News Update
March 26, 2015
2015 National Junior Angus Show
Takes Place in Tulsa
Let the countdown begin for the 2015 National Junior Angus Show (NJAS) in Tulsa, Okla. National Junior Angus Association (NJAA) members and their families will travel from coast-to-coast to compete in the year’s most prestigious junior livestock event. From July 13-18, Angus youth will compete, both inside and outside the showring, during the cattle shows, life-skills contests, cooking events and much more.
Sponsored by the Oklahoma Junior Angus Association, the 2015 NJAS is themed “Angus — Leading the Way.” Activities and events will take place at the Built Ford Tough Complex at Expo Square in Tulsa, Okla., where more than 1,000 head of Angus cattle are expected to compete. Classes include owned heifers, bred-and-owned (B&O) heifers, cow-calf pairs, steers and B&O bulls. States will join together to compete for the Best Five Head, while individual members will vie for Junior Premier Breeder and the Silver Pitcher Award.
May 15 is the ownership and early-entry deadline, and participants can submit entries online at www.angus.org/njaa.
Cattle competing in the 2015 NJAS will begin checking-in at 5 p.m. Sunday, July 12, and must be signed-in by 9 a.m. Monday, July 13.
The 48th Annual NJAS Showmanship Contest will also take place, where two junior Angus members from each state compete for the “Top Showman” title. To qualify, juniors must first be selected during state competition.
For more information, please view the full release here.
American Farm Bureau Federation President
Regards Senate Votes on WOTUS
American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman gave the following statement on the Senate’s votes on the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule.
“Key votes this week in the Senate delivered a resounding message that the proposed Waters of the U.S. rule is flawed in both substance and process. Senators indicated they will not tolerate outlandish regulatory actions that disregard established law, and by their action put federal regulators on notice that the rule is simply unacceptable.
“The Senate action amplifies the spirit our farmers and ranchers have conveyed over the past year of the need to ditch the egregious WOTUS rule. We thank senators for their understanding that America’s farm and ranch families care deeply about clean water and their recognition that the ill-advised WOTUS rule is flawed to the core.”
Farmland Wins PR Week’s Arts, Entertainment
& Media Campaign of the Year
Lights, Camera, Farmland! The Farmland documentary, produced by award winning director James Moll, took top billing in the PR Week Awards’ Arts, Entertainment & Media Campaign of the Year category. The national film release was supported and led by the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance® (USFRA®). The Farmland campaign received the honor in New York on March 19. According to the entry, the annual PR Week Awards recognizes creative excellence in public relations programming and are viewed by the public relations industry as one of the highest honors.
Farmland achieved enormous reach and continues to be an effective consumer communications tool. The film helps to create a positive shift in consumer and media perception of modern U.S. agriculture. Farmland was accepted into five film festivals, debuted in 170 movie theaters, selling more than 11,000 tickets — 84% above the estimate, earned a 93% positive rating on www.RottenTomatoes.com, and with the support of USFRA partner organizations, has been screened more than 1,000 times. Surveys found that 53% of the primary target audience was aware of the documentary, and 46% were familiar with the organization, a 91% increase from 2013.
Farmland had a strong online presence generating nearly than 62 million impressions and earning more than 463 national media placements. Today the film is available through digital platforms and the DVD can be purchased at select Walmart retail stores, at www.Walmart.com, www.Amazon.com and can be rented via Netflix.
Soils Clean and Capture Water
In celebration of the International Year of Soil 2015 (IYS), the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) is coordinating a series of activities throughout to educate the public about the importance of soil. April’s theme is “Soils Clean and Capture Water.”
According to IYS monthly leader Gary Pierzynski, “Soil is a great water purifier. There are three ways that soil cleans water: physical, chemical and biological.” Here are some facts from Pierzynski, a soil science professor at Kansas State University.
1. Physical: the particles of soil act like a filter. The ideal soil has a distribution of pore sizes so it can filter water, while also allowing the water to pass through the soil.
