News Update

News Update
Aug. 14, 2007

FMD Testing Broadens

United Kingdom officials are testing two more farms for foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) following other findings of the disease. According to the country’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), a 3-kilometer (km) radius control zone was enforced around a premises in Kent this morning, and another around a premises in Surrey — also the site of the original FMD findings — this afternoon.

According to DEFRA, the actions are precautionary measures following inconclusive assessments of clinical symptoms by veterinarian staff. Also as a precaution, the agency has ordered vaccines to be used in the case of a widespread outbreak. “The decision not to vaccinate at this stage, but to retain our full readiness to do so, demonstrates that our contingency planning arrangements are working,” UK Chief Veterinary Officer Debby Reynolds said in an earlier statement released Friday.

NIAA Meeting to Focus on FMD outbreaks in UK

With news that foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) has been discovered once again in the United Kingdom, organizers of ID•INFO EXPO 2007 have made FMD and the need for an animal identification (ID) system in the U.S. a key topic of the meeting’s opening general session, scheduled for Aug. 28, beginning at 1 p.m.

Sponsored by the National Institute for Animal Agriculture (NIAA), ID•INFO EXPO 2007 will be in Kansas City, Mo., at the Westin Crown Center Hotel, Aug. 28-30.

“The FMD portion of the program will begin with a report from England on the very latest developments there from dairy industry leader Raymond Brown,” says program co-chair Glenn Fischer. “Mr. Brown’s operation of 220 cows is in Cheshire in Northwest England approximately 130 miles from where the current outbreak has occurred,” Fischer says.

Brown’s operation has been awarded the National Dairy Herd and National Dairy Farm award on several occasions. He also serves as a board member of the National Farmers Union (NFU) and the National Dairy Board.

Brown’s presentation will be followed by a report from Clair Thunes, project manager and analyst for the Center for Animal Disease Modeling and Surveillance (CADMS) at the Department of Veterinary Medicine and Epidemiology, University of California-Davis. CADMS is currently conducting a nationwide research study to determine how prepared the U.S. is to handle an outbreak of FMD.

Visit www.animalagriculture.org for more information regarding the conference, online registration and hotel accommodations.

— Adapted from an NIAA release.

Missouri Beef Tour to visit Linn County beef operations Aug. 25

Terrill Lane’s feedlot operation near Saint Catherine, Mo., in Linn County will be the first stop on the 2007 Missouri Beef Tour, said Chris Zumbrunnen, University of Missouri (MU) Extension regional livestock specialist of Milan, Mo. The tour will start at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 25.

Brent Lorimer, operator of a feedlot in Shenandoah, Iowa, has also been asked to describe his operation during the tour. John Lory and Charles Fulhage, MU Commercial Agriculture specialists, will discuss waste management. Also, Craig Payne, newly hired commercial agriculture veterinarian, Columbia, Mo., will speak.

Other stops will be at three Switzer operations near Bucklin, Mo. Galen Switzer and son Keenan have 200 cows divided into spring and fall calving herds. Keenan, a certified artificial insemination (AI) specialist, breeds the herd artificially. Keenan, an independent sales representative for Accelerated Genetics in Baraboo, Wis., covers an area in west and north Missouri. He has a herd of 50 purebred Gelbvieh cows and an additional herd of Balancer-Gelbvieh cows. Galen feeds up to 700 head of cattle for local and out-of-state feeders. He uses some 21,000 pounds of ration, mostly triticale, daily.

Additional speakers at Switzer stops include John Burbank of Saint Catherine, CEO of SeedStock Plus (S+), and Bob Weaber, MU Commercial Agriculture beef specialist.

From Galen and Keenan’s farms, the tour moves to the farm of Brian Switzer, their cousin. Brian has a cow-calf herd and participates in the Missouri Show-Me Select Replacement Heifer Program. He feeds out his steers from the purebred Angus herd.

Other speakers at Brian’s stop include Vern Pierce and Joe Horner, MU commercial agriculture beef economists. They will talk about tax credits and their effect on backgrounding by feeding ethanol co-products.

Justin Sexten, who joined the commercial agriculture program as a beef nutritionist in July, will talk about dry and wet distillers’ grains.

Last stops on the tour will be at the MU Forage Systems Research Center near Linneus. David Davis, center superintendent, will discuss goals in working with beef cattle and forage systems. Jim Williams, MU professor of animal science, has studied distillers’ grain feeding at the center. He will describe his work with forage systems.

Also, Jim Brinkley of Milan will talk about his use of timed-AI in his purebred herd of 260 cows. Brinkley inseminates more than 1,000 cows each year for his neighbors. A free beef supper will be served at the end of the tour.

— compiled by Crystal Albers, associate editor, Angus Productions Inc.