News Update

News Update
May 19, 2008

Trosper Named MU Flagship Scholar

National Junior Angus Association (NJAA) Board member Mallory Trosper, Hamilton, Mo., has been selected as the first recipient of the University of Missouri (MU) Flagship Scholarship, worth up to $15,000.

The scholarship will help pay for tuition and fees, as well as other educational expenses, including room, board and books at MU. Caldwell County is one of the only three counties in Missouri where this new program has been funded.

The MU Flagship Scholars Program will ultimately provide a four-year scholarship to at least one student in every Missouri county. Students who demonstrate outstanding service and leadership and are the first in their family to attend college receive priority consideration.

Flagship scholars are ambassadors for education and MU in their own families as well as their communities. Recipients give back at least 20 hours per year in their home communities promoting education and college attendance. The scholarship may be used at MU, with no restrictions relative to the student’s intended degree, major or academic unit.

“It is a great honor to be selected for the Missouri Flagship Scholars Program. Through my involvement in my home community, Columbia and the University of Missouri, I have been truly blessed with the opportunities I have been given,” Trosper said. “This scholarship provides financial assistance and will allow me to share my experiences as a college student and encourage high school students to pursue higher education. I am fortunate to be the recipient for Caldwell County, and I am sincerely grateful.”

— Adapted from a release provided by the University of Missouri.

Resistance Can’t Be Diagnosed by Fecal Egg Counts Alone

With recent hype about anthelmintic-resistant parasites, producers are getting offers for free anthelmintic evaluations and diagnoses from all directions.

“Some animal health companies are offering fecal egg count reduction tests (FECRT) as the gold standard for diagnosing anthelmintic-resistant parasites,” says Frank Hurtig, director of Merial Veterinary Services. “FECRTs alone are not accurate indicators of anthelmintic resistance, especially when not conducted by third-party experts.”

FECRTs can easily be misinterpreted if collected or analyzed improperly, Hurtig says. Merial recommends that producers have their veterinarian collect fecal samples for them and then work with independent state labs or vet schools for FECRT analysis and additional tests. Hurtig says producers should not rely on commercial labs or a manufacturer’s lab. The following are some guidelines that are followed to help achieve the most accurate results:

Sample 14 to 20 days following treatment
Sample at least 10% of the herd or 30 animals
Collect a 5-gram sample — being sure to accurately measure the sample weight
Avoid misidentification of false parasite eggs
If strongylid-type eggs are noted, have a coproculture performed to differentiate species present

“While an FECRT can help producers identify specific parasite problems in their herd, truly assessing anthelmintic efficacy requires well-controlled critical studies where animals are sacrificed and parasites are counted,” Hurtig says. “One of the most important things producers should look at in FECRT results is what parasite eggs are present and know what that means for their herd.”

FECRT results may indicate large numbers of parasite eggs; however, Hurtig says it is highly common for the eggs to be from Cooperia.

“Cooperia are the dose-limiting nematodes for endectocides, meaning that producers must use the approved dose rate to have the desired effect,” Hurtig says. “But, Cooperia have little economic impact and are considered minimally pathogenic cattle nematodes, unlike main targets like Ostertagia.”

Cooperia also are prolific egg producers, so a small number of Cooperia can result in a higher egg-per-gram count than would be expected with the same number of another parasite.

“The bottom line is that there are only two well-documented cases of parasite resistance to ivermectin in cattle in the United States, two, three and one of the cases was with stocker cattle being managed very intensively for a period of 23 years,” Hurtig says. “It’s best for producers to rule out more common causes for lack of efficacy before looking to resistance.”

For producers wanting to protect their herd and their endectocide investment, Hurtig recommends using endectocides that are backed by the manufacturer, such as Merial, the maker of IVOMEC® Brand Products. All IVOMEC Brand Products are backed by a 100% product satisfaction guarantee.

“Merial encourages producers to be informed about resistance and to not let data be misused, such as by indicating that Cooperia eggs in an FECRT indicate resistance,” Hurtig advises. “If producers are genuinely seeing a lack of efficacy and poor herd performance, they should see their veterinarian and work through third-party outlets to determine the problem.”

— Release provided by Merial.

Operating Committee Recommends CBB Budget

The Beef Promotion Operating Committee has recommended a $45.8 million Cattlemen's Beef Board (CBB) budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2009, reflecting a sharp 6.6% decrease from the $49 million budget for FY 2008. The 2009 budget for the Beef Board, which administers the national checkoff program, still must be approved by the full Beef Board and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), includes the following budget components:

Promotion ($19.97 million)
Research ($7 million)
Consumer Information ($5.4 million)
Industry Information ($2.6 million)
Foreign Marketing ($5.8 million)
Producer Communications ($2.16 million)
Evaluation ($335,000)
Program Development ($125,000)
USDA oversight ($255,000)
Administration ($2 million)

“We faced some very difficult decisions last week as we tried to decide what areas to make cuts in,” said CBB Chairman Dave Bateman, a producer from Illinois. “This came on the heels of even steeper cuts last year, and costs keep increasing so it’s getting extremely challenging to find more places to cut back without eliminating the checkoff’s effectiveness in any particular area.”

The biggest cuts came in the areas of promotion (down 12.4% from 2008) and consumer information (down 13.3%), while producer leaders did recommend increasing checkoff investments in foreign marketing by 11.2% as overseas opportunities expand.

In the coming stages of the FY 2009 budgeting process, the full Beef Board will be asked to approve the budget at its meeting in Denver in July. Joint industry advisory committees and subcommittees also will meet in Denver to prepare recommendations for specific program proposals that are funded with that budget. Those proposals will be considered by the Operating Committee in September, before the Oct. 1 beginning of the fiscal year, and must finally be approved by USDA before any checkoff dollars may be spent.

Funds from the Beef Board for national checkoff programs in FY 2009 will be augmented by about $10.5 million in voluntary contributions from state beef councils to their national Federation of State Beef Councils, a division of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA).

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