News Update
January 30, 2014
Smithsonian Mobile Exhibition
Explores the Human–Animal Bond
Checking the herd. Riding fences. Training a loyal dog. Our days include many interactions with animals — on the farm, the ranch and elsewhere. The connections we have with animals are complex and vast, and this relationship is explored in a mobile exhibition from the Smithsonian, “Animal Connections: Our Journey Together.”
“Animal Connections,” a custom-built exhibition housed on an 18-wheel truck that expands into 1,000 square feet of space, will be at the upcoming Cattle Industry Convention and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) Trade Show in Nashville. Attendees can visit the exhibit, which will be Booth No. 337 in the Chuck Wagon Café, from 5 to 8 p.m. Tues., Feb. 4, and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wed., Feb. 5, and Thurs., Feb. 6.
Created in 2013 by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) to mark the 150th anniversary of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AMVA), “Animal Connections” is made possible through the generous support of founding sponsor Zoetis Inc. and the American Veterinary Medical Foundation.
“The exhibition is an introduction to the world of veterinary medicine and explores the shared responsibility for animals’ health and well-being that we all have,” said Christine Jenkins, chief veterinary medical officer-U.S. Zoetis, a company that discovers, develops and manufactures veterinary vaccines and medicines. “As part of our commitment to veterinarians and the animals they care for, we are proud to join with the Smithsonian and the AVMA in supporting ‘Animal Connections’ as a means to inspire young people to pursue careers in veterinary medicine and its allied professions.”
RAM Sponsors First Ever FFA Day
at Cattle Industry Convention
Ram Trucks will be promoting youth in agriculture and the National FFA Organization (FFA) with the first ever FFA Day at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) Trade Show on Thurs., Feb. 6, during the Cattle Industry Convention. The first 300 FFA members to register for convention will be covered in partnership with RAM Trucks.
“This is a great partnership and an opportunity to showcase what America’s cattlemen and women stand for,” said NCBA President and Cody, Wy., cattleman Scott George. “The student members of the FFA are the future leaders of our association and the cattle business. Bringing Ram trucks and FFA youth together to the Cattle Industry Convention to network, learn and see the cattle industry in action is a great opportunity.”
This will be an annual opportunity during future Cattle Industry Conventions for all FFA members to attend. With more than 300 exhibitors and 7,000 cattle industry professionals in attendance, FFA members can be assured of an engagement that will educate them on the agricultural industry.
The National FFA Organization provides leadership, personal growth and career success training through agricultural education to 579,678 student members in grades seven through 12 who belong to one of 7,570 local FFA chapters throughout the United States, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Eliminating Grazing Won't Reduce Impact
of Climate Change on Rangeland, Scientists Say
Eliminating grazing won’t reduce the impact of climate change on rangeland, according to nearly 30 scientists in the western United States.
The researchers, who work for nine universities and the USDA, made this argument in a journal article in response to a debate over whether grazing on western public lands worsens ecological alterations caused by climate change.
“We dispute the notion that eliminating grazing will provide a solution to problems created by climate change,” the 27 authors wrote in the peer-reviewed paper, which was a summary of scientific literature that was published online this month by the journal Environmental Management. “To cope with a changing climate, land managers will need access to all available vegetation-management tools, including grazing.”
Some scientists argue that livestock, deer, elk and wild horses and burros exacerbate the effects of climate change on vegetation, soils, water and wildlife on western rangelands. As a result, they claim that removing or reducing these animals would alleviate the problem.
In this latest paper, however, the authors argued that grazing can actually help mitigate some of the effects of climate change. Climate change, they said, is likely to increase the accumulation of flammable grasses and increase the chance of catastrophic wildfires unless those grasses are managed.
“Grazing is one of the few tools available to reduce the herbaceous vegetation that becomes fine fuel on rangelands,” said co-author Dave Bohnert, the director of Oregon State University’s Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Center in Burns.
For more information, please view the full release here.
CCPI to Provide $684K to
Restore Kansas Windbreaks, Woodlands
Through the Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative (CCPI) the USDA will provide $684,000 in financial assistance to Kansas landowners, farmers and ranchers who are interested in restoring shelterbelts, windbreaks or managing woodlands adjacent to streams and rivers during Fiscal Year 2014.
The funding will cover the majority of the costs of tree planting, thinning woodlands, removing old declining shelterbelt rows and the use of the heavy equipment to do it, said Bob Atchison, forester with the Kansas Forest Service.
Kansas Forest Service foresters are available to help landowners complete the technical parts of the application process, including project plans.
CCPI fits nicely into renovation and restoration efforts because more than 44% of the 43,436 miles of shelterbelts in Kansas are in decline and are no longer providing the benefits they used to, said Larry Biles, state forester, Kansas Forest Service.
Biles said there is a significant percentage of Kansas streams that lack adequate management and forest cover, which directly contributes to bank erosion and advanced sedimentation of reservoirs, reducing Kansas’ public water supply.
The initiative operates through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program otherwise known as EQIP. Any producers eligible for EQIP funding can participate in the program.
Sign up deadline to be considered for the CCPI funding is March 21. Producers and landowners need to contact their local Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) office to sign up. Producers are encouraged to sign up as soon as possible to provide enough time for foresters to prepare project plans before the deadline.
For more information on CCPI projects and ways to restore Kansas woodlands visit the Kansas Forest Service website, www.kansasforests.org or give them a call at 785-532-3300.
Grain Bin Safety Week Sessions Set
University of Missouri (MU) Extension has teamed up with Nationwide Agribusiness to provide training during National Grain Bin Safety Week, Feb. 23 to March 1.
Like quicksand, flowing grain will bury the average person in less than a minute. A record number of U.S. workers were killed in 2010 in preventable grain bin accidents, says MU Extension safety specialist Karen Funkenbusch.
The timing of the weeklong educational event is especially important this year because freezing temperatures have formed top crusts in grain. This creates the illusion of a stable area that can be walked upon, said Frank Wideman, MU Extension natural resource engineer. When the crust breaks, moving grain quickly swallows up victims and suffocates them.
“There is nothing to hang on to,” Funkenbusch said. It’s also difficult to pull someone from a grain bin. It takes more than 325 pounds of force to pull a 165-pound person out of the grain.
Grain Bin Safety Week falls during February, when many farmers sell grain to make room for the 2014 harvest.
MU Extension is a new partner with Nationwide Agribusiness Insurance Co., Farm Safety for Just Kids, Iowa FFA Foundation, the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety (NECAS) and others to provide seven days of training.
The highlight of the training will be 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Mon., Feb. 24, at the FFA Enrichment Center adjoining the Des Moines Area Community College, 1055 SW Prairie Trail Parkway, Ankeny, Iowa. Numerous learning opportunities include simulators on grain bin entrapment and manure pits, sessions on implement and driver safety, anhydrous ammonia safe-handling procedures, and demonstrations on grain dust explosion and auger safety.
For more information, please view the Angus Journal’s Virtual Library calendar of upcoming events here.
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