News Update
May 24, 2010

International Symposium on Beef Cattle Welfare

For coverage of last week’s International Symposium on Beef Cattle Welfare, visit the API Virtual Library at www.api-virtuallibrary.com/meetings_other_news.html. A summary from each speaker will be posted.

Cattlemen to Cattlemen Broadcasts Live from Washington D.C.

Want to learn more about how the policies being considered in Washington, D.C., could affect your operation? Tune in as NCBA’s Cattlemen to Cattlemen goes live from our nation’s Capital Tuesday, May 25, at 8:30 p.m. EDT on RFD-TV. National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) Chief Economist Gregg Doud will facilitate discussions with Members of Congress and NCBA government affairs staff about the political climate in Washington, D.C., legislative and regulatory proposals affecting agriculture, and the current state of beef markets.

Participants will include U.S. Representatives Frank Lucas (R-OK), ranking member of the Agriculture Committee, and David Scott (D-GA), chairman of the Livestock, Dairy and Poultry Subcommittee. Viewers will also hear from NCBA President Steve Foglesong, Vice President of Government Affairs Colin Woodall and Chief Counsel Tamara Thies.

— Release by NCBA.

USDA Announces Availability of Compliance Guide for Mobile Slaughter Units

As part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” initiative, USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced May 24 the availability of the compliance guide for mobile slaughter units. This document presents recommendations and is not a regulatory requirement. FSIS will post this compliance guide on its Significant Guidance Documents web page at www.fsis.usda.gov/Significant_Guidance/index.asp.

“USDA is excited to offer this help to small producers and encourages establishments who own or manage mobile slaughter units to use this guidance document to help meet food safety regulatory requirements,” said Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety Jerold Mande. “Food must be safe, regardless of where it is produced, and FSIS has worked with mobile unit operators to develop inspection procedures tailored to their needs.”

A mobile slaughter unit is a self-contained slaughter facility that can travel from site to site. Mobile slaughter units can help producers meet consumer demand for locally grown and specialty products and can serve multiple small producers in areas where slaughter services might be unaffordable or otherwise unavailable. Therefore, mobile slaughter units can help small producers expand their businesses and create wealth in rural communities. Currently, there are five FSIS-inspected red meat mobile slaughter units in the United States.

The Mobile Slaughter Use Compliance Guide is intended for owners and managers of a new or existing red meat or poultry mobile slaughter unit who want their establishment to come under Federal inspection and continue operations in accordance with FSIS regulations. Mobile slaughter unit operators are subject to the same regulatory requirements that apply to a fixed (“brick and mortar”) facility. The guide also includes the procedures necessary to receive a Federal grant of inspection, unique concerns that may arise with mobile slaughter units, and links to regulatory requirements and resources.

FSIS is seeking comments for this compliance guide and will consider carefully all comments received. Comments will be accepted from May 25, 2010, through July 26, 2010, and submitted to www.regulations.gov (follow the online instructions at that site for submitting comments) or by mail, including floppy disks or CD-ROMS, and hand- or courier-delivered items to: Docket Clerk, USDA, FSIS, Room 2-2127, George Washington Carver Center, 5601 Sunnyside Avenue, Mailstop 5474, Beltsville, MD 20705-5474. All items submitted by mail or electronic mail must include the agency name and docket number FSIS-2010-0004. Comments received in response to this guide will be made available for public inspection and posted without change, including any personal information, to www.regulations.gov.

For further information about mobile slaughter units, contact Mark Cutrufelli by telephone at 770-304-8919 or by e-mail at Mark.Cutrufelli@fsis.usda.gov.

— Release by USDA.

Inside The 10th International Conference On Precision Agriculture

With the 10th International Conference on Precision Agriculture (ICPA) about two months away, program planning is winding down and the issues being spotlighted at this year’s gathering are coming into focus. ICPA kicks off Sunday, July 18, at the Hyatt Regency Tech Center in Denver and runs through July 21.

“The conference is progressing well, and the fact that the number of conference registrations are up compared to the last event — given the current economy — is a good sign,” says Raj Khosla, conference coordinator. On the academic side, between 275 and 300 papers in both oral and poster format will be presented, with representation from more than 40 countries, he adds.

Conference coordinators are insistent that the full proceedings of the conference will be available to all attendees at registration, and people who cannot attend will have quick access to all the conference research. “That is a big issue for presenters — if the papers are published immediately they can begin citing the research right away, as can other researchers,” Khosla says.

Among the sponsors are two entities with common interests from completely different parts of the world — the Alabama Precision Agriculture Extension group, and the Precision Agriculture Research Chair at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia. “The Alabama group wishes to support precision agriculture education and research, and the Saudi research center is trying to gather as much information as possible to help them get a center started, and begin supporting work on precision agriculture in Saudi Arabia,” Khosla says.

Khosla has traveled thousands of miles this year, in large part to garner international support for the event. In particular, there are two issues he sees great interest in from his contacts. The first is food security.

“People are talking about food security, and there is the desire to understand what role precision agriculture plays in this,” Khosla says. “Recently, the journal Science dedicated an entire issue on food security, and in that issue they had a six-page article on precision ag. Precision is here to stay and is part of the solution.”

As for specific technology, there is worldwide interest in active sensing. “In other parts of the world, active sensing as a tool to manage nitrogen becoming a big issue, with emphasis on nitrogen efficiency,” Khosla says. Nitrogen use efficiency is seen as a way to influence climate change in a positive way.

There are just three weeks to take advantage of the early bird discount registration — June 18 is the final day. For practitioners, there is a special A to Z track of sessions running all three days of the conference that costs just $300.

For more information visit www.icpaonline.org.

— Release by ICPA.

— Compiled by Mathew Elliott, assistant editor, Angus Productions Inc.