News Update
October 5, 2015
Improving Animal Care
Thanks to a passion for animal husbandry in all its broad aspects, most cattle producers are proactive in their approach toward animal health and care, from pasture to feedyard. Terry Mader of the University of Nebraska says the industry, as a whole, continues to make improvements in providing shading and other heat mitigation strategies.
“Overall, we’re doing a much better job in managing cattle under environmental stress, whether it’s heat stress or cold stress. We understand the animals better, we understand their behavior better,” Mader said. “As we’ve improved our technology for mitigating the stress, we’ve increased the genetic ability of our animals to consume more feed and perform at higher rates of gain.”
Watch this week’s The Angus Report for more information. You can also catch the show at 5 p.m. CDT each Wednesday, 1:30 p.m. CDT Saturday or 7:30 a.m. CDT each Monday morning on RFD-TV.
Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiations Conclude
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) has learned that the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations successfully concluded Oct. 5 in Atlanta, Ga. NCBA President and Chugwater, Wyo., cattleman Philip Ellis said this agreement will boost U.S. exports and eliminate trade barriers.
“While the full details of the partnership will not be released until the President presents it to Congress, cattle producers are assured this is a true 21st century agreement,” said Ellis. “The TPP will immediately reduce tariffs and level the playing field for U.S. beef exports to these growing markets. TPP is a major win not only for the beef industry, but for all U.S. export products, growing the economy while supporting jobs and investments in agriculture and technology.”
Beef exports currently add more than $350 to each head of cattle sold in the U.S. With the completion of this work, NCBA looks forward to increased demand and growth for beef exports across the Pacific Rim. Through the partnership process with these 11 other nations, beef producers were able to secure the best deal possible to address tariff and non-tariff trade barriers to beef exports, surpassing individual country arrangements.
For more information, view the news release on the NCBA's website.
Colorado State University’s CoBank Center
for Agricultural Education
A decade of dreaming, four years of planning and a yearlong build led to last Saturday’s jam-packed ribbon cutting for the new CoBank Center for Agricultural Education at Colorado State University (CSU). Now open for business, the center is designed to help fill a void in agricultural education teachers for K-12 students and community colleges across Colorado and the United States.
“It is essential that our students help educate the next generation about agriculture,” said Ajay Menon, dean of the CSU College of Agricultural Sciences. “We know that we will have at least 9 billion people to feed globally by 2050 and so many of those people are here in this country, in our state and throughout our counties. Our college will be at the forefront of innovations that will ensure that people are fed, clothed and healthy, and agricultural education is a key component of maintaining the longevity and viability of our industry.”
For more information, please view the full CSU news release online.
USDA Supports Local Foods Infrastructure
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack helped to kick off the nation’s harvest season Oct. 2 by announcing nearly $35 million in new funding through four grant programs to support local and regional food systems, including farmers’ markets.
Vilsack has named strengthening local food systems as one of the four pillars of USDA’s efforts to revitalize rural economies and communities. Purchases of locally-produced food have surged to nearly $12 billion under Vilsack’s leadership, while the number of farmers’ markets has exploded to more than 8,500 from 5,274 in 2009.
USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service is awarding $13.3 million in Farmers Market Promotion Program grants to 164 marketing and promotion projects involved with farmers markets, Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs) and other direct-to-consumer outlets for local food.
For more information, please view the full USDA release online.
Kevin Klubertanz named President
of Digi-Star and RDS Technology
Digi-Star announced Kevin Klubertanz has been appointed as president of Digi-Star and RDS Technology. RDS has been part of Digi-Star since its acquisition in November of 2012.
Klubertanz is charged with further integrating the Digi-Star and RDS business and to work collaboratively with the other Topcon agriculture businesses. He has been with Digi-Star for nearly 20 years; he began as a product engineer and was promoted through various management positions until he accepted his most recent role as general manager of Digi-Star Americas.
Through his positions as technical products manager and director of engineering, Klubertanz has gained a deep level of understanding of all Digi-Star’s technology and has used that knowledge to successfully lead the strategy for each product. As director of sales and marketing, Klubertanz combined his technical knowledge with an analysis of trends in the agricultural industry to implement sales and marketing tactics that would ensure attainment of company sales goals and profitability.
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