Unveiling

More than 230 of Colvin’s family and friends gathered Nov. 15 for the dinner and unveiling at the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center, where the gallery has been located since 1977.

During his 55 years in animal agriculture, Colvin served as a farm manager and herdsman, earning the coveted John B. Brown Memorial Trophy for herdsman of the year in 1963.

He then served as fieldman for the American Angus Association beginning in 1968, and he established Colvin Angus Farm soon after.

Most noted role

By 1978, Colvin’s vision, integrity and determination led him to embark on his most noted role of brand creator and beef marketer with the Certified Angus Beef brand.

As executive director for 22 years, Colvin took the concept of identifying and marketing beef with consumer-focused quality specifications to a worldwide brand.

Certified Angus Beef product became the benchmark for quality beef within the food industry and a catalyst for consumer-driven approaches to cattle and beef marketing.

Colvin’s portrait was painted by Richard Halstead, Evanston, Ill.

Meat Industry Hall of Fame

Colvin was also among the 21 charter members inducted into the Meat Industry Hall of Fame Oct. 27 at Chicago’s Union League Club. Honorees were recognized for dedicating their careers to advancing the meat and poultry industries.

This progesterone Controlled Intravaginal Drug Release is a steroid hormone that allows out-of-season breeding in sheep.

Data

The data to support this approval were gathered in collaboration with the National Research Support Project-7, a USDA program intended to support the approval of new animal drugs for minor species of agricultural importance.

Clinical researchers funded by National Research Support Project-7 grants conducted the studies to support the effectiveness, target animal safety, human food safety and environmental safety of the progesterone Controlled Intravaginal Drug Release.

These data were made available in a Public Master File in March 2009. The pharmaceutical company was able to use these data in conjunction with its own manufacturing, labeling and other information to complete the new animal drug application.

Manufactured

EAZI-Breed Controlled Intravaginal Drug Release Sheep Insert is manufactured by Pharmacia and Upjohn, a division of Pfizer, Inc., New York, N.Y.

This map identifies the order in which genesare located along each of maize’s 10 chromosomes and the physical distances between those genes.

Additional information provided by the new maize genome sequence includes the locations on chromosomes of interesting, repeated sections of DNA (called centromeres) that are responsible for the faithful inheritance of those chromosomes by daughter cells during cell division.

This new genome sequence represents a major watershed in genetics because it promises to advance basic research of maize and other grains and help scientists and breeders improve maize crops, which are economically important and serve as globally important sources of food, fuel and fiber.

Research team

The new maize sequence was produced by a consortium of researchers that was led by the Genome Sequencing Center at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., and included the University of Arizona, Iowa State University and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York.

Real-world applications

Accompanying the announcement of the new maize genome sequence is a “Perspective” on the sequence.

The same issue also announces the results of two other NPGI-funded studies that were enabled by the new maize sequence.

One of these studies produced a so-called HapMap of the maize genome, which describes the genetic differences between various strains of maize that are currently bred around the world.

This resource will help researchers identify the genes that control various maize traits.

The other NPGI-funded study that also appears issue builds on the new maize genome sequence by identifying a surprisingly widespread biological process that determines the level of expression ofcertain genes present in hybrid strains of maize.

The issue also reports on the sequencing by a Mexican consortium led by Luis Herrera-Estella of CINVESTAV, Irapuato, Mexico of the popcorn variety Palomero toluqueno, which is bred in central Mexico.

Comparisons between Palomero toluqueno and the NSF-funded genome sequence, which is from a maize strain that is inbred in mid-western regions of the U.S., reveals important clues about how maize has been domesticated over the last 10,000 years and highlights the importance of biodiversity.

Significance

This new maize sequence provides significant refinements over the draft sequence that was announced in February 2008. These refinements include the elimination of redundancy and improvements in the ordering and orientation of chromosomal segments.

Because maize has served as a model plant for basic genetics research for the last 100 years, the completion of its genome sequence has important implications for basic research — as already evidenced by the immediate publication of the two companion papers in Science.

In addition, the Nov. 20 issue of PLoS Genetics features an editorial on the new maize sequence and 10 more companion studies — each of which either provides background information on the development of the maize sequence or uses the new maize sequence to produce additional insights into maize genetics.

