News Update

September 22, 2015

Celebrate Farm Safety Week

This week, Sept. 20-26, farmers and ranchers across the country are encouraged to celebrate National Farm Safety and Health Week. An initiative of the National Safety Council, it began in 1944 as a way to recognize the hazards of farming and ranching and to encourage better safety procedures.

Statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor show that the farming accidents in 2013 accounted for 500 fatalities and the industry remains one of the nation’s most hazardous occupations.

More equipment operation tips and farm safety themes are available through the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety, which will also host an AgChat via Twitter today, Sept. 22, from 7 to 9 p.m. CDT.

Learn more by tuning into this week’s The Angus Report.

— Adapted from The Angus Report.

A Reminder to be Careful During Harvest

Mid-Missouri farmer Brian Flatt had climbed up the ladders of grain bins on his farm with a screwdriver or grease gun in hand thousands of times.

But this time was different.

While he waited for a load of corn to empty one mid-September day, he decided to check out a faulty electric blower on a grain bin. With a screwdriver in his pocket and voltage tester in hand, he climbed the grain bin’s ladder. He lost his grip and fell about 20-25 feet to the ground. Flatt called his dad, who was combining in a nearby field. His mother, who was mowing the yard nearby, called 911.

Before an ambulance arrived, Flatt removed his work boot and saw a bone poking through his sock. He was hurt, but alive. “I’m looking up and saying, ‘Thank you, God. I’m very lucky.’” But in the same breath, he was saying, “No, no, no, God. I can’t be hurt right now.”

Flatt will soon undergo a second surgery at University Hospital in Columbia and faces up to 12 weeks of recuperation, all in the midst of his favorite time of the year — harvest.

For more information, please view the full news release online.

— Adapted from a release by Linda Geist, University of Missouri Extension.

FDA to Host Public Meeting

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently announced a public meeting to offer the opportunity for discussion on the recently finalized rules on preventive controls for human and animal foods under the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).

The meeting, entitled “FDA Food Safety Modernization Act: final rules to establish requirements for current good manufacturing practice, hazard analysis and risk — based preventive controls for human and animal food,” will be hosted Oct. 20 from 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. at the Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile.

The public meeting will also provide an opportunity to discuss the FDA’s comprehensive planning effort for the next phase of FSMA implementation, which involves putting in place the new public health prevention measures and the risk-based industry accountability framework that is at the core of the act.

Public meeting attendees are encouraged to register online to attend the meeting in person or via live webcast. For more information, please view the full FDA news release online.

— Adapted from a release by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Strategic Partnership to Support U.S. Beef Industry

K·Coe Isom and the Beef Cattle Institute (BCI) at Kansas State University (K-State) will work together and with the beef industry to provide educational and communication resources on sustainability topics under an agreement unveiled this week at the university.

The partnership focuses on two key areas:

Online sustainability education and training. This project will add beef sustainability training for producers as an option they can access on the BCI’s existing Beef Quality Assurance platform, so they may learn from the latest research on animal care, environmental, economic and community-worker engagement issues and decide if some of these practices are a good fit to add to their operation.
Hosting a beef sustainability knowledge summit. This summit will provide a vehicle for bringing multiple stakeholders together to share the latest academic research, market trends, consumer communication ideas and best practices on the key categories of animal care, economic, environmental and worker-community engagement issues related to the beef industry. The purpose of the summit will be to further education, communication and dialogue across the entire value chain.

For more information, please view the full release online.

— Adapted from a release by Sara Harper, Beef Cattle Institute.

USCA Annual Meeting

The United States Cattlemen’s Association (USCA) will host its annual meeting Oct. 2-3 in Bismarck, N.D., at the Ramada Bismarck Hotel.

The meeting will begin Friday, Oct. 2, with local members leading the group on a multi-ranch tour of operations on the west side of the Missouri River.

“Folks will see some fantastic views of the Missouri River and can learn about successful ranching in this region of the United States, as well. Each ranch is unique and will offer new ideas for members to take home with them,” stated Kenny Granner, USCA Board of Directors, Independent Beef Association of North Dakota (I-BAND), and past president and convention chairman.

On Saturday, Oct. 3, the meeting agenda will focus on general policy development and invited guests and speakers; topics to be discussed include: COOL, EPA Waters of the U.S., international trade, market reporting, industry updates and more.

For more information, please view the Angus Journal Virtual Library calendar of upcoming events here.

— Adapted from a release by the United States Cattlemen’s Association.

— Compiled by Paige Nelson, field editor, Angus Journal.

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