News Update
June 9, 2015
Listen to NAAB Symposium Tonight
The National Association of Animal Breeders (NAAB) will host a symposium this evening to kick off the 2015 Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) Research Symposium and Annual Meeting in Biloxi, Miss. If you couldn’t make it to the meeting, listen in via live streaming video at http://www.bifconference.com/bif2015/video-2015.html.
LiveAuctions.tv will be providing the live stream throughout the symposium. For more information, visit http://www.bifconference.com.
The Angus Journal Team Welcomes
Raney Lovorn,
Editorial Intern
Raney Lovorn, Oklahoma State University (OSU), is originally from Winnsboro, Texas and has hit the ground running with the editorial and communications team at Angus Media. This summer, her responsibilities include contributing to the Angus Journal, the Angus Beef Bulletin and the electronic Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA. She will also work on the 2015 National Junior Angus Association/Angus Journal Photo Contest and provide event coverage for multiple industry events.
“This is an incredible opportunity for me to earn experience in a field that I dearly love,” Lovorn says. “For an agricultural communications student with interests in journalism and animal science, working for the Angus Journal is truly a dream job.”
Lovorn is a senior at OSU, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in agricultural communications with a double major option in animal science. On campus, she works as a communications and graphic design intern in the College of Human Sciences. Lovorn also serves as a public relations committee member for the OSU Homecoming Steering Committee and a Student Academic Mentor (SAM) in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.
Lovorn grew up on a small family farm as the daughter of an agricultural science teacher. Lovorn began her internship May 18.
For more about Lovorn, please view the full release on the Association’s website.
Support for COOL Repeal Keeps Growing
On June 8, the COOL Reform Coalition sent Congress a letter to express strong support for H.R. 2393, the Country-of-Origin Labeling (COOL) Amendments Act of 2015. House Agriculture Committee Chairman K. Michael Conaway (R-TX) introduced the bipartisan bill, along with several of his colleagues, and the House Agriculture Committee approved the bill on May 20, 2015.
Read the COOL Reform Coalition’s letter, along with the list of more than 100 groups supporting H.R. 2393.
TAHC Response to Statewide Animal Issues
Due to Severe Weather
In response to record-breaking weather events across Texas, the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) has been actively engaged with local communities impacted by recent floods and tornadoes.
The TAHC is the state’s lead agency for all animal issues during disasters. The agency assists local jurisdictions with damage assessments, animal identification, and with the care, evacuation and sheltering of animals during and after disasters. Animal search and rescue operations can be facilitated at the request of the local community. The TAHC also supports carcass disposal activities working in partnership with veterinary stakeholders, fellow state agencies and industry groups.
After the Van tornado in North East Texas, the Region 4 staff assisted with damage assessments, communicating regularly with county and city officials, and pre-staged livestock equipment.
Central Texas experienced both tornadoes and flooding, causing Region 7 staff to respond to a wide variety of calls from companion-animal issues in Wimberley and San Marcos to large-animal issues in Guadalupe, Gonzales and Lee Counties.
In Liberty and Walker Counties, along the Gulf Coast, Region 2 staff worked hard to protect livestock from flooding, while TAHC Region 3 field staff responded to storms and tornadoes in North Central Texas.
Learn more about TAHC’s reponses in the full release. If you have questions regarding livestock or pet evacuation, contact your local emergency management county office. The TAHC reminds fellow Texans to take appropriate steps to prepare your livestock, poultry and pets before disaster strikes.
For more information on how to protect your livestock before and after a disaster occurs, read the TAHC brochure, Protecting Livestock When Disaster Strikes at http://www.tahc.state.tx.us/news/brochures/TAHCBrochure_EmergencyManagement.pdf.
AgriLife Expert: Higher Egg Prices will be the Norm for Years
It will be several years before laying facilities recover from the recent outbreak of avian influenza in the Midwest and for egg prices to return to pre-outbreak levels, according to a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service poultry expert.
Though Texas poultry producers have so far been spared from the latest outbreak, Iowa is the top egg-producing state in the United States, and tens of millions of laying hens were lost, said Craig Coufal, AgriLife Extension poultry specialist, College Station.
“It’s a matter of supply and demand, analogous to the rise in beef prices because of lower herd inventories due to the drought,” Coufal said.
Also like beef herd rebuilding, getting new flocks raised to where production can begin again will take years, he said.
“It takes 17 to 18 weeks for a day-old baby chick to become a mature hen to start producing eggs,” he said. “So right there, you got about five, six months before you get some new laying hens producing at a high rate.”
For more information, please view the full release online.
The CUP Lab Carcass Ultrasound Training Courses
Are you interested in carcass ultrasound? Would you like to know how to ultrasound to help improve your carcass traits on your animals?
The CUP Lab is hosting three carcass ultrasound training courses this September in Ames, Iowa: a sheep & swine course Sept. 9-11 and beef cattle courses Sept. 14-19. They are designed to give an overview of ultrasound and how it is used to predict carcass composition in live animals. The courses will include a review of anatomy, image quality, equipment setup and hands-on scanning. A special emphasis is placed on recognition of landmarks, image quality and proper use of data.
The CUP Lab along with Iowa State University is hosting the Ultrasound Guidelines Council (UGC) 2015 Beef Cattle Carcass Field Technician Certification in Ames, Iowa, Sept. 20-24.
Contact The CUP Lab with any questions at 515-232-9442 or email cuplab@cuplab.com.
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