July 28, 2014

 
Provided by the American Dairy Science Association� (ADSA�)
in cooperation with Feedstuffs / Feedstuffs FoodLink


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Opinion and editorial content included in the Dair-e-news represent the views of the authors. 
Publication does not represent endorsement of any position by the ADSA.
 
 Ken Olson, Ph: 630-237-4961, [email protected]

Appeals court upholds FDA action on judicious use of antibiotics


 
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision July 24 supporting the Food & Drug Administration's decision to pursue a collaborative stakeholder process to implement significant changes to antibiotic use rather than a regulatory action is a welcome development, according to the Animal Health Institute (AHI).


The court, in which one of the three panel judges dissented, joins the Centers for Disease Control and the President's Council of Advisors on Science & Technology in expressing support for FDA's judicious use effort.

FDA's policy is also supported by AHI. As FDA recently reported, all 26 companies affected by the policy have pledged to align their products with the effort and changes have begun. As a result of this policy being implemented, all medically important antibiotics used in food animals will be used to fight disease at the direction of a veterinarian.


The legal challenges and citizen's petitions that are set aside by this decision have diverted agency resources from focusing on moving ahead with implementing the judicious use policy. AHI said it believes this decision will clear the way and allow FDA to focus on working with stakeholders to successfully implement this policy in a timely manner.

Read more

New technologies needed for increasing livestock production


In the next 30 years, the world's population is projected to grow by nearly 2 billion and will become more urbanized, with a more skilled workforce. The good news is that global prosperity and affluence will increase.
At the same time, the challenge will be a food supply that needs to be more than doubled in order to meet the increasing demand. Specifically, the demand for animal-sourced foods will need to be more than doubled to meet the demands of the newly affluent.

At the 2014 Joint Annual Meeting of the American Dairy Science Association and the American Society of Animal Science, Donald Nkrumah with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, Wash., explained that with fewer and fewer people engaged in agriculture, and for the sake of the planet, animal production growth cannot continue to come from the deployment of more animals and land.

Some have argued that current organic systems may be for the rich and curious and could not produce enough food to feed the world in the future. Past technologies that allowed us to advance productivity may not be enough to bring about future intensification, especially for small holders who live in areas that require attention to climatic adaptability and disease resiliency, said Nkrumah. Instead, changes in total factor productivity will need to occur through significant changes in current techniques, he said.

To transform current near-subsistence small holder production systems, Nkrumah said technological innovation will be required to drive the needed sustainable productivity increases. That means collaborative global research teams must strive to come up with new ways of developing and adapting modern concepts in biotechnology to create the next-generation of animal genetics, health, and livestock nutrition systems. These technologies will then have to be deployed affordably through context-relevant mobile communication and digital platforms to increase accessibility.

U.S. cattle inventory down 3% from 2012


As of July 1, there were 95.0 million head of cattle on U.S. farms, according to the Cattle report published July 25 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). This is the lowest inventory for July 1 since the series began in 1973.


All cows and heifers that have calved totaled 39 million, down 3% from two years ago.  Beef cows that calved equaled 39.7 million with the remainder 9.3 million being dairy cows.


In other class estimates, beef replacement heifers were estimated at 4.1 million, down 2% from 2012.  Heifer retained in dairy herds totaled 3.9 million, drop 5%.


The 2014 calf crop is expected to be 33.6 million, down 1% from 2013 and down 2% from 2012. Calves born during the first half of the year are estimated at 24.3 million, down 2% from 2013 and down 3% from 2012.

Read more
 

 

Lactation health topics bring discussion at JAM 2014  

By Matthew Borchers


Researchers and industry professionals alike were on hand for the Animal Health III: Periparturient and Lactation Health session at the 2014 Joint Annual Meeting of the American Dairy Science Association and the American Society of Animal Science. During the session, methods of quantifying and improving the health of dairy cattle around the time of calving were discussed at length.


In a University of Georgia study, OmniGen-AF was fed 60 days prior to calving in dairy heifers as an immunostimulant. A treatment group consisting of 20 heifers was observed along with a control group of the same size. Results indicated that heifers fed the supplement experienced fewer cases of retained placenta, displaced abomasum, ketosis, udder edema, and death; but no differences in mastitis prevalence, somatic cell count, or milk production were observed  between groups.


