Feed News from Americas

AFIA Addresses Import Safety

AFIA continued its prominent leadership position on ingredient import safety during a "National Dialog" workshop in Chicago, Ill., Nov. 28-29, 2007. The Association-sponsored event followed AFIA's participation last month in President Bush's Interagency Working Group on Import Safety. This past summer, AFIA met with Department of Health and Human Services' Secretary Michael Leavitt to discuss the significance and impact of imports on the feed industry.

Tags · Feed Safety · FDA · AFIA · Testing

• Continue reading • Comments (0) 13.12.2007. 10:46

Study: Cattle fed distiller's grain prone to E. coli

Researchers at Kansas State University have found that cattle fed a byproduct of ethanol production are twice as likely to carry a potentially deadly strain of E. coli bacteria.

The research will certainly be of interest in Nebraska, which ranks second in the number of cattle on feed and produces the second-most ethanol of any state. The state had nearly 2.5 million cattle on feed in 2005, and Nebraska's ethanol plants already have the capacity to produce more than 1 billion gallons of ethanol a year.

Tags · E.Coli · Ethanol By-Product · 0157 · Cattle

• Continue reading • Comments (0) 06.12.2007. 22:40

Agribusiness industry has 'greater potential'

When you check the employment numbers for agribusiness in Sedgwick County or south-central Kansas, it looks like a small industry.

But those numbers are misleading, said Janet Harrah, director of the Center for Economic Development and Business Research at Wichita State University.

"It's hard to get a feel for the impact of agribusiness because agriculture employment is so narrowly defined," Harrah said. "But when you start looking at all the types of industry that relate directly to agriculture, you realize that this is a huge industry with even greater potential."

Harrah is engaged in an effort to summarize the current and future economic impact of agribusiness on the local economy and will present her findings in the final session of Bio/Nxt, a conference sponsored by the Agri-Business Council of Wichita set for Wednesday and Thursday at the Airport Hilton.

Harrah will speak at 5 p.m. next Thursday and said her preliminary research has been to try to categorize the various segments that relate to agribusiness in the region.

Agribusiness goes well beyond the thousands of family farms in south-central Kansas to encompass food processing companies such as Cargill, Farmland, Dold Foods and Horizon Milling as well as agriculture equipment manufacturing such as Agco in Hesston and CNH in Wichita.

Tags · Agribusiness · Sedgwick County · Kansas ·

• Continue reading • Comments (0) 06.12.2007. 00:45

Nebraska cattle producers enjoy lower feed costs

Leading horse feed manufacturers have been invited to sign up to a new series of guidelines aimed at reducing the risk of feed-related dope-test failures.

Led by the British Equestrian Trade Association (BETA), the move will enable trainers to distinguish which companies are taking necessary precautions to minimise the presence of naturally occurring prohibited substances in their feeds.

Since 2002, 45 racehorses in the UK and nine in Ireland have returned positive dope-tests linked to morphine in feed, leading to disqualification and the forfeiture of prize money.

The heightened incidence of the presence of morphine in horses’ blood or urine is believed to coincide with increased cultivation of poppies, especially the papiver somniferum variety grown for the pharmaceutical industry, in the UK.

Although reputable feed manufacturers scrupulously and routinely test raw materials for freedom from prohibited substances, morphine traces typically occur in small, discrete pockets that are virtually impossible to detect.

Tags · Nebraska cattle producers enjoy lower feed costs

• Continue reading • Comments (0) 11.11.2007. 07:35

Biofuel industry pushing up feed prices

The push in the United States toward biofuels is forcing up the price of horse feed.

Farmers who once grew grain and hay are turning in increasing numbers to biofuel crops because returns are in many cases better.

Tags · Biofuel industry pushing up feed prices

• Continue reading • Comments (0) 10.11.2007. 07:00