ASAS and the Overall Programming Committee are really excited about the quality and the size of our social program this year, but honestly, we are also just plain thrilled to get to see everyone and socialize after a year of isolation.

This week ASAS will release our full COVID-19 meeting safety plan! Ensuring that our attendees are safe and able to network and share science is our number one priority in 2021.

Members, volunteers and staff spend 18 months planning every meeting, but no matter how organized or ahead of schedule we are on meeting planning, the success or failure of a meeting comes down to the last 8 weeks!

President’s Budget to be Released on May 28th. The White House has announced that President Biden’s budget request for fiscal year 2022 will be released on May 28th.

The Biden Administration has released the “Conserving and Restoring America The Beautiful” report, detailing efforts to conserve and restore the nation’s lands, waters, and wildlife.

The Biden Administration has recently removed the restrictions on human fetal tissue research imposed by former President Trump.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations releases the FAO Food Price Index (FFPI) each month.

Impossible Foods, a company that develops plant-based meat substitutes, targeted towards “people who love meat,” has just received a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) Child Nutrition (CN) Label.

Recently, various propositions and initiatives in several states, if passed, would have severe consequences on the agricultural community and farming of animals.

New legislation was introduced into the senate by Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) to ensure U.S. leadership in discovery and innovation and to strengthen the United States’ competitive edge against China and across the global economy.

Several bills have been introduced to the U.S. House and Senate that would affect the agricultural community. The DAIRY PRIDE ACT of 2021, the Kids Eat Local Act, and the Agriculture Resilience Act all intend to support farmers and ranchers.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), a contractor to the Beef Checkoff, a national marketing, and research program designed to increase the demand for beef at home and abroad, has launched a new marketing campaign focused on sustainability.

A bipartisan bill was recently introduced to the Senate by John Thune (R-SD) and Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) to ensure farmers can still plant beneficial cover crops after delays due to severe weather prevent them without facing crop insurance penalties.

The United States and the United Arab Emirates announced plans to launch the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM for Climate).

The United States Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) has announced a virtual Animal Biotechnology Stakeholder Outreach Session that is open to the public.

Three Californian physicians, Seth Ammerman, MD, Donald Forrester, MD, and Heather Shenkman, MD, along with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit organization of 17,000 physicians, have filed a lawsuit against the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the amount of dairy recommended in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA), published in December 2020.

A study recently published in the Journal of Animal Science modeled the inclusion of a group of external birds into a local broiler chicken population, using either a fixed effect representing the origin of parents, unknown parent groups, or metafounders for the purpose of genomic evaluations.

A study recently published in the Journal of Animal Science evaluated the use of the commercially available GreenFeed system for measuring enteric gas emissions from cattle.

A paper recently published in the Journal of Animal Science evaluated the relationships among intramammary health, udder/teat characteristics, and productivity of extensively managed ewes.

A study recently published in the Journal of Animal Science investigated the optimum proportion of grape pomace in finishing cattle diets.