A study of an organic certified treatment for toxic puerperal metritis on cure and reproductive performance of dairy cattle also showed favorable results. Dairy cattle were treated for toxic puerperal metritis using either a control or Optimum UterFlush. Results indicated an increased recovery rate and improved reproductive performance for cattle treated with UterFlush vs. the control following occurrence of toxic puerperal metritis. A decrease in breedings per pregnancy was also observed in UterFlush treated cattle with 1.96 vs. 2.58 breedings per pregnancy vs. the control group.


Researchers from Colorado State University, Cornell University, and Elanco Animal Health have developed a new model for determining the financial impact of hyperketonemia on dairy farms. The proposed model would account for losses in future reproductive performance, production losses, death losses, and culling losses attributable to hyperketonemia. Diseases attributable to hyperketonemia and their effects were also included and the final total cost of the disease was valued at $289.00 per case. As an illustration of the impact of hyperketonemia within a 1,000 cow herd, an incidence rate of 32% would cause $92,000.00 in losses per year.


In a study conducted at the University of British Columbia, transition Holstein dairy cattle were housed in a competitive and unpredictable feeding environment before calving. Cattle were housed in groupings promoting competition for feed between cattle, and feed delivery was delayed by random hourly increments with a maximum of 2 hours. The effects of this environment on inflammation and endometritis was observed and compared to a control group. Results indicated the induced environment to have the greatest effect on second and greater lactation animals, with 64% vs. 17% endometritis occurrence in the treatment group vs. the control group. No differences were observed in first-calf heifers. Immune function was also evaluated with similar results between treatment groups.


The transition period in dairy cattle continues to be an area of needed improvement for the dairy community. Researchers and producers alike will need to work closely together in the coming years to refine management strategies, improving animal welfare and reducing losses in production and profitability.
                                                                 ______________


Matthew Borchers was raised on a dairy farm near Jackson Center, Ohio. Matthew received a B.S. from the Ohio State University and is currently working on a Master's degree focusing on Dairy Systems Management at the University of Kentucky.


ADSA and Related Happenings
 

 
The JAM Special Edition Dair-e-News

We hope that you enjoyed the added coverage of the JAM that was provided through our daily editions from Kansas City.  Thanks to Sarah Muirhead and members of the Feedstuff staff for making in possible and for the great work that they did in covering many presentations.  A special thanks to a great group from our Graduate Student Division (GSD) who provided added coverage of many sessions.  In case you missed their bylines, they were:

Amanda Stone - University of Kentucky

Adam Geiger - Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Barbara Wadsworth - University of Kentucky

Di Liang - University of Wisconsin - Madison

Karmella Dolecheck - University of Kentucky

Catie Cramer - University of Wisconsin - Madison

Matthew Borchers - University of Kentucky

We look forward to seeing you at the 2015 JAM in Orlando.  It's not too early to start making plans the homepage for the meeting is already open.

 

Meeting the Present and Future Demand for Employees with a PhD in Dairy Science -
The ADSA Foundation Symposium

A large (standing room only at times), diverse audience attended the Symposium confirming the interest in the subject matter and its importance to students, industry and academia. The complexity of the situation became evident as the presentations and discussion progressed.  An often overlooked part of the equation is that while industry wants and needs PhD's, academia is also facing significant challenges in maintaining the faculty needed to train new PhD's.  Through budget constraints, retirement and attrition faculty positions at universities are going unfilled for extended periods or being lost.  This makes it difficult or impossible to train the new PhD's that are needed for the future. We need to both assure that students being trained have the skill sets needed, but also that we have the fiscal and personnel resources needed to provide the training. 

Industry representatives highlighted some of the needs and the reasons for those needs. 

  • PhD knowledge and innovation are needed to meet the needs of a growing world population
  • Industry needs for PhD employees cover the spectrum from discovery work to application
  • Globalization brings increased complexity and increased needs to deal with political, regulatory and environmental issues that often require PhD level skills
  • Sustainability needs coupled with changing consumer demands and interests are driving changes in talent needs.

