News Update
April 9, 2015
Spring Sale Reports from the Country
Sale day is one of the most anticipated times of the year for Angus breeders.
Registered Angus bull and females have continued to bring record prices this spring, thanks to demand for quality genetics. Recently, the Northeast Arkansas Angus Association hosted the organization’s annual spring sale – which has been a tradition for nearly 40 years.
“We have a very progressive group of people,” said Pam Taylor, Northeast Arkansas Angus Association secretary. “The cattle just keep getting better, and the sale has grown likewise. We have breeders from Arkansas, Missouri, Tennesee and Mississippi who sell here repeatedly.”
Travel with us to the sale during this week’s The Angus Report.
Select Sires Hosts Annual Meeting
Select Sires Inc.’s board of directors, customer-owners and employees took part in the Select Sires Inc. Annual Meeting, March 16-19, 2015, in Columbus, Ohio.
“In the past year we have witnessed some of the most dynamic growth in the history of Select Sires,” explained Myron Czech, chairman of the board of directors from Little Falls, Minn., during his annual meeting address. “As we enter our 50th year of business, it is important that we look back at what made Select Sires the success it is today. Even more important is that we use those lessons to create a successful path forward.”
Czech continues as chairman of the board of directors while Dan Andreas, Sugar Creek, Ohio, and Dorothy Harms, Reedsburg, Wis., serve as first vice chairman and second vice chairman, respectively. Craig Fledderjohann, Saint Marys, Ohio, and Mark Van Mersbergen, Lynden, Wash., replaced retiring board members Tom Fleming, Harrod, Ohio, and Walt Stornetta, Manchester, Calif. Dan Mielke, Colby, Wis., was elected to fill a new position on the board.
For more information, please view the full release.
Groups Challenge Major USDA Change to Organic Rule
Organic stakeholders have filed a lawsuit in federal court, maintaining that the USDA violated the federal rulemaking process when it changed established procedures for reviewing the potential hazards and need for allowed synthetic and prohibited natural substances used in producing organic food. A coalition of 15 organic food producers and farmer, consumer, environmental and certification groups asked the court to require USDA to reconsider its decision on the rule change and reinstitute the agency’s customary public hearing and comment process.
The multi-stakeholder National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), appointed to a 5-year term by the Secretary of Agriculture, holds semi-annual meetings to solicit public input and to write recommendations to the Secretary on organic policy matters, including the allowance of synthetic and non-organic agricultural materials and ingredients.
For more information, please view the full release.
NSAC Comments on FSMA Rule Clarification
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released a long-awaited proposed rule to amend the registration requirements for food facilities, particularly as they relate to direct farmer-to-consumer agriculture operations. This amendment was required by the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) to ensure that community supported agriculture (CSA), farmers’ markets and other direct marketing venues are not inappropriately classified as food facilities and subject to the FSMA preventive controls rule.
“One of the most concerning aspects of the FSMA rules for farmers has been the confusion surrounding when FDA will consider a farm to also be a food facility,” said Sophia Kruszewski, policy specialist with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NASC). “This clarification is critical to understanding and avoiding FSMA’s adverse impacts on the growing local and regional food sector.”
There were two aims of this clarification — the first was to reinforce that CSAs, farmers’ markets, roadside stands and other primarily direct-marketing operations are not facilities, do not have to register with FDA as facilities and are not subject to the preventive controls rule. The second aim was to clarify that the location of the direct sale could not trigger the facility definition — e.g., that delivering a CSA box to a location where customers could pick up their boxes would not make that operation a facility.
Spring Ag Conference Slated in Tulia April 21
The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service Swisher County Ag Committee and Swisher County Noxious Weed District will conduct the Spring Ag Conference on April 21.
The event will begin with registration at 8:30 a.m. at the Swisher County Show Barns, located 3.5 miles northeast of Tulia on Farm-to-Market Road 1318.
“The presentations will be geared toward the management of some of the commodity crops currently managed in the Swisher County area,” said John Villalba, AgriLife Extension agent in Swisher County.
“We’ll also be looking at crop residue management, grazing and crop rotational systems, so the program content should be fairly all-encompassing for our area.”
Individual preregistration is $10. Lunch will be sponsored by the Swisher County Noxious Weed District. For more information and to RSVP by April 14, call the AgriLife Extension office in Swisher County at 806-995-3726.
Three Texas Department of Agriculture continuing education units will be offered.
For more information, please view the Angus Journal Virtual Library calendar of upcoming events here.
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