Animal Ag Bites 6/17

Carrie Muehling

  • National Beef Packing Company, LLC now owns the Iowa Premium beef processing facility located in Tama, Iowa. This transaction enables National Beef to expand its beef processing operations into the State of Iowa and add over 850 employees to the National Beef family.
  • The American Feed Industry Association is now accepting applications for the 2019 Feed Facility of the Year program. The winners will be recognized at the 2020 International Production & Processing Expo, being held Jan. 28-30, in Atlanta, Ga.
  • The American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) is pleased to announce that Gina Tumbarello, AFIA’s director of international policy and trade, has been reappointed to serve on the U.S. Foreign Agricultural Service’s Agricultural Technical Advisory Committee for Trade in Grains, Feed, Oilseeds and Planting Seeds.
  • The American Feed Industry Association is pleased to announce the addition of Mallory Gaines as its manager of market access and trade policy, effective June 10.
  • Expanding U.S. export markets is vital to the success of American pork producers, but trade disputes with some of our top markets, most notably China, are hampering growth and have caused severe financial harm to U.S. hog farmers, National Pork Producers Council Vice President and Counsel of Global Government Affairs Nick Giordano said at a Global Business Dialogue event in Washington, D.C. Giordano’s full remarks can be read here.
  • Connectiv, the Business Information Association, announced winners of its second annual Connectiv Innovation Awards, which included WATT Global Media in the category of Leveraging Ecosystem Partners. Andy Smith, Director of Innovation & Technology for WATT Global Media, accepted the award at the Connectiv Executive Summit on May 16, 2019. WATT’s award was for “Using Digital Convergent Technology (DCT) to Optimize Production Workflow.”
  • Kristyn Nigon was selected as the 2019 Vita Plus summer intern. She will be working with the Vita Plus Loyal team to gain experience in dairy management and the feed industry, as well as conduct her own research project and learn more about Vita Plus for the duration of the summer.
  • The National Pork Board is seeking applicants for the 2019 student social forces team. The applications are open now through July 8 at Pork.org/SocialForces. The social forces team will advocate for pig farming through social media usage. Selected applicants who successfully complete all outlined milestones will be eligible for a $500 scholarship.
  • U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced that signup begins June 17 for the new Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program, the cornerstone program of the dairy safety net that helps dairy producers manage the volatility of milk and feed prices, operated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency.
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