Industry is looking for:

  • People with a connection to industry who understand why what they do is important and who understand the supply chain with a commodity perspective
  • Global experience is valuable
  • Deeper technical knowledge is important, but multidisciplinary approaches are needed too
  • Interpersonal and business skills including a working knowledge of higher level statistics are more important than ever for success. 
  • Communication and problem solving skills are critical.

Industry is aware of the financial challenges faced by universities and is willing to provide support, but they often would like to identify or help identify the students to be trained and often like to see work that is likely to benefit the company. Industry internships for both undergraduate and graduate students were seen as positive ways to build relationships and provide students with a better perspective in choosing their career path. Other externships and short-term employment opportunities exist that could be expanded as well. 

From an academic perspective, many challenges exist.  State and federal funding continue to erode resulting in higher student fees. Faculty members leave the university for higher salaries offered elsewhere or the challenge of new start up opportunities. Competitive grants are critical to the university and the faculty members, but have a large overhead in researcher and staff time. Frequently several hundred hours per grant are required to make the application and in most cases a very small proportion are funded. Industry and commodity funding support for students and projects is needed and appreciated, but also bring challenges. 

  • The funding is often for a limited time, less than that required to train a student so multiple grants are needed to complete a degree. This results in a lack of focus in a program for the student and the researcher.  As a result students don't have as much opportunity to develop critical skills and become a leader in their field.
  • These challenges often limits creativity for students and faculty working with them
  • The support often has limited funding of the indirect costs universities incur in training students.  They need up to date equipment, facilities and maintenance of both as well as personnel support to provide the training that have few other ways of being met. 

Overall there was an increased awareness of the needs and challenges that exist and interest in working to address them.  There was strong interest in the group for a follow up session at JAM 2015 to look at progress that is made and explore new ways to address the needs.

 

USDA Announces Formation of FFAR Board

On July 23rd, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced the initial members of the Board of Directors for the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR).  Authorized by Congress as part of the 2014 Farm Bill, the foundation will operate as a non-profit corporation seeking and accepting private donations in order to fund research activities that focus on problems of national and international significance. Congress also provided $200 million for the foundation which must be matched by non-federal funds as the Foundation identifies and approves projects.

The Farm Bill directed USDA and the National Academies of Science to develop lists of nominees for the board.  The Farm Bill also named five ex-officio members and tasked them with making the selection of the initial board members.  The ex-officio members named in the Farm Bill are:

  • The Honorable Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture
  • Dr. Catherine Woteki, USDA's Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics and Chief Scientist
  • Dr. Chavonda Jacobs-Young, Administrator of the USDA's Agricultural Research Service
  • Dr. Sonny Ramaswamy, Director of the USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture
  • Dr. France A. C�rdova, Director of the National Science Foundation.

The initial members of the FFAR board will be:

  • Dr. Kathryn Boor - the Ronald P. Lynch Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University
  • Dr. Douglas Buhler - Director of AgBioResearch and Senior Associate Dean for Research for the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Michigan State University
  • Dr. Nancy Creamer - Distinguished Professor of Sustainable Agriculture and Community Based Food Systems, North Carolina State University
  • Dr. Deborah Delmer - Professor Emeritus of Biology, University of California-Davis
  • The Honorable Dan Glickman - former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, current Executive Director of the Aspen Institute's Congressional Program
  • Dr. Robert Horsch - Deputy Director, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
  • Pamela Johnson - Chairwoman, National Corn Growers Association
  • Dr. Mark E. Keenum - President, Mississippi State University
  • Dr. Michael Ladisch - Director of the Laboratory of Renewable Resources Engineering and Distinguished Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Purdue University
  • Dr. Christopher Mallett - Vice President of Research & Development, Cargill, Inc.
  • Dr. Pamela Matson - Chester Naramore Dean of the School of Earth Sciences, the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Professor of Environmental Studies and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University
  • Dr. Terry McElwain - Associate Director and Professor, Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health, and Executive Director, Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, Washington State University
  • Dr. Stanley Prusiner - Director of the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases and Professor of Neurology, University of California-San Francisco and 1997 Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine
  • Dr. Yehia "Mo" Saif - Professor Emeritus, The Ohio State University
  • Dr. Barbara Schaal - Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences and Mary-Dell Chilton Distinguished Professor at Washington University in St. Louis.

