U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced eligible livestock producers will receive disaster recovery assistance through the Emergency Livestock Relief Program for 2023 and 2024 Flood and Wildfire (ELRP 2023 and 2024 FW) to help offset increased supplemental feed costs due to a qualifying flood or qualifying wildfire in calendar years 2023 and 2024. The program is expected to provide approximately $1 billion in recovery benefits. Sign-up begins on Monday, September 15. Livestock producers have until October 31, 2025, to apply for assistance. A list of approved counties is available at fsa.usda.gov/elrp.
CattleCon 2026 registration, sponsored by Merck Animal Health, is open! Register early for best hotel selection with CattleCon’s housing blocks. Register here.
J. David Carlin, senior vice president of legislative affairs and economic policy for the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), recently announced his plans to retire at the end of 2025 following nearly four decades in leadership positions across the food and agriculture sector, including 11 years with IDFA. The association has begun a national search for Mr. Carlin’s successor to lead IDFA’s Government Relations team.
More than 100 pork producers from 20 states traveled to Washington, D.C., this week to call on Congress to deliver an urgent legislative fix to California’s Proposition 12, which is driving up costs for consumers, threatening small family farms, and disrupting interstate commerce. During their time on Capitol Hill, producers met with Members of Congress and staff to share firsthand accounts of how Prop. 12’s costly requirements are forcing sweeping changes across the pork supply chain. Producers emphasized that without federal action, family farms will be left behind, and pork prices could continue to rise. As part of the fly-in, the National Pork Producers Council rolled out a food truck on Capitol Hill, serving breakfast to lawmakers, staff, and media. Branded with the message “Breakfast is Essential. So is Fixing Prop 12,” the truck spotlighted how a patchwork of state laws, spurred by Prop. 12, threatens affordable access to everyday staples like bacon, ham and sausage.
The organizations within the Voice of Milk — Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative, Dairy Business Association and Minnesota Milk Producers Association — along with Farmers for Sustainable Food have embarked on a new strategic plan to provide more relevant, reliable and innovative programs and resources to their members and other stakeholders.
The Institute for Feed Education and Research (IFEEDER) and American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) are excited to welcome two new staff members who will support both organizations in their respective roles. Yuan-Tai Hung, Ph.D., joins the IFEEDER team as the senior manager of research, and Marisa Halbstein joins the communications team as the marketing and program development specialist.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) have started the process to rescind the illegal, Biden-era “Public Lands” rule. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) and Public Lands Council (PLC) challenged the rule in a 2024 lawsuit because it violated the multiple use mandate and would have paved the way for the federal government to remove family ranching operations and other uses from these working lands.
The International Poultry Welfare Alliance (IPWA) invites students from aroundnthe world to submit their original research for the 2026 Student Award of Excellence, a competition designed to showcase innovation and leadership in poultry welfare.
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) has opened applications for spring 2026 semester internships in the association’s Colorado headquarters and Washington, D.C. office. Internships are available for public policy, producer education and sustainability, and meetings and events. All internships run from January to May 2026 and are paid positions. Applications are due by October 6, 2025. For more information and to apply, please visit ncba.org and click on the careers tab.
