News Update
Feb. 27, 2009

American Angus Association Offers Resources 24/7

Users of Angus genetics can access information at their fingertips any time day or night, save time and avoid the paper trail by utilizing AAA Login, an online resource provided by the American Angus Association.® More than half of active Association members already use AAA Login, available to anyone with Internet access, including non-member buyers, also known as affiliates, who have Angus bulls or females transferred to their name. Affiliates are typically commercial cattle producers who use Angus genetics.

AAA Login is simple to use. Members or affiliates create their own profile by clicking on AAA Login in the upper left-hand corner of the Angus home page, www.angus.org. A member or affiliate code is all that is needed to get started. Once a user creates his or her profile, a unique password will be generated for him or her and sent to the e-mail address provided; at that time the user can customize a private password that only he or she will know.

“Any member who already stores their papers electronically should transfer their papers electronically to their commercial buyers and inform them of AAA Login,” says Don Laughlin, Association director of member services. “Electronically transferred papers get the work through and back to the customer more quickly, and AAA Login offers many services to the affiliate, non-members.”

Some of the services that affiliates can take advantage of include easy access to their registered herd’s performance records, expected progeny difference (EPD) updates, the ability to clean up their herd inventory, transferring cattle to another buyer, and customizable $Value Indexes. In addition, if the affiliate’s commercial cow herd, Angus, Angus-cross or other breed is enrolled in the Beef Record System (BRS), AAA Login gives instant access to his or her cow production records.

“The customizable reports available in AAA Login are a great tool for all producers. One of the best is the Custom Animal Report that is incredibly useful when looking at a pen of heifers and trying to select replacements,” Laughlin says.

AAA Login is just one of many useful tools available to nearly 33,000 active American Angus Association members and those commercial cattle producers who use Angus genetics. For more about Association programs or the Angus breed, go to www.angus.org.

— Information provided by the American Angus Association.

Obama to Nominate Merrigan to Deputy Ag Secretary Post

President Barack Obama announced Tuesday his intention to nominate Kathleen Merrigan to be Deputy Secretary of Agriculture.

Secretary Tom Vilsack said Merrigan will bring to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) “extensive expertise in agricultural marketing and nutrition and in legislative affairs and will provide excellent, experienced leadership as we move President Obama’s agricultural and nutritional agenda forward.”

Merrigan currently is an assistant professor and Director of the Agriculture, Food and Environment M.S. and Ph.D. Program at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, Boston.

In 1999, she was appointed administrator of USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) by then-President Clinton. Prior to that, Merrigan was a senior analyst at the Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture and an expert consultant at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome.

EPA Dust Regulations to Affect Ag Community, Opponents Say

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled Tuesday to uphold Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulatory standards related to rural dust.

Farmers and ranchers could now face additional and unwarranted regulations as states attempt to comply with federal standards, said Bob Stallman, president of American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), which was among those challenging the EPA’s Clean Air Act National Ambient Air Quality Standards rule for coarse particulate matter.

“Farm Bureau is disappointed in the outcome and concerned about costly measures to regulate rural dust that could be imposed on our farmers and ranchers. EPA’s own studies had failed to demonstrate adverse health effects associated with rural dust, which comes mostly from naturally occurring organic materials such as plants, sand and soil. Most disappointing is that the court suggested industry had the burden of proving that dust from agricultural sources was safe, rather than EPA proving within a margin of safety that the emissions caused harm,” Stallman said.

The dust standards are revised every five years; however, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) was also displeased with the court’s decision.

“There is no scientific evidence that agriculture dust causes adverse health effects, and its regulation under the Clean Air Act is completely unjustified,” Tamara Thies, NCBA Chief Environmental Counsel, said.

The regulation of agriculture dust means that activities ranging from soil tilling, cattle movements in feedyards, driving on unpaved roads, and planting and harvesting crops could all come under the regulatory strong-arm of the EPA, according to NCBA.

CattleFax Elects Wood President, Herring President-Elect

David Wood of Coalinga, Calif., has been elected the new president of Cattle-Fax, a member-owned and member-directed cattle market information and research organization.

Wood is chief operating officer (COO) and Beef Division chairman for Harris Farms, Inc. Harris Farms operates Harris Feeding Co., the largest cattle feeder on the West Coast that markets approximately 250,000 head of cattle each year. Wood owns a 4,000-head cow-calf operation, and manages approximately 20,000 yearlings annually in four Western states. He is also a partner in a farming operation that produces almonds, pistachios, wheat, alfalfa, cotton, garlic and vegetables.

James Herring of Amarillo, Texas, is the new president-elect of Cattle-Fax. He was named president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Friona Industries L. P. in May 1989. Friona is the fourth-largest cattle feeding operation in the United States. It has four commercial feedlots in the Texas Panhandle, with a one-time capacity of 275,000 head.

Herring was formerly president and chairman of the board of directors of Marcom International Inc., a Dallas-based conglomerate which included a commodity brokerage company, an agricultural finance company and subsidiaries with various interests in oil and gas, cattle and real estate.

For more information on Cattle-Fax officers and directors, please visit www.cattlefax.com.

— Release provided by Cattle-Fax.

Alltech Symposium set for May in Lexington, Ky.

Alltech will host its 25th International Animal Health and Nutrition Symposium May 17-20 in Lexington, Ky. The goal of the symposium is to discuss the latest technologies to improve beef production and bottom line profitability. Top academics and industry experts will offer research-based advice on issues including maximizing fertility, enhancing animal health, getting calves off to a good start, guaranteeing safe and fully traceable products, improving liveweight gain and developing more sustainable farming practices.

Alltech will examine a variety of feeding systems and engage attendees in discussions regarding maximizing production from a variety of systems. The latest disease prevention and monitoring strategies will also be presented.

For more information, visit www.alltech.com/symposium.

— Information provided by Alltech.

Planting Right Tree can Prevent Bad Breaks

Thousands of Kentuckians went without power for days and weeks because of this winter’s ice and windstorms. Because of that, many might be reconsidering their decision to plant that oak or ash tree near power lines. According to a forestry professor in the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, some forethought when choosing landscape trees can prevent a lot of problems in the future.

“There’s a real problem with tree limbs around power lines,” Professor Deborah Hill said. “Wind and ice are the two things that will certainly bring those limbs down in a heartbeat and take major power sources out.”

To help people understand the proper trees to plant, Hill has been working in conjunction with The Arboretum in Lexington and Kentucky Utilities on “Plant the Right Tree in the Right Place,” a project funded by the U.S. Forest Service through the Kentucky Division of Forestry. The Arboretum, a joint effort of the University of Kentucky and the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, planted 40 shrubs and small trees along a portion of the Walk Across Kentucky pathway. Placed so they can be viewed against residential power lines skirting the property, the plantings offer a visual demonstration of the types and sizes of landscape trees appropriate under those conditions.

Hill said that near powerlines, “You want trees that basically are not going to grow much more than 15 or 20 feet tall.”

For a more complete list of trees, visit the UK forestry web site, http://www.ca.uky.edu/forestry/.

— Adapted from a release provided by UK.

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