Feedstuffs in Focus

No doubt about it. It’s a challenging time for our nation’s hog producers. With so much market uncertainty related to the COVID-19 pandemic, many are struggling and facing tough, heart-wrenching decisions. According to Jesse McCoy, business unit specialist, water treatment/animal safety, with Neogen, one thing that producers should be paying particular attention to right now is biosecurity. He bel...

Iowa might seem an unlikely location to harvest fish, but it’s the lack of fish there that makes it the perfect place, says Joe Sweeney, CEO of Eagle’s Catch. Located in Ellsworth, Iowa, his company is one of the largest fish farms in the nation and growing. The market for tilapia in the U.S. is dominated by imports. In fact, only about 5% of tilapia sold in the U.S. is actually produced domestica...

Pigs and COVID-19. We’ve all been hearing about the unfortunate shutdown of various pork packing and processing plants these last two weeks but pigs are playing another role in the current pandemic as well. In fact, it is a rather unexpected role at that.  In this episode, Feedstuffs editor Sarah Muirhead talks with University of Illinois professor Dr. Matt Wheeler about the role pigs and his team...

The country’s 500+ pet food manufacturers not only provide balanced, safe meals for America’s dogs and cats, but also stimulate the overall agricultural economy through the purchase of ingredients, labor and services from related industries. With over two-thirds of U.S. households owning a pet and over $30 billion in pet food sales, the Institute for Feed Education & Research (IFEEDER), North...

With COVID-19 positive employees becoming an increasing issue for the nation’s beef, pork and poultry processing plants, and announcements of packing plant closures becoming more commonplace, we turned to former U.S. Department of Agriculture undersecretary for food safety Dr. Richard Raymond to gain his insight on the situation. A regular columnist for Feedstuffs , Raymond graduated from the Univ...

GENYOUth , a national nonprofit organization dedicated to creating healthier school communities, announced this week the establishment of a COVID-19 Emergency School Nutrition Fund to assist schools nationwide as they strive to provide school meals containing essential nutrition to students during the coronavirus pandemic. Approximately 124,000 U.S. public and private schools across the nation are...

Water is not water is not water, at least when it comes to what’s best for livestock and poultry.  Jesse McCoy is an environmental scientist with Neogen specializing in production agriculture. He has extensive experience working with large integrated production agriculture companies as well as independent producers to implement solutions to reduce pathogen loads at production facilities.  In this...

The current state of rural internet connectivity is generally poor and particularly challenging in rural areas located farthest from major roads, cities and larger towns. For the livestock industry, a lack of connectivity can limit the technological advancements that can be adopted and implemented at the farm level. Video, sensor data, even basic data transfer all require the ability to quickly mo...

John Newton, chief economist at the American Farm Bureau Federation, has been working with Congress since late last week to try to get some sort of ag-related stimulus package through Congress. Specifically, agricultural groups are seeking an increase in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s borrowing authority up to $50 billion under the Commodity Credit Corporation. “Farmers need to know that USD...

Flatten the curve. That is the term of the day as the nation responds to the spread of COVID-19, a deadly virus of concern to human lives, particularly the elderly and immune compromised. The staff at the American Feed Industry Assn. (AFIA) has been actively monitoring developments and working to get the animal food industry’s voice heard in the many regulatory and policy discussions taking place....

Since the first trading day of the year, the April live cattle futures contract is off 25% and the April feeder cattle contract is down 22%. All segments of cattle production have taken a significant market hit over the past several weeks, sending ripples up and down the beef value chain as the market reacts to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this episode, National Cattlemen’s Beef Assn. CEO Colin Wooda...

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell nearly 13% Monday, reflecting growing fears over the spread of coronavirus in the U.S. and across Europe, and what a prolonged period of business closures and social distancing might mean for the global economy. Already down nearly 32% since Feb. 12, the Dow and other relevant financial indicators signaled the end of the great Bull Market that had run seemingl...