Biographies of the board members can be found by clicking here.  Of the 15 board members, at least five of them have significant experience with animal science, which will be important to ensure that the animal sciences have a voice as the board sets up the operating structure for the foundation and funding decisions are ultimately made.  It is expected that the newly appointed board will hold its first meeting in the next few weeks.


 

 

Help the animal and dairy science community and attend JAM 2015 for free, too!

Referrals are the most tried-and-true way businesses grow, and the same is true for the Federation of Animal Science Societies (FASS). Do you know a colleague working with an animal science group that is in need of high-quality, cost-effective support services? Help them out by referring them to Jamie Ritter, FASS Executive Director at [email protected].

Help them benefit from the shared resource concept and the 264 years of collective experience the FASS staff have in working with non-profit animal science organizations. If your referral becomes a FASS customer prior to July 1, 2015, ADSA will comp your registration to the 2015 JAM. It's win-win-win. For more information about services offered by FASS, click here.

ADSA is a founding member of FASS.

 

NEWS FROM S-PAC

We are pleased to announce the addition of 2013 AABP proceedings to S-PAC as well as those from four new conferences:  the Calf Symposium, NEDPA Conference, Herd Health and Nutrition Conference and the Operations Managers Conference. There are now 55 conferences with 495 proceedings available to subscribers.  Check out the full listing at  http://spac.adsa.org.  If you are not already a subscriber, now is a great time to join.

  

ADSA� on Linked In

Our ADSA Linked In group continues to grow.  We now have 999 members from around the world, are you one of them? It's a great place to network with other dairy professionals from around the world.  Check it out here.

 

Dates to Note:


July 30-Aug 1,   -  Fluid Milk Processing for Quality& Safety, Stocking Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. For more information and registration click here


Aug 4-6,   -   
National Mastitis Council Regional Meeting   - , Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium, For more information and registration click here

Aug 25-28,   -  European Association for Animal Production (EAAP) Annual Meeting *, Copenhagen, Denmark For more information click here

Aug 25-29,   -   9th International Ruminant Reproduction Symposium (9th RRS), Hotel Nikko Northland Obihiro, Obihiro City, Hokkaido, Japan For more information please click here

Aug. 27   -   Artisan/Farmstead Food Safety Workshop, Ithaca, NY,  Innovation Center for US Dairy, hosted by American Dairy Association and Dairy Council, Cornell University For more information and registration visit: http://www.usdairy.com/events  and scroll down to the event.


Sept. 7-9,   -  NYS Cheese Manufacturers' Association Annual Fall Meeting, Sagamore on Lake George, Bolton Landing, NY. Contact Janene Lucia 607-255-2892

Sept 8-12,   -  Joint ISNH/ISRP International Conference   - : Harnessing the Ecology and Physiology of Herbivores, National Convention Centre, Canberra, Australia.  For more information, click here

Sept. 16-18,   -  NYS Association for Food Protection Annual Conference, Syracuse, NY. For more information click here

Sept. 17 - 18,   -  75th Annual Minnesota Nutrition Conference*, Mystic Lake Casino & Hotel, Prior Lake, MN For more information click here

Sept 18 - 20,   -  American Association of Bovine Practitioners Annual Conference,* in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  For more information click here.

Sept. 23-25,   -   Cultured Dairy Products Short Course, Food Science Building,University Park, Pennsylvania, for more information visit http://agsci.psu.edu/cultured-dairy

Sept 30-Oct 4,  -  World Dairy Expo, Madison, WI.  For more information click here

Oct. 6-8,   -   11th International Symposium on Milk Genomics and Human Health, Aarhus, Denmark. For more information click here.

