News Update
April 29, 2015
Saddle & Sirloin to Honor Dave Nichols
Dave Nichols of Bridgewater, Iowa, has been selected as the 2015 inductee into the Saddle and Sirloin Portrait Gallery, largely considered the highest honor in the livestock industry. The Saddle and Sirloin Gallery was established in 1903 and recognizes one individual each year for their lifetime of exceptional service to the livestock business, both nationally and internationally.
Dave was raised on his father’s small cattle feeding operation. Starting as a tenant farm, Nichols Farms has grown under Dave’s leadership to now encompass 5,500 acres, 1,500 head of breeding stock and a small feedlot. In addition, Nichols Farms oversees the breeding and marketing of an additional 750 cooperator and franchise cows. Nichols Farms has placed 42 bulls in studs and has exported cattle, semen and embryos to 30 countries, resulting in five Palermo grand champions. During its 77-year history, all revenue of Nichols Farms has been generated from cattle.
Dave bought his first steer in 1947 at the age of eight with a note from the bank, and entered the Angus seedstock business at 13 years of age. In 1957, he won the national FFA Public Speaking Contest by discussing the merits of performance testing bulls, and he and his father started selling performance-tested Angus bulls that year. Dave started submitting weaning weights the first year the American Angus Association accepted them, and by 1961, he had bred some of the early Performance Registry International’s Certified Meat Sires.
Dave currently serves on the board of directors of the American Angus Association.
Read more about Nichols’ accomplishments and qualifications for the Saddle and Sirloin Portrait Gallery in the full news release.
Corn Planting 'Far Behind'
“We’re quite far behind in Missouri, especially compared to the last four to five years,” says University of Missouri (MU) Extension specialist Bill Wiebold.
The April 27 USDA crop progress report shows only 20% of the state’s corn crop planted, compared to 44% last year at this time.
Early planting sets the stage for good yields. As May begins, delays turn into slight yield losses, as shown by five years of data for central and northern Missouri.
Yield drops as much as 20% when corn is not planted by the end of May, Wiebold says. Yield loss increases at a faster rate when planting moves into June.
Wiebold says delayed planting in the Bootheel region has significantly lowered the state’s average. Planting there is 16% complete, far below the amount typical for late April.
USDA reports that Missouri farmers expect to plant 3.3 million acres of corn in 2015, the lowest amount since 2010. This is down 0.2 million acres from 2014.
16th Florida Bull Test
For the 16th year, the North Florida Research and Education Center (NFREC) will be hosting the Florida Bull Test. Consignors may download the nomination form from the Florida Bull Test website (Bulls must be born between Aug. 15 and Dec. 31, 2014. There will be a limit of 120 bulls for the test.
The primary purpose of the Florida Bull Test is to serve as an educational aid for the improvement of beef cattle. The test aims to provide the commercial cow-calf producer a source of bulls that have been gain tested, that were thoroughly evaluated at the same location and that have passed stringent health requirements; provide an opportunity for seedstock producers to advertise their breeding programs through testing and marketing bulls; and promote awareness and understanding of the latest animal breeding concepts and tools while showcasing superior beef cattle genetics in Florida.
Additional important information can be accessed on the Florida Bull Test website or by phone 850-526-1621.
American Farm Bureau Appeals Flawed Privacy Decision
The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) public release to environmental groups of personal details about the home locations and contact information of tens of thousands of farm and ranch families was unlawful. A lower court ruling that upheld the EPA action failed to address key privacy issues and should be reversed, according to court documents filed April 24 by the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF).
Farm Bureau, along with the National Pork Producers Council, filed a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit to overturn an earlier district court ruling. That ruling held, in part, that because some of the information had been posted online by state agencies, EPA was free to publicly release the same information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
The brief to the appeals court states that there is no “merit to the (district court’s) suggestion that citizens lack a privacy interest in information that appears on the Internet. That theory is one that might appeal to George Orwell, but it is not one that has a basis in law or common sense.”
According to the brief, EPA’s disclosure of the requested information serves only one purpose: “to put in the hands of environmental activists information that will help them to investigate and harass family farms on their own, in their efforts to bring private lawsuits against family farmers.”
The brief states that “the disclosure of information such as names, addresses and other personal identifying information, like the data at issue, creates a palpable threat to privacy.”
In addition, the brief states that farms and ranches are inherently different from typical businesses in that information divulged typically leads to a home residence of a farm or ranch family.
Learn more about Farm Bureau’s response to the EPA’s action by reading the full news release online.
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