News Update
August 15, 2017
ELD Implementation Delayed
The U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill passed in mid-July will delay for one year a requirement mandating the use of the new electronic logging devices (ELDs) for livestock and insect haulers. The full committee could mark up the legislation as soon as the third week of July.
“For over a year, we have been working to address the need for greater flexibility for our livestock haulers within the ELD mandate,” U.S. Cattlemen’s Association (USCA) Transportation Committee Chairman Steve Hilker stated. “The language proposed by Congressman Valadao provides an additional year for our industry to work with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to find acceptable solutions to the restrictive Hours-of-Service (HOS) Rules for livestock haulers. We hope to implement these solutions to HOS rules before the one-year delay expires.”
“A one-year delay will give us time to address our industry-specific concerns, and give us more time to work with federal regulators to add needed flexibility, as hauling livestock has many challenges and variables,” added fifth-generation California rancher and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) President-elect Kevin Kester.
For more information, please read the full Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA article online.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister on Modernization of NAFTA
Trade is about people. It’s about creating the best possible conditions for growth, for jobs, for prosperity for individuals and working families.
This is why we modernize NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement). This is why we are seized of this opportunity to make what is already a good agreement, even better.
It wasn’t obvious to anyone back in 1987, when the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement was first reached, that this was a good idea.
The Liberal party of that era, then in opposition, was against it. My own beloved mother, who ran for the NDP in Edmonton-Strathcona in 1988, was against it. Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, to give credit where due, staked his prime ministership on getting free trade passed. And he was right.
Two decades on, in our country, that debate is settled because the results are plain. The North American Free Trade area is now the biggest economic zone in the world. Canada, the U.S. and Mexico together account for a quarter of the world’s GDP (gross domestic product), with 7% of its population.
CAA Honors Dyce Bolduc of Cudlobe Angus
for 50 Years of Membership
During the Bolduc family’s annual field day near Stavely, Alta., Canada, Dyce Bolduc was honored for 50 consecutive years of membership in the Canadian Angus Association.
Dyce Bolduc began breeding Angus cattle when he was a teenager. He is part of the third generation in the Bolduc family to raise purebred cattle in southern Alberta. The first purebred black Angus females were purchased from the 1967 dispersal sale of the Apache Angus herd at Nanton, Alta.
Bolduc served as president of the Canadian Angus Association (CAA) in 2005. Today, he and his wife Adrianna, along with their children Steven, Kevin and Kaitlynn, all play active roles in the smooth operation of the Cudlobe herd which exceeds 600 mother cows. Their breeding program emphasizes carcass traits, so that their customers, and more specifically the commercial cattlemen who frequent their sales, can produce premium beef that brings in higher performance, yield and profits. The Bolduc family works hard to maintain connections with the industry and with their customers, using the cattle show circuit as a method to promote their genetics to producers across Canada and internationally.
View the full CAA news release online.
Online Tool Could Help Predict Forage,
Other Conditions for Cattle Producers
A crystal ball to see into the future may be every agricultural producers’ dream, and two Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientists are integrating a tool to give cattle producers a 90-day glimpse.
The online tool being piloted by rangeland ecologists Bill Fox and Jay Angerer at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Temple, along with collaborators from the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and the Texas Grazing Land Coalition, could change the way cattle producers monitor their operations and plan for the future.
The project is designed to bring several forecasting tools together in an innovative, collaborative way and make them available in one dashboard to help producers and landowners make informed decisions about their landscape and grazing requirements, Fox said.
“Having information that might help them estimate their forage quantity and quality, potential changes in body condition scores of their cattle and provide weather forecasts and cattle market trends could help them make an informed decision about their supplemental feeding programs or whether they might want to sell cattle or hold on to them,” Fox said.
Learn more in the AgriLife news release online.
Clemson Hay Production Clinic
Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service will host a hay clinic featuring the latest technology and practices in hay production Sept. 19 at 4 p.m., Edisto REC 64 Research Rd., Blackville, S.C. 29817.
Classes will include:
- new and emerging hay production technologies
- weed control research and new product update
- hay field safety
- hay field diversification
Registration and a meal will be free for those attending.
For more information, visit the Angus Journal Virtual Library calendar of upcoming events.
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