2. Chemical: soil particles have a negative charge. That means that positive ions like calcium, magnesium and potassium can all be removed from passing water and retained by the soil. This is good, because each of these ions is a nutrient for plants. Some contaminants can be removed by this mechanism, as well.
3. Biological: soil is the largest bioreactor on the planet. Within the soil, bacteria and fungi transform and decompose certain chemicals. Soil microbes can change organic forms of nitrogen into ammonium ions — and even into nitrogen gas. They can also decompose some organic pollutants.
As part of their celebration of IYS, SSSA is developing a series of twelve 2-minute educational videos. April’s Soils Clean and Capture Water video can be viewed at www.soils.org/iys/monthly-videos. Educational materials can be viewed at www.soils.org/iys by clicking on the April tab.
Additional soils information is on www.soils.org/discover-soils, for teachers atwww.soils4teachers.org, and for students through 12th grade, www.soils4kids.org.
— Adapted from a release by the Soil Science Society of America.
Call for Bull Test Entries
It is time for the Cal Poly Bull Test, says Keela Retallick, beef cattle specialist in the Animal Science Department. To be eligible for the test, bulls must be born between Aug. 1 and Oct. 31, 2014. Delivery dates are May 1-2, with the test scheduled to begin May 15-16. Interim weigh dates will be June 26 and July 31, with off test weights scheduled for Aug. 20-21. The sale will be Oct. 4. Deadline for entries is April 25, 2015.
For more information contact Retallick at 805-765-2685 or at kretalli@calpoly.edu.
CSU President's Community Lecture Series
presents Temple Grandin April 13
Once again, renowned Colorado State University (CSU) Professor of Animal Sciences and autism advocate Temple Grandin is taking to social media to engage with people interested in her work — and on the same day that she will deliver the next President’s Community Lecture Series talk.
On the heels of a wildly-successful Reddit “Ask Me Anything” in November 2014, Grandin will host her first Google+ Hangout — #AskTemple: A Live Google Hangout with CSU’s Temple Grandin — on April 13 from 9-10 a.m.
At 6:30 p.m. that evening, Grandin will discuss “Helping Different Kinds of Minds Solve Problems” for the President’s Lecture Series in the Lory Student Center Grand Ballroom. Her lecture will be followed by a Q&A session with CSU President Tony Frank from 7-7:30 p.m.
Grandin’s Google+ Hangout will be facilitated through Google’s social media platform. The online discussions are presented by CSU and are open to anyone interested; Internet service is needed. Google+ Hangouts function much like a webinar, allowing participants to view and hear presentations from their personal computers and other devices. Users will be able to submit questions ahead of time to Grandin via CSU’s Facebook, Twitter or at http://source.colostate.edu/submit-a-question-for-temple-grandin/ and she will respond to them live during her session.
“Social media is relatively new to me,” said Grandin. “Being able to connect with new diverse groups of people on social media enables me to talk to lots of new people.”
Grandin’s Reddit session was enormously popular, and the site continues to see engagement and discussion, even after the November event. In fact, Grandin’s “Ask Me Anything” has proven to be the most popular and highest rated “Ask Me Anything” in Reddit’s “Science” section, receiving nearly 4,200 votes and spawning more than 1,300 comments.
At the President’s Community Lecture Series, Grandin will discuss how people approach problem-solving differently, based on professional training, abilities and personal experiences. Grandin will look to break down barriers that have developed over time between traditional business and technological innovators; between artists and quantitative researchers; and between people who engage in jobs requiring physical labor and academics housed in universities and institutions of higher learning. For Grandin, these groups do not need to be in conflict, and a successful society is one in which differing skills are optimally utilized.
For more information, please view the Angus Journal Virtual Library calendar of upcoming events here.
Editor’s Note: The articles used within this site represent a mixture of copyrights. If you would like to reprint or repost an article, you must first request permission of Angus Productions Inc. (API) by contacting the editor at 816-383-5200; 3201 Frederick Ave., Saint Joseph, MO 64506. API claims copyright to this web site as presented. We welcome educational venues and cattlemen to link to this site as a service to their audience.