News Update
May 8, 2018
BQA Programs Update
“The right way is the only way” announced Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) leadership at the 2018 Cattle Industry Convention in Phoenix this past winter. “It’s not quite the golden rule, but it’s up there,” said the narrator in the promotional video created by BQA. Watch the video here.
BQA produced the video to highlight who beef producers really are, explained Chase DeCoite, director of BQA programs, because that’s what BQA is.
In 2017, BQA launched a series of online training modules, DeCoite reported. Those modules had garnered more than 24,000 enrollees and delivered 14,000 certifications by the 2018 convention.
DeCoite reported on BQA’s efforts to join in partnership with the National Pork Board’s Pork Quality Assurance program and the sheep, rabbit and poultry industries to create a multispecies youth quality assurance program. In March of 2017, the program was launched as Youth for the Quality Care of Animals (YQCA).
“This program is really geared toward students to provide them the training opportunities appropriate for their age,” said DeCoite.
The curriculum is designed for children as young as age 5 and grows with them to make sure they are getting age-appropriate information through age 21.
Keep reading this Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA article online.
Marketing Plans Can Help Central Texas Farmers
Capitalize on Grain Markets
The impacts of potential trade tariffs on crops such as soybeans would send ripple effects through other agricultural commodities, according to a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service economist.
Mark Welch, grains marketing economist in College Station, told farmers at the Central Texas Small Grain Field Day at the McGregor Research Center that a Purdue University study recently projected a 25% import tariff by China on soybeans would result in a 37% decline in U.S. exports.
Consequently, a decline in U.S. soybean exports would lead to fewer soybean acres.
“Where are those acres going to go? They will go to corn,” Welch said. “Given where our corn prices are, we don’t really want any more corn acres.”
From decreased land values to lessening farm net worth, the potential repercussions of tariffs on exports to China could have big impacts, Welch said.
“All of this highlights the fact that these trade implications really do matter to production agriculture,” he said.
Currently, wheat farmers projecting 45-acre bushel yields at $5 per bushel can cover their costs and make some profit.
For more information, read the AgriLife news release online.
Farm Bureau Calls for Talks Before Tariffs
Warning that tariffs targeting China would ultimately hurt U.S. farmers and ranchers, the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) is urging U.S. trade officials to work with their Chinese counterparts to resolve trade concerns before resorting to tariffs.
China is the second-largest market for U.S. agricultural products, with U.S. farmers and ranchers exporting more than $19.6 billion worth of their goods to China in 2017, Dale Moore, AFBF vice president of public affairs, pointed out in recent comments to the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR).
The comments were submitted in response to a White House announcement that the United States would begin the process of imposing tariffs on Chinese exports due to concerns over Chinese practices that impact U.S. intellectual property.
In early April, the USTR released a list of $50 billion of Chinese electronics, machinery and aerospace products for a recommended 25% import tariff. In response to the U.S. recommendation of tariffs, China has released a list of products for a potential 25% retaliatory tariff. The list includes soybeans, cotton, beef, corn, wheat, sorghum, tobacco, orange juice, cranberries and more. China’s tariffs will not go into effect until the U.S. tariffs go into effect.
Learn more in the Farm Bureau news release online.
Lack of Sleep May Be Linked To Alzheimer’s Risk
Losing just one night of sleep led to an immediate increase in beta-amyloid, a protein in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease, according to a small, new study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In Alzheimer’s disease, beta-amyloid proteins clump together to form amyloid plaques, a hallmark of the disease.
While acute sleep deprivation is known to elevate brain beta-amyloid levels in mice, less is known about the impact of sleep deprivation on beta-amyloid accumulation in the human brain. The study is among the first to demonstrate that sleep may play an important role in human beta-amyloid clearance.
“This research provides new insight about the potentially harmful effects of a lack of sleep on the brain and has implications for better characterizing the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease,” said George Koob, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the NIH, which funded the study.
Beta-amyloid is a metabolic waste product present in the fluid between brain cells. In Alzheimer’s disease, beta-amyloid clumps together to form amyloid plaques, negatively impacting communication between neurons.
Continue reading this Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA article online.
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