“Many consumers know about milk’s calcium benefits, but most are unaware that dairy foods deliver eight other dietary nutrients considered ‘essential’ by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA),” says Stephanie Cundith, a registered dietitian with the Midwest Dairy Council. “National Nutrition Month is the perfect time for Americans to learn more about essential nutrients in foods and their irreplaceable health benefits. It is important to get essential nutrients from the foods we eat because the human body can’t manufacture them in sufficient quantities to meet daily needs.”

Consumers know they need to eat healthy, but often focus strictly on counting calories. “Monitoring calorie intake is not enough; it also is important to ensure the foods you consume are nutrient-rich,” says Cundith. Consuming three dairy servings every day provides exceptional nutritional value, including significant amounts of vitamin D, protein, potassium and vitamin B12. From repairing muscle tissue to maintaining healthy red blood cells, the nutrients found in dairy foods work together to help support optimal health.

Dairy’s Unique Nutrient Package

Americans Aren’t Getting Adequate Nutrients

The 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, published by the USDA and Department of Health and Human Services, report many adults, adolescents and children fall short on several of the essential nutrients needed for healthy body functioning. The Guidelines recommend three servings of fat-free or low-fat dairy products each day. However, Americans only eat about half of this amount. “Meeting the recommended three servings per day of milk, cheese and yogurt is easy,” says Cundith, “My family starts the day with a bowl of whole grain cereal and milk, and we love fruit and yogurt as a snack.” A Cundith family favorite for dinner is pulled pork soft tacos sprinkled with Colby Jack cheese.

This recipe and the whole story of dairy’s unique nutrient package can be found at dairymakessense.com.

ABOUT MIDWEST DAIRY COUNCIL

Midwest Dairy Council is the nutrition education division of Midwest Dairy Association. The Council’s mission is to promote a healthy diet through nutrition education and the use of dairy products to consumers, health professionals and teachers. Midwest Dairy Council is funded by check-off dollars from dairy farmers in a nine-state region that includes: Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. For more information, visit www.midwestdairy.com or www.dairymakessense.com.

Researchers at Kansas State University recently completed a study of the factors that impact dairy profitability. Not surprisingly, they found a wide range of profitability among farms. But milk price was not the most significant determinant for profitability. It was total milk produced per cow.

The researchers say that the correlation between profitability and milk price over time is not particularly strong because of the influence that cost has on profit. “When analyzing why some producers are more profitable than others, milk production is a much stronger indicator or profit differences than is price or cost,” say study authors, especially when it comes to small or mid-sized dairy farms

Therefore, while big-picture factors, like milk prices, are important, producers’ individual management skills are more important for long-term business survival.

Read the full report.

Source: Kansas State University

Jan. 7, 2010—The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has approved a passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID tag for cattle tracking that will be used in conjunction with the agency’s Animal Identification Number (AIN) system. To gain USDA approval for is eTattoo RFID tag, Kansas startup Eriginate, owned by animal-tracking technology firm Herdstar, submitted data regarding the tag, along with a 14-page application. The EPC Gen 2 tag can now be sold in the United States to members of the cattle industry as part of the AIN system, and will compete with existing low-frequency (LF) button tags currently employed by ranchers and cattle auction companies to help track the movements and health of cattle.

The USDA’s National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is a voluntary program intended to allow the tracking of specific animals by assigning each animal a unique AIN. The goal of NAIS is to be able to quickly access a record of every location where a particular animal has lived, in the event that contaminated meat or a sick animal is detected. Each registered animal is assigned a 15-digit identification number. The first three digits—840—represent the country code of the United States, while the final 12 make up the unique number assigned to the animal. The tags used by NAIS participants need not include RFID technology, but could simply display the number printed on the front of a plastic ID tag or button. However, many are employing RFID-enabled tags to track the cattle as they move through the supply chain, typically with a handheld interrogator.

