News Update
October 14, 2015
Upcoming VFD Changes
Pending changes to the veterinary feed directive (VFD) regulations have many industry experts suggesting producers form a game plan now with their veterinarians and nutritionists.
Kansas State University’s (K-State’s) Mike Apley, a member of the Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria, clarifies the VFD by saying, “The veterinary feed directive essentially puts veterinarians in charge of all medically-important antibiotics that are used in the feed of food animals.”
Apley adds that all growth promotion use derived from medically-important antibiotics becomes illegal Jan. 1, 2017. That rule will not affect the use of ionophores. He explains the FDA does not think the routine use of medically-important antibiotics for the prevention or control of disease with no defined period of administration is consistent, neither with their definition of stewardship nor with their definition of judicious use.
Watch Apley’s full interview on this week’s The Angus Report. You can also watch the show tonight at 5 p.m. CDT, 1:30 p.m. CDT Saturday or 7:30 a.m. CDT each Monday morning on RFD-TV.
Fly Control Starts in Winter
The stable fly is the most concerning pest for producers of both pasture and feedlot cattle, according to Ludek Zurek, K-State professor of entomology. Because stable flies are difficult to control, especially around pastured cattle, he encourages producers to be proactive and begin controlling stable fly populations even when they cannot be seen.
“Stable flies to some degree can actually survive winter here in large piles of manure and spoiled feed around feedlots,” Zurek said. “The maggots dig deeper and deeper into the area that doesn’t freeze. Most of them still die, but we have evidence that some of them make it through the winter and emerge as adults in the spring.”
Ranchers may not be thinking about fly control when temperatures drop because they can’t see the flies. However, Zurek’s research shows the time to be aware is when ranchers start feeding hay in the winter, especially large round bales.
Read the full Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA article online.
National Cattlemen’s Foundation Announces
W.D. Farr Scholarship Winners
Graduate students Whitney Crossland of Texas A&M University and Greta Krafsur of Colorado State University have been awarded W.D. Farr Scholarships for the 2015-2016 school year from the National Cattlemen’s Foundation. Each $12,000 scholarship recognizes outstanding students who plan to pursue careers in meat science and animal agriculture. The scholarships will be presented in January at the 2016 Cattle Industry Convention & NCBA Trade Show in San Diego, Calif.
Krafsur is from Estelline, S. D., and is a doctoral student at Colorado State University, using her veterinary pathology training to explain the development of bovine high-mountain disease, known as Brisket Disease. Krafsur received her master’s degree from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and her doctorate in veterinary medicine from Colorado State University.
She will continue the family tradition and start her own cow-calf herd. She is also a member of the American Angus Association.
For more information, please view the full NCBA news release.
‘Bringing Biotechnology to Life’ Launched
at World Food Prize Symposium
The American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture and the International Food Information Council Foundation announced the global launch of “Bringing Biotechnology to Life,” a free educational resource that aims to facilitate learning about agricultural biotechnology and its role in food production. The new curriculum was unveiled at the World Food Prize 2015 Borlaug Dialogue international symposium.
“‘Bringing Biotechnology to Life’ is a science-based classroom resource with applicable lessons related to agriculture,” said Julie Tesch, executive director of the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture. “This resource is fact- and research-based and has been reviewed by an array of scientists, so the science behind it is very sound.”
The resource includes seven sequential lesson plans for educators, which address national learning standards for 7th to 10th grade students. Lessons focus on topics including the definitions for DNA, biotechnology and selective breeding, and how we can examine DNA for genetic improvements.
For more information, please view the newsroom at www.fb.org.
Study Measures Impact of Seasonal Farm Labor Program
A program that supplies Ontario farmers experiencing domestic labor shortages with seasonal workers from Mexico and the Caribbean is the “lynchpin” of the province’s multi-billion-dollar horticultural sector, says a new study.
The Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) is a key reason Ontario’s horticulture industry is able to generate $5.4 billion in economic activity and approximately 34,280 jobs, according to research recently released by Guelph-based Agri-food Economic Systems.
“We’ve understood for years from speaking with growers how important this labor program is to the bottom line of individual farm operations,” said Ken Forth, President of Foreign Agricultural Resource Management Services (F.A.R.M.S.), which administers the program. “This report helps us to get an accurate picture of just how important SAWP is to the horticultural sector and to our economy as a whole.”
For more information, please view the full news release online.
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