Feedstuffs in Focus

Kicking off this year's holiday season will be a couple of  real turkeys. That is, turkeys raised  by National Turkey Federation chairman Ron Kardel and his wife Susie  on their farm near Walcott, Iowa. They have produced the birds for this year's National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation at the White House. The Kardels will be accompanying the birds to the White House this week and pres...

Feed ingredients imported into the U.S. from countries with known foreign animal disease risks, such as African swine fever (ASF), present a threat to the U.S. pork industry. But just how great is this risk and where exactly does it originate when it comes to entry into the U.S.? To answer those questions, Feedstuffs editor Sarah Muirhead catches up with Dr. Scott Dee of Pipestone Veterinary Servi...

For the first time, the dairy industry has signed an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to reinforce "shared values" in the areas of environmental and economic sustainability for dairy farmers. Earlier this month EPA signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy. Lisa Watson, social responsibility officer for the Innovation Center, sa...

The “Wienermobile” is that hot-dog-on-a-bun-shaped vehicle long used by the Oscar Mayer company to promote and advertise its products in the U.S. The first Wienermobile was created by Oscar Mayer’s nephew Carl G. Mayer in 1936. Today, there are six such giant hot dog vehicles that travel the nation promoting the brand and creating miles of smile. The Wienermobile concept has evolved over the years...

Meat, poultry, dairy and grain markets were all rocked by COVID-19 in the early months of 2020, and the ongoing repercussions from the pandemic injected massive uncertainty for farmers throughout the rest of the year. As with a variety of industries, agriculture was the beneficiary of government stimulus efforts coordinated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency. In this episo...

COVID-19 injected massive disruption into the meat supply chain throughout the first half of 2020. From plant-shutdown supply shocks to foodservice-shutdown demand shocks, the animal protein markets have been rocked on a variety of fronts. But what about the consumers of meat? How has a global pandemic and relatively unprecedented economic uncertainty affected their purchasing habits and preferenc...

COVID-19 caused some significant disruption in the food system in March and April of this year, with consumers stocking up on a number of meat items, and retailers limiting the purchases of a number of staples like eggs and dairy products. That disruption fueled a spike in demand for local meat processing as consumers — many for the first time ever — sought out a small butcher or processor to sour...

With milk protein values near all-time highs, increasing milk protein is one way dairy producers can improve income over feed costs. A solid nutritional strategy will not only increase milk protein, but also improve producer profitability. Cornell University professor Mike Van Amburgh is an expert in rumen function, nitrogen metabolism and fiber digestibility. With the rise in milk protein value,...

A combination of hot temperatures, dry conditions and poor forest management practices have resulted in another year of devastating losses for farmers and ranchers in the West. Wildfires have already burned through millions of acres and continue to rage, with rains not expected for weeks . Smoke alone has caused substantial crop and soil damage as well as respiratory issues for livestock.  In this...

The coronavirus pandemic resulted in delays and extended shutdowns at numerous packing plants, all the while straining the pork industry as market hogs had to be held in facilities longer than expected. To minimize sorting losses and keep as many pigs in market condition as possible, the feed industry stepped up to help hog producers adjust their rations. The goal was that of reduced growth rates...

What has COVID-19 meant for the dairy checkoff? Where is the dairy industry and dairy checkoff heading in these pandemic times? In this episode of Feedstuffs in Focus , Feedstuffs editor Sarah Muirhead talks with Barb O’Brien, president of DMI and the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy.  We are more than seven months into a pandemic that has interrupted the daily operations of schools, food services...

Fluid milk consumption among children is vital, as adequate consumption of dairy products, especially during childhood, has beneficial health outcomes later in life. These benefits include reduced risk of osteoporosis, hypertension, obesity and cancer in adulthood. Milk consumption among children has been declining for decades, so understanding and fulfilling the needs of children is crucial to re...

Rural voters played an important role in the 2016 presidential election and appear poised to do so again in 2020. According to a recent Farm Futures survey , three-quarters of U.S. farmers say they will vote to reelect the President despite ongoing trade disruptions, falling grain prices and rising farm bankruptcies. One former U.S. Senator says farmers were not always a reliable voting bloc for t...

