see a special on Chuck Roast, but you’re not sure what to do with a Chuck Roast–Slow-cook? Braise? (What’s “braise,” anyway?) Or you need meal options that are fast, satisfying and nutritious. Or you know that if you’re tired of making the kids the same old thing for lunch, they must be positively bored out of their minds.

“We’ve all been there in one form or another,” laughs Annette Kassis, Director of Consumer & Brand Marketing for the California Beef Council. “So we thought we’d do our bit to help.”

And the BEEFabulous mobile app was born.

Find it in iTunes or Google Play.

Farm Groups Cheer WOTUS Repeal

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Ding dong the ditch rule is dead!

The Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have officially begun the process to withdraw the highly controversial Waters of the United States (WOTUS) final rule and begin a replacement rulemaking process to gather input and re-evaluate the definition of WOTUS, to cheers from farmers and ranchers nationwide.

American Farm Bureau – “Today’s announcement shows EPA Administrator Pruitt recognizes the WOTUS rule for what it is—an illegal and dangerous mistake that needs to be corrected. Farm Bureau looks forward to supporting Administrator Pruitt’s proposal. EPA should ditch this rule once and for all, go back to the drawing board, and write a new rule that protects water quality without trampling the rights of businesses and the states.”

National Corn Growers – “We are thankful this Administration is working to draw clear lines in terms of what is and what is not jurisdictional under the Clean Water Act. In doing so, they will enable farmers to implement best management practices such as grass waterways and buffer strips without the burden of bureaucratic red tape or fear of legal action. These types of land improvements have enormous water quality benefits, such as reducing sediment and nutrient runoff—a win for farmers and the environment.”

National Cattlemen’s Beef Association – “This is another great step in the right direction, and the Administration deserves a great deal of credit for injecting some much-needed common sense into our nation’s environmental policies. It’s important to remember, though, that this rule isn’t dead yet. The rulemaking process continues, and NCBA will submit and solicit additional comments on behalf of America’s cattle producers so that they finally get the sanity and clarity they need on land use policy.”

National Pork Producers – “The WOTUS rule was a dramatic government overreach and an unprecedented expansion of federal authority over private lands. It was the product of a flawed regulatory process that lacked transparency and likely would have been used by trial lawyers and environmental activists to attack farmers.”

Prices for a July 4th Cookout Down Slightly

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The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) says we can cookout for a little less this year. Favorite foods for a Fourth of July meal will run about $6 per person according to an informal survey conducted by AFBF. The average cost of a summer cookout for 10 people is $55.70, or $5.57 per person. One reason for this is competition in the meat and dairy cases.

“Retail pork prices also declined in 2017, largely due to more pork on the market and ample supplies of other animal proteins available for domestic consumption. Lower beef prices are most likely putting downward pressure on pork prices,” said AFBF Director of Market Intelligence Dr. John Newton.

AFBF’s summer cookout menu for 10 people consists of hot dogs and buns, cheeseburgers and buns, pork spare ribs, deli potato salad, baked beans, corn chips, lemonade, chocolate milk, ketchup, mustard and watermelon for dessert.

Newton said, “We continue to see stability in dairy prices because of the improving export market. Chocolate milk will be a little more affordable this July 4th, in part because some retailers are promoting it as a sports recovery drink superior to other sports drinks and water.”

Newton said retail dairy and meat prices included in the survey are consistent with recent trends and are expected to continue to be stable.

Florida Hosts 1st House Ag Farm Bill Listening Session

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The University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) hosted the very first House Agriculture Committee farm bill listening session on Saturday in Gainesville, Florida.

Committee Chairman Mike Conaway (TX-11) presided over the first of many “Conversations in the Field” that will be held in the coming year as work on the 2018 Farm Bill is just beginning to get underway.

“Writing the farm bill is a big task, with a lot of moving parts – and it’s vitally important we get the policy right,” said Rep. Conaway. “The best way to do that is by getting out of D.C. and hearing from the folks this legislation impacts.”

Eleven other Committee members attended the session, a majority from the Southeastern region of the country, and most of those who presented comments to the committee were from Florida, Georgia and Alabama. Several members of the Southern Peanut Farmers Federation spoke, including Ken Barton, farmer and executive director of the Florida Peanut Producers Association. “I’m especially grateful to our Florida delegation, Congressmen Dunn and Yoho for hosting today’s event. While citrus is bigger than peanuts in Florida, our delegation understands how important the Peanut Program is to Florida’s economy,” Barton said. “(It) was a good opportunity to discuss how a fair reference price brings certainty to farming – both when demand is high, like it is currently, and during times of economic downturn.”

Commodities represented at the microphone were across the board, from poultry and cattle, corn and soybeans, to cotton and peanuts, vegetables, citrus, timber and more.

Listen to the session in segments below:

Segment 1 (45 minutes) – House Ag Farm Bill Field Hearing – Florida – part 1
Segment 2 (45 minutes) – House Ag Farm Bill Field Hearing – Florida – part 2
Segment 2 (45 minutes) – House Ag Farm Bill Field Hearing – Florida – part 3