In addition to advancing research on maize, the maize genome sequence is also expected to advance other cereal genome sequencing projects, such as those for wheat and barley.

A daunting task

The maize sequencing project, which was initiated in 2005, is a notable achievement because it was completely quickly and because the maize genome is among the most challenging genomes sequenced to date.

The complexityof the maize genome is partly due to its size: with 2.5 billion base pairs covering 10 chromosomes, the maize genome is almost as big as the human genome.

The complexity of the maize genome is also partly due to the fact that about 85 percent of its DNA is composed of transposable elements — segments of DNA that can move between locations.

The rumen is an organ that allows beef and dairy cattle to detoxify anything they might eat, said Ron Lemenager, Purdue Extension beef management specialist.

Be cautious

However, he said growers should be cautious because the rumen does have its limitations.

“The concern that I have, as a nutritionist, in feeding moldy corn is for the replacement heifer,” Lemenager said. “It’s in those diets that we feed a little more corn to help them reach the target 65 percent of mature weight by the time they enter the breeding season next year.

“We know the toxin zearalenone has the potential to cause negative effects on conception rates and fertility in these breeding females.”

Tamilee Nennich, Purdue Extension dairy cattle nutrition specialist, said lactating cattle are more sensitive to zearalenone than beef cattle because of their increased feed intake and milk production.

Percentage

Nennich said growers should keep in mind how much corn the animals get as a percentage of their diet versus the single ingredient.

“In a typical diet, corn probably makes up about 20 percent, but it depends on the feeds available in the area and costs,” she said. “This does cause a dilution effect.”

Ideally as a part of the total diet, deoxynivalenol levels should be 300-500 parts per billion or less and zearalenone should be 200-300 parts per billion or less, Nennich said.

However, short-term research studies have found no side effects from feeding higher levels, up to 6 parts per million, she said.

Nennich and Lemenager both recommend that growers work with their nutritionist to identify a diet with the resources available that meets the nutritional needs of their livestock.

Add a binding agent

One thing growers can do is to add a binding agent to the diet, which has been shown to have a positive effect on milk production, Nennich said.

Cattle going off feed, reduced milk production and weight loss are all signs toxin levels are too high for the rumen to detoxify.

“If you notice any of these signs, the best option is to remove the feed and replace it with a new source,” Nennich said. “If that’s not possible, consider diluting it with other feeds and adding binders.”

Moldy corn can be diluted with good corn, soybean hulls, hay and other feed sources.

Lemenager and Nennich agree that dried distillers grains with solubles is a good feed source, but there could be issues if the corn taken to the ethanol facilities has mycotoxins.

“The fermentation process might destroy the molds, but it doesn’t remove mycotoxins,” Lemenager said. “In fact, it multiplies them threefold.”

Ideal

The ideal thing, he said, would be if producers can get an indication of what the levels are before purchasing or feeding, which would allow a diet to be formulated around it.

That evaluation was released at the 2009 NMPF annual meeting in Grapevine, Texas by Scott Brown of the University of Missouri, a nationally-known farm policy expert who is regularly called on by the U.S. Congress to assess agricultural economic issues.

Brown evaluated the impact of Cooperatives Working Together’s two completed herd retirements in 2009, along with the lingering effect of the two conducted in 2008, as well as the herd retirement in 2007.

Positive contributions

He also noted positive contributions to price because of the bred heifer option that Cooperatives Working Together has offered in recent years, along with Cooperatives Working Together’s Export Assistance program, which while dormant this year, was active in 2007 and 2008.

Brown’s analysis showed that the combined effect of Cooperatives Working Together’s cow-removal programs, as well as its export assistance program, helped raise farm-level milk prices by $1.54 per hundredweight this year, and added $2.4 billion to farm-level milk receipts in a year when dairy income is expected to shrink by more than $10 billion because of the global recession.

The program has produced an average return of $0.67/cwt. since 2004, Brown reported.

Cooperatives Working Together has been funded by a 10 cents/cwt. membership fee since 2007; prior to that, membership was 5 cents/cwt.