 

Oct 6-9,   -  28th Discover Conference on Food Animal Agriculture - Starch for Ruminants, Northern Illinois University Conference Center, Naperville, IL, for more information click here

 

Oct. 8-9,   -  Pacific Northwest Animal Nutrition Conference*, The Westin Bayshore, Vancouver, British Columbia. For more information click here

 

Oct.14-16,  -   High Temperature Short Time(HTST) Pasteurizer Workshop, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, Click here for the Course Syllabus. For more information contact Steve Murphy 607-255-2893 or Janene Lucia 607-255-2892

Oct 16-22,   -  U.S. Animal Health Association 118th Annual Meeting*, Sheraton Kansas City at Crown Center. For more information click here

 

Oct. 18-25,   -  American Dairy Goat Association Annual Meeting & Convention, DoubleTree by Hilton, Portland, Maine. For more info, call 828-286-3801 or click here.

Oct 21-23,   -  CornellNutrition Conference for Feed Manufacturers *, for more information click here

Oct 21-23,   -  Pasteurizer Operators Workshop, Penn State University, Food Science Building, University Park, PA, for registration and more information click here


Oct 27,   -   Vat Pasteurization Workshop, Stocking Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. For more information and registration
click here


Oct 28-29,   -  Basic Cheese Making Workshop, Stocking Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. For more information and registration
click here


Nov. 4,   -
  Artisan/Farmstead Food Safety Workshop, Kansas City, MO,Innovation Center for US Dairy, hosted by Midwest Dairy Association and Dairy Practices Council For more information and registration visit: http://www.usdairy.com/events  and scroll down to the event.


Nov 10-13,   -  The Science and Art of Cheese Making Short Course, Penn State University, Food Science Building, University Park, PA, for registration and more information click here


Nov. 12-13,   -  Pennsylvania Dairy Cattle Nutrition Workshop*, Holiday Inn, Grantville, PA, For more information, click here.

Nov, 13-14,   -  DCRC (Dairy Cattle Reproduction Council) Annual Meeting. Hilton Salt Lake City Center, Salt Lake City, UT. For more information click here.

Jan. 4-10, 2015 - Ice Cream Short Course, The Nittany Lion Inn, State College, PA, For more information visit http://agsci.psu.edu/ice-cream

 

Jan. 24-25, 2015 - Ice Cream 101: Introduction to Frozen Dessert, Food Science Building, University Park, PA.  For more information visit http://agsci.psu.edu/ice-cream-101

 

Mar 30 - Apr 3, 2015 -  From Waste to Worth: Advancing Sustainability in Animal Agriculture- Seattle, WA. For more information  click here.

 

*An S-PAC Partner Conference

If your organization's conference isn't among the ever growing list that contribute proceedings and presentations to S-PAC�, ask your conference organizer to contact Ken Olson for more information about the benefits of participation.

If you would like to have an event included in the "Dates to Note," please contact Ken Olson.

CHECK OUT S-PAC


Your registration material at then JAM includes information about S-PAC, the world's largest on-line database of dairy and animal science conference proceedings with 495 proceedings from 55 conferences now available to subscribers.  We've recently added our first Spanish language proceedings from the "Managing Heat Stress In Dairy Cows"road show, the English version is available as well.  We've also included the 2013 AABP proceeding and those from the recent International Colloquium on Paratuberculosis.  Check out the complete list at   http://spac.adsa.org/ .   All JAM attendees are eligible to subscribe at the member rate.  

 


 

Thanks to our Corporate Sustaining members for their ongoing support of ADSA and the Journal of Dairy Science�.

Arm & Hammer Animal Nutrition

Adisseo North America

Alltech

Akey, Inc.

Elanco Animal Health

Pfizer Animal Health

Pioneer
 
Varied Industries Corp.

SoyPLUS / SoyChlor

Diamond V Mills Inc

Kent Feeds

Grande Cheese Co.

Danisco USA Inc

Land O'Lakes Inc

Kraft Foods

GEA Farm Technologies (Westfalia/Surge)

Prince Agri Products

Novus International

BioZyme Inc.

Ag Processing Inc.

Darling International Research

Performance Products, Inc.

MIN-AD, Inc.

Quali Tech

Zook Nutrition & Management

Swedish Univ. of Agri. Sciences

 

For information on
Corporate membership
please Click here
 


  

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