News Update
April 5, 2018
Newly Redesigned Angus Journal Wins “Best In Class” Award
The historic Angus Journal magazine is again making history. After an unprecedented redesign that rolled out in January, the Angus Journal is being recognized for its new look. The magazine will receive the “Best In Class” Star of Excellence Award for outstanding achievement in the magazine category at this year’s Printing Industry Midwest Association annual Star of Excellence Awards April 26, 2018. Angus Media and the Midstates Group, the South Dakota printer, are being recognized for the production of the January 2018 edition.
“The Angus Journal editorial team has been working really hard the past several months to continue to improve the magazine through the redesign,” said Rick Cozzitorto, Angus Media president. “The fact that our team is being recognized above and beyond simply having an exceptional-looking publication is icing on the cake.”
Tracing its roots to 1919, the Angus Journal continues a tradition of excellence as the flagship publication for the American Angus Association. With more than 13,000 paid subscribers, it’s the primary source on the latest in beef cattle, herd management, genetics, research and technology.
Keep reading this Angus news release online.
AABP Creates Position Statement
on Raised-Without-Antibiotics Programs
Raised-without-antibiotics (RWA) programs for cattle production have become increasingly popular with consumers. However, when an animal in one of these programs needs antibiotic treatment for an illness or injury, they typically cannot stay in this type of marketing program.
“As this segment of the cattle industry develops, producers and processors have looked to the bovine veterinary community for guidance on structuring these programs to both meet the needs of consumers, as well as the cattle in our care,” says Brandon Treichler, chair of an American Association of Bovine Practitioners (AABP) task force that addressed RWA programs from a cattle-care standpoint.
The AABP task force created a position statement on RWA programs, which can be found at http://aabp.org/Resources/AABP_Guidelines/AABPrwaPSfinal.pdf. The task force was formed to determine the need for AABP to have a position statement on what animal care and health factors are critical components of programs that raise cattle without antibiotics, and make recommendations on what would constitute planning for and providing of care for ill or injured animals in RWA programs as is done for cattle raised in conventional systems.
For more information, read the full AABP news release online.
New Coronavirus Emerges from Bats in China,
Devastates Young Swine
A newly identified coronavirus that killed nearly 25,000 piglets in 2016-2017 in China emerged from horseshoe bats near the origin of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), which emerged in 2002 in the same bat species. The new virus is named swine acute diarrhea syndrome coronavirus (SADS-CoV). It does not appear to infect people, unlike SARS-CoV, which infected more than 8,000 people and killed 774. No SARS-CoV cases have been identified since 2004. The study investigators identified SADS-CoV on four pig farms in China’s Guangdong Province. The work was a collaboration among scientists from EcoHealth Alliance, Duke-NUS Medical School, Wuhan Institute of Virology and other organizations, and was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health. The research is published in the journal Nature.
The researchers say the finding is an important reminder that identifying new viruses in animals and quickly determining their potential to infect people is a key way to reduce global health threats.
SADS-CoV began killing piglets on a farm near Foshan in Guangdong Province in late October 2016.
Learn more in the full NIH news release online.
USDA and SBA Join Forces to Help Businesses
in Rural America
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue and Administrator Linda McMahon, the head of the Small Business Administration (SBA), April 4 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the USDA and the SBA to promote stronger businesses and agricultural economies in rural America. The two signed the MOU in Lima, Ohio, where Perdue was joined by McMahon for a portion of Perdue’s third “Back to Our Roots” RV tour.
Under the newly signed MOU, USDA and SBA will enhance collaboration and coordination in areas of mutual interest. Specifically, such collaboration is intended to improve investment opportunities in rural areas, identify ways to increase the benefits of the Tax Cuts and Job Act of 2017, improve innovation for rural technical assistance providers, and aid rural businesses in providing tools to export products around the world, among other goals.
“Most family farms operate as small businesses, so the collaboration of USDA and SBA makes all the sense in the world,” Perdue said. “Rural America and our small Main Street businesses must know that the Trump Administration aims to increase prosperity across all economic sectors.”
Read the full USDA news release online.
NFU Calls for Plan to Protect Family Farmers
from Brunt of Trade War
In the latest of a series of tariff threats exchanged between the United States and China, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOC) April 4 announced plans to impose a 25% tariff on $50 billion worth of U.S. goods, including soybeans, corn, beef and other agricultural products.
National Farmers Union (NFU), a family farmer-led organization who supports aggressive efforts to fight unfair trade practices, is urging the Trump administration to work with Congress to develop a Farm Bill that protects family farmers from harm as a result of retaliatory tariffs. NFU President Roger Johnson issued the following statement in response to the announcement:
“These tit-for-tat tariff threats were expected from the moment the administration first engaged China. The president and his administration continue to claim there won’t be a ‘trade war,’ and that agriculture won’t feel the brunt of retaliation, but the daily news announcements indicate otherwise.
“As trade tensions escalate, Farmers Union is increasingly concerned that there is not a plan in place to protect our family farmers and ranchers who are always the first to bear the brunt of retaliatory tariffs.”
Continue reading this NFU news release online.
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