There are 105 million cattle in the United States, with approximately 10 manufacturers of RFID tags currently providing low-frequency RFID AIN button tags, according to Neil Hammerschmidt, NAIS coordinator with the USDA APHIS Veterinary Services. Those manufacturers, he says, have sold approximately 6.5 million AIN tags with or without RFID capabilities over the past three years. Hammerschmidt estimates that 4 million of these tags may currently be in use, mostly in cattle (though other animals, such as horses, sheep or pigs, can also be tagged), representing about 5 percent of all American cattle.

In April 2008, the USDA issued a seven-point plan to help it achieve its goal of enrolling 70 percent of all cattle into the NAIS program by the end of 2009 (see USDA Pushes Plan to Move NAIS Forward).

The reason UHF technology has not been included in the NAIS system before, Hammerschmidt says, is that RFID tag vendors had not produced a UHF tag for use with the AIN system—that is, with the 15-digit ID number. “We are technology-neutral,” he says of the USDA, as long as the technology complies with a recognized ISO standard. The eTattoo tag complies with ISO standard 18000-6C, and it has enough memory to store other information in addition to the 15-digit number, though it is presently intended only to store the AIN.

The eTattoo tag fills a need in the cattle industry for a tag with a long read range, says Doran Junek, a member of Eriginate’s board of directors. The existing LF button ear tags have a read range of 4 to 12 inches, and can be read with either a handheld interrogator or a fixed reader if cattle move down a narrow chute in close proximity to that device. Interrogators can also be utilized in the dairy industry, capturing reads of the animals’ tags as they are being milked. Moreover, USDA veterinarians use handheld readers to capture a tag’s unique ID number as an animal receives a vaccination.

However, Hammerschmidt notes, some cattle owners and operators have requested technology with a longer read range. Junek, himself a cattle rancher, says the LF tags are simply inadequate if they require operators to slow the speed of moving cattle, or if readers are unable to capture ID numbers at all, because the animals are not close enough or pass by too quickly. Many cattle owners and operators are reticent to participate in the AIN program, he indicates, simply because they believe low-frequency tags do not work effectively. Junek describes the scenario of a Kansas cattle market at which approximately 7,000 head of cattle are moved daily. Capturing the ID number on each LF tag is impractical, he explains, since it takes about 10 seconds per animal to read each individual tag with a handheld interrogator. At that rate, with 360 reads per hour with no delays, the market could still not process its cattle in one day. “Low-frequency works in small herds and for small projects,” Junek states, but large operations that move thousands of cattle daily require a UHF tag.

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Meadow muffins, meet Reddy Kilowatt. Let’s translate that: Meadow muffins, better known as cow manure, have a future in producing electricity.

Gene Pflughoft is the economic development director for Grant County in southwest Kansas. Early next year, he said, equipment at a cattle feedlot will begin turning manure into fuel that could make electricity for 30 homes. If the demonstration project is successful — and Pflughoft is confident it will be — larger units could be placed at feedlots to take advantage of the state’s abundant supplies.

Kansas has plenty of cow manure, with two cows for every human in the state. Over the course of a year, just one cow’s manure contains the same amount of energy found in 140 gallons of gasoline.

“There’s a lot of interest, and it’s very renewable,” he said.

The Bipartisan Policy Conference in Washington — established by former U.S. Sens. Bob Dole, Howard Baker, Tom Daschle and George Mitchell — recently issued a study that said Kansas could use more cow manure by blending it with coal. The report said that 50,000 cows could provide enough dung to power 24,000 homes. Manure from other sources is also being used — even to make gasoline.

In Missouri, poultry farmers have approached Kansas City Power & Light about adding manure as fuel to coal-fired power plants. The utility said it was collecting information. Meanwhile, a 55-megawatt plant in Minnesota is relying on turkey droppings.

Valero Energy, a Texas refining company that can make 3 million gallons of fuel a day, is providing cash to a company that has made batches of high-octane gasoline using manure in a fermented mix. A demonstration plant at Port Arthur, Texas, will produce 1.3 million gallons of fuel a year.