Economic models

In calculating the impact of Cooperatives Working Together, Brown said that his economic models account for the variety of supply and demand factors that affect farm-level milk prices, including the potential production response of some farmers due to the higher prices generated by Cooperatives Working Together.

Brown noted that his estimate of the 2009 Cooperatives Working Together impact will likely change again, since Cooperatives Working Together is in the middle of executing its third herd retirement of 2009.

This current round is in the middle of removing an additional 26,000 cows, but the final results of that effort have yet to be tallied.

Brown said that each herd retirement has an impact that lasts several years, and that the two herd retirements of 2008, and the three this year, will continue to produce significant gains for farmers into 2010.

Funding

Cooperatives Working Together is being funded by dairy cooperatives and individual dairy farmers, who are contributing 10 cents per hundredweight assessment on their milk production through December 2010.

The money raised by Cooperatives Working Together’s investment is being apportioned between two supply management programs that strengthen and stabilize the national all milk price.

More information

For more on Cooperatives Working Together, visit www.cwt.coop.

Eligible material owners may be eligible for matching payments for delivery of eligible material to CQ Fire Makers, LLC.

Contact information

The contact information for this facility is listed on Farm Service Agency’s Biomass Crop Assistance Program Web site at www.fsa.usda.gov/energy.

Owners of eligible material in Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Cameron, Centre, Clearfield, Clinton, Elk, Huntingdon, Indiana, Jefferson, Lebanon, Lycoming and Somerset counties in Pennsylvania may contact their nearest Farm Service Agency county office to begin applying for collection, harvest, storage and transportation matching payments.

The collection, harvest, storage and transportation matching payments are paid at a rate of $1 for $1 per dry-ton equivalent received from a qualified biomass conversion facility, not to exceed $45 per dry-ton equivalent.

An eligible material owner is able to receive payments for a period of two years.

The purpose of the matching payments is to assist biomass producers with the collection, harvest, storage and transportation cost of delivering biomass to a qualified biomass conversion facility.

Must apply

Eligible material owners or producers, who market eligible material to a qualified biomass conversion facility, must apply for the collection, harvest, storage and transportation matching payment program at their nearest Farm Service Agency county office before the eligible material is delivered.

Eligible material owners must provide an agreement with the qualified biomass conversion facility as part of an application for a collection, harvest, storage and transportation matching payment.

After the product is delivered, a producer must provide Farm Service Agency with documentation of product quantity, quality and payment rate.

County offices will validate payment requests with information provided under the terms of the agreement with the qualified biomass conversion facilities.

Also qualified

Bakery Feeds-Honey Brook Plant is also now qualified under the program, and owners of eligible material in Chester County, Pa., may contact their nearest Farm Service Agency county office to begin applying for collection, harvest, storage and transportation matching payments.

Thursday night’s speaker Jeanne Carver and her husband, Dan, own the historic Imperial Stock Ranch in north central Oregon where they raise beef and lamb.

About 10 years ago when markets began drying up, she became creative, marketing her beef and lamb to high-end restaurants and eventually venturing into wool apparel and fashion.

From what she calls “sunlight energy” wool products, Carver has successfully entered global fashion and competes in high couture runway shows.

FairTax

Considering that Oregon is a state with no sales tax, it was interesting to hear speaker Tom Wright report that even in Oregon there is support for the FairTax, which would replace all the other federal taxes with a federal retail sales tax.

It would eliminate the federal income tax, estate taxes, capital gains taxes, social security taxes, corporate taxes, etc. He assured this audience of farmers that under the FairTax, all items used on the farm to produce crops and livestock would be considered wholesale items and not subject to the tax.

Another informative speaker was economics professor David Kohl from Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Va. To get an indication of the economy six months in advance, he advised, “Ask an over-the-road truck driver if he’s getting backhauls.”

Kohl predicted there would be more minorities and women in agriculture, pointing out that an increasing amount of farmland is owned by females over 65.

TV show

A highlight of the meeting was a preview of the first episode of a new American Agri-Women TV show which will soon air nationwide. A schedule of the TV shows and listing of times will be posted on the organization’s Web site.

