Janzen AgLaw:

Looking for a great dairy youth activity? Don't miss this year's dairy youth conference on April 21st from 10-4 EDT! This year's conference celebrates Indiana State Fair's recognition of the dairy industry by naming 2012 the Year of the Dairy Cow and will take you on a great tour of the dairy industry from start to finish. So, get ready for a conference filled with numerous hands-on activities as you will learn about cheese, dairying in other countries, cow behavior, showmanship, fitting, and much more. Everyone will get to practice with live heifers for showmanship at the conference. This conference is designed for interested dairy youth, ages 8-18, and kids from IPDP member farms can attend free of charge. For complete details, download a conference brochure here.

IDEM Answers Questions About CAFO/CFO Rule

 

As an informational resource, we are providing a list of the most commonly received questions, and their corresponding answers, received by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) during the review of CAFO and CFO applications. 

 

To see the IDEM CAFO FAQ's, click here.

 

 For clarification of any of the answers, or for answers to additional questions, please contact IDEM's ag liaison, Steve Howell at Snhowell@idem.IN.gov.

 

 

Chocolate milk making comeback

(4/14/2012)

By Sarah Muirhead for Feedstuffs

Chocolate milk is again making the news, but instead of being pulled from schools, just the opposite is occurring: School districts across the nation are welcoming it back into their lunchrooms. Over the course of the past several years, flavored milk has been a leading target of some school wellness plans aimed at reducing obesity. Pulling the product was viewed as a quick "solution," of sorts, for school officials who assumed that banning it would reduce students' weight and improve their health. The result, however, has been student, parent and teacher outrage, as well as drastic decreases in school lunch participation and milk consumption at all grade levels. Schools in Cabell County, W.Va., have seen this firsthand. The school district recently made national news for bringing back the controversial beverage. The district earlier had been a poster child for British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, who brought his reality TV show there to tout more nutritious school offerings. At the time, Oliver told the district that chocolate milk had to go. Read more.

 

Activism Resetting America's Dinnertable

 

The Humane Society and other activists say their goal is to pull back the curtain on the nation's food supply. But what is behind that curtain is often a messy sight - particularly in the meat industry, where production methods can be less than appetizing.

 

The outcry over BPI and its "pink slime" worries farmers and food processors. They argue that they are being sabotaged by opportunists who have infiltrated farming operations.

 

They also fret that agriculture is misunderstood by a public whose ties to farming were cut generations ago. About 2 percent of the nation's population lives on a farm, according to government data. "We have to stop them," Forrest Lucas, founder of the Lucas Oil Co, said of the activists. He owns a 16,000-acre cattle breeding ranch in southwest Missouri.

 

Lucas said he invested more than $600,000 to start the agriculture advocacy group Protect the Harvest and plans on spending "much, much, much more" to help back political candidates and social media campaigns to thwart critics this election year.

 

But amid this outrage, an unsettling realization is growing among the farm set: Some of these battles may already be lost. "We have to do a better job of communicating with the public and that includes listening to what they say," said Don Lipton, spokesman for the American Farm Bureau. 

 

Read the full article from AgLineNews here.

We've got a problem in the dairy industry. Did you know that the average life span of a dairy cow is only 1.8 lactations?  Did you know that this is being portrayed to the general population by well- meaning authors as unnatural and unnecessary? I was reading an article the other day titled something like "The Destructive Nature of the Modern Dairy." The author seemed to be very knowledgeable and painted a disturbing picture of suffering animals being pushed to the edge of acidosis and consequently "burning out" at a much younger age than the natural life span of a healthy cow. Things about modern dairy that are "everyday" to us were being represented as callous and even cruel. The phrase "animal abuse" was used in describing everyday farm practice, things like confinement and concrete.

 

The article was disturbing for the dairy industry because it wasn't coming from extreme animal rights activists, but a more mainstream source trying to make the public aware of some of the animal cruelty happening in their own back yard. Even more disturbing was the last section of the article called "What You Can Do About It." The author was encouraging the readers to take an active role in changing the dairy industry and rescuing the dairy cow. Several actions being encouraged by the author included:

 

1. Report any suspected animal abuse

2. Eliminate any dairy or meat products from your diet, (you and the cows will both benefit)

3. Support legislation that will protect farm animals

 

"Well," you say, "There will always be some radicals pushing an extreme agenda that will have very little impact on real life." Guess again. Before I came involved in the forage industry in the Midwest, I was a forester in Canada. We built roads into the wilderness of Northern Ontario and cut the "virgin timber" for lumber and paper products. We had this element in the population, "tree huggers" we called them,

that were always opposing what we thought was progress. We were just "doing our jobs" and providing people with the products that they wanted.

 

But the environmentalists saw it as otherwise. Read more!

April 20th is 150th Birthday of Pasteurization!

Happy birthday to the technology of pasteurization. No single process has done more to prevent to transmission of brucellosis or tuberculosis in humans. Listen here. for the Purdue Dairy Digest tribute to pasteurization.

The modern version of pasteurization was created by the renowned French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur after whom it was named. The first pasteurization test was completed by Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard on April 20, 1862. The process was originally conceived as a way of preventing wine and beer from souring. FDA's page on pasteurization is available here.

Indiana is a class free Brucellosis state, along with our surrounding states. Because of this, many dairy herds have chosen to forego calfhood vaccinations for Brucellosis. However, if you are in the business of selling heifers, you may want to look at implementing Brucellosis vaccinations for full market access, or consult with your veterinarian. We are seeing more and more western states requiring Brucellosis vaccinations for entry into their state. Sometimes, there is no access for an unvaccinated adult animal even with a negative blood test. California just announced that they are requiring Brucellosis vaccinations. In the ISBOAH April newsletter, it was reported: "Heifer calves entering California are required to be vaccinated for Brucellosis beginning July 1, 2012.  Calves must be vaccinated and bear official identification with their state-of-origin tags before entering the state." California joins Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, North Dakota, Oregon, and more. Each state has different livestock entry requirements, and sometimes exhibition and sale requirements are different.  Check with the Indiana State Board of Animal Health or your veterinarian on specific state requirements.