News Update
Feb. 24, 2011

Certified Angus Beef® brand aims for frozen food aisle

The Certified Angus Beef® (CAB) brand is expanding its reach to frozen foods with bold meal solutions from John Soules Foods Inc., Tyler, Texas. The carne asada, flame-broiled steak strips and thinly sliced beef steaks start with the brand’s premium quality for a new level of flavor in convenient meal solutions. The steak strips and carne asada are the only flame-broiled solid muscle beef items in the market.

“Consumers seek the best possible quality beef that can be prepared in minutes,” said Mark Soules, co-CEO of John Soules Foods. “These Certified Angus Beef products are the best in the category. They are cooked on real flame broilers, not steam cookers, giving consumers a flavorful alternative to chicken.”

These fully cooked beef products make meals easy, for example in stir-fry, salads, Asian nachos, rice dishes, quesadillas, fajitas and more. The re-sealable packages with cooking instructions and meal solutions add to the value and convenience for consumers. They’ll also appreciate the products are gluten free and MSG free.

The brand’s marbling quality and texture make these products extremely flavorful with a tender bite. Beef must meet 10 high standards to earn the Certified Angus Beef brand name, including Modest or higher marbling. These standards ensure it’s a cut above USDA Prime, Choice and Select.

— Release by CAB.

Study Shows Costly Consequences of Regulating Dust

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) is concerned that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) current review of National Ambient Air Quality Standards of the Clean Air Act could result in the regulation of coarse particulate matter (dust) at levels as low as 65-85 µg/m³, or twice as stringent as the current standard. In anticipation of a proposed rule on this issue, NCBA contracted with John Richards of Air Quality Control Techniques to study the likely effects regulating dust at such stringent levels would have on attainment and nonattainment regions throughout the United States. The study concluded that moving forward with regulating dust at anticipated levels would bring vast areas of the United States into nonattainment or to the brink of nonattainment.

NCBA Chief Environmental Counsel Tamara Thies said the current standard is 150 µg/m³ with an allowance of only one violation per year to remain in compliance. However, she added, NCBA expects EPA to propose a new standard of between 65-85 µg/m³ with an allowance of seven violations per year to remain in compliance.

“EPA claims these two standards are essentially equivalent in terms of health protection. But while both standards may protect the public’s health equally, this study confirms that changing the standard would be devastating for our economy, and particularly for rural America. Regulating dust at levels twice as stringent will wreak havoc in rural agricultural areas in the country that would have to purchase new, expensive technologies to control dust,” Thies said. “If EPA moves forward with a proposed rule as we anticipate, farmers and ranchers could be fined for driving down a dirt road; moving cattle from one pasture to the next; or tilling a field. EPA claims it’s concerned with urban dust. Yet their current efforts to regulate dust may enable urban areas to remain in attainment but will throw dusty, rural, agricultural areas into nonattainment needlessly.”

The study looked at 382 of the 990 PM10 (dust) monitors operating in the United States from 2007-2009, primarily located in the West, Southwest and Midwest, and concluded that the existing and anticipated dust standards are not equivalent in terms of attainment and nonattainment areas of the country. More nonattainment areas means more regulation and a direct hit on the bottom lines of businesses operating in those nonattainment areas. Specifically, the study found that 42 sites currently are in nonattainment. However, of the sites studied, a change to 85 µg/m³ (98th  percentile form) would increase the number of sites in nonattainment by 81% (from 42 to 76). A change to 75 µg/m³ would increase the number of sites in nonattainment by 243% (from 42 to 102). A change to 65 µg/m³ would increase the number of sites in nonattainment by 348% (from 42 to 146).

Specifically, the study concludes that EPA’s expected revised standard would put some rural areas that are currently in attainment in the following states into nonattainment: Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Texas and Wyoming. In addition, areas that are currently in nonattainment in California, Nevada and Utah would stay in nonattainment. The study also concludes that many more areas would be brought to the brink of nonattainment.  

— Release by NCBA.

Select Sires Announces Dairy and Beef Photo Contest

Customer success is the passion of every employee within the Select Sires federation. Select Sires would like to celebrate this success by offering for the first time a Select Sires photo contest. Select Sires is looking for new, exciting photos of Select-sired offspring and customers to use in promotions such as calendars, posters, brochures, on the website, and much more. The contest is open to all amateur photographers, including Select Sires customers, employees and employee family members. Contestants can enter as many photos as they wish. The first-place dairy and beef photos will be featured on the covers of the 2012 Select Sires Dairy and Beef Calendars.

Entries are due June 1, 2011, and photos can be mailed or submitted digitally. Please include the photographer’s name, address, phone number, location where the photo was taken, a brief description of the photo and identification of specific animals or subjects within the photo. A form with all needed photo information can be found at www.selectsires.com. Preference will be given to photographs that include cattle, and entries will be judged on composition, quality and character of the image, suitability and/or creativity and overall impression of the photo. To get your creative juices flowing, this year’s categories are as follows:

• People and their Select-sired offspring
• Landscapes with Select-sired cattle

Photographers will receive photo credit for any photo used. By submitting contest photos you are granting Select Sires the rights to use said photos in promotional or educational materials. All entries submitted will become the property of Select Sires Inc. and could be used in future publications or projects. Photos will not be returned. If you have any questions please feel free to contact Terri Smith at 614-873-4683 or by e-mail at tsmith@selectsires.com. Visit www.selectsires.com to access full contest rules and guidelines.

— Release by Select Sires.

Get Your Free Johne’s Disease Control Booklet

Dairy and beef producers, veterinarians and others involved in the dairy and beef industries wanting to learn more about Johne’s disease prevention and control are encouraged to request a new 16-page booklet available from the National Johne’s Education Initiative and the National Institute for Animal Agriculture (NIAA). The new booklet — which is free and written in easy-to-understand language — outlines the basics of the USDA’s recently updated Program Standards for the Voluntary Bovine Johne’s Disease Control Program.

“The abridged version of the Voluntary Bovine Johne’s Disease Control Program highlights three areas: education to inform producers about the cost of Johne’s disease and to provide information about management strategies to prevent, control and eliminate the disease; management to help producers establish good management strategies on their farms; and herd testing and classification to demonstrate the level of risk of Johne’s disease on the farm,” states Elisabeth Patton, chairman of U.S. Animal Health Association’s Johne’s Disease Committee.

“The most significant change in the updated Voluntary Bovine Johne’s Disease Control Program is the new six-level testing classification system, and this information is covered in the abridged free booklet. Producers who participate in the testing component of the Program will find a new six-level classification system that has specific criteria for different sizes of herds: 1-99 head, 100-199 head, 200-299 head and more than 300 head. A significant amount of thought and work went into the development of this new six-level classification system to address concerns with the previous system and to improve the accuracy of herd classification.”

Patton explains that the adjusted Voluntary Bovine Johne’s Disease Control Program has been developed in cooperation with the National Johne’s Disease Working Group and the Johne’s disease committee of the United States Animal Health Association, state veterinarians and industry representatives. The program has been approved by the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Veterinary Services (VS).

The free 16-page booklet was developed for USDA/APHIS/VS by the National Johne’s Education Initiative and underwritten by NJEI and the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.

A personal copy of the abridged booklet can be obtained from your State Designated Johne’s Coordinator, online at www.johnesdisease.org/ or from the National Institute for Animal Agriculture by calling 719-538-8843.

— Release by the National Johne’s Education Initiative.

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