News Update
February 25, 2013
Registration Deadline Feb. 26
Make plans now to attend the 2013 NBCEC Symposium — Integrating DNA Information into Beef Cattle Production Systems, to be hosted at the Kansas City Airport Holiday Inn March 4-5, 2013. The registration deadline has been extended for this event until Feb. 26, 2013. Don’t miss your chance to attend what is sure to be a great conference. Onsite registration is not available.
The goal of the meeting is to provide an update on the current ‘state of the art’ applications of genomic tools in the beef industry, a look at how the swine breeding industry is using genomic information and what role selection index and mate selection technologies may play in the future of the beef industry.
This meeting is open to interested beef producers and value chain participants, as well as academic, extension and allied industry personnel. For registration and symposium information please check the NBCEC website at: http://www.nbcec.org.
Water Rights Seminar to Address
Who Gets Dwindling Reserves
Concerns about how dwindling water supplies are distributed once reservoirs start running dry will be the topic of an upcoming seminar scheduled for 11:30 a.m. March 4 in Weslaco, Texas, according to experts at the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service.
The “Seminar on Water Rights and Public Policy: The Lower Rio Grande” will be at the Knapp Medical Conference Center, 1401 E. 8th St. in Weslaco.
Management of the Lower Rio Grande is complex and includes both state and federal agencies as water inflows from both sides of the border are combined and divided between Texas and Mexico, according to Guy Fipps, an AgriLife Extension irrigation engineer and professor with Texas A&M University in College Station.
“There are few concerns when water is plentiful,” he said. “But when supplies tighten, as they are doing now, things come down to the very fine print of state and federal laws, which, of course, are open to interpretation. It raises lots of concerns.”
To address concerns of both agricultural and municipal users, Fipps will moderate an open discussion among three experts: Edward Drusina, commissioner of the International Boundary and Water Commission in El Paso; Bryan Shaw, chairman of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in Austin; and Glenn Jarvis, an attorney and chairman of the Rio Grande Regional Water Planning Group, McAllen.
The seminar is presented by AgriLife Extension, the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council and the Rio Grande Regional Water Authority.
“We didn’t assign specific topics to our speakers,” Fipps said. “Instead, we’re hoping to engage our experts with frank discussions with stakeholders about water rights. In general, Mr. Drusina will provide background on U.S. treaties with Mexico and how water is allocated between the two countries, while Mr. Shaw and Mr. Jarvis will discuss the roles their respective agencies have in managing and enforcing provisions. Other pertinent topics will be discussed as well.”
Brad Cowan, an AgriLife Extension agent in Hidalgo County, said water supplies are reaching critically low levels.
“The situation varies among the 26 irrigation districts in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, but many of them have already advised farmers they will be limited to only one irrigation this season,” he said. “Without rainfall, our summer crops just won’t thrive under those restrictions. And several municipalities have been alerted to the fact that in two months they may not get all the water they are entitled to unless we get new inflows, either from water Mexico owes the U.S. or from rainfall in our watershed.”
Fipps said he began hosting occasional water seminars in 1991 as an education event to explore the intersection of water rights and the need for policy to ensure fair use and availability of water.
“The last water rights seminar we had in the Lower Rio Grande Valley was about 10 years ago,” he said. “While some of the water availability issues remain the same, today’s water supply situation is probably more serious than it was 10 years ago. Our hope is that this seminar will help stakeholders better understand the mechanisms in place and the legal basis for allocation and management of water from this shared resource.”
Registration fee is $30 and includes lunch. Participants are asked to either RSVP online at http://itc.tamu.edu or pre-register at http://agriliferegister.tamu.edu. For more information or to RSVP by phone, call 956-383-1026. Call 979-845-2604 to preregister by phone. Only cash and checks will be accepted at the door.
Cattle Groups Square Off with
HSUS over Domestic Horse Slaughter
Last week, Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund–United Stockgrowers of America (R-Calf USA) joined with other groups and individuals to counter the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) efforts to block the humane slaughter of unwanted and unusable horses at a New Mexico slaughtering facility.
Led by the International Equine Business Association (IEBA), R-Calf USA, the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association (SDSGA), the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association (NMCGA), and several individuals filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit initially filed by Valley Meat LLC (Valley Meat), against the USDA. Valley Meat alleges that USDA is wrongfully refusing to provide final inspection services for horse slaughter at Valley Meat’s New Mexico facility now that Congress has fully restored funding for horse slaughter inspection.
The HSUS previously filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit as well as a motion to dismiss in its effort to block horse slaughter in the United States. The HSUS also is seeking to require that USDA conduct an environmental assessment and/or an environmental impact statement for each decision to grant slaughter inspection, a requirement R-Calf USA and the other potential interveners believe would result in devastating impacts to the entire meat industry, including the cattle industry.
An affidavit filed by R-Calf USA CEO Bill Bullard in support of his group’s intervention explains that even though horse slaughter was temporarily suspended in the United States, domestic horses continue to be slaughtered in foreign countries. He stated that these horses are being transported over extremely long distances and then slaughtered in Mexican slaughtering plants that do not follow the humane slaughtering practices required by the USDA.
“R-Calf USA has members who have ceased marketing their unusable horses to Mexican horse slaughter buyers due to concerns that their horses would be subjected to undue stress during transit to foreign horse slaughter plants and then suffer inhumane slaughtering techniques once they arrive at foreign slaughtering plants,” Bullard stated.
R-Calf USA and the other groups seeking intervention believe that because Valley Meat would be subject to the U.S. humane slaughtering standards, the inhumane treatment of U.S. horses in foreign slaughtering plants would be alleviated.
“We are deeply disappointed that the Humane Society of the United States is trying to perpetuate the inhumane and undignified treatment of unwanted and unusable U.S. horses that are being regularly shipped to foreign countries for slaughter or are being abandoned on private and federally controlled lands where they literally waste away and die a miserable death,” said Bullard. “We hope our intervention will counter the Humane Society’s despicable position.”
Ranch Management University set
for April 15-19 in College Station
New landowners interested in getting the most for their input dollar can find out the do’s and don’ts during the annual Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service Ranch Management University on the Texas A&M University campus in College Station, coordinators said.
Scheduled April 15-19 at the G. Rollie White Visitor’s Center, this workshop is designed to help new landowners improve their understanding of how to manage various resources they find on their ranch properties, said Larry Redmon, AgriLife Extension state forage specialist.
“Rising input costs make every ranch decision critical,” Redmon said. “We may not be able to do anything about rising input costs, but we can help Ranch Management University attendees understand which decisions are important and how to optimize production.”
Registration is $500 and attendance is limited to the first 50 people who enroll. Slots are going fast this spring, he said, so attendees are encouraged to register as soon as possible. To register online and for more information, go to http://agriliferegister.tamu.edu and enter “ranch management” into the search window.
Redmon said the workshop is offered twice a year, with the spring topics covering soils, forages, hay, weeds and brush, winter pastures and livestock production, including cattle, horse, sheep and goats. Chuteside talks will be made on live-animal handling and demonstrations of vaccinating, dehorning and castration of cattle. Other discussion will cover profit plans, marketing plans and alternative enterprises, and wildlife management of white-tailed deer, turkeys, fish and feral hogs.
Field demonstrations include learning how to assess body condition scores of cattle, how to take proper soil and hay samples, and how to assess the fish populations in ponds, Redmon said. There will also be a discussion regarding pond weeds and a demonstration of hog-trap design.
Meals and break refreshments are covered by the registration fee, as well as a resource CD containing more than 100 publications covering ranch resource management.
For additional information, contact Redmon at 979-845-4826 or l-redmon@tamu.edu.
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