Mark T. Holtzapple, of chemical engineering at Texas A&M University, spent nearly 20 years developing the process that can produce gasoline for $1.75 to $2 per gallon without government subsidies. He half-jokingly recommends manure futures as an investment.

“I believe we will have a shortage of manure in the future,” he said.

Kansas has nearly 100 commercial feedlots that fatten 2.5 million cows every six months. Each produces an average of 6 pounds to 8 pounds of manure a day — 7 billion pounds of the stuff a year.

No wonder the authors of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s report suggested that a Kansas power plant located near some feedlots could use a blend of 90 percent coal and 10 percent manure to generate electricity.

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At times when the milk price is in such a poor state, we’re all losing money, it is very easy to loose focus on the important things in life. The employees at Forget-Me-Not Farm in Cimarron, Kan., didn’t forget what was important earlier this year when one of their co-workers was in need.

One of the dairy’s employees, Manuel Pichilla, learned that he had a significant-sized tumor in his stomach and needed surgery to remove it. Manuel was in intensive-care for three weeks and off work for more than two months.

“I was approached by one of our managers on the dairy. He said there were a few employees who would like to donate some money to Manuel and his pregnant wife,” says TJ Curtis, manager of Forget-Me-Not Farm. Curtis told the manager that whatever the employees raised the dairy would match.

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The Kansas Animal Health Board was created to serve as an advisory and policy making board to the Livestock Commissioner. Its mission is to ensure the public health, safety and welfare of Kansas’ citizens through prevention, control and eradication of infectious and contagious disease and conditions affecting the health of livestock and domestic animals in the state. It also regulates facilities that produce, sell or harbor companion animals and enforce the laws governing such facilities; directs a brand registration and inspection program to identify ownership of lost or stolen livestock and informs the public of the status of the health of livestock in the state.

READ COMPLETE STORY AT CJONLINE.COM

U.S. livestock producers will have to reach out to foreign consumers to restore profits, according to a report by two Federal Reserve economists.

Demand for meat is down at home because of the recession, and it likely will be slow to return even after the economy turns around, the report said.

But in developing countries, including China and India, consumers’ incomes are growing, along with their demand for protein. And that creates market potential for U.S. hog, cattle and dairy producers.

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The event, scheduled from 9 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. will showcase a new KABSU facility located at 3171 Tuttle Creek Boulevard in Manhattan. A complimentary lunch will be served at 12:30 p.m. with a short program starting at 1:15 p.m.

KABSU, which is based at K-State, provides bovine reproductive technologies, continuing education and research-based information to facilitate genetic improvement of cattle through artificial insemination. The unit collects, extends, processes, freezes and sells bull semen. Other services provided include sales of AI supplies, breeding soundness exams for bulls to be sold and consultation services.

KABSU was the brainchild of F.W. Atkeson, a professor and head of the K-State Dairy Department from 1935-1958. In 1949, the Kansas legislature appropriated $35,000 and another $10,000 was added by the university´s College of Agriculture, to establish KABSU.

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“The Obama Administration is committed to pursuing all options to help dairy producers,” said Vilsack. “The price increase announced today will provide immediate relief to dairy farmers around the country and keep many on the farm while they weather one of the worst dairy crises in decades.”

The increase announced today will raise the price paid for nonfat dry milk from $0.80 per pound to $0.92 per pound, the price paid for cheddar blocks from $1.13 per pound to $1.31 per pound, and the price of cheddar barrels from $1.10 per pound to $1.28 per pound. This increase in the support price will have an immediate effect upon dairy farmers’ bottom line. Temporarily raising the price of these dairy products increases the price that dairy farmers receive for their milk.

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The biggest increase was in Virginia, up 5.8 percent, followed by Kansas at 5.1 percent, and Texas with a 3.8 percent increase, thanks to 11,000 more cows and a 20 pound gain per cow.

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