The University of Idaho’s Center for Agriculture, Food & the Environment – or CAFE – took a major step forward this spring with the launch of design and planning for a $22.5 million research dairy near Rupert. The dairy is scheduled for completion in 2023 and to begin milking cows by 2024. The dairy will house 2,000 cows and allow researchers to better integrate animal and plant agriculture, s...

The role of animal feed as a vehicle for the transport and transmission of viral diseases was first identified during the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) epidemic in North America.  Since that time, various feed additives have been evaluated at the laboratory level to measure their effect on viral viability and infectivity in contaminated feed using bioassay piglet models. While a valid fir...

Activated medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs) support feed biosecurity as they can weaken some viruses lurking in feed before they even enter the pigs' system. According to Stacie Crowder, monogastric product manager with PMI Nutrition , a good place to start is with a tool that does more than one job such as medium-chain fatty acids. Multifaceted, MCFAs work in more than one way to protect pigs...

Class III milk prices whipsawed between $12 and $24 per hundredweight from May to July as the effects of COVID-19 continued to work its way through the supply chain and on consumer demand for dairy products. Now five months after widespread adoption of stay-at-home orders and other pandemic mitigation strategies, what is the outlook for the dairy industry in the remaining months of a tumultuous 20...

The egg industry saw drastically different impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic when liquid egg prices decreased from $0.25 to $0.08 per pound while dried egg price decreased from $2.15 to $2.02 per pound. Meanwhile shell egg prices increased from $0.79 to $1.79 per dozen. Liquid egg producers saw dramatic price impacts despite being denied assistance under the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (C...

From endearing bleats and “bahs” to their eco-friendly way of life and nose-to-the-ground work ethic, goats are ideal partners for energy company ComEd. In this episode, Feedstuffs editor Sarah Muirhead talks with Emily Kramer, Manager of Vegetation Management for Commonwealth Edison, about ComEd’s “Goatternship” program. The program, now in its second year, involves some 200 goats taking their pl...

In this episode, Feedstuffs editor Sarah Muirhead talks with Dr. Scott Dee of Pipestone Applied Research about a demonstration project conducted to evaluate viral survival in feed.  A demonstration project is a new way of taking what has been learned in the lab and running a trial under more real-world conditions. In this case, Dee took samples of soybean meal, conventional and organic, lysine, ch...

Summer grilling season is in full swing, even with the shadow of COVID-19 putting something of a damper on spirits and the size of backyard gatherings. For the pork industry, as consumers fire up the grill, it’s a chance for packers, processors and producers to work through a backlog of hogs created by plant closures necessitated by the spread of the novel coronavirus. In this episode, we talk wit...

The U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement – what some policy watchers have referred to as “NAFTA 2.0” – went into effect July 1. Economists and ag policy groups generally hailed NAFTA and its successor agreement as huge wins for farmers and food producers with Mexico and Canada serving as the largest export markets for U.S. farm products. Former U.S. secretary of agriculture Tom Vilsack serves as the presi...

For shell egg producer, MPS Egg Farms, the COVID-19 pandemic has meant struggles to meet demand, keep grocery store shelves stocked and make sure employees are kept safe. In this episode of Feedstuffs in Focus, Feedstuffs editor Sarah Muirhead talks with Sam Krouse, vice president of business development at MPS, to get his perspective on egg industry challenges brought about by COVID-19. The egg i...

While all segments of the agriculture industry have felt pain from COVID-19, perhaps no single segment has felt it quite as acutely as the pork industry. From the agony of euthanizing animals due to packing plant closures to the lingering stress of low prices, the nation’s swine producers have been dealt an incredibly raw hand in 2020. What does the outlook for hog prices and pork values hold in t...

It’s been a tough row to hoe for cattle producers this year, as COVID-19 disrupted the normal flow of beef through the foodservice and retail channels, with restaurants largely closing and grocery stores struggling to meet panic-fueled demand in a relatively short period of time. Cutout values skyrocketed but prices paid for cattle fell as plants slowed line speeds or shutdown altogether as worker...