The episode featured an interview with commodity broker Betty Corbin of Towanda, Kan., and farmwife Susan Dodsworth of Franklin, Ill. Both women are American Agri-Women members.

Named for the bread that rises and permeates the air, two women received American Agri-Women’s highest honor, the Leaven Award: Vicky Maaske, Horicon, Wis., and Wanda Kinney, Carbondale, Kan.

The Veritas Award, presented to someone outside of agriculture who speaks for truth, was given to George Taylor. Until recently Taylor was Oregon State climatologist, but disagreed with global warming extremists in the political sphere.

New officers

New officers elected at the meeting were first vice-president for vital issues Karen Yost, Billings, Mont., and vice-president for communications Linda Swiercinsky, Maquon, Ill. Carolyn Kleiber of Hillsboro, Kan., was re-elected treasurer.

Elected to American Agri-Women’s educational arm, the Resource Center, were Ardath DeWall, Shannon, Ill., Julie Tesch, Minneapolis, Minn., and Jacquie Compston, Wellington, Nev.

Before handing over her gavel as president, Marcie Williams of Croton, Ohio, selected three members for special recognition: Dolly Lillis of Dalton Gardens, Idaho, Joanna Wilson, Manhattan, Kan., and Geraldine Ottosen, Junction City, Ore.

In the installation ceremony, Chris Wilson of Manhattan, Kan., was elevated to the position of president.

American Agri-Women is the nation’s largest coalition of farm, ranch and agribusiness women, with 50 state, commodity, agribusiness affiliate organizations and collegiate chapters throughout the country.

American Agri-Women is a volunteer organization working to provide true information about agriculture to the public since 1974.

More information

For more information, contact Wilson at president@americanagriwomen.org or 785-537-6171 or visit the American Agri-Women Web site at http://www.americanagriwomen.org.

WALNUT CREEK, Ohio — This year’s winner of the fifth-grade farm tour essay contest wrote an account “unlike any we’ve ever had before,” Holmes Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor Harold Neuenschwander remarked.

His comments were made during the district’s annual banquet Nov. 19 at the Carlisle Village Inn in Walnut Creek. But he wasn’t putting down the young girl who wrote it.

Creative essay

Marris Hoffee, a fifth-grader at Lakeville Elementary School, came to the podium and read her creative recount of the tour called I’m coyote.

The essay portrayed the point of view of a coyote, and the observations this crafty, carnivorous mammal may have made from a day spent at Tom and Sarah Miller’s Holmes County beef farm.

From farm safety to farm production and decades of change in farm size, Marris’ essay combined humor and fact to introduce readers to the curious, primitive nature of a prowling coyote, while at the same time sharing all that she had learned.

Students from West Holmes and East Holmes, as well as Holmesville Elementary schools participated in the annual tour.

Taking second place was Brooke Stutzman, of Walnut Creek Elementary School, and third went to Angela Miller, of Chestnut Ridge Elementary School.

Award winners

The Friend of Conservation Award went to Bob Ramseyer, who helped form the Alpine Cheese Nutrient Trading Program — a collaborative effort to help the country’s exclusive producer of Jarlsberg cheese expand operations and reduce its ratios of phosphorous discharge.

Alpine Cheese collaborated with the Holmes SWCD, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and Ohio State University’s Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center to complete the project, which allowed the company to expand operations and later provided a model for farmers within the county.

The Conservation Farm Award went to Steven Hershberger and his family, of state Route 643 near Farmerstown.

Supervisors honored

Tim Brumme was re-elected to the board of supervisors and Ferman Wengerd was newly elected.

Members still serving terms include Jim Croskey Jr., Jason Schuch and Harold Neuenschwander.

The district also honored Mike Fair, who had been a board member since 2001 and decided not to seek re-election.

Accomplishments

The district accomplished many of its conservation-specific goals this year, which led to reducing the impact on water quality from livestock farms, reducing sedimentation to water bodies and increasing public awareness of conservation issues. Sixteen farmers participated in the district’s cover crop program, seeding nearly 1,600 acres to oats, more than 750 to rye and more than 200 to rye grass.

