- Southeast and Mid-South catfish farmers can apply for $11 million in assistance for catfish feed losses due to declared federal disasters that occurred between January 2005 and February 2007. The funding, which will be distributed by the departments of agriculture in 11 catfish-growing states, is part of $1 billion in payments under the Crop Disaster, Livestock Compensation and Livestock Indemnity Programs that USDA began making in mid-December. Mississippi, which has the largest catfish pond acreage in the nation, will receive $8.12 million; followed by Alabama at $3.12 million; Florida, $34,879.25; Idaho, $6,968; and Oklahoma, $5,651.10.
- VeraSun Energy Corp. announced the appointment of Chief Financial Officer Danny Herron to the additional post of president, effective Jan. 1, 2008. Herron joined VeraSun as senior vice president and CFO in March 2006. Previously he was executive vice president and CFO at Swift & Company, a Greeley, Colo., processor of fresh beef and pork products. Prior to that, Herron was vice president and senior financial officer at Conagra Beef Company and held senior-level positions with Borden Foods Company and Frito-Lay Inc.
- In October 1995, 70 equine scientists from 20 nations met in Lexington to kick off the Horse Genome Project, the equine cousin of the $2.7 billion Human Genome Project. Now, after 12 years of work by researchers scattered around the world, the Horse Genome Project is poised to radically change the horse world. Experts say the project could lead to better vaccines to prevent infectious diseases in horses, as well as new treatments for equine respiratory and allergic disorders. It is expected to provide breeders with valuable new insights into planning which stallions and mares to mate. It will make it easier to identify horses that carry genetic abnormalities or illnesses. In addition, new understanding, coupled with controlled breeding, potentially could eliminate many equine genetic diseases. And the project one day could reveal ways of preventing equine illnesses such as laminitis.