Some estimates suggest that just 5% of farms will produce 75% or more of America’s agricultural output by 2040. While the forces of consolidation and transformation are well known to industry leaders, the nature of the farmers of the future is open to speculation, according to new research from Scott Caine, executive vice president of Aimpoint Research. In this episode we talk with Caine about his...

Trade is hugely important to U.S. agriculture. In late February, U.S. Department of Agriculture chief economist Robert Johansson said U.S. agricultural exports will top $139.5 billion in 2020 . With ongoing trade tensions with China and growing concerns about the economic impact of a potential global coronavirus pandemic, the outlook for U.S. ag trade may be more uncertain than the numbers suggest...

As the livestock and poultry industries have become more global in nature, concern over the spread of foreign animal diseases seems to be an ever-present issue. Most recently, the rapid spread of African swine fever throughout Asia presented significant challenges to the international trade of pork and feed ingredients.  How will the U.S. swine industry react if ASF makes its way across the ocean...

Last month Walmart officially entered the beef business when it opened a case-ready beef plant in Thomasville, Ga. The plant will process whole-muscle cuts produced by Walmart’s new Angus beef supply chain for 500 stores in Florida, Georgia and Alabama. As the largest grocery retailer in the U.S., Walmart’s move toward vertically-integrating part of its beef supply sent ripples through the industr...

In this episode we hear from one of the leaders at Dairy Management Inc. , the organization working to increase demand for dairy through research, education and innovation using farmers’ dairy checkoff investment. Chad Galer is vice president of food safety and product research at DMI, where he is one of several dairy industry professionals working to grow the dairy category on behalf of farmers....

The feed, poultry and meat industries gather every January at the International Production and Processing Expo, what the organizers describe as “the world's largest annual poultry, feed, and meat technology exposition.” More than 32,000 attendees attended this year’s Expo in late January, discussing topics ranging from the global markets to animal disease outbreaks and international trade. On...

The feed and livestock industry is a major part of the global economy, and what happens in one corner of the globe – say a major swine disease outbreak in China, for example – has far reaching implications around the globe, from animal health to dollars and cents. Understanding how global customers make food-buying decisions, anticipating future needs of the international market, and dealing with...

Increased sow mortality rates have a serious impact on farm profitability and employee morale. Issues including lameness, feet and leg issues and prolapses are all significant aspects of rising sow mortality rates.  Research published in 2018 from veterinarians at the Swine Vet Center in St. Peter, Minnesota, estimate that prolapses on a 2,500-sow farm cost roughly $34 per inventoried sow or $850...

Good pigs start with good genetics. As our understanding of the animal’s genetic code deepens and technology advances, so does the industry’s ability to enhance and influence a suite of traits and characteristics. One relatively new area of focus is breeding pigs for increased natural robustness to disease – in other words, breeding pigs that are hardier in the face of disease pressure and are eve...

One of the biggest continuing storylines in the feed and livestock sector is trade policy, and how its twists and turns shift and shape markets for feed ingredients and animal proteins. Headlines on topics from trade wars to trade agreements were a frequent feature of our coverage in 2019 and that looks to continue well into the new year . USMCA moved one step closer to  ratification with the Sena...

The new year is a time when many people reflect on the successes and challenges of the previous 365 days and look ahead with excitement for the opportunities that lie in the 12 months ahead. For the agriculture industry in general and livestock producers in particular, 2019 was fraught with frustrations.  From trade tensions to political uncertainty, it was a year that saw the slowest global econo...

Political volatility, uncertainty in the export markets, spring flooding and propane shortages… these are just a few of the big challenges that faced grain handlers and feed manufacturers in 2019. How did elevators and feed mills weather the literal and metaphorical storms of the year, and what is the outlook for the industry in 2020? In this episode we discuss those topics, and a few more, with R...

What do food buyers at the grocery store really want when it comes to meat? For livestock producers, packers, food processors and retailers, sometimes answering that question feels like hitting a moving target. To get a better look at what moves the needle in the meat case, we talked with a case-ready commodity manager at one of the nation's largest grocers. Judson Armentrout is a commodity m...