News Update
June 4, 2013
NAC&T Website is Live
Details for the National Angus Conference and Tour (NAC&T) themed “Angus Along the Hudson” are now available online.
Scheduled for Aug. 28-30, 2013, the event will be headquartered out of Albany, N.Y., and includes trips to upstate New York and historical locales.
“We can’t ask for better scenery during the 2013 NAC&T,” says Shelia Stannard, American Angus Association director of activities and events. “Rural New York is beautiful, and when you add Angus cattle dotting the skyline, it’s breathtaking.”
The conference will focus on consumers and business. In an area full of consumers who ask more questions about where their food comes from, conference attendees will hear about advocating and transparency, marketing genetics and end products, the business side of beef, preparing for the future and more.
For more information, please visit the conference webpage here.
Responses Needed for AI Survey
Your help is requested in learning about practices beef producers use in conjunction with artifical insemination (AI) and synchronization of estrus. Responses are sought from those who use AI for their own operation, as well as those who provide AI services to others. A majority of the survey questions are simple to answer (“Have you used gender-sorted semen? y/n”). A few questions allow you to share what you have learned using AI. Most people should be able to complete the survey in 10 to 20 minutes. One lucky respondent will receive 50 Estrotect™ Heat Detection Patches. Survey results will be available at www.beefrepro.info.
To participate in the survey by the deadline of July 15, please visit the Kansas State University webpage here.
Multi-crop Field Day Slated June 6
Some relatively new crops to the area will be discussed alongside the more conventional as growers gather at the Rio Farms Southernpea, Sunflower, Grain Sorghum, Guar, Corn and Sesame Field Day from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. June 6 in Weslaco, according to Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service personnel.
After registration and a welcome by Rio Farms general manager Dale Murden, participants will take a field tour of research and demonstration studies.
“This field day is unique because of the diversity of crops we’ll be talking about,” said Brad Cowan, an AgriLife Extension agent in Hidalgo County. “The ongoing drought has opened eyes to a lot of new possibilities.”
Among the newer crops to be observed on the tour are sesame and guar, Cowan said.
Guar has long been imported from India for use in the food industry, but its demand by the oil and gas industry is fueling domestic production, he said.
Bill Rooney, a Texas A&M AgriLife Research plant breeder in College Station, will discuss new grain sorghum varieties and an update on his research.
Other topics include crops diseases, an insect integrated pest-management discussion, new developments in agricultural industries, and an update on crop loan and soil conservation program deadlines by the USDA Farm Service Agency.
Participants who have a private pesticide applicator’s license can earn three Texas Department of Agriculture continuing education units, two general and one integrated pest management.
For more information, please visit the API Virtual Library here.
Corn Crop Still Needs to Be Monitored
The 2012 corn crop delivered many of the problems that were foreseen throughout last year’s growing season. Decreased yields, variable quality and mycotoxins have affected livestock production throughout North America. However, this crop may still be causing trouble as we dig deeper into the storage bins.
Alltech’s 37+ Program surveyed 329 samples from July 1 through Dec. 31, 2012. Only 1% of the samples analyzed were free of mycotoxin contamination.
“The ‘take home’ out of this data set is that the 2012 corn crop is widely contaminated with multiple mycotoxins that can decrease animal performance and health,” said Max Hawkins, Alltech Myctoxin Management Team. “However, as aflatoxins’ allowable level in feed and its metabolite M1 in milk are legislated, its presence is not as widespread and is more regionalized.”
According to Hawkins, 37+ analyses conducted since Jan.1 has shown similar results but with an interesting new finding. The numbers of mycotoxins present are increasing.
“This increase in the total numbers of mycotoxins over time can be attributed to areas such as poor fermentation and inadequate packing or face management that can contribute to further mold growth and mycotoxin production,” Hawkins said.
At harvest time, it was recommended for mycotoxin contaminated grain to be dried to 14% moisture within 24 to 48 hours to stabilize mold growth and ensure adequate grain storage. By limiting mold growth, mycotoxin production can be stabilized, but any mycotoxins already present would remain.
According to Hawkins, as temperatures remained warm in the fall, many growers aerated the bins and discovered that the mold and mycotoxin levels increased rapidly. As storage facilities have been emptied this spring, high levels of mycotoxins have been found in the lower levels of the facilities, where the fines and cracked kernels tend to concentrate.
For more information, please <em>view the full release from Alltech here.
Public Help Sought in Stemming Potential
Fox Rabies Outbreak
Officials with several state agencies are asking for the public’s help in monitoring a suspected outbreak of a strain of fox rabies not found in West Central Texas since 2009, state officials said.
Vance Christie, AgriLife Extension agent in McCulloch County, said efforts started May 28 and are currently being focused in McCulloch, Concho, Menard and Mason counties, but that other counties will ultimately be part of the overall surveillance effort to keep the deadly virus from spreading.
“On May 6, we had a confirmed case of Texas fox rabies southwest of Melvin on the McCulloch/Concho county line,” Christie said. “This strain is different from the typical skunk variant and was thought to be eradicated from the area for the past six years. So far, this has been the one isolated case and was found in a cow.
“The main focus is not to cause a panic in the immediate area but rather to let landowners and homeowners understand the situation,” he said. “We need the public’s help to report any encounters they have with wildlife or strange-acting domestic animals or livestock. It’s important that the public knows that the state will pick up any of the cost associated with testing of the animals. But I want to stress that this is not the time for the ‘Old Three Ss,’ of shoot, shovel and shut-up to avoid any future problems. Doing so could actually prolong the problem.”
“Remember, an animal is considered suspect if it is a target species that is aggressive, unafraid or acting unusual,” Christie said. “Target species include fox, bobcats, raccoons, coyotes and free ranging cats and dogs.”
For more information from Texas AgriLife Extension, please view the full release here.
Animal Welfare Institute Petitions USDA
to Make Slaughter More Humane
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) has submitted a petition to the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) requesting that the agency write regulations designed to decrease the needless suffering of animals during slaughter. AWI is asking that FSIS require all slaughter establishments to create and implement a comprehensive, written animal-handling plan. AWI further requests that FSIS make other changes to the regulations to address some of the most frequent causes of inhumane handling and slaughter incidents, by requiring that all workers who have contact with animals be trained in humane handling, that stunning equipment be routinely tested and maintained, and that backup stunning devices be available in both the stunning and holding areas of every slaughter plant.
AWI's petition is based on its review of more than 1,000 humane slaughter violations occurring at state and federally inspected slaughter plants from 2007 through 2012. AWI received records describing the incidents in response to more than one hundred Freedom of Information Act requests submitted to USDA and state departments of agriculture.
Eight years after USDA recommended that all slaughter establishments take a systematic approach to humane slaughter by developing a comprehensive, written animal handling plan, only 35% of federally inspected plants — and very few state inspected plants — had developed these plans. At present, USDA considers the development of a plan for handling and slaughtering animals to be at the discretion of the individual plants, and such a plan is typically not required until after one or more egregious incident has occurred, if at all.
Nearly 35 years have passed since USDA last amended its regulations for the purpose of making slaughter more humane. During that time, tens of thousands of incidents of inhumane slaughter have been observed and documented by inspection personnel. An analysis of some of these incidents by AWI identified a number of specific causes that occur with alarming frequency.
“The common-sense amendments requested in the AWI petition address these reoccurring causes of inhumane handling and could significantly reduce the amount of needless suffering experienced by animals during slaughter,” said Cathy Liss, president of AWI.
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