Considering that bare ground loses an average of 1.5 tons of soil per year, officials figure the county saved 3,873 tons of soil with the cover crop program.

At the top

The county also continues many high rankings in the state, being first in the number of licensed dairy farms (counting Grade A and Manufacturing grade milk), second in farms with $1,000 or more in annual sales, and second in acres harvested of both oats and hay.

Holmes County fifth-graders Angela Miller (left), Brooke Stutzman and Marris Hoffee show the trophies they won in the essay contest for the Tom Graham Fifth-Grade Farm Tour. Hoffee took first place, giving a coyote’s perspective of farming.

Maybe, but one election result from early November leaves plenty of room for thought, idle or otherwise.

On Nov. 3, Ohio voters overwhelmingly approved Issue 2, a statehouse-directed ballot initiative to create a “Livestock Care Standards Board.”

The 13-member, all-appointed board, according to its advocacy group, Ohioans for Livestock Care, was necessary because “out-of-state extremist groups” were licking their vegetarian lips to make Ohio the next California: greenie-weenies looking to ban “modern” livestock tools.

Implied target

The group never said who the hog huggers were but the implied target was the Humane Society of the U.S., the 11-million-member group that lists as a key mission to “target” the “worst cruelties of farming in modern agribusiness such as confinement of animals in crates and cages.”

Thus the pre-emptive campaign by Livestock Care: beat the weenies at their ballot game and ask voters to permit Ohio to name its own “farmers, veterinarians, scientists, consumers and food safety experts” to use “their best knowledge in making decisions affecting animal agriculture.”

It was such a wonderful idea that supporters lined up fast. They included the big farm and commodity groups, Gov. Ted Strickland, the state’s Catholic bishops and even eight county sheriffs.

All intended to out-organize, out-hustle, out-spend and, if necessary, out-lawyer opponents of their “we-know-best” plan.

And they did. Initiative 2 passed by a greenie-grinding 64-36 percent.

Biggest opponents

Initiative 2’s biggest opponents, however, weren’t Al Gore acolytes. In fact, the biggest anti-2 group to emerge was a coalition that included the Ohio Farmers Union, the Ohio Ecological Food and Farming Association, the Ohio Sierra Club and Food & Water Watch, a Washington, D.C. consumer rights group.

The group, naming itself Ohio Against Constitutional Takeover, or Ohio ACT, fought the agbiz-backed initiative because it claimed the law would not protect small farmers and consumers. Instead, it warned, the law would “clear the way for factory-style animal operations to self-regulate” mega-livestock operations.

Not so, countered supporters. Ohioans want “safe, affordable, locally grown food” and the best way to assure this would be to keep the “extremists” — whose agenda “could lead to higher costs … put food safety at risk … (and) cause thousands of family farms to go out of business…” — at bay with Initiative 2.

The devil himself

Whoa. Given those dire consequences, even the devil himself would have voted for Initiative 2.

But the agbiz gang couldn’t take the chance their self-serving self-regulator might be stillborn. It bankrolled a high-dollar campaign to sell the invention. And it wasn’t a one-horse, two-pig operation.

According to an Oct. 23 analysis of Initiative 2 contributors by Ohio ACT, ag’s big boys contributed $2.7 million of the $4 million raised to support it.

Ag’s biggest boys — just 12 of ‘em — dropped $1.4 million, or 35 percent of all contributions, into the pot.

Those select few included the Ohio Farm Bureau which kicked $505,185 into the campaign, the National and Ohio Pork Producer councils gave $213,000 and the United Egg Producers and Ohio Poultry Association poured in $300,000.

Time will tell

And, not surprisingly, Initiative 2 passed without much discussion over the new panel’s authority, accountability, constitutionality or whether big ag’s big hand on the state’s livestock tiller is the right one for all Ohio’s farmers, consumers and environment. Time will have to tell.

Until then, however, we do know that the livestock model long advocated by Big Ag has, in just the last year, delivered tens of billions in red ink and hundreds of millions in taxpayer bailouts to the nation’s — including Ohio — ever-shrinking number of beef, hog and dairy farmers.

But, hey, that’s just one devil’s advocate thoughts.