Bringing an animal health product to market requires a lot of testing – not just on how that product affects the animal, but also how it affects the meat that comes from that animal. That’s what a group of farm media folks, including myself, learned about this week at Iowa State University in Ames, courtesy of Elanco Animal Health. Pictured …
Beef Quality Counts
“In today’s consumer-driven environment, just one bad beef-eating experience has the potential for long-term impact for all segments of the food chain,” says Dr. Ken Prusa of Iowa State University. I will be hearing about that from Dr. Prusa and colleagues Dr. Floyd McKeith, University of Illinois, and Dr. Keith Belk, Colorado State University, at a sensory briefing and wet …
On the Air in the Hallway
The Missouri Corn Growers Association held a seminar last week in conjunction with their annual meeting on “Profiting in the New Paradigm – Feed and Fuel Security.” The focus was on how corn growers and livestock producers can work together to produce ethanol and still feed cows and pigs and chickens at a reasonable price. One of the speakers was …
Covering the President
Covering the visit of President Bush to the Advancing Renewable Energy conference in St. Louis made for an interesting day. It was most amazing to me how incredibly tight security was, especially for the press. The general convention attendees had more freedom than the press. The “local media” were confined to a “pen” – that’s what they called it – …
Farm Media at the Renewable Fuels Conference
The Advancing Renewable Energy Conference this week in St. Louis is subtitled “An American Rural Renaissance” and the media here have gotten an eduation in the importance of agriculture to the future energy security of this nation. The farm media here, like Peter Shinn with Brownfield Network, already knew that. It’s been very gratifying to hear so much about agriculture …
Johanns at the ID INFO EXPO
Second day of the National Institute for Animal Agriculture ID INFO Expo was a busy one, between the Secretary of Agriculture and the protesters. A small but vocal group gathered outside the Westin in Kansas City with signs and umbrellas saying “No to NAIS.” I figured that about 99 percent of the people passing by on Grand Avenue had no …
The Place For NAIS
I have been here at the National Institute for Animal Agriculture ID INFO Expo in Kansas City working on their virutal press room. Pretty cool idea, actually. I sent out a document file to agricultural media yesterday with links to interviews I did with all the representatives of the Species Working Group for the National Animal Identification System, as well …
Tres Chic for Pig Posting
I had to pose for a picture in the ISU wet lab during the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Inc. PCVAD update meeting with my overalls and plastic booties to keep germs away from either me or the lab, not sure which. I admit to being a pretty big weenie when it comes to looking at guts, but I held up well …
CSI: Circovirus Swine Investigation
Pigs are dying. The question is why? Is it simply the presence of PCV2, which is found in virtually every swine herd worldwide? Or is it the co-factors? PRRS? Mycoplasma? Salmonella? What is their motive? That is what the Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Inc. (BIVI) project known as MAGIC – or Monitoring Assignment for a Global Insight into Circovirus associated diseases …
Stalking a Killer
The swine industry has become increasingly alarmed just in the past year or two about the incidence of what has become known as PCV-AD, or Porcine Circovirus Associated Diseases. At a PCV-AD update meeting sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. last week, veterinarians and members of the media were updated on the latest information available about this emerging disease complex. …